{"id":12037,"date":"2016-12-15T16:57:32","date_gmt":"2016-12-15T21:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=12037"},"modified":"2016-12-15T16:57:32","modified_gmt":"2016-12-15T21:57:32","slug":"making-christmas-merry-with-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/making-christmas-merry-with-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Christmas Merry With Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Making Christmas Merry With Music<\/h1>\n

Disclaimer:<\/strong> The advice given herein was not checked by a lawyer. It was not checked with the copyright office. This tip is intended solely for the entertainment of you and your Christmas guests \u2013 not for anyone to make a profit. OK? I am not a wastrel. Are we straight?<\/em><\/p>\n

As more Christmases pass, there are fewer people attending my annual Christmas eve festivities.I\u2019ve gotten older. Really older. Time takes away the things you love: parents die, siblings die. friends die: life unfortunately is not eternal \u2013 at least not here upon the planet we call Earth. So, Christmas this year will not be like Christmas twenty years ago. My parents were here, my sister and brother in law were here, my business partner at the time was here, his girlfriend was here \u2013 all of them are now gone. \u00a0But life goes one, Obladi Oblada life goes on. Now both of my sons are grown and have families of their own. I have 2 wonderful grand kids, and one on the way. \u00a0So while we\u2019ve lost many, we\u2019ve gained many, and life goes on. Someday I\u2019ll be gone and my kids and grand kids and will carry on. Life is a circle, just like the seasons. So the loss by attrition is compensated by new arrivals. Well, not quite but somewhat.<\/p>\n

I digress.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve fallen behind on some of the new gadgets out there. I just discovered Bluetooth wireless speakers. Yes I know, they\u2019ve been around a long time I must admit, I once was a huge music fan, but I\u2019ve kind of lost interest in music \u2013 since the day the music died (when John Lennon was killed). But it\u2019s Christmas and I still like Christmas music. Every year we\u2019ve turned on the Yule Log on TV and listened to whatever the Yule Log station decided to serve up. Maybe that\u2019s why we listened to Peggy Lee\u2019s \u201cRockin\u2019 Around the Christmas Tree\u201d and \u201cI Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus\u201d five hundred times in one night. I exaggerate.<\/p>\n

This year I decided to buy some nice Bluetooth speakers, even though I\u2019ll probably only use them once a year (unless I want to scare the neighbors with elephant bellows on some soft summer night). But alas I had not one Christmas song on my computer \u2014 save for the old midis we used to use on our stationery (a really good one is hear<\/strong><\/a> \u2014 that\u2019s a pun \u2013 get it?). \u00a0What\u2019s a person do? I have computers; I have Bluetooth speakers, but I don\u2019t want to have to go out and buy 10 Christmas albums just to find my favorite Christmas songs.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I had the idea of watching YouTube videos of Christmas songs (you know like James Taylor singing \u201cHave Yourself a Merry Little Christmas\u201d or the aforementioned John Lennon\u2019s \u201cSo This is Christmas\u201d. How about Mannheim Steam Roller or \u00a0Trans Siberian Orchestra \u2013 they both have great Christmas\u00a0congeries.<\/p>\n

I have Bluetooth speakers not Bluetooth LED monitors. so all I needed was the music, sans video. In one hour, had a collection of \u00a020+ songs, which later, after listening, pared it down to 18 great songs and I might get more today as I think of them.<\/p>\n

So how\u2019d I do it? Easy. Type in the name of a Christmas song (I used Google) then when the search results appear, click \u201cVideos\u201d at the top, see?<\/p>\n

\"christmas-music\"<\/p>\n

As you can see John Lennon\u2019s \u201cAnd So This Is Christmas\u201d is added to my playlist (I used Windows Media Player to create this playlist, but you can use your favorite music player as long as it supports playlists \u2013 and I don\u2019t know any that don\u2019t.)<\/div>\n

See? In this case the video and link came up right away, but what if if it hadn\u2019t? Just click on Videos and you\u2019ll see all the videos there are of a particular song. Anyway, I choose the version\/video I want to covert to an MP3 music file, and copy the URL of the YouTube page. Then I head to\u00a0http:\/\/www.youtube-mp3.org\/<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and paste the URL (web address) into the form on the site.<\/p>\n

\"christmas-music1\"<\/p>\n

See. I just paste the URL into the form (as aboved) and click \u201cCovert Video\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"christmas-music2\"<\/p>\n

In less than a minute, the video is stripped from the audio and the audio is available to download as an MP3. So all you get is what you want \u2013 the Christmas music.<\/p>\n

Then I just add it to my growing play list of Christmas music\u2026<\/p>\n

\"christmas-music3\"<\/p>\n

I then added it to my music playlist and dragged it to the spot in the list where I wanted it. (I used Widnows Media Player to create this list, but you can use your favorite music player.) Now I\u2019m off to find more music. And this Christmas Eve, I will be in control of the music, no \u201cRockin\u2019 Around the Christmas Tree\u201d five hundred times for me, sorry Peggy Lee. Just for you I might play it once or twice, Peggy.<\/p>\n

Now go forth and build your own playlist of your favorite Christmas songs. I\u2019m off to have a Christmas Bowl. (NO EB! I\u2019m not going bowling \u2013 don\u2019t you know what a Christmas Bowl is?).<\/p>\n

\u201cA merry Christmas, Bob!\u201d said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. \u201cA merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you, for many a year! I\u2019ll raise your salary, and endeavor to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl<\/strong> of smoking bishop, Bob!\u201d (\u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d by Charles Dickens)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Making Christmas Merry With Music Disclaimer: The advice given herein was not checked by a lawyer. It was not checked with the copyright office. This tip is intended solely for the entertainment of you and your Christmas guests \u2013 not for anyone to make a profit. OK? I am not a wastrel. Are we straight? As more Christmases\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1462,151,1433],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12037"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12038,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12037\/revisions\/12038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}