(My favorite Christmas carol, and one written by a Jewish composer. The grocery where Guilherme Assunção currently works is not quite close enough that we shop there, but given the number of small venues around here, I’m hoping to see him on a larger stage someday.)
I’m guessing there are still West Coast jackals wrapping last-minute gifts / finishing the meal prep / waiting for the travel-delayed relatives to show up. Not to mention those in more distant climes, now cleaning up after the big celebration (possibly nursing sunburns to go with the incipient hangovers.
Merry Whatever-Year-End-Celebration, y’all!
Ruckus
Here is a little music from a group from Finland that isn’t xmas music but goes with the season Rajaton – Dobbin’s Flowery Vale
Ruckus
If you like that here’s another Butterfly.
Ninedragonspot
My favorite piece of Christmas music, the opening third of Liszt’s oratorio Christus. Not much in the nineteenth century resembles the gorgeous opening minutes of this work, replete with Gregorian chant, piping shepherds, angels, and marching wise men.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_KWFIl_XR4&sns=em
Mnemosyne
I’m not sure I’ve seen this version before, but TCM is showing the 1936 version of A Christmas Carol with Reginald Owen. I’m a little surprised that the dialogue is pretty much verbatim from the book, to a noticeable degree.
(We can’t get the Apple TV to spit out Shop Around the Corner, so we have TCM on instead.)
Mike J
Just finished watching 2015’s A Very Murray Christmas. You always think Bill is nothing but smarm, but in the end he sells you his sincerity.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
https://youtu.be/SPLL6dnybEQ
Bruuuuce
There are two Christmas songs to which I will never not listen: Christmas in the Trenches by John McCutcheon and The Christians and The Pagans by Dar Williams.
Mnemosyne
@Mike J:
We really liked that when it came out. Chris Rock makes me laugh really hard every time, and the cameos are terrific.
BackwardsE
Another one written (after a fashion) by Jewish composers:
“…that’s the seven o’clock edition of the news. Good night.”
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
“O Holy Night” is this Jewish mama’s favorite carol, too. But I like the French original even more.
Bonne nuit à tous.
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
Originally was planned with Lionel Barrymore in the lead but he had to bow out for health reasons. Reginald Owen manages to crank out a Scrooge-like character but never seems to fully embrace the role’s essence, a hunched back standing in for a hunched heart; store brand cola compared to Coke or Pepsi.
And his bald wig is not affixed invisibly – a lot.
Not a bad version, simply a mediocre one.
Trivia: A real family affair, with Gene Lockhart as Bob Cratchit, his wife Kathleen as Mrs. Cratchit, and daughter June as one of the Cratchit brood.
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
As you like period costume drama, will mention a personal fave among Xmas movies – John Huston’s final stint as director, The Dead.
John Revolta
I was glad to hear you found your ornaments Anne. I know how it is, every one has a memory attached.
Merry it up, ye jackals all!
?BillinGlendaleCA
We did our Christmas festivities last night, things turned out well. Everyone seems happy with their gifts and dinner turned out nice(thanks to Adam’s recipe tips). Cleanup will span well in to the morning I fear.
opiejeanne
Supper was glorious and we all went out to play in the snow. We got only a few inches of the white stuff but there are several small snowmen sitting on the deck table, we had a snowball fight, we discovered a Tesla stuck back end in the ditch across the street, there are snow angels in the front lawn as well as the word “spotted” and the outline of a huge dick, the result of a pirate gift exchange that featured a can of spotted dick. It’s an English dessert thing and we are all a little wary of it, but will open it in a couple of days and some of us will bravely try some.
Two of the. gentlemen smoked cigars and polluted the outside world but we all survived. My two daughters and their spouses are staying over and making breakfast, my niece and her husband and my sister headed south to Puyallup Tomorrow our older daughter has tickets for Jumanji in 3-D, not a film I would pay to see in a theater I think but much better than past Christmas Day choices. I doubt that it will be as bloody or disturbing as Django Unchained, which I loved, but damn!
We have been tasked by the youngest with providing a white Christmas next year,, here at this house, just outside Seattle where snow is never a sure thing. .
Bemused Senior
https://youtu.be/oMmhKsU_udw My daughter the singer- songwriter writes a Christmas song. Every year I get Christmas harmony for my present from my two daughters. Not religious but love carols. Maybe ten years of driving the carpool to the San Francisco Girls Chorus was worth it.
prostratedragon
“Alleluia”
NotMax
Lawdy. People in the neighborhood already testing the New Year’s fireworks. Several door-rattling booms interspersed with lesser ones.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: We’ve had the same here; Nikki, the Cocker Spaniel, is not impressed.
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: For some reason we have not heard from Mr Howitzer tonight.
Percysowner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=242&v=j9jbdgZidu8
FlyingToaster
Not-at-all-guilty secret: I live walking distance from Russo’s. That kid has sliced pastrami for me. HerrDoktor was there the first time he sang (the one that freaked people out and ended up on ABC). If you’re in the near-Metro-West area (Watertown, Belmont, Newton, Waltham), this is the place to get your deli stuff. Also their prepared foods counter, and cakes from the bakery counter.
debg
That young man has a bright future ahead of him. Quite the set of pipes.
Groucho48
I like the Steeleye Spaan version of Gaudete
https://youtu.be/EDc2FD-vy8M
Miss Bianca
@Groucho48: That one’s my favorite! Maddy Pryor’s “Tapestry of Carols” is my usual go-to for Christmas morning music.
Groucho48
Gotta love her voice!
The Golux
@Groucho48:
My bandmate from high school, who I shared a mic with (like Paul and George), is the countertenor on this version:
https://youtu.be/BaTeascyDq8
Groucho48
@The Golux:
Nice!