Tears Are Not Enough

As we all get ready to celebrate Christmas this year, with large sums of money spent on lavish gifts and enough food fit for a room full of kings, please remember that a lot of people are not as fortunate as some of us. Please also remember that tears are not enough. They need your help any way that you can provide it. So if you see that Santa on the street corner ringing that bell, why not drop a dollar into his bucket? Help out at the soup kitchen if you can. Donate to the local food banks and clothes drives. Donate your time even if that is all you can do. Lend a hand.

This is the message that Northern Lights sent out in 1985 to raise awareness and funds for the Ethiopian famine relief. Northern Lights was a Canadian supergroup made up of the biggest Canadian superstar singers of that period. The group recorded a single called, "Tears Are Not Enough" and also released a video. At this same time, the Americans contributed "We Are The World" and the British gave us, "Do They Know It's Christmas?"

Donating their time to form Northern Lights were such stars as Gordon Lightfoot, Burton Cummings, Bryan Adams, Geddy Lee, Anne Murray, Neil Young, Corey Hart, Joni Mitchell, Mike Reno(Loverboy), Bruce Cockburn, Paul Schaffer and Kim Mitchell among others. David foster who co-wrote the song with Bryan Adams also was producer and played keyboards.

Tears Are Not Enough


Band Aid- Do They Know It's Christmas?
Here is the British contribution to compliment the Canuck version. Paul Young, Boy George, Phil Collins, Simon Le Bon, Bob Geldoff, Sting and U2 are among the crowd.

Do They Know It's Christmas?

Clark Griswold's Ultimate Christmas!

This video has been around since last year (or longer maybe) but it is so awesome and appropriate for this time of year that I felt it is time for it to make the Internet rounds again. I was reminded of it when I was listening to a local rock radio station (WRIF, 101.1 FM, Detroit) and the "Doc of Rock", Doug Podell, was interviewing Paul O'Neill of Trans-Siberian Orchestra and they talked about this specific video.

At the time the video was made, TSO knew nothing about it. The guy who owns the house, Carson Williams, an electrical engineer from Mason, Ohio, programmed his Christmas lights in sync with the TSO song, "Wizards In Winter". He also somehow managed to arrange it so that if you were within range, you could tune in to a certain radio station on your car radio, and the music would play in sync with the lights. If you were just walking by, music was piped out on outdoor speakers.

I'm not sure if Williams himself shot the video or some passerby but eventually it ended up on the Internet. It soon became the most downloaded viral video, unbeknown to TSO. Finally, someone close to the group called up and told them what was going on. O'Neill promptly surfed the 'net, found the video and watched in amazement, this astonishing piece of illuminated wizardry. He knew then that he had to find the person responsible. Using the Internet and a couple of friends, within 2 hours they were able to find out the man's name , state, city, street and house address and phone number. The call was made.

Williams suspected one day he might get a call about his display but he thought it would have been about a cease and desist order or even a lawsuit from TSO's lawyers. No sir. Quite the opposite. It was Paul O'Neill himself telling the man how great his display was and they were just overjoyed with it and encouraged him to do more. They even flew him out to one of their concerts. It's a Christmas story with a happy ending. Speaking of endings, let's now have a perfect ending to this post.

Without further ado, here is Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Wizards In Winter" synchronized to Christmas lights.

Wizards in Winter-TSO (x-mas lights)

Happy Holidays!

The Night Santa Went Crazy!

In this undated photo, we see Santa in one of his more jolly moods, before the "incident".

"From his beard to his boots, he was covered with ammo
Like a big, fat, drunk, disgruntled, yuletide Rambo!" -Weird Al

Known as the "King of Song Parodies" for such hits as "Eat It", "Like A Surgeon" and "Amish Paradise", Weird Al Yankovic puts you in a festive mood with one of his original recordings with the yuletide flavoured, "The Night Santa Went Crazy". Merry Christmas!


The Night Santa Went Crazy