Saturday, December 30, 2006

HNY

Happy New Years to those few who read here. Let's hope aliens come down this year and fix everything. Maybe they can use their ET healing powers to resurrect the late, great James Brown. On the good side, I like my new apartment and am myself looking forward to good times after the 1st. If it sounds like I've got a lot to gripe about, believe me I don't. I'm going to Maui on Jan. 10th so feel free to call me up and tell me how full of it I am. Actually, don't do that. My Grandmother is turning 99 this January and while she's on the edge of becoming a centenarian, I feel I should be paying her a visit. She is after all, my single surviving grandparent. I've been bagging groceries like crazy over the Christmas holidays and I can't complain too much. At least I was out of the rain and employed. From a grocery baggers perspective, people in town seem kind of glum this Holiday Season. Low on cash, low on initiative, cynical about the future etc... Maybe I'm projecting but I've heard retail sales in the downtown shops were un-inspiring (if retail sales can be such a thing) so maybe people're hunkering down for some serious not having too much dough left over- times. Skip the ipods and motorcycles, a box of organic mandarins and all the Christmas cheer money can't buy should do. I had a great Christmas. My mother came to hang out for a week and it was made merrier by the presence of good company and friends. Chocolates were shared, mandarins were eaten, cheese plates passed, and no Christmas would've been complete without a Baked Sockeye Salmon. mmmm.... Well here's to being over the hump of short days and I wish everyone well in the New Year.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Jinga-ling ling jing a ling ling...

Christmas is coming and people seem to be getting into it- deep. Despite the weak US retail indicators on Wall Street or whatever, it seems people can't get enough of shopping on Main St and Robson. Bad job? Bad credit? Bad indicators? "Nuthin's gonna stop me from gettin my daughter a Ipod this christmas!" Seems to be the motto. I've been listening to a lot of modern Christmas Carols at work and in malls and everywhere even when the music's stopped it continues to circulate in my subconscious long after. Thank you Jesus! Thanks Father Christmas! With a big shout out to Maria Cary, David Bowie and George Michael who seem to be everywhere on the xmas Muzak scene which is an indicator to me that the whole Christmas spirit thing is kinda like Broadway Musicals - about 10 years behind on the cultural chic-o-metre. However, speaking of chic, being a fan of early Hip Hop I do like Kurtis Blow's seminal carol (there's two words not oft co-located), and ingeniously named, "Christmas Rappin" which seems to very closely echo one of my favorite disco tunes of all time: Chic's Good Times. Now that's a Christmas tune if I ever heard one. James Brown also produced a very very good Christmas album entitled "James Brown's Funky Christmas". ...and it is. - so... options are out there. Here's my Christmas advice, load up Good Times, crank the VOL, crack the Cuban rum, and bust a move on that 5 dollar-a-square-foot-per-month linoleum you've been squandering by cooking stir-frys alone waiting for "Lost" to come on. Do it, do it for St. Nick! Oh, and if you want some friends to come over, may as well invite them too; more's the merrier.