12/11 Open Thread: 14 Days 'til Xmas

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steepslope

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So, gonna start with the secret of doing secret Santa properly:

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Something for all the Tulsi fans:

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And since there is certain to be both eating and swearing, as well as the ages old class warfare that the elites wage, in part by accusing the hoi polloi of indulging in it:

Since I won't be here to catch any flack for this, I'll just toss in some tunes:

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So, uh, about Saturnalie, or Yule, or midwinter, or solstice by any other name, just because they're the original holidays doesn't mean they're the best. From a marketing perspective, they are small potates, perhaps because they've been inadequately marketed. Heh.

Title Image is steep slope

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It's an open thread, so have at it. The floor is yours
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Yuk, yuk.
Have a safe journey!

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Lookout's picture

What a crass commercial holiday they've made of Christmas....a true capitalist celebration with a 'more for me' mentality.

We've been playing a few carols at my weekly session. I like the old ones which we play as instrumentals - All of which have much older roots than as Xmas carols
Greensleeves https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdjYlrvVFNo
Good King Wenceslas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jPZYc7vGoQ
God rest ye merry gentlemen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEdthrnMGUo

I sing one fairly rare carol "I saw three ships come sailing in"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5LROczmJHg

And of course much of the regular carol fare is done...Silent night, and so on. This is the one time of year you play these sorts of pieces. Kinda fun.

Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season and finding fellowship and good cheer with friends and family. Today we're gathering with friends on the mountain...grassfed beef producers. Supposed to be a round of Frisbee golf, but it's pretty cold out there today.

Thanks for the OT el. Hope you all have a good one.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Dawn's Meta's picture

out this time of year:
[video:https://youtu.be/Qbi2rMQveHo]

Lyrics
It's Christmastime in Washington
The Democrats rehearsed
Gettin' into gear for four more years
Things not gettin' worse
Republicans drink whiskey neat
And thanked their lucky stars
They said, "He cannot seek another term
They'll be no more FDRs"

I sat home in Tennessee
Just staring at the screen
With an uneasy feeling in my chest
I'm wonderin' what it means

So come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow
If you run into Jesus
Maybe he can help you out
Come back Woody Guthrie to us now

I followed in your footsteps once
Back in my travelin' days
Somewhere I failed to find your trail
Now I'm stumblin' through the haze
But there's killers on the highway now
And a man can't get around
So I sold my soul for wheels that roll
Now I'm stuck here in this town

Come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow
If you run into Jesus
Maybe he can help us out
Come back Woody Guthrie to us now

There's foxes in the hen house
Cows out in the corn
The unions have been busted
Their proud red banners torn
To listen to the radio
You'd think that all was well
But you and me and Cisco know
It's going straight to hell

So come back, Emma Goldman
Rise up, old Joe Hill
The barricades are goin' up
They cannot break our will
Come back to us, Malcolm X
And Martin Luther King
We're marching into Selma
As the bells of freedom ring
So come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow

Austin 2000 - with an introduction: prescient.
[video:https://youtu.be/kqDwB4cQyLQ]

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A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

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Lookout's picture

@Dawn's Meta

Thanks. Might be fun to learn.

I like this one too...based on a true story.
John McCutchin's Christmas in the Trenches

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9coPzDx6tA]

My name is Francis Tolliver. I come from Liverpool.
Two years ago the war was waiting for me after school.
To Belgium and to Flanders, to Germany to here,
I fought for King and country I love dear.

It was Christmas in the trenches where the frost so bitter hung.
The frozen field of France were still, no Christmas song was sung.
Our families back in England were toasting us that day,
their brave and glorious lads so far away.

I was lyin' with my mess-mates on the cold and rocky ground
when across the lines of battle came a most peculiar sound.
Says I "Now listen up me boys", each soldier strained to hear
as one young German voice sang out so clear.

"He's singin' bloddy well you know", my partner says to me.
Soon one by one each German voice joined in in harmony.
The cannons rested silent. The gas cloud rolled no more
as Christmas brought us respite from the war.

As soon as they were finished a reverent pause was spent.
'God rest ye merry, gentlemen' struck up some lads from Kent.
The next they sang was 'Stille Nacht". "Tis 'Silent Night'" says I
and in two toungues one song filled up that sky.

"There's someone commin' towards us" the front-line sentry cried.
All sights were fixed on one lone figure trudging from their side.
His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shone on that plain so bright
as he bravely strode, unarmed, into the night.

