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Posts tagged advent

12 December 2011
video The Wexford Carol - Allison Krauss with Yo-Yo Ma

"The Wexford Carol," by Yo-Yo Ma featuring Alison Krauss, part of Ma's album Songs of Joy & Peace, 2008 :: via Metafilter's Twenty-Five Semi-Obscure Traditional Christmas Songs as Performed by Famous and Non-Famous People
A little third-week-of-Advent music for our faithful readers. It's hardly either lead artist's best work, but still quite a combo. It takes a little while to verify that much of the backing music isn't coming from the cello. Lyrics and history of the carol are here.
re: advent, cello, cultural worlds, music
Nate:
8 December 2009
excerpt Spend less, give more
Advent Conspiracy hardly falls into the too-pious trap described in the previous excerpt. In fact, they skillfully deploy the language of consumerism—website, youtube, dvds, books half off today!—to spur conversations about choices we can make to affirm Christmas as a celebration of creation as well as consumption—and to promote projects to bring clean water to those who lack it. I find the venue of this post, by my good friend Jonathan, especially pleasing. Maybe I don't need that $400 flashlight after all.
re: advent, christmas, consmption, creation, horizons of the possible
Nate:
from "Advent Conspiracy: a Different Approach to the Holidays," by Jonathan Liu, Wired.com/GeekDad, 18 November 2009

[Advent Conspiracy’s] slogan was “Spend Less, Give More,” and the idea is to give gifts of time, things that you make yourself, things that require a little more thought but often less money. And maybe Advent, and Christmas, will be a little less miserable. Start some traditions that don’t make the holidays simply something that adds to the stress, and leave behind the lesson that the best thing to ask a kid about Christmas is “What do you want?”

I know, not all of our readers are Christians or celebrate Christmas: on behalf of those of us who have been in-your-face with our “Reason-for-the-Season” buttons (while elbowing you aside for the cheap foreign-made crap at the big box stores), I apologize, and I hope that this year maybe a small percentage of people will start a new holiday tradition for their families, making Christmas just a little more enjoyable for everyone—especially those who can’t stand it.