Love. Whether it's religious or secularist, capitalist or communist, optimist or nihilist, it's the time of year where everyone needs to "chill" and appreciate those we love and those who love us.
If Halloween is any indication, this is going to be a terrific holiday season. The Hipwaders took to the pavement and pumpkin patch to bring audiences our Halloween tunes and - little did the kids & families know - the songs from our next album. Yep, the songs are written and we performed the next album in it's entirety several times over the month. We go into the studio in January and for the first time actually have the songs arranged and even the running order figured out. Now, of course, things could always change (say, if a killer new song is brought to us by the muses...) but for now we're extremely happy. We'll divulge more later...
In the meantime, we're happy to note that our holiday album, "A Kindie Christmas" just won a NAPPA Honors Award. The best part of the award was the review that accompanied it: I’ve always said that Christmas albums should rock out. There are plenty of traditional albums out there filled with sleigh bells and “Drummer Boy,” but there are none that we know of that feature a song called “Santasploitation,” where Mr. Claus himself is the rock star! The funked-up “It’s Wintertime” truly captures the hip-kid feeling of Christmas. From there, we taste a bit o’ country in “Santa’s Train” and the fun doesn’t stop there. The album gets progressively more and more rockin’, with some nice poignancy coming through in “Tinsel and Lights” that better describes the Christmas scene than traditional songs do. Complete with full rock band, distorted guitars and even a little country twang here and there, this album is the Little Miss Sunshine of kids’ CDs. (Don’t worry. There’re a few sleigh bells on this album, too!)
I had to laugh at the "Little Miss Sunshine of kids' CDs" bit as it seems to infer we have no problem letting our freak flag fly. Which we don't. Or, as one reviewer said of "Little Miss Sunshine":
"Little Miss Sunshine teaches us to embrace that middle ground, acknowledging that life may just be a beauty pageant, where we're often going to be outdone by someone prettier, smarter, or just plain luckier, but if we get up on that stage and be ourselves, everything will turn out fine."
It was just like Christmas when AM Radio broadcast it's first piece of music. Well, actually, it really was. Christmas Eve, 1906 was the first time that music was broadcast on the radio.
Reginald Fessenden was a brilliant Canadian inventor who got his start working for Thomas Edison and through his life received hundreds of patents in radio, sonar and television. After demonstration of a new alternator-transmitter at his transmitting station in Brant Rock, Massachusetts, a few days earlier, "Fezzie" (as he was called) broadcast the first radio show at 9pm on December 24th, 1906. Fezzie laid down some smooth patter (unknown if he sounded like Wolfman Jack) and then had to read some bible verses after his wife and secretary got mic fright which resulted in the first case of "dead air" on the radio. Besides playing Edison's cylindar recording of Handel's "Largo", Fezzie pulled out his violin, and, in the first "live on the radio" performance played, "O Holy Night".
Reportedly, the main audience for this first ever radio show was a number of shipboard radio operators along the Atlantic Coast. This landmark broadcast was barely noted and soon forgotten. Ouch! I guess Fezzie wasn't much of a violinist. Or perhaps his over-use of sound effects and gimmicks such as slide-whistle, bike horn and his incessant, "What's up, New England?!", was a listener turn off. In any event, I can't think of a better tune than "O Holy Night" to be the first song ever performed live on the radio.
"O Holy Night" is a righteous tune that I previously expressed my admiration for and wrote about (see December 24th, 2008 post). It was composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to accompany the French poem, "Minuit, Chretiens" which I think might mean, "One Minute, You Cretins" or "Midnight, Christians". I'm not really sure as I don't read or speak French.
Today is Adolphe Adam's birthday and I really think the guys deserves a salute. Besides writing one of the most beautiful melodies in the world, he's well-known for his Operas (e.g. "Si J'Etais Roi), and (besides, "O Holy Night"), most notably his ballet, "Giselle".
