Pick Hit
Chris Owens and the DDDB Hallelujah Chorus: Tis The Season (NIMBY Single ’06).
Sez Bouldin: “At the risk of Gatemouth sharpening every one of the knives in his drawer, here you go"
Sez Gatey: Don’t be callin’ me Ebenezer!
Chris has filled out and so has his voice; put a tatoo of the side of his face, and he could almost be Aaron Neville (although if he doesn’t lay off on the latkes and jelly donuts at his maternal family’s Chanuka party, next year’s comparison could be to Solomon Burke), and the performance itself is the funniest Christmas song by an African-American since Chuck Berry’s “Run Rudolph Run”, although in this case, not all the laughs are intentional (although, surprisingly enough, some are).
My objections are as follows:
1) They didn't bring Dan Zanes in on electric guitar. As a Del Fuego, Dan got respect but no money; now it’s the other way around (more work for Zanes might also serve the laudable purpose of keeping him too busy to make political endorsements) ;
2) The most promiscuous use of the term "The People" since Lennon and Ono's "Attica State". In this case "The People" are defined as a few thousand residents of Prospect Heights, Fort Greene, Park Slope and Boerum Hill. Are the tens of thousands of Brooklynites who (possibly because their personal interests are not impacted) support the project some other unspecified species?
3) No verse about Markowitz;
4) That Chris doesn't quit politics and do this full time; he's far better suited to it, and could become the African-American Dan Zanes.
Otherwise, I am in general agreement. Atlantic Yards does need careful review, and any further progress should await the new administration (no reason Spitzer should be spared from democratic accountability–maybe we can even persuade Pataki of the misery postponing this project’s approval process would cause his successor).
While my endgame is quite different from those singing (more in line with the Municipal Arts Society critique), I would gladly join in this chorus (possibly because my personal interests are also impacted). B+