everything you ever wanted to know about nothing at all...

Monday, December 04, 2006

Repeat the Hymn Again!


Looks like somebody's got a case of the Mondays!
Doesn't anyone here know what Christmas is all about?

Here's my tree, thanks Christie! There's more pictures here, ignore the dork she's with!

One of my favorite things about the Christmas season is the music, usually not the usual songs that you hear six months before Christmas but the traditional songs that you only hear in church. The older I get, the more I excited I get to hear the more obscure songs like Savior of the Nations, Come, Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel, On Jordan's Bank the Baptists Cry, & my favorite Lo, How A Rose Ere Blooming. A couple of years ago, Dan gave me a copy of the book 101 Hymn Stories, & in it it says that the tune to Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel is from the twelfth century. It's not surprising that such a great tune can last for over 8000 years.

Here's a version of Lo, How A Rose Ere Blooming from Sufjan Stevens. I had no idea he ever sang this song until I googled it. As if there weren't enough reasons not to like Sufjan. I beg you to listen to this, if you can, you won't be disappointed, it's incredible.

On the subject of Dan, there's a rumor that he will be spending Christmas in Michigan, which is great news, a Festivus Miracle!

On the subject of Christmas music, I picked up a copy of the Vince Guaraldi Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack from Best Buy yesterday for $7, a steal. Did you know that CBS originally did not want to air the special because of the soundtrack? They thought having jazz as a soundtrack to a cartoon would not mesh, they couldn't have been more wrong. That would've been one of the great mistakes in television history, if you ask me.

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

Lo, How A Rose Ere Blooming-Sufjan Stevens

What Child is This-Vince Guaraldi

One of These Things First-Nick Drake, Bryter Later

Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel-Cellist from Immanuel Lutheran Church whose name escapes me at the moment.

Actually, this is from yesterday, but I didn't write a blog yesterday, so there you go.

Go No More a Roving-Leonard Cohen, Dear Heather

I rented the I'm Your Man documentary about Leonard the other day, I'm gonna watch it tonight. I'm excited.

Happy Monday, friends!

andrew

6 comments:

Mrs. Patterson said...

First time I recognized the majority of your five favorites. I agree, the best Christmas songs come from the hymnal. You're tree is stunning, but I couldn't find the dork in the pictures.

Christie said...

I dont think I've ever heard Lo! How a Rose E'er Blooming, but I liked it!! I had a case of the Monday's this morning, so I could identify with that first picture :)

Heidi said...

Great version of a classic!

Unknown said...

The Charlie Brown special is my favorite probably because of Schroeder! Matt got a great compilation of songs from a guy who stopped into Lenny's record shack he burned all his collection of Christmas Albums into a CD = some vintage stuff

Pam said...

I downloaded "Lo How a Rose" and thought my computer was having trouble playing it because of the breaks. Is that the way the version is, or was it my computer? Great to talk to you last night!

andrew! said...

He pauses a bit from one line to the next, but the sound usually reverberates so there's not really a gap between sound.

Blog Archive

About Me

Grand Haven, Michigan
the sun shines on a dog's ass every now & then...