You can follow along with the lyrics. [From my sweetie via e-mail.]

Like a lot of kids who came of age in the '80s, I was not, and to this day am really not, a fan of Paul Simon. But every kid who came of age in the '80s knew who Paul Simon was, thanks to this video:

I can still watch it just any ol' time...

Animal is my favorite Muppet. Just for the record.

With thanks to my frient Tom, who lifted my spirits with this earlier today.

Matt's Dancing 2008 footage. My favorites: the DMZ in Korea, the two from Tonga, and Nellis Airspace. [Wave of the phin to my sweet for passing it along.]

Weird Al. Who else?

I mean to post this yesterday, but totally forgot... Jonathan Wight asked how many covers of "Ring of Fire" one had in one's iTunes library. For me, the answer is two: Joaquin Phoenix's from the "Walk the Line" soundtrack, and the oldie but goodie from Social Distortion. This led to the following random tracks being played after shuffling the results of a search in iTunes for "fire": 1. "Ring of Fire" -- Joaquin Phoenix, Walk The Line Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 2. "City of New Orleans" -- Johnny Cash, Ring of Fire, Disc 2 3. "Consuming Fire" -- Third Day, Offerings: A Worship Album 4. "Ring of Fire" -- Social Distortion, Social Distortion 5. "Fire Woman (N.Y.C. Rock Mix)" -- The Cult, Fire Woman EP (import) 6. "Far and Gone" -- Day of Fire, Cut & Move 7. "Waiting" -- Fireflight, The Healing of Harms 8. "Shine" -- By The Tree, World On Fire 9. "Reborn" -- Day of Fire, Cut & Move 10. "Wake Me" -- Day of Fire, Cut & Move Apparently, my copy of iTunes has a thing for the Man in Black and Day of Fire. I can live with that.

1. "Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad" - Def Leppard, Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection
2. "The Big Chair" - Tears For Fears, Songs From The Big Chair
3. "Joe Bean" - Johnny Cash, At Folsom Prison
4. "Blue Train" - Johnny Cash, The Complete Sun Singles, Volume 2
5. "The Cross Has Said It All" - Matt Redman, The Friendship And The Fear
6. "It's So Easy" - Harvest, 41 Will Come
7. "Call Back When I'm Honest" - The Almost, Southern Weather
8. "The Planets: Mars, The Bringer Of War (Conclusion)" - London Symphony Orchestra, Heavy Classix
9. "Flashpoint" - Whitecross, Triumphant Return
10. "Never Been Unloved" - Michael W. Smith, The Second Decade 1993-2003 As with yesterday, all links are to the Amazon MP3 store, with the exception of Heavy Classix, which is only available on CD.

From earlier this morning, when I was in a music-listening mode: 1. "The Steward of Gondor (Featuring Billy Boyd)" -- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
2. "Flicker" -- Audio Adrenaline, Some Kind of Zombie
3. "Invisible Sun" -- The Police, Every Breath You Take: The Classics
4. "Dirty World" -- The Traveling Wilburys, The Traveling Wilburys Collection
5. "I Hate Everything" -- George Strait, 50 Number Ones, Disc 1
6. "Big Yellow Taxi" -- Counting Crows, Hard Candy
7. "Before My Eyes" -- Tesla, Five Man Acoustical Jam (Live)
8. "Least of These" -- Justin Nevins, Nada One
9. "Hallowed" -- Jennifer Knapp & Phil Keaggy, City on a Hill: Sing Alleluia
10. "Raise Him Up (Electric)" -- Lost And Found, Something Different All links are to the Amazon MP3 Downloads store, with the exception of Tesla's Five Man Acoustical Jam, which is for the CD, as it's not available as a download. Why Amazon over the iTunes Store? For a lot of songs, Amazon offers the same or better bit rate than iTunes, which means a better listening experience, and there's absolutely no DRM on Amazon's songs. This is the case only with certain songs, not all, on the iTunes Store. And I've just been buying more music of late from Amazon than from the iTunes Store...

I've had this playlist since, well, since before there were playlists. It started as a mix CD I put together in the very early aughts, before the iPod was released. It has continued life as a playlist in iTunes, and I put it together today as a Mixwit mix to try out that service. Enjoy!

Unfortunately, the services which Mixwit uses to pull tracks didn't have everything in my original "Phischmix". Here's the full playlist, with the missing songs in italics: "Girlfriend" by Matthew Sweet
"Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down
"Everything to Everyone" by Everclear
"My Hero" by the Foo Fighters
"Push" by Matchbox 20
"Closing Time" by Semisonic
"Man on the Moon" by R.E.M.
"Three Marlenas" by The Wallflowers
"Come On Eileen" by Save Ferris
"Walkin' on the Sun" by Smash Mouth
"Fire Escape" by Fastball
"She's So High" by Tal Bachman
"John Hughes 2000"by Menthol
"Heroes" by The Wallflowers One of the little eye candy things I like about Mixwit is the fact that as you go through the playlist, the tape moves from one side of the cassette to the other, just as its analog predecessor does. It's those little things developers pay attention to that make the whole experience. Enjoy!

This is fairly awesome.

Doesn't that make you want to drink milk?

How can you go wrong when you mix REM and The Muppets?

This is for my pal Nathan:

[Wave of the phin to Grant.]

At least his version doesn't go on forever.

