Rant #2,050: Christmas Rapping

How was your Christmas holiday?

Mine was nothing with nothing, a decent couple of days off where unfortunately, I don't think I relaxed too much.

Too much on my plate, but at least I celebrated the Noel ... that is, Noel Harrison.

More on that later.

Our TV is still out in our living room, and yes, we received the receiver, hooked it up one, two, three, but it came without a smart card, so, no go.

The smart card now has to be shipped to us, and we will have to wait until later in the week to get it, so no living room TV for a couple more days.

Also, we had a slight power failure overnight on Friday to Saturday night, and even though it wasn't as long in duration as the other one was, this one still knocked out much of our Internet and TV, and everything had to be set up once again, which took forever.

My parents' TV was completely wiped out, and I spent an additional hour on the phone trying to fix it, which I did.

We saw my wife's side of the family over the weekend, as we visited her father at the Veterans home in Stony Brook and then went to her brother's house to celebrate the holiday.

But you know what? This year, my wife and I both concluded that we simply are not in the holiday spirit much.

There are too many questions unanswered as we go into the new year, and yes, it put a complete damper on the holiday season this time around.

Heck, a year from now, I don't even know if I will be working, and that constant annoyance is more than a monkey on my back, it is strangling me, but right now, what more can I do to change the situation?

I came to the conclusion that I am mildly depressed over this, and yes, the future is very confusing to me right now.

Anyway, on Christmas Day itself, my family did next to nothing.

We watched TV, slept away the day in the case of my son, and just fully took it easy before the return to work that happens today.

I watched the Knicks lose to the 76ers, and tried to catch up on my personal challenge of digitizing a lot of my records so I can listen to them in the car.

Don't ask me why, but without realizing it, I took out some records I have not listened to in ages, and they happened to be by Noel Harrison, yes get it, "Noel," who was a big star for about five seconds in the mid-1960s.

You might remember that Harrison--the son of Rex Harrison--starred with Stephanie Powers in the short-lived TV show "The Girl From U.N.C.L.E," and thus, literally for an instant, he became a teenybop star, featured in all the Tiger Beats opposite other stars like Mark Lindsay and Davy Jones.

Thus was the 1960s.

He was mainly a singer, and starring on this short-lived TV show allowed him to record four full albums for both the London and Reprise labels during the mid to late 1960s, wistful affairs where he recorded songs written by Lennon and McCartney and Charles Aznavour and Bob Dylan and pretty much the top songwriters of the time period.

The LPs kind of go in one ear and out the other, easy listening folk that is more background music than stuff to chew on, except for one song, or better yet, one interpretation.

He does the hands down best version of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" that you will ever hear, and this is not just me talking, but critics of the time said he out Cohen-ed Leonard himself on this song, and it is a must to be heard.

It wasn't much of a hit during its time, but it is one of those interpretations that really sticks to the gut, and one any music fan would probably appreciate.

So I digitized the three albums I have of Harrison's--his fourth album I have digitized from another source--and it proved to be a nice diversion.

So I guess I did celebrated the "Noel" in a funny way, but now, today, it is back to work, back to the salt mine, so to speak, and back to my personal challenge of finding something better over the rainbow as 2017 flames out and we move into 2018.

I am hoping that 2018 is a better year than 2017 was, because, honestly, other than celebrating my 60th birthday this year, 2017 was a bummer, plain and simple.

More on that later in the week.

But before I go, let me wish everyone a happy Boxing Day, a Happy Kwanzaa, and to my sister, a happy birthday.

Speak to you again tomorrow.