Thursday, December 22, 2005

The JCB Song


Nizlopi & The JCB Song: This description of the song and video is from girlfromthenorthcountry on gigwise:
The animated video for The JCB Song was created by Monkeehub (Radiohead’s Creep) and has achieved what a good video should do – attract attention to the song (it also won the highly prestigious ‘Submerge Industry Award’ for new animation talent). When the video was posted online word spread and an internet phenomenon was created as The JCB Song struck a chord with so many people. A timeless universal story of a child/parent relationship, the song evokes so many different memories for so many different people.

"I'm Luke, I'm five, my dad's Bruce Lee / He drives me round in his JCB." 

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Christmas Voodoo

I was sad to see my only umbrella die today. Only the umbrellas designed to do the inversion-trick survived. I spent the afternoon in Union Square (see a picture on flicker), the epicenter of the shopping universe in San Francisco. Even if you cringe at Christmas, this place is a magnificent spectacle. Only it wasn't a post-card perfect day; instead the City was under dark heavy clouds as intermittent, blustery sheets of cold rain pushed people and debris to the edges of open spaces. Weather like this throws Friscoheads through the loop. We know fog, mist, and the occasional sprinkle, but it never really rains in SF.  Except for rare "five year" rains like we're having now. This year for Christmas, I'm going home (St. Louis) for the holidays (with real winters) in early December (to avoid the rush). That's why I'm here now, getting gifts early, and thus, feeling the buzz of holidaze earlier than past years. 


If I didn't have gifts to get, I'd have stayed indoors. Why was I out in this mess? Why was anyone out in the rain? Local and tourists huddled under whatever awnings that could be found. Umbrellas bent under impressive gusts of wind. As I darted between rain drops, I mourned the loss of my beaten umbrella. 


Maybe, just maybe, Santa will have seen me do a good deed and get me a new umbrella. It was nothing really. I protected a stranger's baby stroller from getting soaked as it sat outside a dripping awning. I saw it getting wet, and was able to easily cover it. The look I received from the owner's face when she saw me do this was an unexpected moment of recognition and gratitude. Call it common courtesy. Or was it something more?  Could it be "Holiday Spirit"?!  Ahem. If I sound doubtful, please forgive. But it's all too easy to see behind the curtain, especially during the holidays. We all know the commerce game: Businesses want your money and do nearly anything to get it from you. They provide lush colorful interiors that practically hypnotize you as you shop; whispering encouragingly, softly in your ear, until the purse strings are loose and you've gone over your spending limit. And it's relentless; it all ceremoniously starts the earliest possible moment, the day after Thanksgiving. 


But is it possible that the trumped up, strung up, marketing buzz, can actually be good? Maybe all the plastic decorations, shiny bells, twinkling garland, dazzling lights, costumed carolers, jolly soundtracks, four-story-wreaths, and seven-story-glistening-evergreens do more than just feed the Uber-sponsored Holiday Shopping Machine. Maybe all together they actually posses a magic, a mojo, a Christmas Voodoo. (Isn't that the point?) The decorations definitely create a festive vibe. But is the vibe authentic? More to the point, does it inadvertently generate good-will towards others? 


I guess in my case it did. But then again, I do things like this all the time. I suppose I'm more inclined to do good deeds when I'm feeling groovy. So did I feel groovy from the XMas Voodoo? If so, how much? No doubt it was partly due to the Voodoo. If that's true, and there are others who feel groovy too, then their really is an increase in neighborly good deeds, and overall positive things happening during this season.  


Stores like Macy's survive on happy consumers, but after years of snubbing Holiday Spirit, now I'm hoping that the thinly veild, fabricated spirit has a real component too. That their really is a XMas Voodoo, and it actually generates good-will toward all. Go out, feel the XMas Voodoo, and be good to each other. 


(Santa if your reading this, full-sized umbrellas with curled handles are nice. ;-)

Peace and Love this holiday season.