The X-Entertainment Blog

11/18/2007: My Major Award, Part 3!

I’m tipsy and tired. My apologies if that becomes a factor in this entry.

Tonight was the annual Christmas Fair at the church by my childhood home, which I’ve been attending on an annual basis for, God, around twenty years now? Crazy. It’s become a little tradition for my sisters and I. We go, we browse, and we spend a ridiculous amount of money on the two hundred raffles they’ve got going for various holiday gift baskets, donated by families, stores and organizations from all around the city.

If you’re a longtime reader, you’ve heard about this fair, and you’ve heard about the raffles. Three years ago, after spending well over fifty bucks on tickets, I went home with a couple of cocoa mugs and Bill Cosby’s Cosbyology. It wasn’t quite as bad as not winning anything at all, but it was close. Last year, we fared a little better by winning two baskets — one including shoddy art supplies, and another featuring lavender-colored bath salts.

It’s become a running joke. With the amount of tickets I buy, it’s nearly a given that I’ll win something, but it always seems to be the worst thing possible. See, previously, when you entered a raffle, you weren’t vying for any specific basket. They were grouped together, with 7-10 different gift baskets sharing one coffee can full of raffle tickets. You could gun for a television and walk out with a homemade pillow with a Cavalier King Charles stitched into the middle. What, you thought I honestly sought out Cosbyology?

This year, things were different. This year, every basket had its own raffle ticket pail. While this made winning anything of substance more difficult, it at least meant that if I won, it’d be a prize that I actually had some small bit of interest in.

So, we get there, and I immediately buy something in the realm of 60 tickets, which I have to write my name, address and phone number on before I can spend them. My hand still feels like I just got through jacking off everyone in the northern hemisphere. It took over 30 minutes to fill out those stupid tickets, and I left the experience cursing my ancestors for providing me with such a ludicrously long surname.

After that, it was time to peruse the goods. As usual, there were a lot of crap raffles, but a lot of great ones. My eternal favorite? The “six foot stocking.” Since I was a kid, the church had this specific raffle going. They’d tape 20-30 toys to this ancient, gigantic wooden stocking, and if you won, you didn’t get to keep the stocking, but you got all the toys on it. Granted, I don’t have much use for what’s taped to that stocking at my age, but I can’t help but toss at least a few tickets into its corresponding raffle pail every year. I’ve been trying to win this thing since I was three feet tall. Someday, it will happen. Today was not the day, so don’t think I’m building towards any kind of monumental climax.

Aside from the glorious six foot stocking, I was mainly aiming for a Playstation 3, or this one basket that included both a bottle of Kahlua and a bottle of Sambuca, which technically aren’t my favorite liquors to drink, but are certainly my favorite liquors to say. Beyond those prizes were about ten others that seemed interesting enough to blow money on, and when all was said and done, I was confident that I’d spread enough tickets-with-my-name-on-them around to guarantee some sort of major award.

After that, we waited. We waited and waited and waited. They kept yelling “last call” on the raffle tickets, but after they did this eighty times, we figured out that “last call” was just a marketing ploy, and that it’d be some time before they actually got around to naming the winners. Part of me was ticked that I stood around in a hideously hot and crowded church for an extra hour just to come to this conclusion, but on the other hand, they were selling Irish coffees and cappuccinos spiked with Kahlua for 2 bucks a pop. Not sure if it’s even legal for a church to do that, but I wasn’t complaining, and this shit was strong.

So, we left the church and went to dinner at a sushi joint, where more alcohol flowed, along with lots of fish eggs and soup that they swore was miso despite the fact that it was very clearly just onion broth. There were a bunch of us, and since we’d all put in raffle tickets, the table was lined with everyone’s cell phones. First, my sister gets a call. She won a basket. A few minutes later, I get a call. Couldn’t hear too well, so I stepped outside. “You won the six foot stocking.” I gleefully return to the table, only to find my other sister cracking up and championing her ability to pull off a prank call even while sitting right next to me. Bitch. I tried to be a sport, but seriously…you don’t fuck around about the six foot stocking.

By the end of dinner, I’d given up hope. It was a total shock when my phone rang again, and this time, it was a legit call from the church. I’d won a basket, and for the first time in infinity years, I’d won a good basket.

Jackfuckingpot. JACKFUCKINGPOT! See, most of the baskets are pretty small, but there are a select few (around a dozen) that could be considered “big ticket” prizes. The raffle tickets for these particular baskets cost more, but if you win, you win big. And I won pretty big!

The main prize was a 7″ NextPlay portable DVD player, which retails for around a hundred bucks. It’s pretty, and blue, and for some reason, it comes with two different remote controls. The DVD player alone was more than enough to make this my most successful Christmas Fair adventure in history, but there was even more fun stuff under the cellophane. Also included were three DVDs — A Christmas Story, Elf and Shrek 3. I already have Ralphie and I don’t really want Shrek, but let’s not discount the regifting potential. Hidden even deeper in the basket was a $40 Blockbuster gift card, which provides me a reason to go to our local Blockbuster for the first time in over a decade. And to top it all off, there was some weirdass baby Shrek plushie! The showstopper!

I’m so stoked. I mean, sure, my life isn’t going to change just because I’ve won a portable DVD player that I don’t have much use for, but after a lifetime spent pouring money into this church fair and getting nothing back but Cosbyology and maybe a free cupcake with red and green sprinkles, this is damn near cathartic. I haven’t beaten the system, but it hasn’t beaten me.

And best of all, after we returned home with the goods, my girlfriend got a call — she won a basket, too!

Her crate full of pine nuts and anchovies can’t hold a candle to my DVD player, but a bonus win is a bonus win, and we’ll happily take it.

I have to admit, I’ve still got my phone sitting next to me, just in case there’s a miraculous third win. True, it’s after midnight and totally out of the question, but I’ve got the fever. Maybe they’ll call tomorrow? I really wanted that Kahlua/Sambuca basket. Kahlua…Sambuca. Kahlua…Sambuca. So much fun to say!

Posted by Matt. E-mail me!

Oh my god i think i just shit my pants in excitement over the first post….this is the first time for me. woot woot. anywho, i guess i really need to take a shower, then perhaps come back and actually READ the post before bed.

So how much do 60 tickets go for, i.e. did you come out ahead or spend as much as it wouldve cost to just buy the dvd player and shrek thing? Still an awesome win, though.

Ahaha Cosbyology is STILL hilarious. Congrats on winning an actual prize this time, instead of a basket full of stuff that didn’t sell at the garage sale

Awhile ago, Bill asked for Thanksgiving recipes…I actually wrote up a little something, maybe if somebody’s still looking for ideas it could come in handy: The Ultimate Guide to Green Bean Casserole
Happy SNT everybody!

They sell different tickets for different sections, and each costs a different amount. Some are under a dollar, while others, like for the group that included the DVD player, went for more than a dollar. I didn’t buy too many of those, though. All told, I got back more than I put in. Maybe not by much, but as someone who will transform a night in Atlantic City into a seven night stay at a private island, money-wise, even breaking close to even rocks.

Oh and thanks Squee! I will be using that one this year. Let you know how it goes. I’m in charge of two dishes.

Leigha: You met Alton Brown!?!? That’s awesome. He seems like a cool person to meet.

Was waiterbot your server at the sushi joint? I love it. Also, i like that your gift card says that it is scratch and sniff. But still, those pepperoncinis looks tasty.

Yeah, i met him, he is awesome. he was really nice. i kept giggling like a school girl, and he asked me why i was giggling so much, and i said it was because i was nervous. i was so scared that i was going to be like ralphie and when i got up to alton all i would be able to think of is “football” luckily i didnt get kicked down the slide. i did end up asking him which he liked better, the science or the food, and he paused for about 45 seconds and ended up stuttering out the answer that he couldnt decide. it was awesome. i stumped the master.

Hmm, I just noticed the time change hasn’t went into effect here. That…or this entry is from the future. Now that I think about it, I hope it’s the latter.

If only church was always like that, I’d be one devout motherfucker. So what do you get when you mix sambuca and kahlua? sambula or kahluca? Hmmmm… I like sambula.That could be a new pretend word “My sambula wasn’t cooperating last night”. Also, I spent all day driving a trolley and playing X-Mas muzak. For those of you stuck in Department stores and other places where 10 hours of this stuff is a daily routine, what’s your favorite and most hated X-Mas song? Best would be anything from Phil Spector’s Christmas album with the Ronettes. Also “Feliz Navidad”. Worst would be Bing Crosby(?)’s version of “Silver Bells” So slow, so boring. There’s a ton more i hate than like though. “Have yourself a Merry Little X-Mas” (though thanks to waiterbot, “Make the yuletide gay” is now the highlight of my day), “Jingle Bells” is horrendous, “Here Comes Santa Claus”, I could go on, but I’m rambling.

for those of you who have access to MTV2 and are in the eastern part of the US, the nirvana unplugged is on. i feel like i am an angsty teen again…but then again, i am now merely a cynical twenty-two year old

My absolute favorite christmas song that they play on the muzak station at officemax is a song called “christmas wrapping” by the waitresses. i just had to google it, and i found out that it was by the waitresses, who are from my hometown of Akron, Ohio much like lebron james and devo. for realz, i am so excited to hear this song on constant rotation now.

CONGRATS on the big win! Woo! Elf on DVD would make that more than worth it to me!

And thanks to Knacks for the “happy birthday” on my myspace yesterday! I turned 21. But I don’t drink. So I did shots of Purplesaurus Rex kool aid (okay, I cheated and mixed Grape and Lemonade) out of a Nightmare Before Christmas shotglass that I bought at Disney world.

After reading the post, I have two things to say. One is that once I finally get around to going and picking up Shrek 3, I’ll be able to feel just a bit closer to Matt by having all three of those DVD’s. The other is…a church selling alcohol? Maybe it’s just because I pretty much live int he buckle of the Bible Belt but…something about that just doesn’t seem right.

Congratulations, Matt. This must be a prime day for church bazaars. I went to one, too, but I wasn’t there for very long and I didn’t do the raffles. I also didn’t find any good used 80s kids books like last year - it was all hand-made bead necklaces and craft stuff. Nice enough, but not the most exciting booths, especially when you have friends and relatives who can make half that stuff themselves, and better.

Leigha: Dear God, totally forgot about that song. Did the Waitresses ever do a song that wasn’t in that sort of detached monotone/hip-hop style? That’s one they played a lot in Europe during Christmas season. That, George Michael’s ‘Last Christmas” McCartney’s “Simply Having a terrible synthesizer”, and U2’s cover of whatever that one song was. Their X-mas music is a million times cheesier than ours.

to be honest, i think that all of their songs were kind of detatched. i am obsessed with them though especially since they are from my hometown. chrissy hynde from the pretenders went to my high school too, and my mom went to high school with most of devo. so i guess i was destined to LOVE new wave. i have an entire wall covered with 80’s albums mostly for the album art. the waitresses album is up there, and debbie harry, i also have a few hall and oates albums hanging because i have an inside joke with my fiancee about how i love them. i told the tattoo artist when i got my last tattoo done that i was going to get a backpiece done and it was going to be the faces of both hall and oates with the lyrics of “private eyes” including the handclaps. it would be pretty fucking awesome if i got that done for real though, although i would rather not waste my money on a tattoo like that only to later regret it.

PS- no matter how horrible the mccarthy song is, i still fucking love it, and i dont consider it to be the genuine holiday season until i hear the song and then afterwards hear one of my co-workers say how much they hate that song.

Good job Matt! Did you ever read Cosbyology or did you get rid of it? Or is it sitting in the darkest corner of your bookshelf, unread, but unable to be thrown out? I would do something like that

Picked up a 2-on-1 DVD at Best Buy, the first two Nat’l Lampoons Vacation movies, Original and European flavor, for $9! Score! Also scored with The Garbage Pail Kids for $9! Hellz yeah! Was looking for Cheech & Chong’s Nice Dreams, but no dice.

Booyah, the play I was doing lights for finished up tonight! Still have to strike the set tmrw, but oh well, not until afternoon! Any other theatre people on here?

I too am a Buckle o’ the Bible Belt resident, and if that was even remotely suggested at the church I went to growing up, the person suggesting it would probably be sat down and prayed for right then and there whether they wanted to or not. Man, if we got liquored up at church functions, I’d be getting up early to go to church! Congrats on the win. Sounds like you got a pretty good haul there. The Best Buy gift card alone almost broke you even. Let’s just hope potential reciepients of your re-gifting ways aren’t devout readers of the site.

I had a pretty good today all things considered. It involved my cousin coming to town and us seeing Saw IV this morning and then going to a groovy comic book sale at the local comic book store I used to work at.

After that I went to work and had a looong night at work. We just picked up 4 new accounts so it’s been pretty crazy. I’m surprised I’m even sitting in front of a computer right now cause I feel like my eyes are going to fall out of my skull if I have to look at another screen. I just hope all the graphics I did today look alright tomorrow.

So, the other day I was reading the infamous “I don’t want to think about chicken when I’m eating Doritos” post. After reading all the hilarious results of Matt’s challenge to work the phrase into conversation, I thought to myself that since I wasn’t an X-E reader when that particular challenge was presented, I would resurrect the challenge just for myself and give it a shot tonight at work. The results are as follows:

ME: Yeah, well I really don’t want to think about chicken when I’m eating Doritos.

