It's not really Christmas until the Kinks play "Father Christmas," so let me help you get into the holiday spirit!

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Christine McVie.

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Exactly 20 years ago today I started work for Texas State University. It was a weird time for me. My family was living in Temple and I was staying in San Antonio and Austin. I'd worked the previous nine months for Prime Time Newspapers in San Antonio, which had the most ethically challenged, incompetent management I've ever had the misfortune of working for (and that's after leaving my previous job because of a terrible, terrible boss as well--honestly, I've had great bosses and bad bosses, so I know the difference. My bad ones outnumber the good ones 2:1. My luck is absolute crap in that department). They were terrible (the staff working there were great--it's just the management that was awful). Texas State offered me a lifeline, but there was a catch: Orientation only occurred once a month, so if I didn't start on the December date (10 days away) I'd have to wait until January. That meant spending another month working for those terrible people whilst making less money.

Oh, and because of the academic calendar, if I came to Texas State on December 16, I'd work four days then get two weeks off for the holidays. Paid. I hadn't had any kind of time off in two years at that point.

The decision was not difficult. The management at Prime Time called me all sorts of names, accused me of betrayal, being unprofessional and a litany of other insults because I had the nerve to give only 10 days notice rather than a full 14. I served my time then got the hell out of Dodge. And you know what? I soon found out that they sold one of the magazines I'd edited the following week. Those kind of deals don't happen overnight. It had been in the works for some time, and when it happened they'd planned to fire me and pass the other magazine on to one of the other editors there. I'd seen it before. Talk about a bunch of rat fink bastards.

I did not expect to spend the next 20 years at Texas State. The first 12 years were the best job I'd ever had. My coworkers were great, my supervisors were friendly and supportive. It was the best environment ever. Then there was a change in leadership, and suddenly I had another rat fink bastard making my life miserable. She was pathologically incapable of telling the truth, insisted she had expertise on everything (often with disastrous results) and believed good leadership meant firing someone every three months. And yes, I looked for a way out, but nothing ever quite worked out although I got very close to leaving a couple of times. Her bullying got so bad that I finally had to file a formal grievance, which despite dragging out almost two years, ended with her adopting a hands off policy on me. I enjoyed some well-earned schadenfreude when she pulled her shit on the wrong person and was escorted off campus by police earlier this year.

Now, I'm in a new division with new leadership and finally getting the staffing help that I've desperately needed for the past 8 years. I'm not quite ready to say things are back to being the greatest job ever, but at least they're trending that way. I will not be sticking around for another 20 at this point I suspect this is the final stop in my career as a media relations professional.

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Christine McVie died this week. No cause of death as been given beyond "a brief illness." This is somewhat shocking, as she always struck me at the one who would outlive all the other members of Fleetwood Mac.

Growing up in rural Texas, we listened to both kinds of music--country *and* western. When I reached junior high and high school and realized most of my peers were listening to other kinds of music (what is pop? what is rock? what is R&B?) I kinda flailed for a while. But then one day in 1984 I was watching Showtime (we didn't get HBO) and back then they used to have a "Take 5" segment filling dead air between movies where they'd run music videos (we didn't get MTV then, either). And what came on by the video to McVie's second solo single, "Love Will Show Us How." I was immediately captivated by the exceptionally silly video, which poked a lot of fun at the cliches of all those other videos, most of which I'd never seen. But what stayed with me was the velvety texture of her voice. I've never really heard any other singer who sounded like her. That led me to our local record store (we did have record stores in those days) and I came away with her album on cassette. It was melodic. It was lyrically engaging. It shared much in common with McVie's Fleetwood Mac work, except that it didn't have that creative tension to take it to the next level. But still, solid music. From there, I discovered Fleetwood Mac (naturally), Billy Joel, Sheena Easton, Aerosmith, Pink Floyd and my music obsession was born. But Christine McVie was my gateway drug, and for that I'll always be grateful.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Jane Wiedlin.

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Since I featured Belinda Carlisle here last week, it's only fitting that I follow up with her pixie-cut former bandmate, the effervescent Jane Weidlin. She had a fairly successful acting career after the Go-Go's broke up, so I suppose that's one reason she never put out much solo music. But when she did, it was fun stuff. Here's her first solo hit, the infectious and charming "Rush Hour."

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Belinda Carlisle.

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I saw Belinda Carlisle--former lead singer of the Go-Go's--perform in San Antonio last night. Her voice was in fine form and her moves were that of a 24-year-old, which belied her actual 64 years. It was a fun show, but just a few song in I was surprised to realize that she'd enojoyed far more hits as a solo artist than she ever did with the Go-Go's (yet she's still primarily thought of in relation to that group). This shouldn't have come as a surprise, since I remember the success of her solo career, but the brain gets set in its ways, does it not? So here's her first solo hit, "Mad About You," which came out the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school. This video marks a strong break from her Go-Go's image. She's very femme, painfully cute and impossibly young. Yes, that's Duran Duran's Andy Taylor playing guitar, and for my tikiphile friends out there the album she's messing with is Yma Sumac! I mean, you couldn't get more obscure in 1986 if you tried. And I still think they should've used this as the theme song to Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt's sitcom of the same name.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Stan Getz.

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Stan Getz is, without a doubt, amongst my favorite jazz musicians of all time. I first encountered his work, naturally enough, through his bossa nova collaborations, but that quickly led me to his cool jazz work and boy oh boy, did I learn I absolutely love cool jazz. A brilliant performer from a young age, he was plagued all his life by addiction. Despite this persistent millstone, the man's tallent was damn near limitless. Here's the man performing "Windows" with the Stan Getz Quartet at Montreaux back in 1972.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Juice Newton.

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In the early 1980s, Juice Newton absolutely dominated the airwaves. She had hit after hit, then all of the sudden she was gone. What happened to her? I'm not sure, but this video might offer a clue to her disappearance: "Love's Been a Little Bit Hard on Me."

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets.

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