A dark night, in a city that knows how to keep its secrets. . .

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:01:06 GMT

HOLY GODS.

So my friends (niquerio and dreamsquirrel on lj) sent me a package for the holiday, with no note or card or anything: it held a USB external hard drive enclosure with a 250 GB SATA hard drive in it. Which was way, way more than they should have done, considering all they got from me was a box of reject books and a Christmas card with the Grinch on it. But I wasn't going to say no to 250 gigs of storage, considering my tendency to hoard mp3s and butterfly between fandoms, torrents in tow.

But then I finally got it hooked up tonight (note to self: make sure actual hard drive is actually connected to enclosure) and it's not a 250 gig spare drive: it's a 250 gig drive with 200 gigs of mp3s on it.

And this is the couple who probably have the best taste in music (and know more about it) of everyone I know, so it's all *good* music. Album upon album of early music, folk music of all kinds, geek rock, video games, world fusion, showtunes, 1930s swing ...

I don't have enough time left in my *lifespan* to listen to all of this!

Holy gods.

(um. Proper new-year update coming soon. Just. holy gods.)

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 08:13:15 GMT

Merry Christmas, everybody! I had Christmas at home early this week because tomorrow we're heading off to the WILDS of OHIO for Christmas in Mom's Hometown.

THe best things I got for Christmas:
A SPINK! Framed and signed by the artist, just for me. :D
A new power cord for my laptop!!! That isn't made of electrical tape!!!!
A camping bed with built-in spreader bar! <-not exactly what in sounds like.
A bunch of new turtlenecks!
Socks!
Crayons!
A box of the original 64 Crayola crayons! Two boxes, actually, so when I use up one green-blue crayon I will have a replacement!
Books! (A Steve Canyon collection!!! Among others.)
...and an LP with "Snoopy vs. The Red Baron".

And on that note, it's time for the BIG FINAL BLOWOUT music post, because the Wilds of Ohio lacks easily accessible wireless internet; I'll be lucky if I get to see my Yuletide fic. And I missed the last two days, in getting ready for the trip and the presents.

Sunday was the Solstice, so have some Solstice carols:
Jethro Tull - Ring Out, Solstice Bells.mp3
The Dagon Tabernacle Choir - Carol Of The Old Ones.mp3
Leigh Ann Hussey - Wassail.mp3
Lee Welch - All Hayle To The Days.mp3

Monday was the 25 of Kislev, so, the only good Hannukah songs I have ever encountered:
Da Vinci's Notebooks - The Dreidel Song.mp3 - this is an A Capella cover. Even though it sounds like industrial metal.
Tom Lehrer - Hanukkah in Santa Monica.mp3 - Tom Lehrer again! Yay!
South Park - I'm A Jew - I despise South Park from a whole continuity of reasons, starting with the fact that I respect the cartooning art, and ending with the fact that I know actual small children, but I have to admit that a lot of their songs are good.
Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert- Can I Interest You In Hanukkah.mp3 - this is the live version, which has audience reaction and some poorish sound quality - *but* it includes what happened when Jon and Stephen met under the mistletoe.

And finally, for today, a set of songs that I just couldn't leave you guys lacking in your lives.
Stan Freberg - Christmas Dragnet.mp3 - You will never think of scallions the same way again.
Mel Blanc - The Hat I Got For Christmas.mp3 - I am mildly ashamed of myself for liking this one, because the Mexican stereotype he uses is so terrible, but it would be funny even *without* that. And he got married to his brother!
Dr. Elmo - Uncle Johnny's Glass Eye.mp3 - The story of the most touching and beautiful Christmas miracle ever.
Stephen Colbert - Another Christmas Song.mp3 - yeah, this is maybe 1/5 of my collection of Christmas mp3s. But everybody needs another!

It would be the best show ever.

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 19:35:32 GMT

Fun party game induced by end-of-year stress!

If all the fandoms you're currently excited by were *one* fandom, what would it be?

Mine would be a retelling of Arthurian mythology where they're ninjas.
Arthurian time-travelling ninjas.
Arthurian time-travelling superhero ninjas.
Arthurian time-travelling superhero ninjas who are pundits. And get gay married (and secret yuletide fandom).

Here's the three-sentence summary pitch: "Your Daily Awesome" is an hour-long comedy/drama series heavily influenced by Arthurian mythology, superhero comics, and other archetypals stories of our culture. Arthur Pendragon and Merlin Emrys are best friends and the hip and happenin' young hosts of New York City's latest comedy news show, but as the genius scion of the city's wealthiest family, and a mystic ninja who has spent the last fifty years frozen inside a tree, they have secret alternate lives saving the world from conservative politics and shadowy threats, with the help of alien allies and the time machine built for the "news from the past" segment on their show. Focusing on themes of personal responsibility and power in a changing world, the show contrasts broad world- and time- spanning themes and locations with a deep look at the complicated but enduring bonds between our heroes.

The end.

(Bonus points if you guess all the fandoms. Especially the sekrit yuletide one.)

What's your one fandom? :D

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 05:57:56 GMT

Today, of course, is the most important day of the whole holiday season: Yuletide story deadline day!

