The Best Films to Watch This Time of Year...

(Simply my opinion, but these would be what I deem Holiday Classics, films that I try to watch at least once around this time every year, and some I actually watch throughout other seasons of the year also.)

"Scrooged" is an all-time favorite of mine, both around Christmas and even throughout the year. Based on Charles Dickens' classic "A Christmas Carol," this is probably the only film version of the story I can watch over and over again and never get tired of. Bill Murray plays Frank Cross, the ruthless head of a major TV network who gets a dose of reality when visited by 3 ghosts on Christmas Eve. Bill Murray brings his comedic genius to a role that is one of the least celebrated of his career, but still among his greatest in my opinion. Picture Peter Venkman from "Ghostbusters" with more of a chip on his shoulder, no ghosts or Stay Puft Marshmallow man, and Bobcat Goldwait.


"National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" was the third film in the "Vacation" series, and by far the greatest. The simplicity of the story is what makes it so ironically great; the Griswold's don't go anywhere on vacation, but rather have their wacky in-laws stay with them for Christmas. Chevy Chase is at his comedic peak, but still gets overshadowed by Randy Quaid's Cousin Eddie who rolls into town in a broken down Winnebago with his wife, son Rocky with the lip fungus, daughter Ruby Sue whose eyes are no longer crossed, and the family Rottweiler Snot, who loves it when people rub his belly. Uncle Louis and senile Aunt Bethany also add to the Griswold family fun in this festive funny film.



"Elf" is a more recent film that has since become a Christmas classic. While it takes an unrealistic character and thrusts him into a realistic world, the film still works because Will Ferrell plays Buddy the Elf so convincingly and innocent. It's an original and smile-inducing film and a role that could never have been pulled off by any other actor past or present. It's as funny as Bad Santa, but without all the four letter words and Santa loving nymphomaniac.



"A Christmas Story" is the film that coined the catchphrase "You'll shoot your eye out" and came from the same guy who brought us the comedy classic "Porky's," the late Bob Clark. The world would never know what a "major award" could be personified as until this film showed us, in the form of a voluptuous leg lamp. It's also the only film that continues to be played for 24 hours straight on Christmas that I still continue to watch over and over.



"The Santa Clause" is probably Tim Allen's best cinematic work next to his voice over as Buzz Lightyear in the "Toy Story" films. In one of the oddest casting moves in the history of merry movies, Tim Allen is the first, and most likely only onscreen Santa to sport a mullet. When Santa falls off his roof, he is forced into the role of Kris Kringle in a film that maintains the level of innocence in "Elf" but falls just short of it's side-splitting comedy. However, this is still a worthy holiday motion picture.



"Gremlins" isn't a conventional Christmas film, but still has all the evidence of a holiday film: Furry critters, snow, Christmas carols, and a youthful Corey Feldman. My earliest memory of this film is how creeped out I was when Phoebe Cates tells the story of how her father died trying to come down the chimney dressed as Santa one Christmas. The traumatic effect of this is most likely why this film is still etched in my memory...and Corey Feldman.



"Bad Santa" is not only one of the funniest Christmas films I've ever seen, but probably one of the funniest films period I've ever seen. If ever there was a role Billy Bob Thornton was born to play, it was Willy, the safe-cracking, booze guzzling, manner-less, moral-less, and often homeless store robbing Santa poser. His character is the epitome of a person on their own self-imposed highway to hell, befriending a nympho bartender, overweight victim of bullies and his senile grandma along the way. This was also the last film performance of John Ritter, best known for his role as Jack in "Three's Company," and Junior's father in the "Problem Child" films.



"Die Hard" might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of holiday-centric films, but my list is comprised of films whose story is somewhat built on the notion of the Christmas holiday around it. "Die Hard" pulls this off from the start as NYPD Detective John McClane is visiting his ex-wife and children in Los Angeles but his ex-wife's company Christmas party is crashed by money hungry German terrorists. McClane brings the audience further into the Christmas spirit after killing the first terrorist, clothing him in a Santa hat, and marking up his sweatshirt in red marker with "Now I have a machine gun. Ho Ho Ho." He takes out the terrorists with some outside assistance and moral support from Reginald Vel Johnson who would shortly after go on to portray another famous police officer, Carl Winslow in the classic TV series "Family Matters."



"Batman Returns," like "Die Hard," is another obscure but nonetheless worthy pick of this list. The second film in the first "Batman" series had the Penguin and Catwoman pinned up against the Caped Crusader in the midst of Gotham City's busiest shopping season. Of all the things that have after all these years stood out and remained etched in my memory these are the most prevalent from this film; Paul Reubens A.K.A. Pee Wee Herman's cameo as the Penguin's father in the beginning of the film, Danny DeVito's portrayal of the Penguin as he was perfect for the role, and Christopher Walken as Max Shreck. Seeing this film in the theaters, one of the things that stuck with me were his hair and awkward vernacular. This was my first experience with Christopher Walken on film, and would cause me to always seek out more of these eccentric performances to this very day.



