Eff you, 2010

I had such hope for you ... what you had for me was a screwing over.

You taxed me, made me work so hard for every happy moment but there were so few of them. You fooled me, promised things that you never delivered on. You strung me along and kept me hopeful, but only disappointed in the end.

It would be easy to say that I will remember you for the piece 'o crap that you were but it's about six and a half hours until your demise and I'm already working on forgetting you ever existed.

All in all, you were a waste of time and a sheer and utter let down. I won't be sad to see you go and won't miss you once you're gone.

Eff you, 2010 ... eff you.

Twelve Days Later . . . the Honourable Mentions

This was a challenging undertaking ... narrowing down contemporary Christmas carols to a mere 12 choices. Some were obvious - Band Aid, John Lennon, Bob & Doug. Others, not so much. So, on this Christmas Day (and in no particular order), I salute those who didn't make that first chop:

This Christmas - Diana Ross ... for my Robbie ♥

Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You - Billy Squier (1981) ... Julia totally and immediately nixed this choice. I love it. Something about a bunch of people all singing the same thing at the same time and swaying in unison, I guess.

Jingle Bell Rock - Bobby Helms (1957) ... In the movie Mean Girls, singer Janis Ian remarks, 'Everyone in the English speaking world knows that song.' Indeed!

2000 Miles - The Pretenders (1983) ... Please. Chrissie Hynde? Please! (While most people believe 2,000 miles to be the distance between two lovers missing each other over the holidays, it is actually meant for James Honeyman-Scott, the group's original guitar player, who died of heart failure induced by cocaine intolerance in 1982.)

Wonderful Christmas Time - Paul McCartney (1979) ... McCartney recorded the song entirely on his own during the sessions for his solo project McCartney II. Although the members of Wings are not on the recording, they appear in the video.

Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley (1968) ... Elvis turned this 1948 country music staple into a rock-and-roll holiday classic by recording it in his signature style in 1957.

Thank God It's Christmas - Queen (1984) ... No promotional video was ever made of this track, written by Brian May and Roger Taylor, which hampered its use on TV music channels. For this reason, it's a lesser known Christmas single but it's still my favorite Christmas message from (the) Queen. *smirk*

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee (1958) ... She was 14 when she recorded this. 14. 14!!!

Father Christmas - The Kinks (1977) ... And it failed to make the charts.   :(

Rock and Roll Christmas - George Thorogood & the Destroyers ... Try and not bop to this one. I dare you!

Run Rudolph Run - Chuck Berry (1958) ... Sometimes known as Run Run Rudolph.

White Christmas - Billy Idol (2007) ... A strangely sexy video ...

Someday at Christmas - Stevie Wonder (1967) ... A pure voice singing about a pure sentiment. It doesn't get any better than Stevie.

The Chanukah Song - Adam Sandler (1994), The Chanukah Song 2 (1999), The Chanukah Song 3 (2002) ... A series of hilarious songs written and performed by Adam Sandler. All of them center on the theme of Jewish children feeling alienated during the Christmas season and the listing of Jewish celebrities, both real and fictional.

Christmastime is Here - Vince Guardini (1965) ... Is there a person alive who doesn't remember this tune from their childhood? Released on A Charlie Brown Christmas as a soundtrack to the TV special of the same name, it's one of the most popular Christmas albums of all time.

Feliz Navidad - Jose Feliciano (1970) ... One of the most downloaded and aired Christmas songs in the US and Canada and one of the 25 most played and recorded Christmas songs around the world.

I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus - John Mellencamp (1987) ... 13-yr old Jimmy Boyd's original 1952 version was condemned by the Roman Catholic church in Boston because the songs mixed kissing with Christmas. SHEESH!!!

Christmas is All Around - Billy Mack (2003) ... Bill Nighy' cover of The Troggs' song Love Is All Around for the movie Love Actually. Hilarious video which borrows heavily from Robert Palmer's Addicted To Love.

Merry Christmas Darling - The Carpenters (1970) ... Richard Carpenter (one of the song's two composers) himself calls the original recording one of his sister's best.

Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight) - The Ramones (1989) ... Joey Ramone composed and dedicated this one to his girlfriend.

Oh Come All Ye Faithful - Twisted Sister (2006) ... One of the bestest kick-ass rock Christmas songs of all time.

Mary's Boy Child - Boney M (1978) ... Written in 1956 and originally recorded by Harry Belafonte.

On the twelfth day of Christmas . . .

