Alexander

I think the film you are thinking of is "Elvis: That's The Way It Is." Great movie.

My ten-year-old daughter (already a hard-core Beatles fan) recently discovered Elvis Presley. She's literally gone NUTS for his music, particularly the music from the fifties. She's been liberally sampling from my collection (I have the three boxes - 50s, 60s, and 70s - as well as the best of the movie soundtracks, the gospel recordings, and the "Million Dollar Quartet"), but I decided that she really needed something more compact. I gave her the two-disc "Essential" collection for X-Mas (which she loves). Interestingly, she gave ME the '68 Comeback Special on DVD. Very thoughtful kid! So, yeah, she's still a few years from this set. Interesting that she's gotten into him, though!

Ever hear the Elvis Costello song "The Saint Stephen's Day Murders"? Great song about getting done in by the holidays...

LOVE it!

I think I DID wish people well back when I first posted. I only responded when someone made a snide remark about my original post... And I'm VERY comfortable with my atheism. I'm so comfortable with it, I want to share it with the world! When Christians stop bitching about people saying "Happy Holidays" and complaining about a "War on Christmas," I'll stop slamming Christianity. Honestly, apart from people trying to claim that America is a "Christian Nation" founded on "Christian principles," I have no quarrel with Christianity. Just keep it out of the public sphere (get it out of the pledge and off our money), and I'll be happy to let you quietly believe whatever ridiculous bullshit you choose. But the key word here is "quietly." In other words, do it where I can't see it, dig? Hell, I LIKE Fairy Tales! I've got a big book of the original Grimm Fairy Tales. They're awesome! Yes, in all seriousness, I do hope Rolf had a good day today...

Arguably Jesus (and by extension Christianity) has done more harm to the world in the last 2000 years than all the bad music put together. Look, you can't have it both ways, if Jesus is "the reason for the season," then you have to accept that some people not only don't believe in him, but think the whole idea of Jesus to be laughable. Besides, I'm just having a little fun. It's not like I'm mad about Christmas or anything. But thinking that this day is somehow special in any spiritual way is ludicrous. Once again, Jesus likely did not actually exist (kind of hard to believe that such an influential person didn't leave a single written record, or that any contemporary didn't actually - you know - NOTICE him), but even if he did, HE WASN'T BORN ON DECEMBER 25th. So this day is NOT holy. Not at all. Not even a little bit. The only reason we celebrate ANYTHING in late December is because our Stone Age ancestors thought that the sun was going out and that we'd better throw a big party to convince it to come back. And it seemed to work! So they did it every year, right up until the Christians came along and said, "Hey, Pagans! Come join OUR church! You can throw a big party in late December. We'll make it the birthday of OUR God!" So chill, okay. Drink some eggnog. Listen to Frank Sinatra. Look at the pretty lights on your (pagan) tree and just RELAX. Jesus has fuck-all to do with any of it...

Humbug, humbug, hum-BUG! Humbug, humbug, hum-BUG!

One of the best written? That's certainly debatable. I'm glad that you enjoy it. There was and is a historical Jesus! He wasn't born the 25th of December but it's when his birth is observed. He's your Savior too! I hope you come to see that some day. Merry Christmas to you and to all. Sorry...even if I was religiously inclined, I'd be Jewish, so I'd have no use for Jesus either way.

I've done grown quite sick of that song as well as his bandmate's little Christmas ditty. Despite that, Merry Christmas everyone! The Savior is born! John's Christmas song is one of the best written. But "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time" is one of the worst. Merry Christmas everyone! Very likely there was no historical Jesus! And if there was, he wasn't born on December 25th! So nuts to your Savior!

So this is Christmas, and what have you done?

Too many notes...

It IS his fuckin' band...

Congratulations guys!

This week's episode of "Doin' The Thing" will be dedicated to Christmas and other seasonal tunes. I'll be playing Organissimo's version of "O Christmas Tree"! The episode airs Sunday, December 19th at 8pm PST, 11pm EST. Organissimo will be appearing during the second hour. You can listen on-line by going here.

