This past Thursday morning, around 3 AM, beloved waif of “O.C.” fame, Mischa Barton, was reportedly pulled over in L.A. when police noticed she was driving somewhat erratically. Barton, 21, was then arrested on charges of drunken driving, possession of marijuana — and driving without a valid license. She posted her $10,000 bail and was released, awaiting trial in February. Today, she canceled an upcoming appearance at a Las Vegas club’s grand opening party next week.
Apparently debauchery runs in the family for the Bartons, as Mischa’s younger sister entered into rehab earlier this year for a pill addiction. So much for Barton’s somewhat innocent celebrity persona… One has to wonder who else could fall victim to the drunk driving epidemic that is striking nation’s West coast and leaving almost no one unaffected.
Not even Santa, the bringer of joy to childrens’ hearts the world over, is safe from the intoxicating virus. On Sunday evening, a man was also arrested in L.A. for drunken driving charges. The man was reportedly wearing a wig topped off by a Santa hat, a red camisole and a purple g-string. When the man’s blood alcohol content was tested at the station, he had exceeded the legal limit of .08 and was later released on $5,000 bail.
If you are reading this from the LA area, EVACUATE NOW. It appears that your water supply has gone to vodka practically overnight.
Or, as a Plan B, at least stop drinking before you hop behind the wheel of your BMW.
Although this is not an explicitly music-focused blog, given the blogosphere’s obsession with year-end “best-of” lists, I felt it would be appropriate to try it on for size for this blog. Music has always had a major presence in my life, from singing self-created ballads to myself softly while wandering through the woodsy area behind my childhood home to prancing along State Street to a beat emanating from my iPod today.
This is a sampling of the many albums, songs, concerts and videos that, in my opinion, stood above the rest over the course of the past 365 days. The MP3 downloads that are included are meant for non-commercial purposes. If you like what you hear, I hope that you will consider going out to your music dealer of choice (or online to the iTunes music store) and supporting these artists’ fine work. (Or check out elbo.ws to dig around for more free downloads).
2007′s Top Albums
1. Feist “The Reminder”
This album is masterful. Canadian singer-songwriter Leslie Feist has an incredible voice that can speak to any emotion imaginable, and the music on this album paints a picture that is at once bold and nuanced. Beyond the standout single “1234,” which has unfortunately been bastardized (and even mocked) by the iPod television ad, every track on this album carries significance from the chill-inducing, flawless notes on “The Park” to the upbeat, organic energy of “Sea Lion Woman.” If you don’t already own this album, check it out immediately.
2. M.I.A. “Kala”
Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam’s much hyped follow-up to 2005′s Arular has matched and surpassed all expectations. This album has managed to bottle M.I.A.’s signature raw, unhinged energy with tracks that have become immediate club anthems for scenesters the world over. “Paper Planes” has become a particularly notable track, becoming a point of controversy following MTV’s decision to censor the sound of gunshots and many obligatories from their airing of the single’s video.
3. Jens Lekman “Night Falls Over Kortedala”
The bloggers are all over this one, and though I was skeptical at first, from first listen I was an instant convert. With his third major release, Swede Jens Lekman has crafted an intricate and witty album that is beyond comparison to other artists, with his use of complex and varying sampling, strings, guitar and other instrumentation to accompany his distinctive voice. “Friday Nights at the Drive-In Bingo” is doused in a flavor that seems to have come direct from the 1950s, while “Your Arms Around Me” carries a sweetly ironic air.
4. The Arcade Fire “Neon Bible”
This Montreal band have been considered by many to be something of a Canadian Beatles since their release of 2004′s exhilarating Funeral, and much like M.I.A., this album faced a great deal of pre-release hype that it has more than lived up to. This is epic music in the style of some of the greatest rock bands of all time, and the best is clearly yet to come for the Fire. Simply a flawless album — from the driving opening notes of “Black Mirror” to the desperate, organ-fueled crescendo of “My Body is a Cage.”
