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I share some of Howard’s frustration with the watered-down, generic “Happy Holidays” greeting. Christmas in America has become such a secular and ubiquitous holiday it’s hard to see how its religious underpinning, its raison d’etre, could cause all that much concern or discomfort. But it does, and that is why …

An excellent holiday collection leaning toward standards and the gospel-R&B end of the spectrum is Ultimate Christmas. Out of 17 songs only two really don’t work and unfortunately one of them leads off the disc: Boyz ll Men turn in an a capella version of “Silent Night” that combines the …

My current favorite holiday record is Mark Mothersbaugh’s perversely beguiling Joyeux Mutato. It’s an electronic wonderland “for anyone who has ever been traumatized by the Christmas season and is intended to provide solace and shelter from the ensuing onslaught of over-heated holiday situations.” Whatever pal, but the ex-Devo major domo, …

Another feature in the MSNBC year in review section – in this one I tried to figure out what the top stories were in entertaniment and realized there were a few top stories with one thing in common: reality wouldn’t leave them alone. 2003 was a strange, troubling, fascinating year …

Keen observers will note I haven’t been as omnipresent as usual here over the last several days. Besides a new baby and Christmas, I have been working on year-end stories for MSNBC. This one is a whopper – profiles on almost 30 entertainers who died in 2003: Some of the …

Right now China is basically a non-market for intellectual property – this could help it become a market: China is changing its constitution to protect private property rights for the first time since the 1949 communist revolution — a key step in making capitalism its economy’s driving force. A constitutional …

Sean Ross, who used to be editor of Billboard’s Airplay Monitor, has picked the songs he thinks changed radio this year – do you agree? Kid Rock & Sheryl Crow, “Picture” – It wasn’t being worked aggressively to radio, but radio found it – even at a time when programmers …

Young TV audiences are watching later and later, many ignoring prime time altogether. This is kind of funny for me because over the last few years – as the trend has become more dramatic – I have been heading in the opposite direction, NEVER watching TV after 10pm other than …

Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, part of the State Department, this annual report addresses which countries are interfering with God. Here is a portion of the Executive Summary of the report: The Year in Review This section highlights U.S. Government actions in selected countries. Further …

A stocking stuffer for the pre-teen reader. . .