Twelve Days of Music

I do listen to Christmas music, so decided that since most of my friends who post Christmas music do it in the run-up to the holiday, I would post for the Twelve Days of Christmas.

To start, on the First Day of Christmas I posted the video that started things for Straight, No Chaser.

On the Second Day of Christmas I posted two versions of the now-controversial "Baby it's Cold Outside".

On the Third Day of Christmas, I posted two light show videos, one of "Dueling Jingle Bells" and the other based upon "Star Wars".  I thought of posting a third, but worried that people would expect more and more music videos for each day, and I wasn't prepared to post a total of 36 videos!

On the Fourth Day of Christmas, a classic performed as a Gregorian chant, in Latin of course.

On the Fifth Day of Christmas, I went alliterative and did a Firehouse Video, plus linked an article about a number of other videos by fire departments around the country.

On the Sixth Day of Christmas, I decided that since Ukraine is in the news (AGAIN/still), I would focus on a song from there, with a couple of variations and one from the frontline of conflict.

On the Seventh Day of Christmas, it being New Year's Eve, a song I think encapsulates the feeling.  And of course the traditional one most people (pretend/attempt) to sing, and then a list of classical music for the occasion.

On the Eighth Day of Christmas, a favorite video of an unexpected holiday song, "Riu Chiu".

On the Ninth Day of Christmas, the commas nerd in me enjoyed this speculation about "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen".

On the Tenth Day of Christmas, Tom Lehrer's "A Christmas Carol".

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas, two high schools' versions of The Silent Monks performing parts of Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus.

And on the Twelfth (and final) Day of Christmas, "Gaudete" a song I learned to sing (but mostly listened to others sing) while engaged in medieval recreation activities.  Plus a bonus about the National Parks from the U.S. Forest Service.

🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶

And I don't have a recording of this (just the first lines from the Monkees' Christmas show), but it's one my family sings every year:

Eight nights of light.

It was a stunning beginning to the holiday as we learned of the terrorist attack in Bondi Beach.  And the terrorism continues throughout the world, with synagogues and other Jewish buildings receiving bomb threats, as so many of them have in the last two-plus years since the attacks of October 7, 2023.  Of course these attacks didn't start then, but they have tripled and multiplied even more than that.  It's as if the attacks let people feel empowered to bring their anti-Jewish views and intentions into the streets, the gathering places, the eyes of the world.

And there is the other side, which are people coming together in support, to do good deeds to overcome the evil that is happening, to show that just as the candles each evening overcome the darkness of the night, so too can the goodness in the world overcome the darkness that threatens to wash over us.

One of the observations in my rabbis' Hannukah message to the congregation really resonates with me:  "Perhaps, the miracle of Chanukah is not that there was enough oil for the menorah to last eight days, but rather, that on the first day, when they saw how much oil was left, that the Maccabees had enough faith to go ahead and light it anyway."  This is something I've often thought as well: the miracle is that their faith held despite everything that had happened to them.  In many ways, that is how it feels to be Jewish today.

These are the videos I posted this year:

If Lin-Manuel Miranda Wrote a Hanukah Musical - Jared B. Goldsmith

A 'Wicked' Hannukah - Six13  (and the Maccabeats' one seems even more applicable this year)

I'm Spending Chanukah in Santa Monica - Tom Lehrer (because it's Tuesday) performed by Honest 2 Betsy and Ravi Round the World

Puppy for Hannukah - Daveed Diggs

Happy Hanukkah - Matisyahu (it's a live session so the audio isn't great)

Dancing with the Stars' special dance, the first time they have celebrated Hanukah, plus Celebrating Channukah on the International Space Station

Burn - the Maccabeats, one of my favourite Chanukah videos

On the eighth day, two with 'eight' in the name, Ocho Kandelikas (in Ladino) and Eight Nights, One Heart

Again this year I bought the ChemKnits Creations Channukah box for myself:

Some days came with stitch markers or a little light.  On the bottom photo, it is Day 1 on the far right and across to Day 8 on the far left, plus the bonus skein at the top.  This way each of the miniskeins is 10gm and the extra is 20gm to give a total of 100gms in fingering or DK weight.  My favourites this year are Day 7 (sadly, sold out) followed by Day 5 and the bonus skein.  Now to figure out what to make.

