Big Leather Couch

A tiny plug here for this week's show on Music On The Couch. Not only were both my guests (Paul Thorn and Kelly Richey) excellent musicians, they both proved to be incredibly insightful, interesting people. They both talk about their philosophies on life and how they are both trying to help others in many ways.

Not many days left until Christmas and I am further behind this year than I have been in many many years.

Christmas cards are almost ready and should be out the door by Thursday - fingers crossed

Have a few more gifts to purchase and that should be done this week - fingers crossed

We have Nancy's family's Christmas celebration this Saturday. Should be a fun time.

Then Sunday morning, breakfast for about 10 kids...a little tradition we began two years ago, inviting some of Peter and Ernie's friends over. That afternoon we will have our Christmas meal with Peter and (hopefully) Ernie.

Next Wednesday morning we wake and get on the road by 6am to Boynton Beach, Fl and Mom Joan and Dad Vince. Nancy and I will drive the 14 hours straight through.

While there we will get to hang with my best friend Andy and his wife Janice and my fraternity big-brother Mike and his wife Lucille. Mike and Lucille live close to mom and dad and Andy and Janice are coming down for a week (their plans were finalized when they realized we would be down there...very cool).

Hoping the weather will be nice...it looks to be in the 70's when we get there...so I can fall into the ocean. If the water is too cold for that, I will at least have the chance to go for a walk with sand in my toes and 10-billion gallons of salt air invading my lungs and reviving my insides.

Dad is doing well with his radiation treatments. he says he is a little tired but that seems to be from the shot they gave him a few months ago to put the cancer into remission so he could enjoy the cruise.

I will not be around much through the end of the year. Work is insane right now and with my vacation I have put even more pressure on myself to get it all done.

We get back home on the 30th and it looks like I will be flying back out to Los Angeles on the 2nd or the 3rd for about 7-9 days.

My last Music On The Couch show for the year is this Monday and then I will be off-air until January 10th.

One last comment here today...even though he might never see it I want to say that it still bothers me that Matt-Man and I had a falling out over something silly this past year. Maybe in 2011 we can put this situation aside and repair the friendship we had built prior to that.

Our friend MIMI from "Mimi Writes" does memes..in fact, she is the queen of the Memes...Now my one problem is that some of here memes are way too darn long.

Like this weeks...25 questions! I have a hard and fast rule...no memes over 10 questions...so i grabbed the first ten and if you want to check out the other 15, you can go look here.

Welcome to The Queen's Meme #63
Let's talk Christmas. I'm in a naughty and nice mood.
Some are one-word answers, others need a little explanation.
Feel free to elaborate when the blog spirit moves ya. And above all else...Have fun!

1. Amazon.com or the Mall
Maybe not Amazon...but online works better for me...going to the mall means knocking over three old ladies, pushing two kids to the floor and have a discussion with 1 police officer.



3. Expensive or sale tags
Depends on what I need...the gift counts, not the price tag

4. Long list or short
This year...way short

5. Wrapped packages or gift bags
See #2

6. Eggnog or vodka
Gentleman Jack

7. Have you finished your shopping?
bwahahahahahahahahahahahaaaa...oh, you were serious?



9. Are you Scrooge or Santa's Helper?
Wut's it to ya?

10. Did you ever catch Santa Claus in the act?
Sure, and he almost got away...but we caught him and locked him away until Easter.

Hopefully y'all had a great holiday weekend...Christmas was very very quiet in our home.

Christmas Eve we were all ready to do the big fish dinner and then found ourselves totally not hungry!

We did eat some Oysters and some Fried Calamari (my first attempt at doing these and I was pleased with the results).

We watched some movies that night and crashed fairly early.

Christmas morning, Nancy's boys came over to open their gifts and then headed back to their dad's. We video-conferenced to my sister's home to open our gifts, which was cool...and then Nancy and I watched a couple of other movies and in between tuned into to the two best Christmas Comedies EVER!

Of course those are the 1983, "A Christmas Story", the brilliant Jean Shepard account of Ralphie and his quest to get Santa to bring him "an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock, and this thing which tells time."

Back in college, I was honored with seeing Jean Shepard live and in his two hours of anecdotal tales which included many of the scenes used in the movie.