After he stood there looking at me like I was some kind of idiot, I told him what it was all about and we spent the next 10 minutes reading that post and cracking up at the responses. I’ve been slowly indotrinating him into the X-E fold and I think before long we’ll have a new follower.

Matt! I’m tipsy and tired too. That sounds like fun, though…my roommate thinks it’s blasphemy that I haven’t seen Elf yet. And I wish my church was cool enough to have alcohol at functions. All we have is grits and biscuits.

And DJ D, sorry, but South Carolina isn’t the buckle of the Bible Belt…Nashville is. That’s where both the SBC and Cokesbury headquarters are. Not to mention the GMAs and Dove awards.

Vanilla Fire Yeah, I think you might have me there. I’ll settle for being one of the notches. A big, depressing, Confederate notch.

As much as I enjoy the Pretenders, the Smiths, and Devo, they don’t hold a candle to Hall and Oates. Those guys are in another stratosphere. ABBA too. It’s a shame history seems to lump those two in the “lame” category of rock, when they made catchier, better music than the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, and The Clash.

And for bad Christmas music…Billy Gilman is always th top of my list…not only has his voice not cracked yet, but he has that beautiful, obnoxious country twang. Instant classic.

As far as Christmas music goes, I’ve always been partial to “Oh Holy Night” (sung with a good, lofty chorus, not solo), and pretty much anything Bing Crosby did, especially “Little Drummer Boy” with David Bowie. That was great. I’ve always hated “Faliz Navidad.” I’m sorry, that song’s just obnoxious, and the only thing more obnoxious is people around me singing it.

BenS I don’t know, comparing Hall and Oats to The Clash is just about as apples and oranges as you can get. I think both were genius, but for completely different reasons and on completely different levels. They were shooting for different audiences and were relevent for totally different reasons, but as far as sheer talent I think they were about equal. I’m a fan of both.

Oh great, I spent half the night F5ing the last blog and when I stopped seeing responses, I thought “Matt must’ve posted something.” And you did. You posted hard. VERY awesome.

This whole Church Fair thing takes me back to a childhood Christmas tradition, where my family went to the high school out east on LI of the son of my mom’s friend for their annual Christmas Party.

First of all, it was this nice, fancy school out in the Northeast or so part of LI.

Second, it was a school for the deaf. Yes, the kid was deaf, but he was a good 5 or so years older than I was, and I idolized him. He was the one that got me on the track of gaming and being an all-out Nintendo Fanboy. He got every system before I did (even the N64). All the best games I ever played I played at his house first. He even had every Nintendo Power starting from the first issue til the last time I saw him a good number of years ago.

Before I digress, this annual Christmas party had all the traditional Christmas Party Faire, food, games, Kid’s entertainment (I remember one year there was merry-go-round-esque ride, a magician/clown, as well as a TV playing Christmas specials!), and of course, the Raffle (Chinese Auction as its commonly called). As Matt always said here, the prizes ranged from the crappy, to the awesome.

I always tried to get the awesome, but always came out short. I remember the year I did win was the year Beanie Babies were popular, and I won 2 of them. Little did I know that this started the Beanie Baby craze in my world, which I shamefully admit to being a part of to this day. If I ever do sell my collection, which is on the verge of nigh-worthlessness, those 2 I won will never leave.

I think I like Feliz Navidad because it doesn’t sound anything like a Christmas song and is a nice respite. But yeah, I like the Clash too, I just don’t like how bands like Electric Light Orchestra or Fleetwood Mac get tossed aside because they were popular and therefore weren’t making “real” music whereas The Clash, Talking Heads, etc are elevated to God status because they weren’t embraced by a mass audience. Doesn’t mean I still don’t love the Talking Heads though.

Congratulations! Both of those prizes look pretty useful. Granted, pine nuts and anchovies aren’t exactly my thing, but they’re better than the crap prizes. Earlier this year my best friend and I entered a raffle for some big fancy serving plate, but she won. I’ll admit, I was a bit disappointed. I have no use for such a plate, but it was really awesome.

BenS- “Simply having a terrible synthesizer?” I’ll admit I do love the song for whatever reason, but I’m not sure which I love more: the song itself or how you just referred to it! So hilarious and also quite fitting!

Those guys are in another stratosphere. ABBA too. It’s a shame history seems to lump those two in the “lame” category of rock, when they made catchier, better music than the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, and The Clash.

As much as I also like New Wave (hell, this is what mostly plays on the CVS Muzak, INCLUDING “Private Eyes”), and that I agree that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, saying that they’re better than The Ramones, Sex Pistols, and Clash?

As for Xmas Muzak, my CVS hasn’t started yet (gasp!), but I want to kill people now for all the Xmases I worked at KB toys, where I had to endure kiddie Christmas songs from mid october to the end of January.

My favorites on the KB Xmas Muzak were either the obiquitous “Chipmunk Song,” basically any song from a Rankin-Bass Special, a song titled “Howdy Doody Christmas” (it played as the theme song for that godawful remake of “The Year Without A Santa Claus” last year, minus the Howdy Doody parts) or a version of “Winter Wonderland” that was sung by a little girl. It just seemed to evoke something so calm and serene. It’s one of the reasons why watching snow fall seems to calm me down, it just seems peaceful.

My least favorite? Take any classic Xmas song and Kidz Bop em, and that’s what played. Also, any version of “All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)” I hate that song with every fiber of my being, especially the version sung by Theodore of Alvin & The Chipmunks.

I’m starting to get into this Christmas swing of things. If only I had money to partake of the shopping part of it. Oh well. Money will come.

Yeah I spent most of my Saturday sleeping in, watching Bravo, and then going out to a big club in Reading where I danced for hours in 2″ heeled boots. There was a live band there so I danced on the floor for a while, then on one of those upper platform things then in one of the cages then back on the floor and then on stage with the band. My feet hurt sooo bad and my ears are still ringing.

For real Christmas music, I prefer the religious stuff (”O Holy Night,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” “Hark the Herald,” etc.). I fully admit that this is probably due to being raised in the Bible Belt, but the more commercial stuff just doesn’t give me that magical, Christmas feel.

Man, I know a lot of people who hate that McCartney song, but I love it. Granted, there aren’t many Christmas songs I don’t like, but that’s one of my favorites. Makes me think of fancy wine and red tablecloths for some reason.

If I had to pick an all-time favorite, it’d be like telling one of my nonexistent children that I like him/her more than the others. But if pressed, I’d probably go with the Waitresses’ song, which I like as much now as I secretly did in grade school.

Damnit, still no pom 7-up. Or peppermint peeps, only the regular flavored Christmasy shaped ones. I did see the gingerbread pop tarts, but I’m not much of a pop tart eater, so I passed.

I like Sleigh Ride… And having heard a cross between Sleigh Ride and music from Mario games, performed by a jazz group that does covers of music from video games (The OneUps, check them out!), I can say that that is my favorite Christmas song.

Next would have to be Angels We Have Heard on High. It’s fun to sing (especially in Latin), even for tone-deaf people like me.

Congrats on the DVD basket! As much as it shames me to say it, I was hoping secretly, deep down, that you would have gotten one of those giant snow globes. They’re awesome.

Hello, everyone! Digging the Christmas jukebox! Tonight I got a great deal on some used gamecube games at the local Hollywood Video. I’m going to find Phil Specter’s Christmas album on CD, since they don’t seem to sell it on iTunes. I tend to prefer “oldies” artists and songs for Christmas music, since that’s what I was raised on. I also found Sierra Mist cranberry soda at the store. I might try it, although when it comes to red soda my favorite is Mountain Dew Code Red.

For some reason I’ve never cared for that Waitresses song. I can’t explain why, it just doesn’t appeal to me. I also hate the McCartney one, but I’m not generally a fan of any of his solo stuff anyway. Give me John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas” any day.

I LOVE new wave music so much, though. As soon as I saw those words in this thread I got all giddy. I’ve been addicted to Singstar 80s the past few days and my throat is pretty pissed off at me right now.

I spent an hour or so at my mom’s house earlier and they received a Hickory Farms catalog in the mail. My mom tossed it to me and told me to circle whatever I want. Without even realizing it, I was laying down in the floor flipping back and forth through pages trying to decide on just the right one. When I found it, I did as my mom asked and circled it. I really, really enjoyed it.

Carol of the Bells gets at least one of my votes for favorite, especially instrumental when it’s all deep and sounds like it should be the soundtrack to something urgent and important that’s happening. It’s always seemed dark and kind of spooky to me. Apparently I find those to be desirable qualities in a christmas song.

Also, I can almost watch Jack Frost (the Rankin/Bass one) without feeling like I’m jumping the gun. I am very excited about this.

jazzy–I love Lennon’s Happy Xmas (War is Over)…though the Jimmy Buffet version kind of kills my soul.

nork–Thanks for the Josh Groban video. It was probably the second-best version I’ve heard (after, of course, singing it at church, lit only by candles…nothing can really match that.) My roommate loved it, too.

Hey guys, guess what? I just found a crapload of Hickory Farms products! This is monumental because I live in Canada, and have never seen them before. They were selling them at this kiosk in the mall, and I pointed at them excitedly and practically shouted at my mother and sister, “Look!!! It’s that Hickory Farms stuff I was telling you about! Y’know, the one with the ‘Giant Summer Sausage’!” Sometimes I feel bad for my family for the embarassment that I cause…

Ooh, and I’m completely done all my Christmas shopping! Granted, I don’t have many people to shop for, but it still feels good. Especially since I am now pretty much out of money and am relying on whatever cash I get for Christmas to pay for the rest of my school fees.

By the way, it was great to see some craft fair stuff, Matt.

Me and my family have been hitting them hard this weekend and last, visiting just about every fair in lower Vancouver Island. Would you believe there are about fifteen fairs going on at any given weekend? But it REALLY gets me in the mood for Christmas. Almost as much as A Christmas Story, but then again we watch that every single Christmas Eve. “HO, ho, ho!” Fuck, I love that movie.

Neat baskets! I like the container (basket?) that your gf’s stuff came in. I think I would be really good at arranging gift baskets for a living. There are people that are hired by celebrities to arrange gifts that the celebrity gives their relative or another celebrity. I think I would be great at that.

So anyway do you want me to email my address to you now Matt so you can send me your basket? lol I own your soul until you give me something of material value HA! I love it! I crack myself up.

I think I might whip out a video before I go to bed I am not sure. My favorite Christmas song? This year it’s I got a boner for Christmas by Nerf Herder.

Invader Norbert My Granddad growing up around Christmas time would ask me what I want for Christmas and I would say I don’t know or something like that and he would say I know what you want your two front teeth and then he would sing that song. I didn’t hear someone else sing it until just a couple of years ago. He also sings sometimes nobody loves me everyone hates me I will just go outside and eat a can of worms.

And sometimes I walk past him and he sings there goes Sam sweeping the floor and smoking a pack of cigarettes. LOL sometimes he insists I call him Sue and he calls me Sam from the classic song by Johnny cash called a boy named Sue I am assuming. My Granddad has his moments :) If someone calls me Sam and calls him Sue it’s awkward and wrong btw.

I love The Waitresses Christmas song to this very day, always have, always will. There’s something so “We’re 20somethings trying to figure this whole adult thing out” vibe that is missing in most family-centered Christmas tunes.

Belle and Sebastian did Christmas tunes, as well, including covers of Charlie Brown Christmas. Also awesome. So is the Home Alone soundtrack.

I forgot. I was saving this for SNT. This is the original Mickey’s Christmas Carol.

It has The Christmas Carol on it with Scrooge saying bah humbug and Mickey being innocent and kind with the ghosts of christmas past present and future. The quality kind of sucks but it’s better then nothing right? I recommend downloading it from the site and not watching it on the page (it crashes for me quite frequently when I download off of them) I think it’s way better then nothing I haven’t seen this in years. I remember they used to play towards the end a preview for the Disney movie coming out that holiday season.

Another reason why I LOVE joox. But I don’t know how long that will stay on there so hurry on over.

I remember my other Grandma (my Grandma from my Dad’s side) took us a few years on New years eve to the latest Disney movie in the movie theater. That moved them up a peg because they barely let us watch tv (and they had cable tv!! We didn’t have cable tv at home so it was like salt in our wounds) and overall it was very boring at their house. We brought tons of coloring books and finished them a lot quicker then if they were at home.

Random last note until next time, today at GW I saw two sleeping bags one had the original teenage mutant ninja turtles on it (with all 4 of them) and little mermaid. I would of got one (even though I would have no use for them they were kid sized) but they were faded. Oh well I’ll get a TMNT fleece blanket or something like that sometime and it will be worth the wait.

Congrats on the big win. You were overdue..
Go ahead and put me in that “I still can’t get over the alcohol at church” category. Never would happen down here.

I guess it’s about that time to send Knacks and Co. friend requests. Not sure if I want to expose myself

like that but I don’t want to get any further behind. Better late than blah blah??

I really, really hate the Hippo song, the Two Front Teeth song, and “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” I also hate “Up on the Housetop” for some reason. I’m not sure if I could ever pick a true favorite, but for the sake of the thread, I’m in love with Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s version of Carol of the Bells.

Vanilla Fire and Jeff Mack: Yeah, I’d have to say that one of the best version of “Oh Holy Night” I’ve heard was in Home Alone. That’s what made me decide that that was my favorite Christmas carol. Nothing beats that song with a nice chorus and candles and all that jazz. It also has that kind of spooky vibe that clumsyonice was talking about….definitely a desireable quality in a Christmas song.

