#william sleigh

[mod-a-day]

Paul Roberts (Projex) and Michael of Nuance "christmas dance mix" (1993)

Note: This is a medley of several Christmas-related songs.  The ones we could identify are…

James Pierpont - "The One Horse Open Sleigh" ("Jingle Bells")

Various Artists - "The Twelve Days of Christmas"

Jona Lewie - "Stop the Calvary"

William Sandys, Davies Gilbert  - "The First Noel"

… we're not very well-versed in Christmas music.

[onceuponatown]

The history of Christmas traditions kept evolving throughout the 19th century, when most of the familiar components of the modern Christmas including St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, and Christmas trees, became popular. The changes in how Christmas was celebrated were so profound that it's safe to say someone alive in 1800 would not even recognize the Christmas celebrations held in 1900.

Washington Irving and St. Nicholas

Early Dutch settlers of New York considered St. Nicholas to be their patron saint and practiced a yearly ritual of hanging stockings to receive presents on St. Nicholas Eve, in early December. Washington Irving, in his fanciful History of New York, mentioned that St. Nicholas had a wagon he could ride “over the tops of trees” when he brought “his yearly presents to children.”

The Dutch word “Sinterklaas” for St. Nicholas evolved into the English “Santa Claus,” thanks in part to a New York City printer, William Gilley, who published an anonymous poem referring to “Santeclaus” in a children’s book in 1821. The poem was also the first mention of a character based on St. Nicholas having a sleigh, in this case, pulled by a single reindeer.

Clement Clarke Moore and The Night Before Christmas

Perhaps the best-known poem in the English language is “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” or as it’s often called, “The Night Before Christmas.” Its author, Clement Clarke Moore, a professor who owned an estate on the west side of Manhattan, would have been quite familiar with the St. Nicholas traditions followed in early 19th century New York. The poem was first published, anonymously, in a newspaper in Troy, New York, on December 23, 1823.

Reading the poem today, one might assume that Moore simply portrayed the common traditions. Yet he actually did something quite radical by changing some of the traditions while also describing features that were entirely new.

For instance, the St. Nicholas gift giving would have taken place on December 5, the eve of St. Nicholas Day. Moore moved the events he describes to Christmas Eve. He also came up with the concept of “St. Nick” having eight reindeer, each of them with a distinctive name.

Charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol

The other great work of Christmas literature from the 19th century is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. In writing the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, Dickens wanted to comment on greed in Victorian Britain. He also made Christmas a more prominent holiday and permanently associated himself with Christmas celebrations.

Dickens was inspired to write his classic story after speaking to working people in the industrial city of Manchester, England, in early October 1843. He wrote A Christmas Carol quickly, and when it appeared in bookstores the week before Christmas 1843 it began to sell very well.

The book crossed the Atlantic and began to sell in America in time for Christmas 1844, and became extremely popular. When Dickens made his second trip to America in 1867 crowds clamored to hear him read from A Christmas Carol. His tale of Scrooge and the true meaning of Christmas had become an American favorite. The story has never been out of print, and Scrooge is one of the best-known characters in literature.

Santa Claus Drawn by Thomas Nast

The famed American cartoonist Thomas Nast is generally credited as having invented the modern depiction of Santa Claus. Nast, who had worked as a magazine illustrator and created campaign posters for Abraham Lincoln in 1860, was hired by Harper’s Weekly in 1862. For the Christmas season, he was assigned to draw the magazine’s cover, and legend has it that Lincoln himself requested a depiction of Santa Claus visiting Union troops.

The resulting cover, from Harper’s Weekly dated January 3, 1863, was a hit. It shows Santa Claus on his sleigh, which has arrived at a U.S. Army camp festooned with a “Welcome Santa Claus” sign.

Santa’s suit features the stars and stripes of the American flag, and he’s distributing Christmas packages to the soldiers. One soldier is holding up a new pair of socks, which might be a boring present today, but would have been a highly prized item in the Army of the Potomac.

Beneath Nast's illustration was the caption, “Santa Claus In Camp.” Appearing not long after the carnage at Antietam and Fredericksburg, the magazine cover is an apparent attempt to boost morale in a dark time.

