I don't for a minute imagine that anyone perusing this blog, either by casually surfing over or dedicatedly following every word ever written here (as if), listened to every holiday song I posted back on Christmas day, but that's too bad, because you  might have missed one of my personal favorites, Maybe Next Year, a sultry yuletide murder balled performed by Meiko (listen for the God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen break):

I didn't know much (read: anything) about Meiko back on Christmas Day, except that her name rhymes with "Nico," that I liked Maybe Next Year a lot, and her voice reminded me a little of L.A.'s Anya Marina.  But I've since learned that she's actually a Georgia native (well, of course - does anyone outside of Georgia write yuletide murder ballads anymore?) and was working as a waitress as recently as 2008.  She finished that year with a critically-acclaimed, self-titled album and now lives in L.A. She has performed on Conan and something called The Bonnie Hunt Show, has appeared in the pages of the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and the now-defunct Paste Magazine, and has performed with the Crystal Method on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic:

The bad news (for me, at least) is that I missed her performance last night at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, Georgia, as I was otherwise occupied with Monday Night Zazen (not a bad alibi at all; probably the best of what one could be doing if one couldn't make it to Eddie's Attic).

I can start a whole rant about about touring musicians who've come through Atlanta on Monday nights when I can't hear them play. Upcoming cases in point include Grimes, coming to the Drunken Unicorn on Monday, March 5, and Neon Indian, appearing at the godforsaken Masquerade on Monday, March 19.  Now I can add Meiko to that list.

And that's the way life is.  Flowers, while cherished, fade, and weeds, though despised, etc.