Christmas Music

This is the first Christmas I’ve ever spent away from my family. Surprising, really, that in 31 years, when I’ve chosen to travel all over and complete my education thousands of kilometers from where I grew up, I’ve always made it home.
My dad came to visit me last week, which was really nice. I’ve had a strained relationship with him most of my life, but he’s still my dad. And I think he knew just how much I needed to see someone from home. Ever since he left, though, I’ve been feeling fairly lonely. I went down to Covent Garden to see all the Christmas lights and shopping and to try and get myself feeling a little cheerier. There was a string quartet plus a flutist playing carols and I just sat and listened.
I decided to make a mix disc of my favorite Christmas music. I try to avoid certain songs that I simply can’t stand any longer (You won’t find the jingle bell rock in this list.) and I like it when someone manages to write a truly special new Christmas song that is worth listening to again and again. Some of them are guilty pleasures, and some are songs that it just doesn’t feel like Christmas without. So without further ado, my list:

Louis Armstrong – Cool Yule
Louis was one of those artists who always had a smile on his face, and it was hard not to catch.
Run-D.M.C. – Christmas In Hollis
This is a bit of a guilty pleasure, as I simply cannot listen to 80s rap without picturing Will Smith rotating in a throne; a staple of my afternoons throughout high school. That said, they deliver the goods, and it’s not the only 80s song on this list.
The Ramones – Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight)
Nobody lightened the mood better than the kings of American punk. They had a skill for how to take both serious issues and outright silliness, and make brilliant music from it.
U2 – Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)
No way am I making a list without my favourite band.
Olivia Olson – All I Want For Christmas Is You
You pretty much have to buy the Love Actually soundtrack to get it. The Mariah Carey original is ok, but like most of her stuff, it’s over produced and tries too hard. My Chemical Romance made a snicker worthy version if you want a good laugh. Give MCR this: they never take themselves too seriously. In the end, it’s a good song no matter who does it.
John Lennon – So This Is Christmas (War Is Over)
The greatest songwriter of all time wrote a Christmas carol. Argue with me if you want, but this song never gets old, and it really doesn’t feel like Christmas until I hear it at least once.
Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas
A Irish songwriter writes a song, calls up a few of his buddies, and records a single to try and raise relief for starving Ethiopia. His buddies call their buddies, and they all get together and make this. I can’t think of anything that says Christmas spirit more than that.
Wham! – Last Christmas
I’ve always thought Wham was underrated entirely because of Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, a really unfortunate song to be your lasting achievement. George Michael recovered his reputation afterwards, but he was always good, as this proves.
Bob & Doug McKenzie – Twelve Days Of Christmas
What, I’m Canadian. Good Day, eh?
Boney M – Jingle Bells
As much as it sometimes pains me to say this, there’s just no way you can make a Christmas album without Boney M on it. Thankfully, they made an entire Christmas album, and you can move right past Mary’s Boy Child, and get to something that is less overplayed.
David Bowie and Bing Crosby – Little Drummer Boy
This is the last thing Bing recorded before he died in 1977. The story about how it was made is well worth the read on Wikipedia. I also recommend you check out the video on youtube if you’ve never seen it.
Nat King Cole – The Christmas Song
I’ve argued for years that he had my all time favorite voice. My dad, of all people, made a really valid counter argument. Nat is great if you want to feel happy, but he can’t make you feel sad. He offered Frank Sinatra as being the best at being able to do both. Nat’s voice is definitely the best at making you feel good. Speaking of . . .
Frank Sinatra – White Christmas
Ole’ Blue Eyes is no slouch at good music.
Dean Martin – Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
Neither were his drinking buddies.
Ella Fitzgerald – Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Enchanting Ella.
Mel Torme – Good King Wenceslas
He may have written the Christmas song, but his best Christmas carol is definitely this bluesy stripped down version of the classic carol.
Holly Cole – Santa Baby
To many Canadians, Holly Cole has become a Christmas staple. I became a fan in the early 90s when I saw her cover of I can see clearly now on much music. I saw her sing her Christmas show in 2006, and she does a brilliant job of making the season.
The Boston Pops – Sleigh Ride
Do not, under any circumstances, substitute a vocal version of this song. In my opinion it totally ruins it. Close your eyes, listen to this, and you are on a sleigh ride. You can’t do that with the vocal versions.
Vince Guaraldi Trio – O Tannenbaum
You knew Charlie Brown was going to make the list some how. Linus and Lucy is the most famous song on the album, and probably the best, but this is a Christmas album, and their version of O Tannenbaum has a special place in my heart.
The City Of New Orleans – O Holy Night
If you’re not a fan of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, you may not have heard of this gem. In 2006 they made a Christmas episode that involved a subplot about New Orleans musicians coming to L.A. to make a little money to take home. The song was available for purchase online with the proceeds going to Katrina relief.
Harry Connick Jr. – Carol Of The Bells
It’s both the classical version, and jazzy version all his own.
KT Tunstall – Lonely This Christmas
These last three songs are pretty sad, but that’s hardly surprising.
The Pretenders – 2000 Miles
Doris Day – I’ll Be Home For Christmas
. . .If only in my dreams. Merry Christmas everyone.

