It's Christmas Time (and Time for a Carol) -- Refreshed

Originally posted December 20, 2009

While there might be people on earth that love Christmas music as much as I do, I doubt that anyone loves it more. How could I not love it when it combines super cheesy (I really want to spell that word cheesey, but I always get a red line under it when I do) music and playing the same songs over and over. And since I only have about a month to get away with it, I try to take full advantage of it.

This was the first post I wrote about Christmas music on this blog, almost five years ago to the day. In that post, I wrote, "I've created my 'must hear' Christmas playlist." Apparently I can and do get tired of *some* Christmas songs. This list would be drastically different if I were writing about Christmas music for the first time today. However, I'm going to leave the list intact and just update my comments. 

The list is split into categories of classic (before 1970), modern (1970-present) and TV (songs I associate mostly with Christmas specials). 

p²'s 2013 Over-Played Playlist -- Part One

By over-played I don't mean over-played on the radio (although that may be true also). These are the songs I played over and over this year, so if you have spent time in the car with me you might think they are over-played.

More Songs for the Holiday Season, Part Two

Here are ten more songs for your Christmas collection. You can hear the entire playlist here: The Ultimate-ish Christmas Playlist.

More Songs for the Holiday Season, Part One

I did my first Christmas song blog post in 2009, then I didn't do another one for three years. That's just craziness. So this year, I'm going to do a two-parter. Plus, as a bonus – because Brandon asked for it – I've created a Youtube Christmas playlist with all the songs from all the posts. I may even throw a few bonus ones in there to see if you're paying attention. Part two tomorrow.

Media-crity

It was a little strange watching the VMAs this morning after all the buzz about them on Facebook last night, but the truth is that I probably wouldn't have set aside time to watch them at all if people hadn't been buzzing about them. Other than two or three minutes where Miley Cyrus was a disaster though, I'm not sure I see what all the fuss was about. It was pretty standard fare as awards shows go. Nobody cut off anyone's acceptance speech, no one showed up on stage drunk or high (where's Renee Zellweger when you need her). Hell, Justin Bieber wasn't even there to amp up the douche bag quotient. I just jotted down some observations as I went through. Upon review, there are probably way more questions than there are observations.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Note: The one-word title thing is starting to tax my imagination.

Last night I posted the top ten songs from Disney animated films as sung by the characters in the films. Tonight it's my top ten songs from those films sung by pop singers. Some of the songs on the list are the official versions from the end credits and some are covers. They were all fun to listen to again. I might need to make a play list.

200

Tonight's post is the 200th post on psquared to the nth. [Balloons fall from the ceiling.] To celebrate, I thought I'd choose a topic I'm really passionate about – Disney music. I love it. It's really ridiculous too, because I don't generally love Broadway musicals and I typically hate movie musicals (with the exceptions of Grease and Xanadu). For some reason though, cartoon characters breaking out in song works for me. I'm going to do this post in two parts (part two tomorrow night). Tonight's list will be my favorite songs from Disney animated features – sung by the characters in the movie. Tomorrow night will be my ten favorite pop versions of songs from Disney movies. To keep it interesting, the rule is that a song can only go on one list. So you won't see the biggies on this list tonight because they will most likely be on tomorrow's list. These songs are as much about the movies as they are the songs. Enjoy!

Belinda

The summer is almost over and I haven't seen Belinda Carlisle perform live yet. Two years ago today I got back from a trip to Atlanta and went directly to the Go-Go's concert at the Greek Theater on Belinda's birthday (which of course is today). Then last year I just happened to be in LA in June for something recovery related and I learned that she was performing at the Gay Pride festival that night. It feels like a Southern California tradition now to see Belinda in the summer.

Whitney

I was sitting here completely blank. I literally couldn't think of one thing to write about. For all the gaps in time between blog posts, you might think that happens all the time. In reality, it almost never happens. The gaps occur because I'm not disciplined enough to sit my ass down and demand that I bang my fingers on the keyboard to produce something other than a pithy (in my opinion) status update. Usually, within a few minutes of sitting down something comes to me. Tonight, panic was almost setting in. I resorted to just aimlessly surfing the web for an idea. Guess what? It turns out Whitney Houston would have turned 50 today.

Tweenybopper

So the first four days of the month I was trying this “one-word title” gimmick. But I'm having trouble condensing the idea for tonight's post – Five Songs I Love that I'm Pretty Sure I'm Supposed to Hate – into one word. I'll think on it while I'm writing. If I do come up with a one-word title, I'll leave this paragraph here so at least you'll know what the hell this is supposed to be about.

p²'s Favorite Songs of 2012: Time Travel Edition, Part Two

Previously on p² to the nth: p² traveled back in time to post part one of his favorite songs of 2012. If you missed it, you can read it here: Part One

Without any further fanfare, here are the top 11 songs on the list.

p²'s Favorite Songs of 2012: Time Travel Edition, Part One

We're getting in my time machine today. When I should have been writing this blog post I was applying to grad school, running around like a crazy person trying to get admitted to grad school, irresponsibly driving to San Francisco for NYE and running around like a crazy person trying to get moved to LA in time to start grad school. So we're just going to pretend I posted this in December and you're just getting around to reading it now.

Something else I was doing in the months since I last wrote anything for this blog (I posted my grad school application essay but I didn't write that for my blog) was falling in love. I mention that because you'll probably notice a proliferation of love songs and “I'm super happy and bouncy because I'm in love” songs.

In fact, even though this song is from 2006 it's probably been the most-played song on my iPhone since October. As if I didn't love this song enough already.



