Slowly Going Bald

interesting
mysterious
maybe a little pretentious
intelligent
slower
slower
slow
she should've hired a more aggressive editor
slow
slow
boring
damn it what's with the similes
quicker now
intriguing
better
really good
really good
well done
back to slow
still a little slow
okay, back to good
finally good, just took an inexcusably long time to get there

I will be in Texas between Dec. 21 and Jan. 2. If you're a resident of the Lone Star State and you want to get in touch with me to hang out or to buy me a drink (or if you just want me, you know, like that), leave a comment or email me by clicking on the link on the top of the right-hand column. For the lazy or easily confused, it's danielwcarlson (at) gmail (dot) com.

I don't often get excited about trailers, and I certainly don't greet them with the fervor I did when I was younger. But the latest trailer for The Dark Knight is just unrelentingly awesome. I saw I Am Legend (great premise, terrible third act) over the weekend, and I attended an Imax screening just so I could watch a terrific sequence involving the Joker's henchmen committing a bank robbery. Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins was one of the best superhero films ever made, and The Dark Knight looks to follow in its footsteps. It's not even opening until July 18 of next year, but what can I say: I'm already looking forward to it.

When I was a senior in college, I took a philosophy course that looked at epistemology and social justice. It was a small course, co-taught by two professors but only comprising a dozen or so students. We met in a teachers' lounge. It was a good course, but also had its share of moments that made me wonder just who we were fooling. Perhaps the best example of this is when a girl named Heather — whose face and personality I can no longer remember, and whose name I only recall because I jotted in my notes next to her quote — capped an argument with, "Thus ended the Nietzschian cycle of circular time."

Come on.

This movie was like two hours of that. You know there's probably something good underneath, and the guy in charge is probably pretty smart, but it still feels a little too much like he's faking his way through the discussion.

Click here for the review.

P.S. Through a series of scheduling misadventures, I had to sit through this instead of seeing There Will Be Blood. Bad Saturday.

Juno

Atonement

Showdown on Sci Fi
[Willamette Week]

Youth Without Youth

July 2007

Ryan Adams, Easy Tiger (2007)
I had what could be called tempered hopes for this album, given the fact that Ryan Adams has in recent years put out some great records (Jacksonville City Nights), some really good ones (Cold Roses), and some terrible ones (29). But I was happy to hear Adams fusing the best of his current sounds on Easy Tiger, which ranges from the acid-country-rock of Cold Roses to rootsier country and pop-rock that almost sounds like lost tracks from Gold. There are some great songs here, and the album is more listenable than some of his other work; "Goodnight Rose" sets the perfect mood for country-tinged rock, and "Halloweenhead" is the kind of crunchier rock Adams hasn't really succeeded at until now.

Wilco, Sky Blue Sky (2007)
Man, did I miss Wilco. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but respect for Jeff Tweedy's need to get really experimental to the point where only really self-involved college students could dig their music. (Several minutes of feedback and silence does not a smart song make, and you're more than welcome to disagree, but really, I don't give a shit.) But apparently even Tweedy didn't like the direction the band was taking, saying, "I got really nervous about the technology on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. If you need a certain amp or pedal to make a song what it is, it isn't a song." And this album is clearly the manifestation of that stripped-down, direct approach that had gotten away from the band. Sky Blue Sky is like a breath of fresh air, a mix of pop and blues and soul and country that's somehow soothing and exciting and hopeful all at once. From the gentle opening of "Either Way" to the funk of "Hate It Here" to the peace of "On and On and On," this is the album Wilco needed to make if they wanted to stay alive.

Patton Oswalt, Werewolves & Lollipops (2007)
I watch a lot of stand-up comedy — I'm probably the only guy you know who still gets pissed when you mention how Dat Phan won "Last Comic Standing," or who quotes Slovin & Allen to confused coworkers — but I don't buy many comedy albums. But Patton Oswalt is one of my favorite comedians. I loved Feelin' Kinda Patton, and his latest is just as fantastic. It's fast-paced, dirty, and filled with weird little free-associative riffs born of a lifetime of being the hyperliterate nerd with strong opinions about George Lucas. (Okay, so I relate to the guy.) Oswalt's comedy is more confessional than observational; rather than making tired jokes about airports or cabs or whatever, he tells stories about his own life and beliefs but makes them widely relatable. Werewolves & Lollipops is hilarious and weird and wonderful, and I laugh every time I hear it.

