Radio firsts for Christmas 2012 - songs of the season [Archive]

Beverleyh

12-13-2012, 10:35 AM

So that jolliest of seasons is creeping up so I thought I'd start a seasonal thread, just for fun.

I hate driving, especially in the winter weather at this time of year (an expected high of -1°C for us today -- currently -4°C) but a merry tune always helps things along.

Anyways the first Christmas tune I heard this year, on the radio on my drive home from work on Monday, was "Driving Home For Christmas" by Chris Rea - quite apt really :)

So what was the first Christmas themed songs that YOU have heard this year?

(Excludes snippets on TV ads or radio jingles. Must besongs that have been broadcast/played in full.)

bernie1227

12-13-2012, 10:44 AM

-1 degrees? Lucky. We're around 30+.

As for christmas themed songs, unsurprisingly, there were some at the last church service I went to.

Beverleyh

12-13-2012, 10:50 AM

-1 degrees? Lucky. We're around 30+.Humph!!! :mad: *wrapping scarf another time around neck*

keyboard

12-13-2012, 11:00 AM

Humph!!! :mad: *wrapping scarf another time around neck*
More like "Humph!!! :mad: *takes off all clothes*"

It's soooooo hot here :(

Beverleyh

12-13-2012, 11:38 AM

Being hot sounds nice (to me) about now - we sometimes get over 30°C, but that's obviously on the other side of the calendar ;)

keyboard

12-13-2012, 09:48 PM

This is why I like spring... Not to hot, not to cold. We get a large varience in the temperature between Winter and Summer... It's freezing in the Winter, and boiling in the summer :(
To answer the actuall question ( :p ), it was the Christmas-y one by Michael Buble...

bernie1227

12-13-2012, 10:33 PM

*takes off all clothes*"
...

To answer the actuall question ( :p ), it was the Christmas-y one by Michael Buble...
Oh, that only narrows it down to a couple of hundred :p

keyboard

12-13-2012, 11:23 PM

...

?
It's called a........ joke?

Oh, that only narrows it down to a couple of hundred :p

He only has about one Christmas song (apparently, I was wrong :()... I think it was this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_0feq3s_9I)one.

bernie1227

12-13-2012, 11:43 PM

He has albums of christmas songs.

Beverleyh

12-14-2012, 02:03 PM

Oh dear, we dont seem to be doing very well with the Christmas songs. Has nobody else heard anything festive yet?

I had hoped that this would be an easy thread for everyone to reply to.

djr33

12-14-2012, 05:36 PM

I don't listen to the radio much, so I can't really comment on that. But I have noticed that it's the season to have uncreative episodes of every TV show, first with a Thanksgiving episode then a Christmas episode, and often both include Christmas songs.

traq

12-14-2012, 09:18 PM

trans-siberian orchestra :: carol of the bells

molendijk

12-14-2012, 10:03 PM

Like Daniel, I don't listen to the radio very often. And I don't like to watch TV either.
Also, I can't help not liking this part of the year. It's dark, it's cold, people close their doors and stay inside, I often catch a cold in december, everybody all of a sudden starts to believe in things / start to do things that they don't care about during the rest of the year...
Of course, I don't blame anyone who has special feeling about Christmas. (I almost wish I had them myself; but I hate the bells).
I'm more of a springtime kind of person. In the spring the light comes back, the days are longer, there's renewal of life and a long summer ahead.
I'm not complaining, though.

Beverleyh

12-14-2012, 11:04 PM

Don't get me wrong - it's not like I have mushy feelings about Xmas but i do look forward to it because for my family it provides a few weeks of brightness amidst several difficult years. I like all seasons though.

Carol of the bells is one of my faves :)

molendijk

12-15-2012, 12:33 AM

Beverleyh, I don't know of course what bad luck struck your family, but I sincerely hope you and your family will have a happy Xmas time.
Arie.:)

djr33

12-15-2012, 01:29 AM

The time of the year is nice in real life. (But it's not all that entertaining on TV, I must say. Yet considering that, the Big Bang Theory did a good job if they had to do an xmas episode.)

bernie1227

12-15-2012, 01:47 AM

I'm not sure about other shows, but the last episode of Red Dwarf series X was excellent.

djr33

12-15-2012, 02:18 AM

Was that an xmas episode? I'm not saying all TV is bad at the moment, just the specific xmas/thanksgiving episodes that are for some reason so popular (does anyone actually like them?).

bernie1227

12-15-2012, 02:31 AM

No it wasn't, so fair enough.
I think the guys bringing in the cash like them.

djr33

12-15-2012, 02:37 AM

Cash? Perhaps-- my theory is that it's a lazy way for the writers to not actually write an episode-- the holidays are a pre-written formulaic plot just waiting for a camera ;)

GSimon

12-15-2012, 04:28 AM

Was that an xmas episode? I'm not saying all TV is bad at the moment, just the specific xmas/thanksgiving episodes that are for some reason so popular (does anyone actually like them?).

