I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BARENAKED LADIES-Barenaked for the Holidays (2004).

Barenaked for the Holidays is one of my favorite Christmas albums of all time.  It is by turns silly, serious, religious (Jewish and Christian) and secular.  It is pro Christmas and anti Christmas and many things in between.  There are cheesy instrumentals, impressive a capella rounds and even a Batman joke.  It’s everything people love (hate) about BNL.

The disc opens with Jingle Bells.  It opens quietly with a somber piano as Steven Page sings the lyrics.  It’s quite lovely.  After a minute and a half, insanity sets in with a wild continuation, as Steven goes bananas.  There’s a drum-only verse and even a verse of Jungle Bells Batman Smells.  It encapsulates all of Christmas in just a few minutes.

“Green Christmas” is a poppy, funny anti-Christmas song that’s super catchy.  It’s sung by Ed Robertson and is one of his latter style concoctions.  I have several versions of this song om various releases.  This is my favorite because when the carolers sing and he shuts the door on them you can hear their voices change.

“I Saw Three Ships” is done on a mandolin and sung first by Kevin Hearn.  Then a rotating cast of the band joins in.

“Hanukkah Blessing” is a wonderful original song by Steven.  It’s incredibly catchy with a nice telling of the Hanukkah story.  It even has a verse in Hebrew.

“O Holy Night” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” are done in a kind of ice rink keyboard–cheesey but a lot of fun cheesey.

I sort of like “Elf’s Lament” because it’s pretty funny, but it’s really rather dark–maybe too dark?   I don’t think I ever realized that the voice I don’t recognize i Michael Bublé, which is pretty insane.

“Snowman” is an original song about how much of a bummer it is being a snowman.

“Do They Know Its Christmas?” I hate the original of this song but I do like this version which takes some of the schmaltz and cheese out of it.  I also like that they mock “thank god it’s them instead do of you!”

“Hanukkah o Hanukkah”  Accordion and guitar play this wonderfully traditional song.

“God rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings” was recorded in 1996 with Sarah McLachlan.  It’s quite nice but feels out of place–like they should have re-recorded it.

“Carol of the Bells” is a trippy synth version with lots of voice-sounds from Steven.

“Footprints” is a slower Ed song–pretty and kind of somber.

“Deck the Stills” is just a genius version of “Deck the Halls.”   How did they every figure out that you could perfectly fit the words “Crosby Stills Nash and Young” into that musical pattern?  I’d love to hear the process for making this one.

“Christmas Time (Oh Yeah)” This is a Kevin song which means its sweet and kind of quiet, but there’s also some wonderful backing vocals (oooohhh yeah).

“Sleigh Ride” is zany scatting version that lasts less than a minute.

“Christmas Pics” is a Jim song with lots of upright bass.  It’s a typically funny and sweet song by Jim.

“I Have a Little Dreidel” is a little goofy sounding on banjo–it seems more hoe-down than Jewish.  But it’s a hoot.

“Wonderful Christmastime” is an instrumental with drum machine and keys but a very funny wah-wah type of keyboard sound that sort of mocks the original.  It ends with them singing happy birthday to Jesus.

“Auld Lang Syne: ends the disc.  It’s a beautiful version with great harmonies, really showcasing that this is a great band who likes to have fun too.

[READ: December 13, 2018] “Every One of My Answers was a Disappointment”

Once again, I have ordered The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my third time reading the Calendar (thanks S.).  I never knew about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh).  Here’s what they say this year

Fourth time’s the charm.

After a restful spring, rowdy summer, and pretty reasonable fall, we are officially back at it again with another deluxe box set of 24 individually bound short stories to get you into the yuletide spirit.

The fourth annual Short Story Advent Calendar might be our most ambitious yet, with a range of stories hailing from eight different countries and three different originating languages (don’t worry, we got the English versions). This year’s edition features a special diecut lid and textured case. We also set a new personal best for material that has never before appeared in print.

Want a copy?  Order one here.

Like last year I’m pairing each story with a holiday disc from our personal collection.

This is the story of an artist, Amelia, who has flown from Vancouver to Toronto to live for a few months.  She was almost forty, recently separated and had just had a major art showing (she sold everything and was basically set for a long time).  She sublets a place from her younger brother’s best friend Sab–neither her brother nor Sab knew about the separation.

Toronto is all parties–at least for Sab.  Sab was supposed to be on a date the night Amelia moved in.  He thought he wouldn’t be home that night, but he found out his date had a boyfriend and so he came home early.  The next night Sab refused to let her stay in: “you’re too attractive to have Far Girl Friday.”  She chastises him: “Do you use that vile line on Tinder?”  But she goes out with him.

While they are out, Amelia runs into an old school friend, Katie.  They agreed to meet up for coffee.  Sab asked Amelia about her.  He said, “I want to possess her.”
“I thought you liked them young.”
“I like them female. Young’s just a bonus.”
“Spoken like a rapist.”
While they are out, Sab tries to hook up with someone else.  By the time Amelia gets home (she walked) he was there (he took a cab).  The woman was already on a date.

A week later it was Sab’s birthday and he three a huge party.  One of the attendees was filmmaker Evelyn Young”
“I always thought you were a white woman.  I have to rethink your films now,” she said.
“I get that a lot.  Are they better or worse when you known I’m an Asian Canadian man?”
“It complicates the gaze.”

While they are talking, a drunk woman (Cam) crashes into them and plays the party game of which dead people would they like to invite to a dinner party.C

Cam says she’d invite Kurt Cobain, Marilyn Monroe and Jesus.

Amelia: “Why does everyone always want to meet Jesus?”
“He’s the Son of God.”
Wouldn’t it be better just to invite God?”

Amelia says she would invite Theodore Wan, an artist who died in 1987, Bette Davis and Oscar Wilde.

There’s a lot of rather funny/weird stuff that happens at the party and pretty much every time Sab is around.  It really adds a lot to the story.

She began to date Evelyn.  And then one night he asked if she wanted to go to a dinner party.  When she opened the door, Theodore Wan was standing there.

I won’t give way any more of how the story ends, but I thought it was wonderful.

Doretta describes the story as “a story about love, loss, grief, and ghosts told in the first person. The ratio of funny to sad is roughly two to one.”  Read more of the Q&A with Doretta Lau.