12.26.02
Well, it’s Thursday night and I’m getting ready for the Hong Kong trip. I’m really starting to get hyped for it. I was looking over my Lonely Planet guidebook today, reading up on the history of Hong Kong and it’s pretty damn fascinating I don’t mind saying.
I guess at one point we’re even considering taking a day trip to the mainland, which sounds kind of scary. I mean, just say the words out loud, “Communist China.” Maybe I’ve just been programmed a little too much, but it kind of freaks me out a little. Remind me not to open my mouth the entire day during that little excursion.
Sadly I don’t have a lot else to say right now. Things have been kind of quiet this past week due to the fact that everyone I know is out of the country for the holidays. It’s not that I haven’t had time to write about anything, it’s that I haven’t had anything to write about. Unless, of course, you want to hear about my tribulations in destroying the hidden Imperial Base in Jedi Outcast. I’m guessing you don’t.
Sooooo, just so you all know, the next time I’m likely to update will be January 13 or thereabouts. On the bright side, there’s sure to be plenty of stories, even more pictures and ....uhhh, yeah I guess that’s it. Stories and pictures. Yeah.
See you on the 13th then?
12.23.02
Definitely in my Top 10 List of Best Feelings in the World: Waking up early and going to work to find that's it a holiday and the entire day is now yours.
Who says Mondays suck? :D
12.21.02
To wrap things up for this week's Christmas ramblings, I finally want to mention that I have not just one, but a bevy of Christmas films that carry the Christmas spirit and get me in the mood so fast it'd make your head spin. In order, here are my...
Top 5 Christmas Movies:
1. Die Hard (no, really)
3. Die Hard 2 (Look, I never claimed to be well-adjusted)
4. Scrooged
I could probably comment on all of these in depth, but it's already 6pm on Saturday and I really need to get some groceries and clean up this apartment so I'm just gonna list em for now and perhaps comment on them more next week. School's out so lord knows I'll have enough time.
Have a good weekend, kids. I'm out.
12.19.02
I forgot to mention that the results are in from last weeks "Where did you hear about Hair Flap?" poll. And the results state that either the six people that voted visit the site about ten times a day... from different computers, OR most of you couldn't be bothered to vote. Either way, I'm writing the whole thing off as a loss. I'll just have to be content with not knowing where the hell all you lovely people are coming from. (Although if you'd like to say hi, emails of brief greeting are certainly never shunned.)
Continuing on with the Holiday Hay-Ride this week, I thought I'd touch on the music thing today. I mean, is there anything more Christmas-y about Christmas than Christmas music, Christmas, Christmas? (Those last two 'Christmas'es were only mentioned to ensure that this sentence had the most instances of that word than any other on this page. A distinction it was already well on it's way to achieving anyway, but I didn't want to leave anything to chance.)
Other webpages or blogs might mention their author's Top Five Christmas Songs, but only Hair Flap has the integrity and class you've come to expect to have them all available for download (just right-click to save the little buggers). So here you go, people, my...
Top 5 Christmas Songs:
1. Santa Claus is Coming to Town [Live] - Bruce Springsteen This track is so spontaneous and fun, I can hardly stand it. Honestly though, any track where the performers are having so much fun that they can't help laughing to the point they botch the lyrics, is going to go far in my book.
2. Sleigh Ride - Les Anderson Yes, it's the version from the infamous Gap ad. When that low brass kicks in on the third chorus, wherever I may be, you can bet I'm dancing.
3. Merry Christmas, Baby - Elvis Presley Christmas, meet the Blues. Mr. Presley here will be helping you two get aquainted.
4. Last Christmas - Wham! I blame pop radio for forcing this on me year after year until now, finally, when I hear it, I think of Christmas and get all misty eyed. P.S. - No, I'm not gay.
5. Christmas in Hollis - Run DMC It was in Die Hard, need I say more?
Honorable Mention - Character's Christmas from the Ranma 1/2 1992 Music Calendar. A cute ensemble ditty featuring the voice cast of Ranma 1/2. Here's the translated lyrics if you really want to know what they're saying. What do you expect from the country that gave us Santa on a Crucifix? ;)
Some of these are quite eclectic, and there are obviously quite a few classics missing from the list, such as just about any version of White Christmas which is without a doubt the best Christmas song that has been or ever will be sung about the Happy Holiday in question, but I figured it doesn't really say a lot about a person to just name a bunch of standards that everyone else likes as well. I mean, that's why they're standards, everyone likes them. What do you learn about a person when they say their favorite Christmas songs are "White Christmas," "Jingle Bells" and "Deck the Halls"? So, I thought with this list I'd mention the oddballs that have made it into my yearly tradition, that not everyone may agree with or even know about, but nonetheless help make Christmas what it is to me.
