4.22 – NEVER FORGET

Remember back in April 2009 when Sean Hannity was so sure that waterboarding wasn’t torture that he said he’d let Charles Grodin waterboard him for charity?

Obviously Sean’s schedule has been too full, what with organizing all those tea parties and fighting Socialism and stuff. But the charities are still game.

Make yr pledge (and choose yr charity) here.

Not that we’re holding our breath or anything. And not that it’ll make a difference to the whole neo-con Fox “Waterboarding is playtime” meme. But, you know, all we really want is to see Hannity cry.

Give until it hurts,

This is dF

THE FIRST GREAT INVENTION OF 2010: A ROCKET-POWERED CHRISTMAS TREE

Try this at home, kids!

What you’ll need:

1. Christmas tree.

2. Car battery.

3. 32 large model rocket engines.

"SAD EYES...Robert John" (Watch on YouTube)

[Via BoingBoing]

The Interwub®: There's A Video For That™

Fire it up,

This is dF

BRIT HUME: SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST AND CHAPLAIN FOR FOX NEWS

Pretty much nothing Fox News does surprises me anymore. They could have their Senior Political Analyst Brit Hume apply his senior political analysis to the Tiger Woods story – easily one of the biggest political issues America faces – and conclude that Woods’ only exit strategy is to reject Buddhism and convert to Christianity (because Christianity saves marriages – just ask Mark Sanford), and it would just sound like another day at Fox News to me.

They could even follow that up with Bill O’Reilly interviewing Hume to have him defend his remarks and tell how much hate mail he’s gotten from atheists for saying that – because Christians are constantly being persecuted by the atheist majority in America and only Bill O’Reilly will report that to you – and it wouldn't surprise me at ...

What? They actually did that?

Well of course they did.

See? It figures.

I’d comment, but why bother? Jon Stewart has my back.

"Lesley Gore - Sunshine, Lollipops And Rainbows" (Watch on YouTube)

Accidentally like a martyr,

This is dF

JUST WHAT WE NEED, ANOTHER BEST OF 2009 LIST: THE MUSIC (PART 1)

Yes, well, you saw this coming a mile away, didn’t you?

On a macro level, there probably wasn’t a lot good you can say about 2009, but one thing you can say is that – despite evidence to the contrary, and despite the death of one of the most important and influential singers of my generation – it wasn’t a bad year for music. At least if you compare it to the last few years.

As usual though, the main excitement came either from old hands or artists who crib from them. One interesting mini-trend was how some of the best stuff I heard this year came from unexpected places – like Mexico, Cambodia (by way of LA) and the Sahara Desert. That may be par for the course if yr a world music aficionado, and I don’t have anything against world music as a genre, but if you’d told me this time last year that a flamenco album would make my Top 3 albums, I’d have asked you to back that up with ten bucks.

And you’d be getting paid now.

There were some disappointments too, with acts like Cornershop, Bob Mould, Neil Young, Pet Shop Boys and Polysics turning in albums that were good but not awesome compared to previous LPs. Even Steve Earle’s tribute to Townes Van Zandt – a winner on paper – was good but somehow not as satisfying as two separate albums by either of them. And improbably, I ended up not buying the new U2 album – I’ll get it later, but it just didn’t seem that essential to have.

Overall, though, not a bad haul.

So here we go. And to build up the suspense (as well as save you the headache of reading all this at once), I’ll break this into three parts. Because I know you have better things to do.

DISCLAIMER: Based on music I actually bought in 2009, and therefore a useless metric for everyone else. Also, I spent enough time on this without having to get all the links for these albums, so for more information, just Google whatever interests you, cos that's what I would have done.

TOP 20 DEF LPs/EPs/DOWNLOADS OF 2009 (#11-20)

11. Soulsavers, Broken (V2)
12. Tom Waits, Glitter and Doom (Anti-) 
13. Eagles Of Death Metal, Heart On (Downtown Records/Rekords Records) 
14. The Lovers, Pardon My French (Zoo Records)
15. Joe Gideon And The Shark, Harum Scarum (Bronzerat Records) 
16. Super Furry Animals, Dark Days / Light Years (Pleasure Foxxx/Rough Trade) 
17. The Bird And The Bee, Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future (Bluenote/EMI) 
18. Mad Tea Party, Zombie Boogie EP (Whose That Records)
19. Girl In A Coma, Trio BC (Blackheart Records) 
20. Franz Ferdinand, Tonight (Domino) 

( Extended play! Bloggety bloggety blah ... )

Up next: the Top 10! The technical awards!

Bring yr guitars,

This is dF