New Year's Eve - 2020

Just saw on the news that there will be no activity in New York's Times Square this year for New Year's Eve. There was a New York police chief warning people not to attempt to go down to Times Square tonight. It will be blocked off. 

According the the official Times Square New Year's Eve commission the annual celebration and ball drop will be virtual and not open to the public because of the pandemic.

We just realized that we did not have a new calendar for 2021...  not that we weren't looking forward to 2020 coming to an end. We did find one that came in the mail from Independent Health so we do have something until we can order one online and it gets here.

In recent years we have been going out to a restaurant for an early New Year's Eve dinner then coming home around 10 pm to watch some TV approaching midnight. We've mostly watched Anderson Cooper ring in the new year.

According to my Facebook memories feature we've been going a lot to Coco and Shango for dinner. Once to CRaVing. 

This New Year's Eve we will of course be staying home like everyone should be. We'll have some wine and pizza tonight and Becky is planning to make some chili for dinner tomorrow on New Year's day.

We stayed up to midnight... barely and I finished off the night with some Jameson.

Readings 2020 - Nonfiction

Reading was another important activity during this pandemic year. I read my share of novels and escapist stories. I also read a lot about the music I love. 

I read several biographies and memoirs including books about Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Chrissie Hynde, David Bowie and Patti Smith. Also an interesting expose of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone magazine that reinforced much of what I already thought about that man and his vanity magazine. 

I read a few books about pandemics, the medical establishment and countries in crises along with some very strong critiques of the trump administration including that bio by his niece.

The book about Hollywood and the making of Chinatown in the seventies was a very good read. The history of mankind was good too. I also finally got around to reading that Che book that had been sitting on a book shelf for a number of years. And that Midnight Movies book too.

Overall a good year for reading.

• Janis: Her Life and Music - Holly George-Warren, 2019
• Bowie's Bookshelf: The Hundred Books that Changed David Bowie's Life - John O'Connell, 2019
• Restless: My Life as a Pretender - Chrissie Hynde, 2015
• Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man - Mary Trump, 2020
• Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine - Joe Hagan, 2017
• The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood - Sam Wasson, 2020
• Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded - Jason Heller, 2018
• Midnight Movies - J. Hoberman, 1982
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari, 2011
• Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump and an Epic Trail of Destruction - David Enrich, 2020
• Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World - Laura Spinney, 2017
• Year of the Monkey - Patti Smith, 2019
• Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America - Gerald Posner, 2020
• Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future - Paul Krugman, 2020
• The Dylan Companion - Elizabeth Thomson, ed, 1990
• Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crises - Jared Diamond, 2019
• The Fixers: The Bottom-Feeders, Crooked Lawyers, Gossipmongers and Porn Stars Who Created the 45th President - Joe Palazzolo, 2020
• Switched on Pop: How Popular Music Works and Why It Matters - Nate Sloan, 2019
• The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey - Ernesto Che Guevara, 1992
• Code Blue: Inside America's Medical Industrial Complex - Mike Magee, 2019
• Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism - Ann Case, 2020
• Philadelphia: Finding the Hidden City - Nathaniel Popkin, 2017
• One Nation, Two Realities: Dueling Facts in American Democracy - Morgan Marietta, 2019
• If We Can Keep It: How the Republic Collapsed and How It Might Be Saved - Michael Tomasky, 2019
• Underland - Robert Macfarlane, 2019
• Broken Music: Artists' Recordworks - Ursula Block, 1989
• Scotland to the World: Treasures from the National Museum of Scotland - David Souden, 2016

Readings 2020 - Fiction

I wonder how much the pandemic influenced my reading this year. I actually read less books this year than last year. According to my Good Reads app I read 84 books last year and 71 this year. I was barely able to make my goal in the Good Reads challenge. 44 were novels or collections of stories.

I read several novels about the black experience in America including books by Yaa Gyasi, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Colson Whitehead and Octavia Butler.

One of the surprise novels I loved was Walter Tevis' The Queen's Gambit from 1983. I read it after watching the TV series. Both were very good. I was sorry to see the death of John le Carre this year after reading his latest novel which was as good as anything he's written. He was a master.

Other wonderful novels from David Mitchell, Jonathan Lethem, Margaret Atwood, Sebastian Barry and Don Winslow made my reading list this year along with some science fiction as usual. I also read a collection of stories from H. G. Wells. I really like the weird sci-fi rock and roll novel by Mo Daviau. I was disappointed by the well written but plot restricted novel from Marilynne Robinson. This was the first in a series but I don't think I will be reading any of her other books.

