It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

 

Ah, July...Julius Caesar picked a good one to name after himself.  It starts with Independence Day, my second favorite holiday with all the fireworks and barbeques that go with it, but what makes it REALLY wonderful is that it combines a full month of summer concerts with the greatest of all TV events: "Christmas in July" on Hallmark. Did I mention that Christmas is my most favorite holiday?

Wingman didn't like Christmas, but he did love music and I've spent the last dozen years enjoying both by myself.  Last week, after seeing three bands in four days  I realized that musicians, just like Hallmark actors, are quite interchangeable in their roles.

Take that female lead actress who has been everything Christmas from an aspiring gingerbread house maker, to a fashion designer who makes costumes for her daughter's school, to a seamstress who falls in love with a prince. She is no different from the girl group singer harmonizing 60's music on Wednesday, being lead singer in a Motown band on Thursday and backing up a NJ Hall of Famer on Saturday.

Or the guy who has been a fireman with an abandoned Christmas baby, a corporate recovery agent for a candy cane company and the photographer whose wife forgets who he is when she falls off a ladder decorating their tree. Wingman played bass in a band that formed right after I met him with a guitarist who went on to play with that same female group singer I just mentioned, as well as in a pickup group with The Boss and with Bon Jovi's house band.

Hallmark put out 42 Christmas movies in 2023, and the best of their entire lineup is replayed this month.  "The Christmas Card" from 2006 set them on the holiday map and remains one of my favorites to this day.  Like the man I heard for the first time last Thursday singing spot-on James Taylor, the two lead actors aren't in the "star" rotation which makes them, I don't know, maybe more believable. Meanwhile, the supporting actor playing the dad in the movie I recognized from other films as a newspaperman and Santa Claus. Instead of totally immersing myself in Sweet Baby James, I found myself distracted trying to remember where I last heard the guitarist (with the Motown band) and the saxophonist (playing with another Boss/JBJ guitarist).

One of my six New Year's resolutions in 2024 was to see 52 live music performances in 52 weeks. This is week 29, and I've already seen 35 including a bunch of bar bands, a broadway musical, a college choral group, the NJ Symphony and the US Army band, as well as three major rock and roll concerts. I've seen a few of my favorites more than once, and they play a song for me that Wingman was trying to learn before he died. In but four short months I will at last be retired (more to come on that later) and back to volunteering with the holiday charity I love so much.  Just like the Hallmark movies that will be on 24/7 from the beginning of November, I'll be singing Christmas carols at each event with different "star" musicians, most who I recognize but don't really know (you know-this event is with the drummer, who played with that bass guy last month who had the girl lead singer who does Carol King). And our supporting team will be just as valuable-we'll be in the background handing out meals and hugs, providing warm clothing to those in need, dancing with clients, and making each event a memorable time.

And while I can't sing to save my life,  at many of them I'll put on  a costume as Rudolph, Frosty, Cookie Monster or Elmo, hug a child and be a star in their eyes.