It's Columbus Day, Which Is Still "Too Early to Celebrate Christmas"!

Greetings, friends — and happy fall! Here in Los Angeles we've been enjoying beautiful weather lately with temperatures in the 90s, so it's a little hard to imagine that we're nearly halfway through October.  But today is Columbus Day and in just 77 days it will be Christmas. Isn't that a kick in the head? 

Columbus Day is, without a doubt, my least favorite federal holiday. In school, we were taught to revere Christopher Columbus and the other brave "explorers" who "discovered" the "New World" and introduced the native savages who'd been living here for centuries to God and the European way of life. While this story sounded OK to us in grade school, it doesn't take much research to figure out as we grew older the myriad ways in which this trope defies reality and ignores the unforgivable atrocities committed against indigenous Americans and their progeny. As it happens, the Columbus Day holiday was created less as an homage to Christopher Columbus as an atonement for the mistreat of Italian-Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Moreover, a growing number of communities now celebrate the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples' Day, which strikes me as a more appropriate focus.

Regardless of all of that, there's little we can do about our headlong rush toward Christmas. Or is there? Everyone I know, including many genuine Christmas enthusiasts, complain that the holiday season seems to start a little earlier every year. In my case, the holiday season typically begins when I start putting together my latest annual holiday mix. In the past, I've started as early as August and as late as Thanksgiving weekend. This year, I started pulling some things together about 10 days ago, and I've already got a rough cut for the first eight tracks. But I'd be more comfortable as a general matter if the Christmas season didn't get started until at least a couple of weeks after Halloween.

Tom X. Chao

I had an email the other day from a fellow named Tom X. Chao, who apparently feels the same way. Tom's written a song called "It's Too Early to Celebrate Christmas," which is available via Bandcamp for as little as $1 (see link below).

Tom X. Chao is a playwright, actor, and musician based in lower Manhattan, NYC. He's released a couple of singles and two EPs: "The Only Record," and "Statement of Intent," which came out just recently. He's also composed and performed original songs for several of his plays. 

As the lyrics to this latest song make clear, Tom takes an even more drastic position than I with respect to shortening the Christmas season:

It's too early to celebrate Christmas

Christmas is still three weeks away

We hate to see your to-do list is

crammed with plans for the holiday

It's too early to celebrate Christmas

Please exert some self-control

When you start too early and become breathless

You invite madness into your soul

It's awfully hard to disagree with that sentiment! Check out "It's Too Early to Celebrate Christmas," as well as Tom's other work.

I don't expect to be back for the next several weeks but should return sometime in November with news and background about the material from my latest holiday mix for 2024. We've all got lots of non-Christmas business to tend to until then, including defeating Trump and the MAGA movement. There will be plenty of time to celebrate once that vital piece of business is done.

Watch Daryl Hall and John Oates Celebrate Christmas Together in Happier Times

Late last year, it was widely reported that all was not well between Daryl Hall and John Oates, whose musical partnership produced scores of hit records in the '70s, '80s and '90s, including 12 Billboard Top 10 singles and five #1s. It seems the two had some kind of falling out over ownership rights to their various songs, Mr. Hall sued Mr. Oates and now the whole matter is in court. You can read more about the gory details HERE.

I liked a lot of the material Hall & Oates created, including some of their lesser known releases. I especially liked their 1977 album Beauty on a Back Street and the songs "Do What You Want, Be What You Are," "Sarah Smile" and the 1973 song "I'm Just a Kid (Don't Make Me Feel Like a Man)." which was the B side of their 1976 single "She's Gone." More recently, I've enjoyed a bunch of episodes from the Daryl Hall series Live from Daryl's House, which features a range of artists playing informally in Hall's living room. I'm less fond of the slicker pop the duo put out in the 1980s, which may be why I only recently tripped over a pair of music videos they released in 1983 to hype their two nearly identical versions of the holiday classic "Jingle Bell Rock." I couldn't find many differences between Hall's version and Oates', though frankly I didn't invest more than a minute trying to distinguish them.

