The 10 Best and 10 Worst Rock Songs For The Holidays

The holiday season brings with it audacious light displays, massive crowds of shoppers, and some truly horrible music. Christmas music dates back to the fourth century, when Roman hitmakers like Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan churned out chart-toppers like Corde natus ex Parentis. Most of what we know of as Christmas carols are pretty recent, coming from the post-Reformation centuries 16-18. Pop stars began recording Christmas songs in the 1940s, and rock 'n' roll Christmas songs began to appear in the late 1950s. The top-20 success of Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift For You in 1963 ensured that rock artists would continue to use the holiday season as an easy sales gimmick, and that tradition continues to this day.

Healthy Eating for the Holidays

Now that the big eating holiday, Thanksgiving, has passed us by, we've got even more coming up in December. And with big holidays comes, always, parties that are chock-full of food, cocktails, and sweets. It's a nightmare if you're trying to watch your weight, or even if you just want to eat healthfully.Finding a vegetable can seem nearly impossible around these times, so what can you do to stay healthy in the next few months?

Matisyahu: Seeking Out Sparks

Much has been made of Matisyahu since he took clippers to his dangling beard and side-curls, 86’d the black fedora, and shockingly emerged from his Hasidic outer shell one year ago.Recent photos of the international hip hop reggae sensation now reveal a clean shaven, hip rocker, looking more like he came from a GQ photo shoot than the pages of a Roman Vishniac book about yeshivas in pre-war Poland. The artist’s brash identity makeover was initially unsettling to his die-hard fans who feared that it somehow would diminish the integrity of the music. Then, to the many others drawn more to Matisyahu’s beat-box, dancehall-toasting skills, his “get-up” were merely incidental to his appeal. And they were right.Now, just off a five month tour promoting his latest album, Spark Seeker with backing band The Dub Trio, he is about to take his annual Hanukkah celebration, “Festival of Light” on tour—eight dates of acoustic shows beginning at the Nob Hill Masonic Center in San Francisco on December 8th. We had the pleasure of talking to Matisyahu about music, transformation, and life after the beard.

2012 Los Angeles Auto Dispatch Three

This will be our final dispatch from the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show. We're tired, thirsty, and somewhat delirious. We thought we saw a heavenly oasis before, only to discover more miles of dull convention-center carpet and grey non-descript walls. We just can't go on anymore. Goodbye, cruel automotive world.

2012 L.A. Auto Show Dispatch One

The first morning of the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show has been a mix of the ridiculous and the sublime. The sublime comes from Mercedes' hot SLS AMG Black Series, while Hyundai provided the ridiculous with a singing rock n'roll family that made the Partridge family look good.

2012 L.A. Auto Show Dispatch Two

It's almost six o'clock Pacific time and we're mainlining coffee while plowing through a plate of pretzels as if we haven't eaten in days. Yep, the evening has arrived at the first media day at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show. Porsche unveiled the 2013 Cayman and the 2013 911 Carrera 4.

Shopping Etsy For Gifts

We've all got a friend or two who has just about everything they need/want. Buying gifts for them—birthday, Christmas, you name it—can be a pain as you struggle to find something that they won't immediately want to return. Enter Etsy, an online marketplace for homemade, artisan, and specialty goods and gifts. For nearly anyone on your list, this place has got something.

Behind The Scene at the LA Auto Show With Michael!

If you've ever wondered what it's like to attend the L.A. Auto Show during the press preview days, you're in luck. Our intreped PR man, Michael is in L.A. and sent us the following video dispatch. So now you, too can feel the excitement of being in an enormous convention center full of new cars and hungover auto journalists, all trying to think of interesting things to say about an event at which nothing really happens.

Tech Gifts to Fit Every Budget

You've probably got a tech lover on your shopping list this holiday season. And regardless of your budget, we've got great ideas for what you can get the tech fiend in your life. Without further ado, here's our picks for five different budget ranges.

