I'm a big fan of Pandora, the free online music service. Basically, you tell Pandora a song or an artist that you like, and it plays songs that other fans happen to like. And that becomes a Pandora "channel." For example, I am listening to one right now called "White Christmas," which starts with Bing's version and then plays a whole bunch of other holiday songs. When one comes along that I don't like -- I'm not a fan of that goofy Trans-Siberian Orchestra -- I give it a "thumbs down" and my vote is added to the great algorithm, and if enough people think the way I do, eventually nobody will hear it on that channel.
Pretty slick, if you ask me. It's the same technology that allows Amazon to show you what people who searched for "gigantic asses" also searched for " Skin On Skin (Gigantic Ass Subdermal Dub) by DJ Romain featuring Gail Powers" ... it had me at "subdermal."
Anyway, I'm listening to "White Christmas" on a cloudy Sunday morning, while Amina is still in bed, the (fake gas) fireplace roars and our indoor Christmas tree looks elegant in the corner. I say "indoor Christmas tree" because (this being Tennessee) we have an outdoor tree as well. Why? Well, we have two pre-lighted trees, thanks to a 75-percent-off-early-January-sale at Target. We also have no real outdoor decorations; when you live in Minnesota, you don't feel inclined to do much outdoor decorations, given that (1) they'll need to come down in January, when it's ridiculously cold outside, or (2) they'll end up staying in place until April, which looks kind of goofy in, say, February ...
So we have nothing for outside, but we did have a tree that we weren't using, so we thought "Why can't you have a tree on the front porch?" And thus was born the Christmas Tradition of Having A Fully Lighted Tree With Cast Iron Ornaments on the Front Porch. Next up: a washing machine in the front yard.
We ventured out yesterday, trying to be all Michael Corleone on our gift list -- we take care of all family business today. Unfortunately, the traffic was as thick and heavy as I've ever seen it, and we spent more time in the car than we did in the stores. Not that the stores were any better -- people were fighting for position in every aisle, the cacophony drove us both to distraction and our lunch consisted of Pringles and peanut M&Ms (highly recommended when washed down with a bottle of Coke).
The clerk at Old Navy told me that yesterday was the first busy day since before Thanksgiving. Trotter's groomer at Petsmart said that business was down quite a lot. There was a dog sweater at Old Navy that was $17. I wonder if there's some sort of connection ...
Johnny Mathis is singing "The Christmas Song" on Pandora, and I'm looking at Hawaiian Santa -- there's a connection, believe it or not. My first Christmas with Amina was spent in Chicago, and I took her to see Johnny Mathis at the Chicago Theatre. He was doing a holiday show, and she'd never really heard of Johnny Mathis before. It was a fun evening. And for Christmas that year, I got Amina five little baby Radko ornaments -- of which Hawaiian Santa was (and remains) her favorite.
It doesn't feel a lot like Christmas right now. Bad news abounds, in almost every sector of our lives. But Hawaiian Santa doesn't look worried. I wonder if he knows something we don't, something that we ought to ask him about and keep in mind ...
