Of All the Charlie Browns In The World, You're The Charlie Browniest

My other Christmas related post (this was the first) is about my favorite Christmas music ever. It probably won’t be too surprising that it’s the soundtrack to the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. Not only is it intensely nostalgic, reminding me of so many winters watching the show as a kid, but it, alone among all the Christmas music I can think of, captures the grey, mixed feelings that is an unavoidable part of the holiday and of winter in general.

On a first pass, Christmas is a time of seeing family and giving gifts, of “holiday cheer” (I think it’s clear by now that what I’m talking about is the secular celebration of Christmas). And yet, there’s a flip side to that: the extreme commercialism and consumerism, the feeling of loneliness, the feeling of being out of place, of not getting invited to Christmas parties, that sense of forced cheer. The fact that it happens during the cold and short days of winter only intensifies everything. This is what the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack says in spades. To listen to it is to become Charlie Brown trudging through the snow, wondering why no one has sent him a Christmas card and yearning for something deeper from the season than pink, plastic trees. Now, my attitude doesn’t descend to his level of despair. Yes, I go to parties and get and give gifts and feel authentically cheerful. But, not all the time. The bitter cold, the disappointment when you get a gift you don’t really want, the sense, when it’s all over: “is that all there is?” It's all inevitable. A Charlie Brown Christmas is about reflecting on this. It reminds me that the holiday can sometimes get you feeling a bit down precisely when it’s supposed to pick you up. It expresses that sentiment back to you and becomes your companion in melancholy.

(NPR has done a few reports on the soundtrack over the years. They're good and they are here and here.)

It’s a Gap Christmas Flashback

I’ve always loved the Christmas season. I love the nostalgia it makes me feel for my childhood. I love the communal experience of it, how everyone shares in it in one way or another, the general feeling of warmth and community with my family and friends. And, I love how this feeling is extended when it’s incorporated into pop culture at-large. (If this post makes some people throw up for my shameless sentimentality, I’m sorry, but I’m sentimental about this) If it’s well done (that is, tasteful, not like a recent commercial where Santa Claus tries to buy sleigh, I’m sorry, car insurance. Groan!). One of my favorite examples of this is a series of commercials that Michel Gondry (director of the very good Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) created for the Gap in 1999.







Like the best Gap commercials, they are 30 second expressions of pure pop fun done in the most elegant way. They never stoop so low as to mention what is actually being sold (though, of course, the instant association of the brand with a broad cultural feeling is the point). They bring together a big-sounding version of the song Sleigh Ride (conducted by John Williams, I think) with, unexpectedly, yet wonderfully, Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice. To top it off, the kaleidoscopic images of people dancing and skating is so playful, and done with such freedom, that, to me, they feel joyful. These commercials are quintessentially modern without sacrificing a genuine Christmas feeling. I watch them every year.

Where Have I Been For Two Weeks?

I think if there is one iron rule of blogging it’s probably this: you have to keep writing! Unfortunately, I have violated that rule in a big way, not posting anything since December 10th (and even then, it was a pretty lame post: Joe The Plumber?? Ugh!). Well, I am back. Hopefully, there are still one or two loyal readers left. I use Google-Analytics to track how many people read the site and I’ve been dreading checking the latest numbers. For a blog that is just the personal opinions of a political layperson, I’m frequently surprised that it’s more than just a few good friends who seem to read it -- for the last month it’s averaged about 18 visitors per week, peaking at 28 one week (who are these people?!) So much has happened in the last few weeks – Madoff, Blagojevich, the final Obama cabinet picks, the auto bailout, the Mumbai fallout, the shoe thrower – and I haven’t commented on any of it. I just hope that this time away hasn’t permanently lost me my “base”.

To quickly mention why I’ve been away: First, I’ve been working a lot on the other main occupier of my time: a film script, which I’ve been working on for a year. Secondly, it’s the season of Christmas parties, and this year I’ve gone to more than in any other. Christmas parties mean a fair amount of drinking, and that, alas, does not go well with the focus that I like to bring to the blog. But now, that’s all done with. My head is clear and the posts will start to flow. But, I want to just dip my toe in first. Two Christmas-related, non-political and media-laden posts are in order.