Ragnarok 'til you drop

There's nothing like the threat of an impending snow/ice/shit storm to add just the right tone of hysteria to the holiday shopping season. My weekly trip to Target for household essentials earlier this afternoon meant getting caught in the middle of the seasonal War of All Against All, fought by doughy suburbanites with pinched faces, furrowed brows, and luxury SUV's.

It's been a long time since I dropped out of Congregationalist bible school, but I'm pretty sure that nearly running down a family of four in order to get a parking spot close to the entrance or spending hundreds (or thousands) of dollars on soon-to-be obsolescent crap while there are folks out there in need of basic necessities probably isn't how the Prince of Peace would have wanted his birthday to be observed.

I'm a filthy little atheist myself, so I personally have no qualms about clotheslining an obnoxious soccer mom if it means getting the last roll of sale-priced toilet paper on the shelf. Where's your messiah now, Mrs. Bourgeoisie?

The Blood - Such Fun (from Oi! Oi! That's Yer Lot, 1982; collected on the 2005 reissue of False Gestures for a Devious Public, orig. 1983) - When I was a kid, my friends and I used to ride our bikes up to Monkey Hill and dare each other to try and race down the almost vertical slope leading to the sandpits. It was something only the most reckless would attempt, surrendering one's fate to gravity and good fortune while trying to keep from doing a header over the handlebars...and yet loving every terrifying second of the experience. Listening to the Blood's early material -- this track, "Megalomania," "Calling the Shots" -- evokes a similar sensation.

Saint Etienne - The Way We Live Now (from Finisterre, 2002) - Not nearly as sweet and soothing as the song might have you believe, but things were different five years ago.

cold, so cold, without you to hold

Christmas Eve is upon us, and so I’ll close my holiday theme week with Carter USM’s rendition of “Lonely This Christmas” from a 1994 promo single. Mud’s version of this Chinn and Chapman (the Boyce and Hart of 70’s bubbleglam) number went to the top of the UK charts back in 1975, and has become something of a holiday standard on that side of the Atlantic.

This version drops the faux Presleyisms and verses of the original, and instead delivers a brief quasi-acoustic rendition of the chorus that sums up the feeling that many of us have experienced at some point during this time of the year. (But not this holiday season, I hope.)

God Jul och Gott Nytt År, folks! I'm off to leave some tin cans and potato peelings out for the julbock.