Then one by one on either side walked into no-mans-land
with neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand.
We shared some secret brandy and wished each other well
and in a flare-lit soccer game we gave 'em hell.

We traded chocolates, cigarettes and photgraphs from home
these sons and fathers far away from families of their own.
Young Sanders played his squeeze box and they had a violin
this curious and unlikely band of men.

Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more.
With sad farewells we each began to settle back to war.
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wonderous night
"whose family have I fixed within my sights?"

It was Christmas in the trenches where the frost so bitter hung.
The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung.
For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war
had been crumbled and were gone for ever more.

My name is Francis Tolliver. In Liverpool I dwell.
Each Christmas come since World War One I've learned it's lessons well.
That the ones who call the shots won't be among the dead and lame
and on each end of the rifle we're the same.

— John Mccutcheon, "Christmas in the Trenches"

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Dawn's Meta
Thanks!

I followed in your footsteps once
Back in my travelin' days
Somewhere I failed to find your trail
Now I'm stumblin' through the haze
But there's killers on the highway now
And a man can't get around
So I sold my soul for wheels that roll
Now I'm stuck here in this town

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Dawn's Meta's picture

@QMS singer/songwriters except in the loosest sense.

Martin Sexton does a lot of covers, but the talent of voice and guitar. I is just so good.

Steve Earle, for sheer good volume, and it seems one of the early musicians like Keith Richards, who made it through, marriages (many), drugs (lots) and not taking care of himself. Shocking he's still here.

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A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

Some of the old ones strike me as beautiful. They can hint at the better part of our nature.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@randtntx

It's usually heavily abbreviated (just verses 1, 2, 6 and 7) - partly because verse 5 makes the context painfully clear.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@TheOtherMaven
this is a good example
of what the toll sounds
for peace unites

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lotlizard's picture

dinner in a restaurant the other night. Yum! Traditional old-timey German fare at Christmas, whereby goose seems more common here in eastern Germany than I remember it being during my decades in western Germany.

Could be because a lot of geese raised for eating come from Poland? So, unlike many other fancy holiday items, they were cheap and available even back in the day when trade was restricted to fellow socialist-bloc countries?

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@lotlizard
Wild turkeys across the road scratching. Just pinged a squirrel off the bird feeder with a sling shot. Fire in the wood stove. Braising cabbage, maple glazing roasted carrots and marinating a beef steak. Ahh.

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Dawn's Meta's picture

Steve wrote this when he was really out of control on drugs, and yet it is so simple and a Christmas song which should be sung.

[video:https://youtu.be/f0CAIx1cmUg]

The blurb from the poster. I like this for the strength back in Steve's voice; the layering of instruments from Dobro, to Mandolin, to fiddle and guitar. Really a great version of this song.

Once upon a time, in a far off land
Wise men saw a sign and set out aross the sand
Songs of praise to sing, they travelled day and night
Precious gifts to bring, guided by the light

They chased a brand new star, ever towards the west
Across the mountains far, but when it came to rest
They scarce believed their eyes, they'd come so many miles
And this miracle they prized was nothing but a child

Nothing but a child could wash those tears away
Or guide a weary world into the light of day
And nothing but a child could help erase those miles
So once again we all can be children for awhile

Now all around the world, in every little town
Everyday is heard a precious little sound
And every mother kind and every father proud
Looks down in awe to find another chance allowed

Nothing but a child could wash those tears away
Or guide a weary world into the light of day
And nothing but a child could help erase those miles
So once again we all can be children for awhile
Nothing but a child

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A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

Raggedy Ann's picture

Anxiously awaiting my break from work. Will be off 2.5 weeks - hooray! The only thing I do for xmas is do a nice dinner, take my grandkids on a dedicated shopping excursion to buy what THEY want, and give a small amount of cash to my adult children. Hubby and I don't exchange - I buy what I want and so does he. I help the grandkids all year and the grown children don't need anything from me, but a nice bit of cash might buy them dinner out.

American consumerism is out of control. I'm hopping the GenZers can change that narrative. Quien sabe?

Have a great hump day, everyone! Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Benny's picture

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One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.--Tennyson

@Benny
Says it all.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Benny's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

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One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.--Tennyson

'lost in our (personal) fear of what's different' (collective)
Maybe talking down to georgie's level?

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