Quick piece of info...the film was directed by Mr. Bob Clark, he of the infamous "Porky's" movies. After the first Porky's the studio was in a rush to get a sequel out and Mr. Clark was not in the mood to do it, but said he would do one IF, he first was allowed to make A Christmas Story...luckily for us, the studio agreed.

The second movie..."National Lampoon's A Christmas Vacation"...the third installment of the world of Clark Griswold. A brilliant comedy where cats are electrocuted, sewers explode, homes are lit with enough lights to be viewed from outer space, turkey's disintegrate and a squirrel runs rampant through the house. What else says Christmas than that!

Throughout the weekend we watched:
"The Hitcher" the 2007 remake of the Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell, Jennifer Jason Leigh thriller/mystery. This version stars Sean Bean in the Hauer role as the homicidal maniac who terrorize two teens throughout the movie. This version contains one of the more graphic 'body pulled apart by a semi-truck' ever filmed, which - when watched in slow motion is terrific in it's depiction of guts and body parts being decimated.

The most brilliant Clint Eastwood movie "Gran Torino" which was a first for us both. Clint Eastwood is an American icon, he can act like no one else and as a director, he is totally untouchable.

Note: I can not remember the last time I actually walked into a movie theater - I know ---sad indeed...

We also watched the 2001 romantic comedy "Serendipity", with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. The boy meets girl, boy loses touch with girl, boy plans on getting married, boy wants to find the girl, boy finds the girl movie. This has some great scenes shot around New York city and made me nostalgic for home. Eugene Levy does a great small role as the sales clerk at Bloomingdale's who helps Cusack track down his lost love.

"Michael Clayton", the George Clooney drama about a lawyer whose job is to smooth the way for other lawyers at his firm was also enjoyable to watch. The storyline tended to wander a tad, but we did find feel the time we spent watching it was certainly well spent. and totally loved the ending when he stuck it to the big-time corporate lawyer who found herself out of her league.

The final film was another that you will laugh at the fact that I have never ever viewed it...the absolutely phenomenal "The Green Mile". The film stars Tom Hanks
as Paul Edgecomb and Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey and is based upon the Stephen King novel of the same name. Even knowing it was a Stephen King novel, I was not ready for the twists this story took.

Michael Clarke Duncan was stellar in his role of John Coffey - "like the drink, only spelled differently"...he and Hanks were terrific on screen together. This is one that, if like me you have been in a cave for a long time, is a MUST see!

So...What did you do on your Christmas Break?

In Dallas on business...tied up the rest of the week...

See you all in the new year.

TO BEGIN....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LOVE!!!!

Today is my angel's birthday and we will
not even be together as she travels.

KISSES AND HUGS!

Hoping your Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus Holidays were spectacular and you did not have to utter one HECK-A-DOODLE the entire time...

We had a most wonderful time. Christmas Eve, I went down and met Nancy to do some shopping for Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas Day Antipasto and New Year's Eve dinner. Then on back home to start prepping dinner.

Now, in our home Christmas Eve is the dinner of the 'Seven Fishes'. This comes from Mom Joan's side of the family really. Many southern Italians around the world celebrate Christmas Eve with a Feast of the Seven Fishes (festa dei sette pesci), it is also known as La Vigilia (The Vigil).

It is a meal that typically consists of seven different seafood dishes. Some Italian families have been known to celebrate with 9, 11 or 13 different seafood dishes. This celebration is a commemoration of the wait, Vigilia di Natale, for the midnight birth of the baby Jesus.

I really never understood the meaning of the reason for the 'Seven Fishes' until a few years ago. The tradition of eating seafood on Christmas Eve dates from the medieval Catholic tradition of abstinence. As a Catholic, you were never to eat meat on Friday's or Holy Days. Now, we did not always follow that on all Holy Days. I mean, what is Christmas without a big Roast beef?

From wikipedia:
There are many hypotheses for what the number "7" relates to, one being the number of Sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church. Another theory is that seven is a number representing perfection: the traditional Biblical number for divinity is three, and for Earth is four, and the combination of these numbers, seven, represents God on Earth, or Jesus Christ.

Out of the 'typical fare', we always teased the menu slightly. Most years, while growing up, we would drive to New City, NY to my cousins Donnie and Linda's, where there would be 20+ people gathered. A large table was set up in the family room and the food flowed throughout the evening.