Depends on the seasonal holiday. If it's a Halloween themed episode they are kind of annoying, Christmas themes are ok to me since it changes the tone of a show and usually in a good way.

As far as Christmas music goes, I don't remember the last one I heard, I think I kind of block them out from any short/long term memory. Probably a Buble song, or a commericial for his CD at the least.

jscheuer1

12-15-2012, 04:48 AM

I'm not sure if I've heard any all the way through or not yet this year. I've always liked "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen". It's kind of bluesy which is odd for a carol. Most of them are so upbeat. And "Good King Wenceslas", I like that one too. And "Let It Snow".

As for Xmas episodes of TV shows, they're usually sappy but heartwarming. I agree they're sort of a "day off" for the writers in many cases. A lot depends upon how invested you are in the characters. If you like them, you like seeing them enjoying the season.

djr33

12-15-2012, 05:39 AM

It does depend on the show. I think the worst was Eureka (a year ago?), when all of the main characters turn into stop motion figures and had an adventure. It was mildly amusing for about 2 minutes to see the animation (I like stop motion), but then it was an awful script-- I almost turned it off.

GSimon, you're right about Halloween-- often much worse than the xmas episodes. I'm not sure it's worse than Thanksgiving though. I don't think there has been an episode about thanksgiving (and there have been plenty) without focusing on "the family isn't getting along; now the family is getting along". Maybe it's just me, but I don't really feel like Thanksgiving is all that dramatic. Perhaps it's meant to make those of us in the real world feel better? But so much drama! Haha.

bernie1227

12-16-2012, 06:27 AM

The issue with many Christmas episodes in my mind, are that they are really just throw away episodes, basically, they think "well, we need a Christmas episode, it shouldn't have any relevance to any existing thread of a plot line throughout the series, Nd it should include very corny scenes and lots of Christmas paraphernalia, a young woman in a suitably skimpy Santa suit and should extol the virtues of Christmas"

At least, that's the vibe I'm getting from the Christmas episodes I've seen so far this year.

djr33

12-16-2012, 07:16 AM

Yeah, sounds right to me.

As a completely off-topic comment... what good Australian TV shows are there now? I enjoy watching them (something about the accent is fun), and I just finished watching old episodes of Rescue: Special Ops-- fun (if not the most serious show out there, haha.)

keyboard

12-16-2012, 09:54 AM

As a completely off-topic comment... what good Australian TV shows are there now? I enjoy watching them (something about the accent is fun), and I just finished watching old episodes of Rescue: Special Ops-- fun (if not the most serious show out there, haha.)

As an Australian, there aren't actually many "Australian" shows I watch, a lot of them are American or British (Doctor Who, Big Bang Theory, Bones, Castle, [FIREFLY!!!])...
I'm not really a fan of anything like Home and Away...

djr33

12-16-2012, 08:03 PM

For someone like me, interested in other languages (and other dialects of English), the monopoly on TV by America (and the UK) is a little frustrating. For example, if I want to watch a decent TV show in Spanish, there might be a few things, but beyond that there's basically nothing-- lots of reality TV in various languages, but that's it, plus a few soap operas here and there. Everything else is just dubbed American shows (and some British too).

So far I've only watched Rescue: Special Ops from Australia, as well as The Almighty Johnsons from New Zealand, both fun shows.

(For some reason I've always wanted to "learn" Australian, although I haven't had a chance to actually attempt it. I imagine it would be very hard because I'd have to consciously block what I already know about American English-- I'm actually doing some research on that kind of thing at the moment, for other reasons, about learning a second dialect in general. Interesting stuff.)

molendijk

12-16-2012, 10:06 PM

... the monopoly on TV by America (and the UK) is a little frustrating.
Not just a little frustating, but enormously frustrating. All those good programs that English speaking people miss just because of that monopoly.
And while I'm saying this, I realize I have to express myself in a language that is not mine.
What a misery! I propose we all start to learn Latin and communicate in that language. It's a good exercise and takes away the privilege of English.

bernie1227

12-17-2012, 12:12 AM

"learn" Australian

There's a couple of different pronunciations and spellings, but it's not that different.

What a misery! I propose we all start to learn Latin and communicate in that language. It's a good exercise and takes away the privilege of English.

That gives me a little advantage :p
How about Esperanto?

djr33

12-17-2012, 12:15 AM

What a misery! I propose we all start to learn Latin and communicate in that language.And go back about 500 years! (Haha, I'm sure you didn't mean it that way, but it's amusing. Or perhaps the Romans were right in the first place.)

Bernie,
Mhm, that was the idea behind Esperanto. It didn't really catch on though. (Personally, though, I strongly prefer interlingua, an easy-to-access combination of the Romance languages so anyone with a passing familiarity with any of them can follow what it says.)