Cool Licks for Hot Days.

Not of the frozen treat variety, but the musical variety, while the temperatures are triple-digiting:

Too Darn Hot  (Cole Porter)

Summer in the City  (Lovin' Spoonful)

Summertime from "Porgy and Bess", and Joplin's version.

I planned to post more songs, but it's hot and I didn't.  😁   Also, I went to Dallas for some plays, and back again.  It's also really hot there - but surprisingly, not as hot as the east coast is suffering.

"Slave Letters" at MBS Productions

"Cry Havoc" at Lakeside Community Theater

"Curtains", a musical, at Allen Contemporary Theater

And of course, masks with quotes and facts:

  

  

As always in March

At the beginning of the week, FitBit gave me another badge, which made me feel a little less like a lump.  I've struggled a couple of days to meet the 10,000 steps challenged, and to move each hour.

At the end of the week, I headed to Dallas:

Once again, as a manager in Performer Products, although if the other manager had been able to attend, I would have shifted to being a swing volunteer and supported many other areas.  I did volunteer for the Fun Run - not as a runner, of course (although they offer a "Zero-K" option for people who just want swag) but handing out packets and personning the bag check.

This year I also received a medal.

So these are photos of the masks I wore during the trip, since mostly I take and post videos that allow my mother and others to experience the event.

I also wore appropriate socks, such as these on Friday for the opening of NTIF:

The traditional eight.

This year, in addition to posting a Channukah song every evening, I posted a Channukah image to my social media feed.  In addition to the two I posted earlier, I used these:

A reminder that there are still October 7th hostages.

This is my absolute favourite.

This year's songs were:

• Tom Lehrer's "I'm Spending Hannukah in Santa Monica"
• The Maccabeats' Wicked tribute, "Defying Gravity (We'll Rise Above)"
• Six13's Taylor Swift tribute from last year, "Era-lution of Taylor Swift"
• And their tribute to Wicked this year, "A Wicked Chanukah"
• A new-to-me band from Ukraine doing Woody Guthrie's "Honeyky Hanuka"
• Y-Studs didn't follow the "Wicked" pattern, but went with The Jacksons
• A new one that I wasn't sure I'd like, but did at the end:  "Tomorrow"
• Finishing with a favourite of mine, "Burn" by The Maccabeats

Plus a bonus video about those gifts given over the Twelve Days of Christmas.

This year my daily Channukah treat was a gold-foil-wrapped sugarplum from Andy's Orchard.  I haunted their website until orders were available, and snatched up goodies (including some other dried fruits, and dark chocolate-dipped apricots for my parents) before they sold out.

'Scaping

I love garlic scapes.

When I can obtain them in the spring, I often use them as a vegetable in various things: stir-fries, simmered with meat or vegetables or rice, roasted, and anything else that appeals.  I know you can make pesto with them, but often eat the scapes before I can accomplish it.

A friend of mine posted about making garlic scapes pesto in early June, and I decided that if I could find enough of them, I would make some this year.  His 'recipe' is:  "Basic proportions/ingredients: One bunch of garlic scapes, two cups of shelled pistachios, two cups of fresh Parmesan cheese, 1.5 cup olive oil, basil, parsley, lemon juice, salt & pepper to taste."  I tasted some of his while visiting, and decided that I wanted less cheese (or a milder cheese) and parsley instead of basil.

I used the following:  About 1.5 bunches of garlic scapes, Cheese Bros. Fratello, less than a cup of olive oil then canola oil to get the consistency I wanted, half a large bunch of flat-leaf parsley, a cup of pistachios (because the store didn't have pre-shelled and I got tired of shelling), and I forgot lemon juice.

