Projo Subterranean Homepage News

We are all fat and lolling over here, wallowing in a weekend of sloth and sleep, turkey and pecan pie. Music alternates with the drone of TV football. We suspect we're not alone.

More 'Santa's Boots' mp3s: As I promised in part one on Friday, more tunes for your holiday mix CD. BigO Singapore, the gifts keep coming:

5. I’ll Be Home For Christmas - Dave Alvin & Rick Solem 6. Jingle Bell Rock - Bruce Springsteen 7. Go Tell It on the Mountain - Christmas Heritage Band 8. River - Joni Mitchell

Check the Cool Wax is now in Christmas mode, too, starting with Western Christmas songs:

The Louvin Brothers :: It's Christmas Time
The Louvin Brothers :: Santa's Big Parade
Faron Young :: I'm Gonna Tell Santa Claus On You
Faron Young :: You're The Angle On Top Of My Christmas Tree
Hank Thompson :: White Christmas
Tex Ritter :: Ole Tex Kringle
Roy Rogers & Dale Evans :: It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
Buck Owens & Susan Raye :: One Of Everything You Got
Buck Owens & Susan Raye :: A Very Merry Christmas
Buck Owens & Susan Raye :: Good Old Fashioned Country Christmas
Buck Owens & Susan Raye :: Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy
Buck Owens & Susan Raye :: Tomorrow Is Christmas Day
Charlie Pride :: Happy Christmas Day
Charlie Pride :: Santa And The Kids

"I'm Gonna Tell Santa Claus On You" is a natural -- she's done him wrong, and he's gonna get back at her. Charlie Pride's voice triumphs over ordinary songs.

At The Late Greats, the "Duke of Straw" posts A Treasure-trove Of Xmas Music: 92 megs, 22 songs, zipped. (This means all 22 songs are in one downloadable .zip file that will unfurl into 22 mp3s when you "unzip" it. If you don't have a program to do that, Cam UnZip is free and easy. Click on the zip file, browse to the directory you want them to land in or type in one that doesn't exist yet, click "Extract." Done. It creates the new folder automatically.)

1 ~ Ed Harcourt: In The Bleak Midwinter
2 ~ The Arcade Fire: Jinglebell Rock
3 ~ The Waitresses: Christmas Wrapping
4 ~ Bright Eyes: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
5 ~ Death Cab For Cutie: Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
6 ~ Sufjan Stevens: What Child Is This Anyway?
7 ~ Diana Krall & The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra: Jingle Bells
8 ~ Jack Johnson: Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
9 ~ Rilo Kiley: Christmas Cake
10 ~ Marah: Baby, It´s Cold Outside
11 ~ Feist: Lo, How A Rose E´re Blooming
12 ~ Smashing Pumpkins: Christmastime
13 ~ Snow Patrol: When I Get Home For Christmas
14 ~ James Brown: Funky Christmas
15 ~ Ron Sexsmith: Maybe This Christmas
16 ~ Low: Just Like Christmas
17 ~ Johnny Cash: Blue Christmas
18 ~ Belle & Sebastian: O Come, O Come Emmanuel
19 ~ Sufjan Stevens: Once In David´s Royal City
20 ~ Hem: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
21 ~ Joni Mitchell: River
22 ~ Tom Waits: Silent Night

He also points to a live performance, A Christmas Concert from 'World Cafe', at NPR's archive of Holiday Music concerts.

Trad: A-M Classical has a few classical holiday mp3s, and links to free downloads of carols at Amazon. No artists are listed next to these titles, but when I clicked on The Christmas Song, it was by Roomful of Blues. The flip side of this single, "White Christmas," is here, too.

A Christmas Yuleblog offers Candy Clarinet, an out-of-print Pete Fountain album, with his incomparable horn and an unfortunately insipid chorus. The link goes to Rapidshare, where you may download it for free after a 45-second wait designed to get you to pay for the fast lane. If you want another, there's a 30-meg per hour limit for free downloaders.

Another Rapidshare download: Billy Vaughn, Christmas Carols, from The Tuna Melt:

...The album is a collection of instrumental music. And Great Instrumental Music, too. Hard to believe that the guy who is, these days, most famous for playing a 'Rock 'n' Roll' hit called "Raunchy" could make such a Raunch-Free Christmas Album, but here it is!

Think Mantovani: Byootiful background music, not a rock riff to be found. Upside: No Burl Ives either.

On the fridge: Shelley Powers: Just Shelley: What? No transparent magnets?

I, too, have the same mysterious yellow spill down the front of my vegetable bin.

Commenters riff on gossip that Madonna has a glass kitchen.

Turkey notes for next year: My oven was out of whack, too hot, so I inadvertently invented a turkey cooking method that produced "the best turkey ever."

The turkey was 21 1/4 pounds, from a local farm, rubbed with a mixture of canola oil, garlic powder and a little paprika. My range is gas -- a Glenwood from the '40s or early '50s, that came with the house. It's wide -- oven on one side, broiler on the other -- with four burners separated by a central workspace. It's shabby, but I can't afford a replacement stove this solid.

I abandoned the high-temp turkey idea when food editor Gail Ciampa told me you can't stuff it and do that. I fell back on tradition: 45 minutes at 375 degrees, cover with foil and turn the oven down to 325 for the duration. I added some water to the roasting pan, which is slightly humped. I think moisture in the pan makes for a moist turkey.

But something was wrong. The oven sizzled and crackled like jazz. After a half-hour, the aroma and noise were intense. I peeked, and found a beautifully browned bird. I added a ladleful of stock to the pan (not over the bird) and covered the turkey loosely with a large sheet of heavy-duty foil. I turned the thermostat down to 325. Snap, crackle, pop. Fifteen minutes later, down to 300. Things quieted down in the oven, finally.

I added more stock every hour, and 5 1/2 hours hours later, it was perfect.

Hubris: Behind the pack in AFC, Pats have more to fear. Chicago Sun-Times. I get nervous when everybody picks the Patriots.

If you break it, you fix it: Liberal hawk and New Republic editor Jonathan Chait in the L.A. Times today utters the unspeakable: Bring back Saddam Hussein.