A typical menu was:
* Stuffed calamari
* Stuffed-baked clam
* Deep fried calamari
* Deep fried fish and shrimp
* Linguine with clam sauce
* Baccalà
* Octopus salad
* Mussels Fra Diavolo

This year I bought some fresh clams and some Talapia. I made a white clam sauce with half the clams and steamed the rest to eat alone. The Talapia, I soaked in milk with dill and some Texas Pete's Hot Sauce and then floured it before sauteing in some olive oil and butter.

The boys came by for a while to read "A Night Before Christmas", a tradition they have with their mom, and open one present before going back to their dad's for the evening.

Some neighbors stopped by and we talked for a while and by the time everyone had left and Nancy and I finished cooking dinner, we finally sat down to eat about 10:15 or so. By the time we finished getting ready for the morning and opening a gift from each other it was almost 2:30 in the morning.

We woke around 8:30 and immediately began prepping breakfast. The boys had been promised one of our special breakfasts. Nancy and I kick a** on this...French Toast (using Italian Bread), BACON, pork sausage patties, home fries, and scrambled eggs.

The boys arrived and we left everything ready to finish up in the kitchen and moved into the family room. The boys opened their presents with abandon and then they headed to the neighbors to compare bounty.

Nancy and I got breakfast ready when the boys and the neighbor kids showed up. Asked if they wanted to join us, both kids, Katy (14) and Jacob (9) accepted readily, so we set two more plates and sat down to dig in.

It was great!

Unfortunately, then I had to run home, as a package had been delivered after I had left the day before and it could not sit outside until I returned home that evening.

Once that was done, we all headed to Nancy's sister's home for their Christmas celebration. As mentioned above, I was bringing my antipasto platter. The meal was all finger foods.

It is different from what my family has done, but the meal you eat is not as important as the people you spend the time celebrating. After the meal, presents were exchanged and then Nancy's mom (Momma Dot), put the kids to work, breaking them into two groups - boys & girls - and sending them off to come up with a Christmas song to sing, the winners to get more bounty!

The boys did a much better job than the girls did and collected their gain. I have been warmly welcomed into this family and it is very special. Nancy's sister told me "Well, you are now being treated as a family member, you and Nancy are getting a gift together." It made me smile.

AND it turned out there was a Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Fesitvus/Gift Of The Magi Miracle on top of it all!

Y'all know the story of The Gift Of The Magi, by O' Henry (not the candy bar, the poet), wherein Jim Dillingham Young and his wife Della are a young couple who are very much in love with each other, but can barely afford their one-room apartment due to their very bad economic situation.

For Christmas, Della decides to buy Jim a chain which costs twenty dollars for his prized pocket watch given to him by his father. To raise the funds, she has her long hair cut off and sold to make a wig. Meanwhile, Jim decides to sell his watch to buy Della a beautiful set of combs made out of tortoise shell for her lovely, knee-length brown hair.

Although each is disappointed to find the gift they chose rendered useless, each is pleased with the gift they received, because it represents their love for one another.

Well, here is how it worked in our world this year...

Our good friend MATT-MAN from "Bagwine Ruminations" owned a leather jacket....

Matt-Man told everyone he looked hot in the jacket, and his friends all told him it was so, instead of telling him the truth that he looked like an un-cast extra on a remake of West Side Story set in Des Moines, Iowa...

On Friday, I began digitizing some cassette tapes. Mom Joan and Dad Vince left their cassette deck behind. About 15 years ago a friend worked in the Warner Family of companies. They released a CD set that was The Warner/Chappell Collection. W/C is the music publishing arm of Warner brothers.

It was started back to 1929, when Jack Warner, president of Warner Bros. Pictures Inc., founded Music Publishers Holding Company (MPHC) to acquire music copyrights as a means of providing inexpensive music for films. Among the historic compositions of which the publishing rights are controlled by WMG are the works of Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.

I had duped it onto cassette and now I am adding it to my iTunes. It is a remarkable collection of music. On one cassette there is Talking Heads, Frank Sinatra, Barry White, Bing Crosby, Willie Nelson, The Coasters, Madonna and Wham!

It was a 40 disc set, that took up 26 90-minute cassette tapes. So much Ella and Lena Horne and the like. I am having a blast transferring this stuff.

In the evening I met Nancy and the Boys to see a Mississippi River Kings hockey game. A Church group form where they lived prior to their home now, comes up to see a game every year and it was really nice to meet some of the people I have heard about over the last year.

