Pulp Free

While it’s now cold and windy here in Saint Louis, I hope that you have a great New Year’s! And this is really just an excuse to post another image for the record books…

I’ve already renewed my Lodge membership, still have a few days left of vacation - and hopefully a lot more snoozing to get done! I also have a few more posts to get out so we’ll see what tomorrow brings!

Enjoy!

With less than an hour before Santa arrives here in Saint Louis (I’m assuming that Santa arrives at Midnight in all locations across the world) - I thought I’d wish all of my visitors a Merry Christmas!

Thanks for your visits… Enjoy!

For as long as I can remember I’ve been an avid fan of Christmas music. Classic to new - it’s amazing just how many different ways a Christmas song can be styled and recorded. Personally, I’ve collected some 1,300 songs for over 80 hours of non-stop Noel. While some of you are probably pulling your hair out at the non-stop bombardment of commercialism - I could listen to this particular music over and over… (I even listen to it once in a while when it’s not the holiday time!)

Since I wasn’t able to get any new Christmas recordings done of my own this year, I thought I’d try my hand at putting together a Top 10 list of Christmas favorites by other artists… It was a lot harder than I had imagined… And even after pulling a first set of songs together - I pushed the list to 16 songs! And I left a good 15 more on the cutting room floor… not to count entire albums that are perfect for parties.

That being said, I eventually pulled together a list of songs that I actually enjoy on repeat… You’ll find that these selections aren’t your regular “That’s What I Call Music!!” or “Best Christmas Songs EVER!!” type lists. Or even a collection of “standards”. I’ve left the need for Bing Crosby, Band Aid, Burl Ives, What! to be left to other sites! (Although I did come across an updated version of “Last Christmas” by Britt Nicole that almost made the list…)

I’m also take a few seconds to plug my own selection of Christmas CDs that I’ve created over the years… (And at which I try each year to make a new one… without much success!)

• At The Christmas Theatre
• Christmas Centre Stage
• Christmas Fayre
• Snowscape Point

Now for the list… By using the icons shown below you can download or stream hi and lo-fi versions of my prepared 30-second song samples. You can even grab a playlist of all of the selections and listen to them one after another…

1. SHeDAISY - Deck The Halls
2. The Big Band - Joy To The World
3. The Cathedral Brass - Joy To The World (Mocean Worker Remix)
4. Dance Nation - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
5. Frank McComb - This Christmas
6. Jimmy McGriff - The Christmas Song (Tonal Remix)
7. Bryan Lubeck - The First Noel
8. Dave Koz - Little Drummer Boy
9. Dixieland - Frosty The Snowman
10. Joe Williams - Jingle Bells (Bombay Dub Orchestra Remix)
11. Spyro Gyra - Feliz Navidad
12. Tom Scott - Feliz Navidad
13. Fourplay - Amazing Grace
14. Ray Conniff - Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town
15. Mannheim Steamroller - Traditions Of Christmas
16. Heidi Klum - Wonderland

Enjoy! And feel free to surprise me with some updated covers of these classics…

While perusing the Internet a few (very) late nights ago for my annual Christmas list, I came upon a new invention. Specifically - specially coated glass that heats up when you apply electricity. A transparent toaster?

Now I’m no huge on toast… But I do like my daily Pop-Tart!

(Found on Inventables)

For the past few years a friend and I had a fairly sound pact when it came to one thing… soda refills. We both agreed (for the most part) that if a restaurant or other type of eating establishment did not offer free soda refills that we would essentially black list them. Rarely did this ever happen… but knowing that both of us drink our fair share of soda during lunch or dinner - this seemed to a rather ridiculous way to pass the time… This rule mostly came by way of those “fancy” restaurants that don’t advertise this “per glass” charge and then drop a bill for $20 for what amounts to 10 cents of syrup and fizzy water.

So it was to my great delight that a long established eatery, White Castle, seemingly has done away with their “no refill” policy and proudly displayed their very own “self-serve” soda dispenser out into the main dining area for all the merry drinking one could enjoy. Now lest this turn into the merits of eating sliders - let’s focus on free refills.

(And yes - by admission of going to White Castle without knowing the free refills existing - I didn’t really follow my own black list rules, now did I?)