Musical Monday - History Repeating by Shirley Bassey and Propellerheads

One of the depressing things about having studied history is that one can see when it begins to repeat itself. What is even more depressing is realizing that so many of one's fellow citizens are not well-versed enough to see it as well. Over the last several years, many people have been very concerned about what they perceived to be a dearth of science, engineering, and math students, but at the same time, we have seen so many people go through the educational system and emerge without a solid grounding in the humanities, including history, civics, and world affairs. I believe this is in part responsible for the current sad and uninformed shape of the American electorate.

We have seen this sort of thing happen before. It is really no mystery to anyone with an understanding of history as to what happens when a politician resorts to scapegoating minority populations and blaming foreigners for perceived economic woes. There is no real mystery as to what happens when the government is taken over by corporate interests and generals. The lesson history teaches us is that these developments are merely harbingers of far worse to come. I wear a tattoo on my arm that is a quote from the late Senator Daniel Inouye, a veteran of World War II who literally gave his right arm in the defense of American democracy. The quote is "lessons learned must remain", a portion of his speech at the dedication of the memorial to those Japanese-Americans who were placed in internment camps during World War II. This was a warning that we must all remember what was done before so that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past. Unfortunately, I think that too many Americans have forgotten, and consequently we will have to learn these hard lessons once again. I can only hope that the price of acquiring this wisdom is not too high.

Previous Musical Monday: The World That He Sees by The Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Subsequent Musical Monday: Man in Black by Johnny Cash

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Musical Monday Playlist - Other Holiday Songs

These are all the Musical Monday videos that I have posted over the years in relation to holidays other than Christmas and Halloween. I haven't really posted enough videos to justify an individual playlist for any holiday other than those two, so I have consolidated them into one list. I have listed the videos by holiday, and listed the holidays in the order that they arrive on the calendar every year.

President's Day

02/20/12: The Presidents by Jonathan Coulton

Easter

03/26/18: The Easter Song by Paul & Storm

Star Wars Day
05/05/14: The Imperial March

Memorial Day

05/26/14: Mama, Look Sharp by Stephen Nathan

Fourth of July

07/06/15: Daylight Again by Crosby, Stills, and Nash

07/04/16: The Egg by William Daniels, Howard Da Silva, and Ken Howard

07/03/17: The Lees of Old Virginia by Ron Holgate, William Daniels, and Howard Da Silva

Armistice Day

11/11/13: Cortège by Cecil Coles

Thanksgiving

12/01/14: Thanksgiving Is Better Than Christmas by Molly Lewis

11/20/17: The Pumpkin Spice Lament by Molly Lewis

Chanukah

12/07/15: Chanukah Honey by Rachel Bloom

New Year's Eve

12/31/12: In My Mind by Amanda Palmer
12/30/13: A Talk With George by Jonathan Coulton

12/29/14: Cats at Parties by The Doubleclicks

12/28/15: Overrated New Year by Sarah Donner

12/26/16: History Repeating by Shirley Bassey and Propellerheads

01/01/18: Talking with My Father by Dougie MacLean

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Musical Monday - Overrated New Year by Sarah Donner

New Year's is something of an anticlimactic holiday. When you are a kid, it seems mysterious and alluring: Something enigmatic and enticing that only the adults can partake in after you go to bed. When you get a bit older, your parents allow you to stay up until midnight, which seems like a real treat at the time, since midnight is well past your normal bedtime. And, of course, when you are allowed to join the secret society of grown-ups who can celebrate the New Year. Maybe your parents even let you have a little bit of champagne to toast with when the clock finishes counting down. It tastes terrible, but you don't tell your parents that, and the whole experience almost feels like you are getting away with something, even though your parents are willing collaborators.

But in the end, the New Year's celebration is something of a let down. All it really is is staying up late and watching a ball drop on television. Even when one gets older and can join in the more adult form of celebration for the evening, it always seems like a kind of desperate attempt at merriment. There is a nod given to new beginnings with the whole concept of "New Year's resolutions", but those are so often ignored that they have become a punchline. it feels, in many ways, like the pitiful last gasp of the holiday season as everyone tries to bleed out just one more bit of revelry before the cold, gray bucket of dreariness that is the rest of winter.

In a sense, New Year's is almost an afterthought to the holiday season. Thanksgiving more or less marks the start of the annual descent into holiday insanity, even though it is in danger of being swallowed by Christmas. The "Black Friday" frenzy that follows has loomed every larger with each passing year, and begins even earlier. Christmas has become an enormous monster that consumes an every increasing number of weeks that precede it. But in the case of Thanksgiving and Christmas there are familiar traditions and patterns that define them. New Year's feels almost like forced fun, a celebration that is required rather than desired. There is no real content to the observance, even the old ritual of watching Dick Clark introduce music acts on television has given way to a soulless corporate extravaganza that feels empty and hollow. "Overrated" seems like the exact right word for it, but maybe a sad and over-hyped event is what is needed at the end of the year.

