December is the month when I start seriously training for the 3M Half Marathon, which is held at the end of January. That means getting up every morning at 6am to go running in the dark. While I am running, I like to listen to my favorite Christmas songs on my ipod. Here is what I am listening to.
1. Christmas Eve and Other Stories, The Trans-Siberian Orchestra (1996)
2. The Christmas Attic, The Trans-Siberian Orchestra (1998)
3. The Lost Christmas Eve, The Trans-Siberian Orchestra (2004)
I discovered the Trans-Siberian Orchestra by accident. I saw The Christmas Attic in a supermarket check out line and picked it up because it looked interesting. Since then, TSO has become a favorite part of my holiday celebration leading up to their annual concert in Austin.
The Trans-Siberian Orchestra has become a big phenomenon now, but their origins are obscure. They grew out of a heavy metal band called Savatage which tended to release concept albums. One of these, Dead Winter Dead, was about the civil war in Bosnia. It included a track called Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24), which was inspired by the story of a lone cellist playing Christmas music in the bombed out ruins of the city. The song combines elements of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Carol of the Bells in an almost martial fusion. The popularity of this one song led them to form a band which would bring together many different vocalists to perform an album of Christmas music. To date, they have released three Christmas albums, as well as the rock opera, Beethoven's Last Night.
TSO is a perfect fit for someone like me who grew up in the 1970s listening to bands like Kansas, Emerson, Lake and Palmer and the Moody Blues. Their music combines elements of heavy metal with classical music and traditional Christmas carols. Thus, it is both familiar and new.
Each album tells a story of loss and redemption at Christmas. Thus, in Christmas Eve and Other Stories, an angel hears the prayer of a father whose daughter has run away. With the help of the patrons of a neighborhood bar, the girl is returned to her family. In the Christmas Attic, a girl sifting through a trunk of Christmas memories learns the story of a successful business man who had drifted away from the one person he had loved. Finally, the Lost Christmas Eve is about a father who became bitter when his wife died in child birth and their son was born with severe brain damage. He gives the son up to an institution, but many years later on Christmas eve, he is drawn to find him again. He is surprised to find his son working in the neontal intensive care unit of a hospital rocking babies born to drug-addicted mothers to sleep. Finally, the bitter man sees the face of Jesus in his own son whom he had abandoned.
The music in these three albums ranges from whimsical to familiar to powerful. Some of my favorites are: "A Mad Russian's Christmas" (adapted from the Nutcracker), "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24," "Christmas Canon," "Wizards in Winter," "Queen of the Winter Night" (taken from Mozart) and "Wish Liszt" (obviously taken from Liszt). The songs can also be very throught-provoking. In "What Child is This?," the traditional carol is re-written in the context of a father who re-discovers his abandoned child and sees the face of Jesus in him. "This Christmas Day" asks the question "Are prayers just wishes in disguise?" before answering in the negative.
I come back to these songs time and time again because of the sheer artistry of the music, the depth of the music and the hope which shines throughout them.
4. Final Christmas of the 1990s, Ruslana (1999)
While the Trans-Siberian Orchestra may be popular in the United States, Ruslana is just as popular in Ukraine. We have friends in Ukraine, which is how I stumbled upon this beautiful record. There is something enchanting about hearing the familiar songs of Christmas sung in another language (in this case Ukrainian, with a little Latin thrown in). Hearing the songs through the filter of another tongue helps to show the universal quality of the songs and their message. Among the songs included are "Silent Night" and "Joy to the World" (which is translated as "Let the World Exalt." My favorite song is "Dobry Vechir Tobi," which is a traditional Ukrainian carol. The song starts out with a simple guitar and flute accompaniment, picks up the tempo when the drums kick in, then finishes with a chorus of voices singing with a pipe organ.
5. We Three Kings, The Roches (1994)
This album answers the biblical question, "Can anything good come from New Jersey?" The Roches are three sisters who sing together. This collection of Christmas carols is very enjoyable. The vocals are heavenly except for "Frosty the Snowman" when they intentionally let their native accents loose.
