Today marks the 100th annual International Women’s Day.  Conceived in 1910 at the second International Conference of Working Women, the day’s original purpose was to draw attention to women’s equality and, hopefully, to give them the right to vote.  (At that point New Zealand women, the first to vote, had only been doing it for seventeen years.)

The first event took place the following year, in 1911.  It was formally recognized by the UN in 1975, and International Women’s Day is now a national holiday in fourteen countries, most of them former Communist nations.  Though it originally took place on March 19, it was moved to March 8 in 1913 later and has taken place on this day ever since.

There’s a website showcasing this year’s events around the world, the closest of which seems to be in Boston.

Merchants Bank Building, 32 Westminster Street, built in 1855.

I can’t wait any longer, I’m too excited. This is the Darkness, in all their snaggle-toothed glory, performing Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End).

This informal invitation came through the transom and as far as I know it’s still on. From Emily of Recycle-a-Bike,

Come with decorated bikes to ride the streets spreading holiday cheer! Meet at White Electric around 3:30 where we will soon after depart. Bring suggestions for destinations you would like to stop and sing at, otherwise we will just ride until our holiday hearts are content, or we find some food!

Baby it’s cold outside! No double-dog-dares regarding tongues and handlebars. Stay warm and get lit.

Friday, 3:30pm, White Electric, 711 Westminster Street

It’s a pity to relegate these to a holiday playlist really. A Fine Frenzy (actually Alison Sudol of California) has released a holiday EP, Oh, Blue Christmas, with two of my favorite new songs, and they haven’t been played to death in Gap sweater ads. . . yet. The arrangements and instrumentation are original and her voice is just lovely. Somehow, Blue Christmas ends up being kind of happy. (Her version of Vince Guaraldi’s Christmastime Is Here after the jump.)

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The folks at Shop Downcity have some special events planned for today — and there is so parking and it’s free — at 2:30pm there is caroling with the Wheeler School 18-Wheelers; from 2pm to 4pm there will be ice carving over where the movies are shown on the wall; and the calendar has an ENO wine and beer tasting slated for 2am (?!) and I’m gonna assume and hope to god that this is supposed to say 2pm. Santa wanders around from 11am to 4pm. (And you can buy these ornaments at Craftland.)

Shops open tonight till 8pm, Westminster Street downtown near Union Street

UPDATE, 12/6: We’re going to be taking monetary donations for the RI Community Food Bank, and have arranged for a very special visit from Saint Nick. And Kmareka and Not For Nothing are joining the fun!

ORIGINAL: More details, or at least a spiffier promo, forthcoming, but…

Party with a bunch of curmudgeons! Celebrate the birth of thy Saviour with all of us gay Jews!!

As RIFuture, Greater City: Providence, the Daily Dose, and perhaps others, will be co-hosting a Blogosphere Holiday Spectacular at the 201 (201 Westminster St.) on Weds, December 16th, starting at 8pm.

Dose writer Matthew Lawrence will be DJing along with Eric Smith and Kevin Leavitt. The Daily Dose will spring for the vegan butter cookies. (Head on over after Drinking Liberally.)

Who would have thought that Dethklok would be the first out of the gate this season with a Christmas special? They will apparently be picking ‘Secret Santas’ and arguing about the Christmas tree. And it would appear that Toki’s mother is visiting from Norway, so his Christmas is totally ruined. Poor Toki.

Metalocalypse, Cartoon Network, 12:30am, late tonight but actually Monday

This post is a bit on the early side, but if Black Friday got you down, and you’re wondering how you can make your own holiday shopping meaningful and cool, check out the Monohasset Mills Holiday Sale this Saturday from 2pm to 6pm.

From Damian Ewens, surfer/artist/educator/DJ and recently poppa:

Monohasset Mill is Providence’s most active artist space with over 60 working artists living in 40 converted mill spaces. The Mill is home to photographers and fashion designers, ceramacists, jewelers and DJ’s, graphic designers, RISD profesors, art educators and more.

With residents that include the founders and owners of hyper-creative ventures such as The Steelyard, Woolly Fair, Queen of Hearts, and Firehouse13 this is an Open Studios not to be missed.

Even the folks who were living in the Mall, actually live at Monohasset.

The CREATure, a vast lighting installation in the courtyard of the Mill, will be lit at 4:30pm.
If you’re looking to collect some of Providence’s finest local art, head to Monohasset Mill on December 5th.

While not yet as well-known as Craftland or the Foundry sale, this is more of the village holiday shopping experience than any other as you walk around the studio/residences, meeting the artists themselves as you browse unique artwork at amazing prices. Parking and directions here.

[UPDATE: There's a candlelight vigil at the Bank of America Skating Center tonight at 6:15, and tonight City Hall will be lit up red for the occasion.  It's one of several locations in the US and the British Isles that were selected by Bono to be lit up.  I'm not sure why Providence was chosen, actually, but I almost always approve of colored lights on public buildings.]

