Y'all did it

Dear friends,

1. Year end list? Bitch, please.

2. Okay, fine. Young Folks by Peter, Bjorn and John. Every time that whistle hook gets in my head, I involuntarily do the Snoopy Dance.

This tune is an mp3 blogger favorite and I've read a million descriptions of it. So heeeeeere's another! It's a pop duet, sure. On the surface, almost a sly Scandinavian inversion of I Got You Babe. But what makes this song so much more for me, is that while the aforementioned Sonny and Cher chestnut was a declaration to everyone, of "Look! We're in love! Go us! Watch us be in love!," Young Folks is not interested in you. Its so-insular-it's-on-purpose, padded sound comes off like a private teenage conversation between you and someone that's AMAZING. You're at a party, off in a quiet corner having that type of exchange that runs easily from goofy chit chat to way more personal admission, and save for the distant sound of the stereo in the other room, everyone and everything else has disappeared. Because this giddy, fizzy shaker egg excitement is all about you and this other person; not about anyone else. And who needs them anyway? We're talking about me and you.

This song sounds perfect anywhere, at a party, in your headphones on the train or in a car. It's always sublime. My favorite song of the year by far.



Dance, Snoopy, dance!

3. Mandatory moment to remind you to be at The Delancey this Friday, December 15th for Neon Lights presents Bell, Lismore, Thieves Like Us and The Ballet and some extreme DJing excellence from DJ Earfarm VS DJ Colleen Crumbcake and DJ Fluxblog. Thanks to my incessant pestering, I've heard some of what the DJs are cooking and you know what? There will be some furious getting down.

4. I did not sleep a wink on Sunday. This has been happening more and more lately. Luckily for me, I have On Demand cable. On a related note, I've been watching this show and let me stress most emphatically that I have no business talking about said show. (Which of course, doesn't mean I won't.) For one, I'm really, really bad at remembering names. I couldn't tell you the names to my favorite songs, this is not a joke. My memory, in all its alpine laced glory, simply wasn't meant to store that kind of information.

The show I'm referring to, The Wire, has about a bazillion characters, and in deference to my poor memory, I've given them my own names. One hangdog faced, unhappily demoted drug dealer, D'Angelo Barksdale, I call "Maalox," on account of his perpetually sour tummy/worried look. Another, a cop named Herc, is simply "Dumbass." As you can imagine, this makes it difficult for me to discuss the series with other Wire fans. In further 'I have no business talking about this show, part deux,' The Wire has been on for about a beellion years (to go with the bazillion characters) and I've only seen a handful of episodes, out of order, along with the current season, which I've seen in its entirety. My sense of character arc isn't quite there yet. Though judging by season one and the current season, which just ended on Sunday night, the writers love making sly allusions to the past*. In a way, watching it like this is like assembling a massive puzzle and it's infinitely more entertaining to not know what's going on immediately. This is a show that rewards attention to detail, irrespective of where you start.

So why have I never committed in the past? Why now and not several years ago, when all my other Homicide/Oz friends were telling me to watch it? I'll tell you why. It's the kids. The Wire is a show about Baltimore, specifically about the drug corners and the cops that work 'em. This season the writers have brought in public schooling to the mix, showing you just what those surly packs of brats have to contend with while they're being "educated" to pass standardized tests that have no bearing on their lives. Before you read that and think "Gee, that sounds terribly dull," let me just say that if you can take the time to get yourself involved with reality show haps then you could certainly try spending some time with this particular group of adolescent boys and their tiny joys and struggles. While The Wire specializes in the study of failure; the failure of institutions to effectively fight 'the war on drugs' and poverty (which certainly sounds dry as hell) they never do this at the expense of its characters. In the past, I could never quite connect with these cops and dealers and all their various power plays but these kids are something else. Probably because the show, which essentially blames EVERYONE, including the viewer, for the failure of the system, finally focused on a somewhat blameless group. You couldn't write 'em off yet and you couldn't predict an unhappy ending for them yet either. A mirror up to nature bit of art that should not be missed. If you have On Demand cable, view this current season. If you don't, rent this show.

Love, D

* They killed off a long standing character much to a cop's dismay. I just saw their first scene together in Season One. Before names are even exchanged, the newly departed justifies his future death.