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Happy Hanukkah/Christmas/Festivus ect!!! There are lots of great Christmas songs out there, but I've never found a full Christmas album that I've actually wanted to own. And, no, it's not because I'm Jewish. Jews can like Christmas songs too! I just didn't want a sappy Christmas album so I downloaded my own CD. And here tis:
1) Christmas Don't be Late – The Chipmunks
2) Little Drummer Boy – David Bowie & Bing Crosby
3) Jingle Bell Rock – Hall & Oates
4) Santa Claus is Coming to Town – Bruce Springsteen
5) Merry Christmas Baby – Bruce Springsteen
6) Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – U2
7) Christmas all Over Again – Tom Petty
8) I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – John Mellencamp
9) Blue Christmas – Elvis Presley
10) Wonderful Christmastime – Paul McCartney & Wings
11) Happy Xmas (War is Over) – John Lennon
12) Do They Know its Christmas? – Band Aid
13) Snow Miser / Heat Miser – Year Without a Santa Claus
14) Merry %$#&@ Christmas – South Park
15) Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer – Elmo & Patsy
16) I Am Santa Claus – Bob Rivers (Black Sabbath "Iron Man" parody)
17) The Hanukkah Song – Adam Sandler
18) Let it Snow – Frank Sinatra
19) Frosty the Snowman – Darlene Love
20) Winter Wonderland – The Ronettes
21) What Child is This – Martina McBride
22) Do You Hear What I Hear – Perry Como
23) Little Drummer Boy – Bob Seger
24) Silent Night – Stevie Nicks
Yeah, the Perry Como one's a little sappy, but it was from the opening credits of Gremlins so it gets a pass.
A few more tunes I would have included if there was more room on the CD:
Father Christmas – The Kinks
Fairy Tale of New York – The Pogues
12 Days of Christmas – Bob & Doug McKenzie
Oh, Holy Night – Sufjan Stevens
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Barenaked Ladies
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Wow, its been awhile since I've blogged. Well, now I have a new computer, so there's no excuse not to. And what have I been doing with this new computer? Downloading music. Bands I'd heard about, but never knew much of their catalogue. Bands like Velvet Underground, Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, Mott the Hoople, Frank Zappa, George Clinton and Love.
I've also found myself a fan of an artist that absolutely no one I know can tolerate - Alice Cooper. I'd only known a few of his hits previously, but his early seventies stuff was a potent combination of Bowie glam and Sabbath metal. I'm particularly enjoying songs off Billion Dollar Babies like "Hello Hooray" and "Generation Landslide." Everyone seems to think he's pretty cheesy, but I don't care.
On another subject, I love this quote from Isaac Asimov about one of my favorite subjects: nostalgia. "To anyone who has lived a life that has not been utterly disatrous, there is an iridescent aura permeating its second decade. Memories of the first decade, extending back to the age of ten, are dim, uncertain and incomplete. Beginning with the third decade, after twenty, life becomes filled with adult responsibility and turns to lead. But that second decade, from ten to twenty, is gold; it is in those years that we remember bliss."
The Chicago International Film Festival started this week. Last year "Brick" was the big standout. Hopefully, I'll have some quality discoveries to report on this year.
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When United 93 was released earlier this year, I was skeptical whether a film about 9/11 would be appropriate. I related to those who wondered if it was being made too soon after that horrible day. As it turned out, United 93 was a masterpiece. Viscerally intense and a fitting tribute, that film is like a time capsule of how we all felt that day. Not a pleasant experience, but an important one.
Cut to last night's screening of Oliver Stones World Trade Center. It's a good film. At some points a very good film, but perhaps it is too soon for this one. The story of police trapped in the rubble of the destroyed building is moving one and their true-life heroism is honored, but many scenes would have been identical if it were an earthquake film.
The most powerful moments are those simply showing the actual media coverage of the day. But Stone relies on the exact kind of melodrama that United 93 gained its power by avoiding. World Trade Center is about the characters in the movie. United 93 is about all of us.
So, yes. Oliver Stone made a good film and did not succumb to any of the excesses that he's known for. Still, when the subject is 9/11, is good good enough? World Trade Center deserves an audience, but I would hate to see this very Hollywood take on the tragedy overshadow the brilliant and definitive United 93.
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