I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: ANDY WILLIAMS-Merry Christmas (1965).

Man, I love some Andy Williams at Christmastime.  I don’t really know much about him at other times of the year and I imagine that I would never listen to him, but he is one of the voices of Christmas. I like his voice so much even if I don’t love all the songs on this record.

His “Sleigh Ride” is the essential version–boppy and fun–you can imagine zipping along on a sleigh with jingle bells bouncing along.

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is a bit slow, but “Winter Wonderland” sounds great.  His “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” is fun–he can really belt out those notes and “Silver Bells” is also a highlight.

The choice of “My Favorite Things” (from The Sound of Music) is unexpected, as it has nothing to do with Christmas, but his rendition is wonderful.  “Christmas Holiday” is a song I don’t know but Williams belts it out as well.  “Do You Hear What I Hear” is also great.

“Some Children See Him” is a fascinating song that I haven’t heard too much (although Rivers Cuomo does a cover of it(!)).  It’s all about how children from different countries see Jesus a different way (a rather progressive idea).

“Little Altar Boy” is a slow and somewhat ponderous song that I’m unfamiliar with.  The final two songs “Mary’s Little Boy Child” and “The Bells of St. Mary” are pretty but not fun (as you would assume from the titles).

So I love about half the disc and like most of the rest.  Williams has an earlier Christmas album as well.  I think I’d like to pick and choose between the two discs for a great Williams collection.

[READ: December 23, 2014] The Night Before Christmas

I had intended to read all Dickens stories this week.  And then my latest New Directions Pearl arrived and it was this one: The Night Before Christmas (also translated as Christmas Eve) by Nikolai Gogol.  Well, that put a change in my plans.

I don’t know much about Gogol, although apparently he wrote only short stories (no novels).  My book has a quote from Dostoevsky that says, “We all came out of Gogol’s overcoat.”  So imagine my surprise when this night before Christmas is actually about witches and the devil and affairs with beautiful women!

The story is set in Dikanka, Ukraine.  It is Christmas Eve and, according to legend, that is the night in which the devil is free to perform tricks and torment people.  Before the devil comes, we see a witch flying around the sky collecting stars.  The devil decides that he is going to steal the moon–this will make it very dark so he can create even more mischief.  The moon proves to be very hot, and he winds up juggling it a few times until he gets it into his pocket.

The devil decides to get back at Vakula, the village blacksmith.  In addition to being the blacksmith, he is also an artist and he has painted some really cruel pictures of the devil on the side of the church.  And the devil is pretty miffed about this.  So he sets an elaborate plan in motion.

If I knew more about Russian history, this story may have been even more enjoyable (I don’t know much about Cossacks and Ukrainians and their degrees of piousness).

There is indeed a Cossack (I don’t really know if that is significant in the story) named Tchub.  His daughter Oksana is the most beautiful woman around and Vakula is madly in love with her.  She is obnoxiously vain and we see her admiring herself in the mirror quite a bit.

Meanwhile, Solokha the witch has many visitors this eve.  First, the devil comes to visit her, but in a scene worthy of the worst sitcoms (we have Gogol to thank for this?) he hides in a sack when there is a knock on the door.  It is the mayor. He speaks with the witch briefly until he has to hide in a sack when there’s another knock on the door.  This time it is the sacristan.  But he must hide in a sack when there’s another knock on the door.  This time it is Tchub (who is something of a fool).  When Vakula knocks next, Tchub hides in the sack with the sacristan.  It is not played for a big farce, despite the potential, although it is pretty funny, especially the sack with the two of them in it.

Vakula decides to help out his mother so he carries the sacks away.  On the way he runs into Oksana.  She says she would only be with him if he could get her the Tsarina’s slippers.  Then she and her girlfriends make fun of him and he says he is going to run off and hang himself.  He drops the heavier sacks and takes off with the devil still in the last sack.

He decides to go visit Puzaty Patsyuk, a local Zaporozhian Cossack (I’m not sure what that means).  He is rumored to be in league with the devil.  He is also supremely fat and when Vakula stops in to see him, Puzaty is seen eating without moving his arms, or even his head–his food is exactly at mouth level.  Later the food just flies right into his mouth.  He asks Puzaty for help finding the devil, but when Puzaty says to look on his shoulder, Vakula doesn’t know what he’s talking about until he puts the sack down and the devil pops out.

The devil thinks that he has captured Vakula, but Vakula grabs the devils’ tail and threatens him with a cross until the devil agrees to take him to the Tsarina’s (Catherine the Great) in St. Petersburg.

The end of the story has some comic moments with Catherine the Great and some misunderstandings as well as some mocking of the devil (there’s even a poo poo joke).

This version was translated by Constance Garnett.  In looking at other versions, I see that the translations are somewhat different (Tchub is translated as Choub, for instance).  I felt like this translation was rather formal in style and I wonder if a looser translation would be even funnier.