Young Adolphe preferred to improvise music rather that study seriously. He studied organ and harmonium at the Paris Conservatoire. After playing triangle in the Conservatoir Orchestra and not winning the Grand Prix de Rome, his father discouraged his choice of a music career. Many students since have realized the lack of potential stardom from playing triangle. However, Adolphe got the last laugh after making a name for himself in the music world as a composer. It's a lesson to be learned that proficient technical skills on an instrument won't neccessarily put money in your pocket. Adolphe learned that you've got to write a hit.
One of my favorite things about being a kids/family music performer is that I get to meet a lot of other like-minded performers. Eric Herman has taken advantage of this and frequently meets and records other performers during his travels. Last year I had the privilege of getting a call from Ava Scofield who records under the name Ava & The Mystic Mangos. Ava told me she found out about me from a young girl that had sang on her previous album who stated that The Hipwaders were her favorite band. Easily swayed by flattery, I quickly agreed to Ava's request to sing on the album she was currently recording. It was the most difficult but thrilling vocal experience I've ever had. I would never consider myself "singer" but more of a vocal "stylist" and with that mindset tried to fit my voice to her music. Her music was performed by top-caliber jazz, classical, blues and pop musicians and I understood that I couldn't slack through the recording session. Ava was a great musical director and would ask me to sing phrases a multitude of ways. It really opened my eyes of what I was actually capable of doing with some direction and try to use that experience when I sing now.
Ava's album, "Jam 'n' Jive", covers the world of a child of earth - from the smallest bug to the great Blue Whale. You can check out my goofy vocal contribution on the interactive title track, or a more "serious" me on my favorite track, "Sailin' With a Whale". I love her "Sowbug" song that goes from gentle nursery rhyme to trip hop and back. The song grooves and grooves hard. The album peaks with a bunch of amazing young singers trading lines on the kid-empowerment song, "Millions of Voices". In a world of overly auto-tuned crap like the Jonas Brothers and other you-name-it Disney acts, it's refreshing to hear young talents that can actually sing.
A while back my boys were telling me they wanted to have their own webcast which suprised me as they rarely sing, act or otherwise perform when asked. I figure they got the idea from one of their favorite T.V. shows, iCarly, and saw that it could be a lot of fun. Within a few days of them asking, I came across Gwyneth Butera's daughters' (The Gooney Bird Kids) "webcast", "The GBK Zoo". Featuring kid music reviews, cooking, and some random dancing, the show was a hit with my boys. I was quickly motivated to head out to the garage and see if I could could up with some music specifically for the show. Inspired by the Gooney Bird Kids and their exhuberant antics, I was able to write and record a 30 second theme for the show and quickly sent it out to them. They've used it on their last 4 shows and I love the way the vocal and instrumental versions weave in and out of the show. Right now the show is on hiatus as the gang is vacationing in France. Meanwhile check their show out GBKZoo and perhaps when they get back we'll have a "GBKLourve" episode. Sorry, I couldn't resist...
"Take a while to laugh and smileand say, 'Hey, what a ride!'"
That's what Eric Herman sings on his latest CD release, "What A Ride!", and he couldn't be giving out better advice. "What A Ride!" is a sweet ride that goes from the existential to the absurd and finds humor in the mundane.
My family was fortunate to have Eric and his family as a house guest last year during one of his tours through the country and I gained some insight into the Endres family and what makes the world of "Eric Herman" keep spinning.
Eric and his wife, Roseann, are truly partners in his music. Besides acting as a sounding-board for his ideas, Roseann is also a lyricist, artist and animator. His daughters are his muses who are very enthusiastic about their father's music - as they should. The family is able to travel and enjoy "the ride" together - something that many of us can only dream of.
