Yeah, who knew I was a member of Ten on Tuesday, eh? 😉 Obviously, I don’t participate very often, but I couldn’t resist the holiday songs topic.

I’m not religious. At best, I’m agnostic. I’m a fan of SuperGuppy Kat’s term “gwfgwf” (pronounced “gwif-gwif”: “generic winter festive gathering with food”), which would include Christmas, Hanukka, the Winter Solstice/Yule, Kwanzaa, etc. (Tangentially, Wikipedia has an impressive list of winter festive gatherings believed to be inspired by the Winter Solstice.) So the holiday songs that I prefer tend not to be religious. Often, they decry commercialism or address holiday loneliness. Even Charlie Parr’s Biblically themed song “Bethlehem” is definitely not traditional.

1. Greg Lake (of Emerson, Lake & Palmer) – “I Believe in Father Christmas” – listen
2. Dar Williams – “The Christians and the Pagans” – listen (the audio stream is only a snippet, but the video’s the whole song)
3. The Therapy Sisters – “Pachelbel’s Tantrum” – listen
4. Charlie Parr – “Bethlehem” listen
5. The New Standards – “River” (originally by Joni Mitchell). Since I can’t find anything about this song online (although you can order their holiday EP by scrolling to the bottom of this page), how about the Captain Polaroid version of “River”? listen
6. Annette Walowicz – “Time Goes” listen
7. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – “Cold White Christmas” listen (hey, it’s set in St. Paul!)
8. Neko Case – “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis” (originally by Tom Waits) listen (hey, it’s set in Minneapolis!)
9. Gentleman Auction House – “Home for the Holidays” listen
10. Jim White – “Christmas Day” listen
11. Johnny Bertram – “Merry Christmas (You Won’t Get What You Want)” (from Peace On Earth: A Charity Holiday Album)
12. Love Axe – “All I Want for Christmas Is What I Can’t Take Back” listen
13. Okkervil River – “Listening to Otis Redding at Christmas” (from their Golden Opportunities Mixtape, which was a free download in 2007)
14. The Priestess and the Fool – “Fairytale of New York” (originally by the Pogues) (you have to download their free Christmas EP, Ride On, Santa to listen)
15. Steve Earle – “Christmas in Washington” listen
16. Sufjan Stevens – “That Was the Worst Christmas Ever” listen
17. Chris Hatfield – “Born Again Pagan” listen
18. Trailer Trash – “Hard Candy Xmas” (you can’t listen to this song at their website, but you can listen to some of their other holiday songs)
19. Aimee Mann – “I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up for Christmas” listen (the audio stream is only a snippet, but the video’s the whole song)
20. Wormburner – “Bells of St. Ignatius” (you can listen to a preview via Amazon)
21. Young Bison – “Lee Winters’ Last Christmas” listen
22. Lightning Love – “Holidays” listen
23. Sleeptalker – “This Is Christmas” (from Peace On Earth: A Charity Holiday Album)
24. Bing Crosby & David Bowie – “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy” (you can listen to a preview via Amazon, if you haven’t already heard this hundreds of times – I was a huge David Bowie fan when I was an adolescent, and I have fond memories of watching that tv special)

“But I don’t want to be the first cat famous for singing gwfgwf music, Mom.” -Mayhem

Don’t forget to play along in my personals ad contest – there are some very funny entries already! Deadline is 6 pm CST on Thursday, December 13. Now I realize that Cyn should actually be “Sin”… and watch out for Margene after she hits the martinis! 😉 (But I am so not knitting that edible thong.)

Saturday night my friend Lisa and I had an evening out in downtown St. Paul, starting with yummy pad thai at Ruam Mit Thai Cafe. We then walked over to the Fitzgerald Theater (very quickly and with much complaining, as it was bitterly cold) for The New Standards holiday show. The New Standards are an unconventional jazz trio composed of Chan Poling, John Munson, and Steve Roehm. They opened with their amazing version of the Clash’s “London Calling.”

If you remember the 1980s New Wave band the Suburbs, Poling was the lead singer – check out the YouTube videos of “Love Is the Law,” “Waiting,” and “Cows.” John Munson was in Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic (“Singing in My Sleep,” “Closing Time“). (Tangential tangent – I went to a lot of Trip Shakespeare shows back in the day, including on my birthday one year as a present from my brother. Munson’s “rap” in the middle of “Toolmaster of Brainerd” that night remains a favorite musical memory.)