6. The Lost and Found Christmas Album, Lost and Found (1998)
Lost and Found is the first Lutheran super-group. They call their musical style speedwood, which is to say that it is acoustical music played in a speed metal fashion, although the raucous piano riffs are closer to boogie-woogie or blues. This is a raw, spontaneous collection of songs, described as what you would hear if you went caroling with the members of the group. Most of the songs on this album are traditional Christmas music played with non-traditional abandon. This is music for people who like to sing a little louder than usual and don't mind being slightly off-key on Christmas eve.
7. The Greatest Christmas Novelty CD of All Time, Dr. Demento (1989)
This is just plain silly--and if it's silly, it's on this CD. This covers the classics from "Grandma Got Run Over by a Raindeer" to "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth." It also contains some understandably obscure tunes, such as "Christmas at Ground Zero" and "Santa Claus and His Old Lady."
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Saturday, December 8, 2007
December in Austin
Austin is an unusual town. It is a very secular city; however, it loves Christmas. One part of the city's Christmas festivities is the Trail of Lights, a lighting spectacular which would make Clark Griswold blush. For the past ten years, the Trail of Lights has been inaugurated with a 5k footrace on the first night that it is open. This is appropriate because Austin leads the nation (perhaps the world) in most running events with over 1,000 participants. Because the Trail of Lights 5k is held in December, the race packet features a long sleeved tshirt to guard against the cold. This year, those who wore the official race tshirt were in for some heavy duty sweating. At race time (6:30 p.m.), the temperature was a very warm 81 degrees. A few days earlier, it had been 37. The cold snap earlier in the week had caused the leaves to leave the trees in prodigious quantities. As a result, we had winter, fall and summer all in the space of one week.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
My Favorite Christmas Stories
Christmas is one of the two main stories of the Christian faith. A story can convey an important truth more vividly than an explication of doctrine. As the story is told, sometimes it takes on new meanings. The central meaning of the Christmas story is captured in the word "Emmanuel," meaning "God With Us." At Christmas, God bridges the gap between heaven and earth by becoming human. This story has elements of sacrifice, giving, redemption and new beginnings all tied into one package.
For me, one of the great joys of the Advent season of preparation is watching the stories of Christmas. My favorites generally take two forms. First, there are the cartoons from the 60s that I grew up with. Second, there are more recent movies which often take a skewed perspective on the holiday. One theme which carries across both the older and the newer stories is our failure to get it right. It seems that we need stories to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas.
Here are some of my favorites:
Cartoons:
1. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965). This is one of the very few modern Christmas stories which directly mentions the religious meaning of Christmas. Poor Charlie Brown sees the Christmas season as just another opportunity to be reminded that people don't really like him that much. This feeling is only reinforced when he is asked to direct the Christmas play. Despite his best efforts to execute the script, the cast always breaks into dancing instead. When he is sent to buy a Christmas tree, he adopts a scraggly tree which loses most of its needles instead of the shiny aluminum tree that Lucy told him to get. Finally, in exasperation, he asks what Christmas is all about. The ever-composed Linus recites the Christmas account from Luke. The show ends with the cast singing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and yelling "Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!"
While the commercialization of Christmas is a common theme, this show doesn't pull any punches. It doesn't back away from the anti-commercial religious meaning of Christmas. I think we all need a Charlie Brown to ask the question "Can anyone tell me what Christmas is all about?" We know the answer, but sometimes, we need to be reminded.
2. The Little Drummer Boy (1968). This is a tough one. On the one hand, it's hard to resist a story which starts with the words "Aaron hated people." One the other hand, the song is kind of sickly sweet and maudlin. This is a very intense story for a G-rated cartoon. It is about a boy who sees his family killed by bandits and barely escapes with his life. Later, he is taken captive by greedy desert players who want to exploit his unique ability to make animals dance to his music. Finally, at the height of his misery and contempt for murderous humanity, his lamb is run over by a Roman chariot. This sets the stage for his encounter with the baby Jesus. Putting aside his anger, hate and bitterness, he performs the title song for the baby and his lamb is healed.