While staying with us, Eric asked me to say a few phrases into his recorder and even cajoled my son, Aidan, into speaking into his microphone - a very hard task I've rarely been able to accomplish since his was a toddler. Our "work" appears on his CD and I love seeing Aidan's name and mine together on the same album. Back when Aidan was a toddler, he had no problem talking or singing into a microphone but once he started grade school he seemed to become a bit self-conscious. He sang on my first "kid/family" album, "The Smile Project", which was cool, but my favorite recording of him and I was a cover we did in 2001 of Blue Oyster Cult's "Go Go Godzilla". I had a blast grabbing bits of dialog from old Godzilla movies and we created a tribute to the movies that Aidan loved at the time. Check it out:
As Gunnar Madsen says in the song, "Now, what's in this here Goodie Bag?" Truth is we ran out of room to put the reviews of our "Goodie Bag" EP on our website. Hey, it's a cheap site and we'd rather spend the money on recording music and stuff!
Anway, I think I can add new reviews from time to time to this blog so I'll post the links here instead of making our cluttered website even more cluttered:
So, our Christmas album is finally recorded and mixed thanks to the hard work and discerning ear of Robert Cheek. Next Friday I hope to have the project mastered and then we'll go about getting the art done and the cd manufactured in time for the holidays. I had a lot of fun finishing up the recording and mixing but the best experience I had was hearing some music by a new artist that absolutely floored me. Jules is a local Sacramento musician who goes by the name, "Sea of Bees". Now I don't know what it is about the word "bee" but many of my favorite albums have the word in it. From a recent favorite "The Bird and the Bee" album, to my favorite Soft Boys album, "Can of Bees", to the best Guided by Voices album, "Bee Thousand", I think it might be impossible to have a bad album with the word "bee" in it and I know that the "Sea of Bees" album will be no exception. The story goes that while on break from recording with the band she's in as a side person, Jules was singing and strumming away on guitar when John Baccigaluppi, The Hangar studio owner and engineer, heard Jules and asked her if she'd like to make a record. And so they are. I was privileged enough to be asked to come into the small recording room they were working in to hear some of the tracks they had in progress. I was blown away by the quality of the songs and Jules quirky, inviting voice. John's arrangements are inventive and perfectly frame Jules' voice and the songs. I've heard at least half the album now and can say that "Sea of Bees" has a big future ahead.
Fortunately, Luxury Wafers (awesome blogsite...check out the amazing bands, including one of my favorites, The Heartless Bastards) was able to film Jules performing a few of her songs live at The Hangar.
Sorry Dads, but Mommies just may have an edge when it comes to superhero attributes. It's just Dads have the better PR department while Moms' accomplishments are much more inglorious.
Fortunately, we have a day to give Mom her due and sing her praises...which we in The Hipwaders are more than happy to do: Always Mom - The Hipwaders
Life's richest moments and memories usually consist of both the good and the bad, the Yin & Yang, the sweet & sour. The bittersweet does provide the best memories and The Hipwaders just had that kind of a show.
The City of Suisun put on a Kid Festival yesterday and event chairperson Anita Skinner did her best to provide local kids and families with an awesome event. Cities are usually only able to put on one kid-oriented event a year and yesterday was that day.
But, it rained.
Now, normally, that'd be the end of the story. People wouldn't show up. Vendors would rue the day they paid their fee to hawk their wares as families won't show up to an event if a downpour is in the forecast. With us it's a little different. Fortunately, the rain let up about an hour prior to our show and we were able to set up. Surprisingly, Lt. Governor John Garamendi showed up to the event as he had a meeting with the local city politicos later that day. Our friend, Alan Blondin, did think that Garamendi went a little overboard with the Stormtrooper security.
I had the chance to speak with the Lt. Governor and took the opportunity to ask that he lend an ear to the concern of my fellow paramedics who don't have the power that police and fire unions have to highlight issues important to their profession. He reminded me of his role in the 1982 California State Senate bill that led to the licensing of paramedics. I also thanked him for his role as State Insurance Comissioner and Prop 103 in his fight to end corruption in the insurance industry that led to massive rebates in fees to car and homeowners.