I know I started off this series by saying I'd be featuring songs that CHOM would play. For this last posting, I'm deviating from the plan. Firstly, this is my blog and I get to veer off track whenever I feel like it and lastly, I'm a woman and my very gender gives me carte blanche to change my mind in mid-sentence, mid-step or mid-life.

I had an extremely happy childhood. Christmastime found me indulging in festivities twice - once on the 25th of December and then again two weeks later on January 7th. Not twice the prezzies, mind you, but twice the holiday feeling. Christmas Eve evokes two powerful memories ... our tree, a turquoise blue/green silvery ghastly monstrosity which at the same time was and will always be the most beautiful Christmas tree I'll ever see and the sound of Christmas carols being played on the stereo in the living room. We heard them all: Bing, The Chipmunks, Judy, Dean, Perry, Ella ... but nothing means Christmas Eve to me more than one of the most powerful Christmas carols sung by one of the most powerful voices ever ... enjoy .. (it's) the night before Christmas ...

Silent Night - Mahalia Jackson

On the eleventh day of Christmas . . .

Coming home from a fun filled evening spent with Robbie, I was mentally writing this posting. I'd chosen the day's song and as fate would have it, CHOM even played it, calling it the most awkward coupling ever. I agree wholeheartedly. I mean, how could throwing together an androgynous glam rocker with a child beating traditional crooner be anything but awkward?!? Don't believe me? Take a look for yourself ... while you're at it, try and decide who's wearing more eye makeup!

But, I'm a Canuck and as such, I'm duty bound to include at least one homegrown sampling on this playlist. And what better offering than one whose title encompasses the whole spirit of this latest blogging venture of mine?

12 Days of Christmas - Bob & Doug McKenzie

Bob (Rick Moranis) and Doug (Dave Thomas) McKenzie are a pair of fictional Canadian brothers who hosted 'The Great White North', an SCTV sketch. Quickly becoming a pop culture phenomenon on both sides of the border, the characters were later revived for an animated series, Bob & Doug. The sketch also prompted an album in 1982, The Great White North, which included the brothers' improvised version of The Twelve Days of Christmas. While hugely popular in the US, the album was also #1 in Canada for six weeks.

On the tenth day of Christmas . . .

I never hear this without getting goosebumps. I had the chance to go see them in concert a few years back but got sick the day before. I now wish I'd gone anyhow ...

Christmas Eve/Sarajevo - Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24, an instrumental medley of Carol of the Bells and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, was first released by Savatage in 1995. Re-released in 1996 by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (a side project of several Savatage menmbers) on their debut album, Christmas Eve and Other Stories, the piece describes a lone cello player playing a forgotten Christmas carol in war-torn Sarajevo.

The song is played twice during every live performance - once as part of the Christmas Eve and Other Stories portion of the show and again as a finale. Together with Wizards in Winter and Christmas Canon, it is regarded as TSO's most recognizable recordings. Due to its use of the melody, the song is often misnamed Carol of the Bells. This leads to it being mistakenly linked to either Metallica or Mannheim Steamroller, who have released renditions of both God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Carol of the Bells.

On the ninth day of Christmas . . .

Keep your candy canes and sugar plums ... I got my own Christmas candy. Jon Bon Jovi ... mmmmmmm!

I Wish Every Day Could Be Like Christmas - Bon Jovi

B-side (in the US) to the single Keep The Faith.

On the eighth day of Christmas . . .

A haunting un-Christmas Christmas song. Yeah ... Deck The Halls, this ain't!

I Believe in Father Christmas - Greg Lake

I Believe in Father Christmas is a song by Greg Lake (best known as a member of King Crimson and Emerson Lake and Palmer) and Lake's only kit as a solo artist. While considered a Christmas song, this wasn't Lake's intention; he claims to have written the song in protest at the commercialization of Christmas.

Recorded in 1974 and released in 1975, the song became the #2 Christmas hit on the UK charts. A second recording was done by the full ELP trio, with a more stripped down arrangement, and was included on the 1977 Works Volume II. Recorded a third time in 1993 for the ELP box set The Return of the Manticore, Lake himself revisited it again for the 2002 compilation A Classic Rock Christmas. 

The song's video, shot mainly in the Sinai desert and Qumran in the West Bank, also contained shots of the Vietnam War, leading to complaints from some people that it should not be shown with more lighthearted Christmas songs. The instrumental riff between verses is borrowed from Sergei Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kijé Suite (the Troika portion), written for the 1934 Soviet film, Poruchik Kizhe.

