Merry Christmas Music

The music take since we last spoke ...

Please Come Home For Christmas by Charles Brown, a classic R&B collection.

What's It Gonna Be, Santa? by Chicago, a retooled version of their Christmas release Chicago 25.

A Christmas Together by John Denver and the Muppets. Suprisingly good stuff. Except for the John Denver songs.

Let There Be Peace On Earth by Vince Gill. He has a great voice, but it can get to you after awhile, it's so high.

Christmas To Christmas by Toby Keith. Before he became big. Not too bad, better than your routine Country Christmas project.

The Christmas Album by Gladys Knight and the Pips. Not as good as I would have hoped. Sounds like some if it was drawn from a TV special.

Christmas with the Looney Toons by the Looney Toons. Not Mel Blanc. He is missed.

Christmas Is ... by Johnny Mathis. Very good late-era Mathis.

Sharing the Holidays with Frank Sinatra by Sinatra. Sinatra before he started doing Sinatra. Very good for a budget knockoff. I really enjoy this album.

Touched By An Angel: The Christmas Album by Various. I got it for one track: One Silent Night by Jaci Velasquez. The rest is OK, but what's up with Della Reese's expression on the cover?!

Austin Rhythm And Blues Christmas by Various. Some great songs, (including 2 by the Fabulous Thunderbirds), but not all the tracks are strictly speaking R&B.

Humble King: Christmas Around the World by Various. Nicely done, acoustic and low-key tracks.

Merry Axemas Vol. 2 by Various. To go along with my Merry Axemas Vol. 1, of course!

Rhythm & Blues Christmas Volume 2. Very, very good. I have to hunt down Volume 1 now.

Ultimate R&B Christmas Vols. 1 and 2. If you have James Brown's Funky Christmas (like I do), Volume 1 will complete your collection of JB Christmas songs with "It's Christmastime Part 1".

There. That wasn't so much, was it?

-Zube.

P.S. To whomever reads this board (that means you, Steff!), have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and I hope you find peace and love and joy and salvation, as I have.

Isaiah 9:6

I'm an uncle!

My brother and his wife had their baby over the weekend, on Friday. It was a boy, as expected, and John Henry (insert hammer comment here) weighed in at 6 pounds 1 ounce. He was long, but I don't remember how long.

He was a little premature, but not as preemie as was first thought. They had thought they were due Jan. 27, but it turns out it was DEC. 27! So just 2 weeks early, instead of 7.

This is my first uncleship, an appointment I hope I can carry out with aplomb and verisimilitude. (That's just jibberish, by the way).

My brother called today and the baby's still in the hospital, with jaundice now. I warned him! Our daughter got hospitalized with jaundice about a week after the birth, probably due to the drugs they gave my wife when she was in labor. It's no big deal, I assured my brother. Happens all the time. John (which is apparently what they've taken to calling him) is under the bright lights to break down the excess bilirubin in his blood. Probably be ready to take him home by the end of the week, I'm guessing.

So now it's my brother's turn to fend with a baby/toddler! This should be fun!

-Zube.

More music musings

Not Christmas music this time (although I suggest if you have a Sam Goody in your location and want cheap Christmas music, go visit their "3 for $10" bin ... some of these CDs ring up at $0.99 ... I got the old Stevie Wonder Christmas album, Al Green, the Temptations and a great Nick at Nite soundtrack for It's A Wonderful Life! Also, if you belong to the record clubs, Columbia House is offering all their Christmas stuff for $4.99. Also, need a place that can direct you to good Christmas music? Try Christmas Reviews and Mistletunes).

No, I'm her to talk about my favorite Christian rock group, Third Day. They were on "60 Minutes Wednesday" last night ... and I MISSED IT!! I forgot they were going to be part of a story about Christian music. But I found the piece here ... go take a look. It also includes P.O.D. and the rapper Kanye West.

It was interesting, nice things said, but they seemed (to me) to be trying to generate some controversy or rift between bands and artists that go "mainstream" and those still over in what some call the "Christian ghetto."

I for one love it when more people get to hear Christian rock on "their" turf. It's less threatening and more "authentic." Let's face it, for years Christian "rock" was pretty cheesy. I have a few old collections of music, the WoW CDs in particular, which were really bad.

The past few years, the music has gotten good, with P.O.D. and Switchfoot considered legitimate rock acts, Stacie Orrico a respected R&B singer, even U2 being recognized for their Christian proclivities.

Make great music, yes, and don't deny your beliefs. That's a good formula, and if it draws "mainstream" audiences, all the better.

-Zube.

Crown me!

So I got a crown today.