August 2007

Two Dollar Pistols, Hands Up! (2004)
The cover art snagged my eye (don't judge me), and I hoped that the vintage photo would mean an old-school sound. Thankfully, it did. Two Dollar Pistols are churning out some vintage country, ranging from Western swing to drinking songs to classic-sounding ballads like "Where Would We Be Without Goodbye." I love finding albums like this in the clearance bin and taking a chance on them; when you find a winner, like I did here, it feels like you're the only person in the world who's ever heard the album. It becomes yours in a way that other albums never can.

Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives, Souls' Chapel (2005)
Marty Stuart is great at fusing bluegrass, country, and soul, and even if you don't subscribe to any particular religious creed, this album still sounds great.

Yonder Mountain String Band, Yonder Mountain String Band (2006)
Decent newgrass.

September 2007

The Beatles, With the Beatles (1963)
It's stunning to think that The Beatles only put out 12 studios albums as a group. Their second album has some amazing classic pop, including "It Won't Be Long" and "All My Loving," as well as some great covers of R&B tunes like "Please Mister Postman" and "You Really Got a Hold On Me." It's so easy after all this time and hype to just write them off, but listening to this album reminds you of how good they really were.

The Infamous Stringdusters, Fork in the Road (2007)
A solid bluegrass album. What can I say, I like the genre.

June Carter Cash, Wildwood Flower (2003)
This is the wonderful flip side to Johnny Cash's American Recordings. June Carter Cash's final album is wonderful, a simple and genuine recording that looks back on her life and career with some great songs and enjoyable performances. It's a little shocking to her hear voice, which was never powerful to begin with, sounding almost paper-thin on some of the tracks, but it works well with Johnny's watery baritone. Daughter Carlene Carter provides some backing vocals, and even Marty Stuart plays on a couple of the tracks. The American Recordings received more press, but this album is just as important.

• So, at the end of Rent, Tom Collins shows back up with a wad of cash at Mark and Roger's apartment. Understandably curious, they ask him where he got the money. Tom replies that he rewired the ATM at the Food Emporium with what's apparently some kind of override code, so all you have to do is enter "A-N-G-E-L" as the password and out comes the money. But hold on, man: Are you seriously advocating that? What about the residents of Alphabet City who don't give a shit about your life, and whose money you seem to be okay with stealing; what about them? I mean, yeah, it sucks that Angel died on you like that, but still. If I were your neighbor, and I found out that you were ripping off my cash just because you think you're broke enough to deserve it, I would beat you down. And I know I'd win, too.

• Also, seriously, in what alternate world can Anthony Rapp pass as straight? At the beginning of the movie, he says he just broke up with Maureen, which made me pause and think, "That's odd. Maureen sounds like a woman's name." I mean, come on. It's Anthony Rapp. Good actor, good singer. Very gay. Am I the only one who felt the cognitive dissonance?

• Easily the most enjoyably random thing about Rent was the appearance of Aaron Lohr — of "Newsies" and "The Mighty Ducks" — as one of the AIDS support group members. When he stood up and started singing "Will I lose my dignity ..." I wondered if he would whip out a hockey stick and start checking the counselor.

...Name three aspects of recent original programming on Sci Fi Channel.

Click here for the column.

Ryan: sarah and i saw The Kingdom last night at the $1 theater
me: poor blown-up kyle chandler
"i think we got most of it contained—" kaBLAM
second blast
Ryan: i guess he didn't get the newspaper early for that one

Is it really necessary to bark out little immature laughs whenever you see an expletive in print in a movie? Or to titter at something too emotionally complex for you to understand? Really? I expected better, ArcLight crowd. Granted, you weren't as uncouth as those asshats down at the Landmark, but still. I expected better.

Anyway, the movie was amazing.

Click here for the review.

Also: Aaron Mesh over at the Willamette Week disagrees with my take on Atonement. But his review is pretty damn great. It really is. I'm not being at all facetious, either. (And I realize that writing that out only makes me sound like I really am being facetious, but I can't seem to figure out how to break the vicious cycle.) Anyway, we differ on Joe Wright's skill level, but Mesh wrote a pretty wonderful review.

