The radio stations have started it already.All Christmas Carols, All the pheckin' time... It was 70 & sunny here today, sposed to be in the 60s about all week, I think. Don't FEEL like Christmas. They keep bushing it back earlier & earlier every year, ramming it down our throats. I'm SO sick of it all by Christmas, whatever cheer I had got drowned in bile by the 2nd week in December.And like Top 40, there's only about a dozen or so songs they actually play-of course, NO religious ones of any kind. And you artiste types out there, NO, the world doesn't need your inspired Rap version of the "Little Drummer Boy", either. The 17,635 versions currently out there presently will suffice. I guess after hearing the same old tired songs for 50 years now, I'm just a bit over 'n' done w/phoney-baloney Chamber of Commerce Yuletide Cheer.

I hear you, man. Some stations around here were playing Christmas music a full week before Thanksgiving. Enough!!

WAAAAAAAY too early to be making a full-court press on Holiday Cheer. I'm with you, Sandy, I'll be OUT of good cheer by the time Christmas actually arrives...

In 2001,. it was a LOT earlier than this!!

IIRC..most stations around here went to ALL CHRISTMAS music sometime in OCTOBER, to keep all of our spirits up after 9-11. I heard a rumor tha tit was mandated by the FCC , from the Government.

We have 2 stations here so far that play it. Since I don't use either of them it doesn't bother me. Besides my daughter loves it.<-------- but on the inside I'm thinking, how many stations do we need. :scratch2: On the upside of radio, I found a new FM station that plays CNN Headline news all day long. Not my favorite, but since the Jeep doesn't get AM anymore, it is at least something informative besides the typical BritneyLindseyBenJessicca stuff on FM, and Glenn Beck cracks me up.

I was getting 2 tires on my car at Sears a couple weeks ago and it was on their speakers. I said to the guy at the counter "jeez already with the Xmas stuff, it's not even Thanksgiving yet!" guy nodded in agreement. Thankfully I brought my minidisk player along. The store was half Xmass'd already with no Thanksgiving decorations to be seen.


Carl

YUP. I don't know what Garmin sells, but they were doing an amazingly annoying version of a Christmas carol to hawk their product a FULL WEEK BEFORE HALLOWEEN. I won't be buying anything from Garmin.

And RCA, I'm thinking the FCC wouldn't be mandating formats, but if they did "tit" would be high on my list. Better visual and tactile than aural, tho...

Christmas, I increasingly feel, is something to be ENDURED rather than to be enjoyed. We've ALL been drug to concerts full of cute l'il chilluns to watch 'em warble Christmas tunes. Ubless one of YOUR urchins is in said play, generally I'd rather have a headache.I KNOW I'm gonna get one anyway. And as a former chillun who was forced to be in said plays, I didn't much like it on the other side, either. Back then, it was fight w/Mama over Hurry Up ! Hurry Up ! (The program started at 6.30-Why did we have to be there at 4.30 ?) Now, its still fighting w/a female who STILL wants to be there 2 hours before it starts. Gotta put on a coat & tie-I HATE that. Also, even tho it's 60 outside, they'll have the heat on to Fiery Furnace levels wherever you have to go-to keep the Chilluns from catching cold, even tho half of 'em have one anyway. And do NONE of these Choir Directors understand that a man's Head will only accept that which his Ass is willing to sit still for ? And mine gets pretty wiggly after about an hour. Any of this sound familiar?

http://our.homewithgod.com/fdrennen/scrooge.jpg

Bah, Humbug!

Not a big fan of Christmas myself- mostly because it starts so early, but generally not my favorite holiday (give me the Fourth of July- BBQ and explosives, how can that NOT be a a better time!) but in my family not caring much for Christmas is a family disgrace! Always the black sheep!

But shopping in the months before Christmas is the number one reason I own an iPod...

I'm not really a humbug-Well, yeah I am-But I DO remember when Christmas was special. I remember when I was a kid, right about this time of the year, we'd go to Knoxville to go Christmas shopping. Back in 1965 or '66, way before The Malls had raised their ugly heads, there was Gay Street in downtown Knoxville. Daddy would park down below it, we'd walk up, go in Kimball's Jewelry Store, Miller's, General Products-I'd try to cadge 'em to go to the TV dept- and MAYBE, just MAYBE, we'd go over to Bondurant Bros, & I'd get to look at the Sonys.. Then we'd eat at the S&W cafeteria-they had these neat olive green leather booths, a REAL ORGAN playing..Oh yeah, Christmastime back in the mid-60s was a magical time. Now you ride down Gay street, it's just offices, & junk shoppes. Miller's & Kimball's are long since gone, the S&W is boarded up-it's strangely MUCH smaller than I remember it-but boy, once upon a time, Gay Street was The Center of the Universe. Was to me, anyhow...

