rus vanwestervelt

There are many, many versions of this song, and before Zooey Deschanel and Leon Redbone cut their version for the Elf soundtrack, I didn’t like any of them. They were too fast, too slow, or worse — too peppy and cute. The Deschanel/Redbone cut is, by far, the perfect combination of silk and jazz that [...]

When this song was released in 1997 and first played on the radio, I knew immediately that it was Sarah McLachlan singing with the Barenaked Ladies. Two great artists had come together for this rather spontaneous taping of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, and the 1990s instantly had a contemporary classic to call all their [...]

I have to begin by saying that this song, “Jingle Bells,” is probably one of my least favorite holiday songs, simply because it’s been done so many times, yet there there are only so many ways that it can be interpreted (even barking dogs doing the song did not improve its merit with me). Still, [...]

Let us turn, now, to the lighter side of the holidays here in good ol’ bawl’more. There’s nothing like making a little fun of yourself from time to time, and Baltimoreans have plenty of provincial ways that make us, well, “unique” from other states across the country. This song seems to capture all of the [...]

And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, a side of me few know… In July of 1988, I was living with two paramedics on a small patch of farmland close to the school where I was beginning my teaching career. I had just finished my first year and, only one month into the summer, found that I [...]

When I was only six (just a year older than the picture of me above, when I waited patiently for my school bus to arrive for kindergarten), my sister begged my father for a puppy. She knew a family in the neighborhood whose dog had just had a littler of Peek-A-Poos, and there was nothing [...]