Word on the street is John Garamendi may be running for Governor next year. I think he got The Hipwader vote when he introduced us to the crowd at the Suisun Harbor.
While "crowd" perhaps isn't the right word, people showed up from as far away as Sacramento and Brentwood. It's always fun to see our friend Alex rocking out. We were also happy he requested "Field Trip" off our new cd. It's probably our favorite song to play. So while the people danced away - as a did a giant Subway sandwich (?) - we were able to have fun for and hour and a half until the rain returned and we had to cut the gig short. It was supposed to be a 3 hour tour!
We promised Anita Skinner we'd do all we could to help her in her quest to get Suisun City to have another kid-focused day this summer. While most of the planned events got rained out and the vendors got soaked (pun intended) we had a blast and got to meet up with old fans and made some new ones, too. Oh, yeah, and the Lt. Governor asked for business cards. We also hooked him up with some cds (he's got 10 grandchildren). Perhaps The Hipwaders will be performing at a family function at the California State Capitol for "Governor John Garamendi".
I got the library bug from our rural school's weekly visits from the bookmobile. While in the midst of National Library Week we should point out that Melvil Dewey directed the first library program in the country at Columbia College in 1887. Best known for his system of classifying books, his greatest achievement was probably his invention of the hanging vertical filing system which premiered at the 1893 Columbia Exposition in Chicago.
The bookmobile went and lost a wheel Crashed into my room I fell in the book deposit bin I could not swim I was so scared so unprepared I cried HELP
Ivan librarian gave me a card He said this will take you places Besides where you are Head for the future Or go to the past A library card will get you there really fast
I decided to spread the word About what I’d heard So I fixed that wheel on the busted bookmobile Backed out of my room With good cheer I gathered all to hear What I’d been told
CHORUS
Dewey has ten classes each class has ten divisions each divided on and on
First there’s generalities Philosophy, psychology Religion, social science, languages
Next up there’s math and science Medicine, technology Arts like music, clowns & puppetry
At the end there’s literature Geography and history The biography of Mr. Melvil Dewey...
Although our new CD isn't supposed to be officially released until April 7th, I though it was time to let everyone have a listen. Here's every track in glorious lo-fi. Buy the CD for true hi-fidelity and the neat album cover by Brian Clarke:
Now if you want some of the back story on this here album, here you go.
With the current way music is distributed and listened to, we've realized albums seem to be on the way out. Prior to 1965 and The Beatles "Rubber Soul" album from which no singles were released, pop/rock albums were - for the most part - a collection of hits with some filler added to pad out a release. Now, with easily accessible downloads and portable mp3 players, it seems like single songs are what interest people the most. It's pre-1965 all over again. We'd hate to put out a full length release and have difficulty selling it as, in reality, we've actually sold very few albums. Our downloads have slowly increased over time and we felt the best option is to release mini-albums. With a mini-album, we can record more frequently and at less expense.
We've actually been able to record 95% of our next release, a Christmas album, with the money we've saved.
Anyway, we hope you enjoy the "Goodie Bag", who's title came about when my family went and saw "Space Chimps" last fall (Chimpanzees in space? Come on, it's comedy gold.). During one of the scenes a character inquires about "goodie bags" and that set me off thinking how it'd be a great title for a song, album title and even a band name.
To record the album, we set off for The Hangar up in nearby Sacramento. Run by John Baccigaluppi, The Hangar is a funky warehouse that is home to Tape Op magazine - the best magazine on recording ever! The Hangar is a comfortable recording environment where a skateboard ramp is situated in almost every room.
Our engineer, Bryce Gonzales, had us record live (Nick Baca - drums, Tito - guitar, DJ Kinville - bass) which wasn't as hard as I expected as we had been performing most of the songs live for the past year. Unfortunately, Bryce had to leave the sessions when the opportunity to record freak-folk cult hero, Devendra Banhart arose.
