SWEET CHRISTMAS JAMSIt’s lovely weather for a ‘Sleigh Ride’ or two
Happy Christmas from Posh Spice Monster Truck!
Now, "Sleigh Ride" wouldn't really be on my list of favorite holiday jams had it not been for two awesome covers of the song.
In fact, I'm still not a huge fan of the song itself, but these versions wormed their way into my heart with all the spoken-word stuff on the side.
So without further ado, here are my two favorite versions of "Sleigh Ride" with the quotes that make them my favorite:
TLC
"Wait Wait. I know what I want for Christmas: I want T-Boz to get me some headphone sets, and I want Left Eye to make me, uh, to make me a fly dress!" –Chilli
Spice Girls
Scary: You can do whatever you want at Christmas, as long as it's good.
Posh: Well, what I say this Christmas is just do what you want, but make sure you do it like a lady.
SWEET CHRISTMAS JAMSMerry #christmaswithmacy!
As many of you know, in the summer of 2008, I developed an odd affection for Macy Gray when I discovered that the raspy songstress who got "I Try" stuck in our heads back in '99 had also put up on her myspace an altogether different type of single, "Slap a Bitch."
I mean, let's be honest: Macy was 98 percent of the reason I started watching Dancing With The Stars this season. I tried to care about the other contestants, but after Macy was bumped during the first week, I had a hard time maintaining interest in the show.
Well, this summer whilst thrifting with Aldrich and Stacy, I discovered the aforementioned "Very Ally Christmas" in the CD bin at the Revivals thrift store on Palm Canyon. Much to my delight, I saw that the one, the only Macy Gray had recorded a Christmas tune for the Ally-bum.
That's right, kids. No longer does Macy just slap bitches, try to say goodbye and succeed in saying "Good niiiiiight!" She also says "Merry Chriiiiiistmas!" with her rendition of "Winter Wonderland." Take a listen:
If you want to download a copy of this holiday classic, you can do so over
on Amazon MP3 (and, as always, benefit Valley Wesley with a portion of the profits.)
Honorable mention
For all y'all out there who just can't get enough of Macy, she also recorded a cover of "Santa Baby" that's available on Amazon.
Two Three nights in a row!
One of my favorite lines from one of my favorite episodes of one of my favorite shows is this exchange from the second episode of Cougar Town:
After going out on the town for a wild and crazy Friday night but then finding herself too sore and exhausted to go out Saturday, a rather depressed Jules asks her BFF Ellie, "I'm never gonna have my 20s again, am I?"
"Of course you are," Ellie answers. "But just not two nights in a row."
That kind of sums up my attempts to have a social life in the midst of working early mornings during the week and the overnight shift on Saturdays.
But last week, while I was in Arizona for #ChrisAmandaWedding, I went out on Mill Avenue not just two but three nights in a row, and I lived to tell the tale.
On Thursday night, Chris' bachelor party started out at a wine bar in north-ish Phoenix but eventually migrated to Mill Avenue, where we frequented Slices, the Tavern and Cue Club:
Then, after the rehearsal dinner on Friday night, I met up with some very special lady friends. We headed over to Cherry, a borderline-sketch dance club on Mill where we attempted to dance our asses off in honor of Justine, who moved back to Maryland on Sunday.
Sadly, the Friday night DJ kinda blew, so good danceable tracks were hard to come by. But we still had a good time:
By this point, I was marveling at how it felt like I was back in college again for the weekend. And this time around, I was able to hit up Mill Avenue without the worries of classes and work looming large just on the other side of University Drive.
And as if reliving my (early) 20s Courteney Cox-style two nights in a row wasn't enough, on Saturday night after the wedding and reception, there was talk of some of the wedding party and other attendees going out on the town. I got involved in the plans, which were quickly made for... yep, Mill Avenue.
So we all went our separate ways to freshen up and/or eat Filiberto's and then we descended down into the basement that is the Big Bang.
Alisa, one of the bridesmaids, and her friends were kinda wary of the place, saying that there's a piano bar they know of in Chicago that mostly just plays host to "trashy bachelorette parties." But Mike, the best man, vouched for the Big Bang since he had been there before, so we decided to give it a go.
No sooner had we walked in and paid the cover when we spied, of course, a bachelorette party... but at least it wasn't trashy. Oh wait. Just then, the pianists were just finishing up "Great Balls of Fire," and one of them got up and lit his balls on fire. Great.
Since a good portion of the crew was interested in shaking their groove thangs, we decided to pay a visit to Cherry and crossed our fingers, hoping that the suckage of the previous night's DJ would not be repeated. Luckily, there was a new DJ on the turntables MacBook, and the music didn't disappoint.
And thus, I shook free from the bonds of living in a cougar town and managed to go out in my old college town three nights in a row — and without any major hangovers. Granted, I didn't emerge completely unscathed. I do have some leftover jankiness in my knees that has persisted since I shook my groove thang perhaps a little too hard on the Cherry dance floor one (well, actually both) of those nights, but it's so worth it.
a musical note… on the magic of Shazam
So back last weekend (as opposed to this past weekend) when I was up at my dad's house, he was asking about all the wild and crazy things that my iPhone can do.