The Santa Claus illustrations proved so popular that Thomas Nast kept drawing them every year for decades. He is also credited with creating the notion that Santa lived at the North Pole and kept a workshop manned by elves. The figure of Santa Claus endured, with the version drawn by Nast becoming the accepted standard version of the character. By the early 20th century the Nast-inspired version of Santa became a very common figure in advertising.

Prince Albert and Queen Victoria Made Christmas Trees Fashionable

The tradition of the Christmas tree came from Germany, and there are accounts of early 19th century Christmas trees in America, but the custom wasn’t widespread outside German communities.

The Christmas tree first gained popularity in British and American society thanks to the husband of Queen Victoria, the German-born Prince Albert. He installed a decorated Christmas tree at Windsor Castle in 1841, and woodcut illustrations of the Royal Family’s tree appeared in London magazines in 1848. Those illustrations, published in America a year later, created the fashionable impression of the Christmas tree in upper-class homes.

By the late 1850s reports of Christmas trees were appearing in American newspapers. And in the years following the Civil War ordinary American households celebrated the season by decorating a Christmas tree.

The first electric Christmas tree lights appeared in the 1880s, thanks to an associate of Thomas Edison, but were too costly for most households. Most people in the 1800s lit their Christmas trees with small candles.

The First White House Christmas Tree

The first Christmas tree in the White House was displayed in 1889, during the presidency of Benjamin Harrison. The Harrison family, including his young grandchildren, decorated the tree with toy soldiers and glass ornaments for their small family gathering.

There are some reports of president Franklin Pierce displaying a Christmas tree in the early 1850s. But the stories of a Pierce tree are vague and there doesn't seem to be contemporaneous mentions in newspapers of the time.

Benjamin Harrison's Christmas cheer was closely documented in newspaper accounts. An article on the front page of the New York Times on Christmas Day 1889 detailed the lavish presents he was going to give his grandchildren. And though Harrison was generally regarded as a fairly serious person, he vigorously embraced the Christmas spirit.

Not all subsequent presidents continued the tradition of having a Christmas tree in the White House. By the middle of the 20th century, White House Christmas trees became established. And over the years it has evolved into an elaborate and very public production.

The first National Christmas Tree was placed on The Ellipse, an area just south of the White House, in 1923, and the lighting of it was presided over by President Calvin Coolidge. The lighting of the National Christmas Tree has become quite a large annual event, typically presided over by the current president and members of the First Family.

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus

In 1897 an eight-year-old girl in New York City wrote to a newspaper, the New York Sun, asking if her friends, who doubted the existence of Santa Claus, were right. An editor at the newspaper, Francis Pharcellus Church, responded by publishing, on September 21, 1897, an unsigned editorial. The response to the little girl has become the most famous newspaper editorial ever printed.

The second paragraph is often quoted:

"Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS."

Church’s eloquent editorial asserting the existence of Santa Claus seemed a fitting conclusion to a century that began with modest observances of St. Nicholas and ended with the foundations of the modern Christmas season firmly intact.

By the end of the 19th century, the essential components of a modern Christmas, from Santa to the story of Scrooge to strings of electric lights were firmly established in America.

Source

[wisteriagoesvroom]

Little brothers of mine

The Guides -- Margaret Widdemer [x] // On Speaking Quietly with My Brother -- Jay Deshpande [x] // It Was The Animals -- Natalie Diaz [x] // The Night Before I Leave Home -- Elisa Gonzalez [x] // I Cast It Away, My Body -- william bearheart [x] // My Brothers Mirror -- Donald Platt [x] // Youth -- Tom Sleigh [x] // There, There, Grieving -- Zeina Hashem Beck [x] // Two Set Out On Their Journey -- Galway Kinnel [x] // stray birds -- Rabindranath Tagore [x] // [When night draws on, remembering keeps me wakeful] -- al-Khansāʾ [x] //

and special thanks @blorbocedes for the final LH soundbite gif (screenshot) because i couldn't find it anywhere else

[sugaredoleander]

i just took my final ancient greek exam of the semester yesterday and have been avoiding studying for my microbiology exam all day. so let's talk about these three devastating lines from anne carson's translation of herakles

and by talk about i mostly mean here's a bunch of different translations

Ἡρακλῆς μαινόμενος - Herakles by Euripides, lines 1398-1400

c. 416 BC.

original text in Ancient Greek via the Perseus Digital Library

Euripides. The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. in two volumes. 1. Heracles, translated by E. P. Coleridge. New York. Random House. 1938.