This Christmas story is unique because it actually involves Jesus as part of Christmas. While it relies on a Deux ex Machina ending to make everything right, that is really the point of the whole story. At Christmas, God becomes present in our lives and we are changed. For a simple cartoon, this one packs a strong message.
3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966). This fable about the commercialization of Christmas is so well-known as to require little discussion. In short, the small-hearted grinch tries to stop Christmas from coming by stealing everyone's presents and taking them to the top of Mount Crumpet to dump it. Instead of calling in the SWAT team (see National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation below) and putting out an APB, the citizens of Whoville join hands and sing. The grinch muses that "It came without packages, boxes or bags." (A grinch could add that it came without baby Jesus as well, but that would be taking a point too far). The light comes on when he concludes "Maybe Christmas ... means a little bit more." The grinch's small heart grows three sizes, he gives back the toys and the outcast is given a place of honor. Like Charlie Brown, this fable asks the viewer to look for the real meaning of Christmas. However, it does not explicitly fill in the blank, leaving the viewer to supply his or her own answer.
4. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964). As a young child, I remember watching this cartoon at the hospital when I was having my tonsils out (at least I think that's why I was there). It has always had a special meaning for me, although the Christmas story is almost incidental to the message about making room for misfits and non-conformists. This is the story of Rudolph the Rednosed Reindoor and Hermey the elf who wants to be a dentist. They are both ostracized based on their non-conformities, one which resulted from birth and one which resulted from choice. If this had been made a few years later during the turbulent 1960s, it could have been read as biting social commentary about America. Instead, it is merely sweet. In the end, the misfits are welcomed back and their oddities turn out to be advantages. While this is not a strong Christmas message per se, there is an underlying theme of welcoming the unloved which is very appropriate to the season.
Movies About Christmas:
1. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989). For me, this movie is like a flu shot. Once I have watched it, I feel innoculated against everything that can go wrong during the Christmas season. Chevy Chase plays Clark Griswold, a family man who wants to have a good old-fashioned family Christmas. As he brings his extended family together for the holiday, he is faced with financial peril because he laid out money that he didn't have as the downpayment on a swimming pool, expecting that his Christmas bonus would cover it.
The more he tries to have a traditional holiday, the more it turns into Christmas in Hell. On Christmas Eve, the turkey is overcooked, the cat is electrocuted by Christmas lights, Uncle Lewis burns down the Christmas tree with his cigar, a deranged squirrel attacks from out of the replacement Christmas tree and a company messenger brings word that his Christmas bonus is a subscription to the jelly of the month club. With an insane gleem in his eye, Clark announces that what he would really like for Christmas would be to have his boss dragged out of his house with a bow on him so that he could tell him off for failing to disclose that Christmas bonuses had been canceled. Clark's hillbilly cousin-in-law takes the hint seriously and kidnaps the boss. When confronted with the consequences of his decision, the boss repents of his decision. At that moment, the SWAT team crashes into the house to the tune of "Here Comes Santa Claus." When the boss announces that he will not press charges and will reinstate the bonus, Christmas is saved. In the final scene, Uncle Lewis's cigar ignites sewer gas, causing the Santa's sleigh on their lawn to fly across the full moon in a scene reminiscent of ET. The entire cast, including the SWAT team, sings the national anthem as Santa flies across the sky. While this is a farce, the underlying message is one of hope that somehow things will work out okay.
2. Scrooged (1988). This is Bill Murray's updating of A Christmas Carol. Murray plays Frank Cross, a young network executive who is producing a live version of A Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve. His Scrooge-like character takes delight in firing one of his employees just before Christmas in time to stop his Christmas bonus. His appreciation of the season is limited to impersonally assigning VCRs and towels to everyone on his Christmas list depending on their importance. (His long-suffering assistant gets a towel). After the appearance of each of the three ghosts, he ends up disrupting his own live show, convincing those around him that he is losing his mind. In the climactic scene, after he has been transformed, he and Elliott Loudermilk (the employee he had fired) take over the studio and ask the question "What are you doing watching TV on Christmas eve?" He then leads the cast and crew in the studio and the audience at home in singing "Put A Little Love in Your Heart."
