Saturday, December 23, 2006

What the hell am I doing-Christmas Edition

I’ve been booked from 8 AM to about 7 PM all the past couple of weeks, and have ahd no time even to update my website, and barely any time to blog. But the latter more often than the former, for some reason. I think because this has reawakened my love of writing. I may even have gotten a writing job as a result. Anyway, here’s the other stuff I've squeezed into my 16 hour days.

Last Read: The Templar Legacy, by Steve Berry. Decent thriller offering highly controversial opinions on religion, and faith in general, in a fact-based though fictional context. Three of five stars, meaning it’s something I liked reading, but not something I’d read again. I’m not a big re-reader-takes something extraordinary to get me to experience a story I’ve already experienced. I’ll offer my all time re-readable list of books at some future point. It’s pretty short. Anyway, I don’t know where I come out on this, except that I believe, and do so because I want to. Because I need to, on some level. My favorite line out of the movie Serenity, which got me hooked on the whole Firefly series that I missed the first time around, was when Shepard was dying, and he grabbed Mal, and shouted in his hoarse, dying voice, “I don’t care what you believe. Just believe it.” Believe in something, because the alternative..I mean, the alternative is just pointless.

Last Seen: Love, Actually. This is not the first time I’ve seen this movie, but I had an intense craving that could only be satisfied by reviewing it again. It is now officially my new favorite Christmas movie (displacing “It’s a Wonderful Life”), with “All I Want for Christmas is You” being my new favorite Christmas song. In the movie it's sung by a beautiful little girl, but the version I love is by Mariah Carey. I downloaded it and listened to it about 15 times on Thursday, and half again as many times on Friday. The movie is an amazingly insightful and poignant exploration on love in many forms-hopeless and hopeful, old and new, desperately unrequited, wrenchingly uncertain, and passionately fulfilled. Love’s an amazing thing that makes you do amazingly brilliant and amazingly stupid things. It’s one of life’s major motivators. Someone once told me that a major facet is that it craves the happiness of the other. Yeah, sure. But the flipside to that is that it also craves its own fulfillment, sometimes, over all else. It can be a selfish creature that way. Once in a while it just needs to be said, out loud, to survive. And if you can't say it, you can't give it meaning it. And thus without meaning, then once in a while, as much as it needs nuturing, love sometimes deserves a good beat-down. Each in its due time, in due course. Anyway, highly recommended holiday movie.

Last Heard: My family’s Christmas compilation CD, which I’m giving as a Christmas gift, with our Christmas card. The less said about it, the better. Needs to be experienced to be appreciated. But it’s pretty cool, IMHO.

BTW, here is my list of all-time favorite Christmas songs (no particular order):

Nuttin' For Christmas Barry Gordon
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus The Jackson 5
Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree Brenda Lee
Merry Christmas Baby Otis Redding
Christmas Island Leon Redbone
Frosty The Snowman Jimmy Durante (or Leon Redbone and Dr. John)
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Gene Autry (or Burl Ives)
'Zat You, Santa Claus? Louis Armstrong
Please Don't Send Me Fruitcake The Von Trapp Children
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Dean Martin
The Christmas Song Nat King Cole (or Mel Torme)
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year Andy Williams
Holly Jolly Christmas Burl Ives
Santa Baby Eartha Kitt (or Madonna)
All I Want for Christmas Is You Mariah Carey
This Christmas Ruben Studdard
White Christmas The Drifters
Run Rudolph Run Chuck Berry
Everyone's A Kid At Christmas Time Stevie Wonder
Winter Wonderland Ray Charles
The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late) The Chipmunks
The Twelve Days of Christmas John Denver & The Muppets

Last Experienced: Sitting up with 5-year-old Li’l T as he rested, curled on my lap, sleeping with a stomach virus. That meant that from time it time, he’d wake up and knit his brow, and make me his bucket. I’d pull the actual bucket over and clean him up, feed him some ginger ale, and hold him back to sleep. As the smell of throwup wafted softly from his sleeping form, I realized that this is what it is really all about. This is faith and belief. This is love, actually. This is my family. And I wouldn’t trade them for anything. God bless the scent of vomit. And God bless all of you.

Two more days until Christmas.

3 comments:

Steve Buccellato said...

Dude-- you are like an old, sentimental softie! I love Christmas, too! I have no idea how you have time to write & post these blogs. I barely have time to read 'em, let alone comment or write my own.

Anyway--Have a great Christmas! Much happiness, good health & prosperity in '07!!!

mmclaurin said...

Dude, get me your snailmail address already! And ask Sara, too.

mmclaurin said...

Oh, and Marie. And the answer to time is obsessive compulsive disorder :-#. Seriously, I'm writing the stuff while Photoshop files are saving, while other files are printing, and on little pocket-sized notebooks I carry in the pockets of all my jackets. Much love to you and yours!