Deja vu, I’ve got Thanksgiving to go to in a few hours and I have no idea what to write down for a want list for a Christmas gift exchange.

I too enjoy boozing it up everyday even at church. After I drink my entire flask while at church I enjoy heading out to a restaurant and continuing to “get my drink on” so to speak. I think it’s awesome especially considering that I’m pushing 30 to talk about drinking like I’m some kind of an alcoholic. All my friends say, hey Wiggle, why don’t you shut the fuck up about the booze and head to the Betty Ford Clinic or something bro and then I say FUCK YOU!!! are you my friends or my mother you mother bitches. Then I take out a pack of cigarettes and smoke them all one after the other and blow the smoke into my so called friends faces in an effort to make them pay for asking me to quit talking about boozing it up. Bahahahahahahahhahahahaahahahahhaahahah I am tipsy too like a mothergrabber, whoa yeah woo hoo, son of a gun, light gun, stun gun, mamba jamba. Drink it up drink it up this site is about drinking get a sponsor like Jack Daniels or something, whoomp voila , whoomp voila - that’s french yo. PARTY TIME ITALIAN STYLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - WATCH STRIPES BITCHES - THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOG .. . …… … . .. . . SIR!!!!!

Too early for Christmas music but I will chime in and say I’m a Mannheim Steamroller guy. Hard to nail down a favorite but if I had to pick I would say the two part “God rest ye merry, Gentlemen” that is on their first Christmas album. They’ve got a new one out this year that I haven’t gotten yet that’s gotten mixed reviews.

And I’m showing my inner geek here as a railroad nut, but I also love a recording I have made by O. Winston Link of a freight train from the N&W railroad on Christmas Eve. If you listen very closely, you can hear the carillon bells of a small rural church playing “Silent Night” in the background throughout the whole track. It’s very calm and soothing, and somewhat sad.

Everybody’s gonna hate me for saying this, but I like Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You”. Other than that, I really like the common classics like “Silver Bells”, “Let it Snow” (probably my favourite), “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing”, “The Night Santa Went Crazy”, and “Carol of the Bells”. Wait, one of those doesn’t fit does it? Lol.

Oh Boy, The Last Starfighter is on SciFi! When you are channel surfing on Sunday morning to find this I believe it is a sign that there will be a plentiful harvest so something.

My favorite song has to be Little Drummer Boy, for obvious reasons. Last year I got to rock that song at church, and even had a little drum solo in the middle. It was awesome!
I used to LOATHE the McCartney song, but now I don’t mind it. I must be getting old or something.

I’ve got to be one of the few people I know that actually likes Christmas music (or even Christmas itself for that matter), but the worst Christmas song ever has got to be Bruce Springsteen’s rendition of “Santa Claus is coming to Town.”

You know the one I’m talking about. The one where he sounds like he’s completely trashed and starts cracking up towards the end. And that ridiculous deep voiced BETTA BE GOOD FOR GOODNESS SAAAAKE refrain.

Also anyone ever heard that Christmas song about the kid trying to buy shoes for his dying mother? I think they even made an equally depressing TV movie based on it.

Awesome entry. Congrats on the win. I’d be stoked too if i won that. You may now be somewhat close to breaking even with all the money you’ve given them.

I like the Paul McCartney song despite it’s crappiness. C’mon, McCartney is probably the world’s most celebrated cheese artist (and yes, that I am included some of his work with the Beatles). There is a place for cheese/crap and Christmas is definitely one of those times.
I have also found it good “clean the house” music which is wht I am doing right now. *yawn*

I went to a church bazaar not to long ago. Mainly because my great-grandma wanted some various food items like jellies and various nuts. I picked up a mini pumpkin pie and banana bread. They also had various crafts and blankets made by various people. No raffles, though.

Anyway, I think it depends on whose singing the songs. I love the California Raisins version of “Rudolph” and South Park’s version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”

As a general rule I like most Christmas music a lot, as long as it’s fairly traditional, classic, or even funny. What I can’t stand is modern, mediocre country versions of classic songs–the kind of crap they pump into Wal Mart every year. As for the Paul McCartney deal, I’ve always dug it. Say what you will about him, but he can write a darn good pop (and even Christmas) song.

DrummerJay, SNT=Saturday Night Thread. We usually have one every Sat. night. Usually it consists of Matt posting a topic specifically to be discussed, but in absence of that, whatever thread happens to be the most recent by default sort of becomes the SNT.

What is this McCartney song that everyone keeps talking about? I have the Ringo Starr Christmas album, but I feel like I’m missing out here.

And as for my least favorite Christmas music…the Alvin and the Chipmunks album that my mother insists on playing while we drive to her family’s on Christmas Eve.

@Cameron T.: I love Manheim Steamroller. I just got the new CD today, and I’m listening to it right now. So far it seems good, no song’s hooked me yet, but it’s better then the mostly average stuff on Extraodinare.

Vanilla Fire: The song is “Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time”, although somehow I doubt it would seem as cheesy to someone who owns the Ringo album

My favorite Christmas songs are all the Charlie Brown songs, lots of the religious ones (especially “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”) and anything by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I think one of my favorite things about the cold weather coming along is getting to bust out the TSO. I saw them live last year, and they’re AMAZING live. They have everything, lasers, fire, screaming guitar solos, hot women playing violin… it’s spectacular. And somehow in the middle of all that they manage to be heartwarming too. What’s funny is there were a lot of old ladies there all dressed up thinking they were going to see a regular orchestra. Before they started, this kid behind me complained he couldn’t see and his mom was like “Well you don’t look at an orchestra honey, you just listen”. I bet that kid was pissed at his mom when they busted out the special effects.

Congrats Matt! It’s always awesome to win something you weren’t really expecting.

For Christmas music - I’ve always been kind of a traditionalist with Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Sinatra and Elvis handling most of the musical chores. Of course, I’ll mix in some Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Twisted Sister’s Twisted Christmas for good measure. If you ever have the chance, see TSO in concert, you won’t be disappointed. This will be the first time in like five years I don’t go to see them live but they decided they weren’t coming to my area until frickin’ January. Tis the suck….

Congrats Matt! Glad you scored some great swag this year; I don’t think anyone deserves it as much as you do!

The one thing I love about your church raffle stories is that with each progressive year, you describe the filling in of the raffle tickets with more and more intense images…

We start off slow and gentle:
2004 - “Large prizes were raffled off singularly, and no, I didn’t win any of those despite having more tickets in those jars with my name on them that the total sum of tickets without my name on them…you write your name on phone number on each ticket you enter.”

Then, after carrying the pain of Cosbyology in your soul for two years, you return with:

2006 - “but writing my name and phone number on the back of each proved a long and arduous enough journey to give my writin’ hand a cramp so hardcore that I think it may warrant a hospital stay come tomorrow.”

And after a year of bliss with generic art supplies and candles, you go for the throat with:

2007 - “I immediately buy something in the realm of 60 tickets … My hand still feels like I just got through jacking off everyone in the northern hemisphere. It took over 30 minutes to fill out”

Finally something good! Although I admit, I kind of got a kick out of the awful stuff you guys always got saddled with…I envy you that DVD player, I have to say. I’ve wanted one for ages, but can’t justify spending $100+ bucks on something my TV can already do.

Jazzy–I just watched the video on youtube. It about equals Ringo for sheer cheese. The synthesizers, or whatever that background music was, were not a good idea when I’m slightly hungover and a little loopy from cold medicine.

Oh, and I just remembered…favorite non-religious Christmas songs: White Christmas (Otis Redding), Blue Christmas (Elvis, and only Elvis), and Little Saint Nick (don’t judge me).

Congratulations on the nice winnings this year, Matt!! You can never go wrong with DVDs and toys in my opinion.

Vanilla Fire, I’m from Upper East Tennessee. We aren’t just the buckle of the belt…we’re that all important part of the buckle that goes through the notch and holds it all together.

I guess I’m in the minority here of actually liking the Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas songs. They seem to be getting a pretty solid bashing lately. Could this just be misplaced (albeit warranted) anger over the movie? Back in the day my family used to have a tradition of listening to this old “45 that has several of the Chipmunks songs on it when we were opening presents at my aunt’s house. I don’t remember exactly when that tradition died, but I think I’m going to try to get it going again this year if they’re up for it.

Mystie, Snow? Seriously? It’s like 78 here today…in frickin’ mid-November. That’s it. You’re dead to me.

DrummerJay, No problem. Although, that doesn’t sound that bad. Maybe sometime between now and Turkey Day we can get that worked in there somehow. I doubt it, but it’s fun to pretend.

Who all here has XM radio? I love that this is almost here. On Thanksgiving day, channels 103-107 (I may be off by the numbers, but I’m close) play nothing but Christmas music until around New Years.

Oklahomans, within range, can also tune their FM radios to 104.1 for non-stop Christmas music until around New Years day, as well.

Once Thanksgiving hits, my mp3s and cds do nothing but collect dust as I will listen to nothing else for an entire month.

BenS: Well said! I love new wave and punk, but that doesn’t mean I can’t rock out to some ABBA now and then. My parents raised me on them and Fleetwood Mac and Styx. I love them just as much as The Clash and Sex Pistols.

Favorite Christmas Songs? Just about anything off of the first three Mannheim Steamroller Christmas albums. Their last three, notsomuch (except for a gem or two here and there). I also love “I Want An Alien for Christmas” by Fountains of Wayne (thanks to Matt and Tummi) and almost everything off of an album I got at Target several years ago called Yule B Swingin which is all original 40’s swing. My favorite from that is “(Everybody’s Waitin’ For) The Man With the Bag” by Kay Starr. I sing that in the shower on a regular basis.

Everybody: Target has a fun little game you can play to get ready for Black Friday shopping! Check it out here!

By the way, I’d like to add that, had I won that basket, I would have had a huge moral dilemma… I refuse to own A Christmas Story because there is something magical about watching the marathon of it. Granted, that means that when I’ve got the bug to watch it in November (like last week) I have to wait another month and a half to see it…

Ragnarok–I still maintain that Nashville is the actual Buckle (but, then, I guess everyone thinks that their hometown is…I heard people from Tulsa claim to be the Buckle once. I mean, really?) East TN is pretty close, though…and speaking purely geographically, if Nashville is the buckle, then East TN would be close enough to be the little extend-y bit that goes through the notches.

Special K: No doubt, the marathon is a must-see and no DVD can break that tradition. To tell you the truth, I’ve owned the DVD for years, but barely ever watch it because it just doesn’t feel right when it ain’t on TV. Plus, it’s like the only movie in the universe that doesn’t need to be trimmed for content.

I gotta say Matt…you did me proud with your auction win. I used to frequent church auctions chinese auctions myself til i got married and had rent and utilities to pay and shit. My biggest haul I think was um…me and my mom won like a few hundred dollars worth of gourmet italian stuff from some fancy deli, My own personal haul though was one year I went to a Chinese auction that was strictly toys. I got a tickle me cookie monster and Bigbird…and Men in Black on VHS(which had JUST come out at the time)As for strange wins…my grandma won a gift certificate for a free parakeet when i was 8. Soooooo awesome! Friggin thing lived for like 5 years

My fave christmas songs are Have yourself a merry little christmas by Karen Carpenter, Mariah Carey’s All I want for Christmas, Elton John Step into Christmas and he did another one with john lennon in the back ground called Who wants to be a turkey at christmas…its very obscure but i beleive its floating around the net somewhere.

And speaking of John Lennon…Happy Christmas war is Over, it got TOTALLY ripped of in 1978 by Jmamica board of Tourism… Theres this commericial on youtube… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvbRd8bHSaw

Matt: It’s kind of like owning the Charlie Brown holiday specials on DVD (I do have all of them, but only because I work nights and am never home to catch them on TV). Besides that, if I owned A Christmas Story on DVD I couldn’t torture my parents with the marathon (they hate it) by saying, “This is the only day of the year I get to watch it! I don’t own the DVD!” You’d think that would encourage them to buy it for me, but it doesn’t, which I’m just fine with.

Back when we had cable, I used to watch the “A Christmas Story” marathon. My mom bought the DVD a few years ago, so now it’s tradition to watch it the weekend after Thanksgiving to get us the Christmas spirit.

Oooh, ooh! I almost forgot today is Sunday! That means Black Friday ads!! YES!! And Wednesday starts ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas, though I don’t know how much of a Christmas movie Meet the Parents is.

Vanilla Fire and Ragnarock, So does that make SC like the 3rd notch down or something?

I know Mystie, it was like the kick off to the 13 days of Halloween that started with ET. It seemed like a stretch just because they needed get their money out of something they bought the rights to.

I don’t watch A Christmas Story until Christmas Eve. That is my tradition, and it will never change. There’s nothing better then coming back from my Church’s Christmas Eve service, making some hot chocolate and pouring a glass of eggnog, while slouching on the couch by the Tree while watching a Christmas Story. Wow, that has to be a confusing run on sentence.

Matt Congrats to you and your girl for the awesome baskets. I dunno, I think her basket looks pretty darn good, even without the electronic stuff you won!

DJ D–If you need that sort of validation, then, yeah, SC can be the third notch. (And on an unrelated note, I finally saw the 1st Batman movie…I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it was actually a good movie, unlike the so-bad-it’s-good charm of Batman Forever and Batman! The Movie.)

