Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

The Boys of the NYPD Choir Still Singing Galway Bay

It's Christmas time again.  I'm very sentimental and love the Perry Como/Bing Crosby catalog, but I also think this song is brilliant. (RIP Kristy McColl)

Tackle Me Elmo

Patrick was given an Elmo Live doll for his second birthday. The brothers "welcomed" him into our home in typical boy fashion.

Santa Drives a Truck

Every year I lament the musical injustice that Rob Ervin's "Santa Drives a Truck" is not in heavy rotation and making a mint in royalties for my old WBGU-FM radio buddy.

In hopes that there will be sweater-in-the-drugstore moment, I share Santa Drives a Truck with you on Amaze.fm.

And If you are an A&R person looking for talent, I think I can get in touch with him for you.

Update: Thanks, everybody! Song of the Week!

Snobs on Parade - NYT and Wendy's

Timothy Egan wrote a column in the New York Times decrying the very thought of Joe the Plumber getting a book deal. It is ripe with the worst kind of elitist claptrap. Tim Blair at the Daily Telegraph fisked it quite nicely.

When writers, painters or musicians whimper about the world being unfair because they, their friends or some other creative-types are not living the easy life or  - God forfend - are not suitably famous, I want to whisper "This is why capitalism is so wonderful." Really. Grow up. We are just not that in to you.

This latest exhibit reminds me of a TV ad running for Wendy's. It shows a security guard, an administrative assistant and one other representative of the working class (perhaps and auto mechanic) speaking in glowing terms about the latest samiches from the cartoon redhead. Not Ronald McDonald, the girl with pigtails. 

The "humor" in this ad is that these pedestrian slobs are using "foodie" language. You see, if you are a mere administrative assistant or night watchman you are unable to use the same language found in magazine or newspaper restaurant reviews. Perhaps you have seen some chefs on the idiot box, but you probably like Paula Dean most. Crinckle nose here.

The imagination runs wild. To make a TV ad that actually brightens my cathodes, a writer has to write it, an actor has to read it, a director has to tell 'em where to stand, a client has to review it, an editor then has to re-edit it to make the shot dwell on the logo for one more second.  Not to mention the focus group. Do you mean to tell me not ONE of the people in this herd didn't raise a hand and question if this might be in poor taste?

Update: Just saw the commercial again. It seems the occupations are welder and parking garage attendant. My premise is unchanged.