tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:408248Notes, Notings, and Common RefrainsThe songs that are stuck in my headAnn2018-12-21T00:54:27Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:408248:818129I was hit by nostalgia, big time, tonight while eating dinner.2018-12-21T00:54:27Z2018-12-21T00:54:27Zpublic4When I was six or seven, we had this Folk music Christmas album, and it had one track that I always looked forward to. It was my favorite, and always made me smile. But that album was the only place I'd heard it. I'd never heard it played on the radio, or covered by any other artists. And I haven't heard it in decades. <br /><br />Just now, I decided to do a YouTube search, and Lo! and Behold! It was there. And I couldn't help dancing in my seat, a bit, as I played it:<br /><br /><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Iiw_4mSZ8Sk" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://capri0mni.dreamwidth.org/818129.html#cutid1">Transcript and lyrics behind here</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=capri0mni&ditemid=818129" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:408248:817826I realized something, last night:2018-12-19T17:14:38Z2018-12-19T18:08:29Zpublic11Namely, that a in "A Visit from Saint Nicholas," the narrator was <strong><em>dreaming</em></strong>.<br /><hr><br />Now, that’s far from proof that Santa Claus is fake (we can certainly have dreams about real people and real events). But it does ... loosen ... the scope of possibilities of how Santa Claus really fulfills his mission, each year (For example, the sleigh and reindeer, and chimney, may all be open to negotiation)<br /><br />Here, let me break the poem down, and show you how I figured this out:<br /><br />Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house<br />Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;<br />The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,<br />In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;<br />The children were nestled all snug in their beds;<br />While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;<br />And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,<br />Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap.<br /><br /><ul><li>So, the author and his family are already in bed and, if he, himself, is not sound asleep, yet, he’s certainly starting to drift off...</li></ul><br /><br />When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,<br />I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.<br />Away to the window I flew like a flash,<br />Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.<br /><br /><ul><li>Wait a minute -- his wife is <em>in the room with him</em>. If this were really happening, wouldn’t she wake up when he opens the window in the middle of the night, and lets in all that cold air (and yell at him for it)? <em>I</em> would.</li></ul><br /><br />The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,<br />Gave a lustre of midday to objects below,<br />When what to my wondering eyes did appear,<br />But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein-deer,<br />With a little old driver so lively and quick,<br />I knew in a moment he must be St. Nick.<br />More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,<br />And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:<br />"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer and Vixen!<br />On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donner and Blitzen!<br />To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!<br />Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"<br />As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,<br />When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;<br />So up to the housetop the coursers they flew<br />With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too—<br />And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof<br />The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.<br />As I drew in my head, and was turning around,<br />Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.<br /><br /><ul><li>Okay, this whole thing started in the narrator’s bedroom... And now we’re in the main parlor (I think)? I mean, granted, bedrooms had their own fireplaces, back then. But would the children have hung their stockings on their <em>parents’</em> private mantle? That seems odd for the waking world. But the sudden shift of location like this happens all the time, in dreams.</li></ul><br /><br />He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,<br />And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;<br />A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,<br />And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.<br />His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!<br />His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!<br />His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,<br />And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow.<br /><br /><ul><li>His clothes were covered in soot (from all that chimney bounding), but his <em>beard</em> was pristine (calling back to the snow imagery from before)?</li></ul><br /><br />The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,<br />And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath;<br />He had a broad face and a little round belly<br />That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.<br />He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,<br />And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;<br />A wink of his eye and a twist of his head<br />Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;<br />He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,<br />And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,<br />And laying his finger aside of his nose,<br />And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose<br />He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,<br />And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.