Tag: Christmas

A Charlie Brown Christmas Reunion: Charlie, Charlie, Charlie, Charleeeee

charlie brown as louie

Charlie Brown is always hot this time of year, making his story ripe for both a modern animated update and a Saturday Night Live reinterpretation of a famous Peanuts play. First, the folks at Animation Domination High Def created “A Charlie Brown Christmas Reunion,” imaging Charlie Brown returning to visit the Peanuts gang as an adult.

The video makes the connection that the child Charlie Brown we knew might grow up to be someone like Louis C.K.’s character in Louie, even copying the opening credits sequence from that show. And we have already seen Lincoln as Louie, so why not Charlie Brown?

This weekend, Saturday Night Live did its own interpretation of Peanuts by presenting an ad for a stage production of “You’re a Rat Bastard, Charlie Brown.” The segment imagines a Brooklyn version of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”

In SNL’s reinterpretation of Peanuts, Al Pacino (Bill Hader) stars as Charlie Brown, with Guest Host Martin Short doing a spot-on Larry David playing Linus. Check it out.

What did you think of these new Charlie Brown versions? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Charlie Brown Returns to the Big Screen
  • When Is My Favorite Holiday Special or Film on TV?
  • A Three-Legged Dog & the Wisdom of “Louie”
  • “Louie” Returns For a New Season
  • “We’ve Got Another Holiday to Worry About”
  • ‘Fairytale of New York’ at Shane MacGowan’s funeral

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    All I Want for Christmas is for Mariah Carey to Sing With Jimmy Fallon and the Roots

    This week on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, as Fallon and The Roots played toy instruments, Mariah Carey joined them, along with some children, for a rousing rendition of “All I Want for Christmas is You.” Check it out.

    Although now it seems like “All I Want for Christmas” is a holiday classic that has been around forever, it was written by Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff, becoming a hit song in 1994. There are a number of great versions, including Carey’s original and Olivia Olson‘s charming cover in the fun holiday movie Love Actually (2003). Now we can add this version with the Roots to the list.

    What is your favorite version of “All I Want for Christmas”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • I Wish It Was Christmas Today
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  • Pres. Obama Slow Jams the News with Jimmy Fallon
  • John Legend and The Roots Perform “Dancing in the Dark”
  • What Song Did George Bailey Sing?: A Quiz on Christmas Songs on the Screen
  • This Week in Pop Culture Roundup (11 Dec. 2011)

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    Buy from Amazon

    New Holiday Music From Sufjan Stevens: “Silver & Gold”

    Sufjan Stevens Christmas Amazon

    The prolific Sufjan Stevens has taken a break from making albums devoted to each of the fifty states to release a five-CD collection of original, covers, and classic holiday tunes. The set, entitled Silver & Gold: Songs for Christmas Vols. 6-10 is a sequel to 2006’s Songs for Christmas, Vols. 1-5. So, if you have not been hearing enough holiday music to get you in the mood for the season, check out the three-hours on the collection of 52 songs.

    On his website, Stevens ponders “what is it about Christmas music that continues to agitate our aging heartstrings?” And he answers:

    “Christmas music does justice to a criminal world, marrying sacred and profane, bellowing obtuse prophecies of a Messiah in the very same blustery breath as a candy-coated TV-jingle advertising a string of lights and a slice of fruitcake. Gloria!

    “Who can save us from the infidels of Christmas commodity? Look no further, tired shopper, for your hero arrives as the diligent songwriter Sufjan Stevens: army of one, banjo in one hand, drum machine in the other, holed up in his room, surrounded by hymnals, oratorios, music charts, sacred harp books, photo-copied Readers Digest Christmas catalogs—all the weaponry of Yuletide incantations—singing his barbaric yawp above the snow-capped rooftops.”


    What is your favorite song on Sufjan Stevens’s new collection? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • There Will Be Another Christmas
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  • Christmas in Washington: A Song About Heroes
  • Happy Holidays
  • “The Little Drummer Boy” on TV and in Song

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    When Is My Favorite Holiday Special or Film on TV?

    Get ready for all of your favorite holiday specials. USA Today recently listed the TV schedule for upcoming shows for the 2012 season, some of which are listed below:

    – National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Dec. 3, 10:03 p.m. and Dec. 12, 9 p.m., ABC Family.

    – Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Dec. 4, 8 p.m., CBS.

    – Home Alone, Dec. 5, 7 p.m. and Dec. 10, 9 p.m., ABC Family.

    – Frosty the Snowman, Dec. 8, 8 p.m., CBS.

    – Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town, Dec. 11, 8 p.m., ABC.

    – Elf, Dec. 15 at 8 p.m., CBS.

    – A Charlie Brown Christmas, Dec. 18, 9 p.m., ABC.

    – How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Dec. 18 and Christmas Day, 8 p.m., ABC.

    – A Christmas Story marathon, Dec. 24 at 8 p.m., TBS.

    – It’s a Wonderful Life, Dec. 24, 8 p.m., NBC.

    How well do you know these films and holiday specials? Take our quiz on songs from holiday specials and our quiz on holiday films.

    {GIF Source: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvz7zsgay61r35wfvo1_500.gif}

    What is your favorite holiday special? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • What Song Did George Bailey Sing?: A Quiz on Christmas Songs on the Screen
  • A Charlie Brown Christmas Reunion: Charlie, Charlie, Charlie, Charleeeee
  • Paul McCartney Joins Springsteen for “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”
  • Charlie Brown Returns to the Big Screen
  • “We’ve Got Another Holiday to Worry About”
  • Happy Holidays

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    Happy Christmas (War is Over)

    War is Over

    Merry Christmas to our readers who celebrate the holiday. With some recent events, an appropriate song for this year is John Lennon’s beautiful “Happy Xmas (War is Over).” The song was released in 1971 while the Viet Nam conflict was still going strong, so the original single was a song of protest and hope instead of a statement of fact.

    Of course, today, the song is still more of a wish than anything else even as violence around the world continues. But in our dreams for the future we can hope for peace.

    Currently, there is not a live video of Lennon singing the song available. So, here is a video of Melissa Etheridge’s version of the song. While nobody can match Lennon, she does an excellent job.

    Lennon’s original, which was recorded with the help of producer Phil Spector and the Harlem Community Choir, may be heard on YouTube without any performance footage. Youtube also has what sounds like a Lennon demo version of the song.

    Of course, there are other covers, including ones by The Fray, Coldplay, The Coors, and Celine Dion.

    Happy Xmas Trivia

    Although many think the opening greetings in the original are John and Yoko telling each other “happy Christmas,” they are not.  The couple is actually giving the greeting to their children, Kyoko and Julian.

    And what about the music? In another piece of trivia, Wikipedia notes that the chord changes to the song come from “Stewball,” a sweet song about a drunk racehorse. If you listen to Peter, Paul, & Mary’s version of the traditional song, you can almost sing “Happy Xmas” along with them.

    I bet on the grey mare, I bet on the bay
    If I’d have bet on ol’ Stewball, I’d be a free man today.

    Oh the hoot owl, she hollers, and the turtle dove moans.
    I’m a poor boy in trouble, I’m a long way from home.

    Here’s to a future Christmas where no soldiers are a long way from home and no civilians know of war. Happy Xmas.

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