Saturday was the last of the shopping for New Year's (except the fish, which I ordered yesterday and will pick up on Wednesday morning), Prep some of the dishes and spend the day alone with Nancy.

She has to go back down to Jackson Sunday afternoon to finalize two more deals...my baby is rockin' this job!

As we said the other day, we will have a post tomorrow, and then Wednesday morning you will find a New Year's Eve Mix to enjoy.

Our next post after that will be Monday, the 5th, here pictures and stories (those that can be shared), of New Year's Eve will be shared.

The following Monday, we will begin anew with New Music Monday...bringing you 2 new artists and giving you the chance to own their music.

Spread the word if you will...let people know there is music out there to be had!

See y'all tomorrow.

From the newest digitization...two I really love having at my fingertips once again...

Mr. Wilson Pickett, "634-5789"...and Ms. Ella Fitzgerald, "Blue Room"...

ENJOY....

Well, Hanukkah is in full swing and today is Christmas Eve.

Kwanzaa begins in two days and Festivus is being celebrated throughout the world.

To all of you, my most special guests here on The Couch:

Nancy & I

send you a sleigh full of warm wishes,
good health and financial stability for this Holiday season.


May you all have time with loved ones...


May you all stay aware of those on the roads who are not responsible...


May you all return here next week for a few posts to wrap up 2008...


Until then, as has become our custom here on The Couch,
we leave you with our latest Peace Globe
and a mini-concert of music of the season...

Well it sure FEELS like Christmas of old outside today! brrrrrrr hovered at 30-32 degrees all day with a constant call for a freezing rain...

You know what that means...right kiddies.....MILK & BREAD RUN ... and school closings...at 1:00pm for a storm that - as of 6:32pm - has stayed on the JAY'S from "Cynical Ba**ard" side of the Mississippi...That would be the west side for those geographically challenged...(I looked at a map, trust me!)

The weekend was really a lot of fun and we packed a great deal into the three days...

Beginning Friday night when I finally completed the hopefully one-time only "Rehanging O' The Lights!"

With the tree lit and decorated by Nancy & The Boys, I took the last photos...(all enlarge with a click)

The Final Product


Close-up Of The Front Door With Tree


Then a little fun...
right out of the camera

Saturday morning came quickly and we were on a 9:00am flight. Non-stop Memphis to Greensboro. We traveled with the basketball team from ...Wright State...We were in a small jet and these poor guys had their knees in their chins!

When we land, there is no gate for us, so we sat on the tarmac for a half hour! At one point the pilot announced "for the guys over 6'5", we are turning off the seat belt light to let you stretch"...funny thing is not one of them stood. Nancy said they were too afraid they would not be able to get back into the seats!

And of course from behind me one of the players says to his buddy "John, you are only 6'4" you can't get up!"

Nancy had told a co-worker we would wait for them since we were renting a car, so we grabbed the car and drove around a bit before meeting Al at the Marriott Hotel on the airport property and off to the Grandover Resort.

The infamous dress...Nancy looked great


Then we were told "have fun"...and...

Coming up this week on DR. BLOGSTEIN’S RADIO HAPPY HOUR:
(Live on Tuesday December 16 at 9PM ET and forever archived at BlogTalkRadio.)

Its a very Merry Blogstein as we celebrate the holidays on our last live show of 2008.

This year is the 25th anniversary of the best holiday movie of all time, A Christmas Story, and joining Dr. Blogstein, Dangerous Lee and Vinny Bond to commemorate the milestone is Brian Jones, founder and owner of A Christmas Story House & Museum.

When Jones heard that the house used in the film was up for sale on eBay, he bought it sight unseen and restored it back to its original movie appearance. The house which opened November 2006 has been visited by more than 60,000 people.

Jones also started and owns RedRiderLegLamps.com, a largely online venture that sells replica leg lamps.

Also this week:

• Bob Eckstein, author of The History of the Snowman will tell us all we didn’t know about Frosty and his ancestors.

• Award-winning singer, songwriter and producer Jd Webb joins us to discuss the controversial end to his former group Raze and to showcase his new single “Everything I Need this Christmas”

• Gina Beltrami, writer of the smelliest Christmas Carol “I Farted on Santa’s Lap (Now Christmas is Gonna Stink for Me)”

All that, plus Vinny Bond sits on his Big Leather Couch to chat live with the listeners, Shawn Amos returns with another GetBack.com Pop Quiz, Justin the Weatherman and we’ll take your calls at 646-652-4804.