Herakles translated by Anne Carson in Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides (pg 81-82) 2006

Internet Archive

H of H playbook by Anne Carson (not a direct translation but a reimagining of Herakles, 2021)

Euripides: Herakles, translated by Tom Sleigh, Oxford University Press, 2001

Ian C. Johnston, 2020

Heracles, translated by William Arrowsmith, from Euripides III: Heracles, the Trojan Women, Iphigenia Among the Taurians, Ion (The Complete Greek Tragedies - Euripides III, University of Chicago Press, 2013 (Arrowsmith's translation itself is from 1956)

my own translation with notes under the cut

* everywhere that I have used [] I have inserted a word that does not technically appear in the original text.

Theseus Stop! Give [your] hand [to me], [your] servant [and] friend. 

*more literally: Stop! Give [your] hand to a servant/helper [and] friend.

* Ancient Greek uses different punctuation, though the : symbol is used roughly the same way as it is in English and exclamation points are not used, verb conjugation in English does not differentiate the imperative mood, which παῦσαι (sg.2.aor.imperat.med-pass) is in, and often the way we show imperative mood in written English is with an exclamation point. 

-The word δίδου (sg.2.praes.imperat.act.) is also imperative. 

-παῦσαι is said in reference to Herakles’ earlier lines, lamenting his - well, the plot of Herakles.

* The particle δὲ has been omitted from the translation. It’s usually translated as but, and, or then. 

* The possessive pronoun your - σός - does not appear but is implied.

* χεῖρ᾽ is the short version of χειρός - hand

* ὑπηρέτῃ φίλῳ are both nouns in dative, here answering the question to whom? The word and - καί - does not appear between the two, likely because poetic language. The word ὑπηρέτῃ can also mean rower, an underling, servant, attendant, assistant, and is often translated here as helper. The word φίλῳ is a form of φίλος - friend, loved, beloved, dear

Herakles No, lest I wipe off blood on your garments.

* Word order changed slightly. The first word is ἀλλ᾽ - poetically shortened version of ἀλλά - usually translated as but, however, here: lest.

* ἐξομόρξωμαι (sg.1.aor.med-pass.) means wipe off or wipe away, but stain is, in my opinion, not an inaccurate translation in regards to the meaning conveyed.

* πέπλοις means any woven cloth, here usually translated as garments, robes or clothes. 

* αἷμα means blood and is grammatically either nominative or accusative, probably accusative, μὴ means not and σοῖς is a second person possessive pronoun in plural dative.

Theseus Wipe it off, spare naught: I [do] not refuse [you].

* ἔκμασσε (sg.2.praes.imperat.act.) - wipe it off - is imperative again, so is φείδου (sg.2.praes.imperat.med-pass.) - spare.

* μηδέν I translated as naught as in nothing, οὐκ means not

* ἀναίνομαι is in sg.1.praes.ind. - so present tense would be the most literal translation, ie. I do not refuse you, but the meaning might best be conveyed in English with the use of future tense, ie. I will not refuse you. The word can also mean reject, deny, renounce and disown, or be ashamed. Possible other translations: I don’t deny you; I won’t reject you; I am not ashamed; I won’t renounce you.)

That's all on Herakles, the rest is me rambling about Ancient Greek grammar for interested parties (mostly myself). If I could put a second cut here, I would.