So have some holiday music in honor of PANIC, both yuletide- and general end-of-December related:
Feist - Please Be Patient.mp3
In honor of the poor, poor Yuletide servers, another from the Colbert Christmas special. This is my roommates' favorite track from the soundtrack. They would have it on loop for hours if I let them. They are *insane*.
Yogi Yorgesson - I Yust Go Nuts At Christmas.mp3
Speaking of going nuts.
This is a guy who apparently did comedy as a broad parody of a Scandinavian immigrant, because apparently there was a time when there was a market for that? But the accent is bizarrely mesmerizing, and the lyrics are perhaps the most accurate description of Christmas ever committed to song.
Trans-Siberian Orchestra - A Mad Russian's Christmas.mp3
Probably my favorite version of the Nutcracker, it's just so evocatively frantic.
Carrie Underwood - Jesus Take The Wheel.mp3
SHUT UP I LIKE THIS SONG. Unironically even. 'cause there are times when I do just want to throw my hands up in the air.

How Copyright Killed Santa Claus

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 09:36:45 GMT

I never really believed in Santa, because little fanbrat that I was, I always wanted specific books, or Grinch puzzles, or Ranger Rick subscriptions, or Disney soundtracks, which led to the conclusion that either Santa was the worst copyright pirate in the world, or my presents were being bought in stores and not made at the North Pole. (I have been pirating music since before I was old enough to read; that is what libraries had cassette tapes for, right? But I knew it was illegal, so Santa wouldn't do it! Because he was good. Too good for this world of grasping media barons and draconian intellectual property laws.)

This has been your pro-Creative Commons touching Christmas tale for today.

So I have never sent anything to the North Pole. Today, however, I did send a package to Kadath In The Cold Waste. So here's some songs about Christmas wishes!

John Barrowman - Grown Up Christmas List.mp3
All I want for Christmas is John Barrowman. Actually.
Spike Jones and His City Slickers - All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth.mp3
Okay, I have a confession to make, which will probably disqualify me as a fan of novelty music, but I really can't stand Spike Jones' little boy voice. (I love the rest of his stuff!) But this song is a classic, so I couldn't not.
The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping.mp3
There've been years where all I wanted was Christmas by myself. (Usually, in fact, about this time of month I start wishing for it every year.) A good book, a batch of warm Christmas cookies all to myself, some wine and music and a fire, a tree with nothing on it but lights, maybe a midnight service if I feel like leaving the house, and a lot of quiet.
I'd never actually do it, because I love all the people and things in a busy Christmas, but oh it would be nice.
Cyndi Lauper - Minnie And Santa.mp3
You know that song "Santa Baby"? You know, the incredibly annoying and vaguely offensive one? Yeah, that one. "Minnie And Santa" is that song, only done kind of adorable instead grating.

In other deeply, deeply important news, Agnostica.com is back up! Just in time for the solstice and the end of the holiday. My agnostica website is back up too! It is very sad and years out of date, but the tiling moebius paper chains are still kind of cool.

Also, I seem to be watching Naruto while I work on Christmas presents; somebody stop me.

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 06:37:56 GMT

SO I dreamed last night that today was Official Rub A Cat Day (I think they are beaming subliminal messages or something now, but anyway.) So have some faunal Christmas songs:

The Marty Gold Children's Chorus - The Kitty Ate The Tinsel Off The Christmas Tree.mp3
This song is dedicated to my sister's cat, Miss Georgiana Darcy, who "gets a little fatter every day."
Brad Paisley - Penguin, James Penguin.mp3
My affection for Brad Paisley seems to be only capable of increasing. Also, I want the animated special about "Santa's Secret Agent Bird".
Gayla Peevey - I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas.mp3
An unalloyed Christmas classic, of course.
Lou Monte - Dominic The Christmas Donkey.mp3
I don't know what it is about Christmas songs that feed into horrible ethnic stereotypes, but until now, I've managed to avoid posting any of them. Oops. (Maybe later we can have a day where I post horrible stereotype songs for Mexico, Scandinavia, Canada, Ireland, and ... uh, whatever Cheech & Chong are.)

Also, I have a few errata: The Odds Against Christmas apparently didn't upload right, so I have tried again.

...and, um, Jesu Joy Of Man's Desiring is not by Beethoven. Because I, my brains, I have none.)

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:01:13 GMT

Okay, tonight's songs are going to be different, in that many of them are very, very bad; many of them are so bad that I can't even bring myself to post mp3s of them.

Today is Beethoven's birthday, so I ought to post some Christmas music by Beethoven, but there are only three tracks by Beethoven in my Holiday music stash.
The first is Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring. I have this in two versions: One is off the Dr. Elmo CD (remember that CD? I said we'd be coming back to it!). The other is as performed by the Maryland All-State High School Band, which is the best performance of that song ever, especially because my father was playing first clarinet for it. But it was the first mp3 I ever ripped from LP, and it was before I really got the hang of it, and the quality *sucks*. I really need to rip it again.
The last one is Ode To Joy as performed by the Jingle Cats. Remember the Jingle Cats? (Ode To Joy isn't really Christmas music, but it certainly qualifies as a Transhumanist Togetherness Winter Holiday Carol if anything should.)

