Winter brings us to the singers

[sovay]

There are honest-to-God carolers on my street. I thought they were a passing car or a radio, but they are five or six people with sheet music in hand standing on the steps at a slight diagonal across the street, appropriately next to a large conifer, singing "Ding Dong Merrily on High." I guess it is that season.

[edit] And now they are gone. I heard nothing after the last round of hosanna in excelsis and when I looked out, I couldn't see them anymore. They do not appear to have moved on to any other house; I can't hear them anywhere else on the street. If they went indoors, they sure didn't turn on the lights.

I guess it's ghost story for Christmas season, too.

Comments

[muccamukk]

Maybe they were like carol grams or something.

[asakiyume]

Or a carol snapchat message, vanishing after they do their thing.

[sovay]

Maybe they were like carol grams or something.

That is certainly more realistic than ghosts, but I didn't even think of it.

[moon_custafer]

Perhaps they’re Batman/ninjas? Not sure if that explanation is more or less realistic than ghosts.

[sovay]

Perhaps they’re Batman/ninjas?

I like the idea of ninja carolers, although then I feel I shouldn't have seen them at all.

[gwynnega]

This post reminded me of the caroling scene in The Curse of the Cat People, which in turn reminded me that it is a stealth Christmas movie which I need to watch again this month.

[alexxkay]

One of my favorites! (And, earlier this evening, I started liatening to a podcast biography of Val Lewton.)

[sovay]

(And, earlier this evening, I started liatening to a podcast biography of Val Lewton.)

How was it?

[alexxkay]

Very entertaining so far. Longer than I expected, with the first episode alone being 133 minutes.

[alexxkay]

Have finished listening to episode 1. Very entertaining storytelling; dubious research. I don't actually know much of anything about Lewton, but I do know a bit about Orson Welles. This podcast spent a while talking about Welles (for pretty tangential reasons), and repeated a bunch of "War of the Worlds panic" anecdotes completely uncritically. Those are fun anecdotes, to be sure, but pretty thoroughly debunked by now. So I definitely recommend it as a story, just bring your salt shaker.

[sovay]

This post reminded me of the caroling scene in The Curse of the Cat People, which in turn reminded me that it is a stealth Christmas movie which I need to watch again this month.

I need to give that movie another chance. I bounced horribly off the ending (it read as lying to the child, not sharing in her fantasies, which I think is how I was meant to interpret it). I love the original Cat People.

[gwynnega]

(it read as lying to the child, not sharing in her fantasies, which I think is how I was meant to interpret it)

Interesting. I guess I never really gave it much thought whether the father was lying or genuinely sharing his child's fantasies at the end. He has his own massive baggage to contend with where Irena is concerned, so his beliefs don't matter as much to me as his setting aside his own Irena-related fears so he can treat his daughter's fantasies with respect (as opposed to punishing her for them).

[sovay]

so his beliefs don't matter as much to me as his setting aside his own Irena-related fears so he can treat his daughter's fantasies with respect (as opposed to punishing her for them).

Like I said, I should try it again.

(The other problem here may be that I went straight from Cat People to The Curse of the Cat People, so my willingness to cut Oliver any slack was kind of zilch.)

[gwynnega]

Yeah, I'm not a big Oliver fan.

[alexxkay]

His only function, in both films, is to psychologically fuck-up the female protagonist. He *thinks* he's the hero, but he's so not...

[gwynnega]

Good point.

[alexxkay]

For Kestrell, part of the greatness of Curse is that it's all *about* how adults are insane and lie all the time :-)

[sovay]

For Kestrell, part of the greatness of Curse is that it's all *about* how adults are insane and lie all the time

I would have an easier time with that as the lesson of a film if we weren't intended to take a climactic instance of an adult lying to a child as something that is supposed to make the child happy, because she doesn't know it's a lie. I don't remember it ironically. As I said, I'll give it another shot.

[asakiyume]

ghostly carolers!

Caroling combines friendly wandering with music and nighttime--SO MAGICAL.

[sovay]

Caroling combines friendly wandering with music and nighttime--SO MAGICAL.

It was delightful just to overhear, especially since I wasn't expecting it!

[edit] Tonight it appears to be phantom bagpipers. I have no idea what's going on, but I'm not complaining.

[asakiyume]

You seem to have picked up a blessing of music somewhere along the line. I'll be very interested to hear what the next few days bring. Gamelan orchestra? Throat singing?