Previous Musical Monday: Things to Believe In by Sarah Donner

Subsequent Musical Monday: Thanksgiving by Paul & Storm

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Musical Monday - Cats at Parties by The Doubleclicks

The holiday season is a season for parties. New Year's is especially a time for parties. While I am a fan of small celebrations like getting together with friends for gaming, this song pretty much describes how I feel about the traditional style of party with lots of people sitting around drinking champagne and eating finger foods as they make small talk. When those kinds of parties come up, I'd really rather sit with the cats and read a book. Or find a couple of like-minded nerdy people and play a game. Oddly, both of these activities are frowned upon at most social gatherings, which I consider to be a mark of the lack of civilization of our society. At least the cats are civilized.

For everyone who goes to Times Square, or a big party full of loud music and lots of alcohol, I hope you enjoy yourselves. I won't be there, and I will be happy not to be. I'm also not going to have any cats for company this New Year's Eve. Just the redhead, some really good friends, a pile of games, and an evening that is the kind of evening that I find fun.

Previous Musical Monday: Let's Have a Patrick Swayze Christmas by Tom Servo, Crow T. Robot, and Joel Robinson

Subsequent Musical Monday: What's On My Mind by Kansas

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Musical Monday - A Talk With George by Jonathan Coulton

So, with the New Year coming on, it is somewhat natural to be thinking about how one might spend the upcoming trip around the Sun. And those thoughts have brought me to the Jonathan Coulton song that posits receiving some advice from the ghost of participatory journalist George Plimpton - a song with lyrics that always remind me of both the smallness and the importance of the days of a single person.

Granted, the specific advice is very much tied to a particular time and a particular set of places. After all, none of us can make friends with Robert F. Kennedy or Hunter S. Thompson, because they are dead. And even if boxing wasn't a mostly moribund sport, no one today could go see the Rumble in the Jungle, because that happened in 1974. And the advice is very much tied to a particular social and economic class - very few people move in social circles that would allow them to befriend a former President's widow or possess the financial resources to publish an entirely profitless magazine. The song, on its surface, is advice on how to live from the perspective of a fairly financially privileged white guy whose heyday was in the 1960s and 1970s as filtered through a moderately privileged white guy whose heyday started in the 2000s, and continues to the present.

But all of the suggestions in the song really are just window dressing for the real point. The song is not, ultimately, about wearing neckties and drinking cocktails. The real heart of the song is summed up in one line, "Do the things that really matter". You may not be able to get in a boxing ring with Archie Moore (him being dead probably being the greatest impediment) or hang out with Hemingway (once again, him being dead serving as the primary obstacle), but you can use your time to do things. Go places. See things. Experience things. Not everyone can finagle their way into being allowed to participate in the Detroit Lions' training camp like Plimpton did, but that shouldn't get in the way of living as much as you can. Our time is finite, and there are more things to experience than anyone could ever do in a single lifetime, so you have to pick which ones matter the most, and then try to do them while you can. Because when the end comes, you won't get another chance to do them.

Previous Musical Monday: Christmas Eve Eve by Paul & Storm

Subsequent Musical Monday: Our Place in the Universe by Symphony of Science

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Musical Monday - In My Mind by Amanda Palmer

I haven't been posting on the blog the past week. This wasn't really by design, but with all of the end of the year activity going on, I just haven't had much time to sit down and write. Not that I don't have anything to write about - I have a stack of seven books that I have finished that need reviewing - but I just didn't get around to it. They will just have to wait for next year to get reviewed.

New Year's Eve is always a time when people make new promises to be better than they have before. Most resolutions seem to take the form of self-improvement promises: I'll lose weight this year, I'll give up smoking, or I'll read more, or be nicer to people, or something of that nature. And most people have the best of intentions when they make those promises of self-improvement. But most people fail. And I think it is because that the sort of person who would do the things they promise isn't the sort of person that they are. And may not be the sort of person that they would want to be. And thus, I offer Amanda Palmer's song In My Mind, in which she imagines what she'll be like five years from now.

But that person is the person she says she thought she would be now, when she imagined herself five years ago. And if we are only living for the future, then we might miss who we are really supposed to be - who we are now. When you are making your New Year's resolutions tonight, I suggest thinking about if the person who would keep those resolutions is the sort of person you'd be happy being.

Previous Musical Monday: Present Face by Garfunkel & Oates

Subsequent Musical Monday: The Misty Mountains Cold from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

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