This movie has an all-star cast. In addition to Murray, there are David Johansen (as the Ghost of Christmas Past), Bobcat Goldthwait (as Elliot Loudermilk) and Lee Majors, Robert Goulet, Mary Lee Retton, John Houseman and Jamie Farr as themselves.
While this is zany, it still retains the original message from Dickens about redemption and second chances.
3. A Christmas Story (1983). This movie does not convey a great message, but it is pure nostalgic bliss. Set in 1940s Indiana, it tells the story of nine year Ralphie who wants a Red Ryder bb gun for Christmas more than anything else in the whole world. His machinations to get the gun are blocked by adults who insist on telling him that he will shoot his eye out. This movie gleefully captures the single-minded greed of a child obsessed with presents. However, it does so with a knowing wink rather than a stern lecture. This movie really captures the feeling of what is like to be a child at Christmas, even if the religious meaning is absent.
4. Jingle All the Way (1996). This film stars Arnold Schwartzenegger as a work-obsessed father who neglects his family and forgets to get his young son Jamie the one must-have toy for that year--Turbo-Man. As he tries to track the toy down before the clock runs out, he is absent from his family's pre-Christmas festivities which only makes things worse. This opens the door for an amorous neighbor played by Phil Hartmann to try to take the father's place. Meanwhile, in his battle to claim the last Turbo-Man, he must fight against a psychotic mailman played by Sinbad. The movie climaxes at the town's Christmas parade where a stuntman playing Turbo-Man will hand out a Turbo-Man doll to a lucky boy or girl. Schwartzenegger dons the Turbo-Man costume so that he can give the doll to his son, while Sinbad suits up as Turbo-Man's nemesis. They fight a very real battle where Jamie is placed in danger. After Schwartzenegger wins the battle and Sinbad is hauled off in handcuffs, Jamie gives Sinbad the doll, remarking that he doesn't need it because his father is the real Turbo-Man. The message here is that all Jamie really wanted for Christmas was his father (although death-defying stunts and miraculous rescues are pretty cool also).
5. Ruslana: Last Christmas of the 1990s (1999). This is no doubt an obscure one for 99% of Americans. Ruslana has been described as the Madonna of Ukraine (comparing her to the pop singer, not the Mother of our Lord). She is very popular over there and has an all-European singing contest. Because Ukraine follows the Orthodox calendar, this video was released in January 1999. The video contains traditional and pop songs about Christmas. The familiar songs become new again when heard in another language. The Ukrainian scenery is breath-taking.
For me, one of the great joys of the Advent season of preparation is watching the stories of Christmas. My favorites generally take two forms. First, there are the cartoons from the 60s that I grew up with. Second, there are more recent movies which often take a skewed perspective on the holiday. One theme which carries across both the older and the newer stories is our failure to get it right. It seems that we need stories to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas.
Here are some of my favorites:
Cartoons:
1. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965). This is one of the very few modern Christmas stories which directly mentions the religious meaning of Christmas. Poor Charlie Brown sees the Christmas season as just another opportunity to be reminded that people don't really like him that much. This feeling is only reinforced when he is asked to direct the Christmas play. Despite his best efforts to execute the script, the cast always breaks into dancing instead. When he is sent to buy a Christmas tree, he adopts a scraggly tree which loses most of its needles instead of the shiny aluminum tree that Lucy told him to get. Finally, in exasperation, he asks what Christmas is all about. The ever-composed Linus recites the Christmas account from Luke. The show ends with the cast singing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and yelling "Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!"
While the commercialization of Christmas is a common theme, this show doesn't pull any punches. It doesn't back away from the anti-commercial religious meaning of Christmas. I think we all need a Charlie Brown to ask the question "Can anyone tell me what Christmas is all about?" We know the answer, but sometimes, we need to be reminded.