Apparently, I glossed over the second basket. I don’t think I eat a single thing in there

Another day of trolleying down the Magnificent Mile with X-Mas music. I heard a song I’ve never heard before today, It was short, sung by Santa and went like “Jingle Jangle jingle, hear those sleigh bells ring, I am old Kris Kringle, I’m the king of jing-a-ling!” I was cracking up at that one, what a poorly worded song. People were saying it’s too early for Christmas music, but it’s cold, the lights are up, might as well feel festive with the music. We’re all gonna be sick of the holiday by afternoon of the 25th, so I’m gonna listen to the music and enjoy it before it drives me crazy.

Anyone else love to watch Emmet Otters Jug Band Christmas? I love that special! Its made by Jim Henson, about this Otter who tries to win money for something for his mom in a talent show, and SHE tries to enter to win somethng for HIM!

ALso, I forgot to mention…i LOVE LOVE LOVE to watch Little Women(the one with Kirsten Dunst)on christmas eve!!! Its SUCH an awesome movie!!!

I’ve got this one Christmas lyric stuck in my head that’s been driving me nuts all day. I know that I know the song, but can only remember this one phrase for some reason….”Uh-oh, the misteltoe..” That’s it. That’s all I got. What song is that from?

Vanilla Fire, I guess I just wanted to fit in with all the cool kids. Of course, I never thought that saying you live in/were from SC was ever considered cool, despite what Stephen Colbert says. I’ve been spending the last few years saving up and trying to figure out a way to get out. I guess I thought we earned a notch on the belt, you know, being all Confederate and such and providing the country with such luminaries as Strom Thurmond. Btw, I met the man once 13 years ago, and even then he was completely senile and could hardly carry on a conversation. Good riddance, you racist old bastard.

I don’t have a favorite song. I did always dislike “All I Want for Christmas.” I first heard it in my kindergarten music class, and guess who was missing her front teeth?

The other kids asked me repeat “Sister Susie Sitting on a Thistle” until I screamed. But 20ish years later, I heard a rendition by Count von Count from Sesame Street, and I like that one. I mean, it’s the Count. And he makes it sound all Romanian/Klezmer. But I can ONLY stand that version.

DJ D: It’s not Frosty The Snowman is it? I keep singing it and that’s what I end up with.

Oh ho, the mistletoe
Hung where you can see
Somebody waits for you
Kiss her once for me
Have a holly jolly Christmas…

Matt, I used to live in that area. I went to the same church fair when I was a kid and it was awesome!

I won a basket full of food so bad nobody ever ate it but it was one of the proudest moments of my life

I just thought of another Christmas song I like, but I don’t know if it has an official name. But I can tell you where it’s sung. It’s in the Muppet Family Christmas Special and in Jim Hensons underrated/almost forgotten “The Christmas Toy.”

Some of the lyrics are:
Oh friend, Dear friend
All in the memory
We’ll be together for Christmas

Don’t worry, I love the chipmunk’s Christmas songs, too. You’re not alone!

bill, Jemmy, Yep, that’s the one! Thanks loads. That’s been driving me crazy all day.

By the way, is there a difference between Bill and bill? Is there some sort of imposter/Bill wannabe out there, or do we have some kind of Sybil situation on our hands here?

In other news, (i.e. a shameless plug), as of tonight I just got booked to do my first official DJ’ing gig in over a year. I’ve kind of been away from the scene, mostly caused I moved away from the city, for a long time now and I’m glad to back in town and back in business. It’ll be with 2 other Dj’s who I’ve known and worked with for years, and a really groovy band from Columbia that I’m fairly impressed with. It’s gonna be on Sat, Dec. 1st at The Art Bar, here in Columbia, SC. I’ll have the flyer up on my MySpace page sometime in the next day or so. So, for you guys who live sort of nearby (*cough, cough, Bill/bill, cough, cough*), if by chance you want to make the drive and have nothing else to do that night, you should stop by. I’ll buy you a drink and show off my spooky DJ’ing prowess…that is if you’re not too put off by the whole goth/industrial thing. Now, if I can just hurry up and get my radio show back up and running between now and then we’ll really be rolling. Ok, shameless plug over. Sorry bout that. I was just jazzed and had to share it with someone.

Some guys got all the luck! Way to win big this year, Matt! By the way, John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas” is the worst christmas song out there. I’m striving to go the whole season without hearing that song… Won’t be easy but will be well worth it.

Nizz–why is it the worst Christmas song? It’s not the best, but it’s certainly not the worst.

Oh, and Vanilla Fire, I almost had the chance to go see Stephen Colbert a few weeks ago. He came into town to do this campaigning thing for his show where he did like this whole press conference thing and the mayor presented him with the key to the city. A couple days later he showed footage of it on his show. Anyways, the whole thing took place like 5 minutes from my house, but unfortunately I had to work that day, so I missed my chance. That would have been a lot of fun. Oh well, there’s always Hootie and the Blowfish (sense the sarcasm). They’re from here and I’ve met them a zillion times (everyone here has, especially if you work at a radio and in clubs and such). For a while, when they were really big, this was the only city they could go where they didn’t get mauled by fans. No one really cared that much around here. I guess no one really does anywhere these days…poor Hootie.

I’m glad you finally got to see Batman. To this day it’s my all-time favorite movie ever. I can quote just about quote the whole stupid script. I think I mentioned this once before, but that movie, along with Beetlejuice and later on Pacific Heights, cemented Micheal Keaton as being my all-time favorite actor as well. I’ve never met anyone else that agreed with me on that, but I know there are plenty of them out there. I’ve been to the websites. Us loyal Keaton enthusiasts are a small army, but we’re loud and proud. Ok, maybe not loud, but we’re kind of proud.

I love the Waitress’ song, too…came out when I actually was in my 20’s, but not single. Might as well have been on some Christmases. I otherwise tend to go for classical, Celtic/Narada, and every single Twisted Christmas album that’s out, with a smattering of Elvis (need to actually get the album, tho), Bing, and an album series probably most of you outside of the Northwest have never heard - Christmas in the Northwest.

Oh…and a Sailor Moon Christmas album. Yep, in Japanese, except for ‘Last Christmas’ which is in Engrish!

I utterly hate that Bruce Springsteen ‘Santa Claus’, tho, even the Twisted Christmas version that I accidentally played at work once while trying out music for the unit family Christmas party.

I’d love to have those DVDs you got, Matt, except that I already have Elf. Eventually I’ll find copies I can afford I’m sure. Me, I HAVE to watch Rudolph at least once, to start off my Christmas season. Since I no longer watch TV I bought it on DVD and pretty much only do watch it once, usually on the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving. Always seems wrong to watch it more than once or twice, tho I watch all the others I have multiple times.

And I think that your girlfriend’s basket is awesome, looks like its full of tasty, healthy foods.

BenS: That “King of Jingling” song is from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Do you mean to tell us you’ve never seen Rudolph? What kind of life are you living, man?

Happy Xmas (War is Over) >>>>> Wonderful Christmas Time. Or whatever that one is called. That’s pretty obvious, though. John > Paul.

DJ D–I watched that Colbert thing on Facebook (someone posted a video in the 1,000,000 Strong for Stephen Colbert group)…it looked like so much fun. That sucks that you had to miss it. My friend got to see him at GWU. I was incredibly jealous.

Knegative, Oh you would have to bust out the “greater-than, lesser-than alligator”. I’m in 4th grade math all over again.

I do that all the time. On the internet, I’ve never seen anyone put the preferred option second, so itis even easier to interpret.

I’ve seen the Rudolph movie, but that was maybe ten years ago, so the songs are all but forgotten. I guess the song is forgivable in the context of a film, but I kept thinking Santa was saying “I’m the king of ding-a-ling”, which would have been hilarious.

BenS- He was. Remember that special was made back in ‘65 or so, so there are some phrases that have odder meanings now.

DJ D: That sounds awesome! I think I maybe on business that day down in FL but if not, count me in. Oh yeah, bill was me. I just had to fire that off fast before someone jumps me for thinking of the wrong song.

A few Xmas’s ago I set the bar high for 8 straight views of the Christmas Story. I’m going to try and beat that this year so I am prepping the family in advance.
“RAALFIE!”

I would’ve wanted the Kahlua/Sambuca basket myself, but it seemed like every basket there was a winner. Oh! I dunno if anyone has seen Matt’s YouTube videos yet, but Waiterbot has a vlog! This is probably the first time I’ve ever heard Matt speak! Does anyone else feel somewhat honored by that?

Fucking work today kept me away from my fellow X-E’rs. I probablay should not have gone to bed last night either….in the middle of the night i went to go to the bathroom, when i came back, i went to lay down and my fiancee slammed his elbow right into my right eye socket. it hurt so bad i thought my eyeball was bleeding. its kind of swollen still and my head hurts like a bitch. on a lighter note, at work today we had a christmas vacation conversation, and i told everyone that you can buy the moose mugs online…..needless to say i got quite a few puzzled looks as to how i would know that. other than that Goob I totally have the VHS of that Mickey’s Christmas carol….it was the first VHS i ever owned as a child….i got it when i was 4. i think i might break it out during thanksgiving….hopefully the tape doesnt break or get eaten by the VCR. I also found out today that Officemax has a CD containing all of the songs from the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer christmas special. the last time i watched that, I drank a whole bottle of robotussin DM, and I couldnt figure out what was going on and i started freaking out.

Knegative: YES. John was so much more awesome than Paul, who I have always thought was overrated. I also think George was horribly underrated and underappreciated. And Ringo… well, he’s pretty much just Ringo any way you slice it.

To throw my two cents into the Beatles debate…John, then George, and Ringo and Paul are tied. And I’ve never really understood why Paul was the “cute Beatle”…George was considerably more attractive, though Ringo probably aged the best.

LeighaThere are actually a few Rankin/Bass CDs out there - one with songs from all the major Christmas specials (sorry for the person who loves Jack Frost, its not on there!) and one with the complete soundtrack from Rudolph. Those are the ones I own, at least. You should be able to find them at Borders, B&N, Amazon, etc. or on eBay if they’re out of print.

I will never deny that George was a very talented individual. I tend not to prefer some of his contributions to Beatles albums, though. My favorites of his were all on Let It Be. I DO appreciate the vast majority of Paul’s work on Beatles albums, but as a solo artist John blows him out of the water.

Ringo. Oh man. I’ve seen way too many live examples of why it is hard not to love Ringo. He seems to me to be very happy and content at it. It is infectious. I loves me some Ringo

It’s corny, cliche, and obvious, but the Beatles really are the sum of their parts. I just have very clear opinions when it comes to judging them individually.

Congrats on the big win! I never win anything. I seriously think I have the worst luck ever. I might be the only person on the planet that could buy 60 raffle tickets and not win a damn thing. It’s sad really. I hope you win the stocking next year. I remember raffles from my youth that involved six foot long stockings, and no surprise here, I never won one.

DJ D: Not sure if you’ve been to a Target lately but they have these awesome lolipops with a lazer light on the opposite end. One features the Superman logo and the other has a Batman logo. I managed to annoy the wife with the Superman one for quite sometime, ensuring everything I passed sported a Superman symbol for at least a micro-second.

I missed SNT last night (I worked until 11 PM and then I got sleepy on the couch….and woke up at 5 AM to crawl to bed.)

I am reading all of the posts now….CONGRATS ON THE RAFFLE WIN. I completely have a thing like this in my tiny hometown, and I think I understand the hugeness of this.

Now, I am totally digging the ‘favorite cheesy Xmas song of the season talk…and I totally have a different perspective this year as I am finally working in the service/retail industry for a Christmas season.
My bookstore has been playing Xmas music since Nov. 1st, so I am quickly learning which one of THESE songs I actually like for the long haul.

HAH! St. Patty’s in Maysville, KY, would argue with you, iAM! Back when I was a kid, they had a festival every year that included a beer garden!

Dang I must live in the heavy bible belt of Kentucky. Either that or I don’t know about the “cool” churches.

t’s in the Muppet Family Christmas Special and in Jim Hensons underrated/almost forgotten “The Christmas Toy.”

I remember that! Sadly, I only saw it once on Nickelodeon, but I remember most of it, like the antagonist was a Female Villain toy, the “New Toy” for Christmas who is doomed to replace the older ones.

Kind of made me think Toy Story ripped off of this special after I saw it. Most of what happened made me think of stuff that happened in the special.

As I already said my fav/least fav Christmas Muzak, I’ll list my favorite songs (my least favorite remain the same):

-Christmas All Over Again (Tom Petty)
-Basically anything by the Trans Siberian Orchestra
-Carol of The Bells, any version. Especially Mr. Mackey’s from South Park, the Vienna Boys Choir one found on the Jukebox, and the TSO Cover.
-Fairytale of NY, The Pogues. Such an awesome song.
-Do You Hear What I Hear, Bing Crosby’s Version. That just screams Christmas for me, the big finish just embodies Christmas’s message of peace and togetherness.
-I actually do like “Simply Having A Terrible Synthesizer,” mostly FOR the Synthesizer cheesiness.
-Twisted Sister’s cover of “O Come All Ye Faithful”
-Hark The Herald Angels Sing, the Charlie Brown version. Again, a classic and screams Christmas.

Ok, I’ll admit one I also hate, “The Christmas Song” It just never clicked with me for some reason.

I also forgot to mention at KB, among all the other Christmas Muzak, there were songs from “Christmas In The Stars,” aka The Star Wars Christmas Album. “What do You Get A Wookie For Christmas (If He Already Owns A Comb)?” and “Merry, Merry Christmas” were the songs I remember hearing.