But it is also Phillip K. Dick's birthday, and I've been reading thefourthvine's latest recs set, so we shall supplement the Beethoven with robots. Thing is, I could have done a set of all robot songs, only most of the well-known Christmas songs about automatons and synthezoids are so horribly, horrifyingly bad and creepy I refuse to have mp3s of them on my computer.
Per exemplum: Toyland; Frosty the Snowman; The Marvelous Toy.

But there's a couple which are tolerable.
Merry, Merry Christmas is probably the best song of the Star Wars Christmas CD, for one.
And The Musical Box by Trans-Siberian Orchestra is catchy and just sentimental and melancholy enough.
..And, of course, Chiron Beta Prime by Jonathan Coulton, which is possibly the one Christmas song to defeat all others.

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 07:21:16 GMT

In celebration of the fact that I seem to have managed to get into an iteration of the yuletide debate without making a *total* ass of myself, have some mp3s celebrating the despoiling of Christmas:

Allan Sherman - the 12 Gifts of Christmas.mp3
The odd thing about all the songs in this set is that they're weirdly, deeply dated. (It's a transistor radio! With headphones! How modern!) I mean, it's not like the basic ways of commercializing Christmas have varied that much over the years, but I guess if you're going to mock pop culture you might as well be specific. And from this end of the timeline, the kitsch-nostalgia factor is part of the charm.
Tom Lehrer - A Christmas Carol.mp3
It's Tom Lehrer, and that should be all you need to know. Though I spent a while agonizing over whether to put up the live version, or the studio version. I kept the studio tracks specifically because I thought they might be useful for fanmixes, but the live versions just have so much more charm I can't resist. So this is the live version. But if you have some need for the one without the audience reaction, I can totally hook you up.
Jonathan Coulton - Podsafe Christmas Song.mp3
Oh look, it's another Tom Lehrer for the 21st century, come to save us from ourselves! (And the RIAA.)
Stan Freberg - Green Chri$tma$.mp3
Okay, if "I Heard the Bells" is my favorite traditional carol, this is my favorite novelty track. I have the whole six-and-a-half minute routine memorized, right down to the pauses in the dialogue. Even if I still don't get half the references.
(According to legend, when this track first came out, advertisers and corporations were terrified of it and banned it from commercial radio stations; but within six months of its release Freberg had been hired by Coca-Cola to write them an ad campaign. There's a heartwarming Christmas fable for you!)

One does get so soft-hearted about one's first on-line fandom.

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 07:05:07 GMT

Today is December 14, and you all know what that means!

That's right - the first day of Agnostica, celebrating the birth of Quantum Mechanics!

I would tell you all about the meaning of Agnostica, only agnostica.com is down, so basically what it means is that my paper-chains holiday backdrop is up again at nukees.com!!!

(oh, yes, ya'll, I have old skool *cred*.)

So I will continue telling you about the wonder of Agnostica, and perhaps even put *my* Agnostica site back up, until the last day of the holiday, whenever that is. (to quote Jon Stewart: "...I will check.")

Anyway, actual Agnostica music is generally drunken singing of badly-scanned science-themed filks of Christmas carols, but it's hard to find good-quality mp3s of that. So have some actual recorded holiday music that's in the spirit of Agnostica anyway.

Vienna Teng - The Atheist Christmas Carol.mp3
I went to the Christmas play at church tonight, and we all sang "Happy Birthday To You" to the baby Jesus, and I sang the second verse "You Look Like A Monkey And You Smell Like One Too". Because, well, that's the whole *point* of Christmas, isn't it? God is a stinky monkey, just like us.
Meco - The Odds Against Christmas.mp3
Another from the Star Wars album. The statistical analysis is bad, but the crack is strong.
Consortium Of Genius - Science Party.mp3
Music for your Agnostica party. (Also for the Bones S1 Christmas episode, which is becoming something of a tradition for Sister & me.)
Roy Zimmerman - Christma-Hanu-Rama-Ka-Dona-Kwanzaa.mp3
A Pan-Humanist Holiday Song.
Stephen Colbert & Elvis Costello - There Are Much Worse Things to Believe In.mp3
Another off of the Colbert Christmas. My favorite one off the Colbert Christmas album! And very much in the spirit of Agnosticism, if not of Agnostica-the-holiday.

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 07:14:44 GMT

It's the night of the 13th, so have some monster-y Christmas songs!

MXPX - Christmas Night Of Zombies.mp3
What it says on the package.
Boris Pickett and the Cryptkickers - Monster's Holiday.mp3
A sequel possibly better than the original, the Moster Mash gang comes together for Christmas! (This, like several other songs I have posted/will post, is on the original "Christmas Comedy Classics" cassette tape, which is a holiday must in my family outranked only by TV dinners on Christmas night.)
Andrew Leman - It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Fish-Men.mp3
The first of several carols of cosmic horror to which you will be subjected.
How The Grinch Stole Christmas - You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch.mp3
My mother, my sister, and I had a running argument on the way home tonight (over the river and through the woods from Grandfather's house) about whether this mp3 was from the actual Grinch animated film, or from that other film from 2000 about which we do not speak in my family (speaking of things-that-should-not-be) But I am 99% sure that this is, in fact, the original, sung by Thurl Ravenscroft AKA Tony the Tiger, and therefore merely listening to it won't contaminate you forever with the mind-rotting miasma of its unnatural vileness.
Probably.

