Check out how everyone in this video bar Shakey himself looks like there’s something a bit wrong about them.
Tag: Christmas
Advent song for December 14
I knew this was the song I wanted for today, but I didn’t know which version I wanted, so this morning I engaged in a bit of research. Things I didn’t know before include that this song is from a film, that it was written in 1949 and that it won the best song Oscar the following year. There’s a very charming version from 1951 featuring Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan, and there will always be a place in my heart for the Miss Piggy/Rudolf Nuryev cover, but because it’s the original and best, here are Ricardo Montalban and Esther Williams in Neptune’s Daughter (I’d never heard of it either) with Baby It’s Cold Outside.
Advent song for December 13
What I like about this is that it’s an attempt to emulate the glitz and pomp of the glam rock Christmas classics from the 1970s, and it more or less succeeds. That the song hasn’t passed into Christmas legend isn’t its fault: it’s genuinely good. It stopped being fashionable to like The Darkness, but for a few months there they were, in their own way, very good indeed. And this video has everything, including a children’s choir and a Christmas message at the end. What more could you want? A penis reference, you say? It’s got that too. Enjoy.
Advent song for December 12
All David Bowie’s duets are odd, but this is the oddest. (Not including that one from Labyrinth which he sings with a monster.) What makes this, of course, is the bizarrely stilted run-up, which is reminiscent of nothing so much as the early scenes of a 1970s porn film.
Hi, I’m David Bowie, I live down the road
…
What sort of music do you play?
Oh, mostly…contemporary stuff – do you like modern music?
Oh, I think it’s marvellous.
Genius.
Advent song for December 11
No introduction needed for this one, I don’t think. Keep an eye out for the coats and the hairstyles; I can’t decide which are more surprising.
Seasonal songs
I’ve realised, too late, that I should have created my own online advent calendar by embedding a video for a different Christmas song each day. Well, it’s too late to do it from the 1st, but it’s not too late to start now. So from now until Christmas, except on the 19th-22nd inclusive when I will be out of the country and may not have internet access, I will link to a new Christmas song each day from among my personal favourites. We will begin with an item which is neither an embedded video nor even a video at all, really, but it’s one of the happiest Christmas songs there is: Andy Williams singing Sleigh Ride. Make sure you listen all the way through; it gets better as it goes along. Just like advent.
PS
I do hope you appreciate my Christmas redesign. If you look at the site through a feed reader (and I know via Bloglines that there’s at least one other person who does) then please take the time to click through so you too can appreciate my seasonal sparkle. Of course, it’s nothing to do with me personally – it’s all thanks to WordPress and their ace design options.
Another advent calendar
Radio 4’s Today programme also has an online advent calendar, with each day’s offering an “audio treat” from the past eleven months of early morning broadcasting. Although as I write it’s after 7pm and today’s entry isn’t available yet. But I mainly want to draw it to your attention because it will almost certainly feature the moment several months ago when Charlotte Green suffered a fit of the giggles whilst announcing the news of a death, and if you haven’t heard it already you really ought to.
You’ll be delighted to hear that I eventually found a real-life advent calendar which didn’t feature chocolates, although it is a bit godly. But I suppose that’s forgiveable. It’s from Oxfam – are they to do with god? I can never remember.
Advent
I’ve been looking for a virtual advent calendar to link to (I’ve also been looking for an actual advent calendar without chocolates inside and Disney characters on the front, but that’s another story) but I haven’t found any good ones yet – although I did come across one which linked to a verse from the Bible each day. But I think it spoils the spirit of Christmas to make it all about Jesus. So as a secular celebration of the advent of advent, here’s a link to the King William’s college Christmas quiz for the year 2000. Even if you knew the answers once, you’ll have forgotten them by now.
More Muji, and a dress I don’t need
I have discovered a problem with Muji, which is that their designs are so utilitarian that it’s madly easy to convince yourself that you really need whatever it is you’re tempted by. Although I think I might find it hard to make a case for the utility Christmas stocking, which is what I came away with today.
On a less utilitarian note, I fell a tiny bit in love with this dress, but at £75 I need a better excuse even than Christmas to justify it:
I would not wear it with those horrible unflattering beads. Nor would I allow my face to be chopped off halfway down when being photographed wearing it.
Glad All Over 