5. Chris Garneau “Music For Tourists”
American “Baroque pop” artist Chris Garneau’s Music For Tourists is the only debut album to make this list, and for good reason. Garneau’s whispering, piano-infused style has been described as the quirky gay male equivalent to Regina Spektor, but his talent goes far beyond that. This album is darkly whimsical and introspective, with each note being delivered with equal parts of pain, regret and longing. The single “Relief” is one of my all-time favorite compositions of all time, and I consisently take new things away from the album each time I listen to it — which is almost always from beginning to end.
6. St. Vincent “Marry Me”
7. Daft Punk “Alive 2007”
8. Tori Amos “American Doll Posse”
9. Patrick Wolf “The Magic Position”
10. Justice “Cross”
2007′s Top Songs
1. M.I.A. “Paper Planes” [download]
2. The Arcade Fire “Keep the Car Running” [download]
3. Feist “I Feel It All” [download]
4. Chris Garneau “Relief” [download]
5. Architecture in Helsinki “Heart it Races” [download]
6. Patrick Wolf “Bluebells” [download]
7. Jens Lekman “Your Arms Around Me” [download]
8. Tegan and Sara “The Con”
9. Kanye West “Stronger”
10. Rufus Wainwright “Going to a Town”
11. The National “Fake Empire”
12. St. Vincent “Paris is Burning”
13. Stars “In Our Bedroom After the War”
14. Justice “Phantom, Pt. 1”
15. Tori Amos “Big Wheel”
16. Menomena “Muscle ‘N Flo”
17. Yelle “Je Veux Te Voir” [download]
18. Bishop Allen “Click Click Click”
19. Kate Nash “Foundations” [download]
20. Patty Griffin “Getting Ready”
21. Beirut “Nantes”
22. Air “Once Upon a Time”
23. Bon Iver “Skinny Love”
24. Britney Spears “Gimme More”
25. Roisin Murphy “Overpowered”
2007′s Top Live Shows
1. Tori Amos, 11/3/07, at the Riverside Theatre (Milwaukee)
The haters will hate, but Miss Diva-Turned-Mommy still puts on an incredible show, and it didn’t hurt that this particular show, my third time seeing Amos live, took place on my birthday. Highlights of the show included moving performances of “Winter,” “Code Red,” “Little Earthquakes” and “Siren,” in addition to this precious blooper during an attempt at playing “Strange.” The show could not top Tori’s performance at the Vic Theatre in Chicago the following week, but it was still pretty damn amazing. And yes, I cried.
2. Feist, 11/16/07, at the Orpheum Theatre (Madison)
Even though Leslie had injured her leg a few days prior at another stop, and was relegated to sitting throughout the show (after tentatively stepping onto the stage with the use of a cane), this show was still electrifying for the sold-out audience at the Orpheum. I spent about half of the concert standing in the front, and then later retreated to the balcony to grab a seat for the conclusion, and from both vantage points, the experience was still incredible. She rocked out “Sea Lion Woman,” giving that song a new life that it doesn’t necessarily have on the album, and also included her acclaimed hits, such as “1234″ and “Mushaboom.”
3. Chris Garneau, 5/26/07, at Cafe Montmartre (Madison)
Anyone who can silence a Madison bar for an hourlong piano with string trio set deserves some sort of honor, and that’s exactly what Garneau did at this show. Playing several songs from his debut album, Garneau demanded the audience’s attention with his heart-on-sleeve performance, showing an adorable degree of shy humbleness, particularly when he made a mistake during an unplanned encore to “Halloween.” Another highlight, captured by this YouTube clip, was a heralding performance of “Not Nice.”
4. Leslie and the LY’s, 9/8/07, at the Union Terrace (Madison)
5. Girl Talk, 3/24/07, at Club 770 (Madison)
2007′s Best Videos
1. Architecture in Helsinki “Heart it Races”
2. Feist “1234”
3. Patrick Wolf “The Magic Position”
4. Justice “D.A.N.C.E.”
5. Arcade Fire “No Cars Go”
This blog has seen a long hiatus, due to the ending stresses of my second-last semester at UW and a week spent at home for the holidays with family. Far too many calories and one more 4.0 semester GPA later, I am returning to near-daily updates to this blog over the coming weeks.
