The President is in Chicago today: I knew those dozens of Chicago PD cruisers, four-wheel ATV's, paddy wagons (and scattered groups of protesters) I saw along Michigan Avenue had to be there for some reason this morning. As my bus was winding its way through the city and down Columbus Avenue, the University of Chicago Hospitals UCAN emergency medical 'copter was circling the waterfront and Loop area a few times...just in case, you know.

Later, at the Chicago Board of Trade, President Bush declared our economy hale and hearty as it "heads into 2006 with a full head of steam."

1. Jimmy Smith - "Refractions": Jimmy was the master of the jazzy Hammond Organ.
2. Mud - "Dynamite": Underappreciated early 70's UK Chinn-Chapman glam with the sparkly crunch of Sweet, the Glitter Band, even Suzi Quatro
3. Stellastarr* - "Love and Longing"
4. Isao Tomita - "Arabesque No. 1": the true ancestor of the "X-Files" theme song, a.k.a. the theme from Jack Horkheimer's "Star Gazer/Star Hustler." An old favorite of all who watched PBS stations sign off after "Dr. Who."
5. The Brello Cabal - "The Margarine-Flavoured Pineapple Chunk": Makes me long for reruns of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In
6. Donna De Lory - "Govinda Jaya Jaya": A fascinating hybrid of millenial "chick rock" stylings and devotional Indian raga
7. The Georges Arvanitas Jazz Quartet - "Night in Tipasa": Mid 70's "French library jazz," from the late Monsieur Arvanitas
8. Q-Unit - "This is How We Bite the Dust": Brilliant Queen/50 Cent mashup that will have the RIAA's panties in a knot shortly. Get it while you can, man.
9. Air Remixed (Everybody Hertz) - "How Does it Make You Feel (Adrian Sherwood version)": Dub meets Gallic electro-squeezebox spacepop
10. Cyndi Lauper w. Shaggy - "All Through the Night": Did it all start with Alanis' acoustic reworking of "Jagged Little Pill"? Maybe, but Cyndi's 2005 retooled greatest hits collection "The Body Acoustic" does more that unplug'ger - it sets her still-potent vocals to fresh, "adult" grooves. Nice.

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