Check it Out

Last night, they aired the annual Kennedy Center Honors program, which I will I admit I had not watched in previous years. This year, Barbara Streisand, Morgan Freeman and several others were honored. My favorite moment was seeing Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey from The Who were given a video tribute, followed by a musical performance honoring the bandmates and their over 40 years of music together. The clip below features Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters playing and singing “Who Are You” and Joss Stone singing “My Generation”. It was great to see this tribute from one generation of musicians to some of the greats who influence them.

DJ Earworm has put together something that he calls “United State of Pop 2008 (Viva La Pop)”. He wanted to do a mashup of all of the top 25 songs for 2008, according to Billboard. He mixed elements of all of the songs together into a new song that clocks in at under 5 minutes. He may have come up with his own hit. No need to go out and buy one of those “Now” compilations or listen to a long countdown. Just listen to this song and you will have everything you need to know about 2008. It’s pretty impressive how he takes individual lines from songs and pieces them together in the right speed and pitch. The strings from Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” are the driving force for the song, and you hear plenty of Rihanna, Chris Brown, and OneRepublic. The video itself is edited seamlessly and is fun to watch.

Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” may be more popular now than ever, but I really enjoyed it back in the 1990s. The host was Craig Kilborn, not Jon Stewart, and although his late-night show was terrible, Kilborn was funny as host of the Daily Show. The segments featuring Beth Littleford, Mo Rocca, and Stephen Colbert were hilarious as well. They also had a great segment with Michael Blieden where he did reviews of music videos. Here is one of those clips, which reviews the video the song “Bulldog Skin” by Guided by Voices. I am pretty sure he even reviewed Hanson’s “MMMBop” but I will need to keep looking for that clip. For now, enjoy this one.

Almost every day, I check YouTube for new or interesting videos. Here is a video that was recommended to me for some reason. Some guy with Brent made up a song and video about the game Tetris and the fact that if you like it, you must be a chick. Why he would make up a song about this is beyond me. But I must admit, I did get a chuckle out of watching it. The whole concept is funny. Of course, I know plenty of guys (including myself) who enjoy sitting down to a game of Tetris. So what does that say about me? I am not sure, but Brent has some ideas about it.

Yesterday I was introduced to the following YouTube video that is sure to make you smile, or at least talk about it. A little girl named Arianna was videotaped doing her own rendition of the dancing in Beyonce’s video for the song “Single Ladies”. So here is the side by side comparison of the two. The little girl does a pretty good job in keeping up with the girls in the video. Even the facial expressions she does are pretty much right on the money. Unfortunately for me, this song has now been stuck in my head for a few days straight, so you have been warned. Take a look and enjoy.

It’s time to clean up the wrapping paper and break out the new sled from Santa. I am not sure if you got a white Christmas, but hopefully there is some of the white stuff on the ground where you are. The following video is for entertainment purposes only, but it is also to remind you of the dangers of sledding and snowmobiling. I have seen a couple of wipeouts myself and understand that things can turn ugly pretty fast. Most of the hills I tried to sled down as a kid were pretty lame though: the local drainage ditch and the “hill” in my backyard that had about a 1 percent grade to it.

I swear, everything I learned about Christmas I learned from “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. I watched the television special every year, even though it seems like the show itself was only about eight minutes long if you take out all the commercials. I also had the book that you read along with the record player. The story was pretty much word for word what was seen on television. The music composed for the story was great and certainly memorable. Everyone remembers Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. Of course, you have Linus’ speech, which ranks up there with one of the greatest of all time. Merry Christmas everyone!

Since we are now smack in the middle of Chanukah, I wanted to make sure the holiday is well represented here. Adam Sandler first performed the song on Saturday Night Live as a little skit for Weekend Update. Then he released a live version of the song and it became a huge hit, and is still probably his best known song. It later spawned a part II of the Chanukah song (with a new list of people), and a movie called “Eight Crazy Nights”. The tune is very simple and reminds me a lot of the turkey song he sings for Thanksgiving. But that’s okay, we still love it.

Straight No Chaser is a men’s a capella singing group who first got together a decade ago at Indiana University. Last year, an old video of their “12 Days of Christmas” was discovered and became so popular that a record deal came out of it. Now, the group has a new holiday album and countless television appearances. This performance of “12 Days” is flawless and quite remarkable. They basically take the standard Christmas carol and remix it, mash it up, and put it into the context of other songs. Count how many other songs are referenced throghout the short clip. It is thoroughly entertaining and I wish the group continued success.

Only a few days left until Christmas. I have been watching many of the annual Christmas specials on TV, but have not seen any National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation this year. I was just thinking about this movie the other day. As a kid, I actually saw it in the theater when it came out nearly 20 years ago, but it’s been a while and I should really take another look at it. Here is one of the priceless scenes from that movie, where Chevy Chase gets a little tongue tied, and it’s easy to see why. Of course, who could forget the Christmas lights on the house and the tree? A classic movie that everybody should watch once a year to get into the holiday spirit.