It's my first. I've never even had cavities, so this was quite an experience. The numbness is gone, but my jaw still is sore. It's going to take some getting used to.

I had a cracked molar. The dentist thinks it's because I grind my teeth in my sleep. And bad news: The tooth next to it also looks cracked. Here comes another crown, probably!

So here I sit, eating soft food on the other side of my mouth with a low-intensity, dull headache that I expect won't go away for awhile.

I'm such a baby.

-Zube.

More Christmas music

As I said before, I've been buying Christmas music like a madman lately. I love the stuff.

Over the weekend, I got the Bath & Body Works collection, The Perfect Christmas. It's a great, eclectic collection (I'm halfway through it, it's a 2-CD set). Also worth getting is Jolly Jazzy Holiday at Old Navy. It's already on sale. (sorry no link!)

This one I ordered on eBay, still in the mail. The Best of Cool Yule, from Rhino Records.

OK, this one I didn't buy, but it got on my list. Christmas Regrooved.

For an article on the Christmas remix craze, look here.

OK, I'm done.

-Zube.

Billy Graham Crusade

We went over the weekend to Pasadena for the Billy Graham Crusade at the Rose Bowl.

Originally it was just about seeing a group performing that my daughter loves, Jump5. She had never seen them live, so we decided to give that to her as a sort of present for her 14th birthday. Plus, we got to see one of my favorite bands, Third Day, and a couple others that were very good.

But it was also a treat to see Billy Graham. Had never heard him preach before, and I may never get the chance live again ... he's getting up there in years. I was expecting to hear some powerhouse message from a powerhouse man, but it wasn't that way. Maybe age has tempered him and his message, but I get the feeling he's always been like he was Saturday. Simple, understated, just telling the truth about the gospel. He's really making outreach into youth culture with music and messages. He talked about young people needing respect and to be listened to and to be trusted. I was chastened by a couple things he said. And my kids sat listening and I think absorbing what he was saying.

Graham issued an altar call, asking people to come up and accept Christ, as he usually does. Thousands walked down there, it was amazing. I'm not naive enough to believe that everybody who walked down to the field really became believers Saturday. I know people can get swept up in the emotion and "me-too"ness of the moment. But if only one person meant it, that was a big decision.

-Zube.

A Christmas sucker

OK, I admit it, I'm a sucker for Christmas. Especially Christmas music.

I've spent the past couple of weeks on eBay tracking down Christmas music I missed in the stores the first time around, and other things I just found on a LONG search. Among the gems: It's Finally Christmas, an out-of-print CD with indie artists covering standards and others; Blue Yule, a great Rhino Records collection of blues and R&B; and Deck the Halls, Bruise Your Hand, from Relient K, a smart-aleck punk band who released this Christmas CD in limited quantities last year. I have more I'm bidding on ... and I probably will continue to get more through eBay and in stores. On my wish list from this year: Chris Isaak's Christmas, the various artists CD Maybe This Christmas Tree, the Ultimate Christmas Cocktails collection which has one CD I don't already have, and Christmas Remixed, which has classic tracks remixed in different club styles ... it came out last year but it's still on my list.

Got to talking the other day about Christmas and what it means to me ... I'm talking about the secular aspect of it, not the religious. I'm a Christian, so obviously it's very important religiously, also. But I always loved the family and decorations and music of it. I have warm memories of Christmas as a kid. We almost always had a fake tree (which I loved!) that my mom would labor over to fill with lights and ornaments ... and I would lie underneath the tree and look up at the colors and lights and motion as it spun around (we had an early tree turntable). I would watch Charlie Brown and Rudolph and The Little Drummer Boy (my favorite at the time), and I even remember watching The Littlest Angel the first time it was broadcast. My parents would get the newest Christmas LPs that they sold at gas stations or department stores, compilations put together for them, just like Pottery Barn and Cost Plus have their own special CDs now. My favorite Christmas movies are still Miracle on 34th Street and the original It's A Wonderful Life (I remember my poor wife tracking down a black-and-white copy of the VCR for me one year because I refused to watch the colorized version!)

All this came up because we were in a Suncoast video store looking at the new stuff out, and noticed toys and stuff from A Christmas Story, that movie that's all about a kid in the 40s wanting a BB gun for Christmas. It's a favorite of a lot of people around here, but I can't stand it. And I think I finally understand why. It's a very cynical look at Christmas as the holiday of toy-giving. And that's probably why a lot of journalists love it: it's cynical. And that's why I don't. I still love the redemptive stories, the hopeful, the warm-hearted.

I'm a big softie, I know. I'm comfortable with that!

-Zube.

After the fire

What a week.