I watched Juno on a high-quality DVD screener in the privacy of my own home. And while I still enjoy the experience, size and grandeur of the actual moviegoing experience — mainly/especially here in L.A. — it was nice to know that no one's phone would be ringing, that no one would be talking, and that no one would laugh or speak at the wrong moment. That kind of control could give a guy a complex.

Also, the movie was wonderful.

Click here for the review.

Sometimes I don't quite know what to say to people when they ask where I went to school. No one has ever really heard of Abilene, Texas, much less Abilene Christian University, and explaining the ideological background in which I was raised — as well as how that changed, and how I evolved to the point where I was really kind of frustrated and heartbroken at the way the school and its students sometimes handled themselves — always takes too much time. (I will never even attempt to explain Sing Song.) That's not to say I was ever particularly ashamed of my degree; I earned a B.S. in journalism from some respectable instructors, and my two years on the staff of the campus paper were solid ones, considering we only published twice weekly and came from a Division II school.

So it's only out of deference to the teachers whose work helped me gain the skills to find a good job, and to some fading memory of the good time I had there, that I'm holding back from ripping the campus newspaper to rightful shreds. (I have a feeling I will not be able to do keep my word, though.) I'm trying to be understanding, I really am. I haven't even kept up with the campus paper since I was a recent graduate. But an editorial published in their increasingly shallow pages the other day has stirred up the feelings of bitter disappointment I felt by the time I'd reached the end of my days at ACU.

The editorial ran under the headline, "Golden Compass not so golden for Christians."

...I should probably take a moment to explain briefly the paper's mindset. It's a campus paper published at a private Christian university in Texas, which means most editorials (and a terrifying number of news stories) are going to necessarily seek out the God angle. The paper is even called The Optimist, and among the regular letters we received in my time were queries as to why we didn't publish more upbeat stories and "live up to our name." To be clear: We were often asked by unhinged alumni and current students to slant the news in a happy way. As the Arts Editor, I often received angry letters from alumni whenever I gave positive reviews to R-rated films. One such man, writing in the Lucado-esque doublespeak that passes for spiritual depth among some believers, told me that ACU had "broken covenant" with him by allowing me to write positive reviews of films that "do not measure up to Christian standards." Can you understand now, to some small degree, what that place is like? It's as if the institution and its alumni are practically daring you to drop your chosen major of journalism and pick something like youth and family ministry (which from a real-world marketplace standard has to be even more useless than a generic speech/communications degree). There are some genuine, earnest, progressive believers at the school, but they are always shouted down by the spiteful and controlling.

Anyway.

The editorial board at the Optimist, once a topic is decided upon, farms out the writing to one of the students on the board. This also often overlaps with the Opinion Writing class, whose members spend the semester under the firm guidance of a professor who takes particular delight in excising the passive voice from your columns until you go blind at all the red ink he's spilled on your page. (The final exam was just to write another column, but the professor would dock you a letter grade for each instance of passive voice. Yeah.) So it's not like I don't understand or remember what it was like to feel pressured and stressed and up against the wall to get a column out on deadline. But the editorial in question must've been written by a student so hard up for ideas and so clearly resigned to turning in a below-average piece that they felt there was naturally nothing else to do but write a lazy, inflammatory, and downright irresponsible column.

The editorial, which can be read in its pathetic entirety by clicking here, starts out with a slanted lede: "Controversy continues to swirl around the movie The Golden Compass, due in theaters Dec. 7." Wait a minute. You can't just throw that out there. Is the controversy because of the books' inherent religious stance, whatever that might be? It's foolish to think that (a) the reader knows all about these supposed controversies, or that (b) you don't have to back this up with evidence. Obviously, an editorial is going to take a side, but is it necessary to start out so declamatory? I really am curious.

The editorial states that the film's plot comes from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Actually, I'm wrong; it simply names the series without crediting the author. This isn't just shoddy reporting, but almost criminally stupid in an editorial that's apparently (given the headline) going to build some kind of case against the movie based on the books. Why is the author not mentioned? What did the author have to say about the film adaptation of his works, or the way controversy is apparently continuing to swirl? Does no one have a Lexis-Nexis account? Could no one be bothered to look this up? The film is also directed by Chris Weitz, but New Line removed him for a while and replaced him with Anand Tucker, only to eventually boot Tucker and bring Weitz back on board. Does this have anything to do with the delicate task of transferring the books' religious views (again, whatever those actually are) into a four-quadrant tentpole that's supposed to start a new film franchise?

