Sister Hazel

Santa's Playlist (Rock Ridge Music)

Dec. 12, 2007

midnight

December 06, 2007

Every year, it seems like the artists who are least likely to release a holiday record are the ones who do exactly that (Twisted Sister, anyone?). And now you can add veteran acoustic jangle-rockers Sister Hazel to that list.

Recorded while touring in support of 2006's Absolutely, Santa's Playlist finds the outfit taking plenty of liberties with traditional classics. "White Christmas" settles into a warm reggae groove and "The Dreidel Song" enjoys a bluegrass twist. "It's A New Year (Just Get Along"), a Sister Hazel original, makes a plea for peace in the band's signature style, but the ill-conceived "Christmas Time Again" sullies the band's good name with an atrocious Barry White-meets-Beastie Boys arrangement. And while gathering band members' kids to sing "There's Something in the Air (At Christmas)" must have seemed like a cute idea at the time, it's not now. Most of these songs, though, will hold up to repeat holiday spins.

Sister Hazel will perform at the Northern Lights Theater at Potawatomi Bingo Casino on Dec. 7.D

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Every day we hear opinions repeated hundreds of ti...

Every day we hear opinions repeated hundreds of times, from NPR to CNN that just aren't true. Repeating things like "we just want to stop the rockets from being fired upon us" over and over minimize the complicated debate in this region to one that overwhelmingly frames the argument into an approved zionist propaganda framework, while ignoring pertinent facts.

Israel has been in violation of many previous UN agreements and was the first party to break the most recent negotiated peace. The Israeli hostilities are part of a continuing pattern of Zionist extremism, which fosters attacks upon anyone or country that disagrees with any of it's goals, especially involving the continued theft of land from Palestinians.

The worst part of these WAR CRIMES is that when we talk about Israeli policies, what we really should understand is that we are talking about American policies, because our tax dollars are going to Israel every day, in the form of billions of dollars annually.

If we want to stop terrorism, and win the "War on Terror" we should start by eliminating the American funding that is perpetuating these terrorist war crimes against Palestinians.

Of course I will be attacked by my Jewish friends for saying this as a anti-Semite. This is patently false. The most anti-semitic act anyone could do would be to use this smear to avoid relevant and rational thoughts and debate regarding a more positive future for the state of Israel, Palestine and the other countries of the region. To immediately label all critics of Zionist extremism as anti-semitic serves to continue to allow Zionists to never be faced with the true consequences of their actions, and called to justice for these war crimes.

Just like the children of abused parents enter into abusive relationships more, so the zionists are using the same murderous ethnic cleansing techniques against Palestinians that were used against them.

In order to stop the cycle of terrorism and murder, we must first have rationale international debate, one that sets aside the use of anti-semitic accusations as an excuse to avoid debating the true nature of the morality and ethics of murdering hundreds of civilians to achieve any political or military goals.

Paul Kneevers more than 15 years ago

Americans have become so used to the carnage of th...

Americans have become so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don't care any more – providing we don't offend the Israelis. As usual, the mainstream media portrays the bloodbath to be the fault of the Arabs – who, as we all know, only understand force.

Since 1972 the United States has stood alone vetoing over 40 resolutions sought by the United Nations against Israeli aggression and human rights violations.

Of the 760 or so Palestinians killed in this current conflict, according to Gaza health officials, at least half were civilians. When will this end? Isn't 60 years of injustice and oppression enough? The rest of the world sees it, protests it and meanwhile the US continues to give Israel billions of dollars in military aid to continue this autrocity.

Even an aid to Pope Benedict called Gaza "a big concentration camp". More than 300,000 people in Gaza have been detained and arrested by Israel, not for criminal but rather political activities. With 49 percent unemployment and malnutrition plaguing the children in Gaza, the literacy rate in Gaza remains high at 92 percent. The people of Gaza live in a population density of 8,000 people per square mile, the highest in the world. Half of the population of Gaza is refugees or descendants of refugees who were driven from their homes after the State of Israel was established in 1948.

Again I ask... hasn't this gone on long enough?

Thank you

Natasha Mansur-Ruf more than 15 years ago