Join us live every Tuesday night at 9PM ET. The Radio Happy Hour Lounge-a live, interactive chat room during show time! It’s the show within the show!

Singing and playing classics such as "I'll Be Home For Christmas", "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town","O Christmas Tree" and 8 other selections, Mr. Bennett and the Band keep your feet taping the entire time.

The Count Basie Orchestra has kept the classic sound developed by Mr. Basie, you can almost hear him at the keys, the quick finger taps, the flowing notes. The piano is handled by Mr. Monty Alexander on this album and as is noted in the liner notes, he plays in the true Basie style.

As I sat and listened, I could smell the eggnog and hot cider and imagine the silence of the falling snow outside my window, while the tree lights sparkled on the tree.

On "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm", we are introduced to Mr. Bennett's daughter Antonia whose voice is just wonderful. She has inherited her dad's jazzy stylings indeed.

Want this album under the tree on Christmas morning, playing on your CD? Just let me know in the comments.

Let me start by saying, I am a Harry Connick, Jr. fan...I have always enjoyed his music. The way he has the ability to mix classic jazz with a modern style. The man has a ton of talent.

This new Christmas album is entitled What A Night is another classic Connick, Jr. work. Fifteen songs of the season and on some you sit back and wonder where the arrangement came from. So different from any other version of the song then you have ever heard.

his version of "O Come All Ye Faithful" is one of a kind. He takes the hymn and makes it a whole new song as only he can do.

Whimsical tunes such as "Zat You Santa Claus" makes you smile as his orchestra comes in slowly and the song builds and builds on the strength of Mr. Connick, Jr's. vocals. The trumpet wah-wah'ing with the use of a trumpet mute answering Mr. Connick, Jr's. call of "Zat You Santa Claus"? each time. A truly fun song.

Mr Connick, Jr. puts a true Naw'leans twist on the classic "We Three Kings". His piano intro is truly special.

As a point of fact, this is the way you would expect to hear all of these songs if you were in the French Quarter on Christmas Eve.

An album that will put a smile on your face during this season, but I could listen to it year round.

Like Mr. Bennett, Mr. Connick, Jr. includes his daughter, Kate, on one song. I love what she does when dad asks her to sing. The holidays are truly a family affair!

Have a hankering for a truly different Christmas treat? Let me know in the comments.

Let's share with y'all the same song from both albums to give you a taste and show the difference, while both are performed by jazz-influenced artists.

The song, "Winter Wonderland"...

ENJOY.....

Coming up this week on DR. BLOGSTEIN’S RADIO HAPPY HOUR:
(Live on Tuesday December 9 at 9PM ET and forever archived at BlogTalkRadio.)

Radio Jesus and Dangerous Lee welcome actor Tim Reid and comedian Tom Dreesen.

Alone, Reid, best remembered as Venus Flytrap, the overnight disc jockey on WKRP in Cincinnati, became one of the busiest actors in television as well as a director and producer with his own production studio in Virginia while Dreesen became a stand-up comedian who has appeared scores of times on The Tonight Show and Late Show with David Letterman and who was Frank Sinatra’s opening act for the last 14 years of the singer’s career.

But it was together where the duo made history as the first (and the last) black and white comedy team in the history of show business. They document their less than successful five year run as a duo in Tim and Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White and will share their stories with the #1 black and white comedy team on internet radio.

Also, musician Derick Thompson will visit the Radio Happy Hour.

Thompson is the front man of Strive, a piano-rock band that fuses soaring, meaningful bands like U2 and Switchfoot with the sweeping piano-pop of Billy Joel and Bruce Hornsby.

We’ll find out what life is like for a Christian band on the road, whether the band has an agenda with their music and why Thompson says the album’s title cut, “Fire,” is probably the most controversial song he’s ever written.

All that, plus, rapper Hassahn Phenomenon drops by to celebrate the release of his long awaited album, a sneak preview of Dr. Blogstein’s December 23rd interview of Hollywood legend Ernest Borgnine, Vinny Bond sits on his Big Leather Couch to chat live with the listeners, Shawn Amos returns with another GetBack.com Pop Quiz, Justin the Weatherman and we’ll take your calls at 646-652-4804.

Join us live every Tuesday night at 9PM ET. The Radio Happy Hour Lounge-a live, interactive chat room during show time! It’s the show within the show!