Well this has been an interesting weekend (and an insanely busy couple of weeks, which is why the no-updates). Friday night Jami took me out on the town in Williamsburg, but not before we got got killer haircuts at Public Salon. Jami was very brave and got seriously shorn. She looked so fab! After that we filled up on meat at Dumont, which was awesomely delicious. Once stuffed, we met up with the menfolk at Harefield Road, the "grown-up bar" in Williamsburg, where I marveled over the pretty hanging ornaments, then stickered our way to Barcade, where we all cursed the broken video games. Then we had a classic ranting cabbie on our way back to F-train-land. Always fun!

Yesterday I headed to Target for some last-minute Christmas shopping, then met Carl for a well-deserved burger at Pete's Waterfront Ale House. The rest of the day was spent preparing for today's completely nontraditional Christmas BBQ at Carl 'n' Cat's, which originally was going to be a Christmas BBQ at Steve's (since he has a giant grill), until he revealed he had zero interest in hosting such an event. We hit Sahadi's, the fishmonger, the butcher, and the grocery store. And then this morning Carl got up at 5:30 a.m. to put the pork butt in the oven. (Scene at the crowded butcher's: "Where's the man with the butt?" That's Carl all right, the man with the butt.) The menu for the family gathering: shrimp 'n' grits to start, pulled pork sandwiches, spicy cole slaw, and fried pickles. It was all pretty amazing and basically you all wish you had my boyfriend. Later the "kids" sat around and watched a crazy 70s headtrip of a movie called Holy Mountain (which has a ridiculously high user rating on Netflix), then played Yahtzee whilst listening to old-school Wu Tang. How Christmasy!

That's pretty much all I got. If you're bored you could check out this list of the top 20 viral videos of '07, or pitchfork's top 100 tracks and top 50 albums list. I bet by then you'll be sick of the Internet. But come back soon and I'll have pictures of people in paper hats. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Santacon this year was way more fun this year than last, mainly because we had a group of nine strong Santas, many of whom were Santa-ing for the first time. Ah, the first time. Nothing like it. My first time, four years ago (!), I did it solo, basically, knowing only a new friend, Ray, with whom I had also walked the High Line and who I still see only every Santacon. This year was more bar-crawly than in years past, but there still is no fun like spreading Santa cheer to confused and delighted passers-by.

Oh yeah, here is a funny video of brother Steve doing Santa tai chi. And go to my flickr account to see even more of my pictures. And then plan to come next year, suckers.

Finally, here is a non-Santa-related mp3. I'll call it the NON-SANTA SANTA SONG OF THE WEEK.

::: Lifter Puller, "Secret Santa Cruz" :::

This is what I was talking about with the Kept Man Galley Giveaway Contest. See, so easy and fun! There's still time to win an advance copy of my friend Jami Attenberg's second book, The Kept Man, which is tops on my reading list for 2008. Or 2007! I mean, I might win. I think everyone wins this one, but I usually win things. In fact I am hoping to win a trip abroad for New Year's, and am so convinced it could happen I'm making Carl renew his passport in an expedited fashion. He should really have a passport ready to go anyway. I mean, I could win a trip at any time!

So, weekend update. Friday night I laughed my arse off with the college friends. We had gatherered for the Ween show, which was at Terminal 5, the worst venue ever. I'm not going to go write out why all over again, so just go read my review on Yelp, or trust that it just sucks. Ween were Ween. Saturday I took the bus to Sunset Park for Tricia C.'s baby shower, which was just delightful. A bunch of smart women sat around talking, eating Middle Eastern food, and eventually opening presents. Later that day, we had some people over for fondue, and the newly engaged Stacey and Nick stayed for a dinner of beef shoulder cooked in Carl's new Dutch oven. I have to admit, that thing makes meat tender.

Stacey by the way was sporting a gorgeous, unusual ring by Nina Dinoff, who makes really cool, modern jewelry. She's recently started making bracelets out of vintage swizzle sticks! Nina's jewelry would, I'm sure, make an excellent Christmas gift for your girlfriend, sister or best friend.

And Sunday we went and saw No Country for Old Men, which was excellent and beautiful and scary, then went to see Mussels rock the Mercury Lounge. Brandon dropped to his knees in a new rock-star move that was, it turned out, due to his guitar strap breaking. But thrilling nonetheless. After them was Dark Meat, a becostumed band of some former Elephant 6 members who had really cute handmade potholders for sale but whose music was kind of underwhelming. Mussels is a hard act to follow!

Year-end lists are starting to roll in. Peruse Largehearted Boy's list of lists or Fimoculous's yearly list roundup for, um, lotsa lists! I like Craig Wedren's top 19, personally. In addition to my own list, which I'm feverishly working on (or procrastinating on, hence this update) and which will appear shortly, I now have a list of albums lists told me I should listen to. I am currently listening to Dirty Projectors, and not really agreeing with all the listy love for them. A grower, perhaps?

I don't know if this album is going to make my list, but here's an awesome track from a pretty good album. We'll call it the FORMER PIXIE WITH AN UNDERRATED SOLO CAREER SONG OF THE WEEK:

::: Black Francis, "Tight Black Rubber" :::

Finally, I forgot to mention, regarding last week's America's Next Top Model, HEATHER WUZ ROBBED.