Blog Posts by Lyndsey Parker

When I daydream about the holidays, many images besides the typical visions of sugarplums dance in my head. Like the touching moment in the Band Aid "Do They Know It's Christmas?" video when future has-beens Boy George, Paul Young, and Bananarama link arms and warble about starving Africans. Or the A Very Brady Christmas TV movie rerun that I insist on watching every year. Or the scene in the South Park Christmas special in which Jesus and Santa sing Duran Duran's "Rio" for no good reason. Or that other South Park scene when the kids stage an art-rocky school play minimally soundtracked by Philip Glass. Yep, these are fairly unusual, non-traditional Christmas memories...but hey, we all celebrate the season in our own way.

Which brings me to the Killers. One of the most festive-minded bands around, every year (even years when they've otherwise been on hiatus, like 2011), Brandon Flowers and his little helpers release a holiday single. And each year--much like Brandon himself, with his ever-changing facial hair and Bono complex--the output evolves. Their latest festive video is "The Cowboy's Christmas Ball," and it's certainly a reason to kick up your heels this holiday season.

The holiday songbook positively brims with not only classic Christmas singalongs, but newfangled Xmas hits by everyone from Wham! and Hall & Oates to Destiny's Child and Mariah Carey. But sadly for Jews at this supposedly most wonderful time of the year, Chanukah revelers have been stuck with a mere meager handful of celebratory pop songs: Adam Sandler's novelty tune (and Neil Diamond's superior cover), that potty-mouthed "South Park" song, and a cover of "The Dreidel Song" by Sacha Baron Cohen's brother. Yep, that was about it. Oy vey.

Until now, that is. Enter the Maccabeats, a Jewish collegiate a cappella group from Yeshiva University, who've recorded a new Chanukah hit for the modern age: a seasonal spoof of Taio Cruz's "Dynamite" titled "Candlelight."

The worst video of the yearThe going logic, as we near the end of the calendar year, is that Rebecca Black's "Friday" was the worst video of 2011. Heck, NME.com actually declared it the worst video OF ALL TIME. But we here at Yahoo! unearthed a few videos that actually made "Friday" (which, granted, did place pretty high on our 2011 Worst Videos list) look like Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" or Michael Jackson's "Thriller." And unlike young Rebecca, the artists behind those other terrible 2011 videos--actual adults--had no excuse. They were old enough to know better.

photo courtesy of the Trevor ProjectLast night, Season 8 "American Idol" winner Kris Allen performed live at the Trevor Project's fundraising event at Los Angeles's Hollywood Palladium, which was attended by Lady Gaga (who was honored with a Trevor Hero Award) and included performances by Mary J. Blige, Darren Criss, LeAnn Rimes, and Season 10 "Idol" finalist Stefano Langone. Kris, already well-kn0wn for his lovely "Hey Jude" finale number on the 2009 Idols Live Tour and "Let It Be" performance during Season 9's Idol Gives Back week, covered another Beatles-affiliated classic, John Lennon's "Imagine," for the star-studded crowd, and his choir-backed performance perfectly captured the spirit of the altruistic evening.

Hasidic reggae toaster Matisyahu has perhaps done more to promote awareness of Jews in rock than David Lee Roth and Perry Farrell combined. So we're actually surprised it took him this long to release his own original Chanukah tune. But he's finally done so, and it's an instant holiday classic. And the accompanying video is even funny enough to nearly put Adam Sandler's "Chanukah song" to shame.

Last night on the most heartbreaking and eyebrow-raising "X Factor" elimination episode yet, two of the show's youngest and most interesting contestants, Astro and Drew Ryniewicz, were sent home. Astro took the news surprisingly well (certainly better than he took the news when he was in the bottom two a couple weeks ago), and since he was the lowest vote-getter among the top seven and therefore automatically eliminated, no one could get too up in arms about this result. It was apparently what America wanted.

But Drew was another story.

Astro goes homeI suppose it was only a matter of time before Astro, aka the Astronomical Kid, got axed from "The X Factor," since he'd become the show's resident villain ever since his onstage tantrum on that notorious night when he was in the bottom two. Arrogance and swaggadocio may play well in the hip-hop game (see: West, Kanye), but not in a game like "The X Factor," in which America consistently roots for contestants who are sweet, humble, and eternally grateful (see: Not Astro). But I really didn't think Astro would go this week.

This week, "The X Factor" aired its top seven Michael Jackson Night, and for the most part it wasn't much of a thriller. Even Michael's own kids, sitting uncomfortably in the audience, looked like they were ready to shamon the heck out of there. To answer the musical Michael question "who's bad?"...well, that answer came in multiple parts. Quite a few contestants--even Rachel Crow, who'd once been compared by the judges to a young Michael--didn't quite deliver performances that'll go down in "X Factor" HIStory.

So who will beat it tonight, in yet another double elimination? Really, it could be anyone--anyone other than Melanie Amaro, that is, who was genuinely thrilling last night. Watch my Yahoo! colleague and fellow reality fan Matt Whitfield and I discuss last night's episode, and offer our predictions for tonight's big results, in the latest (quite controversial!) installment of "The Day After" above. And feel free to your own comments, complaints, and concerns on the message