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Random Song Lyric #26 – Procrastination edition

Since I have a test tomorrow (on DFT, IFFT, FIR and IIR) and am desperately trying to avoid studying any more, I am posting this note. This song just played out of my collection, and seemed rather fitting.

No time for a gentle rain
No time for my watch and chain
No time for revolving doors
No time for the killin’ floor

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Windows jumped the shark

This post is related to me going to London rather obliquely.  By this, I mean that my mom’s computer isn’t working and I feel it prudent to get it up and running somewhat stably before I leave.  I can only imagine how painful tech support calls would be if you add in an extra second of delay because the call is bouncing off a satellite.

Mom is actually fairly computer savvy.  She knows how to surf the web, view pictures, do emails and chats, and is even on facebook.  She also, for the most part, knows enough to avoid breaking anything.  This is one of the reasons that I haven’t had to fix her computer in so very long.  She is using the second computer I ever bought, a Celeron 333a that I have over the years upgraded to 640 MB of ram.  It was the darling computer of its day.  Sadly, its day was 10 years ago this Autumn.

Once upon a time, I was a huge windows fanboy.  I was always lusting after the newest video card so I could play games harder, better, faster, stronger and in better quality.  So before my conversion to alternative operating systems, I built myself a sweet gaming rig.  Well sweet for 2002 anyway.  Since I bought my first laptop however, it’s been sitting in my basement rather like the harley owned by my buddy Andy W.  It gets used maybe once a month at best, since he’s usually carting around kids in the minivan.

So I figured I might as well get it running for mom.  Since it has always run windows XP, and I have one legitimate license key left (thank you university) and mom has never used anything that wasn’t made my windows, it seemed a no brainer.

After two days of fighting with finding a copy of Windows XP to install that wasn’t virus ridden and had full functionality, followed by countless headaches finding 5 year old drivers, I said screw it.  This can’t possibly be this hard.  All mom does is surf the web, email, and play games.

30 minutes later I had the computer full installed with Ubuntu.  Firefox worked out of the gate.  More games than came with windows sitting in the games menu.  Thunderbird took me about 3 minutes to get installed and configured.  Pidgin accepted her msn client with no problems.  I installed NX so that mom could remote in to the server from her old computer until she gets used to linux.  Seems I didn’t need to bother, she was right in to it with no issues like she was an old pro.

The only things I still need to get working for her are skype (which has installed) for video conferencing and her printer.  And I haven’t even tried to get them installed yet.

So, if you’re worried about supporting parents or grand parents using windows, I say forget about it.  Ubuntu has matured to the point that it is a viable replacement.  It look me maybe an hour total to get everything functional to meet mom’s needs.  No viruses, no spyware, no headaches.  Most importantly, I don’t ever have to reinstall windows again.

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Visa

So my second post is going to be mostly about my student visa application.  In order to go to the UK for more than 6 months, I have to apply for a student visa.  For those of you unfamiliar with what this actually is, basically the British government will glue inside my passport documentation stating that I have a right to be in Britain in order to go to school.

 

Seems pretty straight forward, just fill out a couple of pages of documentation and mail in my passport right?  Well, not so much.  Thanks to the current world climate, a British student visa application clocks in at 16 full pages.  Just their form, not including anything else they want mailed in with it.

 

Now, a lot of  it is fairly standard red tape.  Things like my full address, where I was born, passport information and the like.  Some of it is not too far out of the realm of credulity, such as a list of all the schools I’ve gone to since junior high age, and where my parents were born.  The ones I found rather startling were “Have you ever committed genocide?” and “Have you ever engaged in terrorist activity?”  Both questions were followed with boxes in which to detail your crimes against humanity.

 

Anyway, after completing 16 pages of documentation, I had to include pages of bank transcripts, my letter of offer from the university, my application to stay in residence in lieu of  the address where I will be living, and various other sundries.  This letter was getting pretty hefty by now.  Then, I had to head up to Edmonton, have my fingerprints scanned and my picture taken (in addition to a passport photo that I had to provide) and then dump the whole mess into an envelope that the visa officer had to seal himself.  No tampering with the envelope or else the Visa is automatically rejected.  Of course, I had to mail the letter myself, and since my passport was in there, I shelled out for the registered mail.

 

Remarkably, the experience after mailing it has been incredibly fast and easy.  The letter got to the high commission 2 days early, and was processed 4 days earlier than I was told to expect.  So maybe I have all those hoops to jump through in order to make their life easier.  In any case, I received an email this morning letting me know that my visa has been issued. 

 

Now I just need to find out if I got in to residence or not.  In relation to this, my mother mentioned that a) I have relatives in London (extremely distant, probably no closer than third cousins) and b) not to live in some suburb in south London that starts with a C because of all the stabbings going on there.  I suspect she was thinking of Compton.

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