Time to punk it up a little and send a shout-out to my brother-in-law Andy, who plays bass for the excellent Ramones tribute band, The Ramoniacs, with the Ramones’ Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight).
The Ramones: Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight) (2.4 MB MP3)
It’s finally here: Blogstravaganza — the gathering of the Toronto-and-area bloggers, blog readers and curious onlookers — takes place tonight!
Once again, the details:
| Where: | Fiddler’s Green, an Irish-style pub at 27 Wellesley Street (on the south side, just east of Yonge, across the street from the subway station). We’ll be on the second floor. |
| When: | Starting around 8 p.m.. My co-organizer Bob Tarantino will be there much earlier. He’ll be the guy talking incessantly about the publishing industry. |
| Who’s invited | If you write or read blogs, or are just curious as to who’s posting pictures of their cat and entries about the cheese sandwich they had for lunch, you’re invited! |
If you’re doing Christmas shopping in the downtown area, Blogstravaganza will be a great place to relax afterwards.
Blogstravaganza is organized by:
For more details, see:
One of the interesting side effects of writing funny if somewhat embarrassing dating stories is that people start coming to you for dating advice. If you Google for the phrase “master of dating”, the first page of results points to an Alex Payne blog entry which categorizes me as such. This has only increased since I got married; I assume that this is because people believe that as a married man, I have accomplished the dating mission. I would counter by saying that “it’s the journey that counts, not the destination“, but that’s not the point of this entry.
A number of women friends, acquaintances and blog readers whom I’ve never met but have sent me emails have told me that there seems to be some sort of guy shortage, and this leads to the inevitable question along the lines of “What are guys thinking?” or “Could you please tell me about the guy mindset?”
Explaining this feels like trying to explain colours to someone who’s been blind since birth. I usually end up falling back on my “Chihuahua Theory”, which goes like this:
Imagine that there’s a little chihuahua in your head that barks at everything.
While this is a glib, throwaway answer, most people upon hearing this suddenly change facial expression, as if they’re having a Eureka! moment. “Yes!” they say, “I understand!”
This theory amused the Ginger Ninja when I first explained it to her about a month into our dating; it’s why her first Christmas present to me was a plush chihuahua.
The piece of paper shown below was found in the cafeteria of an Arizona school. I’m strangely relieved to see that they haven’t changed…
Click the image to see the original photo.
Poor Rocheal. She’s in the same boat as “The Ugly One” from Teen Girl Squad.
Let’s face it; most original rock and pop Christmas songs are downright terrible. The worst of the lot is Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime, a phoned-in composition that relies on bland synthesizer sounds and digital delay effects to separate it from the pack.
There are a few gems, however. One of them is the Pogues’ Fairytale of New York, a griity but lovely, hard-drinkin’, Gift of the Magi-gone-wrong tune, perfect for tonight’s Blogstravaganza. I present you with the live version.
The Pogues: Fairytale of New York (5.3 MB MP3)
Taken from Time magazine:
The cat-related silliness continues at Catmas.com. Go check it out!