Reading on, it's apparent that the author only has one source for the editorial: An article about the film published on MTV.com that revolves around the angry protests of Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, and his attacks on the movie. (Actually, the editorial spells it "Bill Donahue," but I'm going to assume they mean Donohue.) Donohue is the only source quoted in the editorial. Again, I know that editorials are meant to build an argument and take a stand, but wouldn't it make more sense to include both points of view before presenting the paper's opinion? Even if that opinion opposes Donohue, it still looks terribly weak to only have his words as a source.

Another major problem with the editorial is its insidious use of "many," "more," and "controversy" when talking about movies that apparently generated protests from Christians over their religious content. Take this sentence: "Christians worldwide continue to protest the release of the movie because of its atheistic views." Really? Christians worldwide? Where? Who? When? They surely weren't protesting at any movie theaters; the film bows Dec. 7, and this editorial ran on Nov. 7. Where are all these protesting Christians? Are they sending angry letters or emails? If so, are they organized or acting on their own? Are the protests physical? Have their protests been reported somewhere? If so, where, and what were the details of the protest? If not, why write the sentence? It's as if the author had no idea how hazardous and just plain stupid it is to invent facts. Later on, the author writes, "Many other movies, including The Da Vinci Code, have caused controversy in the Christian sphere and led Christian groups to boycott the movies." Again, you can't just say this stuff and refuse to back it up. The Da Vinci Code wasn't that long ago; who protested it, if any, and why? Where were the alleged protests? Did they accomplish anything?

The editorial then drops any pretense of effort or respectability and loses all energy, sputtering to a nonsensical ending by quoting John Milton in what's both a clear attempt to fulfill the number of sources required by the Opinion Writing professor and another sign of lazy research: The quote about truth and falsehood grappling in the marketplace of ideas from Milton's Areopagitica is emblazoned in the Comm Law syllabus and bandied about often in that class. The quote was staring the author in the face, and they used it, regardless of its inaccuracy. Read and weep:

The Optimist believes that while the concerns of the Christian groups have validity, trying to stop the movie's release cripples the marketplace of ideas.

John Milton wrote in Areopagitica that when truth and falsehood grapple, truth eventually wins.

If Christians believe in their religion and its truthfulness, they shouldn't feel threatened by ideas that counteract their beliefs.

Truth will win in the end, and by disproving differing opinions, that truth of Christianity remains stronger.

Even the Opinion Writing professor thinks that part of the column is weak. (I have no idea how he stetted the rest of the piece; he's clearly grown more forgiving since I took his course.) He wrote a letter to the editor of the school's paper stating that he found the author's invocation of the marketplace of ideas "illogical. The marketplace of ideas comes down on the side of releasing the movie and permits people to oppose the release of the movie. The ideas are grappling in the marketplace. No one is going to stop the film. And no one is going to stop people from trying to stop the film. That's the way the marketplace of ideas (works)." He even calls out the author by relaying the excuse they gave when they refused to do rewrites: "We've all looked over it and think it's okay. I don't have time to fix it because I have an obligation to the Reporter-News in 45 minutes." The author, apparently eager to take their poor work ethic and sloppy journalistic habits and infect an actual newspaper, didn't think it was worth it to take the time and fix just one of the many glaring errors in the editorial. I can't say that bodes well for my alma mater.

While I personally disagree with the editorial — I think any Christian who gets really upset at The Golden Compass should probably spend more time worrying about widows and orphans and clothing the naked and feeding the hungry, and less time panicking about the non-apocalypse — my main beefs here are with the awful structure and embarrassing lack of insight. The piece pays lip service to a kind of calm strength Christians should take in their faith while also loudly doing everything it can to reinforce a cultural divide between the conservative Christians and the big spooky evil that is Hollywood. The entire editorial is lazy and uncaring, and that makes it dangerous.

This is why it takes so long to tell people where I went to school. When I do, they'll assume that I'm a Christian and that I'm proud of where I came from. They're only half right.

Tigh with both eyes, Boomer in chains, Gaius with no dialogue, and Tyrol nowhere to be seen.

Everything's crazy, but also pretty damn good.

Click here for the review.