After a hiatus of a couple of months we able to get another engineer,Robert Cheek, to come in and record the vocals and a few overdubs. As Robert had actually recorded the Deftones' cool version of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy"in the same studio, we felt we were in capable hands.
We quickly recorded the overdubs and mixed the album and then headed own the hall to MonsterLab Audio for mastering by the golden-eared, Eric Broyhill and his insanely friendly dog, Gypsy.
We not only enjoyed the laid-back recording vibe in Sacramento, but the local restaurants are really good and sometimes you're lucky and come across some cool photo ops:
THE SONGS:
1. BIRTHDAY RUCKUS. This song came about when we tried recording our samba-esque version of "Happy Birthday" in our garage rehearsal space as a birthday greeting for Evalyn Harper. She's the daughter of Oklahoma childrens' music performer Monty Harper - whose guide to kid-friendly radio shows is indispensible - and his wife, Lisa Harper. Lisa has a terrific podcast, Kid Music Planet, and was asking for children's music performers to just record a quick little message to wish Evalyn a happy 7th birthday. Anyway, our attempt at recording a greeting failed and when the other guys left I drank some coffee and sat down with my guitar and quickly came up with this ditty. When I sent it to Lisa I even told her I was gonna re-record it with my band as I really liked it. So, Evalyn, thanks for the inspiration!
2. FIELD TRIP. Probably our most popular live song. As a father with two young sons in elementary school, I've been on my fair share of field trips. Some lame, some pretty cool. With the budget crunch schools have been experiencing, I thought about what kind of field trips schools could have if they had Pentagon-sized budgets.
I'm a huge fan of songwriter, Scott Miller, of Game Theory/Loud Family. I had to give him some props by alluding to the first song I ever heard by him when his band was operating out of nearby Davis, CA. It's in the second verse where I mention his song, "Nine Lives to Rigel Five".
3. ALWAYS MOM. My mother passed away when I was young and never got to know her as an adult. Therefore, in my eyes, she will always be young, beautiful and saintly. My own wife is a terrific mother who tireless attention to our children is amazing. With both of them as an inspiration along with all the mothers who make the trek to our shows with kids in tow, I knew I had to write of songs for mothers everywhere.
4. PRELUDE TO A THING. A palate cleanser from all the upbeatness!
5. THINGS YOU WANT. Brian Boyd is a friend I've had since high school. He's smart, funny, and very creative and is the most interesting person I know to converse with. We had agreed to record some demos of song ideas he had floating around and said he'd send me some stuff. What he sent was a full 90 minute cassette (?!) of song (in varying stages of completion), jokes, vocal impersonations, and what-not. I picked out about a dozen songs I really liked. One partial song that really caught my ear was, "Things You Want". It was an upbeat romp with a terrific melody and a cool verse and chorus to which I added a bridge and another verse. I was hoping to record it in the style of NRBQ and even tried to do my best Terry Adams clavinet imitation. It doesn't sound anything like NRBQ.
6. MY NEW CAMERA. I remember when I got to use cameras as a kid and how much I enjoyed taking pictures. With their compositionally-challenged skills, kids can take some awesome pictures of headless parents and siblings with missing limbs. I thought I'd try and capture some of the joy I feel with taking pictures and especially had fun with the Free Design-type vocals.
7. WHAT'S THAT NOISE? Inspired by the Don Knott's movie, "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken", I decided to create a Halloween song about someone spending the night in a haunted mansion. Using music from a song I'd previously attempted to record a couple times before without success, we were finally able to come up with an arrangement that worked. Like, "Things You Want" it has the close harmony singing I love doing with Nick.
8. GOODIE BAG. The title track that was inspired by the Space Chimps movie. I'm not sure when the tradition of handing out goodie bags at birthday parties came about, but I know I didn't get diddley squat when I attended birthdays as a kid.
