Monthly Archives: January 2011

Turn Out The Lights

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[Sigh] I guess it’s time to take down my Christmas lights again.

Rats. I love Christmas lights. They help take the cold blue steel edge off the winter gloomies; the long, dark midnight of my soul.

new-year-christmas-scene 

I always leave the lights up and shining on my balcony irons until after Eastern Orthodox Christmas, when all the Christians in the world have finished celebrating The Nativity, and most have moved on to Epiphany. But yeah, it’s time.

I wish we could leave things bright and happy until spring, but I guess that would make it all less special.

Some people leave them up all year, and just wait until December to turn them on. Tacky, very tacky. Last year, the condo association had to ask one resident to pack hers away … in March.

So, where do you stand on the issue of lights, or on the issue of standing, on principle?

It Takes a Villager

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I was just skipping through a weekly email from Time and spotted this photo.*

villagers

The caption reads: Happy New Year. Villagers party in a local pub during the Allendale Tar Barrel festival on New Year’s Eve in Allendale, England.

I think it would be cool to be a villager. I hadn’t realized the term was still used for people in the developed parts of the world.  I live in a condominium complex that we sometimes call The Village because its name is Casitas Village, but that doesn’t make it one. We don’t have any villages in California, as far as I know. We’ve got some very small towns. But I checked out Allendale on Google maps and Wikipedia, and it’s a village alright. About 2100 people, which makes it 7 times smaller than the town where I live.

Maybe to be a village you have to do some very whacky, insane stuff – like the Allendale Tar Barrel Festival.

Allendale Tar Barrel Festival quN8ahWqfEml

Now those look like some by God villagers, right there. And I have to admit, I don’t think I could keep up that kind of pace, or make that intense a commitment to my community. Not even once a year. But I tell you what, in my little town we recently got a new hardware store, having been without one for too long. I’ve only been in there once, for a little electric plug (buck and a half, a good price) but I imagine they stock pitchforks.

We could use Google Maps to source the local monster lairs, mad scientists and tea partiers. Or if you have a smartphone, there’s probably an app for that. Then you grab a torch, I’ll get my pitchfork out of the garage, and we’ll roshambo.

 

*Click photos to enlarge.

good grief, indeed

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Have you ever listened to the soundtrack of the TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas? I don’t mean on the TV, while watching the show. (If you’re like me, you’ve watched it every year since the mid 1960s.) That’s good of course, but I downloaded the complete remastered album from iTunes recently. It is so much better unedited, the original full length songs.

I was making a DVD of family Christmas photos from the old days, and the music suited it well. I listened to the songs repeatedly, but not very carefully. Tonight I have the album on my iPod, just listening. This music is terrific. Clear, skillful jazz. If you like a good jazz trio, head over to the iTunes store and check it down. The album is only about 8 bucks.

What about the videos I made? Well, they’re on youtube, but they’re private. I have a hunch that publishing photos of my family in their Christmas morning PJs, hair uncombed, etc., would finally earn me that a—kicking I’ve so richly deserved for so long. Wouldn’t be prudent, is my point.