"Home Alone" and "Home Alone 2: Lost In New York" were the pinnacle of comedy in my childhood, only to be matched later by "Mrs. Doubtfire." These Christmas films were slapstick at its finest, a child's answer to the 3 stooges, and a brilliant yet simple story. A kid gets left alone at Christmas by his annoying family, neighborhood robbers try to break into his house, and he fights back with the best household booby traps since Data in "The Goonies." Without Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern as thieves Harry and Marv, this film would never have been so widely popular or deservedly great. Their chemistry that recalled such dummy pairings as Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, and Martin and Lewis, gave these films their luster and countless laugh out loud moments years before the acronym LOL was even conceived.



"The Nightmare Before Christmas." Is it a Halloween film? Is it a Christmas film? Well, it's got a character named Jack Skellington headlining it, but he does have Santa envy and the film is sprinkled with holiday cheer and musical numbers. The answer lies in the agent of this unique story, Tim Burton. Burton's dark themes portrayed in his other films of the period, "Beetlejuice," "Edward Scissorhands," "Batman," and previously mentioned "Batman Returns," simply give us the explanation that it's a Christmas film, Tim Burton style. The animation was visually perfect for the story, and before Pixar started the computer trend with "Toy Story." If this film were made ten years later than it was, it would likely have been rendered on a computer, but it would have lost its effect as its gritty claymation adds to its quality even over a decade and a half since it's original release.



"Jingle All the Way" gives us two things never before seen in a holiday film before it. A factory full of bootlegging Santas and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Coming out around the same time as the Tickle Me Elmo craze, Turbo man was the Red Ryder BB gun of this film. Arnold plays the underachieving Christmas Dad in this film (see James Caan in "Elf," Tim Allen in "The Santa Clause") who is challenged with the next to impossible task of finding his son the unattainable Turbo Man action figure on Christmas eve. With Leon the mailman (played by Sinbad) hot on his trail, and his neighbor (Phil Hartman) hot on his wife, Ahnuld faces a challenge he never saw with Terminators or Predators: bringing joy home for the holidays.

What does J-E-T-S spell? Inconsistent.

While nursing the consequences of a fun filled Saturday evening for my 25th birthday, Sunday's performance by the New York Football-less Jets could have given a sober 70 year old woman a hangover. For the past few weeks I've found myself looking desperately for the same team that manhandled the undefeated Tennessee Titans, and keep coming up with what looks like the same old disappointing Jets. They could have locked the division up weeks ago, but after disappointing losses to Denver and a horrendous 49ers team that was without Frank Gore for half the game, they continued their downward spiral yesterday. By some miraculous act of something otherworldly, they managed to score 10 points in the fourth quarter without even managing a first down. That's almost the equivalent of saying, they won the game even though the other team outplayed them...wait a minute, that's actually what happened.

Jets fans have the idiotic play calling of Bills coach Dick Jauron to thank for this half-hearted miracle that gave us an early Christmas present. Had Jauron called a running play and continued to give the ball to Marshawn Lynch (who the Jets couldn't tackle all afternoon), they'd probably have the win all locked up. I am convinced however, that Jauron did this to torture the soul of every Jets fan, including myself, who now have a renewed false sense of hope going into the last two games of the season.

The Gang Green go out to Seattle next weekend to play the Seahwawks, a team who barely beat the Rams yesterday, yet still nearly upset the Patriots last week. This is a game the Jets could very well lose, and judging by how they've played lately, have a 50/50 shot at losing. Jets play the Miami Dolphins in the final game of the season, which if both teams win next weekend will decide who takes the AFC East, and who gets to go home.

Games like the last 3 the Jets have played are the reason Brett Favre's beard gets a shade grayer each week (though he's partly to blame for their shortcomings this year) and may likely be his reason for actually retiring (again) after this season. I'd like to see Brett back (mainly because Kellen Clemens isn't our savior), but will not be angry or disappointed if he isn't. Eric Mangini is great at finding a game plan, and using it...for the entire season, even when it stops working or teams figure it out. Prime examples: They run the ball almost every time Leon Washington is on the field; If Brad Smith is in, they're going to some sort of ridiculous triple reverse option (Smith didn't play yesterday, and I think the team is better off with Clowney in. He's a faster and better receiver, and his name is Clowney.) They don't blitz anymore and wonder why Shaun Hill looked like the reincarnation of Joe Montana last weekend. Luckily J.P. Losman might be the worst QB on the planet, thus a main reason to why they won against the Bills.

