Today is November 25th and that means we start the 30 day slide into Christmas. 
I love Christmas time. It’s a great time full of music and great viewing opportunities. I know I could go over the top listing everything but I’m going to try and stay on point and keep to the topic of this blahg. I’m going to share with you what is on my Christmas Wish List for 2012.
Yesterday, my daughter Abbie and I put up our Christmas lights. 
It was bitter cold and we had to stop a few times and come in and get warm. Isn’t it amazing that every year you can’t remember the arrangement you had the previous year? 
We had a few lights blown out but nothing major and a quick trip to town secured the replacement bulbs. I’ve taken a few pictures of the light display. 
There’s a right view and left view. Pick the appropriate view whether you are right brained or left. And just to be confusing, I’ve added a shot of the front of our house with the lit bushes on either side of the door and the shooting star up above. Click on any of the pictures to view a larger version. So much for my Christmas lights. They look better at night and maybe I’ll update those pictures with night pictures but with the light dusting of snow that we received over night, I thought these pictures would set the mood for this blahg. (Writing this later this evening, I’ve added the night pictures below. Click any of them to see a larger version)
What is on my Christmas Wish List? Top of the list: WORLD PEACE. There used to be this little joke/tradition in my house when it came to Christmas or Birthdays. I would ask my children what they wanted for Christmas or their Birthday. 
If their first answer was not World Peace then I would mockingly scold them and tell them that maybe they were only going to get one thing and they blew it by not asking for World Peace as their first choice. It’s the perfect gift and there’s no batteries required. I completely forgot about that tradition and a few years ago, I asked Abbie, whose Birthday is December 16th, what she wanted for her Birthday. She answered right away: World Peace. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I had forgotten and Abbie had not. There’s hope for this new generation yet! Seriously, Middle East, what is your problem? If a child here in Canada can embrace the concept then what’s stopping you? Add to my wish list that the current Ceasefire will work its way into a lasting Peace and spread across the globe.
I don’t have a very long wish list for Christmas and after WORLD PEACE everything else pales in comparison. Maybe it’s safer to ask for other things because that top item on my list is hard to acquire and not likely to fit in my stocking. If I can’t have WORLD PEACE then maybe I’ll be a little selfish and ask for Jean Arthur. 
I know she’s dead, and thanks for pointing that out, but I simply think she was one of the greatest actresses ever. I recently purchased the Jean Arthur Drama Collection that was released in May of this year. This is a follow-up to the Jean Arthur Comedy Collection that TCM (Turner Classic Movies) released last year. It’s a great set and fills in the gap of her film output on DVD with some early 30s dramas. I guess my wish list then, to be more specific, would be to have a couple of her very popular films finally released on DVD. Specifically, “History Is Made At Night” (1937) & “The Devil And Miss Jones” (1941). 
With the recent release of “Directed by Billy Wilder – TCM Vault Collection”, we have been treated to a DVD release of “A Foreign Affair” (1948). That last TCM release also included Wilder’s “Five Graves To Cairo” which is a great previously unreleased film; even if it doesn’t star Jean Arthur.
So why ask for Jean Arthur? Well, I can’t have WORLD PEACE so why not ask for something just as impossible? I’ve been on this Jean Arthur kick this past year with these DVD releases. I have all of the other DVD releases of Jean Arthur films so these new acquisitions have been welcome additions to my collection. 
There are no other Jean Arthur releases on the horizon so for my Christmas list I’ve asked for a book about Jean Arthur. There are a couple books out there about Jean Arthur and this year saw the release of the second one: “Jean Arthur: A Biofilmography”. I know, that’s a new word to me too. I wasn’t even aware that this book had been released. 
It certainly wasn’t on my radar but when I went to show my wife the book about Jean Arthur that I wanted, this one popped up. It wasn’t the one I knew about and it’s not currently on my wish list. I had previously read about “Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew”. The title sounds interesting and if I do get it for Christmas (Hint Hint) then I’ll read it and maybe post a review here.
Another great actress that I really enjoy is Judy Holliday. Holliday is not necessarily on my Holiday wish list. I just really like her work and she only really had eight starring features from 1949 to 1960. 
She was a great comedienne and could sing to boot. She died too young at the age of 43 in 1965 of Cancer. Her volume of work has been highly represented on DVD with the exception of 1956’s “Full of Life”. That will all change next month when Sony will release the DVD on December 4th. I’m not necessarily asking for this release because it is a Sony Manufacture on Demand DVD and I can’t get it in Canada unless I find an online source that will ship to Canada. Perhaps TCM, but their shipping to Canada is outrageous. Hey TCM, why is your shipping costs to Canada so outrageous? Oh yeah, I asked them that and they sent some generic response that didn’t really answer my question.
Moving on. The Weepies. The Weepies? Yes, The Weepies. In a previous blahg, “Advice For The Next 50: Think For Yourself”, I mentioned a great singer by the name of Deb Talan that I’ve been enjoying. 
Deb Talan, along with her husband Steve Tannen, are members of the band The Weepies. There may be others in the band but Steve and Deb are the front of the band. In 2011 they released a new CD called “Be My Thrill”, which is what I’m adding to my wish list. It’s an amazing CD and the title track is one of my favorites. Give it a listen:
This is a very upbeat tune but there’s a few Youtube videos of The Weepies performing this more as a ballad. Here’s one of them performed at the Oregon Zoo in 2011:
If that’s not enough, there’s a great acoustic version of this done by a couple of Youtube amateurs who I happen to think do a super job themselves:
Moving even more on but still on a musical note, I want to add another DVD to the list of things I’d like to own. 
Back in 1988, Peter, Paul and Mary gave a holiday concert in New York and it was aired later as a PBS special. I managed to tape it from PBS years ago and I’ll tell you that I practically wore out the tape watching it every year; fast-forwarding through the PBS pledge breaks. Last year, Shout Factory did the world a favor and released the concert on DVD. They perform some great songs during this concert and at points there isn’t a dry eye in the house. A great group from the 1960s who came at a time when the world was looking for peace. How strange it is that we’re still looking for that peace today; or wishing for it. I’ll keep wishing for it as my first wish and maybe I’ll be surprised with getting it one day…hopefully sooner than later.
I’ll close with that wish for peace and a video from that Peter, Paul, and Mary Concert that sums it all up: “Light One Candle”.
Tags: Christmas, False Ducks, Jean Arthur, Judy Holliday, Paul and Mary, Peter, Scott Henderson, The Weepies