And then there were the ongoing series. I read several detective mysteries from both John Sandford and Douglas Preston and also some of Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher series after watching the show on Netflix.

• Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi, 2016
• The Queen's Gambit - Walter Tevis, 1983
• Kindred - Octavia Butler, 1979
• Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell, 2020
• The Water Dancer - Ta-Nehisi Coates, 2019
• Slade House - David Mitchell, 2015
• The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead, 2019
• The Arrest - Jonathan Lethem, 2020
• Every Anxious Wave - Mo Daviau, 2016
• Wastelands: The New Apocalypse - John Joseph Adams, ed., 2019
• Westside - W. M. Aikers, 2019
• Dawn - Octavia Butler, 1987
• Anyone - Charles Soule, 2019
• The Testaments - Margaret Atwood, 2019
• Days Without End - Sebastian Barry, 2016
• Summer of '69 - Elin Hilderbrand, 2019
• Network Effect: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells, 2020
• Lovecraft Country - Matt Ruff, 2016
• The Cartel - Don Winslow, 2015
• The Country of the Blind and Other Stories - H. G. Wells, 1911
• Agent Running in the Field - John le Carre, 2019
• Into the Drowning Deep - Mira Grant, 2017
• The King at the Edge of the World - Arthur Phillips, 2020
• Adulthood Rites - Octavia Butler, 1988
• Future Home of the Living God - Louise Erdrich, 2017
• Gilead - Marilynne Robinson, 2004
• The Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons, 1989
• Waking Gods - Sylvain Neuvel, 2017
• Imago - Octavia Butler, 1989
• River of Gods - Ian McDonald, 2004
• Dead Watch - John Sandford, 2006
• Fever Dream - Douglas Preston, 2010
• Cold Vengeance - Douglas Preston, 2011
• Two Graves - Douglas Preston, 2012
• Chosen Prey - John Sandford, 2001
• Mortal Prey - John Sandford, 2002
• Naked Prey - John Sandford, 2003
• Sword of Destiny - Andrzej Sapkowski, 1992
• The Last Wish - Andrzej Sapkowski, 1993
• Blood of Elves - Andrzej Sapkowski, 1994
• The Time of Contempt - Andrzej Sapkowski, 1995
• Baptism of Fire - Andrzej Sapkowski, 1996
• The Tower of Swallows - Andrzej Sapkowski, 1997
• Lady of the Lake - Andrzej Sapkowski, 1997

Random Album Effect - BBC (1)

This is the first of several RAE sets of shows at the BBC. I looking at my iTunes and suddenly stopped browsing at Ultravox live at the BBC. Haven't listened to this in a long time so my first album in this random set was Ultravox BBC Radio 1 in Concert at the Paris Theater 1981 that was released in 1991. I have quite a few of the BBC series of live shows they've recorded over the years. They have always been good and this live Ultravox set was awesome. I particularly liked the the three song series All Stood Still/Sleepwalk/Vienna. The sound here was a little harder live than usual.

The next album up was a double set BBC concert from 1979 featuring both The Selecter and The Specials. This was a wonderful live show from two of my favorite Two Tone English ska bands. BBC Radio 1 Live The Selecter and The Specials Live in Concert 1979 and was released in 2010. Each band played about a half hour. 

I really enjoyed the next album The La's BBC in Session 1987-1990 released in 2006. I really never heard of anything by this band until their first album in 1990 so I was surprised when I first got this and saw they were recording in 1987.  I also had later learned that There She Goes, which I consider to be a perfect pop song was originally released in 1988 and then re-released in 1990 for the album. This album here is a combination of four shows by this band over that time period. It was nice to hear these striped down versions of their songs.

Next up was Scottish indie pop band Belle and Sebastian's BBC Sessions 1996 & 2001 that was released in 2008. I have five of their albums along with this live BBC session which is a collection of recordings at the BBC from 1996 to 2001 on one disc and then a live in Belfast set on the other one. Lots of great music on this set and sounded great following the La's.

And Finally Tindersticks' BBC Sessions 1994-1997 rereleased in 2007. I have a few of their albums and have always enjoyed their melancholy music with their intricate arrangements and long and sometimes obtuse composition structures but always interesting. Great mood and atmosphere music and everything on this set sounded nice as a follow up to Belle and Sebastian.

• Ultravox - BBC Radio 1 in Concert 1981, 1991
• The Selecter - BBC in Concert 1979, 2010
• The Specials - BBC in Concert 1979, 2010
• The La's - BBC in Session 1987-1990, 2006
• Belle and Sebastian - BBC Sessions 1996 - 2001, 2008
• Tindersticks - BBC Sessions 1993-1997, 2007

Strange Stars

Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded by Jason Heller, 2018

Read in December 2020

Author Jason Heller explores the influence of science fiction on popular music especially artists who brought their comic book interest to their music such as David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and many others. The book focuses on the 1970's and compares the music with the films of the era. He describes Afrofutureism and the works of George Clinton, Sun Ra and others. It's all very interesting.

I've always been a science fiction fan and of course all kinds of music. I've made music mixes of science fiction related songs going back decades and continue doing that today. There is a discography at the end of this book that gave me some ideas of songs to add to my mixes. There is also a Spotify playlist online that reflects the music discussed in this book.

However, by the end of the book I was actually starting to bet a little bored as the author scrambled to find examples of his thesis. The book became dry and academic. This book could have been a really interesting blog post and playlist.

The Bird Feeder

The bird feeder in our backyard has always been a source of solace and joy as we watched the birds eating the seeds we put out for them. We've always had feeders in the back but the past couple of years have been nicer because of the new feeder attached to our porch railings. It is much closer and so easy to watch.

Our neighbors on both sides also have bird feeders so the neighborhood birds know there is plenty of seeds for them in our little area. Mark and Jody's feeder is very easy for us to watch all the action too.

This year of the pandemic has made watching the birds at the feeder somehow more important. It is comforting. I'm also spending a lot of time in my office chair at the kitchen table writing on my laptop with the window right next to me with a great view of the bird feeder activity. It helps a lot.

Last year I had a running battle with the squirrels. They are always pretty smart and constantly found a way to get at the seeds. The design of this particular bird feeder keeps them out of the main feeder part along with larger birds but the squirrels kept finding ways to get the top off the feeder where you put in the seed. I had it wired shut but they would just keep chewing at the wires until they got it open. Then they would feast all day and as the seed got lower they would squeeze their bodies into the container and get every last seed. They were relentless and I spent a lot of time chasing them away.

This year I figured out a better way. I bought a set of small clamps and set  four of them up in a circle around the top of the feeder clamping the top shut. They tried as hard as they could initially to get into the feeder again but they just couldn't get the top open. They might get one or ever two clamps off but not all of them. I would also go out and replace the clamps back in place whenever I saw one off. It didn't take them very long to realize they couldn't get in the feeder and eventually they stopped trying.

Now I just enjoy the birds at the feeder and don't worry about the squirrels anymore. Nice. 

Christmas 1960 and the Civil War

 

One of my favorite childhood toys was the Battle of the Blue and Gray playsets which we got 60 years ago this Christmas.  Me and Tom already had a couple of other sets such as the Cape Canaveral set I previously wrote about here.

The Civil War set was very popular in 1960 because of all the excitement and media attention on the many anniversaries of battles and incidents of the war that were planned for the upcoming year. 

The American Civil War Centennial was the official United States commemoration organization of the American Civil War also known as the War Between the States. Commemoration activities began in 1957, four years prior to the 100th anniversary of the commencement of hostilities and ended in 1965 with the 100th anniversary of the surrender at Appomattox. 

The role of the government in the celebration of the Civil War became very controversial because of the civil rights movement that was currently underway throughout America and especially the Jim Crow south.

We got this playset for Christmas in 1960 just at the country was getting reading to celebrate the war where so many Americans killed each other over slavery and a time when everyday there were reminders of the racist aftermaths of slavery on the black people of our country. The Centennial activities were also celebrating the 'lost cause' of the South.

For the next four years there was a constant barrage of anniversaries and memorials but also tributes and celebrations of Southern heritage.

To me and Tom the set was just another collection of toy soldiers to play with. I think it would be the next Christmas we would get the Fort Apache playset where we would play a form of cowboys and Indians where US soldiers would slaughter Native Americans. 

Wastelands: The New Apocalypse

Wastelands: The New Apocalypse. A collection of stories edited by John Joseph Adams, 2019.

Finished reading in December 2020. This is the third volume of his series on dystopian stories. This brilliant collection by current authors brings together tales of living during the apocalypse that destroys life as we know it today.

I'm not always big on science fiction collections of stories. I usually like more plot and a deeper story that evolves in the telling. Many of these stories seemed like they were just getting started and it was over. They may have been very good but I wanted to keep reading, I wanted to know more about their world and their situation. Fortunately, not all the stories here were doom and gloom and despite the apocalyptic themes there were many tales of hope at the end. There were also many very contemplative stories with a wide range of points of views and perspectives. There were also a few stories that a little boring and went nowhere except take place at the end of the world. 

