A Very Barry Christmas

From 1998 to 2008, Marillion released annual Christmas CDs exclusively to members of their fan club, for free. Each one was different from the previous, but you could count on some cool unreleased music every year. Of the 11 Marillion Christmas CDs, I have physical copies of nine, and legal downloads of the others that I am missing (the first two).

A Very Barry Christmas

Sort of nice review. But thinking you don't really "get" Barry Manilow. The deep cuts are very worth it. He is an amazing arranger and his album 2AM Paradise Cafe is amazing...maybe you should take some time and check that out. ;)

Sort of nice review. But thinking you don't really "get" Barry Manilow. The deep cuts are very worth it. He is an amazing arranger and his album 2AM Paradise Cafe is amazing...maybe you should take some time and check that out. ;)

I feel no shame in telling you that this looks like a lot of fun. It's Barry Manilow, for crying out loud. He's just that guy who makes everybody smile; plus, how many times with Barry, now 78 years old, be coming to Denver?

Parents need to know that A Very Barry Christmas is an offbeat Christmas switcheroo set in the Australian outback that finds Santa trading places with some guy named Barry. It's a silly take on the behind-the-scenes effort required to pull off Christmas, with some good lessons about teamwork, problem solving, and sticking up for friends. There's some very minor peril -- a truck hangs precariously over a cliff -- and some gags and pratfalls, but it's all very cartoonish and injury-free.

Santa's on his way to deliver toys to all the boys and girls when a mishap sends him soaring out of his sled and a guy named Barry soaring up into the sky. Luckily, Barry looks just like St. Nick, and he agrees, with Mrs. Claus's help, to make sure Christmas still goes off without a hitch. But, along the way, there are loads of hitches and some surprises about just how much you can accomplish when everyone pitches in (plus a little help from Christmas magic).

BEYOND THE 7 DAY: If the forecast holds -- it appears a very strong cold front will drop from the north at the start of next week, bringing high wind speeds Monday with temperatures falling back down to the upper 50s to low 60s by NEXT Tuesday.

Have a very Barry Christmas!In this "hilarious" (USA Today) national bestseller, Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry pens one of the warmest, most delightful Christmas stories ever. The year is 1960, and the Christmas pageant at St. John?s Episcopal Church is a very big deal. Doug Barnes is a shepherd this year, which is better than being a Three King, because you get to carry a stick. There are problems, however. The girl he likes is playing Mary opposite a Joseph who is depressingly smart, athletic, and cute; the family dog is doing poorly, and they have no idea what they're going to tell Doug's little sister, Becky; and his dad's just gotten a flat tire, which means they might not even get to the pageant. But Christmas is a time of miracles. And for Doug and his family, this will be the most miraculous Christmas of all.

Barry: And every year I actually was in a pageant at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Armonk, N.Y., and this book is set at St. John's Episcopal Church in Asquont, N.Y. So really there's no connection at all. And ... there's a young man who is the narrator and is the same age I was back then.

Barry: Yeah, I was in a pageant at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church every year, and the woman who ran the pageant, the director, had actually been in the legitimate theater in New York City and was a very dramatic person who took the theater very seriously and wanted it to be a really first-class, Broadway-style pageant production.

The pageant is a really big deal at St. John's. On Christmas Eve, pretty much everybody goes to it, even the people who you never see at church. The pageant director is Mrs. Elkins, who's a tall, skinny lady with a lot of makeup whose hair is the exact same color as the orange part of a candy corn. She's been in charge of the pageant a LONG time. My dad says the first year she directed it, the part of the baby Jesus was played by the actual Baby Jesus.

Barry Manilow's unparalleled career encompasses virtually every area of music, including performing, composing, arranging and producing. A Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, Manilow has triumphed in every medium of entertainment. With worldwide record sales exceeding 85 million, Manilow is ranked as the top Adult Contemporary chart artist of all time.

"Every year around this time, I get phone calls from people telling me that the book is part of their family's Christmas tradition," the Newport resident said. "It's quite an unexpected and special experience to know that my story means so much to them."

"He came here for a book signing last year, and we're glad to have him again," said Barnes & Noble manager Melissa Carey. "He is a very popular Christmas time author, but it's especially nice to see him here because he has ties to this community." 041b061a72