Q: Best album of the year, so far, probably, off the top of your head?

A: The best album of the year, so far, probably, off the top of my head, is without question the New Pornographers' Challengers. Stereogum has some great behind-the-music coverage of the album, plus two kickass tracks (and a bunch of photos of the band's July 4th performance at NYC's Battery Park).

One of the songs offered is "Myriad Harbor," which has quickly become one of my favorite Daniel Bejar songs ever (GvsB is also a fan). I would link to the lyrics, but they don't seem to exist on the Internet yet, so whatever, here...

MYRIAD HARBOR
written by Daniel Bejar

I took a plane / I took a train
(Who cares? You always end up in the city)
I said to Carl / Look up for once
(See just how the sun sets in the sky)
I said to John / "Do you think the girls here
(...ever wonder how they got so pretty?")
Oh well, I do
Look out upon the myriad harbor (x3)

All the boys with their homemade microphones
(...have very interesting sounds)
All the girls fall into ruin, droppin' out of school, breakin' Daddy's heart
(...just to hang around)
I walked into the local record store and asked for
An American music anthology / It sounds fun
They tore off my skirt (?) and stuck it on the walls at P.S. 1

I took a plane / I took a train
(Who cares? You always end up in the city)
Stranded at Bleecker and Broadway / Looking for something to do
Someone somewhere asked me, "Is there anything in particular I can help you with?"
All I ever wanted help with was you
Look out upon the myriad harbor (x4)

I'd wondered why he was hitting those New York references so hard, since the New Pornographers are Canadian; Scott Stereogum notes the album was recorded partly in Brooklyn, and...

...Well, this is also the NP's New York album. Carl Newman's a Brooklynite now, feels okay talking about the West Village in flames in "Challengers," and even Bejar gets in on the action with the best song on the album, "Myriad Harbour" and its strutting, sexy P.S.1 and Bleeker Avenue namedrops. He's peppered songs with New York in the past -- see "Jackie, Dressed In Cobras," etc. -- but this is the clearest and most addictive...

Newman's biggest New York song, "Unguided," is his longest composition to date. He notes, "It is all about August 2005, everything up in the air, it was very hot, and I was camping out in New York for a week."

(Hey, that sounds eerily like my August '05. Incidentally, the best memory I have from that summer is the day of the Mermaid Parade, which concluded with seeing the New Pornographers play in Prospect Park. Come to think of it, "in turmoil, hot, and semi-homeless" describes pretty much all my experiences with NYC in summer, including last week.)

Wow, I'm really terrible at writing concise blog posts.

One other thing: Of Bejar, Stereogum writes he "always sounds great in this setup, but remains more excellent when given a mile to roam in his solo work." Now, I do love Bejar's Destroyer stuff, but to me, his best work is in these collaborations with Newman, whose predilection for sharp poppy hooks keeps Bejar from drifting too far into art-rock pretension. Newman is sort of the Big Boi to Bejar's Andre 3000 —the Coxon to his Albarn, if you will. The McCartney on weed to his Lennon on acid. DISCUSS. Or just buy the album.

ELSEWHERE: Bryan Ferry reveals bold stance vis a vis the Jews; he is pro-Dylan, anti-Nazi.

Ferry was briefly sort of the Coxon to Brian Eno's Albarn, wasn't he?

Q: Are you ready to be so surprisingered that it will take you a second to react?

A: Gawker has the shocking story! I hope you're sitting down. [via Susie]

Q: Will Mike Bloomberg run for president as an independent?

Mike Bloomberg: Redefines 'green' party

A: He's thinking about it, says the Washington Post. With no pressing need to get a jump on fundraising (millionaires may need your support, but billionaires don't), NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg wouldn't announce his candidacy until early '08, the Post writes.

Market-savvy as he is, Bloomberg might realize that his best chance for the White House, in the current political atmosphere, is to disassociate himself from the idiocy of both parties and run indie-stizz.

Publicly, the Democrat-turned-Republican professes no interest in the top job at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. But the founder of the Bloomberg financial news empire has dropped enough hints and has had enough tantalizing discussions with potential supporters that people who observe the city's politics for a living are convinced he is at least thinking about it.

T.A.M.S.Y. implicitly distrusts billionaires, media moguls and anyone who's ever been mayor of New York City — but we might be willing to make an exception for Bloomberg. For God's sake, even the Rev. Al Sharpton likes him!

