“The Supreme Court has ruled that they can’t have a nativity scene in Washington D.C…that wasn’t for religious reasons…they couldn’t find three wise men and a virgin.”
– Jay Leno.

This will be the last posting until next Monday as the good people at Blackbook break for the holidays. I will be spending mine with many of the people I love, but not all of them. For that I would need a sleigh, some reindeer, and in a few cases, I’d have to sneak in and out undetected. As I shopped for gestures these last few days, I could see the worry on peoples’ faces. The world looks pretty grim and hope is something that seems impotent against the myriad of problems we are facing. Yet, I believe we are blessed, for only in a downturn like this could our nation elect a president who inspires old school ideas like love, decency and fair play. I will say a prayer for him and for all of us on Christmas day. My gut feeling is that it’s going to be all right. So Happy Christmas to all, to all a goodnight and below check out part 2 of my interview with the Santos’ Party House Boys:

Lit co-owner Erik Foss talks about his art, his new bar in Philly with the best name ever, and why the city needs less yuppie cocksuckers.

Favorite Hangs: Max Fish! Max Fish! Max Fish! I also like Beatrice Inn because my bro’s Paul Sevigny and Andre [Saraiva] own it. It's the first place I DJed. I dig Motor City because they are real there. Otherwise I don't drink anymore, so my bar days are kinda over. Santos' Party House is sick too. I love Spencer Sweeney, and he's a dope-as- fuck artist!

Sometimes when you're interviewing somebody, and they laugh, to evoke such a primitive, unconscious expression of amusement in the transcript, you might throw down something like this: [laughter]. For the following interview with Lizzie Bougatsos, lead singer of the New York experimental music fixture Gang Gang Dance, just imagine one of those laughter markers at the end of each answer. In her spacey, makes-you-wanna-pinch-her-cheek voice, the Long Island native was in great spirits, despite fighting off the flu. I'm not sure if she's just super jazzed that her band's new album Saint Dymphna is coming out soon, or giddy about their upcoming tour with Of Montreal, but Bugatsos couldn't stop herself from giggling. It was endearing as hell. Here she is reminiscing on the New York music scene, the global appeal of her band's new album, and getting hit on by Hasidic dudes in vans.

Spencer Sweeney, artist and one of the forces behind Santos' Party House, talks community boards, sketchy after-hour clubs, and why he's changing his name to Santa.

Point of Origin: I came to New York about ten years ago from Philadelphia where I was an art student. I started DJing when I moved here at a sketchy after-hours spot on Ridge Street. Looking back, it was a pretty significant place culturally. My first party there was with Eugene Hutz of Gogol Bordello. The club was basically some guy's apartment, and he got arrested every weekend. I think he had an incarceration fetish. There was this party at Standard Notions on Ludlow, which was a big hangout. Every week you'd have the guys from A.R.E. Weapons, Chloe Sevigny, Ben Cho. That's where we all came together. At the time, DJing was very genre-driven. If you went into a record store, everyone would ask what you spun, and you'd have to be like "Organic Deep House," you know?