P.S. I should also tell you that I agree with Beckylooo about Jamie Bamber's hotness. Does it make me less straight to say that? It does not. Bamber is one good-looking man.

A continuing look at the albums I bought this year.

May 2007

Fountains of Wayne, Traffic and Weather (2007)
I've been listening to Fountains of Wayne since I was 14 or 15; I have fond memories of singing along with "Leave the Biker" while staying up late at a friend's house and playing Quake III until unholy hours of the morning. Traffic and Weather isn't the overall success of the band's previous release, Welcome Interstate Managers; that album was a more cohesive work, whereas this one is a collection of great songs mixed with what can only be called filler. That said, it's still a solid pop-rock album with some smart songwriting, wonderful characters, and damn catchy tunes. There's even the requisite country excursion ("Fire in the Canyon") amid the songs about lonely people living lonely lives in search of someone to love (as in the pretty obviously titled "Someone to Love").

Freedy Johnston, This Perfect World (1994)
It's weird how the music of your youth — and I mean real youth, not the arrested emotional development that's a hallmark of your 20s — somehow passes you by. For instance, everybody my age discovered bands from the 1980s (or '70s, or '60s) at a certain point, but the stuff that was charting when we were kids is easier to miss, perhaps because it existed as a periphery to our childhoods and we just never thought it worth the attention. This is part of the reason I really love early- to mid-'90s pop, and am always looking for more. (Eytan Mirsky, we barely knew ye.) This album came out the year I turned 12, but I didn't even hear of Freedy Johnston until I graduated from college and a friend made me a mix tape for my cross-country trek that included Johnston's "Bad Reputation" from This Perfect World. I fell in love with the song. The album is equally fine, a collection of rootsy pop so pure you can close your eyes and see the flannel and bad haircuts. It's a great album for anyone who lived through the era but still managed to miss it.

Mindy Smith, One Moment More (2004)
Smith's debut album features some really good alt-country, leading off with the howling "Come to Jesus" and culminating in a pretty fantastic cover of "Jolene" that features Dolly Parton on backup vocals. It's a deliberately paced album, but a good one.

June 2007

Johnny Cash, American III: Solitary Man (2000)
You really can't go wrong with any of Cash's American Recordings series. "I'm Leaving Now" is a personal favorite.

Johnny Cash, American V: A Hundred Highways (2006)
Again, another great album. "God's Gonna Cut You Down" is probably the catchiest song about damnation you'll hear outside of a revival meeting.

The Hold Steady, Boys and Girls in America (2006)
Literate bar rock. Who knew? Another solid find. I really don't know what else to add, which I know makes me look lazy or ignorant or you name it, but I don't care. The Hold Steady produce honest, yearning rock from the heart.

Elvis Costello, Spike (1989)
I'll be honest, I bought this because (a) it was $2.99 and (b) it has "Veronica." Pretty much all I needed.

Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers, All the Gold in California: The Best of the Gatlins (1996)
This is probably the greatest impulse buy I've ever made. I was with my sister at Amoeba when I spotted this greatest hits collection of the band whose tapes my mother used to play when my sister and I were very little; I've had "She Used to Be Somebody's Baby" in my head since at least age 7. The Gatlin Brothers put out some awesomely cheesy country in the 1980s, and this album has a bunch of their hits, the kind of songs I can't objectively classify as "good" but that still hold a weird little place in my heart. I'm nostalgic. The disc was only a few bucks, and paid for itself with the joy my sister and I felt while belting out "Broken Lady" on the way home from the store.

Loretta Lynn, Van Lear Rose (2004)
Jack White, taking a break from creeping everyone out with his own band(s), stepped up to produce Van Lear Rose and write one of its tracks. It's an interesting blend of a more experimental alt-country on the White-penned "Portland, Oregon" and Lynn's more straightforward style on the more classic-sounding numbers like the title track and "Miss Being Mrs." (which is a fantastic title). Definitely worth it.

Bruce Springsteen, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973)
What can I say, I like Bruce Springsteen. And I don't like him with some kind of pseudo-hip ironic detachment, nor as some kind of relic from a bygone era of performers. I really like him. And if I didn't take to this album as quickly as I did Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., it's still a great record from one of the biggest artists of the last 50 years. The packed lyrics and sense of an epic life being frustrated by circumstance wouldn't really explode out of the gate until Born to Run, but it's still amazing to think that Springsteen was only 24 years old when E Street Shuffle came out. Let that sink in.

