Know when the holidays have officially arrived?

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Todd Terry] “Maybe if you could hear Dean Martin singing carols on the jukebox…”

<rant=”on’>

If I could hear Dean Martin playing on the jukebox, I — for one — would run screaming from the building.

I remember that one of the best parts of underground radio when the FM airwaves hit in the late 60s was that we never had to hear Dean Martin, Tony Bennett or Frank Sinatra ever again.

I took that as a GOOD thing.

Why the former rock generation suddenly has run back to the crooners is beyond me.

Kathlyn and I notice that the good restaurants are full of that audio offense and we can’t believe that we actually have to pay to listen to stuff we once thought we’d escaped once and for all.

<rant=”off’>

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

[Todd Terry]

On my….

I’m now glad we didn’t send Ron our company Christmas card last year (at least I think I didn’t)… where all our small staff and I were dressed as Rat Packers under the Sand’s sign in Vegas with our names on the marquee.

Now, off to cancel the Lindebooms’ present for this year (Sammy Davis Jr. box set).

I never thought I’d have to strike Ron off the “cool list,” but if we must we must….

Happy holidays anyway 🙂

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Mark Suszko]

Todd, as a subscriber to “Dwell”, I love what you’ve done in the picture, especially the chairs and quasi-Noguchi table. Needs an acrylic ball lamp to complete the effect. Your aluminum tree, if an original, is worth a stunning amount on ebay, BTW. They are not for everyone, of course; my cousins had one in the 60’s that I found very sad, though I kinda dug the color wheel. For you young’uns, since the tree was aluminum and thus conductive, you were not supposed to hang electric lights on it, instead, the color-changing motorized light washed various bilious shades across the tree and wall.

I actually dig a lot of Sinatra and Bennett as well as the whole “lounge” thing, when I’m in a certain mood. If I could, I’d have a very polynesian Tiki thing going with Les Baxter and Arthur Lyman and such lilting behind the fake palms and lava lamps.

As to getting into Christmas, for me it starts with putting the ornaments on the tree with the Charlie Brown Christmas album and the well-worn copy of the Harry Simeone Chorale Christmas album (the one with the classic version of the Little Drummer Boy on it). I also have an album of old Polish carols I play, and all this lets me trip back thru all the family Christmases I’ve experienced back to about age 4 or 5. For grins, I also play “Mele Kalikimacka” by Der Bingle, “Santa Baby, by Eartha Kitt, and a parody of Led Zepplin’s “Jamaker” with Christmas-flavored lyrics by SLed Zepplin ( a dead-on parody, you’ll like it). I try to be a part of a public performance of Handel’s Messiah, that REALLY puts me in the mood.

But for us it it really is first a religious holiday, and we don’t go for all the inflatable bouncy-castle santa claus and snowmen/ renideer and elves crap with strobing lights outside. Just some tasteful Italian style white lights, maybe some icicle lights along the eaves, some greenery along the fence rails/banister out front and a couple unlit wreaths, just to take some of the dreariness off the cold, and we’re good to go.

Inside, the tree has been artificial (but a very good fake) since the kids came along, I started feeling it was too wasteful to kill innocent pines just to have them be thrown out as garbage 5 weeks later. (The Brits wrap the tree roots in a ball and keep their trees in tubs for a few days inside, and then try to plant them outside after the holiday, a very progressive idea I think) A couple years back I got a pre-lit ttree on sale after xmas for pennies on the dollar, and it servred us well for some time but the $%^#^$% bulbs always made setup very stressful. Last year I finally lost my cool, and I attacked the tree’s wiring harness with a pair of Dykes pliers, stripping all the bad wiring and bulbs off like a meth addict picking away at imaginary ants on his skin…. and got the sweet, SWEET joy of LED lights, OMG, I LOVE THEM LOVE THEM LOVE THEM…. well, after three trips back and forth to get some with a decent color temprature the wife would accept. But never having to change another tree bulb? PRICELESS!!!!!

[Arnie Schlissel]

An aluminum tree? That’s not tacky, it’s high-tech!

Have you ever thought of replacing the color wheel with a disco ball?

Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/

[Todd Terry]

Thanks for the memories, Mark…

Yes the tree is authentic, I bought it in an antique store about 15 years ago. It’s in good shape, though not GREAT shape… but it still has the original box and all the dozens of wax paper sleeves that the branches are stored in. I wish I had been able to take a little better care of it.

If you like that stuff you should come visit! Good eye on the coffe table… I built that as a scaled-down Noguchi replica because a real one is much too big for the room. Both our studio and my home are all mid-century era furnishings… and not just jumping on the train, they’ve always been. I was a mad man years and years before Mad Men made it cool (upstairs is very Sterling-Cooper, my basement is the Tiki Lounge). I just love the crisp clean look of all that stuff… great design work going on there. Fortunately I started collecting it while it was still considered cheap “junk” not yet even kitch or the uber-collectible stuff it is today. My general manager’s gigantic “Larry Tate” Herman Miller desk I stole 10 years ago for $100 (it’s the same desk Roger Sterling has on MM). The only other one I’ve seen like it was in a NY antique store going for roughly the same price as a good used Buick.

I shudder to think of all the great stuff my parents and grandparents threw away through the years….

So come on down, we’ll even throw on some Sinatra (don’t tell Ron).

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Mike Cohen]

Chanukkah for the Cohens was traditionally a time to gather, exchange copious amounts of gifts (8 nights x 11 people x 1 night of actual festivities) – each person opens 1 gift from one person, and round and round we would go.

This of course followed dinner of brisket, matzoh ball soup, kugel, chopped liver and when Grandma was around, stuffed cabbage with a stuffed derma chaser and my mom’s specialy, latkes!

But the one thing missing was lights. For the “festival of lights” we had no lights except the traditional menorah.

So needless to say I was quite excited when I married a nice Catholic girl. Over the years I have become slightly less excited given the propensity of lights to get tangled over 12 months no matter how nicely you wrap them up. The “over-under” method that works with XLR cables does not apply.

We too have switched to LED lights – on the tree, in the windows, and large version of LED bulbs on the outside. Alas I’m in a townhouse so there is not much room to get too crazy. Not a bad bulb yet in 3 years.

I was most excited to get one of those porcelain winter villages to arrange on the mantle, complete with fake snow and a little mirrored skating pond with little skating figures. Maybe it was my sweet electric train set I had as a kid (17) but whatever. It is like traveling to a mysterious little town just over the next hill, with little George Bailey about to fall through the ice. Only don’t let me get started on “It’s a Wonderful Life.” My dad, brother and I can quote every line of that movie, and I do a decent Jimmy Stewart impression (my wife hates it when I do the Charleston and stutter like Ol’ Jimmy).

Oddly enough, Christmas Day with my in-laws consists of each person opening one present from one person, and round and round we go. Amazing. The highlight of the day is the lighting of the Christmas pudding. Rum plus fire at the dinner table is a beautiful thing.
(imagine “Backdraft” with icing!)

So traditions, whatever they may be, are what define the holidays for me. We have tried to combine traditions and make some new ones. Well, just about time to leave the house for today’s call time. Gotta fly. On Prancer, on Vixen, on Judah, and Elijah. Ho Ho Ho, Shalom, Shalom, Shalom.

Mike Cohen

[Walter Biscardi]

Took the whole staff shopping for a new tree, lights and ornaments for the office this year. Was a very fun day and afternoon.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

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[Ron Lindeboom]

Yeah, but please tell me that you played Zeppelin or Hendrix while doing it, Walter.

🙂

Man, now where’s my Floyd albums?

Ron Lindeboom

[Todd Terry]

Just found Ron’s Christmas present!….

Ah, Photoshop and a little free time! Just yanking your chain, Ron 🙂

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Ron Lindeboom]

Wow!$#@! Now *that’s* an album that The Chaiman should have done, Todd.

The four Zosos rune symbols (from Led Zeppelin 4) with the added 5th symbol (how appropriate) for Frankie — a martini glass no less — is simply stunning art! I am impressed, Todd. Kinda brings a whole new meaning to The Lemon Song from LZ2 — yessirree, squeeze them lemons, baby, for my daiquiri.

😉

I think the idea of that one is even more out there than Dread Zeppelin — a band that Tim Wilson and I want to hire for the COW Leader party.