I got nothin

So hey everybody. No 12 days, sure, but better than a brick of coal! the trip to the mountains was pretty nice. 1.5-2 ft. of snow, good sledding, good snow-shoe action, frozen ponds. snow forts. decent time all around.

this man above is vince guaraldi, the genius behind the music for the charlie brown specials. (ok, so i'm on a charlie brown kick this season). the first email today features "christmas time is here," probably one of the more melancholy christmas songs ever. there's a version with lyrics, but i prefer the more lengthy instrumental. it feels like an angelo badalamenti track. (sanders, you should edit together an agent cooper montage with this).

one of the things i loved about arrested development was the use of certain song clips for recurring comic motifs. there was the flute snippet that would play every time buster's "uncle" implied he was really his father. then there was "christmas time is here" when someone got depressed (Gob getting ditched by Michael when going to the family cabin). for certain situations and individuals i have little looping soundtracks that go off whenever they're around:

the Bishop of one of our last wards, Alex Judkins, would set off "come on, alex! you can do it! come on alex, there's nothing to it!" (neighborhood #2, arcade fire).

• Eva, one of the support staff in my clinic triggers 'bunny aint no kind of rider' by of montreal.

• one of the third year residents, Caroline- 'caroline, no' (pet sounds- beach boys). and on and on.
  

not everybody is fortunate to have their own soundtrack with me yet. give it time, though. you'll come around. (i'm also open to suggestions).

the bonus track is 'linus and lucy' and isn't really christmas-ey, but essential Peanuts.

ok, so i'm probably gonna hit you again tomorrow. and maybe boxing day since i dangled that one way back. it's a sunny day in seattle. not a cloud in the sky. drink up your eggnog!

Mr. Freakin Fireplug

DISCLAIMER: PLEASE DON'T SHOW THIS TO YOUR KIDS (SEAN, I'M TALKING TO YOU)



You'll never be in Santa's gang, never be in Santa's gang!!!

so very wrong, yet so so so very very funny...

today's track: rudolph the red nose reindeer: by the temptations. hands-down the best rendition. HEY RUDOLPH!!!!!

GRINCH-EY

sean!! i didn't know you'd been stockpiling the stash! that's great! i'll have to email that link out periodically, or on request- we'll see. but definitely cool. i'd love to just do everything all combined in one site... with a login/password maybe. someday.

ok, so wednesday i'm headed for the snow for a couple days. i'm still planning out that down time.... what will it be????

and btw, tomorrow (today?) is leslie's birthday!!!!!!!!!!!! (call her, she'll love it)

awkwardly silent night

last year in December i was on a 2 week externship at the VA hospital and one of the general practice residents there was talking about how cool it is to be jewish on the 25th. i kind of chuckled along with him and his tales of wandering charlton-hestonesque-in-omega-man-empty movie theaters and no dinner-reservations-necessary until i was able to bring up this great little faux-motown short by robert smigel for SNL. he sat there and listened as i described it, mentioning some of the exact things he'd just joked about

......awkward silence....

(but not one of those 'i guess you had to be there' kind of silences).....

"huh, don't think i've seen that one..."

....change of subject.....

sometimes you just need to keep on chuckling. ho ho ho!

It's beginning to look a lot like 2008

man, that was wierd. i just love the expression of discomfort on Bing's face! (I'm firing my agent!!) ok, so it's been since thanksgiving... no good excuses, though i'll admit to a little lack in enthusiasm for posting. is there anybody out there listening....listening...listening...listening.....

last year i did a 12-days of christmas, and this is similar, but i'm not promising a full 12. (maybe 10 and a half). yeah, and you might get boxing day instead of chrismtas. we're going to be up in the mountains for a couple days next week with no internet (unless i hike down to a wi-fi hotspot....hey!)


no christmas mix tape is complete without a helping of Bing Crosby from his "White Christmas" album. so merry christmas, everybody. mele kalikimaka, pau āpau.

TRYPTOPHAN

so, ah- merry thanksgiving everybodies. the songs i sent you are very loosely thematic, but it's the best i can do...(nothing wrong with a sprinkle of ABBA and a portion or two of ZEPP to get you through the day) Here's the challenge to all you aspiring musicians out there- make a thanksgiving day song. maybe write one about the turducken, mythical creature. or charlie brown. just something. holy pete, there's a dearth of good thanksgiving songs out there.

i really miss the old animated holiday specials. charlie brown, rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, the grinch. you still bump into them from time to time, but today's kids are too wired. just look at the pacing in charlie brown's thanksgiving! you'd think you were watching the uncut version of das boot if you were blindfolded, and it was all in german. but alas, no turkey day is complete without it. and tryptophan?? totally overrated. i'll be among the dead tomorrow simply because it's nearly 3 am right now.

Post Oddity

aghch. well, i suppose the inevitable has happened. a blog!? well o well o well, i suppose everybody and their grandmas have a bloggie now.... but everybody has a toilet too. and mobile phones (just got my first in january- after both of my grandmas had...). and heart-mom tattoos. i really felt limited by the presentation options through email, particularly how crappy cut and paste items turn out, depending on the size of your monitor, etc. the all-white backgrounds are a bit limiting too... and though i've been experimenting with highlighted text, it's a bit hard on the eyes.

so, here's how it's going to work (until BLOGGER gets old)- i'm going to send out a regular email still, but it'll mostly be a link to the latest post and MOST IMPORTANTLY the source of the mp3s as i don't think this site allows for file storage/download. spence lake inspired me with his consistently handsome and sharply-dressed blog, BY THE BOOK!!! (by the way, spence- i'm finally reading Rough Stone Rolling- i'll let you know what i think, ey?)



bowie. man, as you know- i love me some good early-middish 70's bowie. back in the day- DB would sometimes revisit a track he'd already recorded and spruce it up. "Rubber Band," "When I Live My Dream," and "Space Oddity" are among those. the vid above is incarnation #1 of space oddity recorded during the Deram days. most of you are probably more familiar with the later recording (included in the email) which appears on the album of the same name. kind of a wierd mishmash of schizophrenic styles without much continuity or narrative, but it works. little folk gems like "
God knows i'm good" and "Letter to Hermione" are very-60's bowie, though a bit more grown-up. "Wild eyed boy from free cloud" has elements of his earlier days, but is much more ambitious, instrumentally (if you havn't yet downloaded this track from your email- check out the animated clip below). it and "god knows i'm good" (thematically reminiscent of eleanor rigby) are probably my favorites from the album (oddity's not bad either). both this and "Cygnet Committee" remind me a little of the moody blues with their meandering high-concept psychedelia. "Memory of a free festival" is an odd way to end an album, but seems to cater to the summer of love crowd (actually the only song on the album that i really can't stand).

ever experimenting, he seems to have inadvertently struck black gold with "space oddity" (his first top-10 single in the UK) rushed into stores to coincide with the '69 Apollo 11 lunar landing (the british media apparently played it with their coverage of the historic event). all the british isles were in love with him and his one-hit wonder. the original album was self-titled and was only named "space oddity" when RCA re-released the album in the mid-70's (finally hitting the billboard top-ten in the US). Beck and "Loser" in so many ways reminds me of Bowie and "Space Oddity." Neither artist has really recorded much before or since like those songs, but both would end up being defined by them for years afterward.

anyhoo, let me know what you think about the new format (it's still a bit bare-bones, but i'm mulling over other refinements still) also (as usual) i had a tough time picking today's tracks. i almost didn't include "space oddity," (too obvious...overplayed...) but alas, i figured ye'd all like a piece. also- if any would like the original single (from the first video) or something else, i'm always happy to oblige. word to your mom.