As for Australian, that's true. There are a few new vocabulary items, but mostly it's just the pronunciation, which I think is fun :)

keyboard

12-17-2012, 12:25 AM

As for Australian, that's true. There are a few new vocabulary items, but mostly it's just the pronunciation, which I think is fun :)
Goodaye mate ;)

Joking... There are actually very few Australians (at least that I know) that use any of those "Australian phrases".
But there are a lot of different pronunciations... Out of curiousity, does anyone say "e-moo" instead of "e-myou"?

bernie1227

12-17-2012, 12:39 AM

keyboard

12-17-2012, 01:53 AM

It's G'day Keyboard :p
A very large amount of people (not just Australians) say "mate".
It's particularly interesting to listen to "stereotypical" Australians speak (definitely not stereotypical and usually not Australan).

As to the shows on in Australia, they're playing a couple of James Bond movies each Saturday (goldfinger and thunderball last weekend)

I do so love it when people try to sound Australian :p
As to the Bond movies, they're movies?
You know they're playing the Lord of the Rings at the moment... WOOT WOOT!!!

bernie1227

12-17-2012, 01:59 AM

As to the Bond movies, they're movies?

...... What else would they be?

keyboard

12-17-2012, 02:00 AM

We were talking about tv sho... never mind :p

djr33

12-17-2012, 03:27 AM

I say "e-moo" for emu. But that probably varies by dialect. People in England probably say "e-myu", and some Americans too. Just my guess.

A few words that I've noticed include "arvo" for afternoon, g'day, and "pull up" meaning "to stop" (in other dialects it means "arrive" but not really stop-- in a TV show I heard "The train pulled up just in time [to avoid hitting people]"). Plus "mate" of course.

And I also heard "tomorrow week", which I've never heard in America.

I also have no idea about this one, but I heard "Even blind Charlie can see [that]..." meaning "that's obvious!". I've never heard it elsewhere. But we do say "even a blind man can see that". (Of course I'm ignoring political correctness here. I just heard it on a show! Haha.)

Is there some "Charlie" in particular, or is that just a phrase that's out there?

I do so love it when people try to sound Australian That can go both ways, though! Australians are becoming more and more common in American TV/movies. Sometimes they do a good job. Other times... they don't :p

The series Roswell has a great example-- and what's funny is that the whole time I believe she was pretending to really be American, while it was obvious she wasn't.

An interesting example is House M.D. The character "Chase" (one of the assistant doctors) is clearly Australian, and he's Australian in the story (which makes sense!). (At the same time, Hugh Laurie is actually British and is completely indistinguishable from the Americans.)
But then the same actor is now on a show called "Chicago Fire" and he does a very good job of sounding American. He convinces me, and that's hard to do. It's impressive.

(Actually, the girl who was in Roswell was later in the movie "I am Number Four", an entertaining but silly film, and in that she appeared less Australian, but still wasn't convincingly American-- it was, I think, about half and half, some sentences American, others Australian-- that's confusing.)

keyboard

12-17-2012, 03:52 AM

I also have no idea about this one, but I heard "Even blind Charlie can see [that]..." meaning "that's obvious!". I've never heard it elsewhere. But we do say "even a blind man can see that". (Of course I'm ignoring political correctness here. I just heard it on a show! Haha.)

Is there some "Charlie" in particular, or is that just a phrase that's out there?

I've never actually heard that...

bernie1227

12-17-2012, 06:24 AM

A few words that I've noticed include "arvo" for afternoon, g'day, and "pull up" meaning "to stop" (in other dialects it means "arrive" but not really stop-- in a TV show I heard "The train pulled up just in time [to avoid hitting people]"). Plus "mate" of course.

And I also heard "tomorrow week", which I've never heard in America.

We use things like, "Friday week" for example, and "yesterday week", but I haven't heard "tomorrow week".

I also have no idea about this one, but I heard "Even blind Charlie can see [that]..." meaning "that's obvious!". I've never heard it elsewhere. But we do say "even a blind man can see that". (Of course I'm ignoring political correctness here. I just heard it on a show! Haha.)

Is there some "Charlie" in particular, or is that just a phrase that's out there?

I know a lot of people who say "blind Freddie" (not Charlie), however people also use "tail-end Charlie", (in reference to the tail gunners in Lancaster bombers during the war, who were nicknamed that, but is used in reference to someone lagging behind)

djr33

12-17-2012, 07:16 AM

Oops... I meant Freddie. I couldn't remember and I saw something on the internet when I searched for "Charlie".
Hm... what about "blind Freddie" then?