Here's "Daryl's version" of the tune:

And here's "John's version":

Hard to believe these two characters are now facing off in court, although I suppose no partnership is ever truly safe from falling on hard times. It would be nice if they could work things out, right? Perhaps they could then give us a new unified version of their 1976 classic "Back Together Again."

Watch Daryl Hall's 2022 Appearance on Bill Maher's Club Random Show

Listen to a Collection of Hall & Oates' Greatest Hits

Hear Daryl Hall Discuss His Relationship with John Oates with Howard Stern in 2007

Former President Jimmy Carter Honored with White House Holiday Ornament

Former President Carter

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter will be honored with a special Christmas ornament this year, the White House Historical Association announced this week. The nation's 39th president, Carter, age 99, is the first living president to be honored by the Association with such an ornament.

Founded by former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 1961, the White House Historical Association has been creating and releasing official White House ornaments each year since 1981. The ornaments celebrate the history of the White House and the presidents who serve there. Sale of the ornaments help fund the Association, which raises money from private sources to maintain the White House and its furnishings.

The release of the 2024 ornament honoring Carter is detailed in the following video:

2024 Holiday Ornament

While the first several annual ornaments marked White House holiday traditions in general, the Association eventually established the  practice of honoring each former president with their own design. These have been done chronologically, and in 2024 it happens happens to be President Carter's turn. 

Elected in 1976, Carter served one term in office and served from 1977-81. Carter served during a particularly challenging time and faced a variety of difficult issues including a worldwide energy crisis, high inflation, a declining economy and the takeover of the American embassy in Tehran by militant Iranian students. Since leaving office 43 years ago, Carter has dedicated himself to a variety of worthy causes and is respected by people across the political spectrum for his selflessness and commitment. His wife, Rosalynn, died this past November, and Carter himself is currently in hospice care in his home in Plains, Georgia. 

The White House Historical Association featured the annual ornaments tradition in its The 1600 Sessions podcast two years ago, as you can see in the following video:

History will likely not record Jimmy Carter's presidency as an unqualified success, but President Carter will almost certainly be remembered as an honorable and principled man who dedicated his life to serving others and making this world a better and more just place for all.  

Read Jimmy Carter's official White House biography

Visit the White House Historical Association Website

Happy New Year, and Welcome 2024!

Residents from around the world said goodbye to 2023 and welcomed 2024 today, with fireworks, speeches, parties and quiet get-togethers among friends, families and neighbors.

Australia was among the first countries to start celebrating:

Chinese families listened to a New Year's address by their president:

Folks in Singapore were treated to an especially beautiful fireworks show:

In Dubai, another magnificent show kicked-off from the world's tallest building:

And in New York's Times Square, locals and visitors participated in the traditional countdown and dropping of the Times Square ball:

Wherever you were and whatever you did to mark the occasion, I hope you have a happy, healthy and peaceful 2024!

This One's About Cowbells, Not Sleigh Bells, But It's One of the Best SNL Sketches Ever

Every Saturday from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day, we open the vault to share a classic Saturday Night Live holiday-themed sketch to bring some fun and laughter to your holiday season. With Christmas now over and New Year's Eve just one day away I tried to find a funny SNL New Year's sketch, but there aren't any. Maybe that's because the show is typically on mini-hiatus from mid-December to sometime in January. Anyway, rather than run yet another holiday bit, I thought I'd share what to me remains one of the best SNL sketches of all time, the fabulous "Behind the Music" spoof of the recording of Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper" from Season 25 (2000), more commonly known as Christopher Walken's "Cowbell" sketch. It stars Walken as fictional music producer Bruce Dickinson, who repeatedly  prods band member Gene Frenkle (Will Ferrell) for "more cowbell."  Chris Kattan, Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz and Jimmy Fallon are also featured. Enjoy!

Will Ferrell Admits He Ruined Christopher Walken's Life with SNL's "Cowbell" Sketch

Christopher Walken Discusses the "Cowbell" Sketch with Conan O'Brien

What's the Secret to the Enduring Popularity of SNL's "Cowbell" Sketch?

Watch Nine Other Fabulous SNL Sketches Featuring Christopher Walken