Long story short (I know, too late.), the Jets, though they seemed to be the new and improved Jets at the start of the season and especially after the Titans game, are the same old Jets. Or as Mr. Hurley in "Big Daddy" called them, "The goddamn Jets." That's right, their horrendous shortcomings have been so bad in the 1990's/2000's that they get a shout out by a drunk old man at the Blarney Stone in an Adam Sandler film (If you saw the game yesterday you'd also notice Sandler was at the game, as well as Michael Douglas).

I really don't know where I'm going with this whole post other than to revoice what was once my former disdain for the New York Jets. I rewatched "Step Brothers" and "The Dark Knight" before and after the game yesterday in my day of lethargy, and both were more rewarding and fulfilling to watch than the Jets have been in the past 3 weeks. I hope this does not understate the greatness of both films, as it is not my intention for the overt crappiness of the Jets recently to be so dismal that it would mean watching "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" would also be more rewarding or fulfilling.

One more sidenote: what the hell is up with Chad Pennington? The guy leaves the Jets then unleashes 40 yard passes of the likes we have never seen? Must be the warm Miami weather loosening up his once linguini-like arm.

The Legend of Lennon Lives On...

Yesterday was the 28th anniversary of the assassination of John Lennon on December 8, 1980. To mark this occasion, Rolling Stone has done something credible and respectful, words not typically associated with the magazine this day and age. They have posted the complete interview Editor in Chief and Founder of the magazine Jann Wenner had with John Lennon accompanied by Yoko Ono spanning 2 of their 1971 issues. The interview is quite a lengthy read, but undoubtedly contains more insight and just as much relevance as anything you may currently read anyway.

Looking back at the former Beatle, he has a unique outlook on life many today can still envy and admire. Having been a fan of, and sought out information of the Beatles over the years, reading this interview shed light on some things I had not previously known. It also reaffirmed my belief that following the Fab Four's breakup, Paul McCartney's next band Wings might as well have been called Beatles 2.0. Ringo is portrayed as lovable but stupid, George as a loopy Hare Krishna with a catchy radio tune, and Paul as a power hungry puppet. He didn't think George Martin did much producing for them after "A Hard Day's Night," also an interesting revelation considering their abstract later period. Lennon also reveals his love for Creedence Clearwater Revival, disdain for Ike and Tina Turner's Beatles covers, and sheds light on the fact that anything the Beatles innovated, the Rolling Stones just copied 2 months later.

Even nearly 30 years after his death, my opinions have changed from some of his insight. This interview made me gain more respect for Yoko Ono, and should show people she can't be looked at as the reason the Beatles broke up. I also realized in reading it that it was a good thing the Beatles ended when they did. There was no room in the bloated scene of 1970's arena rock that saw such acts as Led Zeppelin, The Who, and Queen rise to prominence. The Beatles were above all that, and they were here just long enough and not too long at the same time. I respect his decision to get out of a situation where he felt there was no more musical growth and suffocation on his evolution as an artist.

"Gimme Some Truth" was an iconic tune of his, and this is what he gave the readers in this look into his private life, career with the Beatles, and his solo work. Seeing the recent documentary, "The U.S. vs. John Lennon" gives more insight to his steadfastness in America throughout the 1970's that shines through in this vivid picture of the man who doesn't believe in Beatles, but just himself. Every year around this time we continue to hear on the radio what is still, in my opinion, the greatest Christmas song ever recorded, "Happy X-Mas (War is Over)." Times like these that are so enjoyable are also saddened by the fact that this great artist was taken much before his time. With all the great music he recorded with and without the Beatles, we will never know what would come later in his middle age that never was.

Of all the musicians taken before their time, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Tupac Shakur, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Notorious B.I.G., Marvin Gaye, Jeff Buckley, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Duane Allman, and Brian Jones to name only a few, while Lennon had a larger body of work than most of them, I still feel today like some of his best work was still ahead of him. Where those artists were gone too soon, they had the candle in the wind mythos to their musical bodies of work. Each were best suited for the time they had here, did the most with it, and may have just wilted away musically and never had as full a legacy. John Lennon, on the other hand, was a completely different story. He had been to the mountain with the Beatles, chopped it down with solo songs like "Instant Karma," and "God," then solidified his own legacy with iconic songs like "Imagine" and "Working Class Hero" which spoke to generations past, present, and now future.

