Making Its Mark: Brand 33 at Aspen Lakes

The jazz world lost another from its diminishing ranks of giants last week: Canadian piano genius Oscar Peterson died two days before Christmas at age 82.
Growing up in a Montreal ghetto in the 1920s and '30s, Peterson started out playing the trumpet but switched to piano after a bout of tuberculosis. He was trained in classical technique by his father and sister and a prominent Montreal teacher, but was captivated by the sounds of the great jazz pianists of the era. (Later on he would say that two of his main influences were Art Tatum and Sergei Rachmaninov.)
In a career that spanned more than 60 years, Peterson collaborated with a list of artists that reads like a Who's Who of jazz - Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Louis Armstrong, Stephane Grappelli, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and many more. His recordings in the 1950s with the Oscar Peterson Trio (himself, bassman Ray Brown and guitarist Herb Ellis) are landmarks of the genre.
In his native country, Peterson was more than a musician - he was a national institution. He was showered with awards and honors, and at one point Prime Minister Jean Chretien offered him the position of lieutenant-governor of Ontario. (Peterson declined.) They even put him on a postage stamp.
A crippling stroke in 1993 sidelined Peterson for several years. Although he never regained his old form, he kept recording and performing up until last year, when his health began seriously deteriorating.
After his death tributes poured in from fellow musicians and scholars of jazz, including Dan Morgenstern, director of the Institute of Jazz at Rutgers University, who told the Washington Post: "Any pianist who came after Oscar Peterson would have had to look up to him as a model of all-around musicianship."
But we prefer the more succinct praise offered by Ray Charles in 2003: "Oscar Peterson is a m****r-f***ing piano player."

With the holiday season and the presidential campaign season in full swing (okay, the presidential campaign season has been in full swing for what feels like three years) it's time to rate the contenders' holiday ads.
Mike Huckabee: As "Silent Night" plays softly in background, the Arkansas governor says in honeyed tones: "Are you about worn out of [sic] all the television commercials you've been seeing, mostly about politics? I don't blame you. At this time of year sometimes it's nice to pull aside from all of that and just remember that what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ, and being with our family and our friends. I hope that you and your family will have a magnificent Christmas season, and on behalf of all of us, God bless, and Merry Christmas."
The spot has drawn flak for its heavy religious content, but Upfront respects Huck's sincerity and likes the warm and fuzzy tone. ★★★
Rudy Giuliani: The former New York mayor, in marked contrast to Huckabee, shoots for yucks - and misses. "There are many things I wish for this holiday season," says Giuliani, wearing a red sweater vest and sitting in front of a Christmas tree. "I wish for peace with strength. Secure borders. A government that spends less than it takes in. Lower taxes for our businesses and families. And I really hope that all of the presidential candidates can just get along."
"Ho, ho, ho, ho," chimes in a white-bearded Santa Claus. "I was with you right up until that last one. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho."
"Can't have everything!" Giuliani says.
Sorry, Rudy, Dave Letterman you ain't. Maybe it would've been funnier if you wore a dress. ★★
John Edwards: The former North Carolina senator takes a decidedly somber tone. Standing in front of Christmas tree in a rather dimly lighted set, he declaims: "One out of every four homeless people on our streets is a veteran. Thirty-seven million Americans live in poverty. Who speaks for them? We do. This is the season of miracles, of faith and love. So let us promise together: you will never be forgotten again. We see you, we hear you, and we will speak for you. In America, the chance to build a better life is a promise made to each of us, and the obligation to keep it rests with us all."
We like the populist message, but the delivery unfortunately is a snoozer. ★★★
Hillary Clinton: Even in a Christmas ad, the New York senator manages to come across as a boring policy wonk. Her ad shows a pair of hands putting cards on wrapped presents marked "Universal Health Care," "Alternative Energy," "Bring Our Troops Home" and "Middle Class Tax Breaks. Then Clinton says: "Where did I put universal pre-K? Ah, there it is. Happy Holidays." Sorry, Hill, this ad is tres lame. ★
Barack Obama: The Illinois senator's ad is the only real winner in the bunch. The whole Obama family is cozied up in front of a twinkling Christmas tree as Barack pronounces in his mellifluous baritone: "In this holiday season we are reminded that the things that unite us as a people are more powerful and enduring than anything that sets us apart. And we all have a stake in each other, in something larger than ourselves. So from my family to yours, I am Barack Obama and I approve this message."
"Merry Christmas!" says 9-year-old Malia. "Happy Holidays!" chirps 6-year-old Sasha.
The message manages to be inoffensive without being too bland, Obama covers all the bases by wishing people BOTH Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas, and you can't go wrong with two cute kids. ★★★★★

Bill Gates got a big lump of coal in his stocking this year from PC World magazine, which gave Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system the top spot on its list of "The 15 Biggest Tech Disappointments of 2007."
"Five years in the making and this is the best Microsoft could do?" the magazine mused. "It's not that Vista is awful. … It's just that Vista isn't all that good."
PC World's editors blasted Vista for being slower than its XP predecessor, for incompatibilities with earlier software and hardware, for its irritating security features and for its price tag – $399 for Vista Ultimate.
"No wonder so many users are clinging to XP like shipwrecked sailors to a life raft, while others who made the upgrade are switching back," the magazine wrote.
Despite all its shortcomings, the editors added, "We have no doubt Vista will come to dominate the PC landscape, if only because it will become increasingly hard to buy a new machine that doesn't have it pre-installed. And that's disappointing in its own right."
Megadittoes to that.
Some other prize Christmas turkeys on PC World's list:
#10 - Wireless Carriers. "Today's cell phone hardware is wildly innovative. … But innovative wireless service providers? Few and far between. Voice call quality still sucks, high-speed data networks are still scarce, and the companies still want too big a chunk of our wallets ($2.50 for a 20-second ring tone -exsqueeze me?). Worse, the inability to easily switch U.S. carriers but keep your phone is grating."
#9 - Microsoft Office 2007. "Many of us spent a decade learning how to use Microsoft Office. So now that we finally have it all down, Microsoft changes almost everything about the interface in 2007, and not for the better."
#8 - Apple's "Leopard" Operating System. "Maybe we just got spoiled by the iPod and iPhone, but the glow came off Steve Job's halo after this feline fleabag debuted."
#5 - The Apple iPhone. "… aside from minor flaws like a tiny touch keyboard and lack of Flash support, the phone itself is pretty terrific. But AT&T's broadband service? Definitely second-rate. And if you want to switch to a more reliable or faster carrier, you have to take your chances with the hackers."
#4 - Yahoo. " … there's one area where Yahoo can lay claim to being Number One: creating political prisoners. At least three times over the past five years, information supplied by Yahoo…has led to the incarceration of Chinese dissidents."
#2 - The High-Def Format War between Sony's Blu-Ray and Toshiba's HD-DVD technology. "Did we learn nothing from VHS vs. Betamax, CD-R vs. CD-RW, DVD-A vs. SACD, and so on down the line? At least the warring DVD camps worked out a compromise in the mid-90s that allowed everyone to profit from the new movie format (though it took them a while). Not so in HD land, where a take-no-prisoners attitude on both sides has left consumers cold. It will be a snowy day in Video Hell before we'll put our money down on either format."