The Best Five Dollars You'll Spend This Season

Today is my brother Jesse's birthday. (Happy birthday, Jesse!) He's in a band called Herod the Fink. And his band is a Christmas band. (How cool is that?) It's all original music about Christmas and the ideas and feelings---silly and serious---that fill our hearts this time of year. The album is so good. It's my personal Christmas soundtrack this year. Here is my favorite song; it's called Back to 337, which is also the name of the album. (If you're reading on Google Reader, you'll have to come on over to my actual site to get the link.)



People, you can download the entire album for only five piddley dollars. You should skip that combo meal and buy this album instead. It will enrich your entire season, I promise.

And one more cool thing? Jesse and his band mate Jason are putting on free concerts this season. Their dates are filling up, but if you live in Utah, you should look into having them come and rock your Christmas party. We had them rock Ryan's family party on Saturday night and it was the highlight of my trip. Find out more information on their website.

Happy birthday, Jess, and Merry Christmas to everyone else!

Love for Millie

My brother Jesse, the musician, wrote a beautiful song for some friends of his whose little daughter, Millie, is battling leukemia.

Jesse wrote about the song on his blog. He said, "I had been wanting to do something special for their family, and had toyed with the idea of recording a song for her. I tried to think of the message I would want [my daughter] to hear if she were in the same situation."

You should listen to the song here, and then you should send up some happy thoughts and prayers for Millie. Then you should hug your kids.

MILLIE

Close your eyes, think of what you'll be
And everywhere you'll go and what you'll see.
A cowgirl on the range, or an astronaut in space,
Or a mommy with a babe, or all of these.

Millie Millie no matter what you do
We'll be right by your side
To share it all with you.
Millie Millie look around you'll see
Nothing but faith and hope from friends and family.
You're gonna fight fight fight 'till the sun goes down
Fight fight fight for the whole year round
You're gone smile and hope and believe.

What is red if we have no green?
The blue without the orange means nothing.
The shadows violet haze
Cast from the burning golden rays.
How can you pick a favorite one
From all you've seen?

Millie Millie you'll always have a friend
Someone to pick you up and dust you off again.
Millie Millie look around you'll see
Nothing but faith and hope from friends and family.

(Chorus)

Tilt your head, look up to the sky
And in the starry night you'll see a satellite.
And you can touch it with your eyes,
And you can wish inside your heart,
And it will be your shooting star every night.

Giveaway Said the Little Blog

Remember my brother Jesse? The adorable graphic designer and musician with the enviable metabolism? Well, he just released a Christmas album that I've been listening to non-stop. It's got incredible energy, lyrics, and heart. It's casual and sophisticated, all at the same time. It's my new soundtrack. (If you like Sufjan Stevens, Bright Eyes, Tom Petty, or Dustin Kensrue, you will love it too.)

My favorite song, It's Christmas Again (listen to it here), is a cheery tribute to our childhood Christmases that made me cry the first time I heard it. One line includes a very specific memory: "Then we drive up the street to Brad and LaRue's / To see the Christ child and that Herod fink too." We had this incredible neighbor named Brad Pitts (serious!) who was much more Garrison Keillor than Brad Pitt, and I mean that in a good way. (I love Garrison Keillor much more than Brad Pitt.) 

Anyway, Brad Pitts was a teacher, a poet, and an artist. He hand-crafted an entire miniature hill-side town of Bethlehem with hundreds of carved streets, homes, businesses, merchant stands, alleys, animals, and hundreds of tiny characters to fill it. You wouldn't notice at first glance (and deliberately so, I'm sure) a small stable and the humble nativity. To say it was enchanting is a severe understatement. It was a Christmas tradition for my ginormous family swarm Brad and LaRue's home each year, usually on Christmas Eve, to marvel at the scene and read the nativity story together.

Every year the amazing display grew a little more, and every year Brad arranged things a little differently, so that each time we visited it was a new, mesmerizing experience. Our favorite thing to locate each year was a tiny piece of graffiti, scrawled on a hidden wall. It said, "HEROD IS A FINK!" and it made me and my siblings giggle like you can't believe at Bethlehem's riff-raff.

Jesse's band is aptly named Herod the Fink and he embroidered that sweater himself. (He's a graphic artist, a musician, and an embroiderer too!) 

Hot off the presses, I have five CDs to give away to five lucky readers. To enter, leave me a comment telling me a favorite childhood Christmas memory of yours. And if you tweet about this, you'll be entered twice; just let me know.

For the rest of you who want to buy this fabulous album, you can buy actual CDs from Jesse for $7 each, which includes shipping in the US. It makes a great holiday gift that can't be found anywhere else. Contact him at jvcrowley{at}gmail{dot}com. In the near future, they will be available to purchase and download. I'll keep you updated when that happens.

I'll accept entries until midnight on Friday, the 11th! Good luck and Merry Christmas, everybody!