Mary Chapin Carpenter, Stones in the Road (1994)
I remember Mary Chapin Carpenter charting early in the 1990s with the album before this one, Come On Come On, which produced something like half a dozen singles, including her cover of Lucinda Williams' "Passionate Kisses." Stones in the Road didn't have as many hits, but it's still got some good songwriting for its time, including the album opener, "Why Walk When You Can Fly."

Lyle Lovett, Joshua Judges Ruth (1992)
The title pretty clearly hints at both the biblical and emotional underpinnings of the album, and Lovett again performs some amazing songs, including "Church" and "I've Been to Memphis." If you're not listening to Lyle Lovett, you could pick worse places to start.

Ryan: so Dan, who is the most culturally important figure
from 17th century France
me: um
someone named louis
Ryan: ok, just wondering
how about in your head?
me: hmm
jesus, bill adama, batman, max fischer
Ryan: *cries*
that is, perhaps, the perfect anwer
as perfect as you can get without mentioning Star Wars
me: damn, good point
jesus, bill adama, batman, max fischer, han solo
Ryan: and perfect
maybe you are perfect, dan
*blushes*
me: maybe i am

I didn't even know about Aimee Mann's 2nd Annual Christmas Show until a couple weeks ago. I like Mann plenty, having first been exposed to her (as might be the case for some) on the Magnolia soundtrack. I didn't know quite what to expect from her Christmas show at the El Rey, but I wasn't prepared for such a fun show. That's what the concert was more than anything: A chance for Mann and her fellow musicians and performers to have fun doing a few seasonal numbers. The concert played largely like a variety show, with several special guests (more than are mentioned here) popping in for a number or two before disappearing offstage again. Mann and Paul F. Tompkins, a comedian who's way too smart for his talking-head role on "Best Week Ever," served as co-emcees for the evening, and Tompkins even performed a brief set at one point. They even traded banter and performed duets. The whole thing was so damn charming, you know? The evening opened with the lights slowly revealing the Christmas trees, nutcrackers, and simple lights adorning the stage, while Mann performed "Jacob Marley's Chain":

Not long after, Mann stepped to the mic and introduced Jackson Browne, at which point the crowd erupted in that kind of incredulous applause where they can't quite believe what's happening. And sure enough, Browne sauntered onstage looking as timeless as ever, his lanky hair swaying back and forth like it has been since "The Pretender." Browne then made his way to the keyboard and performed "The Rebel Jesus" and a cover of Steve Earle's "Jerusalem." The video is godwaful for the first half, but bear with it, or just close your eyes:

But Mann and Tompkins kept the energy up and the mood light with some of their interactions, especially "Baby, It's Cold Outside":

Probably the most vocally impressive guest was Amos Lee, who came out to sturdy applause, quietly took his place at the mic, and proceeded to blow the doors off with a cover of John Prine's "Christmas in Prison":

Grant-Lee Phillips was also there working his 12-string, and in addition to a great version of The Pretenders' "2000 Miles," he also teamed with Mann for a fantastic version of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," which made me smile like a kid the whole time:

Mann also dipped into her non-seasonal catalog with "Save Me." This video can't come close to how great it was to stand there and hear her sing this in a venue as intimate as the El Rey. When it was done, in that moment of silence when the cheers die down and the artist is getting ready for their next number, a guy behind me shouted, "You should've won the Oscar!" The applause erupted again, and Mann smiled before making a joke about how Phil Collins was probably very deserving. (The fact that Collins won an Oscar for a song from Disney's Tarzan while Mann's work in P.T. Anderson's pretty damn amazing Magnolia went unrecognized is just another indictment of the Academy.) Anyway, this is "Save Me":

The show ended with everyone onstage for an encore of one song, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," first recorded by Darlene Love on 1963's A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector and recorded by a hundred others since. The horn section came back out, all the evening's musicians returned to the stage, and everyone blasted away at a Christmas classic with gleeful unselfconsciousness. The show was rousing; there's no other way to put it. It was fun and funny and uplifting in the way the best concerts always are. A month ago, I didn't even know Mann did a Christmas show, and now I'm already looking forward to next year: