BS: Christmas? A rant

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 01:38 PM

"I have just finished looking at adverts from eighteen (18) different retailers for sales beginning tomorrow. Not even one of these refers in any way to Christmas. Well, a few do show snow flakes or baubles in the background, but the few times the C word shows up it is to advertise a 'Christmas tree'.

So the rant is--What's the point of giving gifts in December if there is no underlying meaning to them anymore? Why not give gifts in August when nothing much else is going on? Or on my birthday?--That would be swell."

The reason for the lack of Christian sentiment in retail advertising seems obvious to me. Good will and charity conflict with consumerism. When I was a kid. The Salvation Army used to run ads with Christian messages in the run up to Christmas. Even for a child those ads, along with the Charlie Brown Christmas, attenuated the consumer frenzy for me.

But I do see Christian symbols at Christmas John, plenty of them. But mostly in the homes of those who keep Jesus at the forefront for the rest of the year. But obviously the retailers are not trying to appeal to those people.

Why not give gifts during the rest of the year? I'm sure the retailers would love it. Speaking for our family, My wife an I tend to buy most of our consumer goods from Thanksgiving to Christmas eve. The main reason being that we know how much money we have made for the year, and how much we have to spare. That's when the best sales usually are and we have time to shop.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 01:59 PM

It's just sorta nice to have a period in the year for general recognition of friends and family, gift-giving (and shopping for one's own pleasure), having a few parties, relaxing from the usual 'routine'.

Why does it have to be associated with something in religious calendars???

Viva the Holiday season!

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Folkiedave
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 02:58 PM

Why does it have to be associated with something in religious calendars???

I think it is generally accepted that the Christians tagged on their celebration to an existing holiday.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 03:46 PM

"Lizzie you used to work in a hospital. Do you approve of this? And do you still say you would like to be nursed by her?

Simple yes or no will do."

I used to work in Harley St., Dave, not a hospital. I booked up the operations, got the entire teams together, liased with them all etc..

Do I believe it, is more the question, not if I approve.

You're always telling me NOT to believe everything I read, Dave, soooooo.....

I find it hard to believe that if the conditions in Mother Teresa's homes were SO bad, the world was not outraged at the time, rather than people jumping on the 'let's back Mother Teresa' bangwagon just prior to her death. I presume that many have made loadsa money out of her though and still do to this day.

No, I doubt her homes were run like The Wellington Hospital, or The Princess Grace, but then...she opened those homes in some of the most deprived parts of India......looking after the ones that the rest of the world threw away to die..They were run by nuns who were surrounded and outnumbered by the poor people, almost to the point of distraction, being so overwhelmed with the numbers of human beings they looked after.

Indeed, in one of those videos above, you see a young British woman talking about her time spent with the nuns..and you see her playing with the children, grabbing a foot of one child and pulling the child towards her. Of course, no-one seems to have seen anything wrong in this, but....I've no doubt that if it had been one of the nuns she went on to later criticise, then there'd have been an outcry over 'how the nun grabbed the child and pulled her by her foot' etc..etc..etc....

Some folks have one rule for themselves, and others for er...others..

Very few of us are saints, if any at all, but I believe that Mother Teresa had far more good in her than bad....

May I politely suggest that until you have helped as many people, saved as many children as she did, lived the life she did and dedicated your entire life to saving and caring for others, that you desist in trying to prove that Mother Teresa was a wicked and bad person.

December 1st today, I'm off to open my Advent Calendar...

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 03:49 PM

'let's back Mother Teresa' bangwagon<<<


Oops...that should have read "the 'let's bash Mother Teresa' bandwagon"....

:0)

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: pdq
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 03:56 PM

Big, plump, fresh-picked Anaheim peppers make great chile rellenos.

A friend of mine used to grow them, peel the skins with the help of an acetylene torch, then give them to his wife to finish the process.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 04:00 PM

"Somewhere above, Subway is trashed for its ingredients, but the ones here use fresh tomatoes and lettuce, bake their bread in house, and use quality processed or frozen meats."

McDonalds uses fresh lettuce and tomato too - does that mean it isn't junk food?

The bread is full of hydrogenated fat and processed in a factory, then put into an oven on-site. If that's "baked in house" to you, fair enough.

With the greatest of respect, "quality processed frozen meats" - and cheese, for that matter - is an oxymoron. It's full of chemicals and loads of sodium, and probably contains mechanically recovered meat. Again, if you're good with that, fine - but health food it ain't.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: pdq
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 04:05 PM

Obviously, the terms "health food" and "healthy food" are quite different, at least to some people.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Folkiedave
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 04:14 PM

I have suggested you don't believe everything you read in the Daily Mail Lizzie, not exactly the same thing.

I find it hard to believe that if the conditions in Mother Teresa's homes were SO bad, the world was not outraged at the time, rather than people jumping on the 'let's back Mother Teresa' bangwagon just prior to her death. I presume that many have made loadsa money out of her though and still do to this day.

Actually Lizzie a number of people have pointed out that they were pointed out at the time. Of course you can ignore what people tell you when it doesn't suit you. Of course you can. And do.......

As for the millions who you presume make loadsa money out of her I wonder how they do this?

After all she doesn't have any money does she?

In fact of course her organisation received millions and little or none of was spent on the people it was aimed at.

Try reading this. It tells you where the money went.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 05:19 PM

I already read that, Dave, but I didn't link to it because again, it unsettled me, in that it doesn't give any evidence really, just more opinions...

Oh, right...so it's ONLY the Daily Mail that I mustn't read then? Didn't realise that....I forgot about the insanity in here that surrounds that particular paper, unless, of course, it prints an article that The Extreme Lefties love, in which case, they quote from it.   

I prefer The Hypocritical Times, myself, as it lists the names of many who write their articles...and some I seem to recognise from in here... ;0)


Yeah, maybe you're right. Maybe Mother Teresa was nowt more than an evil lil' ol' lady who dressed in baggy robes, so she could stuff her money down her underwear, whilst making those under her care scream out in agony, cackling "Jesus Loves You, Suffer as he Did, you bastard!".....then disappearing into her luxurious office at the back of her home, to plan her next cruise holiday.

Lawdy, I can't think why I didn't see it before!! (raises hand to head and smacks thick fist against thick head!)


But then again....maybe you're completely wrong.

Christopher Hitchens though is determined to bad mouth anyone who believes in God, so it would seem, let alone those from the Catholic Church.

Methinks he has a Mission of his very own, but not one that has much Spirit inside it..

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 05:39 PM

Hooray for junk food!
I had a banana ((non-junk?) at noon, but made it palatable with Tostitos and hermit cookies ('junk'). Tomorrow I will have Angus beef or pastrami sandwiches, the meat sliced off the block prepared by the local meat factory, full of those chemicals and lovely salt. Lots of butter on the bread. Lovely! Maybe a Snickers in mid-afternoon.

When I travel, nothing like a bag of Cheezies for company. It does mess the car with orange-colored dust. One bag per three hour trip. Might stop at a Subway or Golden Arches for a snack. Yum, lovely bacon-burgers!

Breakfast is Quaker oatmeal (more processed junk) with lots of sugar, commercial dairy milk and Minute Maid canned orange juice. And lots of coffee all day.

Dinner may be a nice bit of cow or pig or lamb or maybe a store-bought roast chicken, vegetable cooked in butter (well-salted), and, pay attention! a mango, pear, avocado with lime and green chili, and more of that commercial milk to wash down the factory-made pills the doctor prescribed. Sometimes I go gourmet; a pot of beans cooked with salt-cured ham, red chili powder. Lotsa coffee all day.

The only health nuts I knew are already buried; I'm 86.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Folkiedave
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 06:01 PM

Lawdy, I can't think why I didn't see it before!! (raises hand to head and smacks thick fist against thick head!)

Clearly not hard enough. But at least we have an admission that your fist and your head are thick.

That's a start.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 06:09 PM

Q - good on you! But I fear you are missing my point (perhaps not made very well): Subway markets itself as a "healthy" alternative to all the junk fast food out there. Several studies and investigations have proven that it's actually just as much processed rubbish as the other stuff. I know people who won't eat at Mickey D's because it's rubbish, but who think Subway is fine. I just think (especially if you're a parent or eating it regularly) it's better to be able to make an informed choice.

Now, back to Mother Theresa and Christmas (?)

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Folkiedave
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 06:21 PM

Now, back to Mother Theresa and Christmas (?)

And the Tower, don't forget the Tower!!

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Folkiedave
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 06:28 PM

To Q.

And my grandfather was still climbing ladders to clean windows at 72. ('Cos he was poor) He also smoked 40 Woodbines a day - thus he was poor - and died at 82. Doen't mean to say smoking is good for you!! :-)

I had some home made watercress and potato soup for lunch with home made bread (wholemeal flour). Evening meal was a cauliflower and lentil dhal with more home made bread.

And about four large gin and tonics. Who says we cant eat and drink healthily?

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: pdq
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 06:46 PM

"Fasciola hepatica, the liver fluke, has a complex life cycle, requiring water snails as intermediate hosts. Humans and other mammals acquire the organism by eating cyst-contaminated water plants. Watercress is a common source of the parasite for humans. The cysts release immature flukes that migrate to the liver and gallbladder. A high load of the parasite may obstruct the biliary tract."

Enjoy your catercress sandwich.

I'd rather have a Pizza or a Big Mac anytime.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: curmudgeon
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 07:54 PM

"Watercress is a common source of the parasite for humans."

That's what the gin is for - Tom

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Folkiedave
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 04:09 AM

I am trying desperately to reach the recommended "Five a Day"

I have some fruit, (lemon in my gin and tonic) Vegetable (carrot cake) I have tomato (in the form of sauce on my chips) just two to go.

Any suggestions?

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Folkiedave
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 04:13 AM

Does a cucumber face mask count? Do the five a day have to be ingested?

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 06:22 AM

Has anyone else tried the new festive Subway?? Highly recommended! It's like eating leftovers from an Xmas dinner - stuffing, chicken (not turkey), cranberry sauce, cold gravy - and salad - and toasted, with cheese...

For my Festive Reading I was persevering with Stations of the Sun but was beaten back by a combination of minuscule typeface, turgid academic prose and a brain too clogged up with snot and mucus to make any sort of sense of it. Instead I'm on with the latest instalment of the Dandy / Beano restrospective series (a suitably seasonal Winter Games) which I'm reading in tandem with Torn Apart: The Life of Ian Curtis by Mick Middles and Lindsay Reade. In this latter I've just read how Joy Division recorded their debut EP An Ideal for Living in Pennine Sound Studio in Oldham on Boxing day 1978. For sustenance, their then-manager's mother made up a batch of barmcake sarnies using cold Xmas leftovers from the day before - not turkey note, but chicken, as befits our heroes' humble social origins.

Echoes of the Festive Subway perhaps? - although I might despair that barmcake is not one of the bread options on offer! So, here's a festive classic: Leaders of Men recorded on that freezing boxing day in Oldham almost 32 years ago. You can almost smell those Xmas dinner leftovers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtpyAVzdXVw

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 06:30 AM

Those lyrics are a might festive too:

Born from some mother's womb,
Just like any other room.
Made a promise for a new life.
Made a victim out of your life.

When your time's on the door,
And it drips to the floor,
And you feel you can touch,
All the noise is too much,
And the seeds that are sown,
Are no longer your own.

Just a minor operation,
To force a final ultimatum.
Thousand words are spoken loud,
Reach the dumb to fool the crowd.

When you walk down the street,
And the sound's not so sweet,
And you wish you could hide,
Maybe go for a ride,
To some peep show arcade,
Where the future's not made.

A nightmare situation,
Infiltrate imagination,
Smacks of past Holy wars,
By the wall with broken laws.

The leaders of men,
Born out of your frustration.
The leaders of men,
Just a strange infatuation.
The leaders of men,
Made a promise for a new life.
No saviour for our sakes,
To twist the internees of hate,
Self induced manipulation,
To crush all thoughts of mass salvation.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 07:17 AM

"Echoes of the Festive Subway perhaps?"


Sweeney - you crack me up. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: GUEST,Steamin' Willie
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 07:17 AM

Wow... I read a few posts after my last one and decided to wait a while. I neither expect or deserve everybody agreeing with me but not in my wildest dreams did I expect anybody supporting Britain's Empire as being something we need back..... Hitchens does have at least one faithful reader then.

I for one do worship at the alter of Mammon, or Meadowhall as it is called in this post. I have a particular affection for the Apple Store where the prophet Steve Jobs shows us his latest shiny baubles for us to adorn our desks and pockets with, (although the collecting dish they pass around empties the old wallet.)

So... we have Hitchens hating some religions with others asking if he is qualified to speak on such matters, as he is an atheist. Folkie Dave being proud that he has never been in Meadowhall, yet seems to know enough about it to comment. And Mother Teresa...

I can say with a degree of professional confidence that I do know a bit about her establishments and if they were here in The UK and tried to register under The Care Standards Act 2000, the infection control, duty of care and governance would possibly not allow them to operate.

But hey, this is where we judge others not by our own standards but by standards we feel "good enough for others."

Which brings us back to the Empire. Oh and Bishops influencing legislation....

ZZZZZZZZZ

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 07:42 AM

Pagan Christmas

This makes a nice read at midwinter, not so much for local festival days as the pre-Christian Germanic & Scandinavian origins (and process of adoption/adaptation) of many of our current 'Christmas' traditions (particularly aromatics, supernatural beings & folk customs). Lots of lovely colourful piccies too - old postcards, adverts, woodcuts etc. Even includes incense recipes for the 'smudging nights' (lovely pragmatic quote: "if you experience psychoactive effects with incense, you have probably inhaled too much smoke").

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Folkiedave
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 08:12 AM

Folkie Dave being proud that he has never been in Meadowhall, yet seems to know enough about it to comment.

It has its own transport interchange and is a train stop. It has an 11 screen cinema complex. It takes 12,000 cars parked for free. It acts as a meeting place for people coming to Sheffield because it is next to the mtorway.

Know enough about it to comment? You can hardly miss it!

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Folkiedave
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 08:14 AM

Folkie Dave being proud that he has never been in Meadowhall, yet seems to know enough about it to comment.

It has its own transport interchange and is a train stop. It has an 11 screen cinema complex. It takes 12,000 cars parked for free. It acts as a meeting place for people coming to Sheffield because it is next to the mtorway.

Know enough about it to comment? You can hardly miss it!

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 08:47 AM

We used to use Meadowhall as service station on forays up & down the M1 when we lived in Durham - just as we used to hit The Trafford Centre en route to Les's singaround at The Beech - the first being two years ago, being hungry en route & unsure of the Chorlton amenities. Though we no longer attend the Beech sing (which is no longer the necessity it once was having discovered The Moorbrook in Preston which is the finest sing / session in the world bar none), once every eight weeks or so we might head for the Trafford Centre after a jaunt to Manchester for a rake around in the warm of a winter's night - or the dry of a summer's.

I doubt I'd be doing this on my own, but after 10 years Rapunzel & I still very much in love and enjoy romantic Subways, going to see Harry Potter films (and District 9), and looking at stuff in the shops we'll later buy at half the price on-line. We like IKEA too, as much for the fish & chips as the flat-pack crap with with we furnish our home (the odd antique notwithstanding) but quite honestly Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without The Trafford Centre.

Another of my Festive Reads this year: Vic Reeves' Vast Book of World Knowledge - a more than worthy follow-up to his 1999 classic Sun Boiled Onions.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Folkiedave
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 09:28 AM

We like IKEA too, as much for the fish & chips.......

Meatballs surely?

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 09:33 AM

"We like IKEA too, as much for the fish & chips.......

Meatballs surely?"


Daim Bar Cake, surely??

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 09:39 AM

England had their version of right wing fundamentalist Christians who banned Christmas celebrations and decorations because they felt it was a despicable drunken way to honor Jesus. After a while the people got so fed up with that brand of religion they cast out these zealots. England got their Christmas parties back. These purists had to sail to the New World to guarantee their serious practice of religion and Christmas.

Well Thanks alot England. These Puritans are still here in one form or another and are still a big pain in the ass.

The irony is that Commercial Christmas here goes beyond anything the early Puritans could have imagined.

A cranky yankee
from Maryland.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 10:05 AM

"We like IKEA too, as much for the fish & chips as the flat-pack crap with with we furnish our home (the odd antique notwithstanding)"

Your house (from the photys & tubeys you've posted) looks like a magic grotto. The only stuff from IKEA I really fancy is their err 'storage solutions' so I could get my tonnes of stuff tidied up. Otherwise I don't dig the new and spartan thing much at all (echoes of Fight Club).

I don't really have the cash for proper antiques, but I do love tatty second hand stuff. By far the best bit of junk I bought lately was a large solid pine welsh dresser from one of the smellier charity shops, cost me £40 (period gaudy orange varnish at no extra cost) I was well chuffed, so functional & useful - plus the cats like to use it as a climbing frame.

I was planning to strip it, or do something Jocasta-Inneseque with it, but the sheer nostalgia of that classic seventies toffee-apple coating has thus far made me resist any attempts to aesthetically 'improve' it.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: GUEST,Steamin' Willie
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 10:46 AM

Hadn't thought about the Pilgrim Fathers bit.

Yeah, we exported a set of stiff idiots and they infiltrated The Americas, eventually settling in Dumbfuckistan, where they multiplied. Sorry and all that. I enjoy visiting New England, (mainly to ski at Killington) and meet with some very nice people.

One of the Pilgrims, the Brewster fellow, comes from near me. When I look in a 10 mile radius, we have William Brewster and The Wesleys. Yet most people hereabouts are (fairly) rational. So it can't be something in the water then?

ME? I just enjoy drinking in The Pilgrim Fathers pub, knowing that the only building named for him is the sort he wouldn't have approved of.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: GUEST,Steamin' Willie
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 10:55 AM

Folkie Dave got a bit confused I reckon about my comment re Meadowhall. Yes, it does have an interchange etc.

Your original comment was disparaging of the place despite having never set foot inside.

A bit like me really. I am not a Christian yet unashamedly protest about religion affecting my life.   

Reminds me (trying to keep a Xmas angle here) of my youngest years ago claiming he didn't like brussel sprouts, yet he had never tried them.

Meadowhall. The cathedral you can enter without having to smile, be sanctimonious or claim it is the only cathedral.   Praise be!

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 10:59 AM

Puritans

We lived next door to the famous White Church in Lytham a couple of years back whilst selling our house in Durham; never went in it though until one day back in the summer. Puritans! Even stained glass celebrating Cromwell and Pilgrim Fathers. I offended the guide by falling about in hysterics that such anal-bollox should be celebrated with such earnest righteousness. Interesting building to live next door too though - it serves as a lighthouse for safe navigation along the Ribble estuary & - irony of irony - features on many Christmas cards by of the Traditionally Picturesque!

Ikea

All our book & CD shelves are from IKEA - likewise our coffee table - in a range called LEKSVIK - psuedo-rustica, but nice enough. We've also got a 5x5 Expedit which is so big it saved rebuilding the dividing wall knocked through by the previous owners. We still think of ourselves as essentially nomadic as neither of us has lived anywhere for longer than 6 years since leaving our respective childhood homes, so I'm always loathed to do anything too structural to a house. Though, as I say, I do wish I'd put the stove in back in the autumn. The Grotto Effect is due to a lifetime's meticulous curation of clutter as celebrated on the Cluttering - A Celebration thread - a natural reaction to all these de-cluttering threads that crop u rom time to time!

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 03:13 AM

"Echoes of the Festive Subway perhaps?"

As a dedicated follower of human & cultural resonance I find it highly significant that a few days after eating my first Festive Subway I read of Joy Division being fed on basically the same thing some 32 years earlier for the recording of their debut EP. I might add that whilst much early / unofficial / bootleg material from the Joy Division archive has passed through my hands in the last 31 years, it's not until we bought the Heart and Soul box set a few weeks back that I came to appreciate the genius of the tracks they recorded for An Ideal for Living. Such things are part of my cultural folklore; I find them invigorating on every possible level - religious / seasonal / ceremonial etc. - and find it highly significant when Subway start serving up what is basically Xmas Dinner Leftovers in sandwich form, thus confirming something truly wondrous and bringing back to the freezing, impoverished Xmasses of yore.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Folkiedave
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 03:22 AM

Some of my best friends visit Meadowhall.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: GUEST,Steamin' Willie
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 04:19 AM

Aye, some of my best friends visit churches.

He says, trying to keep on thread.

Don't worry, Xmas will soon be over and the thread will wander off till this time next year, when we can all point out that;

Xmas is what you want it to be
or
Xmas is what you remember it to be
or
Xmas is a hang over of old Pagan rituals
or
Xmas is something to do with the little baby Jesus
or
Xmas is a marketing campaign for Mammon
or
Xmas is a marketing campaign for the little baby Jesus
or
Xmas is related to alcohol
or
Xmas is related to er... relatives

Anyway, measured the turkey, measured the new Aga and         bugger.

Knew I shouldn't have applied to become middle class.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: SINSULL
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 10:16 AM

After reading over this thread I started to watch TV ads just to see whether Christmas was missing. I usually hit the MUTE button before the screaming starts. Maybe Maine is the exception but Christmas sales are going on here everywhere. Remy's has forced me back to the MUTE button so my research is over.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 11:29 PM

IKEA - Christmas tins of Anna's Pepparkakor, surely!

Ross

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: GUEST,Ivan
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 05:35 AM

I wrote a song a few years ago which seems to fit with some of the comments her. At the time the "Festive Lights" industry was going into overdrive and every third house in town seemed to be lit up like Blackpool Illuminations (or Las Vegas).

The Japanese part of the story that inspired the song is allegedly true.

Lost in Translation

It's Christmas time in Tokyo and the neon lights shine bright
There's a buzz in the air and the stores are full for it's nearly Xmas night
And the shop staff put the finishing touch to a tableau in the store
An artwork to capture Christmas like nothing has before
But somewhere in translation the message has been lost
For they're nailing Father Christmas to a cross
Yes somewhere in translation the message has been lost
And they're nailing Father Christmas to a cross.

In an English winter night the frost is hanging in the air
And it brings a shimmer to the flashing lights appearing everywhere
And there's no wise man could see a star for they all have been outshone
As each and every house it seems must outdo the neighbouring one
In the glare of illumination the message has been lost
And they're just nailing Father Christmas to a cross
In the glare of illumination the message has been lost
It's just like nailing Father Christmas to a cross.

Happy Yuletide, seasons greetings and, of course, joyous Noel
Here comes Santa with a sack of goodies and Rudolph's there as well
With Xboxes and DVDs to bring us holiday fun
There's a story about a baby too but I can't recall which one
For it's been two thousand years and more and the message has been lost
And we're just nailing Father Christmas to a cross
Yes it's been two thousand years and more and the message has been lost
Now we're all nailing Father Christmas to a cross
Yes we're just nailing Father Christmas to a cross.

Copyright Ivan McKeon 2005

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 06:11 AM

Maybe the Japanese know more than you think.

As I mentioned above, Father Christmas is derived in part from Odin, "him dat hang on tree". (The Play o' de Lathie Odivere)

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 07:15 AM

Thanks for that, Ivan. A fine piece of work, although the truth of the Santa-on-a-Cross is open to some debate. There's a nice piece on it HERE which is worth a look. The folklore of it remains as profound as ever.

As I mentioned above, Father Christmas is derived in part from Odin,

Oh yeah? This has echoes of The Fall's Fantastic Life (just look at that picture of Lard / Marc Riley! What a star...) in which Mark E. Smith sings:

The Siberian mushroom Santa
Was in fact Rasputin's brother
And he didst walk round Whitechapel
To further the religion of forgiven sin murder
Fantastic lie!

Derived from Odin?? A fantastic (and indeed Frazerian) lie indeed!!

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 04 Dec 09 - 07:27 AM

PS:

At the time the "Festive Lights" industry was going into overdrive and every third house in town seemed to be lit up like Blackpool Illuminations (or Las Vegas).

Before moving to Lancashire we lived in the comparative wilds of The Deerness Valley in Durham where erstwhile colliery villages stripped of their raison d'être remain in bleak isolation from the amenities of the city with little by way of the bucolic picturesque to compensate, especially in the bleak midwinter. In such places "Festive Lights" take on a surreal almost menacing quality, something I tried to capture in my wee film Luminos which can be seen on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBKpUHFe1BU

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Folkiedave
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 03:56 AM

In the USA I was amazed by the number of houses that were lit up with complicated lighting covering all the usual themes. This including skiing.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 04:00 AM

Things do seem a tad demure this year on the Luminos front; even those houses which were blazing last year are fielding but a single paltry santa. Could it be that we've passed the Golden Age of house illumination? Will earnest Folkies be writing songs about how good the old ones really were?

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 06:44 AM

IKEA - Glugg :)

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: artbrooks
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 07:18 AM

Fa-la-la...urk

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 07:35 AM

A Merry Albion Christmas

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: ToeRag
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 08:00 AM

Under the impression that they scarce'ley furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude, a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth.
We chose this time, because' it is a time, of all others, when want is keenly felt and abundance rejoi'ces. What shall I put you down for.

Subject: RE: BS: Christmas? A rant
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 10:10 AM

I'll have about £250, please, ToeRag — ahould just about tide me over the weekend. Thanks.