Roger O Green

Music Throwback Saturday: Bethlehemian Rhapsody

Because the wise men come, wise men go, angels high, shepherds low.
This is how God’s love shows.
It’s a wondrous story to me, to me.

Surely, you are familiar with the Queen song Bohemian Rhapsody. Well, apparently unrelated to what would have been Freddie Mercury’s 70th birthday year, my church’s youth leader directed a version of something called Bethlehemian Rhapsody, about the birth of Jesus earlier this month.

There are a few examples of these online, always involving puppets. But the version the church kids did was a live-action bit, with The Daughter playing Mary. The adult choir soloists also sang with the kids. They did a boffo job.

The lyrics start:

Is this the real birth?
Is it nativity?
Caught in a census
in the town of his ancestry.

Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see.
He’s just a poor boy foretold by prophecy.
Because the wise men come, wise men go, angels high, shepherds low.
This is how God’s love shows.
It’s a wondrous story to me, to me.

This is not to be confused by a different Bethlehemian Rhapsody, involving David and Goliath, sung by the group ApologetiX, with the lyrics here.

Listen to Bethlehemian Rhapsody (primarily the Jesus version):
here or here or here
here (video and lyrics)
here – lyrics of Jesus version, plus video of both the Jesus and David & Goliath versions
the ApologetiX David and Goliath version

Compare with Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen:
here and here, including those lyrics

The amazing power of Santa Claus

Chuck Miller, the guy in the plaid shirt, organized the event,

More than once, someone, almost always unknown to me, has referred to me as Santa Claus. Big man, white beard; I get it.

Interestingly, it’s usually done by women, especially young women, and it’s almost always said in December. I might have the same beard length in March, but it never engenders a St. Nick comment.

I was at my allergist back at Corporate (frickin’) Woods, where I used to work. Well, I know the bus schedule for the #737. I left the building in plenty of time to catch the 9:45 a.m. bus, but either it arrived early, or didn’t come at all. This means walking out of CW, because there’s not another bus downtown for four hours. I trudge up the hill- beware of the speeding cars going down since there’s no sidewalk and the grass is covered with snow and ice.

As I’m finally on the mostly straightaway of Albany Shaker Road, this woman, driving the opposite way from where I’m going, stops and wants to know if I’d like a ride. It was cold out, and I had maybe a mile to walk on roads with no sidewalks, so I said yes.

She was a photographer for children, sometimes with Santa Claus. She just couldn’t bear to see Santa walking, so she turned around, gave me a ride down Albany-Shaker, and just after she makes the right turn on Northern Boulevard, I see the #182 bus that would take me downtown, and she gets me to the stop, near the WTEN-TV station, just before the bus gets there.

The power of Santa Claus.

Oh, this is a picture, taken two days later, at the home of retired newsman Ken Screven, the guy front and center, with a couple of Ken’s friends, Denise and Arnelle, and a coterie of Times Union bloggers, including Chuck Miller, the guy in the plaid shirt who organized the event, Aaron Bush, Judi England, and Walter Ayres. Unfortunately, Michael Rivest had departed before the camera came out.

Movie review: Manchester by the Sea

Writer/director Kenneth Lonergan had the same roles in one of my favorite films of the past 20 years, You Can Count On Me.

Manchester by the Sea is a very good movie, but the story is sad, though not unrelentingly so. Occasionally, it’s even mildly funny.

Lee Chandler (the excellent Casey Affleck) is a maintenance man in the Boston area, working on four apartment buildings with difficult tenants. He gets word that his brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) is having trouble with his heart, again, and Lee rushes up to the hospital to see him. Too late.

Much to his surprise, Lee finds out that his older brother has made him the sole guardian of Joe’s son Patrick (Lucas Hedges). He’s required to return to the title locale to care for his 16-year-old nephew. In doing so, ghosts of his past while growing up in the community, especially his ex-wife Randi (Michelle Williams), come to the fore. Lee and Patrick negotiate their relationship without Joe, the common thread.

The saddest part of the film takes place while one of the two most heart-wrenching pieces of music in the entire classical canon is playing.

Grief is a peculiar thing. Often, others want you to “get over it” sooner than you are able to do so, and that is, for me, the underlying theme of the film. When the movie ended, a pair of women who were sitting behind us at the Spectrum expressed disappointment that the end wasn’t more tidily happy. I thought it was much like life IS.

The most impressive element of the filmmaking is that the story goes back and forth in time, and I’m almost always aware of when we are in the narrative, no small feat. Kudos to writer/director Kenneth Lonergan, who had the same roles in one of my favorite films of the past 20 years, You Can Count On Me (2000). The acting was excellent throughout, although Matthew Broderick, in a small role as Patrick’s mom’s finance, always looks like Matthew Broderick to me.