2. The Little Drummer Boy (1968). This is a tough one. On the one hand, it's hard to resist a story which starts with the words "Aaron hated people." One the other hand, the song is kind of sickly sweet and maudlin. This is a very intense story for a G-rated cartoon. It is about a boy who sees his family killed by bandits and barely escapes with his life. Later, he is taken captive by greedy desert players who want to exploit his unique ability to make animals dance to his music. Finally, at the height of his misery and contempt for murderous humanity, his lamb is run over by a Roman chariot. This sets the stage for his encounter with the baby Jesus. Putting aside his anger, hate and bitterness, he performs the title song for the baby and his lamb is healed.
This Christmas story is unique because it actually involves Jesus as part of Christmas. While it relies on a Deux ex Machina ending to make everything right, that is really the point of the whole story. At Christmas, God becomes present in our lives and we are changed. For a simple cartoon, this one packs a strong message.
3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966). This fable about the commercialization of Christmas is so well-known as to require little discussion. In short, the small-hearted grinch tries to stop Christmas from coming by stealing everyone's presents and taking them to the top of Mount Crumpet to dump it. Instead of calling in the SWAT team (see National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation below) and putting out an APB, the citizens of Whoville join hands and sing. The grinch muses that "It came without packages, boxes or bags." (A grinch could add that it came without baby Jesus as well, but that would be taking a point too far). The light comes on when he concludes "Maybe Christmas ... means a little bit more." The grinch's small heart grows three sizes, he gives back the toys and the outcast is given a place of honor. Like Charlie Brown, this fable asks the viewer to look for the real meaning of Christmas. However, it does not explicitly fill in the blank, leaving the viewer to supply his or her own answer.
4. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964). As a young child, I remember watching this cartoon at the hospital when I was having my tonsils out (at least I think that's why I was there). It has always had a special meaning for me, although the Christmas story is almost incidental to the message about making room for misfits and non-conformists. This is the story of Rudolph the Rednosed Reindoor and Hermey the elf who wants to be a dentist. They are both ostracized based on their non-conformities, one which resulted from birth and one which resulted from choice. If this had been made a few years later during the turbulent 1960s, it could have been read as biting social commentary about America. Instead, it is merely sweet. In the end, the misfits are welcomed back and their oddities turn out to be advantages. While this is not a strong Christmas message per se, there is an underlying theme of welcoming the unloved which is very appropriate to the season.
Movies About Christmas:
1. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989). For me, this movie is like a flu shot. Once I have watched it, I feel innoculated against everything that can go wrong during the Christmas season. Chevy Chase plays Clark Griswold, a family man who wants to have a good old-fashioned family Christmas. As he brings his extended family together for the holiday, he is faced with financial peril because he laid out money that he didn't have as the downpayment on a swimming pool, expecting that his Christmas bonus would cover it.
The more he tries to have a traditional holiday, the more it turns into Christmas in Hell. On Christmas Eve, the turkey is overcooked, the cat is electrocuted by Christmas lights, Uncle Lewis burns down the Christmas tree with his cigar, a deranged squirrel attacks from out of the replacement Christmas tree and a company messenger brings word that his Christmas bonus is a subscription to the jelly of the month club. With an insane gleem in his eye, Clark announces that what he would really like for Christmas would be to have his boss dragged out of his house with a bow on him so that he could tell him off for failing to disclose that Christmas bonuses had been canceled. Clark's hillbilly cousin-in-law takes the hint seriously and kidnaps the boss. When confronted with the consequences of his decision, the boss repents of his decision. At that moment, the SWAT team crashes into the house to the tune of "Here Comes Santa Claus." When the boss announces that he will not press charges and will reinstate the bonus, Christmas is saved. In the final scene, Uncle Lewis's cigar ignites sewer gas, causing the Santa's sleigh on their lawn to fly across the full moon in a scene reminiscent of ET. The entire cast, including the SWAT team, sings the national anthem as Santa flies across the sky. While this is a farce, the underlying message is one of hope that somehow things will work out okay.
