SOUNDTRACK: A VERY SPECIAL CHRISTMAS 3 (1997).
Sarah had this album on cassette, so I recently upgraded it to CD for her. There are some good songs on here, but the end kind of degenerates into unpleasantness. Looking at the track listing of the rest of the Very Special Christmas releases I can;t imagine ever getting (or even listening to) another one.
STING-“I Saw Three Ships”
Sting is back. Compared to the previous song, this is a delightfully spare version of this song. And it’s quite nice (and short).
THE SMASHING PUMPKINS-“Christmastime”
I’ve recently realized how much I dislike Corgan’s voice, but I do like his arranging. This song is quite pretty and his voice is kind of submerged a bit so that’s good, too.
NATALIE MERCHANT-“Children Go Where I Send Thee”
O good Lord. Sarah and I both like Natalie, but jeez this song is so repetitive and so freaking long. One verse would have been fine. But five? Hold crap. I do like the “one for the little bitty baby” line, though.
REV RUN & THE CHRISTMAS ALL STARS FEATURING MASE, PUFF DADDY, SNOOP DOGGY DOGG, SALT-N-PEPA, ONYX & KEITH MURRAY-“Santa Baby” [NSFC]
Oh boy is this terrible. A horrible update to a horrible song. The original is kind of funny, but this is just excessive greed. At least it mentions a ’98 benz so it is so dated that no one plays it anymore.
NO DOUBT-“Oi to the World”
Gotta say that I love this song. It’s funny and fun and I would totally put this on a Christmas playlist. This is back when I used to like Gwen Steafani.
SHERYL CROW-“Blue Christmas”
I don’t like this song and I’m mixed on Sheryl Crow, but this version works pretty well somehow.
BLUES TRAVELER-“Christmas”
I only know Blues Traveler from that one song with the long harmonica solo (I hate that harmonica sound). But I love this song. It actually reminds me a ton of Tenacious D (can t you just hear Jack Black singing this?) It’s fun and really catchy. I wonder if I need to listen to other Blues Traveler songs.
ENYA-“Oíche Chiún (Silent Night)”
This song is very pretty and I have the single for it.
HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH-“The Christmas Song”
Darius Rucker does have a good voice, but what the hell is going on in this cheesy phoned-in version?
CHRIS CORNELL WITH ELEVEN-“Ave Maria”
This is a nice (if not over the top–but is any version not over the top?). But for heaven’s sake why is it 6 minutes long?
MARY J. BLIGE FEATURING ANGIE MARTINEZ-“Christmas in the City”
This is pretty much everything I hate in one Christmas song. Cheesy beats, rambling verses, whiny choruses.
JONNY LANG-“Santa Claus Is Back in Town”
This is pretty close to everything else I hate in one Christmas song. A blues song that feels like it goes on for 6 minutes. Good grief.
DAVE MATTHEWS & TIM REYNOLDS-“Christmas Song”
This live version sounds better than the studio version I have elsewhere, but it’s still way too slow and mumbly and way way too long.
STEVE WINWOOD-“Christmas Is Now Drawing Near at Hand”
No one knows this “traditional” song, I’m sure. It’s a slow English ballad, with no real melody. I thought it was Peter Gabriel. I kind of like it.
TRACY CHAPMAN-“O Holy Night”
This is an enjoyable version, understated and kind of weary-sounding.
PATTI SMITH-“We Three Kings”
My daughter rightly said that this version was very weird. Patti is at her most Patti. There’s aton of mumbled spoken word competing with the song. Even the chorus, which is so wonderfully catchy, is played like a dirge. And like everything else bad on this record, it goes on for nearly 6 minutes. CDs were bad for allowing people to sing for too long.
[READ: December 24, 2017] “Tripping Sunny Chaudhry”
Once again, I have ordered The Short Story Advent Calendar. This year, there are brief interviews with each author posted on the date of their story.
Hello. Welcome. It’s finally here: Short Story Advent Calendar time.
If you’re reading along at home, now’s the time to start cracking those seals, one by one, and discover some truly brilliant writing inside. Then check back here each morning for an exclusive interview with the author of that day’s story.
(Want to join in? It’s not too late. Order your copy here.)
This year I’m pairing each story with a holiday disc from our personal collection.
This story actually takes place on Christmas Eve!
The narrator and her husband head back to New Jersey for the holidays. Back when she was younger, all the kids would head out to the woods for beers and a bonfire.
Her husband is a good man: “He is a sweet and generous person. He can be selfish in just this one way, really. He falls asleep whenever he feels like it.”
So after dinner her husband falls asleep and she heads out to the woods. She follows the laughter.
It is twenty degrees and she only recognizes about half of the faces. Mostly because they are younger siblings of people she knows.
She is getting antsy, and then she sees an ex-boyfriend, Sean Martin. They didn;t know each other well in high school He was a troublemaker, a drinker . But he was tragic–an unstable mother and homeless father. They ran into each other at a party a year after school and dated for a while. It ended less than a year later when she left for a job in Seattle without telling him.
Sean is drunk and talking to some other guys. He is always telling some story.
He says the worst thing he ever did was to a boy named Sunny Chaudhry. (Pain in the ass, someone else mutters). Sunny was a geek, a goody-goody. The bell rang and Sunny had his pile of books and was running, looking like he was trying not to attract attention. This pissed off Sean for some reason and he tripped him, Sunny’s books sprawling across the floor.
Everyone laughs. And someone says that is no way the worst thing that he has ever done.
He says, but then he looked up and Mr Weaver (ugh) was staring right at him. And Weaver winked at him and did nothing. Sean says he felt like an asshole and tried to help Sunny, but Sunny wanted nothing to do with it.
Driving home, the narrator remembers Sunny and that he was, indeed, a geek. But he was also a real asshole. She recalls a debate class that went awry.
And this story weighs on her as she heads back to her husband.
I liked this story but I feel like I missed something–it felt like there was a point that I missed amid all of the drinking.
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