I have to laugh when I hear about some pure state of Christmas, whether it’s conservatives bemoaning the War on Christmas or just regular folk expressing some desire to get back to the Real Meaning of Christmas. Man, it’s a mutt of a holiday and always has been: a mix of Christian and pagan symbols, [...]
Kevin & Bean Kristmas: Getting Your Gift
[This is part of The John M. Higgins Memorial Xmasganza.] Continuing on yesterday’s post, here another pair of selections from the Kevin & Bean Christmas series. In 1998, the compilation was charmingly titled Santa’s Swingin’ Sack, complete with an almost obscene image of Jolly Old St. Nick on the cover. It contains one of my [...]
Kevin & Bean Kristmas: Chosen People in da House!
[This is part of The John M. Higgins Memorial Xmasganza.] Moving into the final stages of our holiday madness… One of the things John and I collected were the annual Kevin & Bean Christmas CDs. They’re the morning team at the radio station KROQ in Los Angeles, where they’ve been since 1989 (the same year [...]
Buon Natale dalla Famiglia
[This is part of The John M. Higgins Memorial Xmasganza.] John always used to joke that he was starting an organization called Adult Children of Functional Families. He got along with his parents (both now gone) and his siblings (his sister Megan also died way too young). For most of us, family relations are a [...]
Bombed for Christmas
[This is part of The John M. Higgins Memorial Xmasganza.] As mentioned, one of the highlights of Higgins’ memorial was playing some of his Christmas music. I definitely had a big grin on my face as, for example, the speakers blasted the cover of Jose Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad” done by El Vez (the Mexican Elvis) [...]
The Higgins Farewell Tour Continues…
On Tuesday, the memorial service for John M. Higgins was held up in New York City. I’m pleased I could participate. The event was held in the Viacom building, home to MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central, among other networks. John’s iPod was hooked up to the stereo system, which would have pleased him. I also [...]
Studio 60: Week 11
I was talking to my friend Dave last night about Studio 60. We both agreed that this week’s episode (“The Christmas Show”) was quite good. I made the point that on some of Sorkin’s past work, there would be moments that you would wish would happen in real life. For example, on The West Wing, [...]
Wishing You A’ Irie Christmas
[This is part of The John M. Higgins Memorial Xmasganza.] Two wicked reggae jeggae selections for yuuts. Ya nuh see it? But first, I wanted to say this: As I was listening to some of Higgins’ CDs today, wading through selections, a friend of mine stopped by. He made a disparaging remark about reggae. Granted, [...]
Rockin’ around whatever you got.
[This is part of The John M. Higgins Memorial Xmasganza.] suddenly, tammy! had the guitar-less rock trio format before Ben Folds Five. BFF had more commercial success, but if you think about it, they weren’t any more productive. ST put out a couple EPs and two albums (their third album, Comet, was recorded but never [...]
Charlie Brown Must Die.
Via Panopticist, here’s the alternate ending to A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) And a golden oldie from last year, A Charlie Brown Kwanzaa. Worth repeating, because it was recommended to me by Higgins. Tags: A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Charlie Brown Kwanzaa