We were fortunate enough to have our super-talented friend, Gunnar Madsen, add some vocals to our recording. When I wrote the song I was having so much fun playing and singing it I felt like I should scat. I quickly realized scatting should be left up to professionals. Having remembered that Gunnar Madsen was the singing voice of Sammy Davis Jr., in a Rat Pack biopic on HBO I contacted him and he agreed to sing. Trekking on down to his place in Berkeley, I was privileged to watch him lay down numerous vocal tracks. Each pass was different and hilarious and I wished we didn't have to stop and choose just one. It would have been great to have videotaped the session and strung all the bits together. Coulda got Gunnar placed on a psychiatric hold:
So that's it. A goodie bag collection of audio trinkets we hope you'll have fun passing time with. And, although it won't officially be out until April 7th, if you've made it this far you can find downloads and/or purchase the cd now at these places:
The Hipwaders' drummer Nick Baca is an art teacher at a local High School and has seen many creative students come through his classes. One of those students, Anna Wagner, is a terrific artist, photographer and now music video artist. Here's here visual version of our song "Cat in a Bathysphere" from our last album, "Educated Kid".
After having become enamored with drawings of her own cat, "Rat Cat", and having seen her stop-animation line drawings of said cat tip-toeing through the tulips, we asked Anna to see what she could do with Rat Cat manning the controls of a bathysphere (actually a bathyscaphe which is actually much more navigational but didn't sound so good singing).
After extensive drawing and watercoloring, Rat Cat is ready for his/her (I really don't know!) closeup:
Well, from our angle. We're getting ready to back into the studio - here forward to be known as "Santa's Audio Workshop". It's actually The Hangar in Sacramento. Santa's Little Helper will be Robert "Flossy" Cheek, who'll be recording us and creating the proper festive audio mood.
We've got 9 original tracks that will celebrate the Christmas season. Yeah, we're not getting into that politically correct argument about "Merry Christmas" vs. "Happy Holiday" and try and please everyone with Hannukah/Kwanzaa/Baby Jesus songs. This will be purely secular. I like everything about "the holidays". Sure, I like the Hannukah stuff - the principles of Kwanzaa can't be beat - and the Christian holiday tunes are top-notch. But boy-oh-boy do I like me my Santa Claus and the commercialism, too. I like the tinsel & lights and garish plastic decorations and the giant inflatable penquins and the crowds in the mall. I like seeing the rude frantic shoppers trying to finish up their Christmas shopping. Why? I'm not really sure. Probably because it reminds me of my childhood. It's like a circus that comes once a year and I'm that innocent kid who's fascinated by all the hoopla and magic. It's the time of year when you get in touch with the family and friends you've lost touch with throughout the year and remember why your friends are your friends and your family...well...is your family.
So, come this Friday, I'm going to try and cram all those feelings into my head/heart/fingers and hands and create an audio recording that represents those feelings. Wish us luck..and a Merry Christmas.
As we wait the many, many months until "The Holidays";-) , here's a video from a telethon we performed at for on our local cable access station here in Vacaville. It's a great little town that has a wonderful downtown yearly tree-lighting ceremony and a very cool neighborhood called "Candy Cane Lane" where every house is exquisitely decorated.
"The Hipwaders have a clean yet hard driving sounds that’s very garage rock — if the garage was clean and organized and had piles of toys stacked in colorful bins. (They) all have a great rapport both with one another and their audiences, and humor is omnipresent."
While I can’t argue with that description - and I actually agree with it - I approached the shows with trepidation. As I roamed the school grounds prior to our first show I noted a recital was taking place in a nearby classroom. Young students where performing classical works on violin and piano with professionalism way beyond their years. While I never “studied” music as I should have, I did take piano lessons as a kid. I learned just enough to read music v e r y s l o w l y. At fifteen I learned guitar out of a book and began writing songs. I no longer needed to read music to enjoy playing and my instrumental skills have progressed at a snails pace as I view musical instruments as merely tools to write songs.
