I went to the City Paper Christmas party Christmas party Tuesday night, conveniently held a couple of blocks from my apartment, upstairs at the Ottobar. Rjyan Kidwell was there - he used to write for the CP - and we talked about music and such for a while. It was good to see him, but other than that the party was kind of a weird time. Apparently I don't know 95% of the people involved in the production of the City Paper, and 95% of them don't know each other either. Everyone was clumping together in groups of two or three. And my stomach was feeling all queasy and gross, which wasn't helped by all the free beer I drank (But still, free beer!)

Because of the aforementioned queasy feeling, I called in sick yesterday and just totally went cold lazy all day. Didn't do the dishes or make the bed or anything. Just laid up on my ass and played NBA Live 2003 and watched the third season of Mr. Show, which isn't that funny when you're sitting by yourself and watching like five episodes at once. In fact, I kinda ODed on pure laziness, and it wasn't all that fun, but I do feel nicely rested and relatively unqueasy today.

Every year, the City Paper does a mini-Pazz&Jop poll of its music writers. I just saw the final top 10, and it's a weird one. I won't leak the list, but I will say that only two of my top 10 made it in. And my top ten is:
1. Postal Service - Give Up
2. Grand Buffet - Pittsburgh Hearts
3. Jay-Z - The Black Album
4. The Rapture - Echoes
5. Rancid - Indestructible
6. Spiritualized - Amazing Grace
7. Atmosphere - Seven's Travels
8. Bubba Sparxxx - Deliverance
9. Richard X - Presents His X-Factor
10. Fannypack - So Stylistic
I'm pretty happy with the list, but I'm kinda bummed by the lack of girls. I bumped 50 Cent for Fannypack to address the problem (and I probably do like the Fannypack album better than the 50 Cent one), but it's still an overwhelmingly male list, and I don't exactly consider myself an overwhelmingly male listener, if that makes sense. Until a couple of days before the list was due, I was convinced This is Not a Test would come in and wreck the list; I was way disappointed by how perfunctory and uninspired that record sounds.