Knegative, Oh you would have to bust out the “greater-than, lesser-than alligator”. I’m in 4th grade math all over again.

Dear god, reading that…So am I, now. I totally remember doing that, as it was how I learned greater than/less than.

As for The Beatles…all this talk reminded me of the cutaway from one of the recent episodes of Family Guy about Ringo writing a song.

Paul (or whichever one): Oh, that’s great, I’m gonna stick it up on the fridge so everyone can see it!

What is that song that they used to do on Saturday Night Live with Horatio Sanz… “I wish it was Christmas today?” By who? Anyway, I like that one…

The only thing I can remember winning is in a drawing at a video game store I won an xbox copy of the game Simpsons Hit and Run. It was right when it came out and I got it around Thanksgiving. It was like a Christmas present it was really neat. I got the latest Simpsons DVD set for Christmas so I watched some Simpsons and played the game at night. I beat the game in about 2 and a half months.

Leigh The first Disney movie I remember my Grandma purchasing for my sisters and I is the little mermaid. But that was so cool I felt guilty until I shared with everyone

Goob–I was never allowed to watch the Little Mermaid (because my mom’s a feminist and Ariel changes herself for her man).

General question: What Christmas song goes “Dong-dong, merrily on high”? I’ve got it stuck in my head and can’t figure out what it is.

Ding dong merrily on high,
In heav’n the bells are ringing:
Ding dong! verily the sky
Is riv’n with angel singing.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!

E’en so here below, below,
Let steeple bells be swungen,
And “Io, io, io!”
By priest and people sungen.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!

Pray you, dutifully prime
Your matin chime, ye ringers;
May you beautifully rime
Your evetime song, ye singers.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!

I absolutely fucking LOVED The Christmas Toy when I was a kid. I watched it every single year and used to be convinced my toys moved around and did things while I wasn’t in the room. Now when I try to talk to people about it no one knows what I’m talking about. Holy shit, thank you soooo much for bringing that up! Now I can stop questioning my sanity! (Well, at least on this particular issue.)

I thought The Christmas Toy was a great special…but it made me bawl like a baby every damn time so I’ve only seen it in its entirety like, twice.

Invader N.- Twisted Sister’s version of “O Come all ye faithful”? Isn’t that just “We’re not gonna take it”? Dee Snider said that song was just a rip off of OCAYF and one other song I can’t remember. And all the best Christmas songs are traditionally the old, christian songs. I love the one that has the long “gloria” in it. More hated ones “grandma got run over by a reindeer”, and “I saw mommy kissing santa claus”. I would love for them to just go all out with the white trash christmas songs and start doing songs like “Santa had too much eggnog and wrecked his sleigh into a Waffle House” or “I saw Daddy beat Santa with a tire iron”.

I have never tried Sambuca…but it is a favorite amongst the cooks where I work. And it’s fun to say.

Last night was one of the few in my life that I had so many vodka cranberries that I forgot what I did or did not do. And I totally thought I had posted here. But I didn’t, and I think I am glad. Happy very late (so late it’s over) SNT!

BenS- I have a song called “Blue Collar Christmas” from my Blue Collar Comedy Tour CD. You can look for it on iTunes, maybe. You might like it.

Moony: I just got done watching it (someone uploaded the entire thing on Youtube), and holy crap, I don’t think I’ve cried that hard in a long time. The song Rugby sings to Mew absolutely kills me.

Still, I am UNBELIEVABLY happy right now. It’s even better than I remembered. I think that might just be my favorite Christmas special.

Everybody keeps saying that “sambuca” is fun to say. Is it pronounced “sam-boo-ca” or is there some secret special pronunciation that makes it extra fun, and nobody has ever told me about it?

I only remember that song from 2 places: From Muppet Christmas Carol and at the end of the “Houseguests” sketch from Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

Speaking of Muppet Christmas Carol, I found it in its 99% entirety on youtube last year, only to know that it got taken down a little bit after christmas.

During the Christmas Carol scene, I found it perfectly fitting for The Count to be singing “I Saw Three Ships.”

Cameron: “Christmas Today” was done by Horatio Sanz, Jimmy Fallon, Tracey Morgan, and Chris Kattan.

Does Adam Sandler “Hannakuh Song” count as a Christmas song? I like listening to that at least once every year.

Mmm… Sambuca (Sam-BOO-kah in my Italian family) is fun to pronounce with the BOO enunciated. It gives it the Sopranos “salute” sort of feel like you are toasting to your college graduation.

DJD - There is a high school named for Strom Thurmond in our area (Augusta TV area) and the high school just won their first state title as an integrated school in 2005. I grew up in the north so when I heard that it took me back to what the ole’ south has in its history.

Someone else uploaded it, too, and seems to have a better transfer - The Christmas Toy

I’ll have to download it when my connection isn’t having fits over AV files.

I think someone mentioned it in the comments on the last post, but new Cloverfield trailer before Beowulf:

It isn’t Christmas until I’ve listened to Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics, at least 20 times. I don’t care if it is the South Park kids singing it, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas still makes me misty. Merry F***ing Christmas is great for satisfying that hegemonic urge we all have somewhere deep inside us ;), and who could forget The Lonely Jew on Christmas.

We’ve all heard of Rudolph and his shiny nose
and we all know Frosty who’s made out of snow
But all of those stories seem kinda….gay
cause we all know who brightens up our holiday!

My favorite Christmas song? Easy. It would have to be Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. Now this is true only because years ago, what must have been around X-mas 1987, my older brother and I borrowed my mother’s brand new Christmas Classics cassette tape and chose a random song. I think it was track #2. We had a practical joke in mind.

We played the song Hark!… a few times and mapped out exactly when the instrumental parts were using my (other) older brother’s dual-deck boombox. It had that little three digit rolling counter on it. We carefully taped over the little holes on the bottom of the cassette so that you could record on it, and this is what followed…

Hark! The herald angels sing,
â€œGlory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!â€
Joyful, all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With thâ€™angelic host proclaim,
â€œChrist is born in Bethlehem!â€

Christ, by highest Heavâ€™n adored;
Christ the everlasting Lord;
Late in time, behold Him come,
Offspring of a virginâ€™s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail thâ€™incarnate Deity,
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.

Hail the heavâ€™nly Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Risâ€™n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.

It worked PERFECTLY! It went right from lyrics to wailing electric guitar and then straight back to the voices when the singing began again. We were quite proud of ourselves.

My mother played our “remixed” version Christmas Eve with the family over, completely unaware of what we had done.

Hey! Good to hear. I’m happy for you. Enjoy watching movies while pooping… I mean, that’s what I’d do.

On a completely different note, does anyone know if Evil Dead: The Musical will tour again (yes, I know it just finished, but I only found out about it today)? It sounds like the BEST MUSICAL EVER. It has now become my life’s goal to see this show. I know, I know, I have strange priorities.

Bill: As a matter of fact there are a lot of yard sales in Kentucky. They mostly begin in the spring and run into the fall, but there are people who will brave cold weather to find a bargain. There is one house about 20 minutes from mine that has a year round yard sale. It’s insane. The first weekend of the summer months are the best times to yard sale. They are practically everywhere on those weekends.

PS I loved the video! I think the next time I have a yard sale I’ll make a homemade commercial to post on YouTube…okay maybe not.

INVADER NORBERT: I’m a former KB Toys employee as well (1998-2001), and those Christmas mixes STILL stick with me. Most of the others, too; to this day I can’t hear Men at Work’s “Who Can It Be Now?” without expecting it to be immediately followed by “Secret Agent Man.”
A couple of under-the-radar Christmas albums I highly recommend:
Los Straitjackets: “‘Tis the Season for Los Straitjackets” (instrumental Christmas favorites done in a surf-rock style by dudes wearing luchadore masks)
Red Simpson: “Trucker’s Christmas” (a full album of truck-drivin’ country Christmas songs! Break out the CB!)
Husky Team: “Christmas in Team” (more instrumental stuff; these guys sound just like Booker T. & the MG’s)
Enjoy, all.

I’ve been reading these posts for years and as a Staten Islander I CAN NOT figure out where this fair is…

There are times when I am truly glad (dare I say, “thankful”) to be an X-Er. This is one of those moments.
There are a lot of things on here that I either never knew about (WILDWOOD, etc.) because of geographical/regional concerns or never cared about (POKEMON). Those things are nice to read about but the truly special X-E moments occur when you remember something that you knew about but truly forgot (SUPERNATURALS action figures, etc.)
THANK YOU JLAJRC and Co. for reminding me about “The Christmas Toy”. I watched it back in the day and I total forgot about it until this morning.
Thank you!!

I fucking love the christmas toy, and for some reason when i saw that linkin parks album a few years ago was named meteora, i got all excited about christmas. i dont listen to linkin park, but for the name alone i gave it a second look. i have a bootlegged copy my mom made from when they showed in on nickelodeon…..yet another VHS i may have to track down. i think it is on the christmas special mix tape VHS that my mom made, and if i remember correctly, it is unmarked. which means hours of time that i am going to spend looking through unmarked VHS tapes. i am uber excited. i mean on that tape there is rudolph, frosty, garfield christmas, AND the christmas toy.

I’m hoping someone here can help me. I need to get presents for my nieces. One is 6, one is 3, and one is 5 months. Obviously i’ll just get baby toys and clothes for the 5 month old, but the other two are old enough to want good presents. I don’t have any kids of my own, so i’m not really up-to-date on the best presents. I also don’t want to kill a niece with those aqua balls or anything. Anyone know girls around these ages that are dying for a certain toy that is safe?? Please let me know!

Cerianna: For girls that age, I think the hottest toys right now would be Disney Princesses (those are HUGELY popular and there’s a wide range of different toys), Care Bears (great for the 3 year old especially), and Dora the Explorer (again, a wide range of toys, many of them educational). If you’re not sure if they like any of that stuff, most kids love art things as well. Aquadoodle (not to be confused with Aqua Dots, which is the toy that’s been recalled) is pretty popular right now. They draw on a mat with water and it’s impossible to color on anything but the mat, so there’s no mess.

And of course, there’s always Elmo, but I’m convinced he’s the Antichrist. In Muppet form.

fistpittingnork, I believe XM has already launched all of their holiday stations. I’m not near my receiver to check, but I know they’re already streaming online.

The songs my Christmas wouldn’t be complete without:
1: “The Holiday Season” by Andy Williams. Definitely my number one. I don’t know what it is about it, but I adore it.
2. The entire soundtrack to “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, even the filler songs that weren’t anywhere in the special.
3. “That Holiday Feeling” by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, if for no other reason than lyrics like this:
Eydie: You think you’re such a smartie.
Steve: Come on, let’s have a party.
I think I have a thing for music that could have been played at any 60’s Christmas party that involved a hi-fi and everyone standing around with a scotch.

I also love anything from The Carpenters’ Christmas Portrait album, especially “The Christmas Waltz”, but it’s not unusual for me to go all year without hearing that one.

My favorite part about Happy Xmas (War Is Over) is hearing the old lady voice during the kids part. I like to imagine that she was an old Beatles fan, and once they started recording she purposely started singing louder than the kids she was directing just so she could say she was on a John Lennon song.

I like listening to the Holiday Traditions channel on XM because I really hate hearing modern pop stars butcher Christmas classics. I think the worst remake has to be (appropriately for this thread) Hootie and The Blowfish’s “White Christmas”. I also hate Michael Bolton’s “White Christmas”, which honestly sounds like he recorded it while trying to pass a kidney stone or something. Plus, I really hate the trend of depressing Christmas songs in the past 15 years - “Grown Up Christmas List”, “Christmas Shoes”, “Where Are You Christmas?” - and that station doesn’t play any of that stuff. I’ve even heard “Dear Mr. Jesus” played during Christmas over the past few years, which isn’t even remotely a Christmas song. “My Favorite Things” isn’t really a Christmas song either, but at least it doesn’t make me want to take a couple Prozac and curl up in bed with the covers over my head for the rest of the day.

I’m not I’m late to the party but Congratufuckinglations Matt. I kept fighting myself from scrolling down to the bottom of the post to see what you won. Glad I did. What a great freakin’ post!!!

Oh oh, I totally forgot about another song that’s a total staple for me: Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas”. It’s a depressing song if you listen closely, but I love 80s music so much I don’t care.

Lori: I totally agree with you about all the sappy weepy Christmas songs. I want to be happy for Christmas, dammit. Also, I usually refuse to listen to any version of “White Christmas” besides the Bing Crosby one.

First of all, “Christmas Shoes” is a great way to kick off a Goth Holiday season. Somebody on FARK has a log-in of “somebodypleasekillthechristmasshoes” for good reason. But, there are bad Xmas tunes out there that aren’t even depressing, just listening to them are. Please, no more songs about a little kid with dying family members! That’s just cheap.

My favorites are things like “I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus” by Kip Adotta, Sting’s version of “I Saw Three Ships,” “Green Christmas” from Stan Freberg, any good bombastic version of “Carol of the Bells” including the Mr Mackey version, m’kay?

Y’know what I haven’t seen since I was a pup? The original Sesame Street Christmas Special. Y’know, where Oscar tells big Bird that Santa won’t be able to visit certain homes on the Street because they don’t have fireplaces. BB skates with a little girl to “Feliz Navidad.” Bert and Ernie re-enact “Gift of the Magi.” And Cookie Monster eats an entire Christmas Tree. That’s a special Special. Or, to use a lyric from the show, If that isn’t a true blue miracle, I don’t know what one is.

