'A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector'

I recently read Mick Brown's Spector biography, "Tearing Down the Wall of Sound." In it, he talks at length about this album.

He'd probably have to because in the grand scheme of things, for such a prolific producer, Spector really didn't do a ton of work. He had the Ronettes, Darlene Love, the Righteous Brothers and, later, the Beatles, George Harrison and John Lennon.

Considering that's the extent of his work covering four decades, it's not a lot.

Add in that it's really odd, to me, that Spector produced this Christmas album for his "fans" putting his name on it as if rock and roll fans bought albums because he produced them and not because people like the Ronettes.

Needless to say, the guy was delusional and that delusion included the ego the size of Asia. It's an ego unparalleled.

But to cut away from Spector, this is a really cool album. If you want to really get and insight as to what the Wall of Sound was, get this album or tune into an oldes station during the holidays. It's just choreographed, coordinated noise. Nothing steps outside of some arranged boundary.

It's lush and if you know what went into it, the music is really cool to listen to.

'It's A Wonderful Life'

"Are you real?"

(What George Bailey says to Mary when he returns home after his vision.)

My favorite scene is when George Bailey's spent the day looking for the $8,000 that Uncle Billy lost (or had stolen) while going to deposit it in the bank.

Distraught, knowing he could be imprisoned and lose everything, George goes home to his children and wife and bites their head off because he's so frustrated and desperate.

His youngest son pounces on George's lap and growls like a lion. After the second time, George in a fit of anxiety takes his young son in his arms and hugs him as tight as ever, as if it was the for last time.

Why this film is important and popular is scenes like that where the rawest of human emotions are exposed.

If you ever want to know what's it like to be a parent, check that scene out. That epitomizes parenthood.

'A Christmas Story'

I'm watching it as I type.

I'm not going to pretend I'm something that I'm not: I enjoy a good film, but I am a low-down sucker for Christmas movies.

Ridicule all you want. But I'll start plugging in DVDs and watching TV specials right after Thanksgiving and re-watch until the day after Christmas.

"A Christmas Story" is one of my top 15 or so movies of all time, personally. The writing is impeccable. Darren McGavin and Melinda Dillon give underrated performances. The way they shot it with the 1940s "soft" filter just tops it off.

I first watched it when I was nine or so. My Aunt Linda -- who died about a year or so ago -- was in town for Christmas, staying with us, and realizing I had never seen it thought I should and rented it. I enjoyed it, but it probably took another eight or so years before I would watch it again, when TBS plays it 24 hours straight around Christmas Day.

Since, I've probably watched it no less than 100 times. Probably closer to 150 times. That's a good estimate.

Each time, however, I see something new. Some detail like a facial expression, costume, the way a character delivers a line. I also try to nail down the exact year the film is set in. It's clearly the 1940s, but it has to be post-1945 because there would have to be allusions to the war.

Basically, we're chronicling a low- to middle-class family in a smallish city in the Midwest after the nation trudged through the Depression and through a war that basically changed the world.

It's interesting to me to think about these things: Placing a fictional story within some real historical context.