Some further notes on the grammatical cases and verb conjugation. You'll have noticed that I've followed verbs with parentheses with some abbreviations. I'll break those down a little for those not in the know: unlike English, Ancient Greek has different endings to denote the person in verb conjugation - 1.sg being first person singular as in I, and so on with 2.sg - you, 3.sg he/she/singular they, 1.pl - we, 2.pl - plural you, 3.pl - plural they. There's also technically an extant dual form in some texts (when speaking of a pair of two) but it's rare. Ancient Greek conjugation also varies a lot by the temporal tense, the ancient greek times are present (praesens - praes.), future (futurum and futurum III), imperfect (imperfectum), strong and weak aorist (aor. - this one doesn't exist in any modern languages and is a bit of a jeremy bearimy but is usually translated as either present or past, depending on the context), perfect (perfectum), and pluperfect (pluscuamperfectum) - all of these except imperfect and pluperfect (which only have indicative forms) then have various forms - indicative (ind.), infinitive (inf.), imperative (imperat.), optative (opt.) and conjunctive (coni.). Verbs also have an active (act.) and middle and passive or active and mediopassive (med-pass.) form, except some verbs only have mediopassive versions and are thus translated as either active or mediopassive depending on the context. This is as complicated (and fun!) as it sounds. (editors note: the fun! was not sarcastic - i am a medstudent who hasn't had to take two semesters worth of classes on this, nor do i have to keep taking ancient greek next semester but i'm going to)

Nouns in Ancient Greek also have grammatical cases, nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and vocative, as do adjectives. They also have genders, and adjectives of course have positive, comparative and superlative (good, better, best) forms.

Ancient Greek also uses a lot of participles, which is like a noun-ified verb. Participles are also a concept in English, just - a lot simpler in English, and also I think in English a participle is a verb that has some characteristics of an adjective or noun, whereas in Ancient Greek participles and verbal adjectives are separate concepts. Participles are derived from verbs and have the same grammatical cases as nouns, nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and vocative, and singular and plural versions, and have three genders, masc., fem. and neut. - they also have active and mediopassive forms, and differ based on the temporal conjugation of the verb, retaining its augment, reduplication, characteristic added letters (for example σ in the future tense, and θη + σ in the passive future) or lack thereof, also they can have different endings or roots based on the tense. So, yeah, "conjugate and translate this verb in part.fut.pass.sg.masc.gen. and II aor.part.act.sg.acc.fem." is what a test question might look like at my level of studying ancient greek.

Sentence constructions also differ from English, some of the most common ones are AcI, NcI, genitivus absolutus. accusativus duplex and nominativus duplex. They also will often skip words (particularly the verb to be they often deemed unnecessary) and poetic language is its own can of worms with its own theoretical dialects and prosody.

All of this is like, barely scratching the surface, there's also a bunch of different dialects, stuff varies by era, all of the noun cases have like, a Bunch of different uses, and it's all terribly interesting.

[tlou-reid]

❆*̩̩͙‧͙*̩̩͙Merry Swiftmas!*̩̩͙‧͙*̩̩͙❆

"in my heart is a christmas tree farm, where the people would come to dance under sparkling lights, bundled up in their mittens and coats, and the cider would flow, and i just wanna be there tonight."

nav

Welcome to Swiftmas 2023! 13 days of Taylor Swift-inspired fics! Here is our tracklist for the month:

12/13 - Cruel Summer (JJ Maybank)

12/14 - Slut! (Joel Miller)

12/15 -The Very First Night (Emily Prentiss)

12/16 - Suburban Legends (Ellie Williams)

12/17 - I Can See You (Spencer Reid)

12/18 - How You Get the Girl (Pope Heyward)

12/19 - Fearless (Luke Alvez)

12/20 - Timeless (Aaron Hotchner)

12/21 - Invisible String (Spencer Reid)

12/22 - Our Song (Abby Anderson)

12/23 - ‘Tis the Damn Season (Emily Prentiss)

12/24 - You are in Love (Spencer Reid)

12/25 - A Christmas surprise!

Fics will vary in length & some will be based on entire songs, while others may use one or two lines! There will be fluff, angst and smut! I hope you join me on this (sleigh) ride for the month of December!

[metmuseum]

Design for 4 Seat Sleigh, no. 3621. 1880. Credit line: Gift of William Brewster, 1923 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/379308

[digitalnewberry]

A 1598 map with seals, sea monsters, and ... Santa?

The figure wearing a red coat in a reindeer-powered sleigh isn't actually Santa. Who is he?

