Tomorrow's Christmas Post: How One Year I Actually Baked Thirteen Different Kinds Of Christmas Cookies

but first...

An Open Letter To Jesus


dear jesus - many years ago i read in a magazine an article about
how you never intended for your birthday to become what it is
today - i mean with all the stress, running around buying gifts, etc.
and well i'm sure you didn't... but


JESUS - do you have any idea how much Christmas stuff I have
collected over the years.  I have so many Nativity sets, big and
little angels, a collection of Christmas ornaments that when I break
one I'm actually glad - and well you cannot imagine the....

I'm sorry Jesus - but sometimes things just get the best of me.  I
try to be a good person...

Do you mind - Jesus - if I ask a special favor this year?  Would
you make sure that Bill Maher has a really nice Christmas cause
I know he's not really an Athiest like he always says.  But then
you know that  - cause you know what's really in our Heart.

And Jesus - I know I speak for all of us - even the Scientologists -
when I say how much we really all like Christmas  - even if we do
get a little over the top about it - materialistically speaking.


Well gotta go now - they're coming back in a few weeks and
I really want the house to look nice this year - you know - since
we just moved in and all.


so in closing i'd just like to say this -




thank you jesus

fun post - what's your favorite christmas movie?

Here are my Christmas movies - not alphabetized but as I pull each one
out of the bag.

~Chevy Chase National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

~Home Alone

~A Charlie Brown Christmas

~A Wonderful Life

~A Midnight Clear

~Scrooged

~The Little Drummer Boy

~Jingle All The Way

~The Santa Clause

~White Christmas

~Prancer

~Hook

~Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

~A Christmas Story

~A Christmas Carol - George C. Scott

~A Christmas Carol - Jim Carrey

~Polar Express

~Midnight Clear


and the winner is...


no contest



A Midnight Clear


The cover says:

a movie to seek out and treasure - Richard Schickel, Time Magazine

A stunner of a sleeper, exploding with shattering impact - Harry Haun, New York Daily News

You got that right folks.
~~~


directed by Keith Gordon


bud miller                        -      Peter Berg

cpl. mel avakian              -       Kevin Dillon

stan shutzer                     -       Arye Gross

sgt. will knott                  -       Ethan Hawke

vance 'mother' wilkins     -       Gary Sinise

paul 'father' mundy          -       Frank Whaley

major griffin                    -       John C. McGinley

lieutenent ware               -        Larry Joshua

sergeant hunt                  -        David Jensen

older german soldier       -        Curt Lowens

janice                             -        Rachel Griffin



check out IMDb for full cast and crew


~they called them soldiers

~war in the snow

~a small group of closely knit soldiers

~real

~they should have remembered to tell mother

~it wasn't anyone's fault

~janice lost her husband


this movie is really good



one for the ages

        

as promised...my christmas movies

But first a word about the musical  - Guys and Dolls.


Having confessed a deep connection of the Soul to Marlon
Brando (see my post where I talk about that) I am here today
to say that Marlon Brando sold us out.

Terry Malloy would never appear on the big screen dancing
and singing - and especially in a knock-out musical like Guys
Dolls - and by the way I don't mind the term 'guys' - in fact I
use it all the time - but 'dolls' when referring to women?

Talk about running your fingers down a chalkboard.


Other offensive things about the musical Guys and Dolls:


~why do they call it a 'crap' game

~he plies her with liquor after luring her to Cuba

~yes she was a cold female missionary - but in the movies - and
in real life - I might add - women missionaries are beautiful and
do you think the natives are stupid enough to relate to an ugly
woman missionary believe me God knows what He is doing

~the most creative names ever for the characters:
        sky masterson/nathan detroit/miss adelaide/nicely-nicely
       /big jule/ harry the horse/and many more

~the best dance numbers ever seen in a musical on a level with
america in wws

~my all time fave 'sit down you're rockin' the boat'


really - what ever made the writers - jo swerling & abe burrows - not
to mention a story by damon runyon and written for the screen by
joseph l. mankiewicz and ben hecht uncredited and most importantly
the director Joseph L. Mankiewicz - think that their little musical about
a gambler and a missionary would take off like that a be such a huge
success?


maybe  they   just    knew







but would someone please tell me - What the h*ll does IMDb stand for...

my christmas movies

Part of the downside of moving is not being able to do things
in a normal way.

Like not being able to figure out how to hook my VCR up to
my direct tv.  And a few of my favorite Christmas movies are
on vhses.


Tomorrow I'm going to list every one of my Christmas movies
alphabetically - and then in subsequent posts talk about some
of them.


Why - pray tell -  don't I do it tonight?


Because I spent a good part of the day just getting out my
Christmas stuff.


You   would   not    believe     all     the     Christmas  Stuff     I      have.



bet you can hardly wait - to hear about the Christmas movies.



:^ }       :^ }       :^ }       :^ }       :^ }        :^ }       :^ }       :^ }      :^ }

ABOUT LIVING IN THE DARK AGES

LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE GULNARE FREE WILL BAPTIST
CHURCH - A TINY ALL-WHITE APPALACHIAN CHURCH
IN RURAL KENTUCKY -


THE MEMBERS OF WHICH HAVE BANNED AN INTERRACIAL
COUPLE FROM MEMBERSHIP


AREN'T BAPTISTS SUPPOSED TO BE CHRISTIAN?


AND I THOUGHT THE STATE OF GEORGIA WAS BAD
FOR PUTTING TROY DAVIS TO DEATH - WHEN THERE
WAS EVEN A CHANCE THAT HE WAS INNOCENT



GIVE ME A BREAK

great pianists on piano playing

by James Francis Cooke is a really good book.


You don't have to be a budding Concert Pianist to benefit
from reading this book.

And I find that these over the top piano players even have
suggestions on Piano Playing that can be applied to Real Life -

is there any other kind?


For instance:

~ Ferruccio Benvenuto Busoni writes that 'in fine
piano playing all of the details are important' -as in life.

~Sergi Rachmaninoff  - who wrote the rach 3 boo hoo - says
that 'the mere ability to play a few pieces does not constitute
musical proficiency' - well I would guess that Frank Abagnale, jr.
pondered over that one from his jail cell although he did ok in the
end.

~Vladimir de Pachmann -  'the C M scale is the most difficult
Scale of all - and there you have it - Simplicity for Dummies

~Alexander Lambert - 'seldom practice over four hours a day' -
not too long ago I actually did manage to practice for four hours
on some days - which leads me to the last and most important
quote from James Cooke's great book

~Ignaz Jan Paderewski - Paderewski is to Piano Playing as Albert
Einstein is to Science.  In fact in introducing this great Pianist in
Chapter 22 - Cooke wisely points out that 'his pianoforte playing
has been so frequently appraised by great critics that it is unnecessary
to comment upon it here.  And the quote that Paderewski offers in
this book is:   'students spend too much time in playing and too little
in work.'

turn and face camera

Isn't this the truth.  I've been there and done that.  When I was in college
I had the Best of Both Worlds.  I was so overcome by Awe in just being
allowed to mingle with these amazing professors and students alike - yet
I had access to the really fun and wild side too:  fraternity parties.

If I could go back - not forward - in Time would I choose one over the
other?  Absolutely not. For both hold cherished memories for me.

But now I find myself on the Crossroads of my Life.  Whether or not to
continue living in the Realistic role of Housewife or should I step out of the
Box and mix with a touch of  Real Reality.

Even I don't know what lies ahead for stidh.


But you can be sure that whatever happens  - you will be able to read all
about it right here on my Blog.







and would it kill you to comment?




is that incoherent enough for you joe politico?
i know you read my blog but please just give
me a sign : ) seg

read my lips: no more song lyrics

It occurred to me this morning that perhaps I have been dishonest when writing posts
by making them longer - not because I have anything of interest to say - in an attempt
to impress people with my intense knowledge and expertise in knowing so many song
lyrics - right off the top of my head.

No - dear readers and commenters.  I'm coming clean with you today by revealing
that I googled - then printed out - each set of those wonderful song lyrics.

But no more.

Today is December 1st which means that my Blog will be virtually dedicated to that most
wonderful time of the year - Christmas. I know what you are thinking - stidh will never
be able to resist posting a least a few of her favorite Christmas carols.

Wrong.

There are other activities that take place honoring that most Beloved of Holidays.


For instance:


~Christmas cookies - including some of my own recipes

~Snow-related activites

~Stories of Christmases Past

~Christmas Shopping Tips

~Christmas movies

~Christmas weather

~What Christmas is all about

~poetry -original or not

~the politics of Christmas

~Christmas at the WH

~Presidents' Own Christmas card and criticism thereof

and so on
~~~

Not every one of my posts will be Christmas related - but I pledge for
your reading interest that at least one each day will be.


But for today's first post I would like to dwell - perhaps for the last time -
on the bitter disappointment I feel about the reality of never becoming a
concert pianist.  : )

And then I promise to let it go.