ChristMixTape 2014

Click the album cover to download the entire mix as a .zip archive or click here to listen to/download the individual tracks!

I can’t believe this is the 6th Christmas mix. I went for the ol’ ‘sneaky reflection in a bauble’ cover image this year.

I actually have a whole folder of photos of me waving at the camera in a reflective surface like a deranged photojerk.

Click, download, enjoy, repeat. Preferably with an iced soft drink nearby. Go easy on the Pepsi though...

TRACK LISTING:

01 - Bob's Burgers - Look At The Tree

02 - Andy Williams - Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

03 - The Fab Four - Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

04 - Clark Griswold - Clark's Christmas Star

05 - Mavis Staples - Christmas Vacation

06 - The California Prunes - O Pruny Night

07 - Jackson 5 - Up On The House Top

08 - Tracey Jordan - It's a Jordan Christmas

09 - Donny Hathaway - This Christmas

10 - Troy & Abed - Christmas Infiltration

11 - Fiction Family - I Don't Need No Santa Clause

12 - Homer Simpson - You're A Hero Homer J

13 - Karine Polwart - Merry Xmas Everybody

14 - Charlie Brown - Depressed At Christmas

15 - Relient K - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

16 - Real Friends - I Had a Heart

17 - Clark Griswold - Snot The Dog

18 - Ray Charles - The Spirit Of Christmas

19 - Switchfoot - Feliz Navidad

20 - Annie Edison - Teach Me How To Understand Christmas

21 - Sufjan Stevens - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

22 - Linda Belcher - Christmas Poem

23 - Coldplay - 2000 Miles

24 - Charlie Brown - Linus Explains Christmas

25 - Peanut Turner - Hark!

26 - James Taylor - Some Children See Him

27 - Studio 60 feat. Tipitina's Hurricane Katrina Foundation - O Holy Night

Ah 2014, you fickle mistress of time. Once again I suckle at your foamy teat.

A year has passed. I'm a little older, and a little wiser. I’m starting to get hair really weird places; I feel like I'm turning into Sasquatch.

I turned 30. I didn’t think I’d have a problem with it, and I don’t, but I still tell people online I’m 29, because it’s ok to lie about your age to strangers, and also because a 29-year-old man browsing online forums about Disneyland seems a tad less creepy.

I’m really enjoying playing the drums these days.

I now have two jobs. I make a decent living as a technical manager of a local arts venue working part-time, leaving me free to make ‘gravy money’ on my days off by running lighting and sound systems for all manner of live events. It’s working out pretty well for me so far. The ‘job’ gives me something to do with three days of my week, and the ‘other job’ is varied, lucrative, and sometimes even fun. I’m really enjoying being able to write my own ticket, both in terms of payment and workload.

Did y’all hear that Ryan Adams record? The man is an unstoppable hit machine.

I feel I’m withdrawing more and more into myself these days, and becoming dangerously introspective. They tell me this is how all great artists’ minds function, however I haven’t made any ‘art’ worthy of justifying my shut-in kind of lifestyle, and as much as I enjoy living the bachelor life and pleasing myself on a day-to-day basis (that doesn’t sound right at all), I do worry sometimes that I’ll forget how to be around real people.

If I have any resolution for 2015 it’s to ‘do more’. To see more, to feel more - hell - to BE more. I’m in an incredibly privileged position, blessed by God’s grace, earning enough money to live and love and do all the things that my fairly frugal and easily-pleased self could possibly want to do. So many friends and acquaintances seem tied to jobs, or relationships, or families or commitments that I don’t yet have the burden of, and I want to make the absolute utmost of my ‘freedom’ while I still have it. That life belongs to others right now, but one day it will be mine, and I won’t shy away from it, because I’ll have these days of having enjoyed my freedom to look back on, and years of blissful entrapment in stability and family to look forward to.

2015 is going to be incredible. We have new Jurassic Park, Terminator AND STAR WARS movies all coming out in one year. I can’t comprehend it.

Be excellent to each other.

And...

PARTY ON, DUDES!!!!

P xo