Make The Season Bright: Klickitat Christmas Mix 2012

Playlist:

1. Darlin’ (Christmas Is Coming) – Over The Rhine
2. Carol of the Bells – The Nylons
   
3. The Rebel Jesus – Jackson Browne
   
4. Lo, How A Rose E’re Blooming – Feist
   
5. Sing – Kristin Chenoweth
6. O Holy Night – Mariah Carey
   
7. I Saw Three Ships – Nat King Cole
   
8. True Blue Miracle – Sesame Street Cast
9. The Christmas Song – The Raveonettes
   
10. (Everybody’s Waitin’ For) the Man With the Bag (Thunderball Mix) – Kay Starr
11. The Blizzard – Camera Obscura
    
12. Trepak-Russian Dance (from The Nutcracker) – Philharmonia Orchestra
    
13. What Christmas Means to Me – Stevie Wonder
    
14. Mr. Heatmiser – Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
    
15. The Merriest (Thunderball mix) – June Christy
    
16. Love, You Didn’t Do Right By Me/How Deep Is The Ocean – Anastasia Barzee & Brian d’Arcy James
17. Sleigh Ride – The Ventures
    
18. We’re Gonna Pull Through – Over the Rhine
    
19. It Feels Like Christmas – The Muppets, from A Muppets’ Christmas Carol
20. Anthem – Gabriel Yared, from Cold Mountain soundtrack
    
21. Auld Lang Syne (Charity Medley) – Ensemble
    

Plus songs I wasn’t able to upload:

• Kate Rusby’s version of “The Holly & Ivy,” one of my favorite Christmas songs
• Mindy Smith’s “I Know the Reason”

Make The Season Bright: Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Nutcracker

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite things to read, watch, and listen to over the holidays in a series I’m calling Make The Season Bright.

I recently sat down to watch the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s 1986 film version of the Nutcracker and really enjoyed it. Maurice Sendak’s set design and costumes were just as impressive as I expected they would be and the many film-version-only transitions are stunning! PNB’s Nutcracker is available in its entirety on Netflix and YouTube.

“Maurice and I went back to the original Nutcracker story by E.T.A. Hoffman and incorporated much more of the story into the production. Clara and Herr Drosselmeier will be the central figures though the story essentially remains the same. The essence of the Nutcracker story is really a fantasy dreamed by Clara, a young girl on the verge of growing up. The ballet is seen unfolding through her eyes, in an atmosphere tinged with mystery, where there are no boundaries between dream and reality. We have worked on the concept of this new production for two years. Seeing our plans become a reality for our company is an incredible accomplishment—one we feel will be well worth it for all our Nutcracker fans.” — Choreographer Kent Stowell, November 1983

Trailer:

A good glimpse of the set design from the more recent stage production(s):

More:

• NPR interview with Sendak about The Nutcracker
• Wikipedia entry about the film
• PNB’s Nutcracker page

Programming Idea: Winter Book Bundles (Tualatin (OR) Library)

I’m currently in Oregon, spending time with my parents over the holidays. I liked this teen programming idea from their local library (the lovely remodeled Tualatin Public Library in Washington County) and wanted to share it with you.

The Tualatin librarians grouped books together in threes by theme (What’s in a name? Old books with a new twist; sports; fantasy) and attached a tag with space for the books’ titles and a starred rating. Teens who return a completed tag are eligible for prizes.

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Isn’t that a fun idea? A nice scaled back version of the traditional summer reading program that still takes advantage of the “free time” encountered during the winter break to stimulate interest in the library (and maybe in a new genre of books). I imagine this format could be used for picture books and books for younger children too (with the expectation that the parents would help with the evaluation).

Happy holidays everyone.

What Do You Believe? (Contains Santa Spoilers)

Jelene/Flikr

Last week, as I was helping facilitate a workshop at 826michigan, a young girl looked me dead in the eye and, as if she were doing me a favor, told me, “Santa Claus doesn’t exist!”

Realizing I was in a room full of 8 – 11 year olds*, I knew I had exactly five seconds to not crush a child’s dreams. So I pulled out my best confused face and said, “Noooooo! Where did you hear that? I have never heard that before.“

“It’s true!” she said.

“Huh,” I replied. Seeing she wasn’t buying my lame attempt at extending her childhood innocence, I continued: “Hey, did you read that on the Internet? Because you can’t trust everything you read on the Internet, you know.”

The girl stared at me for a moment and I could tell I almost had her. Just as I was imagining rounding the podium to accept an Oscar for Best Performance While Lying to A Child, the spell was broken and she said, “No. He isn’t real,” and returned to her craft project.

Well, I tried.

Bonus parenting tip from my mother: Whenever I’d ask if Santa was real as a child, my mother never answered me. Without fail she’d turn Socratic and ask, “What do you believe, Julie?” It was so frustrating! And yet, it was also very effective. After all, she wasn’t technically lying.

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*Who, yes, were probably already jaded about the whole Santa thing, thanks to the playground bullies of the world but I wasn’t going to test that theory and ruin Christmas forever.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! I’m dressed as a Rockford Peach today. My office mate is Wednesday Adams. What about you?

Sadly, I haven’t caught any fly balls – yet.