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 06:16:30 GMT

I am not finished *any* of the presents I needed to have finished for tomorrow. D: I did do at least a token amount of cookie-baking today, though, so that's something anyway.

But! Today (or possibly yesterday, Baha'i resources on teh web are teh suck) was the Feast of Questions, so have some questioning Christmas songs:

Peter, Paul & Mary - I Wonder As I Wander.mp3
The absolutely last Peter Paul & Mary I will be posting, promise.
Fall Out Boy - What's This.mp3
Why yes, that is Fall Out Boy covering the song from The Nightmare Before Christmas
(I want to like FOB, really I do, but for some reason, all their lyrics *suck*. Instrumental covers of their songs = je les adore. Covers by them of other songs = yay! Actual FOB songs by FOB = deep, deep eh.)
Kathy Mattea - Mary Did You Know.mp3
Another Christmas song about death! Hooray for the true meaning of Christmas!
Stephen Colbert & Friends - What's So Funny About Peace, Love And Understanding?.mp3
The last song from the Christmas special, and the only one that was a cover of a pre-existing song. (Elvis sings the part of the bear.)

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 04:59:10 GMT

Fun true coincidences!
Rahm Emmanuel and Stephen Colbert were at Northwestern University the same year (1984-1985), which Rahm/Stephen fandom is *all over*. But this is also, almost certainly, a year when teenage Rodney McKay was there. Where's that fic, pls?

So I left one of my Yuletide novels on the bus yesterday? It's a two-book series; the one I lost is the one I already owned - I had to wait three weeks to get the other one on interlibrary loan. So I went to the local library today, which luckily did have copies of the one I lost, and decided while I was there to check the Goodwill next door, and guess what I found there for $.50? --that's right, a copy of the one I had waited for on interlibrary loan! So now I still own one and have one out from the library, only reversed. Oh, world.

And it's Ben Browder's (and John Kerry's!) birthday, so let's do another set of fandomy songs! These ones are specifically songs *sung* by BSOs, or the actors who play them:

Hugh Laurie - Silent Night.mp3
This is House playing the piano, from, I believe, the season one Christmas episode. (I wanted to get one of Shatner singing on Boston Legal, but none of the bits I could find were Christmassy songs.)
John Barrowman - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.mp3
John Barrowman, being a musical theater guy, has a lot of tracks available out there; thing is, all the ones I've been able to grab are Captain Jack Harkness songs. I can put together a Captain Jack playlist using only tracks with him singing. This worries me a bit.
...this one is a slightly-more-cheery (but still fairly good) version of Merry Little Christmas off of his Christmas special.
Robert Downey, Jr. - River.mp3
This was apparently written and sung by RDJ for some sort of Ally McBeal-related album? (Ally McBeal is in Boston Legal continuity, btw, fun fact!) I have no idea why, or how my sister got her hands on the track. But it makes me really, really want fluff fic where Steve drags Tony out ice-skating at Rockefeller center. And there is no angst. At all. About anything. Unlike in this song. Just skating, and colorful themed scarves, and fluff.
Bing Crosby and David Bowie - Little Drummer Boy.mp3
From Bing's last Christmas special. The only version of Little Drummer Boy that doesn't make me want to stab my eardrums out.
And no, David Bowie is not the slashiest one in this duet.

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 04:24:17 GMT

Good: Got books all ready to send out tomorrow!
Bad: It's, like, a *month* after I said I'd send them.

Good: Pretty much know what I'm writing for my Yuletide story
Bad: Left my Yuletide novel on the bus yesterday.

Good: Am not as far behind as I feared in making Christmas presents!
Bad: Left book of how-to-make-Christmas-presents on the bus yesterday.

Good: Laptop is getting consistent power again!
Bad: This is due only to the aid of a great deal of duct tape and some strategically placed bulldog clips.

Good: BOSTON LEGAL FINALE OMG YAY!
Bad: Was going to make actual rational meta post about strategic importance of Boston Legal finale. Read Merlin fanfic instead.

Good: This is the best Master/Doctor shippy song *evar*.
Bad: There really needs to be a full-length vid of that song to Master/Doctor. With lots of gratuitous Bessie. And cricket. But I am not a good enough vidder to pull it off.

Good: Very queer Christmas songs!
B. D. Wong - Wishing You a Drag Queen Christmas.mp3
Kip Addotta - I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus.mp3
Pansy Division - Homo Christmas.mp3
The Capitol Steps - Away With The Manger.mp3 - this one is kind of a stretch, and also kind of annoys me by totally missing the point of the ACLU, but with the mention on the Daily Show of an actual gay Nativity, I couldn't resist the opportunity.
Bad: Am still a day behind on my Advent Music Calendar posts.

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:39:55 GMT

So, missed the music post yesterday due to being way too excited about OMG BOSTON LEGAL THEY ACTUALLY WENT THERE OMG, the world is changing and I'm here to watch, omg.

Anyway, yesterday was the day to celebrate the Immaculate Conception, which means that Mary was pregnant either less than a month, or else exactly as long as Dana Scully was. Deep, deep significance there, surely.