On the seventh day of Christmas . . .

This one is for Julia. My beautiful Julia, my cohort, my navigator, my sounding board, my helper, my shopping buddy, my joy, my worry, my babygirl. She faithfully reads my blog everyday and when I ran my musical choices past her, she lit up at this song and told me it was one of her favorites. Being it's The Eagles, it also one of mine. And Julia? You did me real proud today ... I love you, my poupounette.

Please Come Home For Christmas - The Eagles

Please Come Home For Christmas, sometimes referred to as Bells Will Be Ringing, was released in 1960 and sung by the American blues singer and pianist Charles Brown. Brown wrote the song with Gene Redd, a New York producer who went on to guide the career of Kool and the Gang. Hitting Billboard's Hot 100 chart in December 1961, it peaked at #76. Appearing on the Christmas Singles chart for nine seasons, it hit #1 in 1972. The Eagles covered and released the song as a single in 1978. Their version peaked at #18 on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts and was originally released as a vinyl 7" single; the nineties saw a re-release of a CD-single.

On the sixth day of Christmas . . .

Yeaaaah, a grainy, B&W video from the Boss!


Santa Claus is Coming to Town - Bruce Springsteen


Written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, this song was first sung on Eddie Cantor's radio show in November 1934; the song became an instant hit with orders for 100,000 copies of sheet music the next day and more than 400,000 copies sold by Christmas that year. It has become a traditional standard at Christmas time and has been covered by numerous recording artists. In 1970, Rankin-Bass produced an hour-long animated television special based on the song, with narrator Fred Astaire telling the original story of Santa Claus.


Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band has released two versions of the song, one of which is a popular radio version. Springsteen's live December 12, 1975 performance of the song was first officially released in 1981 and has become one of the most popular versions of this Christmas standard. The track sells pretty well in the USA every November-December and is Springsteen's best selling 1-track download in the USA.


The Crystals' version, from which Springsteen heavily borrows, was originally released on November 22, 1963 on Phil Spector's various artists album, A Christmas Gift For You. Unfortunately, the release date coincided with the assassination of President John F Kennedy and the album did poorly in sales. Original pressing are scarce and collectible, now selling for $400-$500 in excellent condition.

On the fifth day of Christmas . . .

Time for a campy video, everyone!

Step Into Christmas - Elton John

This is yet another great offering from the Elton John/Bernie Taupin team. Recorded during a quickie session in London, it was originally released as a single in 1973, peaking at #23 in the UK. According to the liner notes about the song, it was mixed to sound like one of producer Phil Spector's records, using lots of compression and imitating his trademark 'wall of sound' technique. This was intentional according to both John and Taupin, a homage of sorts to Christmas songs by Spector-produced groups such as The Ronettes.

On the fourth day of Christmas . . .

What list of contemporary Christmas songs would be complete without the inclusion of this classic?

Happy Christmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon

John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent a lot of time in the late 60's and early 70's working to promote peace. In 1969, they put up billboards in major cities around the world that said, 'War is over! (If you want it)'. Two years later, this slogan became the basis for this song when Lennon decided to make a Christmas record with an anti-war message. John and Yoko wrote this in their New York City hotel room and recorded it during the evening of October 28 and into the morning of the 29th, 1971. It was released in the US for Christmas, but didn't chart. The next year, it was released in the UK, where it did much better.

The children's voices are the Harlem Community Choir, who were brought in to sing on this track. They are credited on the single, along with Yoko and The Plastic Ono Band.

At the beginning of the song, two whispers can be heard ... Yoko whispers, 'Happy Christmas, Kyoko' (Kyoko Chan Cox is Yoko's daughter with Anthony Cox) and John whispers, 'Happy Christmas, Julian' (Julian Lennon, John's son with Cynthia Lennon).

On the third day of Christmas . . .

This one is for Julia - because we spent a hilarious day together in Granby, because she made her Didi smile when he was so very sad, because we heard this song while in the car and mostly, because although she laughs at my 'old music', she still knew the words to the song!

Last Christmas - Wham!

Wow. This song generates hype, both good and bad, even after all this time. Written by George Michael (half of Wham!) and released in 1984, it lost out 1st place to Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas? (see my first post in this series of two days back). Since then, it keeps making holiday appearances on various countries' singles charts, often making it into the single digits. This year, it has been voted the most annoying Christmas song in a poll in Bulgaria, beating Mariah Carey's 'All I Want for Christmas is You'. Go figure. Mariah Carey not being voted most annoying anything. Will wonders never cease!

