A Christmas Carol, by Tom Lehrer

UPDATE: Fixed. Click and play.

Stole this from the Padgett blog, because after wasting a good $6 trying to get the “Upload to Odeo” and “Podcast” thingies working on this goddam rented public computer, I finally figured I’d just go ahead and steal it from someone who’d already ripped it.

Have I mentioned that I’m somewhat peeved at Messieurs Gates and Jobs? Somewhat.

I assume anyone reading this is familiar with Tom Lehrer, but that’s mostly because I assume everyone worth knowing is familiar with Tom Lehrer, being as he’s arguably the greatest musical satirist ever. If, for some reason, you’re not, I would highly recommend you drop everything and pick up a copy of the multi-disc retrospective Rhino put out a few years back. Of course, now that you’ve got that album, you’ve got this song as well (two versions of it!), but I suppose that’s all right.

Lehrer, FYI, is the man who says he got out of political satire because it became redundant when they gave the Nobel Peace Prize to Henry Kissinger.

[ odeo=http://odeo.com/channel/207473/view ]

fuckit, click here for the mp3.

pic o’ the day: the Aurora Borealis, seen from space

Gawd knows where I stumbled across this, but I had to post it. If this is what it looks like from the space shuttle, imagine what it looks like from directly below! I had the coolest parents when I was little (it was only when I got to be older that they became a PIA); they would wake us up if there were a particularly beautiful set of Northern Lights, so we grew up with the Aurora for our show and tell items, because we were the only little kids who were awake at midnight to watch them.

I also remember a night in Winnipeg, record cold, too, when, just as my mother finished setting the table and called us in for dinner, a huge snowy owl flew right into the living room’s picture window. SMASH! I tell ya, we even turned off Tommy Hunter, even though he had Glenn Campbell on that night! Yep, it was that special.

By the time my father got outside to investigate, the owl was gone. Not the first or last guest to come to temporary grief and lasting headache over the cocktail hour chez raincoaster, alas, but perhaps the prettiest.

We think he was making for the poodle, but we will never know for certain…

Aurora Borealis from space

happy Christmuhkwanzamadan

Another in our ongoing series of multiculti seasonal anthems. And with all the struggles I’m having trying to do a simple podcast, take what you can get; I nearly posted Kiki and Herb’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” instead, just because it fits my mood somewhat better at the moment.

But then, Kiki and Herb are the universal language, are they not? (PS if you see Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, tell them to duck if they’re coming through Vancouver. I could strangle those two bytches with my bare hands at this point)

Merry Christmas. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

the Grinch drinking game

grinchy, yoThis we can blame on my family. The specific twig of the family tree which branched out into inventing the Grinch drinking game is, alas, lost to history, but we are all proud of him, from the tall to the small.

The procedure is simple. You lay out a tray of shot glasses filled with shots. You take one every time they say “Hoo”.

They say it eighteen times in the theme song, which they sing three times throughout the show.

No-0ne can ever remember who won.

Porky Pig’s Blue Christmas

The greatest and most moving Christmas classic of all time.

That’s all, folks!