Matt Of All Trades

 Every year for the past I don't know how long now - at least a decade - I've posted Darlene Love's annual TV performance of her classic "Christmas Baby (Please Come Home).   For the past few years, she's done this on the chat fest show, "The View." It isn't happening this year. Yes, Covid got in the way again.  Thankfully and most importantly, Love seems to be A-OK. One of her band members tested positive, so the entire band was quarantined.  In a video i nterview last Friday with The View, Love says she feels fine. She said she's fully vaccinated, had her booster shot, and also a flu shot.  The band member who tested positive with a probable breakthrough infection was also fully vaccinated, rendering that person a bit less likely to spread the virus.  The quarantine was lifted last weekend, and Love was once again able to give public performances. o You can't stop tradition, so I'm using that video for this year's Darlene Love salut...

The song "Leader Of The Pack" certainly has its fans, but its also quite a piece of 1960s oddness.  Every decade has its style mishaps, its entertainment embarrassments and it's creepy moments, and as far as I'm concerned, the 1960s had one super, doozy of one.  We take you back to 1964 with song "Leader of the Pack by the Shangri-Las.  While the song, and a video that's still circulating out there might have been super cool back then, you have to cringe and laugh at this for sure.  The video is a the bottom of this post, you HAVE to watch. But I'll set it up for you. I shouldn't mock, but I can't help it. The video in particular has so many wonderful moving parts. The lead singer's hair is one of the Seven World Wonders of structure. The "Leader Of The Pack" protagonist is a creepy guy who is way too old for our structure hair lady.  No wonder her parents forbade her from seeing this dude!   The two backup singers have the classic K...

Leave a pile of brush to dry for a year, and then set it on fire, and it really takes off. My back yard burn last month. Looks scary, but all under control.  I know it's not the most environmentally friendly way to get rid of a huge amount of brush, but I do like to make burn piles on my relatively rural Vermont property.  A few weeks ago, I made a nice one! The pile had been sitting there since last winter. Covid restrictions meant I couldn't get a permit for the burn last March and April.  I didn't want to do the burn during the dry weather we had last summer and fall, so I let the pile sit.  The time finally came New Year's weekend. We'd just had some rain and snow, so everything around was either wet or frozen. No chance of starting a nearby forest fire. I was also able to obtain a town permit for the fire this time. With the brush pile having a year to dry out, the fire really took off.  A couple of pieces of paper as kindling, and certainly no accelerates,...

A Daily Show parody of a Fox Christmas family Zoom meeting that doesn't go well.  The Christmas holiday is always fraught.   You want to spend time with the family. In most cases. Sometimes, there are certain family members you don't want to spend time with.  For a few people, staying home because of the pandemic is a good thing.  An excuse not to spend time with certain people. Then there's this comedy video. Imagine having THIS family.  Full of Fox personalities. So this comedian imagines how a Zoom family Christmas would go.  Watch. As always, click on the YouTube logo at bottom of video to make it bigger and easier to see.