Art and science meet off the coast of Greenland. It sounds like the start of a bad geography joke. But you can see it for yourself on William Barentsz’s 1598 map of the Arctic, one of nearly 700 maps in the Franco Novacco Collection here at the Newberry. The map has plenty to catch your eyes, from ornate compass roses to sea monsters to elaborate frames for the map’s text. As if fearing we might be too overwhelmed to look too closely, the map offers a literal path into its core. There, a small group of ships gather off the coast of the Netherlands at the beginning of the path of Barentsz’s expedition into the arctic...

Read the full post by Dave Weimer, the Newberry's map curator, or get a closer look at the map in our digital library 🎅🗺

[alexis-royce]

Youuuuuu got it @windienine ! Updating an old post since the formatting broke on it:

Like any good OC gremlin, I have playlists for all my favs. The one I’ll put before the cut, though, is Kinesis’ theme song, written by Andrew Huang. He legit wrote it for Evil Plan. It’s both about my OC and it has a slick guitar theme that is just….EVERYTHING. It is the best character theme I have and I adore it.

Here’s a pile (though not even close to all) of character songs under the cut:

Evil Plan

Kinesis: Upside down - Barenaked Ladies, Defeat You- Smash Mouth, half the Dr. Horrible Soundtrack because of course, Evil Genius - Pat Benatar, Bank Job- BNL. A reader also once sent me “Sexy Supervillain” by Fanatical, and I laughed so hard I nearly fell out of my chair.

Alice: Science Vs Romance, Rilo Kiley , Do It - Spice Girls.

William: Vanishing, BNL.

Lemon and Lime - Sunday Morning - Maroon 5

Sire

Anna & Susan - Odds Are - BNL

(Cannot for the life of me find the rest of those playlists. I’m sure there were a ton. Anyway I know a fuckton of weird old musicals, it’s mostly them.)

morphE - Mage: The Awakening Campaign

Campaign Theme: Dark Blue - Jack’s Mannequin

Ammi: Esperandote - Rika Muranaka & Vanesa Quiroz

Sanguine (The First One) - Mister Blue Sky in G Major

Amical: Golden and Green - The Builders and the Butchers, Hurricane - Panic!, Killer Queen - Queen

Billy Thatcher: Every fucking song from Chess, The Musical, by Tim Rice and the boys from Abba

Hendrik Rakove: Hurt So Good - John Mellencamp, Lovefool - Spencer Day’s Cover, Love Me Dead - Ludo, Grace Kelly - BYU A cappella cover, Talk about You - MIKA, It’s All Been Done - BNL, Boomerang - BNL, The Show Must Not Go On - Harvey Danger, Circus- Drew Gasparini and Lindsay Mandez.

Talaiporia- Choke - I DON'T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME

Andrew Cross: Camisado- Panic!

Closing Shop - (The weird experimental meta campaign that literally ate itself)

Steam Rising - Murder By Death, Devil’s Calling - Florence and the Machine, Talkin at the Texaco - James McMurtry, Keepin’ It Real - Barenak BLOW BY KESHA BLOW BY KESHA GET MY SONG RIGHT GET IT RIGHT, Sometimes the Line Walks You - Murder By Death

Exit Signs- Slashers/mixed nWoD Campaign

Season One theme: What if I’m Wrong - Damien Rice

Season Two Theme: I Wanna Get Better - Bleachers

Cyril: Disaster - Drew Weston, A Little Irony - Tom Milsom.

Dea ‘Exit’ DeLus: When I Grow Up - Tim Minchin, Break Your Heart - BNL, If I Had a Heart - Fever Ray, Crystalline - Bjork, Still - Ben Folds, Come Into My Head - Kimbra, Dinner at Eight - Rufus Wainwright, What You Know - Two Door Cinema Club, Big Dark Love - Murder By Death, Bitter and Sick - One Two,

DRT: Bitter Rivals - Sleigh Bells, Passcode - BNL.

Swing: Boogie Feet - Kesha.

Deirdre Whitman: Welcome to the Ball - Rufus Wainwright.

NonPlatonic Forms

I’m Gonna Win- Rob Cantor Boomerang - Lucy Schwartz, Hate that you know me so well- Bleachers, Jericho - Rufus Wainwright, Guster - Center of Attention, Toe to Toe - BNL, Give It Back to You - BNL, Limits -BNL (I apologize for nothing I love Silverball), Blood - ANIMA!, Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1 - Mountain Goats, and of COURSE- Dead Inside by Patricia Taxxon!

