Really? How can Christmas be coming so soon? Somehow seventeen seems closer than eighteen did — more than one day sooner. Thanks to all of you who are following the countdown; my readership has soared exponentially. Twenty is exponentially more than three, right?

One of my December guilty pleasures in the past two years has been The Sing-Off on NBC. Not only do we have Ohio’s own Nick Lachay (a graduate of Cincinnati’s Walnut Hills High School) as host, but I am privileged to be allowed to participate in the University of Rochester’s a cappella alumni chat room during the television broadcasts.  It’s fun to be snarky with people who have been performers and know what these contestants are going through. It’s also fun to laugh at the judges’ comments, although Ben Folds and Shawn Stockman have some respectable musical chops. I’m not so sure about Nicole Scherzinger. She looks pretty, though.

If you missed it, you can download the episodes online. Here’s episode one, where all the groups were introduced. I was hopeful for Eleventh Hour, high school kids from Kettering, Ohio, but they didn’t have the chops to compete with adults. Whoops, I gave you a spoiler. Sorry. One of the groups has a young woman who graduated from the middle school where I teach.  The Backbeats is a “supergroup” from southern California. Rachel is the one who’s turned sideways in the promotional photo. Awkward.

I hope you take some time to watch The Sing Off. These are real people, actually competing to win something that is meaningful to them — some money and a recording contract.That’s what I love about music — it’s the level plane in the world. If you’ve got it, people will recognize it.