[sovay]

Gamelan orchestra? Throat singing?

Fingers crossed for gamelan!

[julian]

*I* want magic disappearing carolers!

[sovay]

*I* want magic disappearing carolers!

If I see them again, I'll think in your direction!

[thisbluespirit]

I guess it's ghost story for Christmas season, too.

Ha, sounds like it!

[sovay]

Ha, sounds like it!

I mean, phantom carolers are probably the nicest thing that could happen to you in that genre.

In a somewhat Harrison-ian vein

[rydra_wong]

Personally, I've been seized with the desire for aggressive revival of the Mari Lwyd:

https://twitter.com/GeekLioness/status/936699555281809408

IT'S DECEMBER. CREEPY SINGING SKELETON HORSES EVERYWHERE. YOU KNOW, CHRISTMASSY.

Re: In a somewhat Harrison-ian vein

[moon_custafer]

Wales is certainly trying to revive it — the even have a flat-pack kit for building your own papier-mâché horse skull: https://resources.trac.wales/traditions/mari-lwyd/

Re: In a somewhat Harrison-ian vein

[ashlyme]

Flat-pack Mari? Why don't they sell this at Ikea???

Re: In a somewhat Harrison-ian vein

[sovay]

Why don't they sell this at Ikea???

That would be even better than those tiny meatballs.

Re: In a somewhat Harrison-ian vein

[davidgillon]

Wow, that thread went a long way after I saw the first post.

Re: In a somewhat Harrison-ian vein

[sovay]

Personally, I've been seized with the desire for aggressive revival of the Mari Lwyd

I don't believe you're alone!

(Seized at random from the internet.)

Re: In a somewhat Harrison-ian vein

[rydra_wong]

Oh, beautiful, thank you.

Re: In a somewhat Harrison-ian vein

[sovay]

Oh, beautiful, thank you.

You're welcome. I got the Mari from Susan Cooper.

[nineweaving]

I love the idea of ghost carolers, like a white frost, an atmosphere that drifts.

Nine

[sovay]

I love the idea of ghost carolers, like a white frost, an atmosphere that drifts.

I hope you get some. Yours should sound like the Watersons, the living and the dead.

[nineweaving]

A Midnight Feast.

Nine

[cmcmck]

Bit early for that, innit?

There were carollers in our local National Trust property yesterday which made me think the same thing.

[davidgillon]

I avoided Rochester this weekend, but they'll have been out in force at the Christmas Dickens festival.

Drove past at about 6pm and there were somewhere between 15 and 20 coaches just arriving to pick up the tourists.

[cmcmck]

Well I never!

I live in Shropshire these days, but Rochester is my home town so I know that well and I was also an avoider.

Always stuck to sweeps as I dance and play.

[davidgillon]

They've now added a Christmas Market, so basically I'm avoiding Rochester for the rest of the year!

And Sweeps is definitely the superior festival. If for no other reason than the beer festival in the Gordon ;)

[sovay]

I avoided Rochester this weekend, but they'll have been out in force at the Christmas Dickens festival.

I did not know there was a Christmas Dickens Festival, although now that I think about it for more than a picosecond I'm not surprised. What do they do that's not A Christmas Carol?

[cmcmck]

Rochester was Dickens' home town and all the buildings he ever wrote about that weren't in London are in Rochester. Even out of festival time, it's very hard to get away from the man.

[davidgillon]

Absolutely. The house where he grew up is 200m away, I used to park next to Mrs Havisham's, his writing chalet is in the grounds of the Adult Ed Centre, and a friend's daughter just moved into the house where his mistress lived.

[davidgillon]

Mostly just parade around in Dickensian costume. There'll be guided tours and talks and the like, but it's mostly an excuse to line the streets with stalls selling hot food and mulled wine and the like. More recently they've added a German style Christmas market in the grounds of the Castle which runs every weekend from late November, so this weekend now has dual attractions - hence 20 busloads of tourists.

[sovay]

More recently they've added a German style Christmas market in the grounds of the Castle which runs every weekend from late November, so this weekend now has dual attractions - hence 20 busloads of tourists.

Yikes.

[davidgillon]

And possibly a special train from London - they're multiple times an hour anyway, but they run a special for the main Dickens Festival in Spring, not sure about Christmas Dickens.