One of the apps I talked up was one that I had unfortunately shuffled back to a third or fourth or fifth page of apps on my phone. But ever since I extolled the virtues of Shazam to my dad, I've been using it a lot more.
Since then, I've engaged in a friendly Shazam war with Ashley at bingo a little over a week ago as we furiously tried to identify all the hip and obscure tracks playing at the Ace, and I also did a Shazam head-to-head of sorts with Sam tonight as we tried to figure out what the not-as-hip but equally obscure music playing at Chipotle was.
Also, after being reminded by Ashley of this obvious application for the app, I used Shazam quite a bit in the car while I was traveling to and from Arizona this past week. So Shazam is responsible for identifying many of the songs you've seen listed lately in the listening to sidebar here on Brian.Indrelunas.com.
And it was via Shazam that I learned that the "Wake up in the morning feelin' like P. Diddy" song and the oddly named "Tik Tok" by the equally oddly named Ke$ha that I kept seeing as a top iTunes download were, in fact, one and the same.
You know, I was thinking about all things Shazam on Friday, and it occurred to me that years ago I always thought it would be cool if we could somehow, someday move from just having the ability to search text to being able to search by pitch or melody. And although that's not how Shazam works (hence its inability to match up a live performance with a prerecorded track) we're getting pretty close.
Welcome to the future, y'all.
On another musical note: Unlike my last trip to Arizona, the Phoenix and Palm Springs stations seemed to be more on the same page this time around in terms of what's so hot right now — with one notable exception. Again, I didn't even once hear OneRepublic's "All the Right Moves" on any Arizona stations... but it came on the Coachella Valley's KRCK right as I was getting into town on my way back Monday night. It was a nice welcome-home anthem of sorts.
SWEET CHRISTMAS JAMSChristmas time is here!
It's no secret that I have questionable taste in music, so I generally refrain from making music recommendations à la Sam or Ashley — i.e., people who can offer a more nuanced description of a song than "OMG Booty Luv makes me wanna shake my groove thang!"
However, when it comes to Christmas music, I consider myself enough of an expert to share my favorites with all y'all on the onlines.
I had the idea to post a few of my more obscure favorite Christmas tunes back about a month ago when EZ 103.1 (Tempe translation: KEZ 99.9) started playing nothing but Christmas music. But I'm clearly only getting around to it now, four days before Christmas, so expect the holiday jam recommendations to start coming all fast and furious like for the rest of the week.
Let the sweet jams begin...
First up is a song that I heard on my way out to and back from Arizona this weekend on one of the stations that kept me going in between the Palm Springs and Phoenix markets, the little Blythe translator station for The Effect.
This cover of "Christmas Time is Here," the song that you've undoubtedly heard on A Charlie Brown Christmas, is by a band I'd never heard of (Family Force 5) but the rendition was so peppy that I decided to add it to my holiday faves list.
Click below to listen to this Christmas jam, courtesy of whomever uploaded it to YouTube:
Then click here to buy the MP3 from Amazon.com and, if I coded the link correctly, to also support Valley Wesley in the process by telling Amazon to direct a portion of the profits toward the United Methodist campus ministry at ASU.
But wait! There's more!
While I was downloading that song myself, I stumbled across a potentially even better holiday classic from Family Force 5. Check out their Auto-Tunetastic version of "Carol of the Bells:"
Now, click here to download that wintry gem (and support Valley Wesley).
Play time!
For those of you who don't know, I aspire to do seven things every day. I call them my seven ingredients for a fulfilling day or 7i for short.
Well, this past Monday was the best Play day I've had in a long time.
Up at the top of the tram, I threw snowballs, made snow angels, stomped around in the snow and just generally screamed with excitement along with the other members of the Monday Shenanigans Club who made the trek. (To see some photos of the trip, click here.)
Then, that night, I was beside myself with laughter quite a few times as we did some epic Christmas cookie baking and had our cookie creations in a few YouTube videos. If you haven't seen 'em yet, you should definitely check out Aldrich's explanation of his Ginger Jeffries cookie and Ginger's First Alert (Cookie) Forecast.
And then there's the piece de resistance, a Christmas cookie edition of Cheaters, starring a cookie Joey Greco and a whole crazy cast of cookie characters:
What a weekend!
Today's rainy scene as seen from my window
This weekend has been so fantastic!
Even though it's not technically one of my days off, I count my rather-wonderful Saturday as part of the awesome weekend on account of all the ridiculous banter and such at work.
Then, Sunday, I hosted an Amazing Race finale party/potluck that was pretty freakin' sweet and — just like at the Amazing Race watch party last week — we also ended up watching Cheaters and Cops afterward. (I also turned on a Lifetime movie during the waning minutes of the fiesta and ended up watching the whole thing, which I kind of regret — but only kind of.)
And today... Oh my. Here's a quick recap:
- Well, it was raining, so that made it a good day right off the bat.
- The Monday Shenanigans Club had a super cheap lunch at Ruby's, where they had a seemingly secret special price (that we knew about) on their flagship burger.
