Happy 2013

I just wanted to take a minute and wish everyone a Happy New Year. In many ways it was one of the more interesting New Years Eves I can remember, both personally and in the news. I hope you all had an entertaining one too.

No sports or politics today because both the NHL and the Republican Party have me totally irritated. I'm not going to get into the hockey because they are meeting now and there still might be some news today. I will say I think any freshmen intro to government class could do a better job of running the country than the wingnuts are. But anyway I said no politics today.

I made a fleeting attempt at writing this at breakfast this morning when somebody reminded me that this is the start of the fourth year of my little project. When I started writing this blog I didn't know if it would last three weeks let alone three years. It has changed dramatically over the years and at times I go off on wild tangents but I do still enjoy it. I have no idea where it will go this year other than to say I really do want to write more about art, it just seems like something else is always happening that needs my undivided attention and I just have to write about it. Sarcasm.

I hope you enjoy it somewhat, learn a little something, and sometimes even think about what the hell I ramble on about.

Thanks for reading and, again, have a Happy New Year.

Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

So what could be so good I saved it till Christmas night? It's a bit of country music, yes I said country. I first saw this video maybe ten years ago when music TV still played music. It was on one country channel or the other and Sean and I left it on all day so we wouldn't miss this anytime it played and laugh as we sarcastically pointed some part of it out to our own family. I think every family has small part of this Christmas in them and can relate, I like to think they do anyway. Than again maybe it's best if they not.

Merry Christmas everybody, I hope it was a good one.

Robert Earl Keene's Merry Christmas from the Family

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Merry Christmas

Palace of St. Nicholas
In the Moon
Christmas Morning

My Dear Susie Clemens:

I have received and read all the letters which you and your little sister have written me by the hand of your mother and your nurses; I have also read those which you little people have written me with your own hands, for although you did not use any characters that are in grown peoples' alphabet, you used the characters that all children in all lands on earth and in the twinkling stars use; and as all my subjects in the moon are children and use no character but that, you will easily understand that I can read your and your baby sister's jagged and fantastic marks without any trouble at all. But I had trouble with those letters which you dictated through your mother and the nurses, for I am a foreigner and cannot read English writing well. You will find that I made no mistakes about the things which you and the baby ordered in your own letters, I went down your chimney at midnight when you were asleep and delivered them all myself--and kissed both of you, too, because you are good children, well trained, nice mannered, and about the most obedient little people I ever saw. But in the letter which you dictated there were some words which I could not make out for certain, and one or two small orders which I could not fill because we ran out of stock. Our last lot of kitchen furniture for dolls has just gone to a very poor little child in the North Star away up, in the cold country above the Big Dipper. Your mama can show you that star and you will say: "Little Snow Flake," (for that is the child's name) "I'm glad you got that furniture, for you need it more than I." That is, you must write that, with your own hand, and Snow Flake will write you an answer. If you only spoke it she wouldn't hear you. Make your letter light and thin, for the distance is great and the postage very heavy.

There was a word or two in your mama's letter which I couldn't be certain of. I took it to be "a trunk full of doll's clothes." Is that it? I will call at your kitchen door about nine o'clock this morning to inquire. But I must not see anybody and I must not speak to anybody but you. When the kitchen doorbell rings, George must be blindfolded and sent to open the door. Then he must go back to the dining room or the china closet and take the cook with him. You must tell George he must walk on tiptoe and not speak--otherwise he will die someday. Then you must go up to the nursery and stand on a chair or the nurse's bed and put your car to the speaking tube that leads down to the kitchen and when I whistle through it you must speak in the tube and say, "Welcome, Santa Claus!" Then I will ask whether it was a trunk you ordered or not. If you say it was, I shall ask you what color you want the trunk to be. Your mama will help you to name a nice color and then you must tell me every single thing in detail which you want the trunk to contain. Then when I say "Good-by and a merry Christmas to my little Susie Clemens," you must say "Good-by, good old Santa Claus, I thank you very much and please tell that little Snow Flake I will look at her star tonight and she must look down here, I will be right in the west bay window; and every fine night I will look at her star and say, 'I know somebody up there and like her, too.'" Then you must go down into the library and make George close all the doors that open into the main hall, and everybody must keep still for a little while. I will go to the moon and get those things and in a few minutes I will come down the chimney that belongs to the fireplace that is in the hall, if it is a trunk you want, because I couldn't get such a thing as a trunk down the nursery chimney, you know.