Therefore, my musical inferiority complex reared it’s head and I felt strange about performing in a place where “musicians” studied and guest performers where technically proficient way beyond me. I though of other times where I felt I was “outed”. There’s a Bay Area promoter who likes to joke(?) with me every time he books a show with us by saying he “knows” that we’re just punk rockers disguised as children’s music performers.
I have to blame Lenny Kaye for all of this as he was the compiler of the original “Nuggets” 2LP set back in 1972 that brought attention to 1960's American garage pop/punk rock. I had the privilege of meeting Lenny when we shared the Kidzapalooza stage at Lollapalooza 2007. Lenny’s the longtime guitarist for punk/poetess icon, Patti Smith. I told him how influential Nuggets was to me and that it had ruined my ability to appreciate commercial music. He said, “Your welcome.”
So, back to our shows at the Community School of Music and Arts. It didn’t help we started our sets off with our most popular song, “Educated Kid”. Ironically, it’s our simplest song consisting of just 3 chords ( A, D & G, if you must know). I don’t think any more than 3 people in attendance had even heard the song but the crowd quickly caught the groove and clapped along. I relaxed and both shows rocked. The kids and parents were into it and any feelings of inadequacy never materialized.
I sent an email thanking the staff for having us and I was sent an email back that they received from a concert goer. It was a note from a grandmother who had brought two young grandchildren who “loved the show” and she was “amazed two children could sit in their chairs for so long.”
The best part of the note was at the end when she writes that she was planning to have the children start taking music lessons at the school, “but now they love to take rock music”.
Ha! Now I know how Lenny Kaye feels. A small part of me thinks it’s wrong to have corrupted a couple of innocent children. But mostly I feel like: #*%& YEAH!!!
2008 was a great year for The Hipwaders. Thanks to our fans we did well enough to build up a very nice band account to pay for the recording costs for our forthcoming EP, "The Goodie Bag". We had enough in our account (let's call the account, "Santa") that Santa brought us gifts for Christmas. I got this:
This sweet Danelectro 12-string electric guitar will be used extensively on our "Kindie Christmas" album that we're currently at the rehearsal/arranging stage.
Yep. I do like me my kisses. All of ‘em: Butterfly, Eskimo, French - even that blown kiss I nonchalantly catch in my right hand and then toss to the ground just to be cheeky.
Fortunately, Christmas affords us the excuse to kiss whilst under thy mistletoe. Dating back to Greek mythology, mistletoe is thought to be The Golden Bough of Aeneas, ancestor of the Romans. Like I care. It’s lip-smacking time, baby. Don’t need no reason.
How a parasitic life-form became something to celebrate (besides children) has something to do with the fact it bears fruit during the Winter Solstice and may have been used by the Druids during Winter Sosltice celebrations as a symbol of immortality.
The custom of having to kiss when under the mistletoe is believed to be of Scandinavian origin. That’s fine with me as I’m 1/4 Danish and don’t need any more excuse than that.
As today is the first day of Hanukkah, it's time to celebrate the fact that many Jews are willing to help out with the Christmas experience.
Many of the greatest Christmas “standards” were written by Jewish songwriters. I’m talking about Christmas classics such as “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)”, “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow", “Santa Baby”, “Silver Bells”, “White Christmas”, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”, and trust me, our beloved “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was no gentile. If you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em seems to be the attitude here and we’re all the better for it. It’s tough to compete with Christmas and the best way to cope with the holiday is with humor:
“Have A Jewish Christmas...?” was a comedy album by Brenner & Blitzer (sounds like bench-warming Reindeer) that made fun of fellow Jews who secretly celebrated Christmas. Ray Brenner & Barry Blitzer were a successful comedy-writing team for such shows as McHale’s Navy, Andy Griffith, Get Smart, and Gomer Pyle.
