Sujatin’s Neighborhood

Could these Garmin ads be any more bizarre? Campers watch out for that Yeti.....

And not just for singing, either!

For all those early travellers (is such a thing possible this year?) - In those famous words ...

My husband and I wish you a Merry Chrstmas!

Best Wishes from Mr FD, and more importantly, Best Wishes from Flamingo Dancer! 

I was following a mother with a small child sitting in the shopping trolley around the supermarket aisle. The little girl, about 3 or 4 years of age, was singing "Jingle Bells" as her mother shopped. Mum stopped and said "That is some very nice singing that you are doing"

The little girl replied very seriously, "Yes, it's a gift!"

I looked closely at the little girl, wondering if she was a Flamingo Dancer relative, but couldn't see any family resembelance. Love that attitude!

leaping lords, drummers drumming - I think I feel a headache coming on

Twelfth Day and Night – Twelve Drummers Drumming / Lords a leaping.

January 5^th. – Feast of Fools

Twelve - The 12 points of doctrine in The Apostle’s Creed

Leaping dancers were only performed by males and in pagan times were performed for the purposes of fertility, and for war. A good leaping dance was thought to psychologically prepare the men to go into battle. I don't know what it did for their fertility!

The Roman god of vegetation and war was Mars. Roman priests, with swords, performed a Satii ritual in which they leaped high to ensure that the corn crop grew.

In English tradition the leaping lords were probably morris dancers who performed between banquet courses. Twelve morris dancers, also armed with swords, would form dance patterns that ended with the swords coming together to form a Lock or Nut over the head of the Lord Of Misrule.

Other lords a leaping performed a dance, the gavotte, accompanied by a bagpipe and a drum

The day begins, like Christmas, with a dramatic religious service featuring the coming of the Three Kings. It had become traditional for the English king to make offerings at Mass of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to symbolize his connection with those kings and with Christ. This custom survived the Reformation.

The festivities were the most sumptuous of the year, filled with royal balls and parties. For Twelfth Day and Night among the common fold, a bean was baked into a cake and pieces distributed among the children and servants. Whoever found the bean was pronounced King of the Bean, and reigned for the rest of the day and night. If a pea was used as well, whoever found it became (or chose) the Queen of the Pea.

The Epiphany, the oldest of the Christmas feasts, is also known as Three Kings Day for the three magi who found the Christ Child after following a star to Bethlehem. It is celebrated on Jan. 6 and is the major holiday of the Christmas period in the Eastern Church.

Time for the Christmas tree and greenery to come down too. St. Boniface chopped down an oak tree, regarded as sacred by the Germanic pagans in an attempt to convert pagans to Christianity , and a fir tree sprang up from the stump, with its branches pointing heavenward. The apparent miracle and its interpretation gave the evergreen family of trees an unquestioned and permanent place in the constellation of natural Christian symbols.

The Twelve Days of Christmas song is a Twelfth night song  and sung by children as a "memory and forfeits" game. Whoever first forgets a line is out.

In many homes, they also played flapdragon or snapdragon. Players took turns picking raisins out of a dish of flaming brandy and popping them into their mouth. There were wagers on each person's chances of success – on surviving, I suspect!

Ordinary rural people enjoyed feasting, dancing, card playing, carol singing, storytelling, party games like hot cockles and shoeing the mare and attempting to bite an apple with a candle stuck in it hung on a string from the end of a stick. Oh how they loved dicing with immolation those hearty folk!

The twelve days of Christmas was a most welcome break for rural workers , which in Tudor times would have been the majority of the people. All work, except for looking after the animals, would stop, restarting again on Plough Monday, the first Monday after Twelfth Night.  Maybe that is also why we all hate Monday so much  - I mean Plough Monday, yippee!

The 'Twelfths' had strict rules, one of which banned spinning, the prime occupation for women. Flowers were ceremonially placed upon and around the wheels to prevent their use.

During the Twelve Days, people would have visited their neighbours, sharing and enjoying the traditional 'minced pye'. The pyes would have included thirteen ingredients, representing Christ and his apostles, typically dried fruits, spices and of course a little chopped mutton - in remembrance of the shepherds.

That’s it folks – over for another year! Diets start January 6th and the credit card balance will be due in February.