They are doing it here as well, the CD player in the shop gets a lot of use until January. Christmas is for children, the marketing folks are just hoping to part us all from our money. We don't exchange gifts anymore since if there is something either of us wants and we can afford it, then we buy it rather than let it hang around until the 25th.

Rob

This probably isn't the place to mention it, but I still like Christmas, though not the arch-commerciality that's pervaded it in recent years. I mean, why should I feel like it is MY responsibility to buy a big-screen TV this year and keep the retailers solvent? For the record, I ain't buying a new TV until the Congress-mandated shutdown of analog broadcasting. Note that the same Congress INSISTED on backwards compatibility for the original color TV and stereo FM! But I digress...

I still like Christmas, and I LOVE Christmas/holiday music. At last count, we have over thirty hours dubbed onto VHS hi-fi audio tape, not to mention CD's and (gasp) cassettes. We listen to a LOT of holiday music at my house from the weekend after Thanksgiving 'til Epiphany.

Try this one Sandy, and see if it ameloriates your "Andy Rooney" side! :-)
http://www.blindrecords.com/34bc8c90.jpg

Thankfully the two stations I listen to got it right. One of them only plays christmas music if you go to their website and play the stream, The other does the same, with the exception that they play it on the weekends. Makes it just a little more tolerable.

Another thing that gripes me about Christmas music is that every artist feels he/she has to add his or her special little "filip" to the song..Most of these old carols really DON't need to be "jazzed" up, IMHO. I guess I got spoiled by one of my best friend's mamas when I was a kid- his mama had operatic training, & she could REALLY send shivers up & down yr spine when she was she was beltin' out "O Come All Ye Faithful". 'Cept she sang the "Adeste Fideles" version. We were blessed by having quite a lot of talent in our little church choir.There was another lady who was almost as good as my friend's mama, sometimes these 2 ladies would do a duet-I'm satisfied nothing in Heaven itself was any better. The only problem was that we never had a male voice that was anywhere close to being in the same league as Alice Wright...Nobody even ever had the nerve to try.

As long as I don't hear that d*mn "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" song, I'm a happy camper. Been two Christmas seasons without it; goin' for a third! :D
Tom

An' the one you WANNA hear-in my case, its "Christmas Rapping" by the Waitresses, & "Mary's Boy Child" by Boney M-they wouldn't play those on a bet. Another good one is "Wreck The Malls" by the Bob Rivers Comedy Corps from about 20 yrs ago.

i agree 100 percent sandy... every year they move it up a couple of days.. pretty soon they'll be starting right after halloween...

at least wait till december 20th or so to play 24/7 of christmas music... by the time christmas comes your sick of all the music...

Ok,Ill admit it.I love the Christmas season.Im picky about my Christmas music,though.One of my favorites is Travis Tritt's Christmas album.It sounds like Christmas eve in a honky tonk with sawdust on the floors and too much egg nog spiked with Southern Comfort.
I do miss the local Sears/JC Penney/etc. with their giant Train Layouts in the middle of the store.But for me the modern equivalent is when I see all the remote control cars set up in the store and kids going nuts running them.If I was a kid,Id beg Mom to distraction to get me one of those cars.
Target is selling the old Hot Wheels Sizzler sets this year,with the little Juice Machine and all.I might get one just for nostalgias sake.
BTW,when I was a kid,I used to look forward to October 25,cause that was when most of the department stores in L.A. started setting up their Christmas toy displays,so this isnt something new!
But just for you Sandy,Im playing a nice little antidote to all the Christmas cheer-Randy Newman's 12 Songs.
Jimmy

An' the one you WANNA hear-in my case, its "Christmas Rapping" by the Waitresses, & "Mary's Boy Child" by Boney M-they wouldn't play those on a bet. Another good one is "Wreck The Malls" by the Bob Rivers Comedy Corps from about 20 yrs ago.
Ah, yes, The Waitresses, where "A&P has provided me with the world's smallest turkey!" :lmao: For me, only once have I heard Amy Grant's haunting "Breath Of Heaven" on the air. I was lucky enough to have downloaded an mp3 of it later on.
Tom

ummm... I... I... I... really... umm... really like "Christmas (W)Rapping".