- Other characters -

Channery Keene

Artificial Heart - JoCo, Erase Me - Ben Folds Five, Desperate Measures - Marianas Trench, Haunted - Maya Kern, Cake - Melanie Martinez, Bulletproof- La Roux, Cassandra - Area 11, Stolen - Greentree, Guster - Simple Machine, Make Me Feel - Janelle Monae, Could I Leave You - (specifically Donna Murphy at the Sondheim’s 80th concert).

Chrome and Prism

Kiss with a Fist - Florence and the Machine, Langhorns - Spybeat, Dancing’s Not a Crime - Panic!, Thanks I Hate It - Simple Creatures, Sweet Talk - Saint Motel, This Is Love - Air Traffic Controller, Nothing Without You- Vienna Teng

Harold Ludicael

Consequence Free - Great Big Sea, Sea of No Cares- Great Big Sea, Don’t Threaten me with a Good Time - Panic!, Dust and Ashes from Great Comet, I Need to Know from Jekyll and Hyde; Boy Decide - Murder by Death, Spring Break 1899 - Murder By Death, My Type - Saint Motel.

[multi-muse-transect]

Imagine Eric Williams is lying and we do get a free expansion to God Of War Ragnarok and it’s called God Of War: Christmas Special and it involves Kratos investigating missing children in Midgard on the week before Yule as the main villain is revealed to be Krampus who has kidnapped Santa, a being of all cultures that gives gifts to children around the world, with the end being Kratos and Freya defeating him before they get to use the sleigh to deliver gifts with one incident being Kratos stuck in a chimney.

Bonus: Atreus returns for Yule and sees Freya and Kratos asleep by the fireplace with Mimir saying “You won’t believe what we’ve been through brother.”

[cometcrystal]

Tagged by @westernfront to spell my url with song titlez 💯

Come on eileen. By some guys

OHFR? Rico nasty

Miracle. Caravan palace

Every time we touch. Cascada

Thneedville from lorax

Cinnamon...hayley williams

Running up that hill. Kate bush

YDLM, the griswolds

Super graphic ultra modern girl. Chappel roan :)

Take it home. Ice ice melt your heart baby girl let down your guard

A/B machines. Sleigh bells

Love shack (baby love shack)

[usnatarchives]

Dashing Through the Snow!

Are you ready for some winter fun? Who can forget the iconic image of Santa Claus flying through the air in his sleigh, pulled by his trusty team of reindeer.

Native American tribes in the Northeast, such as the Iroquois, used sleighs and sleds for transportation during the winter months. These sleighs were often made from wooden frames with animal skins stretched over them for protection from the cold. In the Great Lakes region, Native American tribes such as the Ojibwe and Potawatomi used a type of sled called a "toboggan" for transportation and hunting. Toboggans were made from a single piece of wood bent into a semicircle and were used to haul goods and people over the snow.

As time went on, sleds began to be made from more durable materials like reinforced wood and metal. And in the 18th and 19th centuries, sleds started to be used for recreational purposes as well as transportation. This led to the development of different types of sleds for different activities, such as racing sleds and toboggans for sliding down hills.

One of the most famous uses of a sled in U.S. history was during the Revolutionary War when Henry Knox was tasked with transporting cannons from the recently captured Fort Ticonderoga. Moving the heavy artillery over 300 miles of difficult winter terrain using ox-drawn sleds, he contributed to the British retreat from Dorchester Heights and their eventual evacuation.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was common for Presidents to use sleighs as a means of transportation during the winter months.

Interested in more winter sports history? Visit our Snow Sports in the National Archives page. Read the letter from Henry Knox to Gen. Washington describing the journey to Boston.

Image 1: RG 241: Utility Patent Drawings. William Erd. Sleigh Velocipede. May 16, 1871. NAID 161499702.