Although I certainly hope you all know about Christmas in Hollis. I mean, for God's sake, people!! It's a Christmas song spawned from Die Hard!! The mere mention of which will serve as our segue into tomorrow's topic. Can you guess what it might be about? Oh, I think you can.
12.18.02
I don't know why, but I just haven't really been that inspired to write lately. Sure, it probably has a bit to do with the bronchitis that I've had for the past few days, but beyond that, it's just been S.O.P. around here lately. Nothing new to report. No news is good news, I suppose, eh? However, coming up next week is my favorite holiday o' th' year and the Christmas season is in full swing around here, so I think I'll just write about it all damn week. Cool? Cool, right.
Of course, being away from home on Christmas is always a bit lame. Not that Christmas in Japan particularly sucks, mind you. Especially in Fukuoka, there's decorations in every store and outside on every corner and Christmas music blaring out of speakers indoors and out, and it's all done quite well really. And sure, it's commercial, but it is back home too, and that doesn't diminish the Holiday Cheer any less there so why should it here?
And as a brief aside, I'm not buying that whole bollocks about the Japanese not really knowing what Christmas is about. Last year in class I prepared a Christmas trivia worksheet expecting to wow them with the revelation of Christmas being J.C.'s birthday and Santa actually being based on a real person, et al, and they all knew it already! It seems they know what it's about just as well as anyone in the U.S. but they either:
a) disregard the religious aspect and just take the moral of the story with them.
b) disregard the religious aspect and use it as a marketing gimmick.
c) disregard it altogether
d) actually believe the religious stuff and celebrate it accordingly.
I think you'll agree that these are about the same options that we choose from in the States, yeah? Only minus the weird association of the holiday with strawberry cake which they do here. I'm still trying to figure out where that one came from.
Anyway, to me, the commercialism, the decorations, the music, the sales, the people hauling around fuck-off heavy bags full of crappy presents for people they don't particularly want to give them to, none of it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I just love it all. (See the Eastman & Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Christmas Special to get more of an idea of what I'm talking about. Me and Michelangelo were on the same page in that issue, boy.)
And of course, there are some things that I miss about Christmas at Home™. My family always blocks out a day on the weekend to decorate the tree (yes, we take the whole day. We don't fuck around with tree decorating at our house, dammit!), while eating Hickory Farm cheese and beef sticks and watching Irving Berlin's White Christmas, one of the ONLY musicals in existence to get my personal endorsement (that alone should speak volumes of it's quality). And there's the Polish cooking, and the ultimate family tradition, my father's infamous purple bulb decoration for the tree, which is always the last to go on the tree (always near the top) signaling that the day's ritual is done. I can't really get all of these in Japan and they are indeed missed.
It's kind of neat to see how, even though I have yet to have a family of my own, I'm already developing my own little Christmas traditions. A little one I've always liked has been to break out the Christmas issues of the afore mentioned E&L's TMNT as well as an Uncle Scrooge special issue that are both incredibly touching and well written pontifications about what Christmas really means (and no, it's not our boy J.C.). Sadly these are both in storage with my parents so I won't be reading those this year. <sigh>
I think one of the most visible ones, and the one that made me think to write about all this stuff is my computer desktop. A few years ago after graduating uni and moving back to Portland, I was searching for a neato desktop image that oozed winter/Christmas. Ever since then, every year around this time, the infamous (in my little world anyway) 'Winter on the Brule' desktop from Northern Images has been my official Christmas desktop, which then serves as a basis to spruce it up with various other little holiday apps that make my desktop purr with the holiday spirit. I did it last year, so I'll do it again. I present you with this year's desktop snapshot, complete with application listing so you can track down what it is I'm using for your own personal use (provided you have the good sense to be on Mac, that is.)
Back tomorrow with more Holiday ramblings, kiddies.