There. I said it. And I feel better. It sounds real good on the Cornwalls, too. We'll see how the Quad ESL's do with it this year.

... and the blue and silver candles
that would just have matched the hair on Grandma's wig

umm, err... kinda enjoy that one, too.

Man, I am so glad I have no idea what y'all are even talking about.

Does anyone still have the Ze Records Christmas EP?It had Christmas Wrapping and some other equally twisted holiday offerings.I wish I hadnt left mine home when I joined the Air Force.
Jimmy

Well, I enjoy Xmas music too. Sinatra, Tony Bennett, "A Charlie Brown Christmas", Vienna Boys Choir (one of the Mrs. favs) but I can do without "Dominic the Italian Christmas Donkey"!!!! Hee Haw!!!!

"Wreck The Malls this Christmas Season
Blow yer cash for no good reason.
Push yer charge card to the limit...
checkbook now has nuthin' innit..."
"Wreck the Malls w/my friend Charlie
Ride thru K-Mart on his Harley
Acting in an uncouth manner..
Drop yer pants & Moon that Santa..."
"Wreck the pet stores, do some damage..
Send the beagles on a rampage..
Tamper w/their Muzak system...
Play somethin' from Twisted Sister..."
This obviously, is sung to the tune of "Deck the Halls". I left out the "Fa-La-Las"....-Unca Sandy

http://www.blindrecords.com/34bc8c90.jpg

Excellent.

The radio stations have started it already.All Christmas Carols, All the pheckin' time... It was 70 & sunny here today, sposed to be in the 60s about all week, I think. Don't FEEL like Christmas. They keep bushing it back earlier & earlier every year, ramming it down our throats. I'm SO sick of it all by Christmas, whatever cheer I had got drowned in bile by the 2nd week in December.And like Top 40, there's only about a dozen or so songs they actually play-of course, NO religious ones of any kind. And you artiste types out there, NO, the world doesn't need your inspired Rap version of the "Little Drummer Boy", either. The 17,635 versions currently out there presently will suffice. I guess after hearing the same old tired songs for 50 years now, I'm just a bit over 'n' done w/phoney-baloney Chamber of Commerce Yuletide Cheer.

Sandy, in my mind, the above will be high on the list of your best posts ever!

There are stations that have started playing Christmas music 24/7, and they're off my buttons.

I just KNEW somehow,someday my Inspired Crankery would find a fan...<grin>

Listened to some of the Cockburn album this AM on the way to work, as a matter of fact...

Sandy... I may just have to "burn" a copy (for offsite, archival storage purposes only, of course) and snail-mail it to you. :-)

By way of true confession, Diana Krall's Christmas album is one of my absolute favorite's. I just don't wanna hear it for a whole month.

We've had one station here (WNIC) playing Christmas music for at least 3 weeks already.
Actually, it's prolly an improvement over the pop dreck they usually play. at least I guess so, because I never listen to them but they're getting played at work now that it's Christmas music.

Have a Ding Dong Dandy Christmas!

http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=31936

ummm... I find myself thinking impure thoughts...

It's that "Miracle Surface."

must be

EDIT: It would've been really funny if the "Miracle Surface" label had been applied just a bit to the right of where it is.

She's just demonstrating that she's the "Holy Grail"...


(and I'm Spartacus).

Unca Sandy...I'm with ya. Give me Christmas music, but wait until a WEEK before Christmas...blitz it a week or two and then END IT PLEASE! :D

Got neighbors who put up their Xmas stuff as soon as Halloween is over, take it down at the end of March :scratch2: Grocery store had Xmas stuff out before Halloween this year :yikes: No FM for me until Dec. 26 now :no:

But, you know, I'm gonna watch "Christmas Story" some day soon :)

Many of you disagree, but I could have christmas year round. Its my favorite time of the whole year. :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: The music, decorations, parties, presents, shopping, and SANTA--nothing else like it.:yes:

Okay...

I brought this up last year, but for Christmas music unsurpassed, go to Anniehaslam.com, (yup, the unbelievable voice behind Rennaissance years ago), & listen to "It Snows in Heaven Too". If you ain't hooked by "Oh, Holy Night", may the Grinch dump coal in yer' socks.

Ron.:music: