Tuesday, December 23, 2014

The airing of grievances...

Tradition. 

The holidays are wrapped in it.

"how did this tradition start? i don't know. but it's a tradition"

Every year for 39 years (that I know of) my entire family has gathered on December 24th, Christmas Eve, to share the opłatek, feast on 12 courses of seafood and open gifts. All of them. On Christmas Day, when everyone else is eating turkey, my mom and I go to Chinatown for dim sum

That was our tradition. 

'tis the season to be jorry

This year, the family has decided to go rogue. 

Apostles who? 

Seafood what?

This year, the family has decided to start a new tradition.

Christmas chicken.

While I was reticent at first (who, exactly, wouldn't be reticent about passing on 12 courses of seafood?) I am excited to start a new tradition. 

This year, Christmas Eve will be spent enjoying a réveillon with the beau and his family in Trois-Rivières and Christmas will be spent feasting on chicken (and other seasonal merriment) with my family in Montreal.


the festivus pole. It's made from aluminum and has a very high strength-to-weight ratio

The origin of Festivus was the result of one man (Seinfeld's Frank Costanza, to be specific) and his refusal to conform to the growing commercialism of the holiday season. And I quote:

Frank Costanza: Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had, but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way.

Cosmo Kramer: What happened to the doll:

Frank Costanza: It was destroyed. But out of that a new holiday was born... a Festivus for the rest of us!


In a nutshell, Festivus involves a pole instead of a tree, starts with the airing of grievances and finishes with feats of strength. Also, there are the Festivus miracles... of which there are many.

The Festivus pole is the ultimate anti-Christmas symbol as it remains unadorned (Frank finds tinsel distracting) and can be kept in a crawl space the rest of the year.  


The airing of grievances is pretty much what it sounds like; complaining. Once the family is gathered around dinner the head of the household tells everyone how they've disappointed him over the past year.

 is it just me or is that Jack Black?

As a child, what was most exciting about the holidays was obvious; the presents. As I get older (and more like Frank Costanza) spending time with family and friends becomes much more important; as does eating copious amounts of chicken. 

But still. Let's not forget the Human Fund.

   











Friday, December 19, 2014

Bert and Ernie walk into a Best Buy and...

So I just finished What We Know, the last episode of the first season of Serial, the world's most popular podcast


I literally LOL'd when it started and Adnan asks Sarah if she has an ending... if anyone has an ending it's Adnan himself, or Jay, or... Ronald, a convicted serial killer who ended his own story when he killed himself in Louisiana years ago.

Or Hay.


I started following Serial about halfway through the series after hearing about it via multiple reliable sources, including Elaine Lui and Emily Schuman. It was only after I had listened to about four episodes that I realized I wasn't listening to actors. To this day, I cringe when I think of myself saying "I really like the actor who plays Adnan; he's so believable and has such a nice voice."

Mortified much?

While the series didn't solve the crime and Adnan is still in jail, it did raise some very important, and relevant, questions about race, religion and justice in the United States.

It also hearkened back to the golden age of radio when families gathered around the modest wooden box with a rounded top for entertainment. It actually got people to drop everything and just listen.


Speaking of entertainment, it also irked many (including Hae's family) who felt that the real-life murder of a teenage girl shouldn't be exploited for... fun. Amateur crime solvers have taken to the internet in droves, especially Reddit, to speculate on whodunit and many feel that these people are blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, fact and fiction.

I mean, even Sesame Street and Best Buy have joined the buzz...



In the end, I have one final question and it isn't the one you think it is.

Do you think the podcast's main theme sounds like Gyptian's Hold Yuh?  

bad dream by nick thorburn

hold yuh by gyptian

... Next time, on Serial. 








 


Friday, December 5, 2014

Sad is the new happy

Not long ago (in November, me thinks) a study came out claiming that listening to sad or melancholic music can actually "lift your spirits." According to the study, which was conducted by researchers at the Free University of Berlin, people experience more emotions when listening to sad music than happy music. The emotional roller-coaster that sad music incurs "can improve a person's emotional well-being as well as make us feel at peace and nostalgic." (Daily Mail)

I knew there was a good reason I always felt better after a marathon of melancholic tunes. And tears.

Liila Taruffi and Stefan Koelsch surveyed 722 people across the globe (and no, they didn't just lock them in a room and make them listen to Radiohead all day) to try and understand how they felt after listening to sad or melancholic music. People in Europe and the U.S. said they felt "nostalgic" while listeners in Asia said they felt "at peace."    

Participants, who ranged in age and gender, were asked to identify some of their favourite pieces of sad music. Not surprisingly (to me, anyway), Johnny Cash's interpretation of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt and Radiohead's Street Spirit (Fade Out) are the two songs, with lyrics, that got the most votes.

hurt

street spirit (fade out)

The reason I say "not surprisingly" is because those are two of my guaranteed go-to tunes to get the tears flowing. As for songs without lyrics, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata got the most votes.

  moonlight sonata

I thought the study was really interesting because I have always been drawn to melancholic music. And I'm a very nostalgic person. I knew I was emotionally complex!

While Radiohead's Street Spirit (Fade Out) is a real downer (in a good way), Everything in it's Right Place is a close second.

everything in it's right place 

Another depressing (in an uplifting way) song I've been listening to a lot lately is Ben Harper's Another Lonely Day. Sniff.

another lonely day

After reading about the study last night, I went looking for some melancholic music. I found a band, and a song, that I've never heard of or heard before but both totally blew my mind (and eyeballs). It reminded me of something that could have been playing when my grandparents first met in Poland.

hungry ghosts, i don't think about you anymore but

Vincent Vallières' On va s'aimer encore is another song that I can't listen to without crying no matter how hard I try.

On va s'aimer encore

I LITERALLY just started crying the second the song started.

And then there's The Stranglers' Golden Brown. Nostalgia indeed.

golden brown

What are some of the sad songs that you enjoy listening to? I'd love to know.