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Merry Christmas 2023

Every valley shall be exhalted

Merry Christmas 2023. Peace on earth: that would be nice. Goodwill to all: an admirable goal.

Gloria by John Rutter. Our choir performed this a few years ago.

The Dream Isaiah Saw by Glenn Rudolph, text by Thomas Troeger. I’ve used this before. The choir has sung this as well.

Little Drummer Boy (African Tribal Version) – Alex Boye’ ft. Genesis Choir

Every Valley – Handel’s Messiah, A Soulful Celebration

Handel’s Messiah – the Christmas portion. The New York Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Theoretically, these should play in order. The last piece is Hallelujah, traditionally more of an Easter piece, but I’m no purist. I’ve had the joy of singing this at least four times.

Sunday Stealing looks back at 2023

not for the last time

This Sunday Stealing looks back at 2023. But it has very little overlap with my annual reflection which I stole from Kelly.

1. Who did you spend time with this year?

In sheer number of hours: my wife, my church choir, my daughter.

2. Anything change with the pets in your life?

Midnight went to the vet for the first time in nine years. After his previous visit, the old vet refused to see him again. The new vet was convinced that the office could examine him by combining a mild tranquilizer in the cat’s food and a better-trained staff. This proved not to be the case. the new vet concluded, “Your cat is crazy!” We knew that.

3. What was your job like this year? What do you do? Did any roles or assignments change? If you aren’t employed, base this question on your work at home or volunteering

For more than a decade, I was in charge of the Black History Month activities at my church, save for the luncheon. The February 2023 season was particularly difficult to book for various reasons., though it took place. The Anti-Racism Task Force at my church became a continuing committee and will be taking over the event, much to my delight.

4. What was the best book you read this year? How many did you read?

Not many. I really liked The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green

How terribly strange

5. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? Did you feel differently?

I was 70. Three score and ten. Yeah, it was a big deal.

6. What political or social issue stirred you the most?

The risk of the end of democracy in America.

7. Who was the most interesting new person you met?

They know who they are.

8. What changed in your home?

The nob to the basement came off. A whole bunch of little things need to be fixed in our old house.

9. What have you learned throughout the year? (Other than crafts) Can be a new skill or a life lesson.

How did I ever work for a living? I STILL don’t have enough hours in the day!

10. What was your favourite outfit for warm weather? Cooler weather? What do you wear when you dress up? Any new clothes or accessories you really love?

Clothes don’t tend to make a marked difference for me. The only clothes I bought were three DFTBA T-shirts during Pizzamas. No, I’m not going to explain that.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

11. Did you make or give up on any efforts to be healthier? Diet, water, exercise etc?

In the main, no. Pretty status quo, except in December, when my wife makes Christmas cookies.

12. Fave meals, snacks, desserts, restaurants etc? Eat out or eat in?

Early on, my wife and I used to have lunaversary dinners. Then, it went by the wayside. We have attempted to reinstate it. When we do takeout, it’s usually one of the places on the last block of Madison Avenue: Junior’s (bar food), the Curry House (Indian food), and the new pizzeria, the Pizza Lab, which has other foods as well.

13. Did you learn any new crafts or techniques? What was your favourite thing you made?

Nope.

14. What are your hopes and dreams for the new year? (Some suggestions-family, travel, work, lifestyle, hobbies, pets, appearance)

More genealogy. I have plenty of leads I need to follow up on.

15. What was the best new/new-to-you thing you a) bought b) made c) acquired in some other way?

The Reacher Grabber Tool, 32″ Grabbers for Elderly, Lightweight Extra Long Handy Trash Claw Grabber, Mobility Aid Reaching Assist Tool for Trash Pick Up, Nabber, Litter Picker, Arm Extension. It’s great for getting that spice jar that falls between the stove and the kitchen counter. We had one before, but it broke from overuse.

The day before Christmas Eve

Johnny Cash AND Neil Young?

It’s the day before Christmas Eve. Finally! When the seasonal ads start the day after Halloween, whatever joy I might have gotten when I first saw them has dissipated.

Tomorrow is a Sunday, which means church. But tomorrow evening is the night before Christmas, which means church. It reminds me of going to some churches with very long services back in the day.

The Wexford Carol – Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss -My wife has a lot of Alison Krauss CDs. We saw her perform with Union Station in Albany back in 2003. Krauss is one of my wife’s “K girls,” along with Diana Krall. But this song is on a Yo-Yo Ma album, on which he performs with about two dozen other musicians.

Star Carol – Simon and Garfunkel. This song appears on the S&G box set.

Getting Ready for Christmas Day – Paul Simon. Simon is sampling a sermon from 1941, the year he was born.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing -King’s 2021. The descant is by David Willcocks. I’ve been singing from the carol books with his arrangements for about four decades.

Un flambeau, Jeanette Isabella – Loreena McKennitt. I’ll bring a torch for this rendition.

The inverse what?

The Shepherd’s Farewell by Hector Berlioz -Royal Choral Society. I’m a sucker for the inverse pedal point.

Shchedryk (Carol of the Bells) – Bel Canto Choir Vilnius. I like the slower version of this tune.

O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles) at Westminster Abbey. Joyful AND triumphant!

Little Drummer Boy – Johnny Cash and Neil Young. This is a fascinating pairing. I know a LOT of people who HATE this song and/or Neil’s voice, which I suppose is why I embrace it.

E’en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come. My choir sings this almost every Advent.

Silent Night (Oíche Chiúin) – Enya. It’s one of my absolutely favorite versions of this song. It’s stunning.

