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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 14, 2014 at 11:43pm December 14, 2014 at 11:43pm
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** Image ID #2014892 Unavailable **
"All I Want For Christmas (Is You)"
by Mariah Carey
Okay, lizco252, you asked for it. This is such an amazing holiday song that I didn't think I could do it justice all by myself, so I recruited a few friends to help me recognize the brilliance of Mariah Carey's holiday opus, "All I Want For Christmas (Is You)." Also, make sure you check out yesterday's blog entry because I also talked briefly about this song in "Seems like everyone but me is in love" !
I'd like to give a special shout-out to everyone who helped me with today's special effort, for which I've asked 80s pop-rock sensation The Bangles to work on a proposed cover version of their classic:
I'm, uh, still waiting to hear back from their manager... 
This song has been covered a number of times over the years, most notably by Shania Twain, Lady Antebellum, Michael Buble, Miley Cyrus, Cee Lo Green, Miranda Cosgrove, and Olivia Olson in the movie Love Actually. As of 2013, the single is reported to have earned in excess of $50 million in royalties, and Carey herself has actually done two covers of her own song... for her second Christmas album in 2010, then again as a duet with Justin Bieber for his 2011 holiday album. Okay, maybe the Bieber thing is taking this song a little too far... I mean, I love it a lot, but the world can only take so much...
In all seriousness, though, this is one of my favorite holiday songs. It's incredibly upbeat and I tap my toes to it (and sing along, assuming I'm alone in the car) whenever it comes on. It's one of those songs for me that always instantly cheers me up and gets me in the holiday spirit, which is why I've rightfully included it on my playlist this year.
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December 14, 2014 at 11:42pm December 14, 2014 at 11:42pm
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** Image ID #2014892 Unavailable **
"My Only Wish This Year"
by Britney Spears
Okay, maybe I'm going a little too far with this "original Christmas songs" idea if I'm pulling from the Britney Spears holiday album!  I really do like this song though; I think it's a good mix of happy and sad... and it's not easy to do kind of a sad Christmas song. This single was originally released on the Platinum Christmas album, which was released in 2000 and has a bunch of artists that I grew up with, such as Britney, 'NSync, Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews Band, Dido, Whitney Houston, and others.
The critics weren't exactly favorable to this song. In fact, Richard Jinman of the Sydney Morning Herald compared this song of Britney's to another classic from six years earlier, noting that both this song and Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" were "ho-ho-horrible singles." The joke is on them, though; the song has repeatedly shown up on holiday charts since then, and many current reviewers have noted that it's something of a classic now that it's still playing a decade after its initial release. And apparently South Korea didn't get the message from Jinman; residents of that country have bought over 600,000 copies of this single!
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December 14, 2014 at 11:42pm December 14, 2014 at 11:42pm
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** Image ID #2014892 Unavailable **
"Another Christmas Song"
by Stephen Colbert
Before you laugh at the inclusion of a campy, humorous Stephen Colbert song on my list, I feel obligated to point out that this comedy special actually won him Grammy, so  . The album first went on sale November 25, 2008 and was briefly #1 on the iTunes chart. However, this was also around the time Kanye West declared himself "the voice of this generation of this decade" and Stephen Colbert took it upon himself to enact Operation Humble Kanye in which he implored everyone watching his show, The Colbert Report, to download his album at the same time on the same day to bump Kanye's album down the charts. This eventually resulted in Colbert's album reaching #2 on the charts, but that still bumped Kanye down to #4 and Colbert declared the following day that Kanye had been officially humbled.
I love how campy and completely unapologetic this song is. I've mentioned before that I don't generally like the idea of artists just re-recording the same old songs over and over again; it starts to feel like a cash grab when someone is suddenly putting out their third Christmas CD with their very own second special edition of "Silent Night." So I have a profound appreciation for this song of Colbert's with it's shameless plugging and not-so-subtle jokes about it being a cash-grab. You've gotta respect a song that has lines like "my humble yule tide, dreamed up poolside, Christmas song" that encourages you to "log onto iTunes and pay to download 'em, PAY for another Christmas song."
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