So here's some less-than-immaculate Christmas songs:

Jessica Simpson - Baby It's Cold Outside.mp3
AKA, the Date Rape Christmas Song. I actually enjoy this cover, because it comes out about as skeezy as it ought to be, unlike when, say, Dean Martin sings it as if it's wholesome, which just gives me O John Ringo No shivers all over.
Governor's Musik - Rejoice O Daughter Of Zion.mp3
This is a selection from Handel's Messiah, off the Colonial Williamsburg Christmas CD. I am not generally overly enthusiastic about Handel's Messiah, but this gets to the point where she declaims "Behold, thy King cometh on to thee! " and I crack up every time.
Because I am deeply immature.
Neko Case - Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis.mp3
I also have a Tom Waits cover of this song, and it is very - strange - to hear a male voice singing it.
John Legend - Nutmeg.mp3
From the Colbert Christmas special. Did you know that nutmegs, like buckeyes, were sometimes used in African-American conjure ritual as a symbolic representive of black male testicles? Now you know! Knowing that makes this song *so much better*, I promise.

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:02:44 GMT

OMG BOSTON LEGAL YOU GUYS OMG BOSTON LEGAL!!!!!

DENNY PROPOSED AND ALAN SAID YES! LIKE ACTUAL MARRIAGE! LIKE FOR LOVE! THEY ACTUALLY SAID "IT'S LEGAL IN MASSACHUSETTS!" OMG OMG OMG!!!!!

CAPTAIN KIRK JUST GOT ENGAGED TO DANIEL JACKSON!!!!!!!!!!!!

AND THERE IS STILL AN HOUR LEFT OF THE SHOW TURN IT ON!!!! IT'S ON ABC!!!

ETA: THIS SHOW, YOU GUYS. THIS SHOW.

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 05:08:13 GMT

Fireworks in the Colonial style = 10x better than fireworks in whatever the heck style people use these days.

Of course, they were probably also 10x more expensive, and 10x more dangerous, considering how low to the ground and close to buildings they were, and also harder for large crowds to see. But oh, they were brilliant! Totally worth freezing my butt off for two hours for.

The thing about most fireworks shows - you know that the most spectacular display comes at the end, so whenever there's a particularly good display, the enjoyment is spoiled by the fear that it's the finale. This show was *all* finale. It started wild and just *never let up* and then ended on the same note it began on.

...in a minor segue, today was Pearl Harbor Day, so enjoy a special mix of songs for Christmas at war.

Carl Vasta - I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day.mp3
This is probably my very favorite Christmas song, set to a poem that Longfellow wrote during the midst of the American Civil War. It's been set to a bunch of different tunes - I originally learned it out of our hymnal - but this is the tune that everybody seems to record. I've sung it to myself a *lot* over the past eight years or so.

Royal Guardsmen - Snoopy's Christmas.mp3
I always imagine that this song took place on a night of the Christmas Truce, which is one of those stories which always gives me back my faith in my fellow man (even if my faith in men, in aggregate, is gone.)

Judy Garland - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.mp3
This song became the de facto Christmas song of World War Two, with its theme of hope among hardships and taking happiness whenever you can. Of course, it got cheered up a couple times from the original, which disappoints me, because if you haven't noticed by now I like my Christmas with a good dollop of melancholy. But this is the original Judy Garland version from "Meet Me In St. Louis" and keeps at least some of the melancholy that was later excised.

Masters of Harmony - Christmas Eve In My Home Town.mp3
What "Merry Little Christmas" was to WWII, this song was to Korea. Written by a soldier who served in Korea, it quickly became the most-requested song among overseas military, and has been nicknamed "The GI's Christmas Carol". (I like it for being *so much* less annoying than "I'll Be Home For Christmas", too.)

Johnny & Jon - Christmas in Vietnam.mp3
This is another song off the hobo-themed Christmas album. I don't know why it was on there, except as a symptom of massive stereotyping of Vietnam vets. (I've always loved the stories of the 1960s, but that was one thing I never understood - how the peace movement thought it was a good idea to demonize soldiers and veterans. And I am so, so glad the current anti-war movement has, mostly, avoided going there.)

Andy Williams - O Little Town Of Bethlehem.mp3
Go read this article in National Geographic. And then weep for humanity.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Christmas Eve In Sarajevo.mp3
TSO does rock-opera type things with stories, so I have heard, but I have only got my hands on their CDs, so the story is always a bit elusive. They apparently have a multimedia video for this song up on their website, though, which my computer refuses to stream properly.

[rx - happy rxmas and a whole lotta love.mp3]
Yeah, I'm totally duplicating songs already, but this mix is over twice as long as the others anyway, so suck it. And I couldn't think of anything better to stand in for our current mess, anyway.

Weird Al Yankovic - Christmas At Ground Zero.mp3
Ah, yes. A carol for the *next* big war.

John Lennon - Happy Christmas (War Is Over).mp3
It's hard to fight wars when you're rebuilding a world devastated by nuclear (and chemical, radiological, biological, and explosive) contamination. But I have faith that we could still manage it, if we wanted to badly enough.

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 04:33:41 GMT

I calculated using Google Maps that I've been walking about five miles a day for the last three days. No wonder my feet hurt. (Though the hotel jacuzzi helps.)

Also, of course today we got a CD of colonial carols, since I posted that theme yesterday.

But today is the feast of St. Nicholas, so have some Christmas music about Santa instead:

Barenaked Ladies - Elf's Lament.mp3
In which Santa is a slave driver.
They Might Be Giants - Santa's Beard.mp3
In which Santa is a homewrecker and a skeeve.
Stan Freberg - Nuttin' For Christmas.mp3
In which Santa is a thief who has been nothing but bad.
(This is the only proper cover of this song, btw. There's another one out there that's missing all the bits that make the song awesome.)
Weird Al Yankovic - The Night Santa Went Crazy.mp3
In which Santa goes bugnuts insane and kills a whole bunch of people.

Enjoy!

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 04:47:25 GMT

Have some Williamsburg-y-ish music! Only not very, because as noted it's hard to find good vocal versions of old-fashioned Christmas carols, and if I find good CDs here it will be hard to not buy them.

But anywho.

Tinsmith - Greensleeves.mp3
As the man who was playing at dinner said, this doesn't technically turn into a Christmas carol until, oh, next week sometime - until then it's just the old folk tune about My Lady Greensleeves, which some people say is a reference to Goddess as spirit of the evergreen, so I suppose you can pretend it's actually a Solstice carol anyway.
Mediæval Bæbes - The Holly And The Ivy.mp3
Another of my very favorite carols, and authentically ancient-flavored, though if the tour guide tonight was correct, all the greenery around here this time of year is actually not historically accurate, can you believe it?
Duke Froggus - Joy to the Creek.mp3
"Joy to the World" is actually a carol that first came into popularity in late Colonial Virginia, right about where I am right now. Of course, this is actually a cover in faux-swing style, starring a keyboard that plays frog and owl noises.
Clam Chowder - Have Some Madeira, M'dear.mp3
Not actually a Christmas song, but I did have some Madeira tonight! Malmsey to be specific. And it was actually good. Very strong-flavored, but in a way that wasn't alcohol-tasting-y. I liked it. Even if Sister only got it 'cause it was the cheapest drink on the menu. And this is an excellent fun song full of wordplay that my sister had never heard of. So I share.

Christmas in Washington

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:38:09 GMT

So I met Sister and Mom in Washington DC today, only since I had to take the commuter MTA bus in, I got there about two hours before any sane tourists do. I used the extra time to hike all the way down from the Smithsonian Metro station to the Lincoln Memorial for the first time in about fifteen years (*with* my backpack full of a whole weekend's stuff, thank you), so I think I earned the hiking stick medallion I bought myself at the memorial. (Google maps says the round trip is about three miles. Ahahaha.)

It was the most gorgeous December day imaginable, and it was quiet and empty, and I had forgetten just how beautiful the monuments end of the Mall can be, and I'd never been to the WWII memorial before and it is *amazing*, and I could probably stay there for about ten hours just taking bad photos from different angles.

So yeah, there's an approximate ton of pictures.

Then I met Sister at the National Art Gallery to see the Pompeii exhibit, which was really neat (and even cooler having just wandered around America's greek temples, though it had the odd side effect that I now ship Abraham Lincoln with Athena Parthenos.) But my favorite thing at the National Gallery has always been the shiny metal wall/ceiling in the underground walkway of the concourse, and OMG.

They have installed 40,000 white LEDs in it which are programmed to light up in semi-random patterns along the lines of cellular automata, and it is the most *gorgeous* thing I have *ever* seen period, and I could sit and watch it for *days*, OMG. It's only supposed to be up until next year sometime, so if you have any excuse to duck into the gallery, you should go and look at it while it's there.

Anyway, then we met Mom for the Realizing the Promise political forum, and then we drove to Colonial Williamsburg.

So. Uh. Have some America-themed Christmas music.
Maura Sullivan - Christmas Eve In Washington.mp3
Disturbingly catchy, unusually sincere, and somebody should vid it to X-files. (Or possibly Bones. Or both.)
Dr. Elmo - Christmas All Across The USA.mp3
This is buy the guy that did Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer. Yes, they did eventually did a whole Christmas album. Yes, there's a reason only the first song caught on. This is the only other song on the album that isn't astonishingly bad. (Don't worry, I'll be sharing some of the astonishingly bad ones too.)
RX - Happy RXmas and a Whole Lotta Love.mp3
So, somewhere my sister got an album of dance remixes of President Bush talking, I have no idea why or where. They are the only way in which I can currently listen to his voice without attempting to puncture my own eardrums. They are clever and catchy. And this is the Christmas song. Enjoy for the Bush's last Christmas in the White house!
The Royal Guardsmen - Snoopy for President.mp3
Okay, what I should really have here is some Capitol Steps Christmas, but they're surprisingly difficult to pirate, and all their legal downloads are time-sensitive and out of date. So have this, which is not technically a Christmas song, but it's in the series of songs of which "Snoopy's Christmas" is the best known. (They all sound largely the same anyway.)

A Merry Fandom Christmas (Part 1/?)

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:31:40 GMT

Nothing in particular grabs me about December 3rd, so let's start in on fandom songs!

