I wake up screaming

Hi Folks,

I just close my ears from October on. (Oh yes, that's the time when they gonna start decorating shops for the season!) Now, how do I close my ears? Well, I'm just doing it, can't tell you how. It's the very same for me, going out buying some presents for my beloved ones: I'm never in a hurry, no stress. I'm cool, because I'm deaf and also blind. Ah, by the way: if you wanna have a great musical time during Christmas: listen to the instrumental versions of those songs. Urbie Green did a great little 10" in the early 50's: "A Cool Yule" or something. There is a rendition of "I Saw Mummy" you will love, believe me!

Best wishes for the aftermath,

Brew

Thank you for your rant. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus triggers a reaction in me way past annoying now ... I find myself moving towards wanting to hit the stop button, scream, spit, anything to interrupt the inane lyrics. I'd rather chew foil than hear that song ever again. My husband thinks it is funny that a normally calm person can get so enraged by a song.

HM: Hang in there, Deb, it's almost over now. . .

Thanks for your attention to keeping the freshness in the oh-so-stale cliches coming out of speakers everywhere. I found a possible alternative. SOMA internet radio. They have an option related to Christmas in a Lounge vein. I heard Betty Carter and I had to think of the last time EVER I'd heard her on the radio outside a local jazz show here in KC or Laawrence, KS. I like the idea of Masada and even of drifting back into the Yiddish classics of the twenties and thirties. Oh well.

Tolerability is a relative thing. I'll take almost all the tracks you shun in the above email (except "Feliz Navidad") if it means never again hearing ANY version, EVER, of "All I Want for Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)."

That said, I continue to get a warm feeling in my heart when I hear Vince Guaraldi and "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

HM: Mike, as you say we all have our different tolerances -- it makes one despair of *ever* discovering universals. But I agree, "Front Teeth" is right down there with "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. And ok, sometimes I like "Feliz Navidad" -- Freddie Fender is infectiously merry.

In the Wall St. Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122912607004203123.html) Daniel J. Levitin or the headline writers single out two of the most egrigious offences: "Little Drummer Boy" and "Do You Hear . . ." I had no idea both of these "songs" were anthemized by the Harry Simeone Chorale (though it was Der Bingle Crosby who perpetrated the soaring sales of "Do You Hear. . . " written as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missle Crisis, a heritage that does not, to me, redeem it.

Bah Humbug, eh? For a different spin (which infuriated all the musicians I know) dig here:
http://variousartists.org/jazzconjectures/2006/12/23/no-10tis-the-season-the-power-of-memory-and-melody/

And consider yourself warmly, melodiously and seasonally greeted, Howard! See you in February in time for the next Hallmark holiday
t

HM: Dear Mr. Tim -- I'm having trouble accessing that page, but if it plays even a Hanukah song upon opening, I'll having it in for you on Valentine's Day. Yes, the Portland Jazz Festival -- I will be there (with bells on)!

Hilarious! Being bombarded like that by all that inescapable Xmas mu-sick (sic) is one of several reasons I emigrated--to Turkey. Although, believe it or not, enterprising merchants here see the money and sell Christmas trees, stockings, and other Western seasonal detritus. I think I'll go further east...

We were shopping the other night and I swear Tony Bennett was following us from store to store.

Hey, move to Russia, they play no special Xmas music here :) They would drive you nuts by New Year's Eve themes, though.

I would also suggest two other tolerable Xmas selections, both being "Jingle Bells" -- version one by Benny Goodman, version two by Bing Crosby & Andrews Sisters. Those were the two I would play on the day of Western Christmas in my radio days.