SOUNDTRACK: PEARL JAM-“Love, Reign o’er Me” (1993).
On December 2, Pearl Jam announced that their fan club holiday singles will be released to streaming services. Their first holiday single was released back in 1991. It was “Let Me Sleep (Christmas Time).” They are rolling out the songs one at a time under the banner 12 Days of Pearl Jam.
These releases are coming out as a daily surprise.
This is an impressively faithful (and really good) cover of the classic song from The Who. I knew the band played this in concert-I’ve seen it once or twice myself–but I never realized they had released a studio version.
It opens with the piano and gong just like the original. There’s some synth washes and that familiar keyboard melody before Eddie starts singing. he sounds powerful like Roger Daltrey including doing a Daltrey scream right out of the gate.
The music is remarkably faithful–the guitars, the keys–everything. The only major difference comes around three and half minutes when there is a keyboard solo and the sound of the keyboard is an usual choice–a little unusual for the rest of the song.
But the guitar solo is right on. Eddie can certain do some manly screams just like Roger and this version totally rocks.
Even the guitar slide before the crashing ending sounds great. A truly fantastic cover.
[READ: December 10, 2019] “Training Module”
This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar. This is my fourth time reading the Calendar. I didn’t know about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh), but each year since has been very enjoyable. Here’s what they say this year
The Short Story Advent Calendar is back! And to celebrate its fifth anniversary, we’ve decided to make the festivities even more festive, with five different coloured editions to help you ring in the holiday season.
No matter which colour you choose, the insides are the same: it’s another collection of expertly curated, individually bound short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.
(This is a collection of literary, non-religious short stories for adults. For more information, visit our Frequently Asked Questions page.)
As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check back here to read an exclusive interview with the author.
Want a copy? Order one here.
I’m pairing music this year with some Christmas songs that I have come across this year.
This story was a powerful indictment of men, written in a compelling and interesting manner–as a sexual harassment training manual.
It is a series of questions with multiple choice answers. There is no point in trying to summarize or rewrite them because they are perfectly written. So i’ll just give some examples here.
The first one:
You’re an adult man of indeterminate age in between subway cars in 1967, and you see a six-year-old girl with her mother. Do you:
a) quickly move to the next car, as any sensible person between cars on a moving train might, or
b) expose yourself to the child.
Moving on:
You’re a bunch of different adult men of indeterminate age on any form of public transportation in Manhattan between 1967 and 1979. Are you:
a) trying to get somewhere or
b) looking for little girls to masturbate at?
Next comes a series of questions in which you are a teenage boy hanging out with other teenage boys in different situations. Each has similar answers: Do you:
a) continue to talk amongst yourselves and say nothing [to the third-grade girl]
b) say good morning in an unthreateningly friendly way like you live in Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and not real Manhattan in 1969.
c) whistle like you’re a bunch of sailors on leave in a movie from the fifties and not real Manhattan in 1969 or
d) call her baby and tell her she looks real nice in her minidress and ask her if she wants to hang out with you … shoot the breeze, smoke up, or whatever?
Just when you think the questions will continue in this vein, Crane mixes it up with this:
You’re a man in 2019 and your job requires you to take a training module and the first five questions are weirdly specific and from ancient times that seem utterly irrelevant to your workplace. Do you:
a) keep going.
The story returns to scenarios in 1969 and 1970. There are men on subways and other transportation, doormen, teachers, parents. Like, “you’re the father of two grade-school girls in 1970.” While the girls play, do you watch “with a total creeper vibe that the (now seven-year-old) little friend maybe recognizes from that guy between subway cars last year.”
Moving on: You’re a 22 year-old who runs a head shop. Do you tell the seventh-grade girls who come in that you don’t serve minors. Or do you start a long term relationship with them?
You are a teacher who finds one (or all) of the girls attractive. How do you handle your desires?
More and more scenarios until
You’re a man in 2019 and you’re still here:
a) because you’re starting to get it, but
B) some bitter bitch is obviously fucking with me.
Technology comes into play:
Your’re forty and you own a telephone in 1975 do you call numbers at random and breathe heavily and maybe mumble at the same time?
You’re a man on MySpace in 2005/Facebook in 2009/Instagram in 2012. Do random women you don’t know want you to follow their private accounts? Y/N
You’re a college boy in 1980. Does no sometimes mean yes?
As we get closer to the present, the examples are of older men at parties and work-related events where answers include lingering touches, refusing to allow the woman to leave and even “after getting numerous nos to your numerous asks [do you] try to follow her out when she finally does leave?
Finally, there are some true or false questions: You’re one of the good ones?
But the kicker comes in the extra credit section. It is 2016 and a man who seems like he would epically fail this training module (or any training module) is actually a candidate for president. And t he internet is proving to you that things you believed were universally regarded are easily dismissed.
So yeah. Discuss.
There’s not much I can to add to this. You will read this (and you should) and feel something. One hopes you will also do something about it.
The calendar says, It’s December 10. Elizabeth Crane, author of The History of Great Things, forgot to study but aced the test anyway.
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