Wednesday, December 17, 2008

It's coming on Christmas.

While I noted in my last post that the soundtrack of A Charlie Brown Christmas is probably my favorite, I like some other songs as well. Here are a few -- I hope at least one is new to you. Enjoy.

1. Dar Williams, The Christians and the Pagans. Amusing little number from my favorite chick-with-a-guitar-singer-songwriter. I can just picture the poor, put-upon suburbanite uncle answering the phone at the beginning of the song, sighing at the prospect of explaining to his wife why his gay niece and her lesbian lov-ah are showing up at their McMansion on Christmas Eve. Still, all's well that ends well, and the song is all about the meaning of the season for both Pagans and Christians.




2. The Pogues with Kirsty MacColl, Fairytale of New York. Sweet, sad, and haunting. "I could have been someone," indeed. Shane and Kirsty sing of love, regret, nostalgia, hate, and all emotions in between as if they really were two old lovers at the end of their drink-addled lives. The fact that Shane has outlived Kirsty is one of the truest proofs that The Universe has an odd sense of humor.




3. Robert Earl Keen's Merry Christmas From The Family. The modern American family, warts and all. How can you not love a song that includes AA, xenophobia converted by song, and feminine hygenie products?

Monday, December 8, 2008

But you don't care that much for music, do you?

As I have mentioned here before, I am a big Peanuts fan. And tonight, ABC is showing my favorite bit of holiday tradition -- not Rudolph, Frosty, or even the Who's Roast Beast. No, my friends, I speak of "A Charlie Brown Christmas." It could never be made today -- too anti-commercial, too sad, too (gasp!) religious.*

And even if it could be made today, it couldn't use the same music -- it's too sophisticated, too adult, too Not Saccharine. Listening to "Christmastime is Here" is a somewhat heartache-inducing experience for me -- it really captures the bittersweet tang of the holiday (here's the instrumental version). The entire Vince Guaraldi soundtrack is in endless rotation in my car starting the day after Thanksgiving. Who doesn't love a little "Linus and Lucy"?

*When I was a wee lad in The Ancestral Homeland, my CCD (a/k/a Sunday school for Catholic kids who went to public school) class did a stage version of it one year for the Christmas program at Our Lady of Perpetual Motion. I played Snoopy, which was cool because it meant I had no lines to memorize.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

You said you'd stand by me, in the middle of Chapter Three.

Apparently I now have two Great American Novels in my head. The Muse paid me a visit the other night and I now have a second fully formed opus floating around. Now, if I could just get it on paper (as Jimmy Buffett sang), I will be rich and famous. Right?

Anyhoo, I did get the beginning done, and here it is. Please give me your thoughts/comments/suggestions/rotten tomatoes/etc. If you prefer not to hurt my feelings in public, email me. I'll probably delete it after a few days, so if you come by next week and only see a blank post, and are interested in reading it, let me know.

Enjoy. Or, uh, whatever.

EDITED/UPDATED 12/15/08: And the snippet is down. Thanks to the New Diarist for his kind words in the comments and to those who responded via email. If you missed it, and really want to read it, shoot me an email