Not only elections. I had a bad head/chest cold from Tuesday on. Still have remnants of it in my chest. The upshot was that I couldn't get to work on Wednesday and Thursday, and so missed many of the repercussions from the election. I was supposed to work on an "extra" edition on Wednesday when a winner was declared, but I was in no shape to work. Only rarely do I miss big news days like that!

Well, Bush won, despite what Air America says, and a lot of people in my newsroom were chagrined. Let's see if the Dem party figures out how to swing to the center to grab more votes next time. I can't imagine that Hillary Clinton could win the presidency now under the current climate, unless she moderates big-time.

I was going to blog before the vote, but sickness was winning. My main point was going to be to not vote out of hatred. Many people were saying they were going to vote the way they were going to because they hated the "other" guy ... either of 'em. I think that's a bad way to do business. Either trust and believe in your guy, or don't vote. Don't go to the polls motivated by hatred. That always gets manipulated and abused. I hope you voted your conscience. I know I did.

-Zube.

Getting caught up again

Ok, so it's been awhile since I've "blogged," if you will.

It's been quiet around here. It's RAINING today! Finally, fall/winter arrives. Temps only recently dipped below 90, and now we're supposedly going to be in the low 70s for a little while, anyway.

We're gearing up for Halloween also. The kids always go to whichever mall is sponsoring the Radio Disney trick-or-treating. It probably will be on a Saturday since the real Halloween is Sunday. I can't imagine the malls doing it that day.

My daughter, in her quest to go only as inanimate objects (last year, a baked potato, the year before, a bottle of ketchup), is trying to decide between a Q-Tip and a bag of jelly beans. There's a lot of great home-made costume ideas here and here AND here. My son is wearing a skin wig, painting his head blue, and attaching blue balloons with faces on them to each shoulder -- he's going as Blue Man Group! (Last year, he was Weird Al Yankovic ... I made him a great cardboard accordion!)

I'm going as a frazzled parent.

-Zube.

Back from the coast

So we went to San Diego last weekend.

Being from Arizona, San Diego is like Paradise during the dead of summer, and even during the heat of autumn.

We went to Sea World and did a lot of shopping ... shopping in the cool sun and shade and breeze next to the ocean. Man, it was great.

We got to hit a few bookstores, too, which is another favorite activity of my family's. Books is good.

Pray for me. The presidential debates are in our backyard tomorrow. I'll be busy!!

-Zube.

Random

2 more days of work until vacation starts, 1 more day until the first debate, and tonight Switchfoot is on David Letterman. That's where I stand.

Switchfoot is performing Dare You To Move on Late Night tonight ... one of my favorite songs on The Beautiful Letdown, and my favorite from Learning to Breathe ... they recorded it twice.

Another band I like a lot is The Swift. I just bought their new album, Today, and it's great. Power-pop with a piano up front. Listen to it here, then go buy it.

Vacation beckons soon. San Diego, Sea World, the beach, just taking it easy.

I have nothing else to say.

-Zube.

A very close call

So I almost got into a wreck today on the way in to work. A serious wreck. I'm still a little shaky, so bear with me.

I'm on the freeway. The roof of a camper or something like it flies off a big truck that's being hauled on a tractor trailer. The thing goes airborne and flies 3 or 4 lanes over to my lane, maybe about 2 car lengths in front of me. I have to simultaneously hit my brakes and swerve to miss this thing, about twice the size of my car, that's just landed in front of me. As I swerve, a blue car passes THISCLOSE to me on my right side. I could have sworn it bumped me or something, but there's no mark on my car.

Nobody got hurt, I think, because I didn't see any cars hit as I looked out the rear-view mirror. I think I was closest to it.

I was very conscious of not breathing for about a minute after this ... I didn't stop or anything, I was too stunned. My skin tingled. All kinds of things fly through your mind. First, though, was the disbelief that I didn't get hit. Then the constant replaying over and over in your mind, watching the details you missed the first time.

The only thing similar I can recall happening to me was about 10 years ago, when an aluminum ladder slid off a truck, also on the freeway, and I was able with no problem to change lanes before it slid over to my lane. Looking in my rear-view mirror, I saw at least 1 car drive over it ... major damage.

I said a little prayer. I don't say enough little prayers.

-Zube.

Bloggers lead the way in CBS story

The heat continues for CBS over the Bush memos.

Bloggers were all over this thing as soon as it hit TV, and were discrediting the memos as inauthentic. Not because they're Bush-lovers or closet Republicans ... you'll find many of these guys are stalwart Democrats. They just love tweaking the media!

Here is an article about blogs and how they questioned the original 60 Minutes story so quickly.

