upon further political reflection

While writing a friend who, over the years changed from very convicted Republican to equally convicted Democrat, I found myself reflecting further on the results of the recent Presidential marathon. As someone who planned for seven years to vote for Hillary Clinton, it has been difficult to muster enthusiasm for the administration about to enter the White House. I applaud President-elect Obama's choices, especially all those people from the Clinton administration. And, yes, I think his choice for Secretary of State is a good one (keep your friends close and your enemies closer).

But I'm still recognizing some missed opportunities for this country and have several big disappointments in Hillary not being President:
- Would Bill be called, "The First Gentleman," "The First Lad," "The First Man?"
- When introduced, would they be introduced as President & President Clinton?
- And the biggest. I so wanted to see Bill lead the televised tour of the White House Christmas Decorations!!! That alone should have gotten Hillary the nomination and the Presidency. The American people have missed a unique opportunity! Christmas, 2009 is not going to be as exciting as it might have been.

Sure, President-elect Obama will have a well-organized administration and his children will be adorable. His wife is no Jackie O, but I'm sure she's going to do some good things. It will be good for some people in this country to have the first half-African American President. We've had 43 Presidents, all of whom were Caucasian males and now our 44th will be a half-Caucasian male. But I was looking forward to the first female President and nothing President-elect Obama has done has soothed my disappointment.

movies of 2008

Lots of movies were released in 2008.
Most of them did not have interesting enough trailers or advance press to gain my attention.
My favorites were surprises.
I expected my two favorite movies of the year to be Prince Caspian & Indiana Jones.
I did not hate them, but they did not capture me in the way I anticipated.
My favorites:
Iron Man
WALL-E
The Dark Night
Speed Racer

Movies I liked a lot but were disappointing at some level:
Prince Caspian
Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Movies I liked better than anticipated:
W
Twilight

Movies that were a major disappointment:
Mama Mia

sounds of Christmas

Christmas Music is very important to me partly because I'm a Christian, partly because I'm a musician but mostly because music has always been an important part of my Christmas celebration. The following are some of my favoirte Christmas songs most with a suggested performer who seemed to perfectly capture the mood, theme, or messaage of a song.

* O Holy Night, performed on the December 4th, 2006 episode of Studio 60 on Sunset Strip by a group of New Orleans musicians. The trumpet is played by Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews. It is a perfect performance of a perfect song. You can see the performance on YouTube or as a free download, tromboneshorty.com or on a Christmas CD sold by Barnes & Noble titled Sunday Music 5: Holiday. The Studio 60 web site used to have a video of the pure performance without the additional scenes from the episode.

* Please Come Home for Christmas The Eagles. When the Eagles released this single, not too many rock bands had Christmas singles. They offer a great performance of a great Christmas love song. For me, their performance edges out the Charles Brown original, but just barely.

* Santa Claus is Coming to Town Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. Pure fun. Great live performance.

* Happy Xmas John & Yoko and the Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir. But really, this is John's song, everyone else is window dressing. Lyrically and musically it's not the most interesting song he ever wrote, but it fits with the season.

* The Christmas Song Nat King Cole. Of course there needed to be some traditional Christmas music on this list. This is the performance of a master. All other performances of this song are a tribute to the master.

* White Christmas Bing Crosby but I really prefer the performance in the movie, too bad the sound track is different.

* Blue Christmas Elvis Presley. Have to include the King. I love to get crowds to sing this as an "elvis-a-long" with people trying to imitate Elvis.

* Linus & Lucy Vince Guaraldi Trio. Of course the entire soundtrack is great but this is really the main theme.

* Do They Know it's Christmas? Band Aid. Above average performances of an average song but it serves the purpose.

* Christmas Time is Here Again The Beatles. They were talented musicians who could be very serious about music and worked hard in the studio but could still have fun.

* In the Bleak Mid-Winter No particular artist. This is one of my favorite Christmas hymns.

I could keep going, but every entry needs to stop somewhere...
Happy Christmas

pastor swap

A friend recently asked which Reality Show was my favorite. I think Jon & Kate Plus 8 is a riot. Sometimes I watch Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelor with my wife, depending on whether or not the contestants are interesting, but My Favorite Reality Show is called Pastor Swap; a black, liberal, Harvard & Yale Divinity schools pastor changes places for one month with a white 3rd-grade-educated pentecostal, snake handling, poison drinking, heaving, pastor from the hills of Tennessee. Unfortunately the show was canceled after one episode. Something about the black pastor dying of snake bite and the white pastor inducing a riot his first Sunday when he introduced his favorite rattlesnake, Clyde, and asked "Who's first?"

Well it would be better than some...