Jazzy: Aw, no Drifters? I love that version of “White Christmas,” especially when I can sing it obnoxiously in the car on family trips.

kingklash: I heard the “Christmas Shoes” song for the first time last year and swore I would never listen to it again. Too depressing for me and my mother asked if I was high because my eyes were all red from bawling my eyes out for a good ten minutes on the drive to their house. If it makes me cry, it’s right out.

It must be the holidays because the car broke down on the highway this morning. I think I did it to myself because I made the statement that this year was going to be free of stress. “Oh Father Christmas, take all my money, I’ve got no need for my silly car.”- sorta’ Kinks

Congrats on the big win Matt, I own both Elf and An Xmas Story. I predict next year’s Major Award will be that big ass stocking.

My all time favorite christmas song is the version of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” by Bert & Ernie in A Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. The best Christmas Album would be Christmas Island by Leon Redbone (Who by the way plays Buddy’s Snowman friend in Elf).

My favorite Christmas special of all time is surely “A Flinstones Christmas Carol”. It wasn’t that much of a unique spin on the story, but up until a few years ago I caught it every year on Cartoon Network. Also, I remember a Christmas Eve Eve (Day before Christmas Eve!) when I got my tonsils out, lots of complications…puking blood. I didn’t come home til Christmas Eve morning, but that night, my Christmas spirit remained intact as I watched the special with my family before they went home.

Special K: Hmm, I don’t remember that version. I like the Drifters, though, and they’re classic enough to do it well. I’ll have to check that out.

GREG: You’re right, that Leon Redbone album rules! I remember VH1 used to play Leon’s video for “Frosty the Snowman” (with Dr. John) quite a bit 15-16 years ago…

CRAYFISHV2: You’re probably already aware, but “A Flintstones Christmas Carol” just came out on DVD a week or so back…

Invader Norbert: I saw The Muppets Christmas on YouTube. Here is the last of it with a Jim Henson and Sprocket doing the dishes. I swear, no matter how many times I see this I get teary.

I just heard “CHRISTMAS SHOES” for the first time recently. 100% Crap.
“GROWN UP CHRISTMAS LIST” is sappy but I still kinda like it. Maybe the sentiment carries it.

Well, another bit of the 80’s is gone. Dick Wilson, aka Mr. Whipple passed away.

I’ll forever remember those commercials on early 80’s TV, along with the less heartwarming, more annoying Linda Soundtrack. To quote Weird Al, “You better squeeze all the Charmin you can, when Mr. Whipple’s not around.”
So long, 80’s icon.

I just googled “Giant Ape Juice” to see if X-E is still the first hit. The first two results are X-E. The third is from the Wikipedia article about X-E (click my name). I’m a little scared of it. It’s like the fourth wall has been torn down, or something.

I don’t understand all the McCartney hate. I’ve actually played friends songs like Band on the Run, which they’ve loved, until I told them who the artist was. It just seems like a lot of people have this existing notion that McCartney is “soft”, and therefore sucks, and that Lennon is “deep”, and is awesome.

I agree that if you just go by a few of McCartney’s hits that get played on Muzak stations like: Silly Love Songs, My Love, Listen to What The Man Says or a few others you could reach that conclusion. But dig a little further to tracks like BOTR, Maybe I’m Amazed, Live and Let Die, Let Me Roll It, Beware My Love, Jet, Junk, and Too Many People among many others and you might see another side of him.

I realize everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I’m not trying to offend anyone. McCartney is my favorite artist and really got me into music, so maybe I’m biased

wingspan: I don’t really think it’s a problem with “soft” music that bothers people. It’s more of a problem with that kind of music coming out of Paul McCartney. You just kind of expect more from a Beatle, I guess. It’s difficult to accept the fact that the same person who gave us “Yesterday” also gave us… well, the stuff you mentioned.

Oh, and I love “Maybe I’m Amazed”. I tend to separate Wings from Paul McCartney as a solo artist, so that one really doesn’t come to mind when he’s mentioned. But it is a great song.

Wingspan I am with you. Am I the only person who sings “Ebony And Ivory” in the car? I even do both Paul and Stevie’s voice.

mjgrass–I consider Love Actually a Christmas movie…seeing as it’s set on and around Christmas.

COMMANDER AWESOME: Yes, I’m aware it came out on DVD, and am on a high-tail search for it. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any stores that have it, so after I hit a few more I’ll be ordering online.

jazzy:
I think you are right about the Beatle thing. I guess what helped me is I had no idea who Paul McCartney was when I first stared listening to him, so I was able to view his solo work without any expectations. I guess what I meant about the “soft” comment is a lot of my friends dismiss his solo music because he was the “soft, cute Beatle who wrote nice melodies” and Lennon was the “deep, thoughtful rocker”. I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. BTW, I love Lennon too, so this isn’t a dig at him.

Bill:
No, you’re not the only one! I’ve done the same thing many times. I especially enjoy the crazed looks I receive from fellow motorists

Ringo is definitely my favorite, he just seemed like a nicer, more down-to-earth (or as close to down-to-earth as somebody that famous can be…) guy. (Looks-wise, however, I prefer John before his hippie/facial hair stage!)

On the topic of Paul’s music… whatever anybody else says, I’m still a big fan of his.

I just heard “CHRISTMAS SHOES” for the first time recently. 100% Crap.
I too, agree with this statement. I am mostly against cheesy easy listening Christmas Music. With one exception: Same Old Lang Syne. That song makes me laugh every time I hear it.

In regards to the McCartney/Lennon debate, I’d say their post-Beatle output was equal, decent, sometimes great, often average. Harrison probably improved as a songwriter after the Beatles, whereas Lennon/McCartney never could match their collaborative times. Ringo was probably the one most suited to be famous and in the spotlight, cheery, kinda dopey, and totally lovable. If you asked me my favorite post-Beatle song for each artist, I’d say George “Got my mind set on you, John “Instant Karma”, and Paul “Freedom” (joking, sort of). I know it’s not Christmas Vacation, but my family tradition is to watch Vacation around the holidays. That and the Naked Gun are probably two of the funniest movies of all time.

Ah, the Lennon/McCartney debate. I really couldn’t pick one over the other. Seems clear, to me at least, that the best work they would ever do would be when they were together - when the other would be there to counterbalance their respective contributions. Then you had Ringo who was just happy to be along for the ride and George who probably rolled his eyes more than once at the Beatle-drama of the late ’60s.

Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison all contributed some fine solo work. If I had to pick one album though it would without a doubt be George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass. I love that album so very much.

Tara, Yeah, unfortunately there’s still a lot of of that good ole’ boy mentality around here. I just would like to tell everyone who lives in the north, or anywhere for that matter, that despite our history, the south is full of a lot of intellegent, educated, progressive, forward thinking people. Who don’t marry their sisters.

Magic Toy, that Christmas cassette sounds awesome! That brings me back to the days of dubbing stuff from one boom box to another by putting their speakers up to each other, or recording stuff off TV by just putting the boom box up to it and turning up the volume real loud. I’ve still got “compilation tapes” at home from when I was a kid and used to record stuff off the radio.

Lori, I couldn’t agree more. There’s nothing worse at Christmas than some lame, updated version of a classic carol by some lame, watered down rock act. Depressing Christmas carols are the worse too. It’s supposed to be a happy holiday, dammit! And this is coming from a guy who makes extra cash as goth/industrial DJ.

Which reminds me, kingklash two more to add to the Goth Christmas Playlist are “The Christmas Song” by London After Midnight and “Red Water (Christmas Mourning) by Type-O Negative….oh and of course anything from the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack.

Billy I would LOVE to see a video of that. It would be worth buying a camcorder just so you can rig it up in your car so we can watch you sing in the car. You would be a youtube sensation.

Ebony & Ivory topped the charts the week I was born. I know that because someone posted a website that told you that kinda thing on Shrine once.

Regarding that Christmas cassette, it still exists. I’d bet money on it. I know as recently as a decade ago I found it at my parent’s house. If I can find it again I will snag it and someday, if EXTREMELY motivated, rip an mp3 copy of it. Of course that would mean I would have to learn how to do any of that.

So since I typed my last message a couple of hours ago I have been on a total music kick and I’ve been listening to a lot of different stuff.

It began with a few Beatles albums (Revolver, St. Pepper’s, Abbey Road, Past Masters 1), then became the Almost Famous Soundtrack. After that I went on to Echo and the Bunnymen, and now I am listening to Tears for Fears.

Magic Toy: That playlist sounds excellent. I’d tip my hat to you, if I didn’t hate hats and refuse to own any.

Commander Awesome : Im from Canada so we don’t have VH1 up here. I have seen the Leon Redbone Frosty Video on Youtube though. If it wasn’t blocked here at work I’d post a link.

To get a feel for VH1’s (non-music) programming, you might want to check out their “Best Week Ever” podcast on iTunes. In my opinion, it’s usually pretty funny.

Our “Mature Listeners” music station “Much More Music” usually plays VH1 programming that is a year or two old. I love seeing has been celebrities embarrass themselves for one last shot of fame. The only series we haven’t seen yet are “I Love The 70s/80s/90s” which makes me really sad.

Ran to Target last night and picked up Santa Conquers The Martians for a dollar.
$1! Did MST3K have a show on this?

it’s not christmas for me if I don’t hear “Little Drummert Boy” By David Bowie and Bing Crosby. It’s kinda bad, but they harmonize so well- and Bowie’s sing-song interjections are the CUTEST thing.
As for which I hate the Most? Feliz Navidad. Yeppers. I HATE THAT SONG.

Hey Matt, any chance of the Macy’s Parade article today? Just want to know if I should keep hitting the reload button every three seconds on a slow workday

I’m sure everyone here is aware already, but just in case you’re not, Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is on ABC tonight at 8 PM Eastern, followed by “He’s a Bully, Charlie Brown!”

I am sure writing Matt X-Entertainment over and over again is tough on the hand! Have you ever thought about preprinting some small return address labels with your info on them so you don’t have to do so much writing? Use the really small ones and then just carry them in with you. Otherwise you could try to get a small stamp with your return info on it and use that as well.

God, all this talk of Christmas and Thanksgiving this week means one thing to me:

Advent Calendar. More Kuse. More Knacks. More Mare; More Mista Snowman. More Waiterbot (even though he’s a douche).

Rob: Working on it today, but it probably won’t be done today. :( Blog post coming up later, though.

One of my favorite McC tunes is “Junior’s Farm” mainly because once you get the lyrics down, it’s a great underappreciated sing-along.

Joel was “SCCtM”, Mike was “Santa Claus”, the trippy movie from Mexico with the minor demon Pitch, who enjoys his pantaloons a little too much.

Does anyone else here sing along with just the Bowie parts on “Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth”? Or thinks Crosby went home and gave his kids an extra-Christmassy belting afterward?

I just read the 85 Wishbook article, and I have to say, it almost brought a tear to my eye. I miss being a kid. I know, I’m late, but works been really buys. For months. Bleh.

I did have a lot of the stuff on the list. Dinobots, Voltron, Flag (well, my brother did, but I used it more tehan him) I even had the Defiant Space shuttle. My youngest brother had Teddy Ruxpin and the talking Micky Mouse. I also had Lazer Tag, also made by WOW. Jesuss, we were freakin’ spoiled. The only reason I want to have kids is so I can spoil them like my parents did with us.

I know you shouldn’t mess with perfection but if Tummi is going to add to the Christmas Jukebox this year he needs to find the theme song to Santa Conquers The Martians. It really is the herpes of Christmas songs. It will never stop playing in my head.
“S-A-N-T-A C-L-A-U-S
Hooray for Santy Clause
You spell it S-A-N-T-A C-L-A-U-S
Hooray for Santy Claus!”

P.S. I also had Car Voltron. They were both equally as awesome, but Car Voltron was all plastic. No metal.

I used to think that Canada was perhaps a nicer and cleaner version of America…but hearing that there is no VH1….i think i just changed it in my head to being a hell on earth. i am addicted to the VH1 for realz

I finally broke down and read the wikipedia thing on X-E, and let me just say that i hate you matt for having my childhood dreamjob.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited for thanksgiving. It didn’t dawn on me till yesterday but I don’t have to be anywhere this year. I’m going to be at home, the menu is all mine and I don’t have to be rushed around anywhere, I can actually watch the parade this year.

Jeez. Do you know that I’ve been working on crap since Friday? Two all-nighters in a row. BLECH.

jebus… take a few days off to edit wedding photos and put up the xmas lights and you miss a lot

Gratz on the win Matt.. looks like a nice spread there :) Sure beats my hanging off the roof at 9pm at night stringing along lights while my son shines the flashlight directly into my eyes lmao..

I’m going to my brother’s house in South Jersey, and they, for some strange reason, prefer to watch the local Philly parade over what I’ve always thought of as the “real” parade, the Macy’s one from New York. I usually lose the fight, and have to go to the basement to watch Macy’s on the smaller TV, rather than their sweet widescreen plasma HD TV.

Lori: That “old lady” is Yoko Ono.
D’oh! I’m always afraid of embarrassing myself in a public forum and there I go. Consider my face sufficiently egged.

By the way, I was wrong about that Hootie and the Blowfish Song. It’s actually “The Christmas Song”. Seriously, worst Christmas remake ever.

