SONG OF THE DAY - A year in review

Before we give you today's song, let's take a look back at the tunes that made the grade this year.

1. Don't Stop Believing by Journey


2. 22 by Lily Allen


3. Edge of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks


4. On Tour by Bliss n Eso


5. Switch by Will Smith


6. Fascination by Alphabeat


7. Come on Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners


8. Cold as Ice by Foreinger


9. Dangerous by Roxette


10. Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac


11. Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen


12. Chelsea Dagger by The Fratellis


13. Only The Good Die Young by Billy Joel


14. Absolutely Fabulous by The Pet Shop Boys


15. I like you better when you're not around by Kate Miller Heidke


16. You Make My Dreams by Hall & Oates


17. I Believe in a Thing Called Love by The Darkness


18. Bulletproof by La Roux


19. Here It Goes Again by OK Go


20. You can call me Al by Paul Simon


21. Canned Heat by Jamiroquai


22. Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond


23. Womanizer by Britney Spears


24. Words by Kate Miller Heidke


25. Politics in Space by Kate Miller Heidke


26. The Last Day On Earth by Kate Miller Heidke


27. Proud Mary by CCR & later Tina Turner


28. Telephone by Lady Gaga & Beyonce


29. Speechless by Lady Gaga


30. What a Fool Believes by The Doobie Brothers


31. My Life Would Suck Without You by Kelly Clarkson


32. You Are The Best Thing by Ray Lamontagne


33. Run This Town by Jay-Z, featuring Rhianna and Kanye West

That's quite a list, if we do say so ourselves (and we just did).

Now onto today's entry...

Well it's almost Christmas, so we here at A&F are giving you the greatest holiday song EVER...

All I Want for Christmas is You by the incredible Mariah Carey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ymlnxMZkXA

You can say what you want about Mariah, but you can't deny that this is a fabulous song and she has an amazing set of pipes! She also wrote and produced it, so you have to give her credit for that.

For those of you, who are Love Actually fanatics, like Kate and I...here is the version of the song from the movie...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVSmT4nNEkQ&feature=related

Side note...how awesome is it having Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and Liam Neeson in one movie?! FREAKING AWESOME!!

Some people are better than you...and that's ok

Hot damn, I LOVES ME SOME JAY-Z! He is awesome! Reformed crack dealer, now music mogul, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, married to a completely phenomenal chick! That's moving up in the world, I don't care where you're from.

Is it just me, or do he and Beyonce seem to be living the dream? He's fabulous and she is truly from another world. Just look at them...

They're just so cool, so talented, so gorgeous...don't you just hate them...NO YOU DON'T, BECAUSE YOU CAN'T! IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!

J and B (that's what they call each other) are better than you, they are better me and you know what...that's OK.

Ben Lee has a song called "What would Jay Z do?", it's pretty much just about how awesome he is (I can totally get on board with that). Here it is...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKCJsta8e00

Here's what I'm loving about J and B the most (for the next day or so anyway)...

"Run This Town". Anyone will who went to the Britney concert recently, will remember how awesome this song was to finish the countdown!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVA-xTBeHyM


"Empire State of Mind"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjsXo9l6I8


"03 Bonnie & Clyde"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGhRhaKmD8s


and the one that started it all, the awesomeness that is "Crazy in Love"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6HPJJjqvG0


So they are fabulous, they are far more fabulous than you...so deal with it!

Beyonce and Jay Z???

DECISION: AWESOME!

SONG OF THE DAY

You Are The Best Thing by Ray Lamontagne

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g25ZjKBXw8Q


How fabulous is Ray Lamontagne? He is like a modern day John Fogerty, all bearded and awesome!

This is Ray's best song in my (always correct) opinion.

Enjoy.

Ray Lamontagne?

DECISION:AWESOME

SONG OF THE DAY

I (Alli) LOVE KELLY CLARKSON!

Here at A&F we love our pop music! We aren't indy, we aren't emo and we certainly aren't heavy metal...We are pop and we love it!!

With that said, I will tell that I just adore Kelly Clarkson. I think she is fabulous, with a truly amazing set of pipes! My sister Heathie and I are off to see Kelly next year, when she tours and we are EXCITED!

I love that she seems like a normal girl. She freely admits her promo shots (like the one above) are air-brushed to hell and that in reality she looks nothing like that.

She's funny, I've heard her on Hamish and Andy several times and she was awesome!

Here's a brief selection of some great Kelly songs...

Since You've Been Gone...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdxRS_GyBbM

My Life Would Suck Without You...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJedoEM7G5U

this is the Glee version of the song...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKs_RwAHj0o

Because Of You (who doesn't love a good, depressing song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3D8J1rjGLg

Don't Waste Your Time...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ref5LcBvI18

Already Gone...(live and amazing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqvKfGCsL5A&feature=related

Who doesn't love an angry chick song? Let's be honest ladies we all need them once and a while, right? RIGHT!

So Kelly Clarkson??

DECISION:AWESOME

Bah! Humbug!

You know, I get where this guy is coming from...

This guy, he had the right idea. Poor bastard just couldn't escape the pressure of all the poor and boring people that kept bothering him...

Poor Bill Murray he was just a guy trying to get his job done. So, he wasn't really into Christmas...does that means he deserved to be haunted by 3 (very unattractive) ghosts?

I'm just going to put it out there...I (Alli) hate Christmas.

It hasn't always been that way. I, like every child loved it when I was growing up. I should also say that I have always been incredibly spoilt by the people in my life when it comes to presents (I'm looking at you mum!) I truly appreciate this generosity and thoughtfulness and I enjoy buying gifts for people in return.