Today marks the 22nd annual World AIDS Day, begun in 1988 to draw attention to what was then a largely mysterious epidemic.  The Providence metro area has one of the lowest rates of AIDS in the country, with 6.5 cases reported for every 100,000 people.  That’s less than a quarter of the infection rates in cities like Washington, Miami, New Orleans and Baltimore.

After the jump, a (very) quick look at some of the year’s bigger AIDS-related headlines:

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Buy tickets now for the Rhode Island Film Collaborative’s annual Black and White Holiday Party. This year’s theme is The Ice Cave — which, judging from my image search, seems to read more blue than black and white, but the party will be all decorated like a winter wonderland with icicles and snowmen and penguins and Narragansett beer.  Guests, are invited to wear black or white, or both, just like in the sixties with Truman Capote who nobody knows who he is anymore.

The first two hours of the Black and White Party are a champagne and exclusive dining event. Afterwards, the general membership and public join the festivities, which include a DJ, live entertainment from interactive improvisation comedy troupes, filmic party games, a raffle and door prizes.

6pm to 8pm, VIP Party, tickets $100 each/$150 for two.

8pm on, general admission $10. Bring a non-perishable food item for the Rhode Island Food Bank and get a beverage ticket. There’s food, wine, beer, DJs and great company. Come on, dress up! For tickets go to RIFC.

Saturday, December 5, Kay Studios, 77 Valley Street, East Providence

If you answered, “Must Be Santa” give yourself a star (we also would have accepted Hunter Thompson as a correct answer).  And then be sure to check out this new straight-up weird Bob Dylan music video for his Christmas song of the same name.

It’s quite hard to say at first what to make of this song/video, but as an avid Dylan listener, I’ll try to expound.  First thought is that this puts to rest any doubt that Dylan’s main artistic purpose in life these days is to be as unpredictable and odd as possible.  But for a person who for some time now I’ve assumed to be loveless, cynical, and fairly contemptuous of his fame, this video also exhibits Dylan’s weird sense of humor and appreciation for the absurd.

I mean, the guy is wearing a ridiculous wig (either that or he’s been conking his Jew-curls straight) under a series of hats the whole video, including a Santa hat, which takes place at a raucous X-mas house party, possibly in the 1950’s.  And the entire song is just drums, accordion, and Dylan and a chorus singing children’s lyrics about Santa, at one point with the singing of the names of Santa’s reindeers with the names of the Presidents since Eisenhower interspersed (curiously, he ends at Clinton).

Then of course there’s the matter of what it means that Dylan–the once-proclaimed spokesperson for a generation who made a career out of criticizing American society, including its consumer culture, and who is also Jewish–has just put out an entire Christmas album.  But I guess that’s exactly the point: it doesn’t mean anything.  Anybody who tries to read any meaning into this song or video would be a fool.  Even Dylan can have some fun, especially if it’s at the expense of making his hardcore fans ask, WTF?

With just thirty-nine shopping days left, Lite Rock 105 has switched to its perennially grating all-Christmas format.  It’s thorn in the side of office workers and non-Christians everywhere, not to mention people that have ears and don’t like hearing sixty-eight different versions of Silent Night each and every day.

Cleverly, though, the station’s streaming two different playlists on their website right now.  The non-holiday one is currently playing Naked Eyes, so if I had to hear adult contemporary radio in my workplace I’d definitely push for that one.

I guess since it’s only half a block away I’ll be heading to Atwells now…  Although, as an Italian-American, I far prefer Saint Joseph’s Day, since it doesn’t have quite so many colonial overtones/thin ties to relevance.  I mean, not even getting into the very large question of Native Americans, I don’t know why Italians need to celebrate Columbus Day when Columbus was sailing for Spain.  But whatever.  Lou Monte disagrees (as does every goomba on the Hill) and I respect that.

I went to a Jewish grade school until 8th grade, studying Hebrew and the Bible and the Talmud, and hence have a particularly complex relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Rosh Hashanah is a wonderful holiday — sing-song celebratory, with apples and honey and pomegranates making it clear to a second-grader how the world got by without jelly beans for so many thousands of years.

But there’s a darkness to the passage of time: The Book of Life is presented as a wholesome concept, a la Santa Claus’s list of the naughty and nice.  Were you good last year? If you weren’t, was your repenting sufficient?  But if God’s answer to both of these questions is ‘No,’ it’s not a fire truck or a Furby or a Wii that’s at stake:  Your name doesn’t get transcribed in the Book — which means you’re probably going to die.

Perhaps there’s a more abstract, spiritual way of reading this, but it was lost on seven-year-old me, and seemingly also on the eight-foot-tall rabbis who were teaching me what’s what. (Aside: I can’t fathom that there’s a religion out there that’s more adept at eliciting latent propensities for OCD.)

With so much talk of Death Panels in the air, there’s an eerie aura about Obama’s Rosh Hashanah message — almost as though God is letting him in on the decision-making: