Frank Sinatra – The Christmas Collection

Frank Sinatra – The Christmas Collection (2004, Reprise Records)

1. “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” (1960)
2. “The Christmas Waltz” (1969)
3. “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” (1957)
4. “The Little Drummer Boy” (1964)
5. “We Wish You the Merriest” (1964)
6. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (1963)
7. “Go Tell It on the Mountain” (1964)
8. “The Christmas Song” (1957)
9. “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” (1964)
10. “I Wouldn’t Trade Christmas” (1969)
11. “Christmas Memories” (1975)
12. “The Twelve Days of Christmas” (1969)
13. “The Bells of Christmas (Greensleeves)” (1969)
14. “An Old-Fashioned Christmas” (1964)
15. “A Baby Just Like You” (1975)
16. “Whatever Happened to Christmas?” (1969)
17. “White Christmas” (1957)
Bonus Track
18. “Silent Night” [Previously Unreleased] (1991)

You really can’t go wrong with a Sinatra Christmas album (who is second only to Bing Crosby in being my favorite holiday crooner). While various traditional pop artists (including Frank) have a number of low-budget compilations out on the market whether it’s holiday tunes or not, The Christmas Collection is actually a well put together & more thoughtful assortment than the usual budget Christmas compilations that fill Wal-Mart and Target each year (even if it does include all 13 tracks from 1989′s The Sinatra Christmas Album that compiled his Capitol Records material).

My copy comes with a slipcase and the booklet is full of some great photos of Frank in the studio and in holiday photo ops. Also included in a lengthy and informative set of liner notes that chronicle how this collection came to be and the songs themselves. Such a classy package job isn’t too shocking though because this is an approved release from the Sinatra estate and it was issued under ‘The Frank Sinatra Collection’ banner.

When I first bought this album, I was a bit disappointed with the choice of songs but I’ve since changed my tuned. This record is a mixture of the well-known and the not as well-known. Half the album features all-time favorites like “The Little Drummer Boy”, “White Christmas”, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” & “Silent Night” but it’s the other half of the album that really makes The Christmas Collection interesting to me now that I’ve gotten older and want to explore the lesser known holiday numbers.

A couple of notes about the songs:

- “We Wish You The Merriest”, “Go Tell It On The Mountain”, “The Christmas Song” & “White Christmas” are all duets with Bing Crosby. “We Wish You The Merriest” and “White Christmas” are taken from the 1957 Christmas television episode of ABC’s The Frank Sinatra Show. This duet of “The Christmas Song” had remained unreleased (WHY?) until this album.

- “I Wouldn’t Trade Christmas”, “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and “The Bells of Christmas (Greensleeves)” all feature his kids Tina, Nancy & Frank Jr. and come from The Sinatra Family Wish You A Merry Christmas.

- “Silent Night” was recorded in 1991 because, according to All Music Guide, “Nancy had a good cause to benefit” (Future royalties? Licensing?). Nevertheless, this album says the song was previously unreleased. You can definitely tell it’s an older Sinatra and his voice isn’t as strong anymore but that’s part of the charm. It’s a moving and vulnerable performance on one of the most tender Christmas songs written.

Final Thoughts:

If you’re looking for a Sinatra album full of the big Christmas standards then 1994′s White Christmas compilation from Columbia Records (also known as Christmas Songs By Sinatra) is probably your best bet but The Christmas Collection is a very good pick-up in case you want to dig a little deeper past what you’ll hear on the radio during the holidays.

Buy ‘The Christmas Collection’ at Amazon.com

Top 10 Favorite Video Games

This is an article I submitted to some cheap video game website back in 2004.  Obviously, there’s been tons of amazing games in the last 7 years so this list isn’t accurate anymore but it’s still an interesting look back in time (for me) to see where my head was at in 2004. Pay no heed to the poor grammar (the webmaster certainly didn’t)!

10. GoldenEye 007 (N64): I was trying to think of some N64 games that could be on this list and this was the game in my collection I went back to more than any other. Who doesn’t want to be James Bond? The game is challenging, but not impossible. The soundtrack gives it that classic 007 feel and it’s a great multiplayer game. This game resurrected the FPS genre and made people think about what a shooter game could be. Just thinking about this game wants me to break out my N64 again! Much like Shining Force was reason to buy a Genesis, this was reason to buy a N64.

9. Final Fantasy II (SNES): It’s Final Fantasy! Now I like RPGs, but I’m nowhere near to being any good at playing them. But, along with FFIII and FFVII, I think FFII is one of the true classics and my friend and I spent many hours playing this thing. It has a great storyline and it made me want to keep going just to see what happened next. Now that’s a great RPG.

8. Age of Empires (PC): Although this game appeared courtesy of Microsoft after the dawn of Civilization (the *other* historical strategy game), this was the one that the spawned countless $20 cheap knock offs you’d see at Kay-Bee Toys or Software Etc. AoE is a real time strategy game involving many of the old world civilizations such as Greek, Babylonian, Persian, and Egyptian to name a few. Includes campaigns where certain goals must be completed, or you can pretty much just duke it out with the computer or another person online until you’ve killed all their people or captured the Wonder for a certain amount of time. You get to forage for food, chop wood, mine, kill antelopes and elephants, build and upgrade your armies and crush your opponent! What fun! Followed up by Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, and Age of Mythology. Someday, I’ll actually get around to buying a new computer so I can play the copy of AoM my girlfriend bought me last year for my birthday…

7. Grand Theft Auto III (PS2): Ah, the game that sparked a new age of gaming. After the imitators have come along and tried to cash in, the GTA series still rules the roost. But we’re talking about GTA III specifically, so stop getting off subject! This is another game that made a HUGE leap in terms of change and quality when compared to the first two sucky GTAs on PS1. I was tempted to try them out just for the sake of seeing where this great game came from, but take it from me, don’t play them! It’s amazing there *was* a part three considering the poor quality of GTA 1 & 2! It’s even more amazing that an instant classic such as GTA III came from them. Playing the story is just an added bonus to this huge city you get to run around in. Steal cars, shoot people, blow things up, fiddle with the radio, have sex with prostitutes… Man, this is my life put onto a game disc! If you haven’t played this game, you’re really behind on your gaming.

6. Thief: The Dark Project (PC): Yes, it’s a PC game, but it’s still a video game to me! You might say this sneak ’n’ steal classic was the precursor to stealth genre that gave the world games like Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid 2… But then you’d be plagiarizing. Garrett is one of the coolest video game characters, in my opinion, of course, and the types of weapons are cool: a blackjack to knock’em out (sometimes it’s best not to kill), moss arrows (to creep around silently on metal/gravel surfaces) and water arrows (to TURN OUT THAT LIGHT!!!) among others. It also features a great storyline that continues in Thief II: The Metal Age and the awesome Thief: Deadly Shadows

5. Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES): A vast departure (although a fun look) from the original Super Mario Bros. game. This can all be attributed to the fact that SMB2 wasn’t a originally a Mario game at all and was retooled from a Japanese game called Dream Factory: Doki Doki Panic, whereas Japan got the “real” Super Mario Bros. 2. The gaming industry is weird like that. Bowser and the usual enemies are nowhere to be found; instead you get the evil frog king, Wart, and some cool new enemies, all of which live in the Dream World (aka Subcon). Heck, I’d love to see a direct sequel starring the Dream World gang, but since this game is viewed as an anomaly in the Super Mario timeline, I’m sure it will never happen. Did I mention you get to play as Mario, Luigi, OR Princess and Toad? Each character has pros & cons, choose wisely!

4. Shining Force (SG): What a treasure I found when I traded a kid my sucky Genesis Superman game for this! To be honest, I’ve never defeated it because my friend used a cheap cartridge cleaner and it wiped out the ability for my cartridge to save, but what times I had while I could! An RPG-strategy game, you start with one set character and from there you meet others who will join your Shining Force. And once you get going, the amount of teammates to choose from is huge. And they are all waiting at the Shining Force HQ for you to pick’em. And there is a lot of strategy involved in the battles. The battles are overhead view, and you can only move your characters a certain amount of spaces. So picking the right guys for your team and moving them into the right positions is crucial. This game was a good enough reason to own a Sega Genesis and is also available as a part of Sega Smash Pack Vol. 1 for PC.

3. Contra (NES): Do you remember what buttons to press for the 30 Lives code? I know I don’t, and I could never do it either. Always had to have my friends type it in. But you’d need a code like that for this game; one shot from the enemy and you’re toast. And you only start with three! But man, how fun was it running through the jungle in that first stage decked out like Rambo and blasting away with your spread gun? Then it all gets crazy when you gotta fight aliens! The “boss” of the game is pretty sick and cool.

2. (Mike Tyson’s) Punch-Out (NES): With or without Mike Tyson? Nintendo released a Mike Tyson-less version of Punch-Out in what I seem to remember being in 1989 or 1990. Either version is a great game that can be played over, and over, and over and over again… The only difference between both versions of Punch-Out is you’ll either fight Mike Tyson at the end or Mr. Dream. Mr. Dream fights exactly like Mike Tyson, but with lighter skin color and a different head. I, myself, own the “NES Classic Series” version (Mr. Dream) and still dust it off time to time to help Little Mac conquer the boxing world! Try it with the Game Genie to become a killing machine– never lose hearts and stars (or moons and clovers)! Awesome!

1. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES): The best Mario game ever! After the different look of SMB2, the third installment got back to the franchise’s roots. And it excels, I’ll even occasionally pull out my beat up NES to this day just to play this game. Who can resist the wonders of Raccoon Mario? Fly, fly away!

A Holiday Slice Commercial (1986)

Man, I just finished eating some super salty country ham so I’d kill for an ice cold can of Slice right now.

Until I came across this commercial the other week, I had forgotten all about Slice. Originally, it was Pepsi’s answer to Sprite and 7Up in the 1980s. There’s a disclaimer in the commercial saying Slice is not available in all areas but I never had any problem finding it when I was growing up in Virginia.

Other flavors would eventually arrive such as fruit punch, grape, orange, strawberry and pineapple essentially making making the whole Slice line of soft drinks Pepsi’s answer to Fanta. In 2000, Pepsi replaced lemon-lime Slice with Sierra Mist but in recent years started selling some of the other flavors of Slice exclusively at Wal-Mart (though I don’t recall ever seeing any).

And hey, 10% real juice? Can’t go wrong with that.

Superhero Movie Round-Up!

I know I’m late on talking about most of these movies but give me a break, I’m on Netflix and they seem to be getting movies from the major studios later and later.

Thor
(2011, Paramount Pictures)

Even though it was the first major superhero movie of the year and had a lot of promotion behind it, it seems like there wasn’t a lot of real buzz for this movie but then again superhero movies seem to have finally lost their charm with the public after peaking with the crazy success of The Dark Knight. Looks like anywhere from $115-200 million is about what a superhero movie is going to make these days whereas a few years ago the X-Men, Spider-Man, Iron Man and Batman franchises were pulling in $300+ million easily.

You can also say that Thor is in the same category as Iron Man (that of being a B-list superhero) so that probably had something to do with it not being a runaway success as well when the character is pretty straight-forward and humorless and there’s no charismatic actor to carry the movie.

Still, I thought it was fun. I was never impressed by the previews & trailers so that’s maybe why I seemed to enjoy the movie more than most because I was expecting a glorified SyFy Original movie. My biggest gripe is the pacing, I thought it moved too slow and it took Thor too long to finally get his hammer back. Other than that, I’m looking forward to a Thor 2 but it seems for now the Avengers movie can be counted the first sequel because Loki figures prominently into that film.

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X-Men: First Class
(2011, 20th Century Fox)

I’ve never been a big fan of the X-franchise of movies. In fact, the ones that I liked most are X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the universally-hated X-Men: The Last Stand. So, despite enjoying the last two X-movies, I still really wasn’t interested in seeing First Class. It was only after reading some really positive reviews that I decided to add the movie to my Netflix queue.

I guess First Class is sort of a soft reboot/prequel for the series and the first entry of a new trilogy. Truthfully, I don’t remember the first X-Men trilogy all that well but it seems like this movie has brought in elements from those original films while discarding other things. I tried not to think too hard about it and just enjoy the movie and I did.

The slow turn for Magneto to finally decide he had a better way of doing things than Xavier was well-played and Kevin Bacon always plays a great villain (going all the way back to White Water Summer). The movie was well done all the way around and the ending had me excited for a confrontation between the X-Men and Magneto’s group in the sequel.

One of the best superhero movies out there and the best X-movie yet.

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Captain America: The First Avenger
(2011, Paramount Pictures)

Definitely NOT “the best superhero movie ever” as stated by some idiot critic on the cover of the DVD. Not even close and the subtitle is absolutely pointless.

You wanna see some cheesy CGI? It’s right here. The whole movie has a cheesy B-movie feel to it. It could’ve been a really cool gritty and realistic WWII-era movie that just happened to feature a super-solider but they didn’t go that route. Instead the movie features all sorts of hi-tech gadgetry created by the Red Skull and his goons at HYDRA (a branch of the Nazi party).

The movie was okay, I’d give it a 6/10 but the final moments are what really ruined it for me. The final confrontation with the Red Skull was just so rushed it didn’t even feel like the final confrontation. It felt like Act II and after it was over I realized that was it and I was pretty disappointed. That’s really the movie’s false finish though as it goes on to show Captain America waking up in the modern world and even that felt pretty rushed. I didn’t feel like there was any real ending. The movie just stops.

Hey, all in the name of pushing that Avengers movie, right? Like I said, the movie is okay but it’s easily the worst of the superhero movies that came out this year. On the bright side, it’s the best Captain America movie!

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Green Lantern
(2011, Warner Bros.)

Okay, this one I was pretty excited for. I’m a big fan of both DC Comics and Ryan Reynolds (I still say they should’ve saved him for a Flash movie) so I was ready for this one. Unfortunately, it seems like any DC movie that isn’t a Batman movie is doomed to collapse under it’s own big-budget weight.

There are a number of issues I have with this movie:

- The cheesy CGI. It wasn’t as bad as Captain America but for a movie that used it heavily, they should’ve known/done better.

- The plot holes. Why did Hal need “permission” from the Guardians to fight for Earth’s survival when it is a part of the sector he’s supposed to be patrolling and defending? Why didn’t any of the other Lanterns join in and help the new guy (Hal)? Were they all that scared of Parallax (who was beaten pretty easily, I think)? What a horrible and cowardly group of space police.

- The villains. Parallax was a fine choice but for such a cosmic threat, he was taken out pretty easily by a rookie Lantern and it was a wasted opportunity to not show the rest of the Corps doing battle with him. And Hector Hammond? Please. I don’t even want to see that guy in the comic.

Complaints aside, Reynolds does a good job with what he’s given and if you turn your brain off, it’s a fun popcorn movie. It’s just too bad the movie didn’t perform all that well because it looks like there probably won’t be a sequel. That’s a shame because I think the sequel could easily be better than this movie and I really wanted to see a battle between the Green Lantern Corps and the Sinestro Corps.

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Batman: Year One
(2011, Warner Home Video)

Another DC movie I was looking forward to because DC has something like a 96% success rate with me when it comes to their cartoons and animated movies (Superman: The Animated Series and The Batman have been the only real misfires with me thus far).

This animated movie adapts the Frank Miller story “Batman: Year One” that ran in Batman #404-407 in 1987. Despite having owned those issues for a number of years, I’ve never gotten around to reading them (I have TONS of unread comics from the ’80s) so I’m not sure how this compares to the comics but I thought this was an interesting looking back at when Batman and Commissioner Jim Gordon (just a lieutenant in this story) were just starting out in Gotham City. It’s really Gordon’s story just as much, if not more than, as Batman’s.

Good coming of age story for both characters and I liked that it seemingly takes place during the 1980′s, which was when the original story was published.

As standard with the popular line of DC Universe Original Animated Movies, there is a short “DC Showcase” film attached as a bonus feature and this one stars Catwoman and runs about 15 minutes. Written by Paul Dini (one of the greatest Batman writers of all-time), it takes place in a modern setting and has no connection to Batman: Year One (I don’t think, the animation style is the same) though it is equally just as good.

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Young Justice: Season One, Volume One
(2011, Warner Home Video)

I don’t get the chance to watch Cartoon Network’s Friday night action-adventure cartoon line-up much. Not because I have a life but simply because I often forget about the shows and also because CN seems to have an incredibly hard time keeping their superhero cartoons on at a consistent day & time. I decided to give up on trying to watch Young Justice as it aired and wait for the DVD releases.

Focused on the young heroes of the DC Universe, the show is not entirely Teen Titans but not entirely Young Justice (a comic book series which ran from 1998-2003, itself a modern take on the Teen Titans) either. The show is influenced by both.

While I mourned the loss of Justice League Unlimited greatly and this not a continuation of that same animated universe, I think YJ does a very good job of keeping that same kind of feel and great storytelling that JLU was known for.

The show has been renewed for a second season and despite there already being a Season 1 Vol. 2, the series is actually still in the middle of Season 1 thanks to CN’s screwy scheduling of the series (the 3rd and final volume will arrive in Feb. 2012).

It’s just too frustrating to try to keep up with these shows as they air. The series’ “pilot” debuted in November 2010, then the series itself didn’t start until January 2011 and aired until March, took a long break then new episodes (still in Season 1, mind you) started up in September. What’s the point? Is it a production issue? Why not just wait until the majority of the season is ready to go? Cartoon Network does this ALL THE TIME and I hate it. It’s like CN constantly is trying to get these shows to fail by not being able to find/keep an audience.

Hatred for Cartoon Network aside, this is a good show so catch while CN lets you.

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The Smurfs Holiday Celebration – DVD Review

The Smurfs Holiday Celebration (2011, Warner Home Video)
Run time: 48 minutes

New this year to DVD is this collection which houses the two Smurfs Christmas specials (‘Tis the Season to Be Smurfy and The Smurfs Christmas Special) from the 1980s. I’m extremely pleased to see yet another one of my childhood favorites is now on DVD. It seems like every year that “want on DVD” list of mine gets whittled down just a bit more and now I can throw away the DVD-R copy I burned last year that had both of these specials on it.

The Smurfs Christmas Special
(Originally Aired: December 12, 1982)

Ah, they saved the best for first! This Christmas special is one of the greatest of all-time in my book and was one of the most watched in my house when I was a kid. I wore that recorded VHS copy out. Looking back, yeah, it’s probably NOT a truly great holiday special but that doesn’t make it any less of a classic in my eyes because how can you hate on a song like “Goodness Makes the Badness Go Away”?

The story revolves around a pair of kids traveling through the forest with their grandpa on their way to see their uncle, an evil wizard is out to get to kidnap the children as a form of revenge on the uncle and sends a pack of wolves to cause the sleigh to crash. Gargamel is still out to destroy the Smurfs (or eat ‘em or something) and The Wizard tells Gargamel if he’ll capture the children for him then he’ll give Gargamel a map to Smurf Village with instructions on how to hurt the Smurfs.

Pause. Why didn’t the Wizard just capture the kids when he caused the sleigh crash in the first place instead of posing high atop that hill like he did? Play.

The Smurfs end up running into the kids (grandpa was injured in the crash) and take them back to Smurf Village. They all return to the scene of the accident after Brainy & Clumsy did some recon at the site and discovered a note from Uncle Edgar saying gramps was okay and they’d return to the site for them. At the crash site, Gargamel and his Azrael able to take the children away from the Smurfs and hands them over to The Wizard who then gives him a map to Smurf Village and means to destroy the Smurfs.

Apparently Gargamel is much quicker than the Smurfs because he makes it to their village before they are back but goes ahead and speaks the evil chant The Wizard had given him and everything in town shrivels. Satisfied with ruining their Christmas, Gargamel walks away and plans to betray The Wizard to Uncle Edgar (who is offering a reward whoever finds the children).

The Wizard was well aware of Gargamel’s treacherous nature though and appears to kidnap him as well and now Gargamel, Azrael and the children trapped inside what appears to be a Satanic ritual with a ring of fire while the Wizard’s face turns greens and he starts chanting, preparing the children for a “final journey” (!!!). The Smurfs were hot on The Wizard’s tail though and Papa Smurf decides the best way to battle the Wizard’s evil magic is through the power of love and song and even gets Gargamel in on the act and the Wizard disappears as everyone sings “Goodness Makes the Badness Go Away”. The uncle & his search party finally arrive on the scene and everyone celebrates while Gargamel & Azrael are allowed a pass and get to walk away because the children tell Uncle Edgar that Christmas is a time for forgiving.

The evil Wizard (who I don’t think is ever given a name other than “stranger” but DVD subtitles refer to him as ‘The Wizard’) creeped me out as a kid and is still a creepy, evil dude watching it now. The whole reason he’s doing this is for revenge because of some past with Uncle Edgar. Not much is said about it about than Uncle Edgar was always around to meddle in his affairs and prevent him from doing bad deeds (I smell prequel…). I’m pretty sure his plans went from kidnapping to murder over the course of the special. That or he was at least intent on sending these children on a fiery journey to Hell. Either way, this guy wasn’t just your standard goofy villain like Gargamel but seemed more like an incarnation of the devil.

Overall, kids these days probably won’t enjoy this special. Or maybe they will. Who knows? Look, I’m 30 years old, how do I know what a 6 year old likes these days? Despite having a modest box-office hit, the Smurfs aren’t exactly major players with the kiddies these days so I supposed this special would be viewed differently by the kids of today but I can tell you I was entranced by this special back in the ’80s and I’m glad to have it officially in my Christmas DVD collection. There’s a little bit of something for everyone: the usual Smurfs hijinks of singing, pratfalls & caring, Christmas, wolves and a wizard that works for/is Satan. What’s not to love?

‘Tis the Season to Be Smurfy
(Originally Aired: December 13, 1987)

Well, my recap of The Smurfs Christmas Special went on longer than it had any right to, let’s keep going.

To be honest, I don’t remember the details too well about this special. For me, it’s really always lived in the shadow of the original Smurfs Christmas special but the opening shot featuring that snowflake logo always stuck with me.

This was the second and final Christmas special based on original television show run and takes place at a time in the series when they had introduced new characters like the Smurflings (teenage Smurfs, I guess), Grandpa Smurf, Wild Smurf and Scruple (Gargamel’s apprentice). There was also Puppy the dog and other creatures hanging around the Smurfs at this time. I was getting older so I’m sure this factored into it but I didn’t much care for all these new additions to the cast. Granted, they weren’t as bland looking and visually stood out more than the original Smurfs (who were still around, BTW) but I always thought they were kind of annoying. Everything seemed to revolve around Grandpa Smurf, the Smurflings and Baby Smurf. I guess the writer’s enjoyed playing with the age gap.

Most of the story takes place in a human village. After Sassette & Grandpa Smurf went into town to see how humans spend Christmas Eve, they come across a poor toy maker and his wife who is sick and dying (it’s inferred). Sassette & Grandpa go back into Smurf Village to enlist some help for give this kind old couple but all of the other Smurfs are too busy with their own Christmas Eve preparations to listen. Eventually (after some chastising from Papa Smurf), all of the Smurfs get on the same page and decide to help Sassette & Grandpa decorate this couple’s home a tree, presents and bows in time for Christmas morning.

There’s a subplot about a thief going around and stealing coin purses. There’s  an accusation at the end that the poor toy maker stole the coin purse of a wealthy man in town (one who had earlier refused his son a toy, stating he’d buy him something better) but even the thief has a change of heart and admits that he was the one who was stealing the coins and was planning on giving instead of taking from now.

I tied that one up pretty quick, didn’t I?

Obviously, the animation is better on this special and it appears like it was better preserved too (or at least the transfer is better) but overall it’s the original Smurfs Christmas special I still prefer.

Final Thoughts:

For $10, this is a holiday collection that shouldn’t be passed up by children of the ’80s or Smurfs fan. It’s a fun trip to simpler times. I’m not sure how much kids of today will care for it but if you know a kid that loved the movie, they’ll probably be interested.

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