The pesto is about what I wanted, but very garlicky.  Which I like, but I have to remember to tone it down for others, or if I am going out within a few hours and don't want to have too offensive breath.😩💨

In other news, I made a hat before going on a very fast trip to Dallas:

   

Yarn is Up North Yarns DK in "Love from Peter Max".

The trip was to cash in my winnings at the Dallas Winds Star Spangled Spectacular, getting to sit onstage during the first half, and set off some of the streamer cannon during the finale.

Everybody was very sweet and it was a lot of fun, and being onstage was an entirely different level of surroundsound.

They had holiday-appropriate foods available pre-concert.  I split the cupcake with a friend, who had his own hot dog.

Another year of music.

Yes, I went to help at the North Texas Irish Festival this past weekend.  When I arrived Tuesday night it was cold and rainy, but quickly warmed up on Friday and was sunny all weekend - perfect festival weather.  I did my usual working and running errands and repeat all weekend, with a little bit of shopping at a local soap supplier:

Bath bombs (they also had some with gnomes
or shamrocks or hats), lip balms, and soaps.

I also helped with check-in at the annual 5K Fun Run, and while they ran out of the medal-cum-bottleopener (in addition to runners/walkers they had a "0K" version where you could just sign up to get the T-shirt and goody bag) I was given a T-shirt:

There is a cidery in Deep Ellum that provided this year's beverage (in addition to breweries and the inevitable Guinness) and it is very tasty.  I would be drinking it regularly if I lived there.

Once again I stayed at the main hotel and it was crazier than usual because the National Cheerleader Championships were in town and they shared the hotel.  Quite a mixture of high-energy people!  This also meant that both of my flights were about 2/3 full of cheerleaders and their parents and coaches.

Hurrah for earplugs.

Of course I wore masks all weekend, with Saturday's noting the March 2, 1836 founding of the Republic of Texas.

#OnThisDay in 1562 was chartered the entity
that would become Trinity College, Dublin.

I worked a bit for my real job on Friday, and then Saturday morning before going to help at the Fun Run, and Sunday evening.  Then I took off Monday morning to help set-build for the Plague Mask Players' show, "Taming of the Shrew".

As we were loading in the set pieces and getting organized.

I didn't do a lot, especially as I had to leave noonish for my return flight (I could have taken a later connection, but direct flights are preferable especially during work hours), but it was good to be back doing the kind of stage stuff I love.

"A long, long time ago......."

Some of the people in my Sunday evening online knitting (and other stuff) group are old enough to remember "The Day The Music Died".  I am not, and at least one other person in the group tonight wasn't.  But several persons said they did.

AP file photo of the memorial.

Sixty-five years ago yesterday, the small plane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and JP 'The Big Bopper' Richardson, crashed during a snowstorm near Clear Lake, Iowa.  All three performers, plus the pilot, Roger Peterson, were killed.  The story has been told in films as well as Don McLean's classic song.

Because they died before I was born, I didn't know much about Buddy Holly until the biopic came out when I was a teenager.  But I did know Ritchie Valens - or, some of his music - because I spent part of my childhood in Texas, and on the local stations "La Bamba" and "Donna" others of his songs were in regular rotation.  I remember being surprised when the film came out a decade later because it seemed to me he was alive, or why was his music on the radio all the time when I was a child?

That's what classic music is all about.  It doesn't die.

Twelve days of "The 12 Days".

I kept stumbling across versions of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and wondered whether I could find one for every day between Boxing Day and Twelfth Night, similar to how some people post a carol a day for the 24 days prior to Christmas, or my Hannukah series.

As I collected, I found more than twelve.  These are the versions I posted:

The First Day:  Pentatonix

The Second Day:  The Choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle

The Third Day:  The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge  (that is rehearsal; this is a performance)

The Fourth Day:  Little Action Kids (I love their turtledoves!)

The Fifth Day:  Exeter University Singers

The Sixth Day:  The King's Singers and The Tabernacle Choir

The Seventh Day:  Angel City Chorale

The Eighth Day:  A purely instrumental version by Rory Hoffman

The Ninth Day:  Tenebrae Choir

The Tenth Day:  Young People's Chorus of NYC

The Eleventh Day:  A doubleheader of fun ones from Straight No Chaser and these guys.

The Twelfth Day:  A short one.

Also, if you total up everything that arrives (some people dispute whether you send the previous day's items again, or just the ones for that day, but I like maths), your true love receives:

• 12 Drummers Drumming
• 22 Pipers Piping
• 30 Lords a-Leaping
• 36 Ladies Dancing
• 40 Maids a-Milking (plus presumably their cows or goats)
• 42 each of Swans a-Swimming and Geese a-Laying
• 40 Gold Rings
• 36 Calling Birds
• 30 French Hens
• 22 Turtledoves
• 12 Partridges in Pear Trees

No wonder so many people like Frederick Silver's "The 12 Days AFTER Christmas"!
And "12 Days of Christmas - A correspondence by John Julius Norwich".

This year, the cost of all those items would be $46,729.86, without shipping.

Alan Sherman updated the song in the 1950's or 1960's.

I chose an appropriate bar of soap to use during the Twelve Days of Christmas:

Eight nights of light and music.

Technically the first night wasn't, because I was in a hotel and couldn't light candles.  But every other night - three at friends' house and four in my own - I lit the hannukiah, said the incantation, and prayed.

My friends are Russian Orthodox and heard of Channukah, of course, but didn't know much about it.  They were interested in the process of setting and lighting the candles, and happy with the pieces of gelt (chocolate money) and gummy candy I brought for them.  I explained the dreidel game, but we didn't play - too busy going to plays and visiting.

It has been a rough Hanukah for many Jews this year, with the attacks by Hamas on October 7th and then the attacks by much of the world as Israel retaliated and defended itself.  So much of the world has been outspoken against Israel, and even supporting Hamas in its declaration to wipe Israel and all Jews off the face of the earth: Nazis of the 21st Century.  It is scary and disheartening.

Like many Jews, I became more open in who I am.  I wore my "Channukah Makes Me Jump For Oy!" sweatshirt last weekend, while at plays and otherwise.  I've been posting the Jewish side of things on Facebook and responding to some friends who are blindly supporting the Palestinians as if they are the only indigenous persons in the region, overlooking the fact that "Palestine" is a name imposed on the area by colonizers, first the Romans and later the British Mandate.  If you look at the historical record, the area was called by other names, which is part of the reason it wasn't chosen for the new country that became Israel.  As Golda Meir pointed out, until 1948 anybody of any religion - Jewish, Muslim, or Christian - who lived in that area carried a Palestinian passport.

Every night, I've posted at least one song.  This year's list:

Night 1:  Rise Up

Night 2:  A Star Wars Channukah because a cousin posted this picture to me:

Night 3:  Burn

Night 4:  Several songs based upon Taylor Swift's oeuvre:  Era-lution of Taylor Swift, the full version of the last song on that compilation - Chanukah ("Shake It Off"), and You Can Light With Me.

Night 5:  Shine  (and by great coincidence, since the video shows people being swabbed to go into a bone marrow donor database, the next day I received notice that "[o]n Sep 30, 2014 you helped facilitate a donor drive in Chicago at <location>. We are thrilled to inform you that a donor recruited at that drive has transplanted a 61 year old man battling Myelodysplastic Disorder."  Yes, I have also been swabbed and am in the database.  It's the second time I've received a notice that somebody found a lifesaving match thanks to the donor drive we held.)

Night 6:  Elton Johnukah and Candles On The Sill

Night 7:  West Side Chanukah Story

Night 8:  From the recent March for Israel, a version of Am Israel Chai ("The People Of Israel Live" or "We're Still Here") - so necessary in the last two-plus months.  And the future.

This year, Hannukah has so much more resonance for the Jewish people.  And I have so much I want to say, but it all gets choked together and I cannot type clearly.  Maybe in another post.