2. Scrooged (1988). This is Bill Murray's updating of A Christmas Carol. Murray plays Frank Cross, a young network executive who is producing a live version of A Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve. His Scrooge-like character takes delight in firing one of his employees just before Christmas in time to stop his Christmas bonus. His appreciation of the season is limited to impersonally assigning VCRs and towels to everyone on his Christmas list depending on their importance. (His long-suffering assistant gets a towel). After the appearance of each of the three ghosts, he ends up disrupting his own live show, convincing those around him that he is losing his mind. In the climactic scene, after he has been transformed, he and Elliott Loudermilk (the employee he had fired) take over the studio and ask the question "What are you doing watching TV on Christmas eve?" He then leads the cast and crew in the studio and the audience at home in singing "Put A Little Love in Your Heart."
This movie has an all-star cast. In addition to Murray, there are David Johansen (as the Ghost of Christmas Past), Bobcat Goldthwait (as Elliot Loudermilk) and Lee Majors, Robert Goulet, Mary Lee Retton, John Houseman and Jamie Farr as themselves.
While this is zany, it still retains the original message from Dickens about redemption and second chances.
3. A Christmas Story (1983). This movie does not convey a great message, but it is pure nostalgic bliss. Set in 1940s Indiana, it tells the story of nine year Ralphie who wants a Red Ryder bb gun for Christmas more than anything else in the whole world. His machinations to get the gun are blocked by adults who insist on telling him that he will shoot his eye out. This movie gleefully captures the single-minded greed of a child obsessed with presents. However, it does so with a knowing wink rather than a stern lecture. This movie really captures the feeling of what is like to be a child at Christmas, even if the religious meaning is absent.
4. Jingle All the Way (1996). This film stars Arnold Schwartzenegger as a work-obsessed father who neglects his family and forgets to get his young son Jamie the one must-have toy for that year--Turbo-Man. As he tries to track the toy down before the clock runs out, he is absent from his family's pre-Christmas festivities which only makes things worse. This opens the door for an amorous neighbor played by Phil Hartmann to try to take the father's place. Meanwhile, in his battle to claim the last Turbo-Man, he must fight against a psychotic mailman played by Sinbad. The movie climaxes at the town's Christmas parade where a stuntman playing Turbo-Man will hand out a Turbo-Man doll to a lucky boy or girl. Schwartzenegger dons the Turbo-Man costume so that he can give the doll to his son, while Sinbad suits up as Turbo-Man's nemesis. They fight a very real battle where Jamie is placed in danger. After Schwartzenegger wins the battle and Sinbad is hauled off in handcuffs, Jamie gives Sinbad the doll, remarking that he doesn't need it because his father is the real Turbo-Man. The message here is that all Jamie really wanted for Christmas was his father (although death-defying stunts and miraculous rescues are pretty cool also).
5. Ruslana: Last Christmas of the 1990s (1999). This is no doubt an obscure one for 99% of Americans. Ruslana has been described as the Madonna of Ukraine (comparing her to the pop singer, not the Mother of our Lord). She is very popular over there and has an all-European singing contest. Because Ukraine follows the Orthodox calendar, this video was released in January 1999. The video contains traditional and pop songs about Christmas. The familiar songs become new again when heard in another language. The Ukrainian scenery is breath-taking.
Honorable Mention:
6. Home Alone (1990). While Home Alone is not ostensibly a Christmas movie, it takes place during the Christmas season. In one sub-plot, Macauley Culkin walks into a church where a children's choir is rehearsing for Christmas eve. He discovers a grandfather watching his grand-daughter from a distance and learns that he is estranged from his son and cut off from contact with his grand-daughter. Inbetween fighting off thieves and learning to take care of himself, Macauley Culkin convinces the old man to reconcile with his son.
7. Gremlins (1984). OK, this is not a Christmas movie at all. However, there is a deranged scene of the marauding gremlins approaching a house as Christmas caroleers before they strike.
Welcome to my new blog
Welcome to my blog. I have another blog which discusses bankruptcy law. This is my non-legal blog. Here I will talk about whatever I find interesting, as long as it does not relate to bankruptcy law. While the title of this blog may sound pretty generic, it is actually taken from one of my favorite albums by MxPx. My next posting will be about my favorite Christmas movies and specials. Hope you enjoy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