My favorite cut from the album is entitled “Christmas Cards” and features the mysteriously named Reginald X. Carlisle as Hall Markowitz. Supposedly, the pseudonym was to protect the identity of popular comedian, Arte Johnson who was under contract to “Laugh-In” at the time.
Christmas Cards - Brenner & Blitzer (1967) Now go out and enjoy the 25th day of Kislev commemorating the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE., because really...why not?
So we just decorated our recently acquired 7&1/2 foot silver tip Christmas Tree.As a kid we had a silver aluminum Christmas tree for years until my familyprocured a green plastic tree. In the picture you can see and enjoy the kitschywonderfulness of our original tree.
Note: parents, do not dress your children like this.
As we kids got older we rebelled and insisted we get a “real” tree. So ourparents got us a small tree to decorate but the large plastic tree still heldthe place of honor in the living room.As an adult our tree has been decorated with my wife’s classic-style ornamentsclashing with my pop culture taste (a Yellow Submarine, various rockinstruments, Classic Christmas TV Specials, etc...). Now, with children it hastaken an increasingly bizarre turn for novelty with no less than 3 differentGodzilla ornaments and a Monster Inc. ornament where I replaced Boo’s lost headwith a Pikmin character’s head. My wife’s traditional glass Santa Claus ornaments cower in fear. Of course, the boys think it’s thecoolest ornament ever.
Let’s give thank to the good pastor Henry Schwan of Cleveland, Ohio for startingthis Christmas Tree decorating thing back in 1851 and enjoy some of the coolerChristmas Tree Tunes.
Christmas Trees had a hard time getting accepted during their history. Thechurch considered them pagan. I think the pagans would’ve loved these tworockabilly numbers about Christmas Trees (that’s how they rolled):
According to the Dutch, Santa’s Birthday is Dec. 6th. Sinterklaas (that’s St. Nicholas to you and me) comes to the Netherlands from Spain via steamboat two weeks prior to his birthday along with his helper, Zwarte Piet (Black Pete).
Why this story hasn’t been made into a TV series or Hollywood movie yet is beyond me. This is fascinating stuff. First, the idea of Santa kicking it in Ibiza rather than the frozen north makes for a much more commercially interesting backdrop (worked wonders for Baywatch, didn’t it?). I’m sure Santa would rather dine on tapas and Paella rather than seal and whale blubber - and venison would no longer be on the culinary “no-fly” list.
Other than Aurora Borealis, the North Pole just isn’t as interesting as Spain. Songwriters have had to work hard to make Santa’s digs at the pole interesting. Case in point:
Obviously the idea of travel by steamboat would need to be updated to a speedboat, or better yet - hovercraft!
Probably the most fascinating aspect of the entire story is how Santa’s got a “Man Friday” named Black Pete to assist him in the delivery of the presents. This is classic buddy flick material folks, following such multi-ethnic genre predecessors as Poitier & Curtis, Nolte & Murphy, and ...uh, Crockett & Tubbs. Let’s face it, while making his rounds Santa’s holding some serious stash and needs some muscle to watch his back. Elves aren’t that intimidating and a sidekick opens up so many more storyline options.
Are you getting up before the dawn to make it to the mall to get the deals that will make your Christmas bright? Not me. I’m staying in bed. However, I feel your sense of urgency and in an effort to assist you with your shopping may I provide a soundtrack?
Here's my favorite song about Christmas shopping. It's by the The Ambassador Chorale and Players, a group of session singers who recorded under a bunch of different names for cheap record labels during the 1960's. Now, keep your head low, elbows out and go shop!: Christmas Rush- The Ambassador Chorale and Players
While this song is not about shopping, it does have the manic energy needed to navigate your way through the aisles and smiles(?) of your fellow shoppers. From the year 1950, it’s the always fun and giddy Andrews Sisters who also made some real swell Christmas records with Bing Crosby. The song fits in with my last post about Jingle Bells as without that song there would be no:
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extremely happy. We'll divulge more later...
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