So, you'll find periodic references to someone named Michael. That's him.

While I was time traveling, I decided to write this backwards this year. Usually by the time I get to the number one song, I'm so done that I can barely think of anything more to say. This year, I wrote the blurbs starting with number one and worked my way down. However, I'm not posting it that way. I love a big reveal. The only reason I even mention it is to reassure you that part two of this post is already written and waiting to be posted tomorrow. I know I sometimes promise a part two and then take my sweet time getting to it. You can enjoy this knowing you won't be left hanging.

15 More Songs to Add to Your Christmas Collection

It's been three years since my last Christmas music post and it feels like it's time. I might even update the other post with some fresh comments so I can repost it later this week. Back then I didn't know you could embed the videos right into the post so I can definitely do some revising on that one.

The first post contained 26 of my favorite Christmas songs (my favorite versions of those songs actually), but it was by no means exhaustive. And in the intervening three years I've added several new favorites. You'll be shocked to find American Idol contestants dominating this list I'm sure. They are listed by the play count on my iTunes. That feature is notoriously unreliable, but with a couple of exceptions it did a pretty good job of ranking them (if only because some of the lower ranked ones are the most recent additions to my collection).

Quitter

So, just this morning I posted on Facebook that I wish I had a job where I had to write something new every day. I still feel that way, but I wish I didn't have to do it at 10:30 at night. The only downside to having a really full life is that my life is really full. I haven't stopped all day. So now I'm here trying to thing of some way to entertain you and I've gotta tell you – I got nothin'.

But you know what I do have. Something I wrote when I was high about writing every day. I haven't posted anything from back then in a while and I think y'all might find it amusing to see how different my brain was back on Halloween 2006 (which is when this was written). Technically it's not a repost because it never made it to the blog. Not because I didn't think it was any good (I actually CTM'd – chuckled to myself – a couple of times while reading it just now); it never made it to the blog because I never finished it. In fact, it just stops. And I'm not going to add anything. So when you get to the end, well that's the end. Enjoy.

Bitch!

Tonight, I'm going to give you a taste of what my days sounded like at the end of August and the beginning of September in 2007. You may think I'm cheating because there won't be a whole lot of writing involved, but after two very long days in a row (one awesome, one frustrating), this is all I've got tonight. And it's a blog post I've wanted to write for a long time.

Always a Place

I hardly know what to say. I know that tonight I'm going to sleep sober for the 1827th night in a row; I also know that's a friggin' miracle. Oh, and I know I didn't come close to doing this myself. ADD alert – I just noticed that my sobriety date is 8-27 and today is the 1827th day. Cool, huh?

I must have cried a half dozen times today. Thank god I'm not one of those queens that wears makeup. I would have looked all Tammy Fay Baker and shit – because a couple of them were on the verge of being ugly cries. But in a good way. I'm really overwhelmed with gratitude by this. I think I'm supposed to be saying things like, “It's just another day.” And “We all only have today.” But what I feel like, “CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS SHIT?? I'M FIVE!”

August 26, 2007

I’m in San Francisco this weekend, for the very first time sober. Lots of strange things happened whenever I was here back in the day. One time I smoked and drank so much on the first day here I lost my voice for the rest of the weekend. That was an interesting visit. So this trip is not really like any of the ones before.

What did happen tonight was I ended up at a meeting in a room that was strikingly similar to the studio apartment I was staying in the last time I used crystal meth, five years ago this weekend. I was sitting there tonight looking around as the memory of that last night came back vividly – not in a bad way though. In fact, I was really grateful to be having the flashback (which was good because the topic of the meeting was gratitude).

2012 US Open -- Women's Preview

As I was making the video to go with this post, I realized that after this tournament Kim Clijsters will be gone. I know she retired once before, but I'm pretty sure it's for real and forever this time. She made the statement that she her body won't let her play the way she wants to play anymore. I feel ya girl! Getting old sucks and she plays a game almost as physical as Rafael Nadal.

With Kim retiring and Venus Williams only good for two or three wins a tournament now, I'm down to rooting for Maria Sharapova and hoping Sabine Lisicki can learn how play on another surface besides grass. Honestly, it's pretty depressing. But we still have one more chance – however slim – to see Kim and Jada holding up the US Open trophy, so let's get on with it.

2012 US Open -- Men's Preview

The Olympics sure did crowd up the schedule. Usually by the time the US Open rolls around it seems like Wimbledon was ages ago. Thanks to the fact that they essentially played it twice this summer, it seems like it was just yesterday. Anyone who showed up to the blog today looking for more wacky adventures of psquared will have to wait until Saturday for that to resume. Men's draw analysis tonight, women's tomorrow.

I'm not as excited about the Open as I usually am. I'm not sure if it's because how quickly it seems to have gotten here or what. But on we go anyway. I'll try to make it as “me” as always. You'll notice that the player's home country is in parentheses. There is no reason for that except that when I copied and pasted the list, that's how I got it. I listed all 32 seeds, but I'm sure you'll figure out quickly who I'm not impressed by.

ReTox

When I got out of detox (see The Crucible, Part III – Reality Check for the story story of how I got there -- strangely enough, I still have never written the story of what happened there), I was high again within 24-36 hours. I knew I needed to get sober (for a while), but I also knew that there was no way it was going to happen without something way more structured than a four-day stint in detox. I was still in Philly that first day, so I went downtown to meet with some counselor or something. I don't really remember the details, but there was some place the people at the detox hospital told me I had to go within 24 hours of getting out of detox.