DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – If ever a skyscraper was burdened with great expectations, it is the Burj Dubai, the colossal, half-mile-high tower designed by Chicago architects that opens today! This high-rise isn’t simply meant to shatter height records. It is supposed to be a national icon, a symbol for a madly exuberant, now debt-ridden, city-state that mixes the manufactured spectacle of Las Vegas with the helter-skelter growth of Houston.
The building sits at twice the size of The Empire State Building and can be seen from 60 miles away!
Rising improbably from what was desert just six years ago and housing an Armani hotel, about 1,000 condominiums, small offices for jetting-setting magnates and an observatory for the masses, the $1.5 billion Burj Dubai is by no means immune from this emirate’s maddening “build now, plan later” mentality. It is far easier to reach by car than by foot, and even the roads leading to it are a maze. A nearby rail stop on Dubai’s new transit line will open Monday, but that is about as green, or energy-saving, as this project gets. In addition, little effort has been made to have the skyscraper culminate long urban vistas, as the Eiffel Tower does so magnificently in Paris.
DJ Earworm has taken 25 top pop songs of 2009 and mixed them into one massive mashup. There’s plenty in here that you’ll recognise and you gotta give your props for such a neat mix. Enjoy.
I have put together my top ten albums of 2009.
It has been a crazy year for music and myself. I’ve never had so many new bands names in my head. It’s odd how much I get songs and bands mixed up at the minute. Like, every time I hear The Temper Traps single, Sweet Disposition I always think it is Wild Beasts. I could go on with more examples of me being an idiot, but I won’t. There have been so many great albums this year and this is really a pleasure to be doing. Ok, so here are my top ten in reverse order and I’m going to make a track from each album downloadable.
10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz
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9. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
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8. YACHT – See Mystery Lights
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7. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
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6. The Antlers – Hospice
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5. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin
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4. Bat For Lashes – Two Suns
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3. Girls – Album
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2. The Longcut – Open Hearts
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1. Wild Beasts – Two Dancers
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