I should note that, according to IMBD, Manchester by the Sea contains at least 125 profanities, with the f-bomb quite popular. The film is a bit more popular with the critics (97% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) than with fans (85% positive). At 135 minutes, it IS a long movie, but the guy in my row who checked his device at least thrice had me wanting to seize it from his hand and smash it to the floor, but I didn’t.

A Yuletide tradition: Ask Roger Anything

I’ve been surprised that seldom does anyone ask me anything particularly uncomfortable. Uncomfortable is OK.

I have written in my blog EVERY DAY for – what is it now? – 11 and two-thirds years, roughly. I always say I write for myself, and that IS true. But it IS nice that someone actually reads what I write.

I was at breakfast with my pastors and a bunch of the Bible guys. I was talking about something to one of my pastors, the one with the light Virginia accent, and she said, “Oh, I read that in your blog!” And I said to myself that this pleased me.

So I guess I’m NOT so pure of heart as to be happy writing a daily blog that no one reads. One of the best things I figured out was how to post my blogs automatically to Twitter and Facebook, and that one act has made my blog accessible to a lot more people.

Do you know what else makes me happy? When someone like Arthur appropriates something from my blog in his. Earlier this month, the AmeriNZ guy did it ’s ‘Ask Arthur’ time again thing. This engaged me at a level beyond what I would have expected. It’s some sort of validation. And I ~~think~~KNOW that sometimes I need that more than others. Right now, I seem to need it a lot.

And speaking of need, I NEED you to Ask Roger Anything. I’ve been surprised that seldom does anyone ask me anything particularly uncomfortable. Uncomfortable is OK. I mean that you may ask me ANYTHING at all and I promise to respond, generally within a month.

I will answer your queries to the best of my ability, though know that memory is an imperfect beast. I practically GUARANTEE a bit of obfuscation, because you know you want me to.

You can leave your comments below. If you prefer to remain anonymous, that’s fine; you should e-mail me at rogerogreen (AT) gmail (DOT) com, or end me an IM on Facebook (make sure it’s THIS Roger Green, the one with the duck) and note that you want to remain unmentioned; otherwise, I’ll assume you want to be cited.

X is for Xmas music (ABC W)

Crosby had a Christmas special, which aired AFTER HE DIED and he had Ziggy Stardust on?

It’s been long established that the term Xmas is not an insult to Christians, but rather that the X actually represents the cross, as I’ve noted here and undoubtedly elsewhere.

This is is going to be a list of some of my favorite Xmas music NOT otherwise represented in this blog this month, with links to each. Of course, “Christmas” songs are peculiar beasts, some of which don’t even mention the holiday – Let It Snow (X3) or Jingle Bells being obvious choices. And let’s not even talk about the theological implications.

Hamildolph – Eclipse 6 (a new one for me)

Christmastime is Here – Vince Guaraldi

Good King Wenceslas – Ames Brothers

Little Saint Nick – Beach Boys

Purple Snowflakes – Marvin Gaye. I song I had not heard until this season, yet I had, sort of.

The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole. One of my wife’s favorites, and Nat always reminds me of my mom

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love. Way better than the U2 version on A Very Special Christmas 1.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town – the Jackson 5

Linus and Lucy – Vince Guaraldi

This Christmas – Donny Hathaway – I miss Donny Hathaway

Snoopy’s Christmas – the reason I took such great exception to the Snoopy v Osama record is that it wasn’t THIS Snoopy

Child of Winter – Beach Boys. A 1974 single I discovered on one of those early 1970s Warner Brothers Loss Leaders

Mele Kalikimaka -Bing Crosby with the Andrews Sisters, which I think is a hoot

Christmas Wrapping – The Waitresses, which reminds me of my pop music listening renaissance in the early 1980s

The Wexford Carol – Yo-Yo Ma, Alison Krauss

The Christmas Waltz – Frank Sinatra, which is on some 4 CD Capitol singles box set

Getting Ready For Christmas Day – Paul Simon, from his 2011 album

Every valley shall be exalted – Lizz Lee and Chris Willis (with Mike E.) from Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration

The Mistletoe and Me – Isaac Hayes – and I miss Isaac

Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth -Bing Crosby and David Bowie This was strange. Crosby had a Christmas special, which aired AFTER HE DIED and he had Ziggy Stardust on? Now, Bowie’s gone too.

Father Christmas -The Kinks

River – Joni Mitchell. Hey, it namechecks Christmas, and it reminds me of my late friend Donna

What Christmas Means To Me – Stevie Wonder; Paul Young does a decent version on A Very Special Christmas 2, but it doesn’t hold an Advent candle to the original.

R.O. Blechman – CBS Christmas Message (1966)

The Bells of Christmas – Julie Andrews, from a Firestone (tire company) LP I still own. There’s an extended version of this which is less good

Winter Snow – Booker T & the MGs (starts at 2:30)

Slightly off topic:

In defense of Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime”

World’s First AI-generated Christmas Song Is the Stuff of Nightmares

Honest Trailers – Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

The Korean War on Christmas

ABC Wednesday – Round 19