The exchanging of gifts with people is not my issue with Christmas. Nor do I dislike how commercial it's become, to be honest I adore how commercial it's become. YAY Capitalism!

My issue is everything else! I'll give you a list (you know how I enjoy those):

1. The forced socialising! If I like you, I'll spend time with you, if I don't, I won't...it's as simple as that. Yet at this time of year, you are expected to speak to every member of your family. This includes people you haven't spoken to years, have zero in common with and less than nothing to talk about, but it's Christmas so you're guilted into it!




2. The rabid mobs of idiots that descend upon every major shopping center. Chermside during that 36 hour trading thing...I think that's what hell must be like. People walking too slowly, stopping in the middle of walkways, stroller-pushers thinking they have the right to do whatever they like and people seemingly forgetting that you have to pay for goods, then fumbling for money at the register! It's the general slowness of EVERYTHING that pisses me off.




3. The decorating of trees. This takes far too long, is far too messy and is the most annoying thing to take down. In the wise words of The Lonely Island "FUCK TREES"! Right on boys, perhaps I'll decorate a buoy instead.




4. The heat! It's no secret that I hate the heat, perhaps I would enjoy Christmas more if it was snowing. Now with global warming this may happen in Brisbane one day soon (yet another reason I do very little to help the environment). Where's your Christmas spirit now Al Gore!




5. Cheesy televised Christmas Carols. Let me say that I don't have an issue with the carols themselves, in fact I love to hear a bit of The Little Drummer Boy. My issue is the mass choirs they have at the back of these things! Oh god, the cheeseball, overly enthusiastic facial expressions. The coordinated hand gestures. The monk like robes! Just awful.

Now I'm not a bad person, I don't hate everything Christmas related. Here's a few of the things I love about Christmas...

1. A Muppet Christmas Carol. Michael Caine and Muppets! That's a winning combo! It is awesome and I love it!
2. Scrooged. You know I love Bill Murray and it is a truly hilarious movie!
3. Love Actually. The genius of Richard Curtis. This movie is as close to perfect as it gets.
4. Home Alone 1&2. LOVE THEM! They are truly hilarious.
5. Jingle All The Way. Arnie, in a Christmas movie? YES PLEASE! It also has Sinbad..."This is a sick world we live in, with sick people!
6. The Santa Clause. Tim Allen GOLD
7. Elf. "It's Santa, it's Santa! I know him I KNOW HIM"
8. All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey. Freaking awesome!!
9. Last Christmas by Wham (check out the Glee cast version too!) Love it!!!
10. Chocolate covered Almonds
11. Candy Canes
12. Spending time with the family and friends I do love
13. Seeing people really enjoy the gift I gave them
    

Visitors to this site will know of my undying love for Seinfeld. I always watch an episode called "The Strike" at this time of year. In this perfect episode Frank Costanza introduces us to Festivus. Frank hates Christmas and Festivus is what he created to take it's place...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8g4Ztf7hIM

My favourite part is the airing of grievances...I can get on board with that. I've got a lot of problems with you people!

SO, HAPPY FESTIVUS EVERYONE!

Christmas????

DECISION: FLAWSOME, OH SO FLAWSOME!

Alli, smarter than Kate? That can't be right...

Ah, so, um, it turns out Future Alli was much more intelligent that Future Kate. That's not something I ever thought I'd write, but there it is.
Of course, you, dear reader, are questioning why. I can hear you "But Kate, you are SO much smarter than Future Alli...". It's true, I am. But this one time I will admit defeat in the intelligence stakes. Here's why:
I went and saw Paranormal Activity.

Loyal readers of this site will know that we have a penchant for torturing ourselves by going to horror films we know will freak us out. You think we would have learnt after Orphan. As it turns out, Alli is a faster learner. Huh. Who knew?

ANYWAY, this film was, in a word, terrifying! I wouldn't quite put it in the same league as The Blair Witch Project but it's up there!
You know how we feel about people just 'standing'. MY GOD. I have never seen more standing than that which is featured in Paranormal Activity. As Alli duly noted in a text after I told her of my stupidity in going to see the movie: "Of course there was standing. It's called Paranormal Activity and we all know there's nothing more paranormal than standing."
So true.
There were breezes as well! And fires!

It was interesting though. You know how in most movies most of the characters seem too scared, too willing to put whatever just occurred down to an evil spirit and run away for no real apparent reason? In this case, by the end of the film, you really want them to die, for being so freaking stupid for staying in this place with all this paranormal activity for so freaking long.

That aside, I can thoroughly recommend it you like to scare yourself stupid, which I obviously do. I live alone, and blatantly refused to stay in my own house after I'd seen the film.
So, well done Paranormal Activity. Thanks for making me look like an idiot. I didn't really need the help.

Paranormal Activity?

DECISION: AWESOME (ly terrifying).

SONG OF THE DAY

Michael McDonald is awesome!

The guy was a member of Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers, but also is an amazing solo artist!

Anyone who has seen any Judd Apatow film, will know he is often referenced. Michael also features in an episode of 30 Rock.

Here's the perfect storm of awesome that is, Mr McDonald, Paul Rudd and Jane Lynch in The 40 Year Old Virgin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqMTkJjeqbI

Here is the fabulous Jane Krakowski singing in McDonald's style on 30 Rock..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq5ra7qsjyc


This is our favourite song by the great man, it's from his time with The Doobie Brothers...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VZ5DfCY6kY&feature=related

So Michael McDonald???

DECISION:AWESOME