Or thinks Crosby went home and gave his kids an extra-Christmassy belting afterward?
You know it! He wasn’t kidding when he said, “Every child must be made aware. Every child must be MADE to care.”

kingklash I looove the original sesame street christmas!!! I think cookie monster eats a type writer though, not a tree. Its because he is typing a cookie list to send to santa and he gets all hungry and eats the type writer.

Could have swore… could have swore.
By the way, I wrote a song about Hootie and the Blowfish.

Lori: Oh, I wasn’t trying to shame you! I wanted to tell you “You’re awesome!” for your unwitting crack at Yoko Ono (because I hate her), but I didn’t know how to word it. So bonus points to you for that comment because it really made my day… in a good way!

OMG, I’m watching Oprah right now (don’t laugh). She just announced that this episode is her yearly “Favorite Things EVEEEEERRRRR” episode (that’s how she said it) and everything just went apeshit. The stage just freakin’ TRANSFORMED. Like, the building behind her just opened up and transformed into a giant living room. It was like the inside of Peter Parker’s house in the Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends cartoon. The crowd just went CRAZY. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many middle aged women freak out so much. Christmas music was playing, confetti and shit was coming down….you gotta see this thing, these people are going nuts. Oprah’s got presents all around her and she’s opening them and everytime she pulls something out of it, she describes it and then tells the crowd that everyone there is getting one. Someone’s going to have a stroke before this is over. Oh, and she’s in Macon, Georgia and keeps faking this obnoxious southern accent the whole time. I hate it when people do that.

Yeah, I’m one of those that sings along with just the Bowie parts in “Little Drummer Boy”, but then again, I’m like a Bowie fanatic. Next to The Cure, he’s my all-time favorite singer/artist. That whole thing is really surreal and kind of funny. Crosby just looks completely uncomfortable.

“Feliz Navidad” makes me want to kick puppies. Well, not puppies, but it makes me want to kick whoever’s singing it. In the throat.

Oh, and earlier someone posted something to my attention about some Superman and Batman flashlights at Target. I don’t remember who and I’m in kind of a hurry and can’t be bothered to go back up there and look. Anyways, yeah, that Batman one sounds cool. I might check that out. When I was a kid I was completely convinced that if I could get a flashlight big enough I could tape a giant bat signal thing on the front and shine it in the air and it would completely look the way it does in the comics and movies. And Batman would show up. I never actually made the flashlight. Maybe because deep down I knew he wouldn’t show up and I didn’t want to be disappointed. If I never tried to do it, there was still that hope that maybe he would. Wow, I learned that bitter lesson early. If you don’t try, you don’t fail. What a cynical 12 year old I was.

Right at the end of Sesame Street, the gang go into Susan and Gordon’s apartment, to find that Cookie had eaten the tree, decorations and all. He’s just lying all bloated in the corner. As the credits run, with happy holiday music and all going, Cookie Monster is groaning and belching loudly.
“*burrp* ’scuse me. *braapp* Pardon me. *burrrrrrrrrrrpp!* Ooh, that was long one!”
Ha-ha! Compulsive eating disorders!

I absolutely hate this song as well. Don’t know why, I just think it’s horrible to the point where I wish I could travel back in time and shoot the singer before he wrote/recorded it.

As for Feliz Navidad, I distinctly remember the opening of one of the Sesame Street Christmas specials (Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, maybe) that had Oscar, and not Big Bird, skate on a hockey rink to this song.

And I’m slightly pissed and not pissed about “Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” airing tonight. For, is that I’ve seen it several times, so if I miss it, I’ll have the special embedded in my head. Against, is that I’m at school for an event tonight and will miss it. Second, ABC just likes to push back the special by yet another day this year. Last year it was on the day before, and this year, it’ll be 2 days before. I hope it doesn’t end up like “Charlie Brown Christmas” in that we’ve gotten to the point where it’s probably going to air next week.

Steffanio, It’s kind of in the 7-Up and Sprite family of lemon/lime flavors, but not really. I mean, it’s much more sweet than that and it’s kind of yellow. Basically, it’s a yellow shot of sugary caffine….you know what, I think Bill really summed it up a lot better.

Bill, Yeah, October Rust is probably my favorite Type-O album. I saw them in Spartanburg with Lacuna Coil a few years ago and waited for like and hour and a half outside their tour bus after the show to talk to one of the band members so I could interview him for my show. They basically just kept dicking with me, sending someone out occasionally to say that someone would be with me shortly. After a while, my girl who I was with at the time was like, “Screw it, I’m tired, let’s go home” so that was that. Great show though. And Lacuna Coil was good too. Type-O’s so great cause it sounds like their stuff is so gloomy but they don’t take it seriously at all. Some of it’s just so cheesy sometimes…”God damn ye, merry gentlemen…” What a line! Oh, and I’ve been reading the veggiemacbre deal somewhat lately. Expect some comments soon.

Has anyone else heard all this jazz about the first season of Sesame Street on DVD? Apparently they’re releasing it with a warning on the cover that it’s for adults only. I thought it was a hoax when I heard about it at work the other day, but it was on the news last night. There are a few things in the first season, which was in like ‘68 or ‘69 that they think isn’t quite PC anymore. At the beginning of the disc you also get a cartoon character that comes on and reads off a disclamer about it. I think the things they were most worreid about is apprently Oscar the Grouch was especially nasty and sarcastic back then and they’re worried kids might pick up bad habits from it. Also, the Cookie Moster’s diet was even worse then than it is now. He didn’t just eat cookies, but ate everything that was unhealthy in sight. Also, there’s a scene where a little girl goes to a total stranger’s house and he invites her in and they have milk and cookies and then he walks off with her or something. So, they don’t want kids to think it’s ok to go into total strangers houses. I mean, come on. We all grew up watching this stuff. Granted, most of us weren’t even born in ‘69 but even if we had seen all that stuff I think we would have turned out as ok as we did anyway. I just thought I would throw it out there cause I wasn’t sure if anyone had mentioned it yet.

Oh, and DJ D I don’t know about that Seseme Street business… I mean, Ice Cube and Gwen Stefani were born in 69′! haha

DJ D
well, it was a different world back then.
In some small towns it’s still that way.
I guess they’re just playing it safe.
Stupid-safe… but whatever.
It’s like the warning on the side of the coffee cup that says
“Hey MORON- This is hot, don’t say we didn’t warn you!”
Besides- Ice Cube grew up in South Central L.A.
I don’t think it was the Sesame Street that f*cked him up.

Steffanio:
*opens her Mtn Dew and tastes it*
it’s like… sprite, with some grapefruit juice, maybe some pineapple.
And then, to negate the tart, they throw in lots of corn syrup. Like… The second ingredient is Corn Syrup… It’s even BEFORE the actual flavors in list of ingredients.
Mm. Sugar…

Steffanio:
Not to obscure the issue at all, but in addition to the regular anti-freeze-yellow Mountain Dew, there are several other flavors, including Code Red (which provided the name for a notorious computer virus due to its popularity among computer hackers) which looks and tastes a lot like carbonated fruit punch, and Gamers’ Fuel, which looks and tastes a lot like Sunkist Orange soda.

I always sing the Bowie part too, because it’s the best part. I don’t really care for “Little Drummer Boy” in its traditional format, but the part Bowie adds just makes it special.

As for the Sesame Street DVD, the “adults only” warning makes me want it more. If I had kids, I’d make sure they watched every single episode, just to damn the man.

May I suggest Carpenters - “Merry Christmas Darling” for the juke? It’s one of my favs and I would’ve asked earlier, but I, for some reason, thought it was already on the list.

Best song, and I’ll be SHOCKED if Matt as a fellow Peanuts fan disagrees: SNOOPY’S CHRISTMAS by the Royal Guardsmen. I wait till I hear this on the radio and that officially begins the Christmas season for me :-)

Worst: Die, Christmas Shoes, die! Ditto Where Are You Christmas from the soundtrack to How Jim Carrey Raped My Childhood for Christmas. And now I know why Mariah Carey went nuts in 2001…she listened to All I Want For Christmas Is You continually.

As for the Beatle debate, I can’t disrespect Paul …hey he came back from the dead

;-)

I always liked “Skating” by the Vince Guaraldi Trio - although it’s not technically speaking a Christmas song, it is in a Christmas special.

Mountain Dew, a wondrous concoction. For one, it’s not as carbonated as other sodas, like if you ever go to the movies and they’ve got the syrup/soda water combination tilted in favor of the sweet nectar. It doesn’t have the bite of sprite or grapefruit soda, more of a pleasant sweetness. There’s no discernable fruit flavor to it. The reason you can’t find it outside of America is that Mountain Dew was originated in Virginia as a chaser for whiskey (mountain dew originally being a euphemism for moonshine) and for many years was marketed towards the “hillbilly” sect. For those bourbon fans out there, mountain dew is an amazing chaser, it completely eliminates the aftertaste and you can booze all night without cringing after a healthy gulp. The most i ever drank in one evening was a fifth of Beam and a 2-liter of Mountain Dew. Wonderful times.

I haven’t heard this “Christmas Shoes” thing that everyone’s talking about, but from the sound of it, that’s probably a good thing.

Yeah, I’m down with damming the man any way, I can, especially if it’s in the name of spitting in the face of all things ultra-PC. Besides I think it’s good to fill kids shows with characters that are more realistic. Sesame Street does a pretty good job. You’ve got the bitter, grumpy, sarcastic one (Oscar), the one with the eating disorder (Cookie Monster), some foreigners (Maria and the Count), the gay one (Big Bird…oh come on, you know he is), and the suicidal one (that big elephant looking thing who’s name I can never remember). Sounds pretty realistic to me. I know there was a theory that The Count was actually the pimp of Sesame Street, but I just can’t bring myself to believe it. Speaking of him, I’ve got a good friend who’s wife is from Transylvania (no lie!). She comes with her very own authentic accent and everything. Anyway, I was over at his house one time and she started couting something aloud. My friend couldn’t help himself and had to go, “Ah-ah-ah!” right afterwards. We cracked up laughing, but she didn’t get it cause she didn’t grow up with Sesame Street. After he explained it to her, she said (and you have to imagine this in a thick Romanian accent), “Zat is not funny. I’m not a puppet in one of your television shows.”

Old Jim, I think you nailed it. Anti-freeze yellow is exactly how I would describe it. I’ve never tried any of the other flavors though. That’s probably a good thing. I’m getting a little backed up on my funky sodas. I’m still making my way through my 12-pack of Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash, and I’ve yet to find the Pomegranate 7-Up anywhere. I don’t even know what a pomegranate is, much less what it tastes like, so I guess I’m in for a surprise.

DJ D, that DVD has been out for a while. I got it for Christmas last year. I wish I could think of some specific examples, but there are some moments where I definitely wanted to say, “Yikes!” The first thing that seemed so jarring in light of today’s sanitized children’s television was Gordon walking hand in hand down the street with the new girl of the neighborhood and inviting her up to his place to meet his wife and have cookies. Another thing that struck me was how long all of the vignettes were. There was like a 3 minute video just of cows in a field. Seriously. Today’s kids would never have that kind of attention span. I actually don’t have a problem with the disclaimer because I recognize that since the 60’s, lots of research has been done about the effects of television on kids, and the differences of today’s culture mean that kids today are different than the kids 30 years ago, so some of the methods used then might not be viewed as beneficial today. It’s like when our mothers balk at the advice our doctors give us for our kids because “I didn’t do that and you all turned out just fine.” Well, when we were babies, our mothers were told to put us on our stomachs to sleep before they figured out that it increased the risk of SIDS. Just because the methods of the past didn’t do me specific harm doesn’t mean I should ignore the new information.

P.S. how weak is 25 Days Of Christmas this year?!!? Where’s my obscure Rankin-Bass specials? Where’d all these non-holiday movies come from (to be fair, some feel like “movies my family and I would go to the theaters to see on Thanksgiving or Christmas Day,” though)? And as a rule, I fear ABC Family Originals and the chance of seeing live action Dr. Seuss (OK, the Cat in the Hat is just one hour so that can be safe, but we know they will rerun abuse That Movie I Refuse To Call The Grinch).

I can only hope the Holiday Classics Marathon is referring to the other R-B specials that they think “not worthy” to be mentioned by name.

BenS Thanks for the brief history on Montain Dew. I had no idea that it started out that way. When it comes to sodas, first and foremost I’m a Dr. Pepper man all the way. It’s liquid crack to me and I can’t get enough of it. But, in the world of lemon/lime citrusy sodas, I’ve always preferred 7-Up. I’ve never really been into Mountain Dew all that much, but after you described all its uses as a chaser, it’s starting to sound appealing. I may have to give that a shot.

To chime in on the Beatles debate, I’ve always thought George was the most underrated one. In terms of talent playing his respective instrument, I think he was the best of the four And I think his solo stuff is amazing. In my senior year yearbook, there’s a picture that my friends and I took where we reinacted the Abby Road cover. We found a crosswalk in our neighborhood and in the background of the picture where you can see the white VW Bug, we parked my car just cause it was white. It was actually a 1970 Ford Maverick, and kind of cool in it’s own right, but looked nothing like a VW Bug. Close enough. I had three other really good buddies in high school and we all kind of had this Beatles obsession all at the same time. One of them, the aformentioned one from above with the Romanian wife, was Paul in the picture. I was George.

Steffanio-
I love Mountain Dew! It’s one of my favorites, Code Red even more so!