The video to 'Last Christmas' saw George and Andrew Ridgeley accompanying girlfriends to see friends at their home in some unspecified ski resort. The cable-car that can be seen in two shots is from Saas-Fée, Switzerland. It was clear early on that Andrew's girlfriend had previously been in a relationship with George, and it was to her character that the song was aimed.

Due to perceived similarities between 'Last Christmas' and the song 'Can't Smile Without You' as popularized by Barry Manilow, an out-of-court settlement was reached in which the first year's royalties were donated to the one-year-old Band Aid Charity.

On the second day of Christmas . . .

Ok, so I'll admit that I find the video kinda creepy and not at all 
Christmas-y ... but this song ROCKS!

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - U2


As Phil Spector pieced together his A Christmas Gift To You festive album in 1963, his initial intention was to have the Ronettes voice the one custom-written number on display, Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry and Spector’ superlative ”Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”. According to Darlene Love, however, Ronnie Spector was never able to channel all the emotion and strength into the song that her producer (and beau) required, so Love was brought forward instead, to turn in what all the watching musicians expected would become a supercharged powerhouse performance.


They were right, of course, and the Ronettes’ failure did the rest of the world a major favor. Though it would pass unnoticed upon its original release in 1963, Love’s so-heartfelt version of the positively shimmering “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” has since become one of the quintessential festive pop hits, an evergreen that still dominates the radio for a few weeks every year, while Love herself recalls that pianist Leon Russell, too, excelled at that session. He threw one line into the mix that so thrilled Spector that he leaped out of the control room and handed the stunned Russell a check for $100 on the spot.


The song was not widely recognized after its initial release; however, it has since been covered many times by different artists over the years. The first cover was recorded by Quiet Jungle in 1968 for The Story Of Snoopy's Christmas LP. The second and most widely known was recorded by U2 in July 1987 during a sound check at a stop during their Joshua Tree Tour in Glasgow, Scotland. Darlene Love provided backing vocals for U2, and the song was eventually released on the A Very Special Christmas compilation album in 1987, and later on the Unreleased & Rare album on 'The Complete U2' digital box set in 2004. Bruce Springsteen covered the song at many of his Christmas shows in New Jersey, however none of the concerts have officially been released.


The song was also used during the main titles for the film Gremlins. It also appears in a memorable scene in the film GoodFellas, when some of the members of the crew foolishly spend money from the Lufthansa Heist on lavish items, thereby drawing unwanted attention.

On the first day of Christmas . . .

Today marks both my return (yeah, yeah - I've been busy!) and the beginning of the 12 Days of Christmas. As in a previous lifetime and in a previous blog, I've chosen to mark them with my favorite Christmas carols. No, not the Jingle Bells variety (which, incidentally, isn't even a real Christmas carol but more an all-around winter time song), but more like the modern(er) day, less chestnut-y type carols. Yeah ... like the ones they play on CHOM ...


Do They Know It's Christmas? - Band Aid (follow the link for the video ...)


Band Aid was a British and Irish charity supergroup, founded in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia by releasing the record, 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'. The recording studio gave Band Aid no more than 24 free hours to record and mix the record, on November 25, 1984. The following morning, Geldof appeared on the Radio 1 breakfast show to promote the record further and promise that every penny would go to the cause. This led to a stand-off with the British Government, who refused to waive the VAT on the sales of the single. Geldof made the headlines by publicly standing up to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and, sensing the strength of public feeling, the government backed down and donated the tax back to the charity. The record was released on November 29, 1984, and went straight to No. 1 in the UK singles chart, outselling all the other records in the chart put together and surpassing all expectations. It became the fastest- selling single of all time in the UK, selling a million copies in the first week alone. It stayed at No. 1 for five weeks, selling over three million copies and becoming easily the biggest-selling single of all time in the UK, thus beating the nine-year record held by Bohemian Rhapsody. It has since been surpassed by Elton John's 'Candle in the Wind 1997' (his tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales) but it is likely to keep selling in different versions for many years to come. 

Friday . . . finally!

Couple of things ...

1. Fly Air Canada! ... I want THIS guy designing my Hallowe'en costume next year!

2. Lawsuit LOSER! ... People in the states have to get it into their heads that coffee and tea bought in fast food joints and restaurants is served HOT ... and can spill ... and that the two combined with clumsiness do NOT a lawsuit make!