<br /><br /><ul><li>If this were happening in the waking world, there is no way the narrator could see Saint Nick get into his sleigh, and it would be very hard, if not impossible, for the narrator to see the sleigh flying away from the roof, while he’s still inside the room. </li></ul><br /><br />But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight—<br />“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”<br /><br /><hr><br />The implication of this, of course (!), is that the 2014 Doctor Who Christmas Special, where Santa Claus invades people's dreams to help defeat the alien monster, and save their lives, is, arguably, the most true-to-the-original-poem depiction of Santa Claus that we have on screen.<br /><br />And there's a certain part of me that is pleased by this.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=capri0mni&ditemid=817826" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:408248:797626You know what else annoys me about "Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer" (TV Version)?2016-12-20T19:32:11Z2016-12-21T22:05:23Zpublic24('Cause I know the TV story is different from Robert May's original book. But it's the TV story that most people know -- anyway -- it's the one that <em>I</em> know)<br /><br />Okay, we all know that "Rudolph" is a terrible story, because it teaches the 'moral': "Difference will inevitably, and naturally be despised until it can be exploited, so that the resulting exploitation must be celebrated as a happy ending."<br /><br />Right?<br /><br />We know this? We are agreed?<br /><br />Good.<br /><br />So you know what else sticks in my craw?<br /><br />The "happy ending" for the "Abominable Snowman" -- being turned from Mean/Evil to Kind/Nice by <em>having all his teeth forcibly removed</em>.<br /><br />No. No. No. No. NO!!<br /><br />It's not whether or not you <em>have</em> teeth that makes you "bad," but how you <em>use</em> them.<br /><br />It makes me want to write a Christmas story out of spite, where the day is saved by a giant monster with 5,000 sharp teeth, and three dozen sharp horns, and black shaggy fur. And, furthermore, the way the monster saves the day has only a tangential relationship to those teeth and horns. <br /><br />(Meaning: they <em>don't</em> save the day by biting through or cutting anything, but by being smart, and compassionate, and <em>maybe</em> understanding of [problem at hand] because they know what it's like to be feared and misunderstood)<br /><br />Eta: something like this critter:<br /><br /><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/capriuni/31754295866/in/dateposted-public/" title="Christmas monster"><img src="https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/352/31754295866_c2688f1c46.jpg" width="500" height="331" alt="Christmas monster"></a><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=capri0mni&ditemid=797626" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:408248:740837From "Etymology online": Merry (adj.)2014-12-23T18:58:12Z2014-12-23T18:58:12Zpublic2I posted this information a Year-and-a-Day Ago, but I tried to do something with embedding (I think), and got something wrong, so that all that showed up on my journal was nearly impossible to actually read. And somehow, I never caught it. ...I only caught it last night because Audrey commented that I probably made even fewer posts last December than I did this year, and so I went back and checked (I actually posted more).<br /><br />So I'm trying again:<br /><br />It all started when I got to wondering why we only seem to use "Merry" for Christmas greetings, and "Happy" for everything else. So I went to <a href="http://www.etymonline.com/">The Online Etymology Dictionary</a> to look it up. This is what I found:<br /><br />Quote:<br />Old English <cite>myrge</cite> "pleasing, agreeable, pleasant, sweet; pleasantly, melodiously," from Proto-Germanic <cite>*murgijaz</cite>, which probably originally meant "short-lasting," [snip]. The only exact cognate for meaning outside English was Middle Dutch <cite>mergelijc</cite> "joyful." <br /><br />Connection to "pleasure" is likely via notion of "making time fly, that which makes the time seem to pass quickly" [snip, again]. There also was a verbal form in Old English, myrgan "be merry, rejoice." [and a third snip].<br /><br />The word had much wider senses in Middle English, such as "pleasant-sounding" (of animal voices), "fine" (of weather), "handsome" (of dress), "pleasant-tasting" (of herbs). Merry-bout "an incident of sexual intercourse" was low slang from 1780. Merry-begot "illegitimate" (adj.), "bastard" (n.) is from 1785. Merrie England (now frequently satirical or ironic) is 14c. meri ingland, originally in a broader sense of "bountiful, prosperous." Merry Monday was a 16c. term for "the Monday before Shrove Tuesday" (Mardi Gras).<br />Unquote.<br /><br />I think that the link to "Short time" is probably key. The fact that "Christmas Comes But Once a Year," has always been key to its celebration, I think, since it's also always been tied to the passage of time -- at least, since the days when the New Year moved to January 1. The happiness you wish someone for their birthday is the the quieter, longer lasting (and less <em>exhausting</em>) sort. <br /><br />There's also the association with music and singing (Fa-la-la, la, la, la-la-la, LA!), and <em>bounty</em>... And Christmas, is, at its core, a harvest festival. (All hail the Hogfather!)<br /><br />So "Merry," in its proverbial DNA, contains all those ideas lumped up together. So its stayed tied to "Christmas" even though we don't remember why.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=capri0mni&ditemid=740837" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:408248:740581If you don't know the work of "Doctor Puppet," You should.2014-12-23T13:01:38Z2014-12-23T13:01:38Zpublic2Here is their 2014 Christmas Episode, posted a few hours ago:<br /><br /><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0Ak4B0nhNzk?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=capri0mni&ditemid=740581" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments