December 2025

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Patrick (traditional Catmis Song)

December 18, 2025December 18, 2025by Stephen J Frankenberry1 Comment

In a recent Facebook post of a bit of good news on my front and amid a number of replies I got one from an old friend Linda, who, after commenting on said post, added that her husband has been singing “one of my greatest hits” recently and I immediately realized that, shit, I’m a bit late on reposting this “one of my greatest hits” that Linda’s husband has been singing!

Now, the one of my greatest hits?

(I do quite a lot of parody and other tunes, for those who don’t know, but often of the angered, political I can’t believe I live in such a brain dead deaf dumb and blind rain of dipshit in the daily forecast world kinda way)

Said greatest hit is a Christmas tune about their cat Patrick that I will be posting now, all holiday tradition-like, for the fourth year in a row.

Quick history:

Linda posts picture of cat Patrick next to Christmas ornaments four Christmas’s ago with the caption “It’s beginning to look a lot like Patrick”
– I see post and immediately start singing, in my head, the beginning of “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” except with cat Patrick instead and then can’t stop until I’ve written new, Patrick-centric, cat-centric lyrics for the whole thing. I then respond to Linda with “Ok, so you do know that dropping “It’s beginning to look a lot like Patrick” is like dropping a gauntlet full of beer and cat nip to a to a crazy cat lady guy who likes to do this sort of thing right?” followed by posting the new lyrics and Bing Crosby’s video of the actual song for her to follow along with
Linda is happy. Responds with a “Wow”, an “AWESOME”, a number of exclamation points and even a Wayne and Garth “We are not worthy!” GIF
I am happy … for like 5 minutes knowing I’m not done, can’t be done. I search out an instrumental of “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” and take that with me into my studio at work and then send home the pieces to mix with maybe a little Christmas production magic
Four years later Linda’s husband is singing the tune during the season in anticipation and Linda is also telling me that Patrick (and his tail Sebastian – apparently it is its own being entirely) are also waiting

it’s fun, it’s catly and it’s Christmasy.

Nuff said.

Cheers to you Patrick (and Sebastian) as always, you damn good looking Christmas cat.

‘Tis the season Patrick.

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Patrick

It’s beginning to look a lot like Patrick

Everywhere Pat goes

Take a look in his snug cat bed laying his Patrick head

With maybe a mouse or two under his toes

It’s beginning to look a lot like Patrick

Fur on every rug

Till the monster is need brought out

To suck away all hair’s clout

While Patrick runs no doubt

An extra can can of food or some cat nip for mood

Is his wish as any cat would

Ball with a bell and a knock it to hell

Is new wish across some hardwood

And Mom and Dad do funny dance to not step on cat’s pants

It’s beginning to look a lot like Patrick

Everywhere Pat goes

There’s a tree that is soon to rise

Each branch a new cat prize

The hanging kind just waiting for a fall

It’s beginning to look a lot like Patrick

Snoozing underneath

And what brings that slumber best

Are the lights not put to test

With Christmas cats now at rest

(break)

It’s beginning to look a lot like Patrick

Runnin’ cross the floor

To every cat’s Christmas dream

And the presents that will be

Box torn paper all a-skew

Sure it’s Patrick once more … time to puke, time to puke it’s Patrick’s time to puke.

mmm … mmm

Shared

December 17, 2025December 17, 2025by Stephen J Frankenberry3 Comments

New Quadrille prompt at dVerse Poets this week, and one more for the year, this one from Mish and the word here is “Hibernate”

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Shared

Cricket the Cat can trouble

sleep

too with me

not sure which causes the other

if at all

possibly

blind antsy cat angst

or my equal dreading closed eye finds

shared

only to hold her to my chest

to hibernate together

closer

in kind

The Holiday Postcard Tableau (poem)

December 14, 2025December 14, 2025by Stephen J Frankenberry2 Comments

The prompt this time here was from Laura and of a tableau.

And our tableau has a fixed poetry style entitled The Tableau – created by Emily Romano in October of 2008

Poetry Style:

1 or more verses
6 lines per verse
5 beats/syllables per line

Poetry Rules:

title should contain the word ‘tableau’
poem should aim to be pictorial
no rhyme scheme

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The Holiday Postcard Tableau

Everyone cheesed

with wide Cheshire grins

I poked a finger

in sister’s shoulder

from back of the car

in a living room

Mom glared with a wink

pushing us to one

together with hands

directing movie’s

still photos to spend

just the right moment

One to send to Aunts

or friends reconnect

once a year to see

in perfect sweaters

or even a tie

with broad smiles us we

It’s tall mantle framed

for a cat to skirt

ginger steps ’round smiles

for aunts miles away

to remind us that

we had such a day

Sweat Pants (poem)

December 11, 2025December 13, 2025by Stephen J Frankenberry6 Comments

Lillian had a prompt at dVerse Poets earlier this week titled “Come Sew With Me … Sort Of …” where she gave a wonderful little glimpse into some of her life’s days and her family and how a great deal of these days were impacted by her sewing machine.

Her prompt then, in relation to that (in the above link), was to ask folks to write a poem that incorporates one or more of the sewing terms she listed in said link.

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Sweat Pants

Years have longed me

to try and seem even a glimpse of

pant seams unstretched

back to

younger ones

before I longed

older years to be more like those

maybe if I start walking

with intent

sit up more than just sitting up

being victory enough

of still breathing we talk

joke

but so buttonholes on jeans won’t mock

my pinch-skin attempts

tell me they won’t tell if I don’t of an open ease hid with a belt

and legs won’t need hemmed or folded

recall (ing)

when I was tall (er)

two inches closer to the clouds

above now that made me more of a looker

I’m sure

in those younger years

but adjust then to these older ones

instead

and think,

well

who don’t like sweat pants?

Some Tunes ‘n That (song links compiled in one, easy convenient post)

December 7, 2025December 13, 2025by Stephen J Frankenberry2 Comments

Note: How to overwrite taking a day off.

Once a month comes once a month, it’s pretty regular as once a months go, as long as calendars don’t try to fuck with me and suddenly change cats out of time on my wall … (hey wait, when the hell did that meowing tabby suddenly turn into a yawning gray long hair?) but once a month means that I am takin’ Monday off. And when I do, take this once monthly, it can sometimes involve a new “tune” …

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000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000k,lb;l;l;l;l;lpppppppppppppppppppppppppppp(L8kd

(sorry, that was Cricket in case you were curious, always reminding that she is a part of this process, blind keyboard stepping right through, though her singing voice definitely can leave a bit to be desired … but so with ya on the solitary 7 my friend … I know huh? Nope, don’t get me started)

… and when that is the case, a new tune, I will take my time that often then involves me working said tune, though it has been a little while for this as we live in dire times, free thought not really being all that much of a thing these days so you must be careful, but I will work it.

Well I did work a new thing this Friday and with that, that new tune I thought, as I have done before, to put a few things into one easy, convenient post as once I am in song mode I am just there.

So, with links to their posts, I boogie woogie here, I channel Bob Dylan, there’s a new one with a big top soundtrack, I lament the white supremacy that seems to, so sadly, be a thing these days, from the top on down, I Cheap trick some need to conform, I rail on tax cuts ala the Beatles, and the always GOP minority rule via Tears for Fears.

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God Made Trump – God: “Yeah, That Was In Error” (boogie woogie song revision)

A breathless boogie woogie thing

“Boogie Party” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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Gonna Wanna Rule Somebody

(To Bob Dylan’s Gotta Serve Somebody)

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Trump Circus Two

(to a little circus sounding bed with “circus” being most apropos these days)

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One White Leads To Another

(To The Fixx “One Thing Leads To Another”)

White supremacy, proud virtue of this administration

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We Want You To Be We

(to Cheap Trick’s “I Want You To Want Me”)

To the GOP who feel they’re somehow being persecuted in their beliefs by not be allowed to dictate how everyone else lives

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Baby, it’s a Tax Scam

(to the Beatles “Baby You’re A Rich Man”)

Yeah, this one is obvious

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Minority Rule

(to Tears For Fears “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”)

Popcorn anyone?

Trump Circus Two (song)

December 6, 2025December 12, 2025by Stephen J Frankenberry3 Comments

I’ve written of this before (so feel free to heavy sigh and skip off now while you can) but one of the main tools for me in my job (I’m a production guy) is a production music site I use on an almost daily basis to find music beds for commercials that I will maybe voice or, if not, still produce.

But in my searching, though, for a tune that seems to work for whatever spot is at hand I will come across beds that I like, beds that I can even think that I might like to write some lyrics to and have a bit of fun with at another time, something I have done on occasion because Hey? Who don’t imagine themselves to possibly be a rock star right? I know, that’s silly but still, for me, it’s always been just another avenue for creating and also to do that bit of rock star wannabe “singing” (“singing” definitely in quotes here but, being a production guy, I can work a little magic on the me sing end).

But, if you know this me here in said Attic, you also know that I have done quite a lot of parody tunes over the last 8 or so years, “parody” in name only though as they ain’t silly, mostly those of a political type to try and get some genuinely angry angers and frustrations out and make needed points (and lord knows there are a lot of those and needs of such, especially now) as, years ago, I realized, no matter how well written or compelling a straight up opinion piece of mine might be no one was ever going to read it. Period. Not even me back to me.

But? If I put it to a tune? Well …

So then to this and the updates …

A couple of years ago I came across this music bed that had a real carnival, circus kind of feel to it and well, Carnival? Circus? Yeah, that feel worked pretty well for anything GOP then or now (always does) and James Comer specifically and his fruitless investigations into the Biden Crime Family Syndicate, and his needed distraction from true crime family syndicates.

I then revisited it earlier this year as, with this administration, Circus never really goes out of style.

And then to a now, another revisit …