In 1975 following the birth of his son, he took a 5 year hiatus from music, returning with the comeback album "Double Fantasy" in 1980, only to be killed 3 weeks after its release. This new musical outpouring was the next chapter in his story that we will never see the end to. You can hear glimpses of this in the incomplete demos the surviving Beatles completed in the mid-1990's, "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love." Wondering what the 1980's music of John Lennon would have been like is like wondering what the 1970's music of the Beatles would have been like. We will never know, but luckily, the music can still be heard of what he did in his time here. Let it be a lesson to us all.

Part 1 of the Interview (From the January 21, 1971 Issue): http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/24937978

Part 2 of the Interview (From the February 4, 1971 Issue):
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/24946866

Paul McCartney's tribute to Lennon, "Here Today." Probably the most moving song Paul McCartney has ever written, with or without the Beatles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY09Wa7z_38

The Lennon demos as completed by the surviving Beatles in 1994/95:

"Free As A Bird" great video, it actually won a Grammy that year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D196-oXw2k

"Real Love": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZjCGF57v4Q

Viva La Ripoffs???

Guitar legend Joe Satriani is suing Coldplay for allegedly ripping off the melody from his 2004 guitar instrumental "If I Could Fly." Rolling Stone broke the story, and also has the videos posted side by side comparing the two. The similarities are definitely there, and if Satriani's lawyers can prove Coldplay heard the song before recording "Viva" they've got a case. However, proving someone listened to a song doesn't seem as easy as it looks, so he might end up on the short end of the stick with this one.

Last summer, Coldplay faced similar accusations from a Brooklyn indie group, Creaky Boards, whose ironically titled, "The Songs I Didn't Write" also sounds all too similar to "Viva La Vida." The band started a campaign via YouTube, supplemented by a conspiracy theorist-like claim that a man resembling Chris Martin was in the audience while they played the song during the CMJ Festival in New York and seemed to really enjoy the tune. Their case is a bit more feasible, but the conspiracy theory thing only hinders their cause in my opinion. Rolling Stone covered this occurrence as well.

I'm trying to be objective about this, and will give Coldplay the benefit of the doubt since I'm a big fan of their music. Also, I think this an argument that goes back a ways.

Creaky Boards' "The Songs I Didn't Write" (from 2007) vs. Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" (2008)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUhFLiw6h6s

Joe Satriani's "If I Could Fly" (from 2004) vs. Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" (2008)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ofFw9DKu_I&feature=related

Rolling Stone Article that broke the story.

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/12/05/joe-satriani-sues-coldplay-for-viva-la-vida-plagiarism/

Rolling Stone Article that broke the story of the Creaky Boards comparison last June. Take notice of the comments section below the article. Several people make mention of the Satriani similarities as far back as September. Perhaps Joe's people took a hint from them before filing legal action.

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/06/16/new-york-band-claims-coldplay-stole-viva-la-vida-melody/

Here's a look at an older case of the ripped off song with Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters Theme" having ripped off Huey Lewis's "I Want a New Drug." I'm sure this had Huey singing "I want a new royalty check!"

Huey Lewis and the News "I Want a New Drug"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMSFX1Vb3xQ

Vs.

Ray Parker, Jr. "Ghostbusters Theme"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4uxIo4t7xM&feature=related

AND...an even older case of Beatle George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" which riffed off of The Chiffons' "He's So Fine." Harrison actually ended up having to pay up after the case went to trial in the 1970's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzlRMhtXaD0&feature=related

AND... Led Zeppelin have so frequently done this, there's a whole compilation of it up on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjPAEPFaxoM In later years, Zeppelin went on to credit the older songs they "borrowed" from, but I think they were forced to. I don't care though, I still happily listen to them on a weekly basis.

AND...probably the most talent-less hacks in this article, The Offspring, possibly one of the worst bands I've ever heard in my life. They are one of the only bands I immediately switch the radio station on if I hear them come on. I can't even say this about the Beastie Boys as even though I hate their music, I still listen to "Sabotage" or "Intergalactic" if I hear them come on.

The Offspring, mercilessly ripped off the old Beatles classic "Ob La Di, Ob La Da" with their song, "Get A Job." Adding a steel drum to the song doesn't constitute a non-ripoff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duyAHixppcM

In the words of Cleveland from "Family Guy" in his response to why he stabbed Skeet Ulrich, the same can be said of this band: "There is nothing good about who you are or what you do."

Live Footage from the Fifteen Fleeting Show

FIFTEEN FLEETING FOOTAGE!
Here's a link to a video of Fifteen Fleeting's cover of "Come Together" from the show at Maxwell's in Hoboken last weekend. This was definitely a highlight of the show. The band also has a couple other killer performances from the show up on their You Tube page, so check those out! They'll be playing next at Chubby's in Red Bank next Saturday, December 13th, and I'll be there as it is also my 25th birthday. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B40ezJVx1n0