Slim pickens for this years new Christmas albums:

* Best Choice – Must Buy:

Andrea Bocelli

What a great cd. Andrea has one of the best voices of all time and his Christmas cd is a must. Stand-outs on the album are: “The Lord’s Prayer”, “Angels We Have Heard on High”, “Adeste Fidelis”, “O Tannenbaum”, “Silent Night”, “Cantinque de Noel”, “Caro Gesu Bambino”, and “God Bless Us Everyone” (from the new A Christmas Carol movie starring Jim Carrey).

The only misstep on the cd is the duet with Mary J Blige “What Child is This”. What a mistake…

I have to say that the version of “Jingle Bells” is oddly enjoyable. It’s a duet with… The Muppets! If you can get by the “oddness” of the track I guarantee you’ll be liking this one!

* Avoid:

Sting

Aside from a couple of “okay” songs this collection of “winter songs of snow and cold” is a snooze-fest at best. Very mediocre.

* Not Good:

David Archuletta

Are we over him yet? He has a good voice but it isn’t distinct and memorable enough for me. A bunch of mediocre songs much like Stings effort. It’s a beter cd than Stings though…

* Avoid at all costs!:

Tori Amos

Her voice is grating in this album. Maybe one or two “listenable” songs on it…

* Should be BANNED:

Bob Dylan

One of the worst things I have ever subjected my ears to. And I’ve listened to some pretty horrible stuff over the years…

Merry Christmas and God Bless Us Everyone!

Why can’t you act like the leader of this great country instead of pushing your Socialist agendas and giving “Shout Outs” during a horrific time…

It’s amazing to me how bad some commercials can be. I think it started with the Encyclopedia Britannica boy commercials in the 80’s… Now we have modern day stinkers…Like these… up there for some of the most annoying commercials to date are the ask.com commercials:

Let’s make up for it with a commercial that’s actually funny: The guy from the office with Dwight Howard: The Jack Sikma line and the bend the spoon lines are priceless…

This is without a doubt one of the greatest vocal performances I’ve ever heard. Impeccable. Not one note out of tune. Not even close… Listen to this:

Paul Wesley from the tv show Vampire Diaries

and Theo Epstein – GM of the Boston Redsox

Rep. Joe Wilson did what every person in the room should have done: called President Obama a LIAR. Good for him. I just wish he didn’t end up apologizing for it after the fact. He should have stood his ground. It WILL pay for illegal immigrants and it WILL pay for abortions. Obama IS a liar.

If you’ve seen the promo for the new House season (which looks awesome) you’re probably wondering the name of the song that plays during it. The song is called “Grounds For Divorce” and it’s by a band called Elbow. They are opening up for Coldplay right now and I was lucky enough to see them last month. They were awesome (both Elbow and Coldplay). The lead singer for Elbow reminds me of a younger Eric Clapton (Cream years). He has a great voice live. It actually sounds better live than on CD.

Here’s the House promo:

and here’s Elbow’s performance of the song with orchestra:

Timothy Geithner (Secretary of the Treasury)

Bradley Whitford (actor: Billly Madison, The West Wing, etc.)

The Freak statistic page is UP! Go here (look above next to “The Loop” etc.) to see the kid’s doings… and he’s doing really good this year…

The “Tim Lincecum for 2009 Cy Young Award” campaign has started! (Who am I kidding? This started before he threw his first pitch this year!) 

It’s not too late to jump on the bandwagon…

Guillermo del Toro (writer/director of Pan’s Labrinth and director of The Hobbit)

and Milton from the movie Office Space: