Hello friends,
It’s hard to believe the final month of 2020 is upon us. I imagine we’re all glad the holidays are here so we can try to focus on something enjoyable for a few weeks.
Thanksgiving Report
Our Thanksgiving was almost no different than any other year. We don’t normally get together with family on the holiday itself - my mom’s birthday is earlier in the month so we aim for that to avoid the chaos of Thanksgiving weekend travel. We had a nice quiet day at home that included a Zoom call with my parents, brother and sister-in-law, and Nolan. Michael cooked a roast chicken dinner, which is our usual fare. I’m recycling last year’s gif, as it was just the same this year! So yummy.
As you might imagine, the highlight of the day was watching to see what the neighbors would get up to. Due to the alarming increase in COVID-19 cases, gatherings with people from outside of your household have been banned here in Washington state. Obviously this is impossible to enforces, but one would think that folks would understand the risk and stay home this year.
We fully expected that the neighbors to the south would have people over, or leave to go to somebody else’s house. But no - they stayed home and had no visitors! We were pleasantly surprised and applauded their decision. They still come and go, but the frequency has decreased. Common sense prevails? Perhaps.
The other neighbors though… sigh. I was out putting up my Christmas lights, and saw them loading up their car to head out. The woman saw me, and came over to say happy Thanksgiving. I climbed down from the ladder and backed into the yard, as I do anytime she approaches the fence. She told me they were going to their daughter’s house.
I said, “we did a video call with my family, since we’re NOT ALLOWED to get together.”
She skedaddled off pretty quickly after that. This is the same woman who told Michael early on, “we’re not anybody, we won’t be affected by it.” It doesn’t work that way lady.
When I took the dog out for his evening walk I didn’t see indications of any large gatherings. What a did notice though was an awful lot of houses that were dark with nobody home. They just went elsewhere to spread the virus.
Christmas Decor Report
My favorite thing about the holidays is the lights. The long dark nights just beg for festive illumination to bring some cheer into the world. I love walking around to look at what other people have done, and it’s fun to critique their efforts.
This year I decided to try something a little different - it turned out pretty good! LED lights are a bit funny photograph, and you get the odd one that’s really bright because of the angle. The iPhone also works hard to pick up extra light. Usually this is great for interesting night shots, but sometimes you’d rather it didn’t do that.
It was very foggy last night, which added another layer of moodiness to the shots.
It was great fun figuring this all out. In order to give myself some trees to decorate (the white lights behind Michael and Rowland), I borrowed a trick from some nearby folks who bring out gnarly tree branches for their decorations in an otherwise empty yard. I’ve got plenty from trimming various plants around the yard!
Okay - maybe I specifically cut this one off of the cherry tree in back (which is getting overgrown). I secured it to the hedge and voila! Instant tree.
As I mentioned, checking out the decor decisions of others is just as fun as putting up our lights. Here are a few highlights from last night’s dog walk.
These folks down the street have a nice traditional look with the giant wreath and the blow mold Santa and Mrs. Claus. They’ve added a fence and arch at the front of the yard which are also decorated tastefully - I can just barely see the lights from our kitchen window. However, they’re blocked by the these horrendous inflatables, which are frequently tipped over as if they’ve had too much to drink.
Onward, we find a house that always does a nice job - the inflatables are innocuous and make sense. Kind of cute even!
We noticed a lot of lights on the far side of the park so we headed over that way, and found this very twinkly house! Totally gif-worthy. I love that tree.
I will report back on the best and worst of the decor that crops up between now and Christmas. If you see some particularly noteworthy decorations in your neighborhood, please send a photo and I’ll share in a future newsletter!
Until next week…
Tidbits
McMansion Hell - snarky commentary about gaudy homes (learn about architecture between the laughs)
A Guide to Map Stationary - send your friends a bit of the world
Meanwhile in Iceland… 1,100-Year-Old Siblings
Making: the only thing left on my blanket is the edging! It will be finished by next week. WHEW. I’ve started drawing on photos with my iPad, and drew some ovals on paper.
Reading: Print/Maker, from UPPERCASE magazine. Working on The Only Good Indians, and dipping into Nature Obscura: A City's Hidden Natural World.
Art Zone
The annual potato masterpiece by my friend Harold…
The full set of his edible masterpieces can be viewed on Facebook.
Videos of the Week
A post on Twitter sent me down an interesting rabbit hole this week. It was a short clip of this song by Italian singer-songwriter-actor Adriano Celentano. The song is called “Prisencolinensinainciusol” which is quite a mouthful no matter what language you speak. It turns out that it is no language - the intent of the song was to sound American, but the lyrics are gibberish.
Ever since I started singing, I was very influenced by American music and everything Americans did. So at a certain point, since I like American slang - which, for a singer, is much easier to sing than to sing in Italian - I thought that I would write a song which would only have as its theme the inability to communicate. And to do this, I had to write a song where the lyrics didn't mean anything. (source)
1972 was really hoppin’!
That’s a great video, but it gets even better. Here’s another video in which Celentano is a teacher to a group of eager students, with an audience of onlookers - a variety show performance perhaps? He seems like the Italian equivalent of Tom Jones.
Here’s a 2012 40th anniversary version with some extra dialogue at the beginning and a lot of his movie clips added in. Humorous, but some of the schoolroom dance routine is missing and that’s really the best part.
You can also watch a 12-minute long newly choreographed version with ballet star Roberto Bolle.
And there’s this version, with Celentano performing with Manu Chao - what a great pairing! The entire hall is up and dancing, and if you’re not by now… well.
Manu Chao put on one of the best shows I’ve ever seen, at the 2007 Sasquatch Festival. There’s no sitting still at one of his shows!
Current Temperature: 48.7F (9.3 C)
Current Humidity: 85%
Wind (max gust): 4.5 mph
Precipitation: 0.1 in
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Map Stationary? Yes please! And you saw Manu Chao!? I'm jealous! I'm not a huge fan of inflatables but on my dog walk this morning I saw some folks putting up a garish mishmash of them and instead of silently walking by with my dogs I said enthusiastically "looks great!" just to keep the cheer train going. I'm just thrilled about all the deco and lights. The end of the last four-year era has sent me on an unquenchable high. I know there is still COVID but I haven't felt this relaxed or cheerful in a long time.