Just time for a very quick post to wish you all a happy Christmas. Sorry if you haven't received a card from me, I've just been rushing around like a crazy person this year (literally) and didn't manage to get that many out. Still, it's an improvement on the big fat zero I sent out last year!
I have a detailed project plan for today, and I'm pleased to say that I'm currently on schedule. I've had my haircut (didn't have to queue at all), bought some dill and a mini muffin tin. That's three items off the list and it ain't even ten o'clock yet. Well done team!
So, yeah, Happy Christmas and a very Happy Festivus.
Labels: christmas
Saturday, December 23, 2006 9:47 AM
This post is a plea. I have been inspired by that beautiful man Sufjan Stevens to put together a compilation of Christmas tunes. Stevens, bless him, has just released a
5 cd boxset of Christmas songs. Now, whilst he should have perhaps edited it down to a 2 or 3 CD boxset, it contains some of the best Christmas music I've heard in a long while. God-damn-it, this guy is a genius. Illinoise was my favourite album of 2005 and now this new release is just steadily burying its way into my psyche and instilling joy in my heart.
Anyway, the thing is, as we're all aware, 97% of all Christmas tunes are just bobbins. Most make me want to literally kill myself which is at odds with the spirit of the season. But there must be a huge number of songs from artists (other than Sufjan Stevens) that are really great. So, I want you to suggest me songs to put in a Alternative Christmas Music Compilation. No holds bared. Anything from 15th century carols to punk, if it is Christmas related and a great tune, I'll have it. I don't care if it's happy or sad or joyful or melancholy, if it's Christmas related, I wannit.
Here's a few tracks I have already got that you need not suggest:
- I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up for Christmas (Aimee Mann)
- Bizarre Christmas Incident (Ben Folds)
- Seven O'Clock News/Silent Night (Simon and Garfunkel)
- The 2 or 3 CDs worth of decent tracks from Sufjan Steven's Christmas CD Boxset.
- White Christmas (Otis Redding)
- I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm (Dean Martin)
- O Holy Night (from that Studio 60 thing I blogged about the other day)
- Fairy Tale of Noo Yoyk (Obviously)
- ??????????
Labels: christmas, music
Sunday, December 17, 2006 8:23 PM
My oh my oh my. Christmas is a busy time of year, ain't it? Fun and indulgent, yes, but also a little tiring on the body and mind. Happily, Christmas this year has provided me with a window to try out a brief flirtation with another brief foody obsession:
Canapés. I've said I'll help Emma and Liv make canapés for their
soirée on Wednesday, I've told my Aunt Pam that I'll make canapés (and quiche) for Christmas in Soham, and I've told Tim I'll make him canapés for the New Year's Eve party he's been told he's having. So be aware of the fact that in a couple of weeks time, when the dust has settled, when the presents have been unwrapped, when the fireworks have lit up the sky ushering in the new year: I will make a post about how to make the perfect canapés. Or, if it all goes disastrously wrong, the mistakes to avoid when preparing canapés.
Speaking of food, I have decided to stop getting an organic veg box delivery from Beanies. There's a few reasons for this:
1) There's a lot of food I just won't countenance that they just keep on delivering. Brussel Sprouts for one. I mean, what the fuck? Seriously. I've tried a number of recipes for cooking sprouts - glazing with honey, skewering with rosemary then flash frying in balsamic vinegar - and yet, they're still Brussel fucking Sprouts and they still just make me think
come on, this is the twenty first century, surely we are a bit beyond sprouts by now?!.
They also deliver a cabbage every week without fail, which although edible is really tremendously boring, especially when you have to single handedly consume a whole one every week. I suppose also the number of avacado they deliver is a little overwhelming. And apples. Christ. Apples. I like the taste, but I can't stand eating apples, and I can't stand the sound of other people eating apples. I'm not sure if the other people in my office have noticed this, but whenever somebody starts to eat an apple, I have to plug my earphones in and put my iPod on full volume. To me, listening to someone eating an apple is like listening to somene dragging their nails down a blackboard. Yes, I know it's my problem, and it makes me a bit weird, but there you go. It's a thing I have, it's something for me to deal with, and I'd like to encourage everyone to eat apples. They do after all, if consumed on a daily basis, keep the doctor away.
2) It has been a good experiment being forced to eat only certain foods for the last year, but it is stopping me from making a lot of the food I would like to try. There's a lot of foody projects I'd like to turn my hand to, but if all I've got to work with is a cabbage, some sprouts, some celery and an onion or two, there's few recipes that are going to light the fire of inspiration inside me. Sure, a tiny part of me will miss "Ready Steady Cook Wednesday" where I scratch my head and figure out not only what the hell that weird looking root vegetable is, but what in the name of Brian Cant's Barnacles I'm supposed to do with it, but ultimatley I'd like more of a say over what I shove down my gullet.
3) I have a great green grocers down the road, and I miss my Saturday morning stroll there. I miss standing there surrounded by a wide variety of colourful fruit and veg, thinking
I'll have some of this. And this. And I don't know what this is, but I'm having it because I think I might like it.
So. There you go. Veg box experiment over. If you don't live alone, it is probably a bit worthwhile. But if you do live alone and eat out at least once a week, then you will never ever get to decide for yourself what to cook for yourself. And I find that a bit stifling.
Labels: christmas, cooking, food
7:40 PM
I was watching the Christmas episode of Studio 60 the other day and it closed with a really nice rendition of o Holy Night, performed by a brass ensemble of displaced New Orleans musicians. The folk at
NBC have kindly made the track available for free download. The only small tiny downside is that they've "augmented" it with some synth strings for some stupid reason. But you know what, it's still a really nice tune that makes me want to dust off my trombone and get
the band back together.
Labels: brass, christmas, jazz, music, tv
Thursday, December 14, 2006 10:20 PM