Fanfarlo - Fire Escape Fanfarlo 1 comment Tour Dates 01/23/10 Ampere München 01/24/10 Studio 672 Köln 01/26/10 Magnet Berlin 01/28/10 Rocking Chair Vevey 01/29/10 Ziegel Oh Lac Zurich 02/01/10 Prinzenbar Hamburg 02/09/10 Thekla Bristol 02/10/10 Hare & Hounds Birmingham 02/11/10 Brudenell Centre Leeds 02/12/10 ULU London 02/13/10 Audio Brighton Discography [Oct 2006] Talking Backwards (single) [Feb 2007] You Are One Of The Few Outsiders... (single) [Jun 2007] Fire Escape (single) [Mar 2008] Harold T. Wilkins (single) [May 2009] Drowning Men (single) [Sep 2009] Reservoir (album) Read More Fanfarlo http://weheartmus... This band shot straight up my priority list because you only have FOUR more days to get Fanfarlo'...

Straitjacket Escape ♥ photo by Dave

Indie pop isn’t usually described as epic. Adorable, precious, and cloyingly cute? Yes. But epic? Not so much. Fanfarlo seems to be the exception, and they proved this point on Friday night, when they had a man suspended upside down from the rafters and escape from a straitjacket. This happened within the first five minutes of the show, during the orchestral behemoth that is “The Walls are Coming Down.” It was like a Bruce Willis movie, but with less explosions and more glockenspiel.

The straitjacket incident was obviously the most epic moment of the night, but the theatrics didn’t end there. There was interpretive dancing, rogue boomerangs, and a pretty intimidating box accordion. Throw in a picturesque stage setting and a watering can attached to the drum kit, and it wasn’t an average Webster Hall show. The band managed to take a spacious, relatively normal venue and shift the atmosphere to match that of the album: warm, enthusiastic, and frenzied.

Fanfarlo ♥ photo by Dave

Frontman, Simon Balthazar, led the charge in a bowtie and further proved my belief that Swedes are musical messiahs when it comes to penning a good pop song. Though he was the lead singer, the audience seemed to focus on the band as a whole as they constantly exchanged instruments and shared singing duties. The arsenal of instruments that night included a banjo, mandolin, violin, clarinet, and a brightly colored melodica – the required instrument for every chamber pop band out there. True, they occasionally succumbed to a few clichés (see: the rampart Arcade Fire comparisons), but their sincerity shone through. When you take away the fanfare, there’s still a pulse to their music that drives it past most conventions. Hence the epic-ness.

With only one album, they had a limited supply of songs to play. My personal favorite, “I’m a Pilot,” drew from the band’s most appealing quality: their infectious camaraderie. This was most apparent during the encore, when they had run out of songs to sing, so they resorted to the obligatory cover, Low’s “Just Like Christmas,” featuring opening band, Freelance Whales. Anything holiday-related is instantly a cheese-fest, but throw in a cavalcade of instruments and a dozen earnest musicians and it becomes easy to suspend any cynicism.

(I really wanted to end this review by writing, “...and by the end of the night, you could say that the entire audience had shed an emotional straitjacket – and put on a fringed vest of love.” But I won’t. Swearsies.)

Photos by Dave: 

Fanfarlo ♥ photo by Dave

Fanfarlo

Fanfarlo

Fanfarlo & Freelance Whales

 12/22/2009 00:12:42 ♥ kateg () ♥ fanfarlo.com ♥ myspace.com/fanfarlo

For some reason I don't want to work on big projects. I go through this at times. I usually end up knitting dish cloths but this time it's amigurumi that have caught my obsession attention. I was going to make another snowman but instead I decided to make a snail in a pear from a pattern called Little Toys and Their Homes. Niels had asked for it and I started and gave up on a seahorse and robot (the yarn wasn't right in both cases) for him after make a turtle and a seahorse for Stefan. So, here's the snail in his home, the S.S. Leaf (according to Niels).

peek-a-boo!

Isn't he too stinking cute for words?

I just realized that I need a picture of the snail out of the pear. I'll get that tomorrow as Niels is currently sleeping with the snail.

I've also been thinking a lot about my living room. (I know, exciting!) We had a Hannukah party this weekend and it got me moving to get the living room, dining room and kitchen into much better shape. Big parties will do that. I'm still not entirely satisified with the state of the living room, though. I would like to replace the giant white Ikea monstrosity that surrounds our TV.

playroom corner

You can only see part of it here. There is another of the four-cube pieces to the right of the TV as well. It is useful in that it has a lot of drawers and closets, however as you can see from the state of the pieces on the far left, the drawers and doors have broken off a few of them. I wanted to get the TV stand that goes with our new bookcase in the corner but I don't think it is big enough for the size TV we want to get. Our couch is a fair distance from the TV and the flat TVs are wider so we'd need something bigger. Erik and I are still discussing. Anyway, here's a couple more photos.

I occasionally consider putting the kid's play/train table in their room but I think it would take up too much of the room, so I'm not sure what to do. I have to say this: the room is much nicer when everything is put away. The new bookcase really helps with that.