The time away has left me with a lot of thoughts on my mind — not to mention the fact that Baby Spears popped out a small person, Project Runway Canada has come to a conclusion, tigers ATTACKED in San Diego and a certain O.C. starlet received baby’s first DUI. There’s a lot to snark on and just enough time to do it, so stay tuned.
As a student of mass communication, I am constantly frustrated by the boredom presented by American advertising. Advertisers consistently insult our intelligence as viewers and consumers of information. When ads do manage to steer away from dullness, they are usually degrading to anything feminine or nontraditional, catering to the interests of middle-class, Middle American mothers and fathers.
Breaking up the usual humdrum, queens of quontroversial advertising, Dolce and Gabbana have a new advertisement out on MTV, VH1 and The CW featuring several same-sex couples kissing. Apparently this ad has been playing frequently at all times of day on the networks. I wonder how much longer it will be before these sorts of ads are commonplace.
In other news, color me excited for the Victoria’s Secret fashion show Tuesday evening on CBS. Of course, Heidi Klum will be fabulous as usual, and the show also features Mr. Klum and the Spice Girls. I don’t know if anything will ever top last year’s show with the multi-million dollar diamond panties and JT’s SexyBack… but rumor has it that the Girls brought down the house.
The weekend is here, as is December, and snow is falling here in Madison. Bravo is televising a seasons 1, 2 and 3 epic marathon of Project Runway, and I am holed up finishing (starting?) a paper on transgender in(ex)clusion in LGBT community organizing. So, I am cracking open the Diet Coke and proclaiming “bring it” to the end-of-semester stress.
As you probably already know, Wednesday evening was the CNN/YouTube Republican Presidential Debate, and it was just as captivating as one could have ever expected a gathering of middle- to older-aged white men discussing gay-hatin’, Jesus-praisin’ and gun-lovin’ to be. Outside of the expected content, the below question really got to me.
I am so tired of the bullshit response of “unit cohesion” concerns among conservative politicians, and the far-reaching generalizations made over those serving in the military is insulting not only to gay and lesbian troops, but to heterosexual troops assumed to be too close-minded to deal with those who are different with them. The U.S. military is in no position whatsoever to be turning down help from wherever it can get it, and serving our country is something that means a lot to many Americans who choose to enlist. Not allowing them to openly be who they are while putting their life on the line is downright degrading, and I’m still waiting for a better response to questions like Brigadier General Keith Kerr’s from this debate than what we have been hearing for the past decade. The rousing applause of the debate’s audience after the candidates continued to babble on about “family values” and “homosexual lifestyles” was nauseating.
Allegations were later made by a number of conservative bloggers that Kerr’s question was planted by Hillary Clinton’s campaign, given that Kerr serves on a Clinton LGBT-related steering committee. CNN producers have since pandered to their accusations by apologizing for including the question in the debate, despite Kerr’s repeated statements that he was acting as an individual and that he “has not done any work for Mrs. Clinton.”
The whole controversy misses the point, in my mind, given that the whole idea of YouTube debates is to open the forum up to questions from any individual with something on their mind, which may or may not represent the interests of the entire constituency. Democracy is about everyone coming to the table and having their voice heard, as well as the “watchdog” duty that bloggers have taken up in the past several years. Although it is important, and noteworthy, to know that Kerr is associated with the Clinton committee, that shouldn’t mean that the question needs to be completely disregarded. As the above article from the Washington Times points out, many of the questions asked in the debate were contributed by individuals with organizational ties from both ends of the political spectrum. This is simply the nature of the beast. When democratic ideals are used to encourage censorship, something has gone wrong.
In case you didn’t catch this entry’s thesis: “Don’t ask, don’t tell” is fucked up.
Welcome to my online home, a showcase of my published writings and otherwise-unpublished thoughts on music, queer communities, politics, arts and culture. I currently work as the associate Chicago editor for The Huffington Post. I welcome your feedback, tips on excellent Chicago coffee shops and inquiries of any/all other sorts. Check out some of my recent work.