Have Yourself a Shiny Browncoat Xmas.mp3
I've had this since track, like, before I even watched Firefly. So yeah. Have yourself a shiny Browncoat xmas, everybody! (There will be many more versions of this tune appearing later. I adore the original beyond all reason. Christmas is, after all, a season of melancholy.)
Neil Hannon (written by Murray Gold) - Song For Ten.mp3
My sister refuses to file this away as a Christmas song, but it so totally is. It's actually a fairly touchingly complicated Christmas song. As long as you don't spoil it by playing it the rest of the year. (Or, like, watching the Dr. Who episode it was written for. Which I still haven't done. Because that would mean accepting that David Tennant is actually the Doctor now. Euuugh. :P )
The Twelve Days of Christmas at Sacred Heart mp3
...somehow, any time there is Scrubs + singing, there is awesome. (Okay, anytime there is Scrubs anything there is awesome, but you know.)
Meco - What Can You Get A Wookiee for Christmas (when he already has a comb).mp3
Yes, Virginia, there was a Star Wars Christmas album. Titled "Christmas in the Stars." Why yes, I do own a copy on CD. Why? Well, whyever not?

I am off tomorrow for an extended weekend in Colonial Williamsburg (+the Smithsonian Mall + Leesburg) with Sister, which ought to be amazing, and on which I had *better* get a very good start on my Yuletide story. There will be internets, if all goes according to plan. But I have to get up at 6 o'clock tomorrow morning to get there. Blahhh.

Christmas Music!

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:52:30 GMT

Okay. So, I'd planned to do a christmas music advent thing this month - upload three or so songs on a given theme every day to offer to download. (Because just what you lot need this time of year is more christmas music!) But being unable to get into my webspace delayed it, so I'm going to do dec 1, dec 2 in this post and Dec. 3 later tonight (and hopefully I'll stay caught up for the forseeable future.)
December First is the first day of Advent - or, well, the Sunday nearest Nov. 30 is, but 12-1 is the fixed date that the secular calendar has attached it to. It's also World AIDs day. So for December 1, have two Advent carols and the Christmas song from RENT.

RENT original Broadway cast - Christmas Bells.mp3
"O Come, O Come Emmanuel" is sung in church every Sunday in Advent as the Advent wreath is lit, one verse per candle. It's one of the things I look forward to most in Advent. (And I think I'll only be there for one week of it this year.) Actual hymns are surprisingly hard to find covers of (or I'd have "Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus" here too), so here's two interesting covers of "Emmanuel".
Belle & Sebastian - O Come O Come Emmanuel.mp3
Peter Paul & Mary - O Come O Come Emmanuel.mp3
And my very favorite carol from my family's traditional Christmas mixes (which my father had recorded from LP to reel-to-reel and then reel-to-reel to cassette, and I should rip to CD before Mom throws them out) is "Do You Hear What I Hear". I love the echoes calling and the story it builds.
Mormon Tabernacle Choir - Do You Hear What I Hear.mp3

December Second marks the anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition, so here's some drunken Christmas music:

Sherwin Linton - Santa Got A DWI.
This is off the "Bummed Out Christmas" CD I gave Mom a few years ago. You will be seeing more of this CD, because, seriously, a hobo-themed Christmas album, that is the awesomest thing ever. And there are songs on it that I'd never heard of before but are not horrible, which when you collect novelty music, is the real novelty.
Cliff Richard - Mistletoe & Wine.mp3
By the time I was about ten, my parents had suggested that perhaps Santa would prefer wine with his Christmas cookies instead of milk. (This appears to have gone over well, since the wine was always gone. Unlike the cookies.)
Elmo and Patsy - Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer.mp3
She'd been drinking too much eggnog / And we begged her not to go.
Yeah, well, I had to. (This song has actually been a real comfort to me. My relatives have a bad habit of dying in November, and it was good to be reminded that I wasn't the first person to wonder do we open up the gifts, or send them back.)
(I know, I'm a terrible person.)
Steve Schuch and The Night Heron Consort - Here We Come A-Wassailing.mp3
Lest we forget that getting liquored up is the *true* spirit of Christmas!

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:56:14 GMT

The sky: most epic sadface ever. ):

I wish I'd managed a good photo of it. (I will probably be scraping astro-blogs to make an icon or two later. Just 'cause, y'know.)

Anyway. I was going to post some music, and photos, and stuff, but I apparently suck too much to figure out how to log in to my webspace account. ):

Also, I have very nearly 900 paper cranes folded, I recounted them tonight, and I still don't have a wish. (I started folding them the winter my father died. I didn't have a wish then, either, but it was something I could do, when I needed to do something but couldn't. And I've kept it up, off and on, because it helps, to make something and put what I'm feeling in it. And I use candy wrappers and eat the chocolate as I go, which also helps.)

So. If you had a thousand paper cranes, what would you do with them?

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:03:58 GMT

So, if someone had happened to be seduced into reading Merlin fic over Thanksgiving holiday, does anybody know where she could find the show streaming online (in the US)?

Veoh seems to have most of it, but their web player doesn't work right for me, and I'd prefer not to have to download...

TECHONOLOGY STATUS UPDATE

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:10:36 GMT

I wiped my hard drive, re-installed everything, and so far, all is golden! I don't think I even accidentally wiped any files I meant to keep

...okay, there is one small issue. None of my games are working anymore. (Quadra, Commander Keen 1-5, and Tetris Classic. I am so l33t. But they are all borked! Is tragedy. Tragic tragedy.)

