A Sweet Unrest

Happy New Year

My traditional New Year's wish - a fancy dress, a lovely song.  

Happy Happy 2012 

Rufus Wainwright - What Are You Doing New Year's Eve

Merry Christmas

Late one night last week I found myself huddled around a tiny fireplace with handful of friends singing Christmas carols, accompanied by a sweet fellow playing ukulele.  It was unexpected and lovely.  When I got home I had the irresistible urge to let the tropical breezes waft through my Christmas playlist, and so here we are.  This isn't ukulele but another Hawaiian specialty, slack key guitar, and I think it gives the traditional carols an easy island warmth.

Dwight Tokumoto - Away in a Manger

Merry Christmas to my imaginary yet immeasurably dear friends.

It was the winter solstice

Aneurysm by Kate Clanchy

When my father heard his friend 
was dead, we sat a while and talked
of traffic: how cars clog
each by-way now, every road
you think you know.  We were quiet,
and I lit the lamp.  I thought

I could hear the cars outside,
bashing, lowing, rank on rank.
There'd been a crash, my father said,
and his friend had walked out,
shaken, saved.  It was hours
before the blood-clot got him.

I held my son on my lap.  It was
dark, it was the winter solstice.
We said there is no such thing
as the right route or a clear passage
no matter where you start,
or how you plan it. 

The glassy boys, the bursting girls

One of my favorite things this time of year is Desk Set, which isn't I think so much a Christmas film as a film set at Christmastime.  It's one of the few films to portray librarians not as dowdy ssshhing buzzkillers but as regular, smart working girls and I've always loved it for that as much as for the sparring between Hepburn and Tracy which is so wonderful it's almost a let down when they inevitably kiss and make nice at the end.  

(not really related but speaking of Christmas films, this made me laugh)

This kind of evokes the Desk Set era though I think it may have been written earlier.

Office Party by Phyllis McGinley

This holy night in open forum
     Miss Mcintosh, who handles Files,
Has lost one shoe and her decorum.
     Stately, the frozen chairman smiles

On Media, desperately vocal.
     Credit, though they have lost their hopes
Of edging toward an early Local,
     Finger their bonus envelopes.

The glassy boys, the bursting girls
    Of Copy, start a Conga clatter
To a swung carol.  Limply curls
     The final sandwich on the platter

Till hark!  a herald Messenger
     (Room 414) lifts loudly up
His quavering tenor.  Salesmen stir
     Libation for his Lily cup.

"Noel," he pipes, "Noel, Noel."
     Some wag beats tempo with a ruler.
And the plump blonde from Personnel
     Collapses by the water cooler. 

 

I remember the December sky

I got some very nice mail yesterday.  My hero The Vinyl Villain sent me shirt from the Roddy Frame gig he attended back in October, along with his ticket stub from the night!   It isn't the first time he has done something so kind for me, and I know I am far from the only person on the interwebs to benefit from his big heart and thoughtful nature.  He's one in a million.

Here's a clip from that show with some chat and a new song-

And here's the review Drew from Across The Kitchen Table wrote.

And lastly yet another one of his perfect songs, it's seasonal without being Christmasy.

Roddy Frame - Crossing Newbury Street

Thank you so much JC.