It seems like eons ago, but there was a time in New York City where you could smoke your lungs out inside public places. Those times are gone...to a degree. While the health factors involved in the habit have created a social stigma against those who puff, you can still find smoking in late night bars and clubs in the city. An article in The New York Times this past weekend says it's still happening quite often. We thought this would be an appropriate topic to give our comments a test run. What do you guys think? Does your city have a smoking ban? Has it worked? Do you think New York City should allow smoking in places that want it? Leave your comments after the cut. As a smoker, this editor believes the free market should work it out.

Blowing Smoke at a Ban [NYT]

DJ Emskee has been keeping listeners of Brooklyn Radio in the real with his Controlled Substance hip-hop show since we started this ridiculous venture. Having taken a break from the DJ game for a bit, 2010 will see Em becoming more eclectic on his show here, as well as keeping with his roots on the forever running Underground Railroad on WBAI, and growing his own production skills. As an MC with a lot on his mind, you can bet he has some interesting things to say about the last decade.

DJ U-Tern wraps up 2009 and puts a big bow on it, mixing up the best dance tracks from this year. Artists include Tommy Sparks, Sebastien Tellier, the Very Best, Animal Collective, Siriusmo, and other hot remix action from the not too distant future.

U-Tern - Best of 2009

Mandean is closing out the year with one last episode of The Edit. In episode 76, he's dropping the bomb worse than the vaccine that left the cheerleader walking backwards. Tune in for plenty of classics, as well as new tracks from Clipse, Nino Bless, Wale, and more. He's doubling up this week's "10 Minutes of..." segment with 20 minutes of nothing but RZA beats. Damn that sounds good. Tune in.

The Mandean Radio Edit - Drop the Bomb

Unfold to The Best of 2009 from Robert Luis and Tru Thoughts…part three in a series of four. (There's too much good music to fit in one episode.) Vibe out to Mayor Hawthorne, Quantic and his Combo Barbaro, Skeleton, Domu, Michael Jackson, Bullion and many more eclectic tunes that caught the ear of Robert Luis in 2009. Stay tuned for part four…

Tru Thoughts Radio - the Best of 2009 (Part 3)

Get your best orange tan on and gel that hair into an upside down Jello mold, it's New Year's Eve, baby! All the rookies and party hardly people are out tonight. But we have the best spots in New York, Cali, and Canada to avoid the strain of guido and bland khaki virus that infects the clubs heavily this time of year. After the cut, find out where The Rub, U-Tern, Chucky Brown, Soulstatic, and J.Boogie be at to ring in the new debacle.

Jesse Serwer is our ideal journalist: Not only can he write most anyone under the table, but he also has the ability to see what no one else was looking at. In the trade, we call that finding an angle. And he seems to find the angles within the angles. It's no surprise to us that his work was featured in The Best Music Writing 2009. He kindly lets us pilfer from his blog of interesting music writing and reporting, which we run as the Digging Deeper column. And after the cut, he raps poetic on the decade that was. Or was it?

Covering live events and dealing with artist egos has been the stock in trade for our entrenched reporter Lara Marsman. We were lucky enough to scoop her up after she became a homeless refugee of Billboard Magazine, just begging for spare words to report on Brooklyn Radio's ye olde blog. After the cut, she shares her warm and fuzzy thoughts on the decade that was.

On New Year’s Eve, we’re partying in a warehouse in Brooklyn: Funk, Soul, Disco, Hip Hop, R&B, booze, no neighbors, and no tourists vomiting cheap champagne! Brought to you by our friends at MeanRed, who we’ve teamed up with at The Rub Holiday parties, Flashing Lights, and BKLYN Yard. Remember the last time we did a party with The Rub at that warehouse? Exactly. Get ready to sweat. Tickets are for sale on Ticketfly.com ($25). Includes champagne toast, stunning visuals, a dancefloor to be reckoned with, and other surprise treats.

The Rub drop us a New Year's gift early, with It's the Motherfucking Remix 3 CD mixed in its enirety. Besides the three amigos of Ayres, Cosmo, and Eleven, this mix features an all-star line-up of today's best knob twisters and record slingers putting the cut on some major tunes. Jumping from genre to genre and splicing the new with the old, A-Trak, Diplo, Catchdubs, Tittsworth, Sammy Bananas, Ross Hogg, and more contribute hot mo-fucking remix wax.

The Rub - It's the Motherfucking Remix 3