Month: December 2012

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This Week and The More Distant Future

This week’s Time piece, about Dungeons & Dragons and why it isn’t a bigger deal in pop culture, is up. While it authentically mirrors my thinking in researching/writing the piece, I’m unsure about the wisdom of the last minute reversal in the piece itself (No spoilers; it’s not that kind of thing, anyway), but I have to admit that even moreso than usual, I’m beholden to those who helped with research for this one. Especially John Rogers, who sent me a couple of emails that just blew my mind early on, in a good way.

As I start thinking about my workload in 2013, I admit that this kind of thing – Stories where I can get more in-depth and have time/space to think about them – is becoming more and more appealing to me. In part, it’s the desire to escape the insane production treadmill that I’ve been on for the last year or so, but it’s also the enjoyment I get from the surprise of discovery available in longer-form writing. Fingers crossed that the thing that I really want to happen job-wise actually falls into place, I guess…

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For The Habitual Voyeur Of What Is Known As

From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:

LONDON, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 12:  A man walks through the early morning frost in Regents Park on December 12, 2012 in London, England. Forecasters have warned that the UK could experience the coldest day of the year so far today, with temperatures dropping as low as -14C, bringing widespread ice, harsh frosts and freezing fog. Travel disruption is expected with warnings for heavy snow in some parts of the country.  (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

You can feel the chill in this pic. I don’t miss the prospect of -14C temperatures, but I do admit that such chills and frosts do seem somewhat festive in the way that Portland weather doesn’t, right now?

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366 Songs 346: Step Into Christmas

Besides the fact that, like all the best Christmas songs, Elton John’s “Step Into Christmas” is ridiculously sing-along-able, probably my favorite thing about this song is that fact that it makes little attempt to hide its cynical origins as a seasonal cash-in, opening with the line “Welcome to my Christmas song/I’d like to thank you for the year.” It’s another song that, like yesterday’s “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day,” is trying to sound like Phil Spector’s A Xmas Gift To You” in many ways, too; listen to the compression and the overkill of various instruments.

Of course, because it’s a good Christmas song, there are covers…

Hop on board the turntable.

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All Around Us

A random thought about the last few daily photographs I’ve blogged: I really like empty space, don’t I…? Hmm. Entirely unintentional, but interesting (to me) to note, nonetheless…

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And We’ll Keep On Fightin’ – Till The Ennnnnnnd

So, this random discovery today made me happy:

Not only is Wait, What? – the weekly(ish) comics podcast I do with the fantastic Jeff Lester – the first result on the iTunes store if you search for “Wait, What?” (I know, not entirely surprising, but bear with me), but apparently individual episodes of the show entirely dominate the podcast episode results. We are the kings of the podcasting.

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I Want To Ride My

From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:

An Indian schoolgirl cycles home from school at Fulbari village, on the outskirts of Siliguri on December 11, 2012.   New data showed that while India’s population remains largely rural, its urban population has grown to 377 million, or 31.1 per cent of the 1.21 billion population, from 286 million or 27.8 per cent of the population in 2001.  AFP PHOTO/Diptendu DUTTADIPTENDU DUTTA/AFP/Getty Images

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366 Songs 345: I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday

This is one of those songs that, without fail, makes me know that it’s getting near Christmas on some primal level. If you’re British and of my generation, this song was released every single holiday season, and made it onto Top of The Pops every single time, and to be fair, it deserved it each and every time, too. Roy Wood – who had been in The Move prior to this, of course, back when the band was worth listening to – has a ridiculously catchy way with a pop song, and there are all manner of fake-subversive additions that make the song even more fun (Starting it off with a cash register!) than the mix of doo-wop, the Beach Boys and kids choir already was. “When the snow man brings the snow… When the snow man brings the snow…”

Okay, you lot. Prove how great the original is with lesser cover versions. Take it!

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366 Songs 344: Winter Wonderland

It is, of course, a classic, but for my money, Harry Connick Jr.’s piano-only version is easily the only version that counts of Winter Wonderland. Just listening to this makes me wish for snow, and the magical ability to play the piano as well as this.

Obvious runner-up in the “worthwhile version” stakes…

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366 Songs 343: The Man With All The Toys

Well done, Beach Boys: There’s something simultaneously sweet and appalling about this song, which somehow even further makes Christmas about the idea of “What do I get?” Santa is supposed to be about jolliness and the whole “joy of giving” thing, not “the man with all the toys,” after all. Seriously, Beach Boys. Try again.

That’s better.