A cheerful ditty to inspire vigorous, healthful activity among those of us who didn’t go out last night…
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… because mocking other peoples’ hangovers is another fine New Year’s Day tradition.
(h/t commentor Kdaug)
This post is in: Music, Open Threads
A cheerful ditty to inspire vigorous, healthful activity among those of us who didn’t go out last night…
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… because mocking other peoples’ hangovers is another fine New Year’s Day tradition.
(h/t commentor Kdaug)
by DougJ| 45 Comments
This post is in: Music, Open Threads
I pretty much always wish I was a barefoot gypsy ’round the campfire singing and playing, but especially this time of year, maybe because I used to go caroling when I was in elementary school.
Now we can get down to what is really wrong.
Talk about anything except the Daily Dish and Four Loko.
This post is in: Music, Open Threads
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Still looking for a good contralto version of this on YouTube. Feel free to make suggestions for your preferred version.
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Also, if anyone taking Adorable Christmas Morning photos of their babies sends a .jpeg to AnneLaurie at Verizon.net (or click on my name near the top of the right-hand column), we can all share the warm fuzzies later this evening / Boxing Day…
This post is in: Music, Open Threads
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Commentor Redshift reports:
The eclipse is way-cool here in the DC area. With a wisp of cloud, an orange-red otherworldly moon and glittering stars, it looks like a vision of outer space from a 50s Technicolor SF movie.
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Saw a meteor a few minutes after totality, too!
Here north of Boston, the sky has been a uniform stretch of pale grey-blue, like a bowl of skim milk gone bad. If a solstice/eclipse conjunction of such rariety portends Great Changes Under Heaven, we’re going to have to find out about them by proxy.
On the other hand, perhaps it just foretells a continued spate of Idiots Behaving Like… Idiots:
A US white supremacist group has called for a boycott of the Kenneth Branagh-directed superhero movie Thor on the grounds that a black actor has been cast in the role of a Norse god.
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The Council of Conservative Citizens is upset that London-born Idris Elba, star of The Wire and BBC detective series Luther as well as a number of Hollywood films, is to play deity Heimdall in the Marvel Studios feature. The group, which opposes inter-racial marriage and gay rights, has set up a website, boycott-thor.com to set out its opposition to what it sees as an example of leftwing social engineering.
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“It [is] well known that Marvel is a company that advocates for leftwing ideologies and causes,” the site reads. “Marvel frontman Stan ‘Lee’ Lieber boasts of being a major financier of leftwing political candidates. Marvel has viciously attacked the Tea Party movement, conservatives and European heritage.
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“Now they have taken it one further, casting a black man as a Norse deity in their new movie Thor. Marvel has now inserted social engineering into European mythology.”…
This post is in: Music, Open Threads
Part of getting older is that eventually there’s a Christmas holiday album from every musician you’ve ever spent money on. Fortunately for me, I like quite a few carols, pagan that I am. This year, it’s Annie Lennox:
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This is about the most Northern European carol I can imagine, and Lennox does full justice to the sense of frozen despair as the world waits to be noisily shattered by the return of the Sun Lord…
This post is in: Music, Open Threads
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Back on the second day of Hannukah, I mentioned that I believed in celebrating every possible festival of lights, and commentor Currants reminded me not to miss the Scandinavian version of St. Lucia Day. From Wikipedia:
In Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Norway, and Finland, Lucy (called Lucia) it is venerated on December 13 in a ceremony where a girl is elected to portray Lucia. Wearing a white gown with a red sash and a crown of candles on her head, she walks at the head of a procession of women, each holding a candle… The women sing a Lucia song while entering the room, to the melody of the traditional Neapolitan song Santa Lucia; the Italian lyrics describe the view from Santa Lucia in Naples, the various Scandinavian lyrics are fashioned for the occasion, describing the light with which Lucia overcomes the darkness.
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The Nordic observation of St. Lucy is first attested in the Middle Ages, and continued after the Protestant Reformation in the 1520s and 1530s, although the modern celebration is only about 200 years old. It is likely that tradition owes its popularity in the Nordic countries to the extreme change in daylight hours between the seasons in this region.
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The pre-Christian holiday of Yule, or jól, was the most important holiday in Scandinavia and Northern Europe. Originally the observance of the winter solstice, and the rebirth of the sun, it brought about many practices that remain in the Advent and Christmas celebrations today. The Yule season was a time for feasting, drinking, gift-giving, and gatherings, but also the season of awareness and fear of the forces of the dark.
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Lussinatta, the Lussi Night, was December 13. Then Lussi, a female being with evil traits, like a female demon or witch, was riding through the air with her followers, called Lussiferda. This itself might be an echo of the myth of the Wild Hunt, called Oskoreia in Scandinavia, found across Northern, Western and Central Europe.
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Between Lussi Night and Yule, trolls and evil spirits, in some accounts also the spirits of the dead, were thought to be active outside. It was particularly dangerous to be out during Lussi Night. Children who had done mischief had to take special care, since Lussi could come down through the chimney and take them away, and certain tasks of work in the preparation for Yule had to be finished, or else the Lussi would come to punish the household. The tradition of Lussevaka – to stay awake through the Lussinatt to guard oneself and the household against evil, has found a modern form through throwing parties until daybreak. Another company of spirits might come riding through the night around Yule itself, journeying through the air, over land and water.
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A happy Lussevaka to all! May the Wild Hunt pass over your homes without pausing, and your lights banish all spirits of dissension and ill-wishing.
Early Morning Open Thread: St. Lucia DayPost + Comments (25)
This post is in: Music, Open Threads
Okay, it’s not the Nutcracker. Deal.
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