Seductional*

Julie London - 'I'd Like You For Christmas' (1957)

* Yes, I know that isn't actually a word. But it should be.

Traditional

Goodness me, I love this record.

Last posted two years ago to the day!

Aretha Franklin - 'Kissin' By The Mistletoe' (1961)

Once Upon A Time

Just got back from watching the girlies' school Christmas production - the musical version of Roald Dahl's subversive Cinderella, in which Cinders decides not to marry the handsome prince (because he seems far too keen on chopping people's heads off) and plumps for the local jam-maker instead; quite rightly.

It reminded me a bit of this...

'Any Prince To Any Princess'

August is coming
and the goose, I'm afraid,
is getting fat.
There have been
no golden eggs for some months now.
Straw has fallen well below market price
despite my frantic spinning
and the sedge is,
as you rightly point out,
withered.

I can't imagine how the pea
got under your mattress. I apologize
humbly. The chambermaid has, of course,
been sacked. As has the frog footman.
I understand that, during my recent fact-finding tour of the
Golden River,
despite your nightly unavailing efforts,
he remained obstinately
froggish.

I hope that the Three Wishes granted by the General
Assembly
will go some way towards redressing
this unfortunate recent sequence of events.
The fall in output from the shoe-factory, for example:
no one could have foreseen the work-to-rule
by the National Union of Elves. Not to mention the fact
that the court has been fast asleep
for the last six and a half years.

The matter of the poisoned apple has been taken up
by the Board of Trade: I think I can assure you
the incident will not be
repeated.

I can quite understand, in the circumstances,
your reluctance to let down
your golden tresses. However
I feel I must point out
that the weather isn't getting any better
and I already have a nasty chill
from waiting at the base
of the White Tower. You must see
the absurdity of the
situation.
Some of the courtiers are beginning to talk,
not to mention the humble villagers.
It's been three weeks now, and not even
a word.

Princess,
a cold, black wind
howls through our empty palace.
Dead leaves litter the bedchamber;
the mirror on the wall hasn't said a thing
since you left. I can only ask,
bearing all this in mind,
that you think again,

let down your hair,

reconsider.

- Adrian Henri (RIP).

----

The show was excellent. And so was the mulled wine. Oh yes it was.

Donna Summer - 'Happily Ever After' (1977) (camp as Christmas)

Morrissey On 'Desert Island Discs'

I missed this when it was on the radio, and then I missed its run on the iPlayer (hopeless!), so thank you dear person unknown who uploaded it in such fine quality to Media Fire.

It's a warm, funny and (for him) relatively revealing interview and an tip-top selection of tunes, only one of which I had heard before.

Morrissey's Desert Island Discs (presenter, Kirsty Young) (BBC Radio 4, November 29th 2009)

The songs played are listed in comments - 'so if you don't want to spoil the surprise, look away now'.

Ja Baby

Neon Licht
Schimmendes Neon Licht
Und wenn die Nacht anbricht
Ist diese Stadt aus Licht
-
Neon lights
Shimmering neon lights
And at the fall of night
This city's made of light
-

Mein Gott, Ich liebe this.

Ein groß Bier bitte Brigitte!

Kraftwerk - 'Neonlicht' (1978)

Little Boy Lost, Little Boy Blue

This song comes from a sweet children's animated film based on the book & illustrations of David Melling and when we watched it on telly with the girls last Christmas, I was most struck with it.

It popped up on the iPo the other day in one of those Mr Shuffle Gets It Right For The Season moments, and then I heard Kate Rusby interviewed on Radcliffe & Maconie too.

As the summer always turns me on to sweet soul, funk and reggae, so these nights-below-zero send me back to things that are English and folky and ancient-sounding.

Kate Rusby - 'Little Jack Frost' (2005)

More Advent-urous

Well....I've been waiting and waiting and I think I finally must now be allowed to play this again. And look! It's so early, Low's lights and tinsel haven't even arrived yet!

Low - 'Just Like Christmas' (1999).

Woking Class

Out in the pastures we call society
You can't see further than the bottom of your glass

Here's a band you might know x

Ping Pong

It's alright 'cos the historical pattern has shown
How the economical cycle tends to revolve
In a round of decades, three stages stand out in a loop
A slump and war then peel back to square one and back for more

Bigger slump and bigger wars and a smaller recovery
Huger slump and greater wars and a shallower recovery

You see the recovery always comes 'round again
There's nothing to worry for, things will look after themselves
It's alright, recovery always comes 'round again
There's nothing to worry for if things can only get better

There's only millions that lose their jobs and homes and sometimes accents
There's only millions that die in their bloody wars, it's alright

It's only their lives and the lives of their next of kin that they are losing
It's only their lives and the lives of their next of kin that they are losing

Don't worry, shut up, sit down, go with it and be happy.

Stereolab - 'Ping Pong' (1994)

King Me

As if I needed another PC-based distraction, I seem to have developed an addiction to internet checkers (or draughts, as we used to call them).

I'm playing it late at night and early in the morning, with a cup of tea at lunchtime and whenever I should be doing something 'important' but am bored.

It's not as if I've played the physical version obsessively over the years - there's been the occasional sortie on holiday with the girls or Mrs H, and my grandad used to visit slaughter upon me with it when I was a kid (lawdy didn't that generation know their board games, their cards, their billiards?). But this infernal computery versh has got me hooked.

It's taught me a few things about myself, mind you, viz -

- I can't think very far ahead (hence rubbish at chess)
- I'm impatient when things aren't moving quickly - so act in haste and make mistakes
- I'm not very good at taking risks
- I play defensively
- I can play well when the chips are down

I've tried to work on all this, and have started to win more.

Yesterday I finished a game with a satisfying flourish by taking the last three of my opponent's pieces on the board (all kings) in a single move.

Because I bided my time.

It all reminds me of those lessons the Master used to give Grasshopper in Kung Fu.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet - 'Everybody's Jumpin' (1959)

If you're running one of the older versions of Windows, the pesky game is lurking in your Start menu right now waiting to lure you - be warned!

Yeah Baby

Our occasional series of extended disco classics builds into a magnificent collection your whole family will enjoy.

This week - a solid gold classic in rarely-heard twelve inch form.

From that stash of vinyl we've been discussing.

It's big and it's bassy and the breakdown's to die for.

Jocelyn Brown - 'Somebody Else's Guy' (12") (1984)

In Their Tender Grasp

When one of the Dads at the girlies' school told me he was moving house and planned to chuck all his vinyl out (!) I was round there like a shot for a rummage; he'd very sportingly granted me first refusal on the 'stock' before he hefted it up to the charity shop.

He's a bit of a disco bunny, as it turns out - so I picked up some late Marvin and an Imagination LP (*sings* - "Music and lights! I'll sing and dance with you all night!") a couple of nice twelve inches I'm sure will crop up here some Friday or other and - a tad anomalously given the general spangled thrust of his collection - this.

Which he was kind enough to let me have for nothing, even though I said I thought it'd fetch a few quid 'out there' (I was right - crazy prices for even the CD!).

We popped it on chez H last night and oh, what loveliness we found it to contain.

Sorry, poor work-rate I know, but I'm only part-way through computerising it I'm afraid; still, I wanted to share a little of it with you.

This old music is lighting up my dark, dark November, and perhaps it will yours, too.

The Lotus Eaters - 'German Girl' (1984)

The Lotus Eaters - 'Out On Your Own' (1984)