XMASTIME

Sunday, July 26, 2026

Scooter I Miss You du Jour! 🤗🐶❤️🕺

Questions. I Have Them.

When will Don Letts finally give us the Equals documentary we deserve? 🤔🤷‍♂️😡🎸🕺

Saturday, July 25, 2026

Here's to Scooter!

I just finished hosting Scooter for a week & I'll have a fun little video about it all at some point, but right now I'm just missing my little buddy. SCOOOOOOOOOOT!!! 🤗❤️🐶🥲

Let it Go, Let it Go

Every time I see this outside my building I think it's somehow connected to this Pogues album cover & I mean for fuck's sake I need to just let it go already, people.

OMG!!!! Speaking of the Importance of Music in Film...

...as I was earlier today, I was about to close out the tab on the video I'd found and WHAT DO YOU KNOW, turns out my instincts with this clip were dead on as here's a note in the description from the person who posted the video on YouTube:
This is a home movie and the music was the original music added to the Super 8mm film by the person who shot it. Although it doesn't fit the time period it was their personal choice and as such I decided to keep it true to their edit.
Sweet, horrible vindication for your ol' pal Xmastime!! In a war he'd never forget, probably because it never happened!! I am now curtsying your applause, people of Earth.

Xmastime So Sayeth, So Sayeth Xmastime

The Byrds are for people who aren't smart enough to like Dylan & don't rock enough to like The Beatles.

Speaking of Trojan Records...

…as I was earlier today, I took the trouble to combine the list of the 20 greatest Trojan Records songs I'd gotten from my new BFF ChatGPT (hi ChatGPT 👋👋👋!!!) with songs from one of my all-time most cherished of cherished compilation albums, the first Trojan Records 20 Reggae Classics; after knocking out the redundant songs it all made for a 32-song playlist that is absolutely brilliant, all-killer-no-filler, and absolutely a desert island playlist for me. I LOVE THIS!! 🤗🎸❤️🇯🇲🇬🇧

Speaking of Paul McCartney Playing Bass...

...as I was earlier today, here's one of those "the Internet is insane and we love it" moments: Paul McCartney in some random-ass video showing us how to play the bass for one of the few solo Macca songs I like, Ever Present Past (tho I hate that he's not playing with a pick.)

Enjoy!

Let the Record Show...

...that in an English Lit class while in college I had the chutzpah to fill up half a line with a Vinnie Barbarino classic. 🤗🤣🤣🤣

ALSO: dafuck was my handwriting leaning to left like that? I don't remember writing that way - I'd remember having to manipulate my wrist that much (heh heh heh DAMMIT LADIES NOT NOW!), and I don't remember ever having fantasies about being left-handed, but hey 🤷‍♂️ the 1990s guys, am I right?

Hell why not, here's one of my favorite songs from the 1990s. You're welcome, Earth!

Xmastime...Honorary Python?

In the FANTASTIC Monty Python documentary Monty Python: Almost the Truth (Lawyers Cut) Terry Jones talks about the difference music made in the movie, to the point that it seems 100% likely we'd never have seen the flick if he hadn't figured out how to make the music work.

THANK YOU TERRY JONES!!

"But Xmastime", you say in the voice of Craig “Ironhead” Heyward from those soap commercials (RIP), "are you capable of proving this theory yourself, therein putting you in the same company as Terry Jones who oh hold on was only a member of Monty Python?"

Sigh. Yes I am, faithful readers, YES I am:

I took a clip from the maybe-is-maybe-isn't-but-definitely-should-be mesmerizing New York Christmas 1976 - Super 8mm, which I'm grateful to have somehow stumbled into, and removed the music, therein presenting you people with two different movies: the ridiculous, and the hauntingly beautiful.

THE RIDICULOUS:

THE HAUNTINGLY BEAUTIFUL:

BREAKING: Paul McCartney Is a Great Bass Player

Smugly letting everybody know that you know that the best drummer in The Beatles was Macca is a tiresome trope soaked deeply in de riguer, but the last line in this paragraph seems overlooked:

…by default, Paul took over the most difficult instrument to play with any originality in a rock 'n' roll band: the bass guitar.

Even with all of his incredible songwriting & singing and incredible ear for melody & arrangement, McCartney's bass is what was the differentiator between The Beatles and so many other great bands (to say nothing of how ridiculous it was he even put that much effort into the thing in the first place).

A coupla years ago I told my bff ChatGPT (hey ChatCPT! 👋👋👋👋) I was putting The Moment Paul McCartney Agreed to Play Bass on my Top 5 Beatles Moments I Wish I Could've Seen list and here's what he said:

This is a sneaky all-timer.
It’s not sexy, but it’s foundational. Without that: No Hofner identity
No melodic bass revolution
No “second lead instrument” approach

It’s basically the moment the band’s sound ceiling gets raised.

👉 This is the kind of pick historians respect and casual fans overlook. Strong.

"But Xmastime", you say in the voice of Craig “Ironhead” Heyward from those soap commercials (RIP), “didn’t you back in 2021 broach the subject of a movie based on the moment this musical revolution kicked off, presumably what will surely be decades before anybody else catches up?”

Sigh. Yes I did, faithful readers, YES I did:

A better version of the movie Yesterday (which I reviewed here) would be revisiting the fateful moment when Paul picked up the bass after Stuart Sutcliffe left the band. Normally, John being the inferior guitar player would mean he'd be relegated to being the bass player, but him being the leader of the band allowing him to refuse, leaving it to Paul, forever changed the future of the band and rock and roll itself, as Paul went on to become the most inventive bass player of all time. With John on bass, how different would The Beatles have turned out?
I'd watch that movie!

Let me reiterate, 5 years later: I'd watch that movie!

Trojan Records Top 20?

I asked my new BFF ChatGPT (hi ChatGPT 👋👋👋!!!) to list the 20 greatest songs on Trojan Records & I'll be honest, it's a great list. I marked my Top 5 in green and since I'm such a fucking great guy I went thru the trouble of creating a Spotify playlist for you people YES PEOPLE YOU ARE IN FACT VERY WELCOME!!!

WE ❤️ SUCH BRAVE GIRLS

I've been banging on about how incredible Such Brave Girls is and it's only just now I'm realizing that the two sisters on the show are sisters in real life, which makes total sense since this video of them doing a Q & A is funnier than 90% of shows I've seen in recent years. They seem to be the exact archetypes they play in the show; I'd definitely pay to watch a show of them in real life as well.

SUPER BONUS: screen time with director Simon Bird, who of course was Will in The Inbetweeners! 🤗🕺🤣🇬🇧

Also I'm in love with Kat Sadler DAMMIT THERE I SAID IT!!!!