Elvis' If I Get Home For Christmas, from the 1971 album Elvis Sings The Wonderful World of Christmas is my 7th song in my 25 Days of Christmas songs list. Although not as popular as his first Christmas album, the aptly named Elvis' Christmas Album, The Wonderful World of Christmas did go Platinum in 1999. Heck, I'd take a platinum selling album any day. If I Get Home For Christmas was written by Tony Macaulay, who also wrote the [...]
The Nutley Little Theatre in Nutley, NJ will perform a reading of my script The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge on Sunday, Dec. 8 at 2 p.m. This is from the Nutley Little Theatre website: Mark Brown's imagined sequel to Dickens’ famous “Christmas Carol” takes place a year after the title character’s miraculous transformation. But Scrooge is back to his old ways, suing Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future for breaking and entering, kidnapping, slander, pain and [...]
Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight) by The Ramones is #4 in my 25 Days of Christmas Songs list. Sure, Burl Ives has his place in any Christmas song playlist but a Christmas playlist is not complete without a punk band on it. Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight) was released in 1989 on the Brain Drain album, although I think the song may have been a B-Side release in 1987. Joey Ramone reworked [...]
While a lot of popular Christmas songs are about presents, family, and various snow-related activities, Fairytale of New York by the Pogues is about an alcoholic sleeping off a binge in a drunk tank. And how about these lyrics to warm your cockles: You're a bum You're a punk You're an old slut on junk Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed You Scumbag, you Maggot You cheap lousy faggot Happy christmas your ass I [...]
DeSales University in bucolic Center Valley, PA is doing The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge. Again. The university produced the show several years ago and they're actually doing it again. Fools. "Back by popular demand, a holiday classic—spun on its head. One year after Dickens’ classic tale, Ebenezer’s epiphany has waned and he’s returned to his curmudgeonly ways. He files suit against Jacob Marley and the Christmas ghosts for kidnapping, slander, and emotional distress. All of Dickens’ classic characters take the [...]
I'm honored that selected scenes from my play The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge will be part of the holiday show J.R. Sullivan's Hometown Holiday. J.R. is an old dear friend of mine and I'm thrilled to be part of his show. J.R. Sullivan's Hometown Holiday will be at the Sullivan Theater (yes, the theatre is named after J.R. How awesome is that?) at the Nordlof Center (old New American Theater) in downtown Rockford, IL. The popular holiday variety show produced [...]
The UK trailer for the new Disney film Muppets Most Wanted was recently released. And it looks awesome! The film opens March 21, 2014. I can't wait. "It's not easy being mean." ~ Constantine
At first, this was going to be just a quick little post saying there's an article in The Rafu Shimpo about my song "Evil is a Yellow Face," from my musical China - The Whole Enchilada, being part of the Japanese American National Museum's “Marvels & Monsters Unbound,” a showcase of short performances to kick off the new exhibition “Marvels & Monsters: Unmasking Asian Images in U.S. Comics, 1942-1986.” Then I was going to say how I just wrote a long-ass sentence. [...]
My dad was a second-class seaman. Wait. That doesn’t sound right. My dad spent several years working with seaman. No. That’s not right either. My dad was in the Navy in World War II. That’s much better. He sailed on the pastry-puff sounding USS Botetourt, an Eddie Haskell-class attack transport. Appropriately enough, given the name of the ship, my father was a cook. SC2. Ship's Cook 2nd Class. The USS Botetourt Fortunately, my dad didn’t see much action during his [...]
From Count Floyd's Monster Chiller Horror Theater comes the ridiculously scary film Blood Sucking Monkeys From West Mifflin, PA. Happy Halloween!