- Then, we headed up to the top of the tram for a snow day. There was literally a blizzard going on up there, but we still spent a good long while out in the snow before retreating inside for hot chocolate.
- And then, the night continued with a pizza party and Christmas cookie decorating fiesta. Given my history with Christmas cookies, it's no surprise that things eventually got out of hand and we ended up filming a whole episode of Cheaters starring Christmas cookies. Yeah.
There are all sorts of photos and even videos from today, but seeing as how it's already well past my bedtime, those'll be put online tomorrow afternoon... so keep an eye out for 'em then.
<!– Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow! –>
Now that I've gotten you all in the #christmaswithginger spirit, I wanted to share another bit of wintry goodness with you...
SNOW!
Remember when I was all jazzed about how it was raining in the valley on Saturday? Well, up on Mount San Jacinto, Mother Nature was dropping a few inches of snow!
You know, one my favorite things about living in the Phoenix area was that snowy places were just a couple hours away... but now that I live in Palm Springs, I can get from my valley apartment to the snowy mountain even quicker thanks to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. I live about 20 minutes away from the Valley Station, and it's a 10- or 15-minute ride up to the Mountain Station. Yeah.
So on Sunday afternoon, I decided I needed to take a trip up the tram and see this winter scene for myself. And unlike the last time I played in the snow, I made sure to dress semi-appropriately — closed-toe shoes, long pants and layers.
They said it was 20-something degrees atop the mountain on the ride up, but I never got too chilly thanks to my proper attire and a little help from some hot chocolate.
The whole experience was pretty magical, so click here see all my photos of the winter wonderland that Mount San Jacinto State Park has become.
#christmaswithginger!
Ever since the day I moved to the Coachella Valley (and even before, actually) I've been getting my First Alert Forecasts from KESQ's Ginger Jeffries. In fact, a certain reporter who happens to live in another market and I consider ourselves members of the KESQ Fan Club, and not the one that donates box fans to the elderly. (Although that's not a bad club to join either.)
Since the summer, we've occasionally raised our glasses to Ginger at Friday night gatherings that we called #cocktailswithginger, and for Halloween this year, I couldn't think of a more worthy celeb to dress up as than our favorite First Alert Forecaster. (Srsly. Lady Gaga was so five minutes ago, and MJ? Ha. So four months ago.)
So when I heard that Ginger would joining the mayor of Palm Springs to light the city's Christmas tree, I knew I had to be there to see the magic live and in person:
Well, in between live shots and weather segments, people were chatting with Ginger and getting photos with her, so I worked up the courage to go and ask, "Hey Ginger, could I get a picture with you?"
"Sure," she said as she looked up from the papers she had been paying attention to... and totally recognized me, adding, "You're the guy who dressed up as me for Halloween, aren't you?"
"Oh, so you've seen it," I replied. (I figured she had watched my YouTube "forecast" since it's kind of The Video Seen 'Round The Newsroom where I work.)
She then told me about how KESQ subscribes to a clipping service that delivers reports whenever someone's name appears in other media or online. She later mentioned that my name appeared often because of all my tweeting.
Anyway, back to the photo. So Ginger begins to asks her cameraman to snap a photo of the two of us: "Can you get a photo of me and — It's Brian, right?"
Bingo.
But then she at least pretends to have second thoughts: "I was watching that and I was thinking, 'Is he just trying to be funny, or is he taking a jab at me?'"
I assured Ginger that I was only trying to be funny with my Halloween outfit and agreed to her request that I "be nice." To be fair, I also told her she's more than welcome to make fun of me on YouTube or wherever else.
And Ginger, when BurrellesLuce sends you a copy of this post (as I am almost certain they will), make sure to do some extra browsing around Brian.Indrelunas.com. There's all sorts of ammo here that can be used against me if you're ever in need of material for a good YouTube video.
But I digress again. Anyway, we pose for a picture, the flash goes off, and then Ginger says, "OK. We can do a nice one now."
"A nice one?" I ask. "What was the one we just did?"
Turns out Ginger needed to let out some of her frustration in this first picture:
Well, then we did take a nice one, which turned out like this:
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the fake Ginger Jeffries met the real Ginger Jeffries. It was an epic meeting, kind of like when Perez met Posh on "Victoria Beckham: Coming to America."
However, I'd like to point out that the comparison only goes so far. For instance, I've never called Ginger "a robot with really big boobs." That Perez is so crass.
Ginger, on the other hand, is a class act, and I'm glad that she a) didn't really punch me and b) gave the KESQ Fan Club a very special something to tweet about... #christmaswithginger.
Tonight in Palm Springs… @THE_REAL_GINGER
OK, so that photo over there at the left isn't really KESQ First Alert Forecaster Ginger Jeffries; it's me in my Halloween costume at Palm Springs City Hall.
But tonight, that photo's pretty much gonna come true. The real Ginger is scheduled to appear at tonight's 6 p.m. Christmas tree lighting ceremony at — you guessed it — Palm Springs City Hall.
And you know I'll be there... just not in costume this time. Having two Ginger Jeffrieses in the same place at the same time is just a recipe for disaster — too much meteorological excellence to handle.