In the process, I put a data partition on this hard drive, so in the event of needing to reinstall again I won't have to back up 20 gigs of music, so now I have C: (Maya) and E: (Yemaya). (My desktop is Seshat, my mp3 player is Yama, and my palm pilot is Ganesh, if you're curious. ...you can date when I got a piece of tech by what mythology it's from. Though Nyx and Ereshkigal are both long gone, alas.)

Seshat (the desktop) is unhappy, though. I backed all the files from the laptop onto the secondary hard drive that we hooked up to her earlier, over Samba networking, which was amazingly easy! (Although being able access the Windows shared drives from the Linux box (or my roommate's mac), is a lot easier than the reverse. Apparently Windows is a nelly bottom (okay, yeah, I knew that already.)

But, so, I was too lazy/chicken to reformat the spare drive before backing up onto it, so Seshat is now running that same Puppy distro off a livecd while having a hard drive with an old Red Hat install and a hard drive with an old Windows install in her, neither of which function right, and none of which I set up properly, and she gets *so* confused when I try to turn her on; it's pretty much a dice roll which OS attempts to load first, which is always fun. And now the Puppy system is having multiple, and multiplying, issue. I should probably just do what I should have done years ago, and do a full Ubuntu install on the main drive.

(Does anyone know what would happen if I just went in and deleted all the system files on the old, not-bootable Windows drive? And kept the data files? I really don't want to have to transfer all that again, but I should have reformatted first...)

And then there's camera! It stopped working, with an error note popping up on the screen that told me to check the user manual. The note in the user manual said to call Support. My camera is so old and dinged that it's probably not even worth the time on line with support, assuming that's even an option. So, since I will soon be doing holiday-trip-stuff all over the place, I finally got around to looking up the error code online, and they suggested "Smack the front of the camera really hard, as many times as necessary." And it worked!

Go modern technology!
(I'd gotten used to having to whack the camera when it jammed up, but that was whacking the bottom and the top right corner, not the front. So I may end up having to whack it, in a special way, in three different places to make it go. Oh camera. But is working now!)

You know, the camera has probably earned a name of its own by this point. Anybody have any appropriate goddesses to suggest?

Holidays List

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:56:11 GMT

List of Things For Me For Christmas

- interesting hats
- non-patterned, jewel- or earth-colored turtlenecks, sized women's small.
- One of the commemorative 50th anniversay Crayola 64-crayon packs
- pro-quality opaque black (and maybe opaque white) ink for dip pens; HUNT 102, 56, and 107 artists' nibs (or equivalent), the more the better; blotting paper; standard Bic mechanical pencils. (Also possibly a brush pen or some tech pens of my own. Or an Ames lettering guide or an artists' quality straight edge for inking.)
- DVDs: POTC 3, Iron Man
- CDs (or mp3s): Small, quirky, local, geek-rock or swing/rockabilly/American traditional or folk/early music groups that the giver enjoys (or performs in). Or classical chamber music or avant garde classical or alternative hip-hop. Or novelty songs from the '40s, '50s and '60s. Or basically any music that you like that is fun, is too obscure to pirate and too deeply un-hip to be indie.
- nice, small-sized blank notebooks, lined or plain or graph; black ballpoint pens
- sheets sized for a full futon mattress (also preferably earth- or jewel-tones, but patterned is fine, and I don't care what kind of cloth, as long as they bend and are machine-washable.)
- A thing to file other peoples' business cards in (they make those, right?)
- anything edible (no, really, anything)
- money
- any paid time on my JF account; one month paid time on my LJ account so I can finish fixing my custom layout and moodtheme.
- AAA batteries, rechargeable or otherwise

Things I Really Truly Do Not Need For Christmas (though I will probably still be happy if I get them):
- books.
- Star Wars crap
- any clothes not explicitly on the list (there are clothes I need, but they need to be very specific ones I pick myself, and they are outnumbered by Clothes I Have Too Many Of. So, gift certificate to Goodwill or Salvation Army would be cool, if someone wants to get me one of those.)
- random knick-knacky things for the cats to eat, incl. candles and jewelry.

Things I Really Truly Do Not Need Any More Of But Kind Of Want Anyway:
- windchimes (that actually chime well)
- Daekor potbellies (Dude, I didn't know that they were a banned hazardous material! Awesome.
- Williamsburg pottery in the dark-blue-and-off-white pattern, especially things that I can actually use in the kitchen, or office stuff (like inkwells).

Also:
Sarah really wants a copy of Quickbooks Pro. If Sarah gets a copy of Quickbooks Pro, I no longer have to do the studio accounting by the seat of my pants, so it is also a present for me. I will be passing the hat for this, if any of our friends and relations would like to contribute a fiver or two to be their present for both of us for Christmas.

Fandomy-things that would be cool:
- fanart prints
- fic or fanart based on any of these ideas or any of these fandoms or on any fic or art I have posted.
- Feedback on any fic or art I have posted.

What do other people want? (bearing in mind that I am deeply broke and there will likely be a lot of homemade-from-scraps presents this year. Deeply broke enough that I am not even considering doing Christmas cards except to first-degree relatives.)

(I owe some of you stuff already. The books have been delayed again because I *found* the boxes that went missing! I just haven't got a chance to retrieve them yet. The D ficlets are in progress! ...they just aren't so much ficlets anymore. And then there's Yuletide...)