Breakfast with Sophie

In an earlier post I alluded to meeting one of my favorite musicians while in New York.  That musician was the totally amazing Sophie Madeleine, the Duchess of Awesomeshire (made that up myself).

I've posted a couple entries in the past about Sophie Madeleine, here and here.  I discovered Sophie's music in 2009, somewhere on the internet.  When her video for "You Are My Favorite" was released and featured on BoingBoing.net, I was hooked.  It was the happiest video I'd ever seen, and I loved Sophie's song.

Shortly thereafter I bought "Love, Life, Ukulele", Sophie's first album release.  In 2011 she released "The Rhythm You Started" as her second solo album, and "We Like Cake and Beards and Stuff" with Hannah-Rei as the duo Rocky and Balls.

In the past year and a half, I've listened to Sophie more than any other artist.  And, believe me, I listen to a lot of music.  One of the perks of having an office - speakers attached to the computer and the freedom to listen for a goodly part of the day.

So, prior to my trip to New York, I contacted Sophie (exactly how will remain private) and asked if she and a guest would like to join my wife and I for breakfast (her public Facebook page had the information that she was in NYC).  You know, you don't accomplish things unless you ask.  So I just asked, as politely and unobtrusively as I could.  I was thrilled when I got the response back from Sophie - she and her boyfriend would love to meet us!

We worked out the details, and met for breakfast at a diner in New York near Grand Central Station.  Sophie and her boyfriend Tim spent an hour or so with us, chatting over breakfast (French Toast for Sophie and me, omelets for Tim and my wife).  We talked about many things - the differences in Christmas time between Kansas City, New York, and England; the live production of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" Sophie and Tim had seen the night before; what to do while in the city; Sophie's popularity in the USA, etc.   We had a wonderful time talking with them - Sophie and Tim are superbly nice people, and seemed to enjoy the time meeting us mid-westerners as much as we enjoyed meeting them.

Toward the end of breakfast, Sophie very graciously let me be a silly fan.  She signed a couple CD cases I happened to have with me, with the ultra-fine black Sharpie I also just happened to be carrying :-)  She recorded a little personal greeting to my daughter, who is also a big fan, and who did not know about this breakfast meeting.  And she posed for a few pictures, posted below.

We concluded breakfast, walked together toward Grand Central Station, all wished one another a Merry Christmas, and parted ways.  It was, indeed, a lovely way to spend a morning.

Frankly, I would not have been more pleased if I had breakfast with Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, or Lady Gaga.

Sophie is an amazing artist.  She is an accomplished singer and ukulele player (guitar as well).  She writes all of her own songs, and, as Tim proudly pointed out, also produces and engineers her records.  I'm pretty sure she does most of the work on her videos, too.

I hope that this post spurs my readers to check out the music of Sophie Madeleine.  Her music is all available on iTunes and Amazon.  She has a youtube channel ('misssophiemadeleine'), a Facebook page, and a blog called Sophieland.  She did an incredible 30 cover songs in 30 days last summer to promote the release of her CD (all available on Youtube). Check her out, and if you like what you hear, buy her music :-)  And tell all your friends.

Breakfast with Sophie Madeleine:

Christmas in NYC

As promised in an earlier post, here are a few pictures from my trip to New York City earlier in December.  I hope you enjoy them.

Near Radio City Music Hall/Rockefeller Center

Inside Tiffany & Co.

Lady Gaga's Workshop, in Barney's Department Store

Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center.  Note the other camera phones :-)

Flatiron Building.  I'm sure I'm one of the first tourists to take this picture...  ;-)

Da Nico, in Little Italy.  Had a fantastic dinner here.

A few scenes from Santaland

Windows at Tiffany & Co.

Radio City at night

Christmas Tree in Bryant Park, NY Public Library in the background.

The Origami Tree at the Museum of Natural History

Windows at Lord & Taylor - spectacular!

And, lastly, me and my wife with a Rockette.  The Rockette is the one in the middle :-)

Christmas Fever

I'm not talking about the 1957 song "Christmas Fever" by "Timmy Christmas"  (by the way - a great story about that song at the WFMU Beware of the Blog site here).  I'm talking real fever, of the Grinchy Christmas-stealing kind.  I had started antibiotics on Friday the 23rd to kill off a sinus infection, when all of a sudden, in swoops a virus.  Antibiotics HA! says the virus, and proceeds to give me a fever and bodyaches for the next three days.  My Christmas cocktails consisted of alternating ibuprofen and acetaminophen, OTC dextromethorphan, OTC pseudoephedrine, and the usual scrips for the ol' blood pressure and cholesterol.  All under the watchful eye of the oldest Bingle child, who is in a Doctor of Pharmacy program.

Christmas morning was super, aided by 600mg of ibuprofen at 6AM, before the 7AM awakening by the Bingle children.  All was great with the family - me, my wife, the five children, and our son--in-law, the husband of our oldest.  Hung in there pretty well through about noon, then a nap took me (that's more accurate than "I took a nap").  45 minutes before time to leave home for the in-laws, temp was about 97.2.  I'm not dead yet, sire.  15 minutes before time to leave, temp was 100.5.  Der Bingle stayed home, the rest of the family left.  Temp peaked at 101.6 before the ibuprofen took hold again.  So, while the rest of the family enjoyed Christmas dinner and festivities with the extended family, I slept the afternoon away and drank lots of water.