Image 2: GIPHY National Archives gif: https://giphy.com/gifs/usnationalarchives-archivesgif-sledding-truman-library-bgDhcCU40n2n27ucPn

Image 3: Web Environmental Photos: Scenes from around the United States - Sleigh Ride on the Elk Refuge

[winnipegwinterpeg]

Child on a dog sleigh on William Avenue, taken sometime between 1906 and 1906 by Fred Landen, and English immigrant. Photo via the Winnipeg Archives

[metmuseum]

Design for 4 Seat Sleigh, no. 4020. 1888. Credit line: Gift of William Brewster, 1923 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/379333

[tfc2211]

Play ▶ Pine Sap (Christmas Music Mix, Various Artists)

Intro Santa Claus Is Coming to Town - The Ventures Boogie Woogie Santa Claus - Lionel Hampton & His Orchestra What Child Is This? - The Border Brass Winter Weather (Remix) - Joe Williams And Harry Sweets Edison Where Did My Snowman Go? - Molly Bee Too Fat for the Chimney - Gisele MacKenzie Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow - Les Brown & His Band of Renown Jingle Bells (Fattback Style) - Brother Yusef Christmas Time (PT.1) - Jimmy McCracklin The Little Drummer Boy - The Anita Kerr Singers All The Bells - The Bandana Splits Nuttin' for Christmas - The Fontane Sisters Snowy White Snow and Jingle Bells - Vaughn Monroe Jingle Bells - The Ramsey Lewis Trio Sleigh Bell Rock - Three Aces & A Joker Santa Won't Be Blue This Christmas - Jimmy Charles Jingle Bell Slide - Jack Scott Jingle Bell Imitations - Bobby Rydell & Chubby Checker Santa Claus Is Coming to Town - Betty Glamann Goose Fat - Dr. Rubberfunk If Santa Don't Bring You No Funk - Big Sugar feat. Wide Mouth Mason Jingle Bells - Thundersmack Merry Christmas - Al and the Vibrators Reggae Reggae Christmas - Boss Capone All I Want For Christmas Is You (Reggae Remix) - Mariah Carey Button Up Your Overcoat - Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five Santa Claus Is Back In Town - Elvis Presley Punching the Christmas Tree - James Kochalka Superstar I'll Be Home For Christmas - The Bandana Splits Blue Christmas - Joel Paterson Noël Blanc - Jacqueline François Jingle Boogie - Howard Carter Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Poncho Sanchez Brazillian Sleigh Bells - Ferrante And Teicher

[saraminia]

Top 5 Christmas Songs?

1. Last Christmas (by Wham!)🎁

2. Sleigh Ride (by The Ronettes)🛷

3. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (by Andy Williams)🎄

4. Jingle Bell Rock (by Bobby Helms)🔔

5. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town (by The Jackson 5)🎅

[lunapaper]

Album Review: 'GUTS' - Olivia Rodrigo

I admit, I didn’t jump on the Olivia Rodrigo train right away. 

I kinda dismissed her debut single ‘driver’s license’ as nothing more than a syrupy, overwrought pop ballad from a Disney star looking to break out into the mainstream. Even now, I’m still not the biggest fan of it. 

But then came ‘good 4 u.’ 

While GAYLE and Leah Kate traded in generic nursery rhyme hooks and Travis Barker became the go-to guy for pop punk cred, Rodrigo rocked out. Like, really rocked out, offering up razor-sharp riffage and a true scream-along chorus that didn’t come straight out of a kindergarten classroom (or an eight-person committee to write, including a nepo baby). 

Rodrigo’s sickly-sweet taste for revenge made GAYLE and Leah Kate’s respective odes to a scummy ex sound like a temper tantrum in the middle of a supermarket, declaring him a ‘damn sociopath’ while crying on the bathroom floor, almost relishing in the breakdown. Fuck, even the profanity is used to better effect. 

It might’ve been a facsimile of Paramore’s ‘Misery Business,’ but it’s a damn good one, something Rodrigo’s peers didn’t seem to get. So much of a homage to the track is ‘good 4 u,’ that Hayley Williams and former Paramore guitarist Josh Farro even received writing credits on the track.  

Rodrigo further proves herself a purveyor of fine angst on her second album. Where her 2021 debut SOUR was mired in ballads, preoccupied with the same bastard ex, GUTS reignites the bratty spirit of ‘good 4 u’ and other brilliant tracks like ‘brutal,’ amping up the snark in deliciously unhinged style while going straight for the jugular, offering wit galore.  

