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About This Author
I am SoCalScribe. This is my InkSpot.
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Blogocentric Formulations
Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics).
Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:
 "The Soundtrackers Group" 
"Blogging Circle of Friends "
"Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"
"JAFBG"
"Take up Your Cross"
Thanks for stopping by! 
December 11, 2014 at 10:43pm December 11, 2014 at 10:43pm
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"You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch"
by Thurl Ravenscroft
Sometimes it's fun to listen to a holiday song that swings in the opposite direction of something wholesome and cheery. And for that, you can't do much better than this classic from How the Grinch Stole Christmas! With lyrics by Dr. Seuss, music by Albert Hague (who played music teacher Benjamin Shorofsky on the TV series and in the movie Fame), and the vocals of Thurl Ravenscroft (seriously, is there a better name for a guy with a deep baritone voice like that?  ), you've got all the makings of a hit. Fun fact: Thurl Ravenscroft's other claim to fame - aside from this song - was that he was the voice of Tony the Tiger of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes for more than 50 years. "They're grrrreat!" Ravenscroft was not credited in the original TV special and when Seuss discovered the oversight, he personally called Ravenscroft to apologize and wrote letters to newspaper columnists nationwide telling them that Ravenscroft should be credited with the vocals. Still, to this day, the vocals are often erroneously attributed to Boris Karloff who served as the narrator and voice of The Grinch for the special.
There are actually two different versions of this original song; Ravenscroft recorded one for the TV special (shown in the video below), and another for the soundtrack. Not only is the instrumentation different (there are more "sound effect" musical notes in the TV version), but the order of some of the verses were altered. The song has been covered multiple times, the most famous of which is likely Jim Carrey's version from the live-action movie of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! in 2000. It's also been covered by such diverse performers as Cee Lo Green, Aimee Mann, Mannheim Steamroller, Busta Rhymes, RuPaul, the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Sixpence None the Richer, Dweezil Zappa, The Misfits, and Darius Rucker of Hootie & The Blowfish.
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December 11, 2014 at 3:27am December 11, 2014 at 3:27am
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"Christmas Wrapping"
by The Waitresses
I love the story this song tells, of a busy woman who's decided not to make a big deal about the Christmas season. It's a little sappy, especially the part about missed connections with the guy all year before running into him on Christmas Eve, but part of the charm of some holiday songs - at least for me - is that they're a little cheesy and idealistic and just make you feel good. We can spend the other eleven months of the year criticizing a creative work's plausibility, realism, proper setup and payoff of narrative devices, etc. I think it's okay to have one month a year where you just enjoy a silly song because it has a feel-good story to it.
The Waitresses were a new wave band out of Akron, Ohio which was comprised mainly of guitarist/songwriter Chris Butler and singer Patty Donahue. They were only active from 1978 to 1984, but in that time they put out this song, as well as another minor hit with the song, "I Know What Boys Like." This holiday song wasn't actually something the band had ever planned on writing or performing; it was written at the request of their label ZE Records, which asked each of its artists to come up with a Christmas song for a compilation album they were putting together. Butler wrote it as a response to so many New Yorkers he noticed seemed to only be coping with the holiday rather than enjoying it. In a rush to get it out in time for the holidays (they started working on it in August of that year), Butler cobbled together some riffs and other bits and pieces of songs he'd been saving up over the years, and actually finished up the lyrics on the cab ride to the recording studio. The song title's pun on the word "rapping" and it's fast-paced delivery of the vocals was strongly influenced by the rise of the hip hop scene in the early 1980s.
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