Toadcast #51 – The Yulecast
Oh thank fuck it’s Christmas. Or, any holiday really. I am so fucking incredibly tired I could pitch face first on the tarmac and sleep for six months without so much as coming up for air.
I have been reading, with some amusement, the bickering over the religious nature of Christmas which seems to take place in the American press with monotonous regularity. Apparently the Christians are adamant that we remember the religious nature of a pagan festival, which seems a little odd considering that the Christianisation of Christmas itself was basically the Christian colonists’ acceptance that they could never defeat local pagan religions. So basically they adopted Yuletide and tried to wedge their amusing Biblical myths into a story that their conquered people would never give up, and then waited a few years for it to degrade into some sort of carnival of aquisitiveness which they could have a tantrum about.
So it’s a pagan festival which has turned into an unbridled celebration of Western consumerist greed… erm, which part of this came up in the Bible again?
Personally, as an atheist, I love Christmas. It’s got nothing to do with that Jeebus character, it’s closer akin to the the pagan celebration of light and life in the middle of the darkest part of the year. As a family we have always come together and spent peaceful time together at this time of year. We play music, we read books, we cook together, but above all we rest. We get together and enjoy one another’s company. Mrs. Toad and I will, this year, be doing nothing more than snuggling up on the couch and wasting time. And that time wasting together is oddly one of the most important things you can do to forge a strong relationship. Just taking time to be together and enjoy one another’s company is, after the year we’ve had, going to be a rare treat, and one which I intend to enjoy immensely.
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01. Yo La Tengo – On Our Way to Fall (03.12)
02. Tom Waits – Soldier’s Things (07.21)
03. Pale Young Gentlemen – We Will Meet (15.23)
04. The Felice Brothers – Greatest Show on Earth (19.15)
05. Eels – Beautiful Freak (27.27)
06. Clem Snide – The Dairy Queen (35.25)
07. Bob Dylan – Tangled Up in Blue (43.13)
08. A.A. Bondy – Black Rain, Black Rain (48.45)
09. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Brompton Oratory (54.19)
10. Sufjan Stevens – Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother (60.06)
Okay, your New Year’s resolution is to make sure I get into the Felice Brothers.
Actually, that should really be mine, shouldn’t it?
I’m just not good with responsibility.
Good blog. Hear hear.
Haha! It’s also when the the term ‘Music Nazi’ was termed because of your vice like grip of the cd player. Not that I’m compaing, it stopped Mum constantly playing that choral Christmas guff!
This might be my favourite playlist you’ve ever made.
Happy Christmas you old poof, you. May the good Lord shine his everlasting light on you and may hi… Oh, fuck it. Let’s get pissed!
Yes, Ian, this time I thought ‘balls to it, I’m just going to play my favourite songs’.
Tell you what, C&B, I am so bronchial and feverish at the moment that at this rate it will be an entirely dry Christmas.
Yikes. I’m very sorry to hear that you’re ill, Matthew, but I’m positively concerned about this talk of abandoning sweet mother booze. Let’s not do anything rash. In fact, it sounds to me like a hot toddy is just the thing. Think about it. And meanwhile, I send you thoughts of youthful vigor.
Actually, a hot honey and lemon with an inch of brandy in the bottom of it might just do the trick. Been known to cure cancer, that stuff has.
That’s the old Christmas spirit!
Just go and get pissed.
I’m not sure if it’s flu you’ve got or just the hangover from a drinking session that started in late August.
The whole “War on Christmas” crap that gets spewed all over the U.S. press is just a construct to fill a slow news period. Nobody cares except Bill O’Reilly and TV execs. I can’t stand Xmas personally, but am definitely looking forward to ten days off.