Five Things: Christmas Pop Music

Besides being tied for my favorite holiday for reasons previously explained, I love Thanksgiving because of the tradition of kicking off the Christmas season with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and (**drumroll**) putting up the Christmas tree! Both of these activities, no matter how cheesy or Hallmark-y, almost inevitably bring at least a couple of tears to my eyes every year. What can I say? I'm a sucker for sentimentality, especially when connected to tradition (I just heard an explosion of that "Tradition" song from Fiddler on the Roof in my head - weird).

Maybe it's because I've read too many books and watched too many movies (creating that strange belief that life must be saturated with perfectly executed moments of drama and nostalgic-montage-worthy scenes), I have certain requirements for the carrying out of said traditions. In the case of the Christmas tree, there must be some hot festive drink, such as apple cider or hot chocolate, cheerful involvement of multiple family/friend attendees in the decorating of the tree (with the angel on last - come on people! have a sense of ceremony!) and a background soundtrack of my favorite Christmas music. In honor of Thanksgiving week and in my excitement about dusting off those CDs and albums for the occasion, today's "Five Things" (yes, I want to make this a thing) is some of my favorite Christmas pop music! I don't say "Top Five," which is the accurate reference to the origin of the five list, the ever-awesome High Fidelity, because I can't commit to five favorites. Also - sidebar - many of these (maybe all?) are on a special mix CD made from another special mix CD made by a co-worker back in my San Antonio news days, for a shockingly friendly white elephant Christmas party in the studio (I came out a winner with a three-DVD box set of old-school Adam Sandler movies). That mix is still off the hook, Rhonda!

So, without further asides -

Five Things: Christmas Pop Songs

1. "All I Want For Christmas is You," by Maria Carey. Nothing makes me sing and dance like this song. Instant happy. And the music video! Christmas bunnies? Yes, please. Snow play? Yes, please. Who can look as good as Maria sledding around in a big red snow suit? Also featured on my beloved Love, Actually. One of the first CDs I bought, at the now-defunct Border Bookstores (take a moment of silence). My CD is no longer around, as it was eaten mercilessly by an old-school six-disc player (it was really tall and big, since the CD had to loop around on their little carousel). But it's on the mix!
2. "Pretty Paper" by Willie Nelson. What is more rustic, warm and lovable than Willie Nelson's voice?
3. "Blue Christmas" by Elvis Presley. I love some Elvis, especially gospel-style. Classic!
4. "Hard Candy Christmas" by Dolly Parton. Like Willie, Dolly really brings out the "home" in me. Now that I'm thousands of miles away, anything that connects me to Texas makes me feel sentimental. And, really, how can you help loving Dolly?
5. "Santa Baby," sung by Eartha Kitt. So naughty, so nice! Christmas magic and commercialism, all wrapped up in one and perpetually fun to sing along to.

What are some of your favorite Christmas pop songs?

Giggles and Love, Actually

If I could be any female actress, I would be Zooey Deschanel. I have no trouble admitting that I have a giant girl-crush on her. I have repeatedly cut my hair like hers (yes, I take her picture with me to the salon). I want to dress like her and therefore swooned over her Cotton ad:

Give me your closet, Zooey! I want to ride a bike with a basket in a cute skirt and cardigan, and go antiquing and shopping for banjos and records, and compose sweet sweet songs in my pajamas (oh wait that's her iPhone ad) that I then sing to a smiling and swaying audience in a dimly-lit intimate venue full of knowledgeable music appreciators who approvingly nod at my indie style reminiscent of a young _________ (June Carter Cash/Nancy Sinatra/Linda Rondstadt/etc etc). I want to sing in an awesome duo like She and Him and make an awesome vinyl album that comes with an mp3 download that I can buy and enjoy. I like to point out that I liked her way before New Girl and watched just about all her movies, especially the small ones like Gigantic where she played a character named "Happy Lolly" or the ones where she played awesome supporting characters like in Almost Famous, and that I knew she was "adorkable" before that word existed. I was thrilled when Jess, her character in New Girl, was just about exactly how I imagined she might be in real life (personality-wise, since in life she is a successful actress and musician and not a broke unemployed teacher), and also before that when I confirmed my suspicion that she was related to another favorite actress with shockingly awesome eye color, Emily Deschanel of Bones. Hello, most awesome sisters in the world! And when Zooey made a guest appearance on Bones as Bones's quirky cousin? Best! Ever!

But, wait... wasn't this post supposed to be about giggles and Love, Actually? Or at least giggles and love - actually? It is it is! So while reading about Zooey in some magazine or web article (lady magazines - if you want me to buy every issue just keep putting her on the cover. I fork over the cash like it's my job), I discovered she had started, with some other ladies, an awesome website called Hello Giggles that I now happily subscribe to. It's pretty much the webpage manifestation of Zooey - and although the different parts are written by many different people, they are all on the lines of what Jess's blog might be like if she had one. There's a Panda Night Cam! Cartoons! Nail polish ! And "Old Lady Movie Night," which is originally what I wrote this post to share. You should read this hilarious and spot-on commentary on one of my FAVORITE movies and probably favorite holiday movie, Love, Actually (high-five, friend Kate!). Talk about "old lady movie night" - one of the shocking moments was reading that the kid who played Sam is in his 20s. What?! Sigh. If you haven't watched the movie yet, WATCH IT NOW and read the commentary after (there are spoilers) so that you can nod in agreement and laugh out loud at the right moments while you read it. Appreciate the calculated "un-calculated" writing style that's actually a speaking style and see why I like it (even if you don't). Then let's sigh, swoon and laugh together ourselves about Love, Actually over a steamy mug of cocoa or chai tea. BFF-style.

Violins, Stop-Motion and Vinyl - What Could Be Better?

In following one of those procrastinator-friendly chains of online browsing, I happened onto several very cool things today, culminating in a music video from a collaboration album between violinist Hilary Hahn and Hauschka, called Silfra, and featuring a fabulous stop-motion animation by Hayley Morris. Let me see if I can trace the degrees of separation and highlight some of the treats along the way.

I started out from my FB homepage, which I hadn't visited in a while. I saw a post by a guitarist friend I haven't seen in years and from there went to browse his page. I noticed violinist Hilary Hahn among his "likes" and, a fan and player of violins myself, followed the chain to her page. I took a side trip from a link there to this article on the website "Vintage Guide to Texas" (those of you who know I'm a transplanted Texan and have a weakness for vintage can see how this was an inescapable trap). The article was there because it mentions that Hahn's album, the forementioned Silfra, was presented for sale ON VINYL during intermission at the  Dallas Symphony (swoon!). The article then goes on to talk about the return of vinyl and its superiority over other formats (word!).

At this point you can see an almost unbelievable series of irresistible crumbs seemingly left for me specifically by some (beneficent or malevolent?) guiding force of the global inter-webs (who clearly is an enemy of my dissertation). From the article I went to the album website, lured by the (a) violinist, (b) the album cover art (love!) and (c) the possibility of a good excuse to buy my one of my favorite things - one of those cool vinyl/mp3 combo albums (the record comes with a code to download a digital copy - what else can a millennial girl ask for from her music?). Once there I went to check out the advertised music video for "Bounce Bounce," was delighted by the animation, jumped to check out the page of the director and animator Hayley Morris, and was even more delighted by the photographic proof of her surely enchanting elven childhood, affinity to things miniature (me too me too!) and the rest of the description of her sources of inspiration.

Has there ever been a more worthy and fruitful internet chain journey? I think not. With that, I leave you with the music video for "Bounce Bounce":

Gratitude, revisited

As you may know if you subscribe to my blog, my last post before the latest blogging drought was on changing our attitudes to ones of gratitude. Fittingly, I've starting writing again in a month which contains one of my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving. While we often complain about the commercialization of the holiday, Thanksgiving is one that for me, at least, still revolves around relationships and observance. I love getting together with friends and (hopefully!) family for a nice relaxed meal around a nice relaxed day, cooking unashamedly and profusely, getting a guaranteed weekday off of work together, watching some football together, sitting around or playing outside -- and most of all, putting aside our "cool" hats and engaging in the admittedly sometimes cheesy task of talking about our blessings openly and communally (although I almost always get an awkward giggle or to when I insist on this tradition). I LOVE THANKSGIVING!

In keeping with my forementioned plan to enhance the joyfulness of my life and do things other than watch television  (my favorite shows often focus on the grim parts of life), I am going to try to devote an extra amount of time this month to learning about things like gratitude and happiness and apply them as much (and as permanently) as possible in my own life. I'm more into practical, intellectually challenging advice than surface-level, fluffy approaches to life-improvement, so I'm excited to have found several avenues already that I find to be more useful and effective in deeper, more long-term change.

I mentioned that I'm reading Max Lucado's book Great Day Every Day. He encourages us there to apply those lessons of happiness to every day. Even the terrible ones. That is certainly a challenge. But a worthy one. I realized today that while I know the ins and outs of many Biblical stories of people being positive and grateful in terrible circumstances, I've never really thought about the implications of following that example in our lives. I have said that I do, and thought that I did, but when I think about real things that happen or could happen on those terrible days, I have a very hard time picturing myself rejoicing or singing praises about them--for real. This I think will be the biggest challenge; one that I'm honestly not entirely sure I would be able to achieve. From working on a dissertation I know that when one is faced with a mountainous task it is usually best to tackle one small piece of it at a time. Today, I'd like to reflect on and share this sentence from Great Day Every Day:

"Gratitude lifts our eyes off the things we lack so we might see the blessings we possess."

More on perspective later.