Lori-
I kinda feel the same way you do, not being a fan of many modern artists anyway. As such, you do NOT want to hear Ashley Tisdale (the villain from High School Musical) do “Last Christmas.” They have whole albums of Disney Channel stars butchering various well-known Christmas songs, including the theme to Christmas Vacation. Just a warning.

Matt-
If you don’t mind an early suggestion for the Christmas jukebox, I recommend “Christmassey” by Brian Wilson, from his album “What I Really Want for Christmas.”

DJ D-
I saw Oprah today too. My sister said something similar about somebody stroking out!

Invader Norbert, just checked the TV listings and guess what? A Charlie Brown Christmas airs next Tuesday night on ABC. Unbelievable..it won’t even be December yet.

One positive out of this is that, like previous years, they’ll probably air it a second time sometime closer to Christmas.

I am sitting in a very quiet coffee shop listening to a reading I have to go to for class and simultaneously am reading XE-ers definitions of Mountain Dew. Lets just say I am laughing but not laughing at the things the lady is reading.

Hoverbored…thanks for reminding me, I wouldn’t like the Last Christmas you speak of, since as it is, I get annoyed with all the times I hear the Wham! one.

Now, on the topic of movies again…anyone ever see “Unlikely Angel” with Dolly Parton? It used to always show up on Lifetime during Christmas, but as of late has been seen on the Hallmark Channel apparently. It’s basically your averge “deceased person can’t get to Heaven without doing a good deed” story.

This one is a guilty pleasure of mine, mostly cause I really like Dolly. And I must like it enough to admit to tuning into Lifetime to see if it would come on!

Cameron, I believe Charlie Brown Thanksgiving was made in 1973, at least 5 years after the Halloween and Christmas specials.

Lori - I totally agree. Sure, some of the safety measures are extreme (like, to have a daycare where I live there are regulations on slides so strict that no slide actually meets them), but just because some of the advice/lack thereof from when we or our parents were kids didn’t directly result in us getting messed up/killed, doesn’t mean it didn’t affect other kids. For example, the other day my mother actually said “Well, I used to play with lead toys all the time and I’m fine. What’s wrong with a little lead?” Umm, yeah - and the Romans used it for plumbing, so maybe we should do that too.

LOL, I get a kick out of the Sesame Street people thinking it was a great idea to have some girl go to a strange man’s house for cookies. And cows in a field for three minutes? Where do I find this DVD? LMAO.

Did anyone else feel that the animation quality for the Charlie Brown Bully special was inferior to that of the Thanksgiving episode? And that’s saying something…

DAMMIT!!! I got carried away buying gifts for friends on Amazon and totally lost track of time and missed Charlie Brown

Oh well, at least I found good gifts.

As for the Sesame Street debate, I don’t know. I still sort of think there’s a point of being too overprotective. I don’t think children should be totally sheltered from reality, and if parents would sit with their kids and talk to them about things they’re seeing (like why you shouldn’t go off with a stranger) it would be a lot more helpful than simply pretending bad things never happen.

For example, to tie in with the Beatles discussion, my mom used to let me listen to her Sgt. Pepper LP every day. When I’d sing along with the “get high with a little help from my friends” part she explained what getting high meant and that I should never do it. That was a lot more helpful than if she’d simply banned me from listening to the Beatles or something, especially since they’re now one of my favorite bands and Sgt. Pepper is probably my favorite album of all time.

Old Jim, I thought so too. The opening shot of the special looked like really bad computer-generated animation. And the characters in general didn’t look quite right.

Hey wow, I just googled pomegranate 7UP to see if I could find out where to buy it, and X-E is the top result!

Old Jim You got Game Fuel mixed up with Livewire. Livewire is the one that tastes like Sunkist. Game Fuel tastes like cherry gummi bears. :9

I don’t think kids today should be as protected from things as they are today, and not because ‘it didn’t kill me’, but because if they’re insulated from germs they’ll never develop proper immunity, if they’re insulated from seeing situations that are bad they’ll never learn to recognize and avoid them. Of course there can be far TOO much showing, too, so you have to strike the right balance with your kids, like it sounds Jazzy’s mom did.

Eric and Old Jim…Peanuts are like the Muppets…just not the same after the death of their respective creators. Are they still using Charles Schulz’s scripts? I know he wrote a few before his death…then again if they are using the actual strips, that isn’t much of a stretch. Still you can’t tell me it’ll be the same without Charles to helm over it.

Computer generated…do you mean 2D non-cel animation? Probably. (shudders at the imagination of 3D Peanuts specials…if that happens I hope Charles sends a plague of kite-eating trees down on animation studios everywhere)

So, Matt, I’ve got a somewhat cosmetic question for you. I’ve been going back and reading the old Advent Calendars lately and occasionally there will either be an article or there will be a link to an older article in which we are graced with rare picture of our gracious host. I’ve noticed that in the past, there was occasionally some funky hair colors going on on your part. I’ve seen some blue and what appeared to be some shade of purple (could have just been the same blue again). I guess my question is, how many colors have you gone through over the last few years and what color are you rockin’ today?

Matt…what do you think of the WPIX Yule Log? (note: I need to get my favorite songs list in its entirety when the message board gets back up on the YL site)

DJ D: I actually have no idea what pomegranate tastes like. I know I’ve tasted it before, but I can’t remember when, or in what form, or how it tasted. I dimly recall not liking it much, but I’ve been going crazy trying to find this stuff anyway. I think Matt may have some sort of mind-control device. I have a friend from Jersey who still spends trips to Wildwood looking for Fat Daddy and his green bamboo mystery peanuts.

To add to the ongoing spurts of beatles debate, i think i love george the most. he is great, and i love the song norweigan wood. I miss the old school sesame street, and my favorite skit thing they did was the one for the number 12, and it was the pinball machine animation and they sang….they made fun of it on family guy a few seasons back, and i almost cried from being so excited over the song.

Not to disrupt our Tgiving blast, but anyone else ANNOYED TO HELL by the new iPod commercial? Wow, you rhymed “friend” with “friend” and “bed”. Geez girl you must be a freakin’ genius. Where did they dig this up? Arrrgh my ears are bleeding. But its code red, so its all good.

James, the special they showed tonight was the last one Charles Schulz worked on. I read that he worked on the idea for the show, but didn’t complete the script. Interesting considering how it ends. It also did use 2D non-cel animation; it just looked odd compared to the style of animation for all of the original specials.

And greetings from another Yule Log forum poster; I post as “hmmm” over there. A shame about their forum web host. I hope they can get things resolved. It’s a terrible time for it to happen.

DJ D, sore subject with the Oprah show. We live not too far from Macon and Mrs. Manimal is kicking herself (REPEATEDLY) for not getting tickets. THEN IT TURNS OUT TO BE FAVORITE THINGS. Then she starts seeing people she knows on there, etc.
Once in a lifetime; could have been OUR major award

Oh well.

TerrorClawsCole I totally love that iopd commercial song….simply because it says that music is her imaginary friend….which is fucking AWESOME. plus it makes me dance, and i think it is funny because the original words say “music is my hot hot sex” and they had to censor it for the commercial. also, i watched really shitty TV today and thought about x-e the ENTIRE time. PS-I am getting drunk off of leftover wine from thanksgiving appetizer recipies. HALLELUJIAH FOR THE HOLIDAYS Love alwaysd-Leigha the drunk

PS-for anyone interested, i have decided that from now until the end of the christmas season anything that makes me happy or makes me laugh will be called a “christmas miracle” PRAISE BABY JESUS

fistpittingnork: I feel for you regarding your 7-Up search. I haven’t found it yet either. I’ll check a few more places later this week, err, maybe next week (considering we have Thanksgiving and Black Friday looming).

I’ve got half a bottle of 7-up pome I’ll sell. I miss you too Erik Majorwitz.

Leigha Yes!! The pinball skit was the best! And I saw it on Family Guy not too long ago too and had the same raction you did. That was so cool that they did that. I also really used to like the guy that would go around painting numbers on stuff, especially the one where he was in the pool and painted the number 8 on that guy’s head.

The Manimal, Oooh, that sucks! Sorry to bring that up. Ok, well I won’t mention all the stuff she gave away then. I’m sure you’ve heard about it already anyway.

fistpittingnork Thanks for that, but oh my god. When he got to the part where he said he wanted his mama to look good in case she met Jesus tonight…I mean, seriously. Wow. I kind of wish I had never heard that now.

Erik! How you been buddy?
Manimal, that stinks

Damn, Peppermint Patty is such a bitch. Lucy gets the rap as being the cranky one, but she did go to all the trouble of getting that extra candy for Linus…any other Arrested Development fans start laughing whenever Franklin shows up? I keep thinking he’s going to point out Charlie Brown’s cracker ass.
So I’m late for Beatles and MST3K talk

Thanks a lot, work and school. But at least I’m done with both for the week.
I happened to be passing a TRU this weekend, so I picked up Super Mario Galaxy with the $25 gift card deal (thanks for the tip!). Then of course I had to spend the $25, since I wouldn’t be at a TRU again, so I picked up the new Princess Bride and Jungle Book DVDs. Long story somewhat shorter, the Liverpudlian vultures near the end of Jungle Book were originally going to be even more Beatle-like. The song was all guitars before they switched it to barbershop style.
Question for everybody: Which commercials do a worse job emulating the Rankin-Bass style, Alltel Wireless or Food Network? Poor Giada cannot be flattered.

Nork: I found pomegranate 7-Up at the Moore Wal-Mart (well, technically I didn’t find it, my co-worker did, but that’s where she got it). Personally, I think it tastes too much like Sierra Mist Cranberry with a little more cherry flavoring. But that’s my opinion so take it as you will. Also, it’s way better with ice.

And tonight at Wal-Mart I found Hot Chocolate Pop Tarts! I don’t know if it’s seasonal or what because I don’t normally eat Pop Tarts, but I couldn’t find the Gingerbread, so this is good enough for me. For now.

Also… It’s SNOWING! Just yesterday it was 80 degrees in Oklahoma and now it’s SNOWING! Yay!

1. Do They Know it’s Christmas (Band-Aid)
2. Merry X-mas (John Lennon)
3. Blue Christmas (Elvis)

Nork: Yeah, about 5:40 this morning. If the fiance hadn’t been having car trouble and sitting in the parking lot with his headlights on, I would have missed it, too. haha But it was snow nonetheless!

Figures… the one day I get to “sleep in” until 6 (well, hit the snooze until 6:30) is the day it snows. Normally I leave about 5:45, but this one day…

with your love of things aquatic an 8 foot sea scorpion should be right up your alley

Manimal sorry but you and you wife missed getting a fridge with an lcd hdtv dvd built in the door! I just saw it on her site…OMG!!!! I did’nt mean to rub it in…also the taxes on those prizes must be bank breaking…they have to pay tazes when they get the gifts right?

Oh man, I went to reread the 1984 Macy’s parade article. I forgot how funny this was. I think most of the people involved in making that year’s parade were on drugs.

In a few minutes I have to go to lunch with annoying relatives. My fairly well-to-do aunt passed away a few months ago, and there’s been a split in the family over the will, so I don’t know exactly what they want to talk to us about. Plus they’re very preachy, religious, conservative types. Not that this makes them evil or anything, but I’m liberal and gay, which they don’t know, so I get to sit through awkward conversations that offend me but I can’t say anything about.

Oh well. At least it’ll just be me and my mom for Thanksgiving. I’m making real cranberry sauce for the first time this year! Yay!

Seeing as how it is 2 PM, I guess it is not morning anymore though…sleeping in on a wednesday…it must be a christmas miracle indeed!

thanksgiving parade article must be surely under wraps now. or in true close-call matt style, maybe not

So, spot any of the legacy commercials that signal the holiday yet? Wal-Mart has the Hershey’s Kisses bell-ringing one running on the in-store monitors here. Of course, Okies anticipate the BC Clark jingle like we’re all little kids again. But, that’s the point, isn’t it? We need a list of the traditional TV ads that have been coming back year after year. I still miss the Noel-co ad, though. Time to go You-Tubin’….

You know how most of my extra money plus I had to ask for donations for the care of my dying cat? Well, some of the guys on TFW2005 got together and just surprised me with MP Starscream, which I couldn’t even DREAM of getting for myself and I’ve been wanting BADLY for a long time.

I’m all crying and shaky and everything ’cause it was so great and SO unexpected and just…was so great of them, and I’m so touched and happy!!!!

I miss you too ERIK! How’s things?
Happy pre thanksgiving. I am baking a pie tonight and while I do so I will be cranking the jukebox. By the way, thanks so much for having that on here Matt.

That is sweet, Moony! Your fellow TFWer Ktulu got his hands on one the other day.

Congrats, Moony; it’s always good to have some cheer thrown your way, and that MP Starscream is friggin’ sweeter than pie….

…But what does MP mean? Military Police? Magic Points? I’m sort of lost…. o_o

It means ‘Masterpiece’. Japan started releasing ‘ultimate’ versions of the original characters, such as Optimus Prime, which was already brought over here as ‘20th Anniversary Optimus Prime’, and fans have been anticipating Starscream ever since he was released in Japan. The Japanese release, however, was painted an odd teal, so when Hasbro announced they were releasing it here, they specifically stated it would be ‘cartoon colors’, which made fans VERY happy! They’re expensive, limited to stock on hand, and the scalpers have been stripping stores as soon as the Starscreams arrive, so there was really no chance I was going to be able to get one.

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