Again, I'm a huge Sellers fan, yet the Clouseau movies have always left me cold. Part of it, I think, is that Sellers was such a brilliant verbal comedian (the guy got his start in RADIO for Christ's sake), but his physical comedy just wasn't that funny. And as the Pink Panther series dragged on, the films relied more and more on pratfalls and silly fight scenes. I mean, how many times can one watch Inspector Clouseau trip over something or drop the thing he was holding? And Herbert Lom was very funny, but the joke of Dreyfus getting more and more obsessed with getting rid of Clouseau got old REALLY fast...

Evidently...

BUD ABBOTT: Now you've got to get ready for the opening game... LOU COSTELLO: Yeah, I think we're going to play the Cleveland Indians... BUD: Cleveland Indians, eh...? LOU: Uh-huh... BUD: Feller pitching? LOU: Certainly there's a feller pitching...what do you think they'd use, a girl? BUD: Oh, I...I know they don't use a girl...I said, "Feller pitching..." LOU: What feller? BUD: Feller, with the Cleveland Indians... LOU: Look, Abbott...there's nine guys on the Cleveland team...which feller are you talking about? BUD: Feller that pitches...there is only one Feller with Cleveland... LOU: You mean nine Yankees are going to play against one feller? BUD: That's right. LOU: You mean there's no fellers in the outfield? BUD: No! LOU: And there's no fellers in the infield? BUD: No...Cleveland only has one Feller... LOU: Well, this feller must be pretty good if he don't need any other players but himself... BUD: Look, all the players will be out there helping him... LOU: You just said that there was only one feller on the team... BUD: That's right! LOU: Then where did all those other fellers come from? BUD: Why, you idiot...when I say there's only one Feller on the team, I mean that there is only one Feller that pitches... LOU: Well, Abbott...when the manager of the team wants this pitcher, what does he call him? BUD: Feller! LOU: You mean he just hollers "HEY FELLER!" and this guy knows that they mean him? BUD: That's right. LOU: Hoo hoo... BUD: His name is Feller! Feller! Bob Feller! And when I say that there is only one Feller on the team that pitches, that's it...and the feller that pitches is Feller...there's other fellers on the team, but there's only one Feller... LOU: Boy, are you mixed up...oh, you mean the feller that pitches is Feller...and there's other fellers on the team but they aren't fellers? BUD: Now you grasp it... LOU: Yes...I grasp it...but it keeps slippin' out of my hands!

Eugh. Another one whose work I always found to be horribly overrated. I'm a HUGE Peter Sellers fan, and I NEVER liked any of the "Pink Panther" films. I'm a huge Truman Capote AND Audrey Hepburn fan, and I HATE what Edwards did to "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Never saw a single Edwards film that I liked. I found him crude in the extreme. Rest in Peace, though...

The final entry. Thanks so much for reading and being a part of this project. It's been a pleasure for me and I hope you've gotten something out of this too...

It's him. I just checked him out on Facebook. Haven't heard from him in ages! We used to write for the same humor magazine...

This John McDonough is a trumpet player? I'm pretty sure this is the same guy I went to college with (spent a year at Hofstra). We called him "BeBop."

Hell, your "That Devilin' Tune" sets are far, far better than this. What disappoints me is that there already IS a decent Smithsonian Jazz Anthology. I wish that, instead of going back to square one and trying to fit 100+ years of jazz history onto six CDs, they had done a volume 2 that started where the first one left off. That would give them six CDs to explore what has happened in jazz SINCE the first set came out.

The way Ringo tells it, when he was approached to replace Pete Best, Ringo was asked, "How do you feel about drum solos?" Ringo replied, "I hate 'em." The others said, "Good, we hate 'em, too. You're in the group."

I was just listening to her version of "I Saw Three Ships" on the Chieftain's Christmas album last night...

Ringo simply didn't care for drum solos, thought they were boring. (And he's got a good point.) It's true. The one solo he did on a Beatles record (on "The End") he had to be strongarmed into performing!