How About This?

It is, it seems clear, pointless to hope that the glut of mayoral candidates in Trenton will winnow itself down to a reasonable number *and* still contain someone capable both of being elected and of effecting some positive change on the city. I'm no political scientist, but it seems unlikely that those who have already thrown their hat into this ring, or who will soon, are likely to look around at any point and say, "hey, you know, that guy/gal could probably do a pretty good job here, and I'm splitting the vote in such a way that it's impossible for either of us to win the election, so let me just step down." I mean, it's possible, but egos being what they are, it seems like a long shot. And I know there's the whole run-off strategy--if no one gets 50 percent of the vote then there's a run-off between the top two candidates. But to me it seems cynical to hope that the city will be so divided among the dizzying array of options that we have to force a simple majority in a run-off election--an election, incidentally, in which voter interest will likely be much lower than in the regular election. And it's not like we usually have a huge turnout to begin with.

But I have a dream, and it goes a little something like this. Maybe the various civic and community groups in the city could behave more rationally. Maybe they could all band together with one primary goal for the next few months: to thoughtfully and objectively interrogate all the candidates, determine the one who's best for Trenton--taking both electability and leadership potential into consideration--and support the living daylights out of him or her. Or maybe all we need is one group, with a strong and energetic membership, to take this on. The TCCA? Beautiful Trenton? Others? I know these groups were not created with such an overtly political purpose, so maybe we actually need a new group with this specific goal. But it sure would be helpful if there were already an infrastructure in place to get this started. Is that nuts? Am I being naïve? I just want to be able to do *something* for crying out loud. And knocking on doors all by myself seems a little lame.

Some Good Records

I used to think carefully and deliberately for weeks about my favorite albums of the year, just out of sheer musical geekitude. Now I only really think about them as I'm filling out WXPN's year-end survey in the hopes of winning a giant TV. And because I just didn't acquire that much music in 2009, and because I have long since stopped striving to keep my finger on the pulse of modern music, I'm not even pretending these are The Best Albums of 2009. They're just a few I like.

1. Bitte Orca (Dirty Projectors): It's just nine tracks, with enough eccentricity for at least twelve. Yipping, wailing, and clapping, plinking guitars, electronic trills and whines and the occasional driving drum beat. Sounds like something I would normally hate, but, strangely, I don't.
   
2. The Ecstatic (Mos Def): Stripped-down, classic hip-hop beats with some straight-up experimental weirdness. Not a lot of real hooks--though Quiet Dog is quite bouncy--but it draws you in anyway.
   
3. I and Love and You (The Avett Brothers): I am not the first person to say this--I have read many a glowing review, and I'm guessing you'll see this one on a lot of legitimate lists this year--but this is just a great, great record. And Kick Drum Heart is my new absolute favorite bounce around the house song.
   
4. Adventureland (Soundtrack): Adventureland was a cute movie with that girl who's in those vampire movies. The soundtrack has a lot of hipster favorites from the 70s and 80s (Bowie, Lou Reed, etc.), and that is all well and good. But the track I sing into my hairbrush? Your Love, by The Outfield. You may think you have no idea what song that is. But if you are roughly my age, I promise you, you'll know it when you hear it. Catchy (and cheesy) as hell.
   
5. Grand (Matt and Kim): Many commercials and episodes of Gossip Girl featured songs from this record, so it must be good! And despite the fact that the whole Brooklyn hipster thing is starting to exhaust me, I love a lot of these songs.
   
6. Tell 'Em What Your Name Is! (Black Joe Lewis and the Honey Bears): This is like if someone discovered a James Brown record that no one knew existed. With extra cussing!
   
7. One Fast Move or I'm Gone (Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar): Three of my favorite things: the guy from Son Volt (a.k.a. the better half of Uncle Tupelo), the guy from Death Cab for Cutie, and Jack Kerouac. Brilliant.
   
8. Glee: The Music, Volume 1 (Soundtrack): I am almost ashamed at how much I've listened to this record since I bought it a few weeks ago. A bunch of kids singing a cleaned-up version of Golddigger? Journey and REO Speedwagon hits reimagined showchoir style? Bring it on. At least this proves that my bitter, cynical heart still beats human blood.
   
9. Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future (The Bird and the Bee): It's a little twee, yes, but it's a lot of fun, in a way that kind of makes you want to make a martini and watch The Jetsons.
   
10. Noble Beast (Andrew Bird): Good background music, lush and mossy, with lots of fiddle and whistling. Perhaps it's my midwestern, Little-House-on-the-Prairie-loving roots, but I am a sucker for fiddle and whistling.

Real Estate Envy

The Mill Hill Holiday House Tour* was yesterday, and boy are my legs tired (so many stairs!). The houses were gorgeous and beautifully decorated for the holidays, though if I had one wish it would be that the entire scented candle industry be put out of business. That "Christmas" scent, whatever its supposed ingredients, was stuck in my nostrils all night. Feh.

Smartly, a few of the places that are for sale in Mill Hill were having open houses during the tour. This was true during the Cadwalader Heights tour a couple of months ago too, but I did not feel any desire to look over there. Some of those houses are unbelievably gorgeous, but in general they're way too big for me and my small dog, and any that I could afford would require more work than I can even imagine doing. And as nice as that neighborhood seems, it feels too suburban for me--too spread out with nothing you can walk to. But I did check out the ones for sale in Mill Hill; I've secretly (or not so) fantasized about living over there ever since I bought my place. I love the look of the tidy little row houses (I think the one on the far right in this picture is one of the ones for sale), and it's clear that the Mill Hill residents have a built themselves a strong community, which I also find really appealing (as it's not as prominent where I live now).

So now I'm debating whether to move beyond fantasy and call a realtor. So far my practical side keeps winning out: it would be tough to sell my house (especially if I want to get at least what I perhaps foolishly paid for it), my mortgage payment and taxes would be higher over there, those high ceilings would mean way higher heat bills, etc. And then there's the general upkeep--I have proven myself to be a fairly lame homeowner thus far, and that's not likely to improve in a bigger, older house. I'm fond of my current neighborhood too, and I'd miss my neighbors. Plus, to be honest, in the back of my mind I wonder whether a move within Trenton makes a lot of sense. I'm kind of waiting to see what the next mayoral and council elections bring, because I'm not sure whether I'll want to stay in Trenton if its leadership doesn't change substantially. I'm already a little disheartened by the sheer number of people who have declared an interest in running for mayor, and how many of them we've seen (and not been terribly impressed by) before. I'm trying to stay hopeful for now, but I'm not sure I'm quite hopeful enough to go through all the trouble of moving across town. We'll see. I'll keep you posted.

*The picture is from the gallery on the Mill Hill neighborhood website. I, once again, forgot my camera. I suck as a blogger, I know.