Overall, it was a good collection of stories but I wonder what I was doing reading this stuff during our own pandemic. Maybe I was thinking how much worse things could be. It also make me look back on my readings of dystopian novels and books about plagues that I've read not just this year but over the years. I've read a few.

Last Night

There was a Bills game last night? On Monday Night Football? Against the New England Patriots? I guess I wasn't paying attention again. This certainly isn't the first time I forgot about an important Bills game. Last week I was completely unaware that they won the American Conference East. Didn't watch the game. Didn't know it was on. Didn't know it was important. Oh well.

It's not like this hasn't happened before. I've already written about new phenomenon in my life since I retired. I called the article Sports or Lack Thereof and last night was another example.

So this was the biggest night in Bills history of the past twenty years and I was blissfully unaware. The Bills beating the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football and I was watching a documentary on the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi that was filmed mostly in Barcelona where I spent some time in the Navy.  Then later I was online shopping for WIFI gear while the Bills were romping all over New England in New England. Yikes. The Bills never crossed my mind.

I guess this will go on through the playoffs but I'll try to watch some of the games and of course the Super Bowl if the Bills were to advance that far.

And then there will be the occasional basketball or hockey game I'll watch over the next few months... maybe.

The 2nd Spike

In many ways this second spike in the Covid-19 virus is much worse than the initial spread of the pandemic because after almost of year we've learned how bad the trump administration has botched their response to this crises and now we know it didn't need to be this bad or last this long.

Now with the vaccine efforts lagging so far behind other countries we also see how the administration's promise to have 20 million people vaccinated by the end of the year is just another lie. The Warped Speed program may have been successful in getting a vaccine made but it is an abject failure when it comes to distributing and administering the vaccine to the people that need it. Of course the administration blames everyone else for their failures just like they have for all these months of a failed testing program.

While trump spends all his time wallowing in his loser fantasies the people of America suffer economic and heath crises that are made much worse by his total lack of leadership and moral values. He and his followers are pathetic and have seriously damaged our democracy and the moral fabric of our nation.

Random Album Effect - Eat

Started off the set with The Allman Brothers Band's Eat A Peach from 1972. I would see the bans a few months after this record was released. We certainly listened to this album a lot in the 70's living in our house in Germantown. It sounded great playing loud in the kitchen the other day although they did seem to over extend themselves on that 40 minute Mountain Jam but of course I can remember getting up to flip the record for part 2 back in the day.

Next up was the second album from singer songwriter Susan Justice and Eat Dirt released in 2012. She has a jazzy soulful folk pop style with very pleasant melodies. An enjoyable album that was a nice change after the Allmans.

But when Blondie came on next that was really a change and they sounded great with their first song on the album Dreaming. Eat to the Beat was their fourth album and was released in 1979 after their massive hit record the previous year. Lots of wonderful songs on this New Wave album and I loved every moment of it.

The next album up was very different. I guess one could call Black Moth Super Rainbow a psychedelic indie electronic lo-fi noise pop band or something like that. Eating Us released in 2009 is their fourth album and has a little more studio gloss than their previous recordings but they certainly still sound weird and very listenable. I really like all of their albums that I have... all nine of them.

Then I was suddenly listening to the post-rock atmospheric experimental Latin tinged sound of the Apostle of Hustle. I knew immediately this was not BMSR anymore. It must have been the guitars and percussion. This band is a spinoff of Broken Social Scene and the album here Eats Darkness, their third, was released in 2009. It's a wonderful album and sounded great. It followed BMSR perfectly and was one of those moments that I love about doing this Random Album Effect process. Sometimes it really works well. This entire set was a trip.

• The Allman Brothers Band - Eat A Peach, 1972
• Susan Justice - Eat Dirt, 2012
• Blondie - Eat To The Beat, 1979
• Black Moth Super Rainbow - Eating Us, 2009
• Apostle of Hustle - Eats Darkness, 2009

The Water Dancer

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates, 2019

Read in December 2020

This was another powerful gut-wrenching novel about life under slavery in the American South. A fascinating and well written story of life on an old Virginia slave plantation and the underground network of freedom fighters. The book also had a supernatural element to it. 

I had read Coates' 2015 non-fiction book Between the World and Me which I liked very much.

What are they still doing now?

Yes, how are we keeping busy. It's been almost of year pandemically speaking. We are home. We are still keeping busy.

Actually Becky gets to go out and keep busy. She has been doing the shopping although a lot of it is done online for delivery or curbside pickup but it does take time. She also still has the significant good fortune to be able to get to her art studio almost everyday for a few hours where she has been working on several projects. Her studio is on Hertel Avenue need a couple of good grocery stores so she is able to drive by and ascertain whether the store is busy or not and she can stop by to pick up some things.

She also keeps herself busy making food. She loves cooking and enjoys creating new meals and going back to old favorites. We like having lots of leftovers too. We really hadn't needed to order out very much. We've only really had a meal delivered once and that was on our wedding anniversary. We see lots of neighbors constantly having meals delivered but Becky has mostly wanted to make our dinners herself. It's part of her keeping busy during this pandemic.

I mentioned Becky doing online shopping and another aspect of that for her has been her buying and selling on eBay and Etsy. She is very busy with that hobby and has mastered using the postal service effectively and safely. Then she spends the evening watching some television which usually begins with an old movie from TCM or the Criterion channel and then a baking show or maybe a mystery series that is usually European. At the end of the evening I usually join her to watch some classical or jazz music videos on YouTube and maybe a little comedy or an NPR Tiny Desk concert.

So what has continued to keep me busy? What am I still doing now? I'm still reading a lot but not as much as I had read in 2019 or earlier. I watched some TV shows but not near as many as in the previous couple of years since my retirement. I spent a lot of the summer in the backyard or on the front porch reading and listening to music.

I've spent a lot of time playing with my music collection. I've continued to reorganize my mixes into the 8 hour plus mega mixes and have been creating more of them. I spent over 50 years collecting music and now I get to listen and play as much as I want. Pandemically speaking that means more now than ever.

I do a lot of chores around the house like taking of all the laundry and lots of little projects. I'm reorganizing the third floor storage area and the vinyl album collection. Lots of work up there.

The largest use of my time the past year or so has been my writing exercise blog. I really spend several hours a day writing on a large variety of subjects. This ongoing project of writing essays in the blog will keep me busy for the rest of my life. I'm enjoying writing about the music I've been listening to, the books that I've read over my life, movies, TV shows, places I've been and things that I've done. Lots of memories. I want my grandchildren to know a little more about me than they would get from their own memories of me or what they might have heard from their parents.

I am considering a new project for this new year and that is exploring ancestry.com. I haven't completely decided yet and perhaps I'll get a trial account and start the process. We'll see.

Christmas 1970

Christmas 1970 was fifty years ago this week. Christmas that year was terribly different for our family. It was the first Christmas without our father. Dad always worked hard to make every Christmas special for his family. Now he was gone. Taken from us by the ruptured aneurysm only five months before in July of 1970.

We were still new to our home that we moved into in November of 1968 and new to living in Harleysville. We had new traditions to make and now Dad had died and Mom was struggling. Everyone was.

It was my first Christmas in the Navy and the first time I was home with the family since Dad's funeral. In a few days after Christmas I was going to meet up with my new ship the USS Portland and going out to sea.

1970 was a very different kind of year for me. I started the year out in January working with my Dad at the Brandywine Products machine ship in North Wales. On February 6th I flew to San Diego for Navy boot camp. Later in the spring I would come home on leave for a couple of weeks and then went off to Great Lakes Naval Base near Chicago for more training. Then Dad died. I went home on emergency leave for the funeral, went back to the base and finished my training. Because of that break my orders following the A school were in error and I had to wait around Great Lakes for three extra months. I finally got my orders to report to the Portland in early January so I was able to go home for a couple of weeks at Christmas.

I really don't remember much about that Christmas. I had just turned 19 earlier in December and I was getting ready to see the world. And I missed my dad. I came home. Everyone was happy to see me especially mom. It was all very sad.

I went back down to Germantown to see my friends but I really don't remember anything about that visit over that holiday week. It's like a blur. A haze. Something to forget and I did.

Random Album Effect - Sweet

Another Random Album Effect set. Started this set with one of my favorite albums from the sixties that introduced me to country music through the back door. 

The Byrd's Sweetheart of the Rodeo was released in 1968 and is considered one of the pivotal albums in rock history. It certainly had an influence on my music listening over the years. I wrote more about this album in one of my Vinyl Spins a few years ago. One of the nice things about listening to the entire album this time was that it was a legacy edition CD that included alternate takes and some live cuts. Very nice.

The next album that came up was alt-country indie folk singer Dawn Landes' Sweet Heart Rodeo which was released in 2010. She is a quirky singer-songwriter and the album sounded very pleasant although nothing really spectacular stood out in the set of very nice songs. It had a more modern feel to it and sound good following the Byrds.

Weather Report came after that with Sweetnighter from 1973 and the change was very nice too. I've always loved this band and the first song was a quietly mellow but strong groove. This album was a perfect change of pace.

The next album was still another change of pace. The Sweet Inspirations' Sweets For My Sweet is a wonderful soul album released in 1969. There is certainly a lot of good soul music on this album although there were no hits. It still sounded great and I enjoyed it a lot.

The final album in the set was Squeeze's Sweets From A Stranger released in 1982. I was really excited about anything Squeeze recorded during the New Wave period of the late 70's to mid 80's and this album was right there in the middle of it. I had gone out and purchased every album they recorded during this period and enjoyed them all. This album was probably the album that wasn't great from start to finish. There were a few songs, especially in the beginning, that did not always hold up to their very high usual standards but I still liked hearing it at this time. 

• The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo, 1968
• Dawn Landes - Sweet Heart Rodeo, 2010
• Weather Report - Sweetnighter, 1973
• The Sweet Inspirations - Sweets For My Sweet, 1969
• Squeeze - Sweets For A Stranger, 1982

Christmas Break

When I started working at Canisius College in 1996 I soon discovered the joy of the academic Christmas break. The college would close between Christmas and New Years which would give us at least a week off and sometimes as many as twelve days. This would occur during the time when the kids would be off from school for the break too. Becky would also be off at that time from teaching classes between semesters. It worked out all around for us.

We would have a work Christmas party usually around the the 23rd and then the college would shut down but of course they depended on the day of the week too.  The library would be closed during the break. In fact all buildings were shut down and the heat turned off as a cost saving measure. Nobody could work even if you wanted to. The first couple of years I worked there we were required to take vacation days during that break. Now we did have a generous amount of vacation time but there was some discontent on campus about the requirement of taking that time because the college was closed. Previously the buildings stayed open although there were no classes or official office hours and people could go in and work and save their vacation time.

A year or so after the mandatory staff shutdown the College came out with a statement that all time off required by the College because of the building shutdowns would not count against accumulated vacation leave time. They said it was a Jesuit thing not to make people take vacation days because of their attempt to save money not heating buildings during the holiday break.

Now everybody was really happy. The policy added at least of week of vacation time for everyone although most people stayed home and didn't travel but you could. We liked having the time at home with the family. Becky and I were both home all that week and so were Katie and Sean. Family Time.

It always seemed to snow a lot during that week but it didn't matter. We were all home anyway. We had also moved into our new house in 1997.

Before that time there was no Christmas Break from work. When I worked at the public library downtown we worked on Christmas Eve and then again the day after Christmas and all through that week. There was no Christmas Break whatsoever. 

The same at the ArtTree. We were always very busy working on Christmas Eve with last minute shoppers and then right back to work the day after Christmas. That was retail.

Christmas Day 2020

I don't think we've ever spent Christmas Day by ourselves before today. Pandemically speaking... another first. Becky made us a wonderful dinner for two.

We did have some nice video chat time with Katie in the kids in the morning. It was fun watching them open presents and play with toys but it certainly wasn't even close to having them here with us. 

Most of the day was just a regular day for us hanging around the house. Then we had a zoom session with the Emery's in the late afternoon which was a lot of fun. Not everyone was there but a lot. Betsy and Joe, Rita and Scott, Dan and Liz, Katie and Todd and the kids, Sean and Ashely, Lizzie and Lewie, Chris and Courtney, Sara and Ava, Marissa and Matt, a good crowd and it seemed like everyone was getting better at zooming. Little Clara especially liked seeing all the people in the screens. We missed Cathy.

We had a snowy White Christmas.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day has always been about children. I should add that it has always been secular. We have never been about religion in anyway shape or form and that is how we raised our children. We had a children's bible in the house for the stories and that was about it. For us Christmas was a different sort of celebration. A family tradition of getting together. Still is except for this pandemic year.

When our children were small we would get up in the morning and open presents. After breakfast it would be a day of playing with toys until it was time to go to dinner at Aunt Rose's house where the Koenig's and Catanzaro's would gather for Christmas dinner. It always seemed to snow too.

Later we would go to Tom and Diane's for dinner on Christmas Day. When our kids became adults and got married then the Christmas Day celebrations got a little more complicated with in-law responsibilities. Both of our kids usually stayed overnight at our house after our Christmas Eve dinner and family gathering and then would have breakfast with us while opening presents. Then they were off to their other families. Sean and Ashely would usually be gone for the day but sometimes Katie and Todd would show up at Tom and Diane's for a little while before heading home. Especially after Henry was born. It was always a good time.

I would also have a phone call with my family in Philly sometime during the day and especially when my mother was alive. Over the years we had decided to limit our trips to see the family in Philly to the spring, summer or fall and not during the winter holidays. That worked out better for us because we could spend more time and not have the hassles of driving in winter weather. There were also often many times when we would not get to see everybody because they would be off visiting their in-laws. Eventually it made sense to visit my family during non-holiday times and then everyone would be around to get together.

Christmas day growing up in Germantown was always chaotic. When we were very little Mom and Dad would send us up to bed to wait for Santa Claus after hanging up our stockings on the mantle. We would also set up cookies and milk for Santa. I didn't seem to matter that we didn't have a chimney or fireplace. Then Dad would get the Christmas tree and set it up including the trains that ran around the base of the tree. We would come down in the morning to see the tree for the first time surrounded with gifts. The stockings hanging from the mantle would be full. We would play, play and play until it was time to go to church. As I got older the ritual changed and I helped trim the tree after returning from midnight mass where I sang in the choir. 

Later we would go to Mom-Mom's for Christmas dinner and we would get more gifts from her and her sisters Aunt Mary and Aunt Francis.

Christmas Eve 2020

Things everywhere were different this year. Pandemically speaking. Our Christmas Eve celebrations were different this year too. This would be the first time in several decades that we did not put up a Christmas Tree. Since nobody was going to be coming into our home over the holidays why bother. We did put lights on our palm tree house plant so technically we did have a Christmas tree to show the grandkids during our regular video chats. I don't think they were impressed especially after showing us their spectacular tree.

Normally they would be staying at our house for the holidays and helping to decorate our tree together. Not this year. We did put lights up around the house and some of our usual decorations and holiday knick-knacks. The kids did have some fun looking at the nested Santa Clauses on video.

At one point during the evening we video chatted with Katie and the kids along with Sean and Ashley and opened some presents together. That was as good as it got with family this year. No big dinner with lots of people opening presents afterward while listening to my Christmas mixes.

Usually Christmas Eve was the busiest day of the year for us. Getting the house cleaned and ready for the crowd. Decorated. Becky would be making cookies during the previous days and of course she would be cooking a spectacular dinner for a house full of people. Not this year.

She did make a nice dinner of pizza for two and we had a lot of wonderful cookies too. We exchanged some gifts too but our big gift for each other was getting a couple of new laptops.

Overall a very different and sad Christmas Eve. Pandemically speaking.

Christmas Eve

We've had a long tradition of hosting a dinner and party on Christmas Eve for our family here in Buffalo. Becky has always worked hard to bring off this annual event. We would usually have between twelve and fifteen people for the dinner. Then we would exchange gifts with our guests. Sometimes others would stop by later.

Katie and Todd would be staying with us for the week and Sean and Ashley would usually stay overnight with us too.

We would exchange gifts with our kids in the morning after breakfast.

Christmas Eve was very special when I was a kid. I sang in the St. Francis of Assissi school choir in the early 60's and every year there was a special concert of holiday hymns and songs before the midnight mass. Me and my brother Tom would both be wearing our special little red and white pope suits for the occasion. Afterward we would go home and were allowed to open one gift.

Dad would be putting some toys together with a highball at his side. The tree would be decorated and the trains running. Plus I didn't have to get up and go to church the next morning. Life was good.

Quad Stereo 1910

Could this have possibly worked. What would it sound like? Art sound. This was a photo from the book I recently read...  Broken Music: Artists Recordworks, 1989.

Random Album Effect - Actor

Another random album effect session. This one started off with St. Vincent's second album Actor from 2009. I've always liked her work and this album sounds good from start to finish. This former member of the Polyphonic Spree has always been quirky but always in a good way and this album is a high point.

The next album up was from the indie pop duo Generationals and their second album Actor-Caster released in 2011. They certainly have their 60's pop and 80's new wave sound down pat in this album. They are pleasant surprise and they are a good band to use in mixes.

Next up was The Winter Blanket and their second album Actors and Actresses released in 2002. They could probably best described as dream pop or slowcore. Maybe a little shoegazing. The album dragged at a couple of points but there were some very fine songs scattered about and probably not an album I'd play a lot.

The fourth and final album of the group was a nice relief. The Pet Shop Boys second album Actually released in 1987. Interesting arrangements and clever songs that were very different from their beat focused first album and the duet with Dusty Springfield is very nice as is It's a Sin. I was listening to the 2001 re-release which includes a second disc of remixes and previously material from that time period.

It's was surely not planned that each of the albums in this set were second albums released by the artists. 

• St. Vincent - Actor, 2009
• Generationals - Actor-Caster, 2011
• The Winter Blanket - Actors and Actresses, 2002
• The Pet Shop Boys - Actually / Further Listening 1987-1988, 2001

Single Batch Irish Cream

Single Batch Irish Cream Liqueur by Five Farms from County Cork Ireland. 

This was our second bottle of this fine Irish cream liqueur. The first one we got from Ashley and Sean for the holidays last year. We loved it and Becky saw it in the liquor store the other day and could not resist.

This is a farm-to-table Irish Cream Liqueur exclusively sourced and produced in County Cork, Ireland. According to the label County Cork is Ireland’s largest and southernmost county, home to family-owned farms that dot the coastline where the land meets the sea. It seems to sit on the edge of the world, a rugged backdrop for the farmers who have toiled this land for generations.

For many years we have had a bottle of Emmet's or Bailey's Irish Cream every Christmas but I think we will probably keep getting this good stuff from Five Farms.

New Laptops for Christmas

Becky and I decided to do something special for ourselves this Christmas and get ourselves a couple of new laptops. Both of our laptops were well over ten years old. We had been planning to go to Italy this year and had a trip laid out to Rome and northern Italy before the pandemic struck the world. Fortunately we hadn't invested any money in the trip yet.

We've both been spending a lot of time during this past year of the pandemic on our computers. They have kept us busy and provided us with a window on the world that we've not been able to participate in the way we had been especially since we've been retired.

So instead of traveling we took the money set aside for the trip and bought our new laptops for Christmas. I have my set up but Becky is waiting until after Christmas to get hers up and running.

I'm enjoying my new laptop although is taking me a little time getting used to the slightly different feel of the keyboard and keypad.

I also got a new portable drive to go with it and have ordered a wireless mouse.

Black Is Beautiful Imperial Stout

Tonight I enjoyed a wonderfully imperial stout from Community Beer Works here in Buffalo NY. It was dark, smooth and delicious and lived up to its name Black Is Beautiful.  It was a Happy Solstice beer too.

Black Is Beautiful is a collaborative effort among craft brewers and customers to bring awareness of the injustices that people of color face every day. 100% of the proceeds of these beers support organizations working on police brutality reform. 

I realized this when I went to check this beer into Untappd and discovered the many beers going by the Black Is Beautiful. Most were imperial stouts that were celebrating the many shades of darkness of those beers.

Another nice thing about it was the home delivery. This was a gift from Sean and Ashley and included a pint four pack of Black Is Beautiful and a pint four pack of Cranberry Let's Go Pils for Becky. A nice and thoughtful gift.

The photo here also includes one of the cookbooks I got Becky for Christmas. She had been going online to the King Arthur Flour site for recipes so when I was looking at cookie baking books I came across the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion. This was a no brainer.

Space Oddity

I am currently reading Jason Heller's book Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music and The Decade Sci-Fi Exploded published in 2018. There is a fascinating discussion of the David Bowie song Space Oddity.

I remember hearing that song for the first time during the summer of 1969 when it was initially released. It was played briefly around the time of the moon landings in July. Then it disappeared but it made an impression on me. I heard it again in 1970 when there was a guy in our barracks that had that 1969 Bowie album on cassette tape and played it a lot. It really was a weird album at the time. I was very surprised in when that song and that album were re-released in 1973. I bought it in early 1974.

His record company was obviously releasing this earlier album as a result of the success of his subsequent albums Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars and Aladdin Sane. The new cover made it obvious. For many years I thought Bowie was with his wife on that cover but later found out it was the model Twiggy posing with him. I hadn't looked at the photo credits on the cover.

I was not aware of how much Stanley Kubrick and  Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey affected David Bowie and this song. Apparently in 1968 he watched the film a many times. He was obsessed with it and incorporated the themes and ideas into his music. He was recording demos of Space Oddity in early 1969 and his record company released his single of the song five days before the moon landings to celebrate the event although the song was actually about a failed mission with the astronaut Major Tom getting stranded in space. The BBC initially used Space Oddity as their theme song for the coverage of the lunar landings until they released the full content of the lyrics. LOL.

Over the years Bowie has revisited the fate of Major Tom in other songs such as Ashes To Ashes, Hello Spaceboy and Blackstar. 

I had previously written about Bowie starring in the science fiction movie The Man Who Fell To Earth.