All is well now, though.  Fever gone, antibiotics still fighting the sinus infection.  Feeling good again.

So what's the point of this post, besides relating the story to the world?  Well, one thought that really crystallized was that it's not Christmas day that I look forward to every year, it's Christmas season.  The season starts in earnest for me on November 1 and goes through the New Year.  So, instead of a year away, it's 10 months.  A shorter wait :-)  

I knew this all along, but not quite as clearly as I do now.  Our family does many, many things during the season, including candy making, lots of music-related stuff, usually attending a concert or play, Christmas cards, Christmas movies and classic TV shows, and more.  And to me, it's not just a build-up to the 25th of December, it's all a tremendous celebration of family, friends, and good feelings, spanning the last two months of the year.

So, I had an awesome Christmas season again this year, despite being under the weather on the big day.  Sharing music, getting new music, a trip to New York City, candy making, friends, family, shopping, watching the children unwrap the presents we'd given them - tremendous!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Thank you all for the kind comments.  It is my absolute pleasure to share the joys of Christmas music with you, and to reunite so many with the songs remembered from childhood.

May you all have a very happy and safe holiday season with family and friends!

Der Bingle

An Orchestral Finale

Here we are on Christmas Eve, approaching the finale of the sharing season.  Der Bingle is in Day 3 of fighting a sinus infection and/or cold and/or flu, but is on the upswing today.  Good thing, too - have to be ready for the big day tomorrow.

For the final share of this season, I've chosen "Tis the Season", a selection of Christmas songs performed by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Giordano.  The album contains 10 tracks, including a very well-performed Nutcracker Suite and "Christmas Eve", an accompanied narration of "The Night Before Christmas", narrated by Mel Dacus.

These are traditional arrangements, performed expertly by the orchestra.  I think you'll enjoy them.

Please enjoy 'Tis the Season  download link

And so, that concludes this season's shares.  I hope you have enjoyed them, despite a few hiccups with artwork and stereo.  Have a very Merry Christmas!

Winding Down - the Penultimate Shares

Here are two more shares for my faithful readers here on the 23rd.  Christmas is pretty much a 2-day event in the house of Der Bingle.  On Christmas Eve things get going in mid-afternoon with Mass attendance, then dinner at Mom's place, then back home to settle in for the Christmas Eve evening, accompanied by "A Christmas Story", hot spiced cider, and other festivities.  Christmas morning kicks off at 7:00AM and continues through the day.

So, the pace will pick up soon.  However, I have two shares today, and will do the last one tomorrow morning.

First up today is "Christmas Is", by Pamela Wilson and the Symphony Royale of London.  This is a 1985 vinyl release on the Snowflake records label.  There are 10 songs performed by Ms. Wilson, the Coloratura Soprano with the orchestra.  Even at 10 tracks, the album is fairly short, clocking in at under 28 minutes.  The performances are good and enjoyable.

download link

Second is "The Magnificent Music of Christmas".  This is another of those Christmas albums with no artist credits.  It is on the "Westerfield" label, and offers up 12 tracks of orchestral/chorale music. 



Not too much more I can tell you about this record.  Please enjoy some Magnificent Music!

download link

A & P and Organ and Chimes

Two more for you today on the 22nd.

First up is "Christmas Greetings" from A&P (volume 3).  A&P was (is?) a grocery chain that, like so many grocery and department stores back in the day, released Christmas record collections featuring various artists.  Volume 3 is a 1972 release featuring some really great songs.  Per Tim Neely's book, there were 4 A&P records from 1970-1973.  A&P was not around in my part of the country, so in these parts this record is a rather unusual find.  I'm sure that in other parts of the country it's pretty common.

What caught my attention with this record is the closing song "Here's To You" by Cary Grant.  "Here's To You" was the B-side of "Christmas Lullaby", Cary Grant's 1967 single, and only Chrismas music performance.  "Here's To You", again per Tim Neely, has appeared only on the single and in this A&P collection.

Also catching my attention was "The Christmas Song" performed by Carol Burnett.  It has also appeared on two other collections, but is not something you see or hear every day.

Other great performances round out the record, including tracks by Tony Bennett, Johnny Cash, and Lynn Anderson.  Also included is a track by Barbra Streisand.  Barbra doesn't do a thing for me, Christmas music-wise or otherwise, but she has her fans out there.  Der Bingle just isn't one of them. 

A note on the cover art - the repeating Santa motif threw my image stitch application for a loop, so I had to do some manual cutting and pasting to get a workable cover image.  Apologies for poor color blends and other sub-par details in the artwork.

So, please enjoy the terrific collection A&P Christmas Greetings Vol 3.  download link

Next up is "Merry Christmas Carols with Organ and Chimes", performed on the Original Grand Wurlitzer Pipe Organ of Radio City Music Hall.  Now, Der Bingle loves Radio City Music Hall and all Christmassy things related.  So, I like this record a lot.  Generally, I hit a limit on organ/chime carols pretty quick before needing a break.  But this is a pretty good set of 17 songs.  No info on the performer.  Maybe the organ and chimes played themselves at night, ala "Night at the Museum".

Your Radio City fix for the day:  download link