The second ten of 2023

Continuing the gratitude list for this year:

Day 11:  Thankful to our veterans, as on any Armistice/Veterans Day.  On the fourth I went to the memorials in DC for those who died in service, today is for those who returned.  Not all of them are whole, and not all treated well, but as the saying goes:

So many who returned from overseas did not return whole, either in mind or body or both.  It's startling to me to hear about how they were treated, and are treated to this day - not with honor, but with disdain.

Day 12:  Thankful for people who do art, and crafters, and those who support them.  I participated in a local arts & crafts show, and while I didn't sell much, I did sell a few things.  People were very kind in their comments and suggestions, so I may try again next year.  I participated several years in Open Studios Hartford through MakeHartford and it was discouraging, so this was a change - not a huge one, I didn't sell out, but I received good feedback, so I'll see how next year goes.

Day 13: It was World Kindness Day on November 13th, so I am Thankful for those who remember that kindness is important, and even more for those who express it.

Day 14: Thankful for musicians, and all musical performers. I grew up surrounded by them, and have gotten to know many more as my life progressed. I spent part of the evening listening to one of my friends perform as the musical guest on this podcast tonight. It was a special treat during the pandemic for my grandmother and me to listen to his weekly mini-concerts, and when she died I received the CDs he'd sent her, which she enjoyed listening to on the CD player I sent to her so she could have music between the concerts.

Day 15: Thankful for heat, a warm house, and people keeping the heating system running. Not that it needed anything special, but it was the yearly check of the system and I know there are many people without a warm home, so it makes me thankful that I have one.

Day 16: continuing the theme: Thankful for clean water and indoor plumbing. Again, many people do not have these modern advantages. (Also thankful that I can do minor plumbing work myself, and know people to call upon when it's beyond my skillset.)

Day 17:  Thankful for the U.S. Postal Service, and the postal systems in other countries.  Yes, there are other delivery services, some of which are more or less reliable, but in the beginning was postal systems.  I prefer them, for the pretty stamps, with holiday and birthday and congratulatory options, and commemoratives, and so on.  Plus there is something very nice about writing by hand, or even typing and adding pictures, and putting it in an envelope, and sending.  These days when so much happens electronically, a paper letter or card really seems a treat.

Day 18:  Thankful for symphony orchestras and smaller orchestras and wind bands, and conductors who really connect to the audiences.  I went to hear the North Carolina Symphony tonight and during the Leonard Bernstein piece, the conductor encouraged the audience to add appropriately, which we did with enthusiasm.  My snapping may not be great anymore, but I can shout "Mambo!" on cue.

Day 19:  Thankful for the interwebs and social media and all the ways to stay connected, from the friend on the other side of the world whose post inspired the previous blog post about six-word bios, to the online programs I attend from organizations all over the world (and kudos to those that didn't stop when the pandemic eased and most returned to in-person events), to the groups that meet online for an hour or so of chat and community.  Plus all the places I have visited that I wouldn't have seen otherwise, and the people who show me new foods and methods of travel and places to explore and buy books or museums that aren't in the usual guidebooks.  And people who do cooking and crafting and have intrigued and inspired me.  It may not be what the founders thought of when they set DARPANET loose, but as with any such thing, there are many good things among the dross and I love finding them.

Day 20:  Thankful that I can cook.  I am always surprised to learn that not everybody can.  My mother made sure we kids knew early how to take care of ourselves, including cooking.  When I haven't had much money, I still could eat, and fairly well.  I can cook and bake for others, too.  Many people think it takes too much time to cook, but I find that going out and sitting in a restaurant and then getting home again takes more time than I need to cook many of my meals - and I can cook in my pyjamas.  Restaurants tend to frown on people in pyjamas.  And I feel less wasteful because I don't mind eating leftovers (sometimes using them as starter parts of a different meal) and I compost the bits that cannot be eaten.

Guava Cake (Queque de Guyaba) that I baked for an event
tomorrow.  The glaze is pink from the guava nectar.