Tuesday, December 31, 2013

New Year's Eve




On this cold night, when year gives way to year
   With laughter, horns and drunken revelry;
When “Thank God that year’s gone!” is all you hear,
   And frozen smiles of hope are all you see:
Tonight, we are the old year’s derelicts—
   Adrift, exposed, begging to be protected—
Till Time, which heals all pain that it inflicts,
   Gives us a present where we’ll feel protected.
So we join crowds in which we feel alone,
   And in a spotlit canyon of concrete
We search for stronger things than steel or stone
   And outcomes where we won’t feel incomplete—
      And when Time takes its midnight breath, we pray
      For something that will take our breath away.


 

Copyright 2013 Matthew J Wells

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Underneath The Tree - Christmas 2013

Outside the snow is falling, but no friends are calling yoo-hoo, because they're all waiting in line to see that documentary about Los Angeles, The Desolation of Smog. 

And here inside Casa Mateo, where Christmas, like Duane Reade, is always just around the corner, I'm getting into the holiday spirit.  I'm putting the finishing touches on a rewrite of the third (angry and hopefully entertaining political) play I've worked on since I left the day job in June.  I'm putting the finishing touches on a poetry collection that makes me think "Gee--if you took every woman I've written a love poem for and laid them all end to end, their boyfriends and husbands would be really pissed."  I'm putting the finishing touches on about a dozen reviews I haven't managed to post since Labor Day.  And (because even in a big year for changes, some things never change) I've actually just finally put the finishing touches on this year's Christmas compilation. 

It's been a very strange six months.  It wasn't really until September that I managed to rehab away the day job addiction and settle into the methadone of writing, and coincidentally that's when I stopped blogging.  My current opinion is that my online silence was a combination of hunkering down and dedicating my time to what I've always thought of as my second job, getting totally turned off by all-caps oversharing on Facebook, and repeatedly coming up with the answer "Nobody in their right mind" to the question "Who wants to hear me rave about Before Midnight really?" 

So, in the hopes that "Some of you" is the answer to "Who wants to hear a couple of hours of holiday music?" here is this year's compilation of toonage.  Fun stuff, sweet stuff, silly stuff, and a couple of song-to-song-to-song in-jokes that I'm particularly proud of, one of which only a dozen people in the world will get, but hell, I know ten of them.

Enjoy, and have a great holiday.





01.  Underneath The Tree   Kelly Clarkson
02.  Kiss Me Beneath The Christmas Tree   Casper and the Cookies
03.  I Saw Mommy Biting Santa Claus   The Dollyrots
04.  Ragin’ Cajun Redneck Christmas   The Robertsons
05.  Whiskey Christmas   Darby O’Gill and the Little People
06.  Santa Stole My Whiskey   The Rimshots
07.  Christmas From A Bar   Mike Ireland
08.  Christmas At The Airport   Nick Lowe
09.  Rockin’ Little Christmas   Carlene Carter
10.  Folsom Prison Christmas (Mr President vs Johnny Cash)    Voicedude
11.  Winter   Ask Embla
12.  Bells of Love (Isabelles of Love)   Erasure
13.  Clint Frostwood   Chillaz
14.  Funky Funky Chritmas   Electric Jungle
15.  Last Christmas (Hip Hop Remix)  Rap Allstars
16.  Happy Christmas Tears   Little Jimmy King with the Memphis Horns
17.  Poor Man’s X-mas  The Smokin’ Joe Kubek Band
18.  Winter Dress   Humming House
19.  Sha La La   Cathy Harrington
20.  Cricket Carols  The Meek
21.  Could Have Been Summer   Maggie Chapman
22.  On This Winter’s Night   Lady Antebellum
23.  Something About December   Christina Perri
24.  Oh, December   Hanne Sørvaag
25.  Xmas In February   Lou Reed
26.  Happy Xmas (War Is Over)   Sleeping At Last
27.  White Christmas   Vonda Shepard and Robert Downey Jr.
28.  Christmas On Interstate 80   5 Chinese Brothers
29.  Christmas Bells   The Bank Cormorants
30.  Will You Sleep Inside This Christmas   Chris Scruggs
31.  Xmas In Bed   Eliza Doolittle
32.  Snowed In   Mindy Smith
33.  Christmas Eve With You   Lindi Ortega
34.  You Never Come Home For Christmas   Caitlin Rose with Keegan DeWit
35.  Everything’s Changed At Christmas But You   Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors
36.  Christmas Time   Piney Gir
37.  Shiny Red Suit   TimLee3
38.  Santa Claus Forgot Me   Old Ugly
39.  Rocket Ship Santa   The BellRays
40.  Christmas Weekend   Los Straitjackets
41.  Kozatsky ‘til You Dropsky   Shirim Klezmer Orchestra
42.  Nutcracker   Straight No Chaser

43.  Merry Christmas Baby   Trijntje Oosterhuis (featuring Candy Dulfer)
44.  Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)   Leona Lewis
45.  Winter Wonderland   Glen Burtnik
46.  Lonely This Christmas   Traitors!
47.  BONUS TRACK


Zip File downloads:

2013 Xmas Compilation - Part 1

2013 Xmas Compilation - Part 2