BY OCCUPY THE DISCO / RU BHATT 

Today’s column starts with a “Throwback Thursday” moment, back to 2013 when we initially shared ‘So Good,’ by Mayer Hawthorne & Jake One‘s combined act, Tuxedo. The duo just released their eponymous full length album and are currently touring the world. Disco don Dimitri From Paris gives their lead single a fresh update by peppering the track with his signature synths and funky grooves.  It’s also available as free download to celebrate Dimitri’s hitting 5 million Soundcloud streams.

Check out more tracks, AFTER THE JUMP…

• Cut Copy bassist Ben Browning is gearing up to release his first full length album, Turns, with the warm and sunny ‘Make It Easy’ serving as the lead single.
• NYC’s Holy Ghost! will be releasing Work For Hire, a 20-track compilation of remixes they’ve released for various artists such as LCD Soundsystem, Phoenix, and Monarchy on May 5th. The album will also include three brand new remixes, one of which is their infectious late night rework of Hannii El Khatib‘s ‘Two Brothers.’
  
• The effervescent and cheery ‘Alfonso Muskedender,’ from Todd Terje‘s It’s Album Time, get’s a cosmic dance floor treatment courtesy of Germany’s Deetron.
• Frankie Knuckles‘ protege, Silky, and Navid Izadi pay tribute to the Godfather of House Music with their soulful smooth house jam, ‘When You’re Gone,’ which is available as a free download to commemorate the anniversary of Knuckles‘ passing.

This Weekend: We’re excited to share that our weekly disco tea dance Paradisco is now every Sunday until Memorial Day Weekend! Come join us for some of the best views in the city along and dance to our brand of daytime house and disco music – including many songs you hear first here on Towleroad. We suggest arriving early to avoid waiting in line. See you on Sunday!

OCCUPY THE DISCO (OXD) curates and recommends music events to the gay community in NYC—in an effort to move the focus of the nightlife scene beyond the promoter and venue and to the music itself. OXD’s goal is to educate, entertain, engage and empower the gay audience to reclaim their ability to question and experience the unknown. The OXD Mirror will serve to showcase tunes that are definitely off-the-beaten-path but rightfully deserve the attention of the gay ear. 

This week’s post was written and curated by Ru Bhatt. Check out more of his music picks on his podcast, The Ru-Mix and on Made In Brazil. 

Be sure to check out these tracks and more on Soundcloud. For more information on OXD, check out our website and accompanying blog at www.occupythedisco.com, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter: @OccupyTheDisco.

Regardless of how we felt about it we’re all still sitting shiva for HBO’s Looking, may it rest in peace. Earlier this week one of the show’s stars–Frankie Alvarez–shared a little bit of information about the series’s ultimate cinematic finale that begins filming this fall and will air sometime next year. Looking’s last “episode” as Alvarez describes it will be less like the show’s weekly installments and more akin to Andrew Haigh’s critically acclaimed Weekend. 

“It’s a feature-length film that doesn’t adhere to an episodic structure,” Alvarez explained to Vulture. “So I think a lot of fans who wanted a longer episode are going to get one long, two-hour episode. I think that will be [a] blessing in a lot of ways: We’ll get to close it out the way everyone wants to close it out, and then, hopefully, we’ll continue to be friends … supporting each other in future projects.”

Looking wouldn’t be the first series to wrap things up with a made for TV movie, but the shift in storytelling format could be a boon to the show’s finale. For all of the criticism that was leveled at Looking, Weekend was widely praised, despite the two following similar narrative styles. As J. Bryan Lowder wrote for Slate earlier this year, Haigh’s slice-of-life storytelling seems to be at its strongest when its longer in form and bookmarked with a clear beginning and an end. Perhaps Looking’s finale will finally bring the show’s aim into a sharper focus and win over its naysayers.

(h/t Vulture)

Students, alumni and staff at a Catholic High School in Des Moines, Idaho staged a walkout on Wednesday following a decision to not hire a substitute teacher full time once it was discovered that he was gay, reports the Des Moines Register.

On Tuesday, Des Moines Catholic Schools administrators sent a letter to parents explaining the decision was because the applicant’s personal life “was at odds with Church teaching.”

The letter further stated:

“Our contracts contain specific language that outline the expected code of conduct in accord with long accepted Church teaching. The Catholic faith is central to our mission, and in order to deliver on that mission, it is our expectation that staff and teachers support our moral beliefs.”

So proud of the students at #dowlingcatholic today who staged a walk out to protest discrimination. I stand with you! #dowlingcares

— Francesca Andriolo (@FranAndriolo) April 9, 2015

16-year-old sophomore and event walkout organizer Grace Mumm said:

“I just want the community to know that this is a really important topic, and that just because our school officials or diocesan leaders might have made this decision, it does not directly reflect what we believe as students.”

Watch Mumm explain the reasons for the walkout and read the school’s letter to parents, AFTER THE JUMP…(warning: autoplay)

Yesterday, we reported that Oregon’s 2014 Teacher of the Year Brett Bigham alleged that he was fired by his school district  after speaking openly about being gay.

Dowling Catholic Parent Letter