3. Angry French Canadian ... An addition to my list of 'Things You'll Never Catch Me Eating'. (It makes the KFC Double Down seem like diet food!)

4. Poached Partridge ... Yesterday finds Shaun Cassidy impressing everyone on Oprah, while David proves that old age does not guarantee wise decision making.

5. Cheers! ... Dayum, missed the application deadline  :(

6.  Montée Mordecai? ... Finally, a street named after someone I'd actually recognize! ('Who the hell is Georges Baril and why did they name a street after him?!?')

I ponder as I wander . . . *

Ok, so you caught me in a lil white one ... I'm not wandering, but I am pondering. It's a deep ponder. I'm pondering about disillusion. And not the German metal band either (but if you want to, ponder Disillusion here). Mainly because I'm disillusioned. About what, you ask? Ahh, the list is a long one and covers a few categories. If I had to melt it down, I guess I'm disillusioned about people. People who say they will and then don't ... or worse, won't. See through people - one minute, they're full of substance and then the next minute, totally void and transparent. The list goes on, but I won't.

I think I'll go watch some German metal band videos ...

* My nod to Barbra's 'I wonder as I wander' ... only one of the bestest Christmas songs ever when she sings it ...

Webcam | veyrier.ch

Webcam | veyrier.ch     Portrait vidéo | veyrier.ch

I feel like such a voyeur ... !

Cheers!

Red Bull and vodka, a popular concoction among today's youth, is specifically warned against on the side of the can ('Do not mix with alcohol'). Sadly, the teens and 20-somethings guzzling the mixture are either unaware or simply don't care. 


Red Bull is heavily caffeinated and spiked with additional stimulants. When mixed with alcohol, it counters the depressive effects of the alcohol. Simply put, you're just as drunk as someone who ingested the same amount of vodka without the Red Bull. You just don't feel it.


To this equation, add the fact that research shows that 'young brains have ... sections that remain unconnected' and that 'the last section (of the brain) to connect is the frontal lobe, responsible for cognitive processes such as reasoning, planning, judgment.' So-called 'high level reasoning' is not reached until the mid-twenties.


Enter Four Loko, also touted as 'blackout in a can' (nice!). A 24oz can contains as much alcohol as a 6-pack of beer. Again, given the added caffeine, you don't feel the buzz as much and therefore, think you can (or need to) drink more. But drunk is drunk, whether the feeling is there or not. Eventually, you're going to puke your guts out ... or pass out ... or worse. And since you aren't feeling the effects of how intoxicated you really are, you're likely to drink more booze than you would otherwise. Hello? Acute alcohol poisoning! Not feeling the true effects means there will also be those thinking they're still ok to drive!  *sigh*


Someone needs to clue the youth in. Hey! Maybe, I just did!

Do ya like it in the morning or at night?

The debate of this Monday morning ... to blog first thing in the morning or last thing at night? The correct answer, I think, is whenever the mood strikes. My problem with that idea is that it's not always feasible when the mood strikes. Then, and especially with MY failing memory, when I have the time, I'll forgot the awesome thing I was going to blog about earlier!

I'm a morning person and as such, think I'm at my sharpest wittiest
cleverest most coherent then. But I also like to 'digest' subjects so maybe mulling the day over and writing in the evening might be a better bet for me. But if the number of evening shows whose endings I've missed is any indication, my blog might start to look like this ... blah blah blah blah blah blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (me dozing off on the keyboard).

Guess I'll have to think about this one. Feel free to weigh in yourselves ...

Squirrels, squirrels everywhere ... squirrels, squirrels best beware!

Why? Because I have a cat with a taste for squirrels. The season's kill count is up to two, lifetime total of three. This morning finds a squirrel tail on the back balcony. Three possibilities exist - one of the cats brought back the tail from the latest victim or somewhere there's a squirrel running around without a tail or there's been a further fatality. Either way, there's a squirrel tail on my back balcony that I'm going to have to dispose of.


I'm really starting to hate squirrels!

Happy Birthday, my Kevin

October 23, 1989. I spend hours doing what millions of women before and after me have done. I laboured. At 3:50 in the afternoon, he was born. A beautiful child, healthy and pink and looking nothing like the squalling, withered newborns you often see on film.

Fast forward to today. I'm suddenly the mother of an adult man and at a loss to explain where the time went. All I know is that I love him ... and I miss him ...

PS Thank you, Julia, for your support of the idea of this blog and your help in designing it. You are and always will be, my favorite daughter  :)