Showing posts with label ^ Ray Charles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ^ Ray Charles. Show all posts

Monday, December 24, 2007

Yep, the Griswolds are back...

Oi! Oh, man... seriously, why is the world still rotating today? When I got home from the bar at whatever o'clock in the morning it was, only a few freakin' hours ago, I'm pretty sure all I wanted was for some type of worldly catastrophic event to take place that would mean I wouldn't ever have to wake up for work!

Here's the deal -- drinking a lot when you don't drink a lot anymore... whoa. Might as well, might as well, might as well just skip the drinking and take a jackhammer straight to my skull. Come on, Advil, work, baby! It's not even like I was drinking to get plastered. Somehow the glass kept getting filled with beer and so that meant each time I had to eventually empty it into my stomach! Dems da rulez, yo -- No Beer Wasted. Duh.

Now it's like coming up on 8 a.m. as I type this and I have to work a 24 hour shift starting at 9 ... haaaa! luckily not until 9 o'clock tonight, Christmas Eve -» through Christmas morning -» through Christmas day -» 9 p.m. Christmas night. I have no idea what bar in town will be open but when my shift's over, it'll probably be pitcher time again, that or just pour me Guinness by the pint and I'll be forgetting Christmas with each and every hoist. Ahhhh... or I'll just come back to my bed and collapse. We shall see, we shall see.

Probably no way that I'll run today. Even though the gym's open until 6 p.m. this evening, I'm fairly sure I've written that off already. After my run last night, man, I was so stoked for a run today. Just the mere thought of stepping foot on the track is making me shudder in horror.
Stoopid alcohol.

So for now I've got 12+ hours to get some more sleep and recover from this. If I had to start a shift in an hour, that would be so wicked irresponsible. I think, at least I hope, I've left that kind of irresponsibility way in the past. Mayhaps if I worked at Mickey D's I'd tell them to kiss my shiny metal ass, I quit... but my job is slightly more important than that so I'll be there with bells on, or I would if I wore bells, which I don't, so no bells, nevermind. But if it's anything like Thanksgiving then it'll be an interesting shift with interesting calls. Still, perhaps I shoulda flown to Dutch Harbor for a few days. All I woulda done there is drank myself silly with strangers and Christmas would have been actively happening just as much as it is here. Maybe the best place to go to avoid the holiday would be, oh, Saudi Arabia? Yemen? Something like that.

Anyway, I didn't plan to listen to Christmas tunes this late into the season but this happens and that happens and I didn't want to wait on this until next year so here it is now...


Christmas lights animatedChristmas lights animatedChristmas lights animatedChristmas lights animated

Christmas bell animated

Tunes...



National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation soundtrack (front cover)National
Lampoon's
Christmas
Vacation

soundtrack

1989

(1999 Limited 10th Anniversary Edition)



256 kbps whole album dload
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation Soundtrack

192 kbps
Christmas Vacation (cartoon version) -- Mavis Staples
· Take It Russ. . .
Hey, Santa Claus -- The Moonglows
· Clark's Asskiss Remark
That Spirit Of Christmas -- Ray Charles
· Sh****r Was Full
Christmas Vacation Suite -- John Williams/Angelo Badalamenti
· Aunt Bethany's Arrival
Hallelujah Chorus -- The Oratorio Society of New York
· Feeding the dog at the table
Mele Kalikimaka -- Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
· Clark Explodes
Here Comes Santa Claus -- Gene Autry
· Eddie's Gift
Joy To The World -- Angelo Badalamenti
· Hell's Threshold
Christmas Vacation (end credits version) -- Mavis Staples
· Rocket's Red Glare/Star-Spangled Banner

-- Bonus Tracks-- (Christmas Jingle -- Angelo Badalamenti)
Holiday Road -- Lindsey Buckingham
Dancin' 'Cross The U.S.A. -- Lindsey Buckingham
Holiday Road -- Limp
Christmas Vacation (radio version) -- Mavis Staples
Radio Commercial (movie trailer)

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation soundtrack (rear cover)
soundboard mp3 download
Merry Christmas snowman snow globe dealie

Friday, November 2, 2007

Christmas Run with Ray; or: 52 Shopping Days Left


The North Face trail running shoe
· Run Time -- 11 minutes 0 seconds
(+0:20)


__· Temperature: 14ºF (-10ºC)
__· Total Trail Time: 64 minutes

· Trail Time in November -- 64 minutes


____(starting Oct. 1)
· Weight Loss Goal -- 24 pounds (11 kg)
__________· So Far -- 7 lb.

As the morning last hour of morning began to creep away, I got out there on the trail for my first run in over a week. Over a week? That's way too long. My 11 minutes was relatively easy, though. A little cold, but not bad. Jumping into a hot shower less than a minute after getting back in the door -- Heaven!

Being out on the same trail as my hikes, it doesn't seem the same when I'm running. Some of it does, the hiking back part. But for those minutes of running time, almost nothing matters except monitoring how I am and keeping my mind on the music in order to get to my ending cue. And then the first five or ten minutes after that, I've gotta catch my breath and come back down to normal. Since that's not exactly a pleasureable time and since the act of running itself is plain horrible, there really isn't much enjoying being out there. I do like the fact that I'm out there doing something extremely positive for my physical health and for the state of my heart. And now sittin' back down, all cleaned up, tired but feeling awesome, I'm ready to run again tomorrow! In reality I'll probably wait until the day after tomorrow but to wait a week inbetween runs, that just ain't right. Gotta put an end to that and put the effort in more often to get out there for a run just as I did today!



The music in my ears:


Ray Charles

The Spirit of Christmas

(1985)

[1997 Reissue w/bonus track]




What Child Is This?
The Little Drummer Boy
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
This Time Of The Year
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
That Spirit Of Christmas
All I Want For Christmas
Christmas In My Heart
Winter Wonderland
Christmas Time
Baby, It's Cold Outside [with Betty Carter; bonus track]

Today was the very first time I have ever Pressed Play on Ray Charles and I've gotta say, this is a pretty nice album! It's not very Christmasy, though. What I mean is, the music didn't really make me feel like I was wrapped up in a warm blanket of fuzzy Yuletide warmth. Not really at all. And not a single song has a rockin' pace to it, either. Mostly it's smooth, quiet, and mellow, some nice easy listening. Other times it has a very cool jazz feel. The very first song is evidence of that. It starts out as the traditional Christmas carol but shifts gears into some jazz you might hear in a smoky Greenwich Village bar in December. No two drink minimum here, just a really cool album of music.






Also on the trail:
finished up the 1994 self-titled
debut album from Rebecca St. James...


· Everything I Do
· Way Up Here
· Little Bit Of Love
· Side By Side
· Jesus Loves The Little Children


one says one number and the other another
but they were set at the same time. Hmmm...

i love you amy uzarski.  always!
 
Calvin and Hobbes in the snow -- animated