"He would be a very compelling candidate," said civil rights activist Al Sharpton, himself a once and potentially future presidential hopeful from the Big Apple, and a friend of the mayor's. Sharpton called Bloomberg "Ross Perot with a résumé" and predicted that "if he operates as he's done in other parts of his life, he will put both feet in."

If the rumors turn out to be true, this leaves open the possibility that the 2008 race for the White House could be a three-horse race between a current New York senator, a former New York City mayor and the current mayor. As if New Yorkers needed another reason to be solipsistic bastards?

Of course, in the nightmare night-terror scenario where Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani win their parties' respective noms, I'd jump at the opportunity to vote for "Ross Perot with a résumé." At that point, I'd be willing to settle for just plain Ross Perot.

Q: Why is Marcel Duchamp rolling dans sa tombe?

A: Because heaven recently installed wireless Internet¹ — allowing M. Duchamp to visit the Official Online Guide to his onetime 'hood, Greenwich Village.

Duchamp's epitaph translates to "Anyway, it's always other people that die." By which he means, "Why is my tomb so fricking crowded?"

"For over 100 years," the site reads, "this small area below 14th Street and west of Broadway has been a Mecca to the creative, rebellious and Bohemian. Although today no starving artists could afford to live here," SO DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT YOU GODDAMN BEATNIKS, "the vibe still lingers and the beat goes on!" And by "vibe," they mean "odor," and by "the beat," they mean the Blue Man Group hitting things with sticks.

T.A.M.S.Y. SAYS: Kind of dickish to flaunt your preposterous rents right there on the front page, the Village. Your site is already an affront to artists. You don't have to rub it in.

On the bright side, the Village is still rat-infested, which is sort of like being bohemian.

RELATED: The cover of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan was photographed in the Village. This was back when Dylan actually lived there, and before freewheelin' was banned.

EARLIER: Big gay riot | Why is Disney rolling in his fridge?

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¹ Hell got wireless like five years ago, but only because Circle #2 loves them some porn. L'Enfer, c'est les O.P.P.!

Q: Well, what else is new?

A: New York officials say Manhattan stink may be New Jersey’s fault.

EARLIER: Terrible smell probably New Jersey.

Q: Stop, children, what's that smell?

A: You're very close to Newark. I'm just sayin'.¹

But if you're wondering why New York City smells unusually like gas today, the official answer is, Who knows!? It's just one of those things, like how sometimes the city smells like maple syrup, or weed, or homeless guy. These olfactory phenomena can't ever be fully explained, except for the last two.

The important thing is, according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, "It may just be an unpleasant smell." In other words, you probably won't die.

Anyway, I enjoyed this fun fact from the Associated Press' coverage:

There was a small natural gas leak in Greenwich Village, but it wouldn't have been enough to account for the pervasive odor, Bloomberg said. He said the smell may have resulted from a leak of the chemical mercaptan, which is added to natural gas to produce its easily recognizable odor. By itself, natural gas is odorless.

Hey, you learn something new every day!

This has been a disaster, though, for the mercaptan industry, which was already sick and tired of the old lady upstairs asking why their offices smell like gas.

In retaliation, they quickly launched a series of feel-good ads:

It's all part of their new P.R. campaign, "O Captain! Mercaptan!" If that doesn't work, they can just go back to blaming Jersey.

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¹ I wrote this before reading the Washington Post's very funny lede.

Q: Are Mets fans silent, deadly?

A: No, they're loud, obnoxious and deadly. But it's QUIET funny that you mention that, because the Mets and Cardinals are in the middle of QUIET a battle.

ESPN.com told me so QUIET recently.

OH SNAP EMBARASSING TYPO!

[NOTE: My blog is slowly becoming the crazy old man who writes daily letters to his local paper listing punctuation errors. DEAL WITH IT.]

Also, Endy Chavez just made what will probably be --especially if the Mets win -- considered the greatest catch in postseason history (suck it, Willie Mays), to rob St. Louis' Scott Rolen of a two-run homer.

Of course, T.A.M.S.Y. hates all teams from New York, but it really was a snazzy little catch. Congratulations to Endy, baseball player and huge fan of The Answer May Surprise You.

ALSO: Sexy Teenage Susie recently linked me to this kickass New Yorker story about clumsy kajillionaire Steve Wynn and his enormous drunken elbow. Very entertaining.