some thoughts on the sounds of christmas and a great cd mix

god rest ye merry gentlemen.

first off, best of the season to you from me, my kitty gypsy and john, paul, george and ringo



i had a lazy christmas eve morning. i did most of my shopping for my 6 family members (i have no children, this is my mom & dad, sis and her family) on the 23rd. and i taught one guitar lesson as a makeup for my beloved 7 year old student lindley. she had her pageant on thursday so had to reschedule. so when that was over, i walked the two blocks to the guitar store to get some strings and just to putter around and say hello to the guys there.

on the way home (again, most everything i need is walking distance here at duke's east campus neighborhood), i took a shortcut through a vacant lot with a nice meadow-like carpet of grass and some willow trees. as i passed under the trees and reached for the gate handle at the end of the picket fence, i heard that familiar whirring sound of startled doves in flight. but here on christmas eve, it just had a deeper ring to it. doves are a common symbol of peace, but there sure doesn't seem to be much right now and our country seems more militant than it's ever been.

as i came back home, i checked a few email messages and read the baltimore orioles fan blog site for offseason rumours, deals, etc. but the best part of the day thus far was listening to some christmas cd's. my stand alone cd burner doesn't burn worth a damn so it's only really useful now as a 2-disc cd changer. i've found it fun to put in two fairly similar genres of music and hitting shuffle.

today's mix was:

The Chieftains: The Bells of Dublin

and
Have Yourself a Jazzy Little Christmas (various on the Verve label)



and later in the day (in fact, on right now) another nice combination:

The Ventures Christmas Album

and
Booker T and the MG's Christmas album.


so i'm gonna relax maybe another hour, read some of the new tom petty bio or doris kearns goodwin's abraham lincoln bio. and then it's off to my folks' house in garner, nc for dinner and exhanging of gifts. and later i'll maybe watch "holiday inn" or "it's a wonderful life". very low key, but restful.

merry christmas, happy hannuka and happy new year.

The Oriole's Best Leaving Baltimore?

my favorite shortstop in the american league says he wants to be traded after only two years in charm city. after the biblically disastrous '05 campaign (pitching injuries, palmeiro's steroid scandal, sidney ponson's alcohol arrests, brian roberts' heinous arm injury), this is the last thing baltimore needs. part of me wants to shout "suck it up miquel tejada! your first 3 years of your 6 year contract are rebuilding years." sorry. you should have known that coming in. you guys will be contenders in '07 - '09. hang in there! on the other hand, maybe this is a warning shot across the bow that their most talented player is on the same page as baltimore's most knowledgeable fans. it's time to open the wallet and at least try to be in the same poker game as the yankees and red sox. 8 consecutive losing seasons is asking a lot of your fans to say the least.

December 8, 1980 revisited - Losing Lennon

the whole night, in reflection was just plain eerie. was the night of my first exam at ncsu as a freshman. the movie that night at stewart theatre was hard days' night. the film cans got mixed up and we saw help instead. by the time the movie was over, he was dead and none of us knew it. i didn't have a radio in my car and i still didn't know till the next morning. i went to bed with happy beatle dreams in my head, all of them still alive, for one final night.