All alone at Christmas time

I once saw Aimee Mann and Michael Penn perform this, but I can't remember if it was on one of their Acoustic Vaudeville tours or one of Aimee Mann's Christmas shows that she did for a few years straight. It had to be an AV show. It was originally recorded for Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight, which I believe was scored by Michael Penn and Jon Brion. Anderson later wrote the screenplay for the film, Magnolia, based, in part, upon hearing Aimee Mann's Deathly, which would also be featured on the soundtrack. In any case, it's a cool song; kinda bittersweet, by a couple of my favorite musicians.

Aimee Mann & Michael Penn - Christmastime

The Count of Pennsylvania

Hey, kids! Rejoice, for there has been a Michael Penn sighting! This video was just posted a few days ago, hopefully an album will follow soon. I love the line about a mob being a democracy, he always has a way with a phrase.

What did you wish for?

I can't believe it's practically mid-December already. WTF? Like, where did the time go? I need to sort out some gift shopping post haste. Seeing as how I just caught the Third Annual version of Aimee Mann's Christmas Show, I thought I'd kick off a little Christmas love with this gem. A long time ago, I was on an Aimee Mann listserv, and I traded with someone to get a couple of then-bootleg collections, Attack of the Killer B-Sides and Return of the Killer B-Sides. I'm not exactly sure where else you can find this track, the Return disc is where I got mine. It's written by Michael Penn (aka Mister Aimee Mann, to the uninitiated) and he duets with Aimee on this as well.

Aimee Mann & Michael Penn > Christmas Time

Every good thing I had...abandoned me

I was watching House tonight. I've never really seen it before last week (and that was an accident), and that episode was pretty cool, so I thought I'd check out this week's episode. Funny thing is, the company that employs me has a House online store (don't worry, you don't have to buy anything). I've just never bothered to check out the show. In any case, I thought that tonight's episode was pretty good (the main plot was a couple of high school sweethearts who turned out to be half-brother/half-sister because the boy's father had had an affair with the woman next door), but the icing on the cake was that Michael Penn's Walter Reed played at the end of the show. It was a pretty good musical moment; House was being arrested in retaliation for his disrespectful treating of a patient (who happened to be a cop) while Penn is singing, "Every good thing I had, abandoned me." Man, I fucking love that line.

Grab this track from Penn's woefully underrated album, Mr. Hollywood Jr. 1948, and check out other tracks here.

Michael Penn > Walter Reed