As for "week", I'm pretty sure it was "tomorrow week". But either way, seems the same as "yesterday week" or "Friday week"... what does that mean, exactly? Is it 7 days from that point? So "yesterday week" means from 8 days to 1 day ago? And "Friday week" means "Friday, and one week after"?

bernie1227

12-17-2012, 07:24 AM

Oops... I meant Freddie. I couldn't remember and I saw something on the internet when I searched for "Charlie".
Hm... what about "blind Freddie" then?

Well, that's what people I know say.

As for "week", I'm pretty sure it was "tomorrow week". But either way, seems the same as "yesterday week" or "Friday week"... what does that mean, exactly? Is it 7 days from that point? So "yesterday week" means from 8 days to 1 day ago? And "Friday week" means "Friday, and one week after"?
Basically yes, but "tomorrow week" doesn't really have a ring to it.

djr33

12-17-2012, 07:43 AM

Interesting.

Well, that's what people I know say.It's common? Any idea where it comes from?

keyboard

12-17-2012, 08:27 AM

You don't say things like Thursday-Week? (If today is Wednesday, 8 days away)
How do you say it then?

bernie1227

12-17-2012, 08:29 AM

Next week on Thursday? :p

djr33

12-17-2012, 09:45 AM

You don't say things like Thursday-Week? (If today is Wednesday, 8 days away)
How do you say it then? Oh, what? That means "Thursday in one week"? I thought it meant "one week, including [some relevant] Thursday". Like, "Let's do it Thursday week" would mean "Let's do it some time near Thursday, within one week of Thursday".

But... no, very different! Interesting.

As Bernie said, we'd say "Next week on Thursday" or just "next Thursday".

Beverleyh

12-17-2012, 10:01 AM

Yep - we say "emyou" in the UK. Also "Thursday-week" (or whatever day - meaning "a week on Thursday"), "a Fortnight" (2 weeks) and "Monday while Thursday" (or any other combination of days, but "while" in this context basically means "until").

"to pull-up" is also much more common place than saying "to stop" - so if we were driving into town and wanted to ask the driver to stop, we'd say "can you pull-up here" more often than "can you stop here".

Huge Laurie is an excellent actor, probably better know as a comedy actor here in the UK - Jeeves and Wooster, where he plays a bumbling, idiotic toff, was one of my favourite shows. It sounded very strange for me to hear him speak with an American accent in House.

It's amusing to think that when the Brits judge an American doing a British accent, we judge him not on how British he sounds, but rather how un-Australian he sounds ;)
I visited Disney Land a few years ago and heard a little boy asking his mum "why do that lady and man sound funny?", to which she replied "that's how they talk in England" - When I walking around the corner, I saw a lady and gent dressed in white, greeting everybody as Mary Poppins and Burt. I laughed when they said hello and shook my hand because they sounded Australian :D
I resisted the urge to test 'Burt' with some cockney rhyming slang - that would have just been too mean ;)

IMO, one of the few American actors who can totally pull-off a British accent without so much of a trickle of anything else sneaking in, is Johnny Depp - his Sweeny Todd just made me shiver.

One thing that really winds me up is how American writers sometimes don't write scripts for British characters with the English versions of words. For example, last week I watched Miracle on 34th Street with Richard Attenborough, and just after the judge releases him, Santa speaks to the prosecutor and says something like "I hope you've fixed that TV antenna - I tore my pants on it last year". AAAAARRRRRRRGHHHH! In Britain, Richard Attenborough (being a true British gent) would have said "I hope you've fixed that TV aerial - I tore my trousers on it last year".

djr33

12-17-2012, 10:09 AM

Haha, very amusing. And that's true. It's something that may not be noticed by a lot of people, but I am bothered by things like that too. Even subtitles and so forth. But that's just me, I think.

On the other side of things, bad acting can be great. There's nothing quite as entertaining as the awful German accents in the Spanish dubbed version of Captain America. (If you're wondering, I was in Ecuador when that movie came out. So, yes, I listened to various American patriotic songs, dubbed in Spanish. I think it improved the film!)

Also "Thursday-week" (or whatever day - meaning "a week on Thursday"), "a Fortnight" (2 weeks) and "Monday while Thursday" (or any other combination of days, but "while" in this context basically means "until").Strange. I don't even understand what those mean. But "a fortnight" is fine, just archaic here. Most well-educated Americans will know that, while I don't think any Americans would know the others.

"to pull-up" is also much more common place than saying "to stop" - so if we were driving into town and wanted to ask the driver to stop, we'd say "can you pull-up here" more often than "can you stop here".
That's the same in America. The specific context in the TV show was a little strange. There was a subway train about to hit someone on the tracks. Then it stopped. So later someone said "But the train pulled up just in time."

In American English, we can say "pull up" as long as there's a destination-- "pull up over there" or "my friends just pulled up [outside, in their car]", and that sounds completely normal. But out of context like that, just to mean "stopped, at a random location", it sounds completely wrong to me (but again, just my dialect!).