Here is an in-depth article from the Washington Post about the inconsistencies in the memos that make it appear faked.

Dan Rather needs to stop defending and do some confessing about who the source is (AP says it's somebody with a long grudge against Bush and the National Guard) and needs to release the papers it has on hand. Any refusal to do so undermines the story.

-Zube.

MS Word to your mother, CBS!

Is this the dirtiest presidential campaign you've ever seen?? Now comes word that documents uncovered by CBS that appear to show that Bush refused to show up for National Guard duty and that pressure was applied upon the Guard to cover up the mess ... were possibly faked.

Here is an interesting follow-up to the Bush documents story. They were produced not on 1970s era typewriters, but on MS Word! How dumb is that?!

If these papers, which appeared so damning at first, are faked ... who is the culprit? Kerry? Kerry supporters? "Texans for Truth"? Michael Moore?!?!! (oh PLEASE let it be Michael Moore!!)

If Kerry is in any way linked to these papers -- would CBS just admit NOW that they may have messed up?!?! -- you can stick a fork in the Senator from Massachusetts.

-Zube.

Catching up on little things

Just following up on some of my previous blogs ...

* In the Olympics, it turns out beach volleyball was a BIG hit ... not MEN's beach volleyball, of course. Do the women in the sport realize how degrading it all is, with the teeny bikinis? But anything for the publicity, right? I mean, that's how the world works, right?

* I found a FREE Bible for my new PDA (which is wonderful, by the way). Go here and you can get any number of free things, like concordances, notes, commentaries. I downloaded both the New American Standard Bible and The Message (free!) into my PDA!

* More on PDA: go here and here for great software ... again free. The first is a nice poker program with 11 games and all kinds of other settings. You can get a trial version and keep playing (although it'll bug you to register to open all the options). The second is a great solitaire set, again free, with 5 games.

* OK, now the REAL football season begins, tonight with Indy and New England. Maybe it's just me, but I think New England is overrated in the Great Pantheon of Football Champions. Then again, I wasn't ever a fan of those 49ers teams, and Joe Montana in particular. So maybe it IS me, huh?

* Expanding on that item about our movie choices, here is an article that confirms what most suspect about TV choices, too. That too much sexual content and teen sexuality are linked. It's probably a chicken-and-egg thing about which comes first, but it still is an indicator of attitudes toward sexual activity. I'm so glad my wife and I monitor what our kids watch. We all watch the same few channels (Disney, Nick, Nick at Nite, History, A&E, Discovery).

OK, that's all for now.

-Zube.

Mike the Crockumentarian

One last Michael Moore item and I'm done.

If you have a couple hours on your hands, read this, about Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" and the problem of truth. Or just go there and print it out so you can read it when you have time.

-Zube.

Another step into the future

I got a new PDA over the weekend. My old one, a Palm Pilot m100, was dying ever so slowly ... actually, a little more quickly than that, lately. I had to redigitize it every time I turned it on ... sometimes several times in one setting. And if you don't know what "redigitize" is, neither do I, really. I just know I had to do it.

So now I got a nifty Sony Clie TJ-26, I think. It has (WARNING: GEEKSPEAK FOLLOWS) 32 megs of memory, as opposed to my old one, which had a whopping 2 megs. Which means I uploaded all my info from my old PDA, which was nearly maxed out, into my new PDA, and it tells me i'm still 94% or so unused space. So I loaded it up with a bunch of other software that I had taken off my Palm for space issues. And I still have a ton. My next purchase of software (my FIRST, actually, because all the other stuff I had was freeware) will be a Bible, which I always wanted to put in my PDA but never had nearly enough room.

The next step, maybe a couple years down the road: the all-in-one phone-mp3-pda-digital camera thing.

If I can afford it.

-Zube.

It's all Greek to me

Olympics fever, catch it!!

Well, OK, maybe not.

I do like getting the chance to see sports that you don't EVER see otherwise. Today, shotput from Olympia. Watched a little of rowing the other day ... and saw some highlights of badminton! How's THAT for an Olympic sport?!

I wonder what will be the big breakout odd sport this time, like curling was at the Winter Games in Salt Lake City in 2002. I remember everybody near me at work watching every match they had on TV. It was great ... odd, but great!

Athens really doesn't seem to be getting crowds this time ... I wonder if the International Olympic Committee is going to lie and say, at the conclusion, that these were the "Greatest Olympics ever!" as is their custom ... except at Atlanta.

-Zube.

The most wonderful time of the year

Football season finally is starting up ... as I told one friend at work, "I'm home again!"

I'm widely known around here as a football nut. I'd rather watch a 20-year old college game on ESPN Classic than a World Series Game 7. But I mean, who wouldn't? I hear that ESPN's all-time weekend rating was set this spring ... for the NFL Draft! C'mon, people, admit it! Football is King!

My favorite team is the Dallas Cowboys. I have high hopes, but I don't know how they're going to do this year ... they still have a lot of rebuilding to do.

Notice that I say "they" ... I never refer to my favorite teams as "we" ... I'm a fan, but I'm not an employee! That's one of my pet peeves ... but I guess it's natural in sports fandom to refer to yourself as part of your team. It's just weird, I think.

But I hope WE get to the Super Bowl soon again!

-Zube.

The rain and the hours

It rained today ... for awhile. I slept through a good deal of it. Slept in because I was working a later shift than usual.

The past couple weeks have been odd ... Instead of my usual 11-7 shift (which I love), I've been working whatever is needed, because of vacations, etc. ... 1-9, 12-whenever (my boss' shift), Saturday 2-whenever (filling in), and next week, 3-11. the jobs all have different needs and expectations, different things I need to take care of ... and most of the times, I still have to do parts of my usual shift, which is a hodgepodge of little things. Pretty easy to forget something if you're not careful.

These kind of changes are draining ... headaches and a bit of my visual migranes. Fun, huh?

I'm waiting for the day all the vacations are over for the year!

-Zube.

These movies today ...

Back at work after a busy weekend.

We all saw a dollar-movie showing (for $3 dollars each, incongruously) of "Around the World in 80 Days." We all loved it ... Why didn't this movie do better at the box office? It wasn't GREAT, but it was a lot better than any of us had been led to believe.

I think the reason this movie largely tanked is no swearing, no double-entendres (well, maybe 1 or 2), no potty humor (well, maybe once), nothing you had to shield your kids from. The action scenes, choreographed by Jackie Chan, were wonderful, and funny. I'm not a big fan of his, or Kung Fu-type movies, but this was a lot of fun.

I know our family isn't typical. We still go to see Disney movies, even though our kids are 13 and 10. ... Who am I kidding, we'd go see them anyway WITHOUT the kids! Our kids don't seem to be caught up in the sex-and-violence-and-fratboy-humor movies that are being put out with abandon these days.

As I look up, I see a TV ad for "Alien vs. Predator." Now THAT's a kids movie for you, right? I'm sure it'll do big box office. And that's a shame.

Michael Moore and the truth

Does Michael Moore have a truth problem?

Check out this article about his antics at the Democratic Convention.

The long and the short of it:

The New York Daily News says CNN gave the "documentarian" a coveted floor pass so they could interview him. When the interview was over, Moore walked away, refusing to give the pass back, and instead trolled about for more interviews. One female staffer was sent to confront Moore, who then used a sexually-charged profanity aimed at her.

The newspaper says Moore denied "ever" talking like that, and says CNN apologized for saying so.

CNN says that it never apologized, that people were within earshot and heard him, and that they're waiting for an apology from him.

Moore can't seem to tell the truth about an admittedly small incident. So we're supposed to believe him about the biggest issue of this election?

-Zube.

First day of school

Roger and Rachel began the new school year today.

I took Roger to meet his teacher and he's pretty excited to start 5th grade. He has a bunch of his friends in class with him. He's looking forward to starting ... we're lucky, both of the kids are big on school.

Rachel had high school orientation to begin 9th grade. She took awhile to find the one friend from 8th grade who's going to her school, but they found each other. It's a big school, a whole new scene, but I think she'll do great. A lot of adjustments, though.

I think Rachel's first day was hardest on Jami, my wife. She apparently let a few tears flow ... I don't blame her, our little girl is growing up!

And now, the long year begins ...

- Zube.

Moore about Linda

Here's an interesting story about Linda Ronstadt, before all the Michael Moore/Las Vegas furor.

The offending quote, halfway down in the story, is this:

"It's a real conflict for me when I go to a concert and find out somebody in the audience is a Republican or a fundamental Christian. It can cloud my enjoyment. I'd rather not know."

What happened to '60s flower-child, just-love-everybody ethos? Oh well.

-Zube

First-time blogger

So I'm trying this to see if I can do it. Don't be surprised if I don't capitalize much ... I type faster when I don't slow down to hit the Shift key.

I decided to blog because I have a few friends at work who do so, and I just read a story on the AP wires about how some two-dozen bloggers just got credentials to cover the Democratic Convention. So I guess this blogging is somewhat legitimate now, not just the province of angst-ridden, would-be Goth teenage girls.

I hope to use this site to help my family keep up with mine, and to occasionally spout off about the things I care about, read or watch.

-Zube.