People may talk if they want, until they hear my footsteps in the hall. Then you tell them to keep quiet a little while till I go back up the chimney. Maybe you will not hear my footsteps at all, so you may go now and then and peep through the dining-room doors, and by and by you will see that thing which you want, right under the piano in the drawing room-for I shall put it there. If I should leave any snow in the hall, you must tell George to sweep it into the fireplace, for I haven't time to do such things. George must not use a broom, but a rag, else he will die someday. You must watch George and not let him run into danger. If my boot should leave a stain on the marble, George must not holystone it away. Leave it there always in memory of my visit; and whenever you look at it or show it to anybody you must let it remind you to be a good little girl. Whenever you are naughty and somebody points to that mark which your good old Santa Claus's boot made on the marble, what will you say, little sweetheart?

Good-by for a few minutes, till I come down to the world and ring the kitchen doorbell.

Your loving Santa Claus
Whom people sometimes call "The Man in the Moon"

(Mark Twain to his daughter, 1875)

Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

Oh Tannenpalm


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Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

A public service message from Lewis Black ....

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Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

One of the most intriguing Christmas stories you will ever here is about the World War I 'Christmas Truce' of 1914. I know I'm showing more weirdness but yet I'm not. If you study art history you can't help but like history and it's something my grandfather first told me about years ago. It was only five months into the war and nobody yet understood industrialized or total war so a few leaders suggested a Christmas truce, the generals refused. On Christmas Eve some German soldiers began decorating their trenches with candles and trees and, generals be damned, the truce was born. The two sides sang carols together, exchanged gifts, and one group even played soccer in the no mans land between the trenches. The truce, mostly between German and British troops in Belgium, was never recognized by higher ups and the first official histories of the war ignored it completely. It never happened as far as they were concerned.

"O ye who read this truthful rime From Flanders, kneel and say:
God speed the time when every day
Shall be as Christmas Day."

From "A Carol from Flanders" by Frederick Niven

Snoopy vs. The Red Baron


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Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

One for my mom ....

"The holiest of all holidays are those
Kept by ourselves in silence and apart ....
White as the gleam of a receding sail,
White as a cloud that floats and fades in air,
White as the whitest lily on a stream,
These tender memories are; a fairy tale
Of some enchanted land we know not where,
But lovely as a landscape in a dream."

"Holidays" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Trans-Siberian Orchestra, "Christmas Canon"

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(Sorry, You might have to watch this on YouTube. Atlantic Records, in its infinite wisdom, allows you to have an embed code but doesn't always allow it to work.)

Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

This video has it all so it had to be used, there was no choice in the matter. Carols, a tree, presents, Santa's helpers. Best get it out of the way now before the final four.

The Victoria's Secret Angels Sing "Deck the Halls"

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Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

This is a video a friend sent me last night and not one of my 'official' 12 days of Christmas posts or that would make it "Katie's 13 Days of Christmas" and christ what with the Mayans and everything who needs the bad luck? Just think of it as a bonus post.

Now anybody that knows me knows how much I like Anne Hathaway but this short hair of hers, I just don't know about that. I'm not about to kick her out of my dreams over it though. And yes, yes that is my princess saying motherf*cker in the video, you were warned.

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Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

The Killers star in elves gone wild.

"A Great Big Sled"

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Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

I don't know, my whole little Christmas project just isn't as enjoyable as when I started it. Some clips I was going to use like Die Hard, yes it is a Christmas movie, and the Home Alone black and white gun scene just seem wrong. So I'll go with a modern classic suggested by my brother. U2's first Christmas tune ....

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Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

A Festivus for the rest of us.

n. An alternative to the crass commercialization of Christmas, typically celebrated on December 23. It involves The Airing of Grievances (telling your family and friends all the ways they have disappointed you during the year) and does not end until the Feats of Strength (pinning the head of the family) are accomplished. A plain, metal pole is used in lieu of a Christmas tree, because decorations (such as tinsel) is distracting from the true meaning of the holiday.

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Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

Fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra, Chinese turkey.

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Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

One of my favs, I was going to save it for Christmas Eve but given what happened today ....

"Imagine"

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Katie's 12 Days Of Christmas

"Good night, Santa. Good night, Mrs. Santa's sister."

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Happy 2012

I'm not in quite as serious a mood as I was yesterday and I would feel totally remiss if I didn't share this video after posting the Christmas edition. After watching this I'm sure I could come up with a New Years wish  or two.

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Victoria's Secret Angels Erin Heatherton, Adriana Lima, Candice Swanepoel, Lindsay Ellingson, Doutzen Kroes and Lily Aldridge let you in on their resolutions."

Tis the Season

And so it seems the Christmas season is here, grudgingly on my part. I may have mentioned last year that I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year but I'll stay away from that for now. I did some uptown shopping and wandering yesterday that included visiting the ice at Citi Pond and I suppose it has put me in a better holiday frame of mind. One thing is certain, this little holiday video will keep making me smile no matter how grumpy I get.

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