One of the best examples of the this is recent single, ‘get him back!’ Recalling Best Damn Thing-era Avril with a side of Sleigh Bells, Rodrigo delivers her witty repartee in a disaffected drawl akin to Beck’s ‘Loser,’ flipping between both meanings of the phrase: One minute she wants to make lunch for her dirtbag ex, next she’s ready to deliver him an uppercut.  

Previous single ‘bad idea right?’ also dabbles in the sing-speak, Rodrigo once again succumbing to the greasy charms of an ex, much to the disappointment of her friends. But can’t two people just reconnect? 

‘all-american bitch’ (which may or may not be a critique of the Disney corporate machine) offers up ‘Just a Girl’-esque commentary with a modern twist. Obliterating the soft, insecure everygirl we first got to know on ‘driver’s license,’ the singer turns motifs of retro Americana, like the Kennedys, soda cans for hair rollers and even The Craft into snark fodder, giving us one of the best rock tracks of recent years. ‘ballad of a homeschooled girl’ is sludgy and equally disillusioned, Rodrigo bemoaning the sheltered adolescence that’s left her socially stunted (‘I talkеd to this hot guy, swore I was his type/Guess that he was akin' out with boys, like, the whole night’).  

Even the ballads have improved. ‘lacy’ toys with sapphic lust as Rodrigo seemingly both loathes and lusts after the ‘dazzling starlet, Bardot incarnate’ and her wily ways, the envy consuming her.  

‘vampire,’ on the other hand, makes a lot more sense in context in the wider context of the album. I wasn’t feeling it upon first listen (It just builds and builds, and then... nothing?), but there is beauty in its melodrama: The aching vocals, the loping strings, the hint of glam rock bravado before strangely pulling back.  

The track also echoes Rodrigo’s sheltered upbringing, the singer taking her breakup with the so-called ‘famefucker’ pretty hard, which – let’s face it – was never gonna be an affair to remember. Why would you even bother to dedicate such a gutwrenching ballad to this fuccboi in the first place, it’s more than he deserves!  

Piano finale, ‘teenage dream,’ however, does give us a full rock opera crescendo, Rodrigo looking to the future and already feeling weary at the thought of ageing out of the Disney demographic.  

GUTS falls back on the schmaltz of SOUR at times, namely on the atmospheric 80s pop of ‘pretty isn’t pretty,’ which, although pretty, treads well-worn territory with its lament of impossible beauty standards. Some of the lyrics also feel cliched and even absurd (‘skin like puff pastry,’ really? Is Lacy really flaky? Is she gonna crumble to the touch?)  

And yet, Rodrigo’s sophomore record is an incredible triumph for a young artist, self-assured with a clear creative vision, her songs more than just a bunch of throwback jams. She’s a rather astute rock fan, professing her love for Sleater-Kinney, Depeche Mode and Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill in recent interviews. Delightfully kooky sonic touches, like the sing-speak and the vocal yelps on ‘love is embarrassing’ also add to the album’s charm, the kind of fun idiosyncrasies a soulless conglomerate like Disney would’ve tried to iron out. 

Where GUTS really excels, though, is its focus on defiant and unabashed female rage. Like Alanis, Fiona and Gwen before her, Rodrigo is snarling and seething, presenting a sardonic, suffocating and sometimes soul-crushing view of womanhood in the public eye. I can’t wait for when she calls the world bullshit at the next MTV Awards.  

She also follows in the footsteps of other artists like Hayley Williams and Billie Eilish in recent years who’ve centered their work around the beauty of female rage, stemming from sexism, heartbreak and mistreatment in the industry. 

‘I’ve experienced a lot of emotional turmoil over having all these feelings of rage and dissatisfaction that I felt like I couldn’t express, especially in my job,’ she recently told the Guardian. ‘I’ve always felt like: you can never admit it, be so grateful all the time, so many people want this position. And that causes a lot of repressed feelings. I’ve always struggled with wanting to be this perfect American girl and the reality of not feeling like that all the time.’ 

Funny, fierce and free of any ego, it takes a lot of guts to release a record like GUTS as your second album, at a time when rock and even pop feel so sanitised and dull. I guess I’m now fully on board the Olivia Rodrigo train, toot, toot...