Dear Santa Blogs: What are you doing this year to provide us with a really good Christmas cong controversy? I rely on this every year as a chaser for all the good will and cheer being tossed at me, and so far, I haven’t heard a peep from you about it. Grumpy InContinue reading “SANTA BLOGS XLIII”
Tag Archives: music
Right Back After These Melodies
A while back, we spoke of the sitcoms which have been neglected in narratives on television history because they lasted a minute or less and were called “commercials” or “ads”. Well, the folks in charge of television have, in their unending quest to keep us entertained, also pioneered the very short music video. Continue reading “Right Back After These Melodies”
Pop Quiz
It has been a while since we enjoyed a quiz together. Here are some references to bygone bits of popular culture which sprang up in the selling of vintage postcards. (It is easier to sell a joke if you understand why somebody thought it was funny, once upon a time. This does not meanContinue reading “Pop Quiz”
Name That Tune
I was leafing through the postcards in my Music and Songs category, reminiscing about the hoops some of these songs made me jump through, sometimes just to find out the line reference WAS from a song. I still have my suspicions about some others, but the research is seldom simple, as this type ofContinue reading “Name That Tune”
Old Joke Archaeology
The problem of dealing with archaic humor is that you often run into jokes which are amusing primarily if you know the context, and know something about the times. That joke about why Santa Claus won’t bring you a television because he has so much trouble with antennas on the roof isn’t quite theContinue reading “Old Joke Archaeology”
Larger Trivia Overdose
Responses to my most recent column were evenly split, about half using the word “Scrooge” and the others using “Grinch.” (There were a few other words which are new to me, but I got the general gist.) It occurs to me that perhaps I was a little hard on those people who announce startlingContinue reading “Larger Trivia Overdose”
NOTABLE NOTES
Although we see discussions (sometimes in this very space) of the music of bygone days, these tend to focus on what I would call “officially available music”. These are performances on the Broadway stage, or concerts in big cities by big name musicians, or the debuts of operas or symphonies in front of massiveContinue reading “NOTABLE NOTES”
Leisure Pleasure
So we arrive, once again, at Monday. If you did not spend your weekend at the Newberry Library Book Fair, well, you missed it. It was a post-pandemic affair, a bit watered-down from previous concoctions, but there were still books for sale at popular prices. If you were unable to tear yourself away forContinue reading “Leisure Pleasure”