I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day – fillyjonk writes about this Civil War-era piece based on a Longfellow poem.

New York Times

The Times has a column called The Amplifier by Lindsay Zoladz. A piece earlier in the month pondered: “They’re great songs. Are they Christmas songs?” Here are a few of them.

White Winter Hymnal -Fleet Foxes. “When a non-holiday song is suddenly reclassified in the cultural imagination as a holiday song, often, one must blame Pentatonix.”

So Much Wine – The Handsome Family. It was “Phoebe Bridgers’ pick last year in her annual Christmas covers series… Her version of this ballad of seasonal alcoholism is an out-and-out tear-jerker, but the Handsome Family manages to tell the same story with some dark comic relief.”

‘Tis The Damn Season -Taylor Swift. Zoladz attributes her colleague Joe Coscarelli… “with one of [her] favorite Taylor Swift conspiracy theories: That ‘Evermore,’ her second and decidedly more wintry 2020 album, was originally supposed to be a Christmas-themed release. This finely wrought ode to hometown what-ifs and temporarily rekindled romance is probably the strongest argument for that case.”

Wintering – The 1975. “Here’s another song about regressing at one’s parents’ house for a long weekend, a curiously season-specific track on the 1975’s excellent 2022 album ‘Being Funny in a Foreign Language.’ I often appreciate the details in Matty Healy’s writing, and there are some particularly vivid ones here: a precocious, vegan sister; a fleece that doesn’t warm as well as advertised; a mother with a sore back who objects to being mentioned in the song. ‘I just came for the stuffing, not to argue about nothing,’ Healy sings. ‘But mark my words, I’ll be home on the 23rd.'”

Also – Now I Know: Why Would You Name a Snowman “Parson Brown”?

Movie review: Maestro

Bradley Cooper

I really wanted to see the film Maestro. It is about one of my favorite cultural icons, Leonard Bernstein, who I wrote about in 2018.

The movie was playing at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany. As it turned out, it was for only ONE WEEK before it landed on Netflix. My wife and I were going to go on Saturday, then Tuesday, but life got in the way. I saw it on Thursday’s last day in a theater (a/k/a yesterday).

Bradley Cooper recently earned two Golden Globe nominations for this film, one for Best Director – Motion Picture and a second for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. The biopic was also nominated for Best Motion Picture – Drama. Carey Mulligan earned a nomination for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama.

Yet, while I appreciated Cooper’s effort – as one of the two dozen patrons at my 3:30 showing noted, Cooper engaged in a labor of love – his Bernstein felt clinical, at arm’s length much of the time. As Maxwell Rabb of the Chicago Reader mused, “Cooper’s second film offers a discordant narrative—a blend of compelling moments with flat notes.”

Hannah Brown from the Jerusalem Post noted, “The script” – by Cooper and Josh Singer – “isn’t bad so much as wrong… barely giving a sense of why Bernstein was such an iconic figure on the American cultural landscape, and focusing on some of the blandest and least interesting aspects of his life.”

THE highlight

Likely, the best thing in the movie is Lenny’s conducting the Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony at Ely Cathedral. Cooper spent a lot of time getting Bernstein’s joy just right. Indeed, I enjoyed the film more from that point forward.

Carey Mulligan was a revelation as Lenny’s wife, Felicia Montealegre Cohn. She was sometimes a muse, often a protector of their children, and she tolerated his infidelities but only to a point.

As this article noted, “Maestro jumps between different periods, using black and white and color to depict the contrasting dynamics of Bernstein and Felicia‘s relationship. The intentional use of different aspect ratios in the film symbolizes the differences in their relationship between the two periods.”

I didn’t love Maestro. Still, I’m interested in how others view it. It received an 80% positive score from the critics and 83% from the audience.

Bringing holiday cheer: ARA

…purpose (nia), creativity (kuumba), and faith (imani)

This is the season of bringing holiday cheer. Hanukkah has already come and gone. But Festivus is coming up on December 23. I’m not sure we need the opportunity for the “airing of grievances,” as a fair amount of that has been going on of late. An apology often follows it.

Kwanzaa is coming up, starting on December 26. Each of the seven days of the celebration is dedicated to one of the seven principles of Kwanzaa: unity (umoja).” The idea appeals to me. This story about “teenagers help[ing] seniors learn how to use technology — and form friendships along the way” warms my heart. I saw a similar story recently about teens visiting seniors, and playing chess, Scrabble, and dominoes with them.

Also, “self-determination (kujichagulia), collective responsibility (ujima)” – what a grand idea! – “cooperative economics (ujamaa), purpose (nia), creativity (kuumba), and faith (imani).”

In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice is the 21st or the 22nd, depending on the time zone.

Then there’s another event coming up – what is it again? I have HEARD there’s a “war” against it, but I’m just not seeing it. A war against books, against certain ethnic groups, but… Christmas?

Ask Roger Anything

And whether there is such a conflagration, there’s one sure remedy: Ask Roger Anything. You can ask him about said wars, purpose, creativity, faith, and/or grievances. It would make a lovely holiday gift and won’t cost you a dime. Wotta deal!

And you can also ask Arthur anything. In fact, you can ask us the same questions. However, if you ask us how it is living in New Zealand, his answers will probably be more useful since I’ve never been there.

Whatever you ask, I promise to answer more or less honestly and within the next month or so. Please put your requests in the comments section of this post, email me at rogerogreen (AT) Gmail (DOT) com, or contact me on Facebook. As always, look for the duck.