the rix mix

Raining almost continuously for 32 hours, finally ending. The snow (we had a lot of it) is nearly all gone. The old sidewalks around here become pans filled with cold water, stepping around them on the grass is no better. Three Christmas cards arrived. A lot of folks have said or written this year that the holiday either sneaked up on them or they had difficulty finding the spirit. I was preoccupied & distracted & didn't get out any snail mail cards, but the card exchange at Street Prophets I participated in the past two years & enjoyed wasn't organized at all this year. It's one of those projects that takes a committed card lover to pull together & you can't blame the volunteer who decides she's made enough lists for other people & it's someone else's turn.
***
You'll rarely hear me praise Dean Martin albums but I have to admit his 1959 "holiday" collection, "A Winter Romance," is swell. Dean's smooth, detached style suits the material. There's only three Christmas songs on it if we don't count "Winter Wonderland" & "Let It Snow," & the inclusion of songs like "The Things We Did Last Summer" & "Out In the Cold Again" is inspired - most likely the inspiration of arranger Gus Levene & producer Lee Gillette at Capitol rather than Dean, who sang whatever he was handed & treated everything the same. In '59 his propensity for openly mocking his material hadn't taken over; from the Sixties on he could hardly sing a really good song all the way through on stage without pissing on it, & by that time nobody was forcing him to sing bad ones. Did he even sing "That's Amore" anymore? I bet there were Rat Pack performances in Vegas when Dean heckled Frank once too often during a reverential moment & Frank felt like kicking him in the ass. But Dean, who knew how it felt to get punched in the face repeatedly, was immune to ass kicking & everyone knew it.

Labels: holidays, music, potpourri, weather