The special guests on Saturday night were fabulous – Dan Wilson (Trip Shakespeare, Semisonic) sang “Free Life“; his brother Matt (Trip Shakespeare) made an appearance, too, and they both sang backup on the Trip Shakespeare song “Snow Day.” Other guests included Haley Bonar, Adam Levy of the Honeydogs, and Laurie Lundeen of Zuzu’s Petals. There was also an odd little bit where Poling’s wife Eleanor Mondale sang a very discordant round of “Silent Night” with him… Anyway, you’ll be able to listen to this show yourself if you’d like – it’s supposed to be broadcast and streamed on the Current on Christmas Eve. Although you won’t have the opportunity to get your picture taken sitting on Santa’s lap… both Lisa and I skipped that one! (Nope, there weren’t any kids at the show… so yeah, there were adults sitting on Santa’s lap. Feel free to discuss among your selves.)

This little dinosaur across the street from the Fitz in front of the McNally Smith College of Music caught my eye as we were heading back to the car after the show.

On Sunday, Jeanne and I headed over to Craftmas at the Uptown VFW. We didn’t buy any gifts, but I picked up a few things for myself… We also wandered over to Uncle Hugo’s/Uncle Edgar’s, then had lunch at French Meadow Cafe, and ended up at Needlework Unlimited because Jeanne was looking for some very specific yarn. A busy but very enjoyable weekend!

“I have no idea what a barrette is either, May. I agree, it does look like some sort of cat toy. Shall we?” -Chaos

I need some advice. My downstairs neighbor has been complaining about Chaos and Mayhem running around during the night and early morning (5:30 am, when I get up) while she’s trying to sleep. I can’t blame her – they’re loud: “thundering paws” comes to mind. But I also can’t think of any great solutions, either. I know that while I was on medical leave, my schedule was very messed up (um, I might’ve unthinkingly played fetch with Mayhem after 11:30 pm on more than one occasion) and I think that was the final straw for my downstairs neighbor.

About all I can think of to do is to shut them out of the bedroom overnight and in the morning. Anyone else have ideas on how to tame the thundering paws of my extremely active kitties?? ETA: Some additional information – I have carpet. Chaos is around 16 or 17 pounds, so when he runs, you definitely notice. May is 10 pounds.

Ok, onto some random stuff. Congrats to Marina and La, who were the winners of my Superpower Blogiversary Contest!

I stopped at my quirky neighborhood liquor store Monday evening (if you’ve ever wondered where all the body mod people work? Yup – that’s the place) and mentioned my annotated beer case. She just rolled her eyes and said that “the boys in the back room” got a little bored sometimes…

Seems like it’s cats two, Christmas trees zero so far…

Some of you may be aware that I have extremely eclectic musical tastes. 🙂 In fact, if it’s by a top 40 artist from the past 10 years? I probably haven’t heard it. Anyway, there’s some pretty interesting holiday music out there, especially if the traditional songs are already getting on your nerves. Here are just a few – please note that this is all listen at your own risk!

Aquarium Drunkard has a nice playlist, including songs like Mae West’s “Put the Loot in the Boot, Santa” and Big John Greer’s “We Wanna See Santa Do the Mambo.”

Big Rock Candy Junk Shop Christmas will be available for a few more days. There’s some overlap with the playlist up at Aquarium Drunkard, but that’s because Aquarium Drunkard’s songs came from Big Rock Candy Mountain! Check daily for more fun songs, too – yesterday’s songs were from Billy Childish & the Musicians of the British Empire (“Christmas Hell” and “Christmas Lights”).

Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands has a free and legal Christmas mix up, which includes songs from Bright Eyes, Sufjan Stevens, and Death Cab for Cutie.

Suburban Sprawl has its annual Christmas compilation up. Some of the songs include Love Axe’s “Happy New Year,” and Jon Cendrowski’s “Dick in a Box.” You can also download their previous compilations.

Snow, snow, snow. We had more yesterday. Some pictures from work before I spent an hour driving 8 miles.

Generally, the world continues on a little further…

“Do I look as if I could possibly be noisy?! It has to be the big kitty.” -Mayhem