My pal Dan turned me on to this fantastic cover of U2's "With or Without You" by Japanese pop star Hikaru Utada:

Don't fear: she may be speaking Japanese at the beginning of the clip, but she sings the song in English. It's really good, a great arrangement, and awesome voice.

I received this e-mail from a neighbor. It's one of those things where you read their answers, then fill in your own and pass it on to the people you'd like to hear back from. Seeing as how while most of you will be getting ready for work or what-have-you this morning while I'm undergoing prep for surgery to get "unscrewed", I won't be in much of a blogging mood, and thought I'd leave this here for you to enjoy. Please feel free to leave your own answers in the comments, or post to your own blog and link to it in the comments. Merry Christmas! Welcome to the 2007 Holiday Edition of Getting to Know Your Friends! You know the drill. Don't be a scrooge! Fill it out, pass it on, blah blah blah. I would love to hear your answers. 1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? This time of year, I have to go with the nog. I can get hot chocolate any time. 2. Does Santa wrap the presents or just sit them under the tree? Growing up, Santa just left stuff under the tree, or on the coach next to the tree, etc. Since then, he seems to have upgraded his process, as the gifts he leaves are now wrapped. 3. Colored or white lights? I prefer white, though I do enjoy the colored lights when they're done well. 4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope. I'm already kissing the person I want to kiss the most. 5. When do you put your decorations up? We have no hard and fast rules on this one. The tree just went up this weekend, and the lights were put on last night. 6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Can I go with the nog again? 7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? The older gentlemen, Mr. Gridley, who lived next door to my grandparents, would dress as Santa and come over to hand out our presents when we did Christmas at their house. As a child, having Santa right there, handing you the presents he'd brought all the way from the North Pole? Incredible. 8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I'd have to check with my folks, but it was likely somewhere around ten or eleven years of age. I overheard some other boys talking about, and I confronted my parents with the information. They told me the truth, but swore me to secrecy, as my sister, five years younger than I, still believed. 9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? That usually depends on where we might be, but generally, yes. 10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? White lights, with ornaments from my childhood, plus some that were gifts from my mother-in-law, my mom, and my grandmothers. They're pretty much all personal momentos of one sort or another. No tinsel or garland. Pretty simple, the way we like it. 11. Snow: Love it or hate it? Love it, just because, growing up in south Louisiana, and now living in north Texas, we don't see snow often. 12. Can you ice skate? Nope. Heck, I barely remember how to roller skate! 13. Do you remember your favorite gift? So many were favorites at so many different times of my life, I really couldn't say. 14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? Spending time with the family. It's great to see Christmas through the eyes of a child--my son--once again. 15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? A tie between my grandmother's chocolate pie, and my grandmother's lemon pie. The tie is always broken by having a slice of each. 16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Watching my son open his presents on Christmas morning. 17. What is on top of your tree? An angel. 18. Which do you like best giving or receiving? Definitely the giving, though I won't lie and say the receiving--especially when it's something from my carefully assembled wish list--comes in a close second. Hey, at least I'm honest. 19. What is your favorite Christmas song? I'm a sucker for a well done "What Child is This?", and I also love "Joy To The World" and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". 20. Do you like candy canes? To eat? Not really, but I don't mind them otherwise. 21. What is your favorite Christmas movie? Technically not a movie, but I love "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

Originally slated for inclusion on the Joshua Tree album twenty years ago, this song remained unfinished until just recently:

It can now be found on disc two of the 20th anniversary edition of Joshua Tree. [Wave of the phin to the Fontosaurus.]

Mark Lowry performs our national anthem as a baritone, with some "surprise" accompaniment:

(Via Lee via IM.)

Tom tagged me, asking I note the last five songs I've purchased. Since I don't often purchase individual songs, my list will mostly contain my favorite songs from the last few CDs I've purchased. 1. "Once Bitten Twice Shy" -- Great White
Tried out the new Amazon MP3 store and got this. It's the only Great White song I've ever liked, so why bother buying an entire album to get it? 2. "Disarray" -- Lifehouse, Who We Are
I really like the way this song kicks off the album. 3. "Every Man" -- Casting Crowns, The Altar and The Door
I love the reminder this song gives me that everyone needs the salvation God offers in His Son, no matter who they are. 4. "Dirty And Left Out" -- The Almost, Southern Weather
Because what's a rock album without a ballad? And boy, have I felt this way at times. 5. "Long Live the King" -- Aaron Shust, Whispered and Shouted
Shust builds this song perfectly. I don't usually associate the words "anthemic" and "fist-pumping" with worship music, but this one gets the blood moving. I don't really like "tagging" folks and propagating Internet memes--gee, I guess if I really feel that way, I should stop participating in them, shouldn't I?--but I confess, I am curious as to the last five songs purchased by Brent, Nathan, Michael, Wes, and Raena. (If you don't feel like blogging your response, lady and gents, feel free to leave it in the comments.)

[Wave of the phin to Dean Barnett for the pointer on HotAir.]

"Arctic Monkeys see slower sales for new album" I guess they gave up trying to come up with Shakespeare.

I'm not sure if there's anything to the fact that as George Thorogood's "Who Do You Love?" was playing, I came across Steve's great poem, "my convenient social gospel", but regardless, it's a good poem. Thanks, Steve!

Earlier today Brian twittered about Patrik Stenberg's "curious covers", and I listened to them all. My favorites are "Break-up" and the "Rock Medley".