"Milking" Is The Latest Online Stupidity

Have you ever read one of the dozens of think-pieces about the "millennial"generation? These insufferable articles appear every decade or so, and they always try to somehow ascribe a couple of defining characteristics to an entire group of people—usually involving how selfish or entitled they are—but they always seem to miss the point. One thing all of these articles fail to point out is the one thing that's true of millennials that wasn't true of any previous generation: they like to take pictures of themselves doing really stupid, pointless things and post them on the internet.

New sounds from Alicia Keys, Don Caballero, Robin Guthrie

The tryptophan-induced malaise has worn out and the mad rush to buy presents has commenced, so in the spirit of the holidays be sure and spend as much disposable income as possible to help jump-start our economy and ensure that workers in China continue to have job security. This season always brings with it a handful of new releases and a flurry of box sets, compilations, and reissues, and this week is no exception. So enough idle talk, let's get to the music.

2012 Los Angeles Auto Show Preview

Los Angeles will be the center of attention for the automotive industry this week as journalists, executives, and P.R. flacks descend on the Los Angeles Convention Center for the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show. There might even be a few C-list celebrities roaming around, given the proximity to Hollywood.

Have Your Lamp and Eat It Too

The last time we bought lamps, we chose them based on their height, how bright of a light bulb they could handle, and the color of their base. We did not, unsurprisingly, choose which lamp to buy based on flavor. But now, consumers who want to eat their home's light fixtures are in luck, however few they may be in numbers. Thanks to designer Victor Vetterlein, shoppers may be able to have their lamps and eat them too.

Facebook Updates Terms and Features, Users Freak Out Again

Over the long weekend, Facebook sent outa long-winded email full of Facebooky jargon ('data use policy,' 'instant personalization') and as with any other time Facebook has announced updates, the crowds went wild—with disapproval. Up until now, when Facebook made a change or was considering making one to the site, they took the issue to the masses and let users vote on whether they liked the idea. Now, however, they've decided to revoke the 'voting' aspect of the site.

Man, Online Shopping Is Just the Best

If you've not experienced the joy of coming home to a package waiting on your doorstep, um, well, HOW? Online shopping is so much better than regular shopping for so many reasons, we're almost surprised that brick-and-mortar stores do as well as they do (well, some of them, anyways). What's so great about it? Here's a non-exhaustive list of reasons why online shopping is so much better than getting in your car, driving to a store or the mall, searching all over for a parking lot, waiting in line, and driving back home. Well, reasons more than what we just listed.

Why Do We Have Auto Shows?

Auto-show season is upon us again, with the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show beginning next week. If you've ever wondered what the point of an auto show is, let us enlighten you. Auto shows are typically divided into public days and press days (although only four American auto shows are large enough to draw a national media contingent.

Hostess Vs. Little Debbie

Last week, snack food enthusiasts and lovers of too-sweet snack cakes sighed a deep sigh, as news broke that Hostess would be going out of business. Now, there's talk of a "mediation" that may save the brand, but that hasn't stopped people from hitting their local Wal-Marts, Targets, and grocery stores, scouring the shelves for those spongy, cream-filled delights.But what about the other brand out there that serves over-sugared snacks? Little Debbie? She's doing just fine. Here's what you can do when your beloved Twinkies are gone for good (if, in fact, that happens).

Don't Be An Idiom: Square Meal

You may have heard that this phrase came about from the British Navy's practice of serving meals on square plates, but although that was an actual practice, most linguists agree that it isn't the origin of the prhase "square meal." Instead, the word "square" relates to its alternate meaning as "fair, proper, or honest." Think of other phrases like "a square deal" or "fair and square."

Spotify For the Web

If you're a Spotify user at home and on your phone, and you'd like to use it at work or school but the computers don't allow downloading programs, you'll be excited to learn that the company is beginning to test out a web-based version of the program.

Fat Ducks Die, Chris Christie explodes, Jack Taylor scores.

Fat Ducks Die In Crash The cooking world is in mourning after two chefs from Heston Blumenthal's restaurant, The Fat Duck, were killed in a car crash in Hong Kong earlier this week. The two were killed when their taxi was crushed between two buses. Many top chefs, including David Chang, Tom Colicchio, and Thomas Keller, took to Twitter and Facebook to pay tribute to the two chefs.