Head Tale

One Week From Today…

…we will be here:

¶ Posted 20 December 2015 § Family § Pace § Sasha § Shea § Travel § Video § Xmas ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: cool, holiday, parents, travel, xmas

Saturday Snap – Pace’s School Winter Concert

They’re not allowed to say “Christmas” but this year, his grade sang a recognizable Christmas song (“Let It Snow”) [Edit: oh, that’s funny. I looked back at my post from three years ago about Pace’s first school concert and what song did I suggest would be a good, non-offensive choice but still “Christmasy”? Someone from Pace’s school apparently reads my blog!)]

There was even an appearance by Santa – something I don’t think we’ve seen in three years of ~~Christmas~~, sorry, Winter Concerts at Pace’s school. Plus someone did some really cool video clips that played on a screen as they shuttled the different grades off and on the stage so this was probably one of my favourite years ever.

¶ Posted 19 December 2015 § MemoryLane § Pace § Photo § Saskatchewan § SaturdaySnap § SecularSunday § Xmas ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: cute, education, holiday, language, music, xmas

Throwback Thursday – #tbt – Star Wars Christmas (sometime in the early 1980’s) & Friday Fun Link – “The Force Awakens” Random Thoughts

Not often I get to combine my Throwback Thursday and Friday Fun Link but after making a fairly spontaneous decision to go to a midnight showing of the new Star Wars movie last night, I thought posting this picture was a bit of both categories.

I’ll try to keep it spoiler-free as I give a few random thoughts…

I was surprised how empty the theatre was – maybe 40 people? December 18 was widely advertised as opening day so I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple evening showings on Thursday December 17 and that’s probably part of it. I also went to a non-3D, non-IMAX showing and I bet those ones were a lot busier.
(Ah, read something online – sounds like December 18 was the US release date but other parts of the world – the UK, Canada – got it a day early!)
That also meant not many people in costumes, not a lot of excitement in the theatre (a bit of uncertain clapping at the opening crawl then nothing at other high points) which is very different then when I went to the opening day of Episode One.
Movie was amazing. Much more in the spirit of the original trilogy than the prequels. Definitely made me feel like a kid again!
The “reveals” of the three main characters who were in the originals – Luke, Leia and Han Solo – were all awesomely done although I thought we’d see more of one of them.
At least one shocking twist mid-movie but I think most people saw it coming if you’ve seen the original trilogy.
Lots of similar themes to the original trilogy as well – especially relationships between fathers & sons, destiny and the nature of good & evil.
Minor quibble – the setting is 30 years after the originals but some characters pick up the skills of the Force fairly quickly whereas Luke underwent massive amounts of training, even as strong as he was with the Force.
No Jar Jar Binks!
Loved the “new” R2D2, BB8.
Lots of great humour as well.
Unfortunately, also typical of Star Wars, the love story that’s included is somewhat forced and unbelievable.
Here’s a 5-Star Review (also spoiler free) from the Guardian newspaper.
…and here’s the spoiler-loaded thread for the movie featuring the hardcore nerds of Reddit which I’d recommend that you check out after you’ve seen the movie!

¶ Posted 18 December 2015 § FridayFunLink § MemoryLane § News § Photo § PopCulture § ThrowbackThursday § Xmas ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: economics, history, movies, parents, xmas

“Home Alone” in the Style of Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”

I think someone just went wild with a thesaurus instead of trying to capture the style of McCarthy. But this is still an interesting attempt to capture McCarthy’s style of writing.

They lift the kid by his blood-dimmed sweater and hang him on a coatrack. Madness on their faces. The mantis gone moronic. The squat’s tonsured head like some wardfled lobotomite

¶ Posted 17 December 2015 § Humour § PopCulture ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: book, language

Music Monday – “Each Christmas come since World War One I’ve learned it’s lessons well/That the ones who call the shots won’t be among the dead and lame/And on each end of the rifle we’re the same.”

They don’t come much sadder than this one…

“Christmas in the Trenches” – John McCutcheon

¶ Posted 14 December 2015 § MusicMonday § News § UK § Video § Xmas ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: history, xmas

Secular Sunday – The Joy of Celebrating A Godless Christmas

At my library branch, we’ve had lots of interesting conversations around the “Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas” dichotomy that always happens at this time of year in western society.

We talked about how to balance the library’s responsibility to be inclusive and respectful of all faiths, cultures and beliefs but also how Christmas is the holiday most people in Canada celebrate and shouldn’t be sidelined or ignored either.

These discussions happened in a variety of ways…

We did a project to promote our children’s collection by encouraging patrons to create a “Christmas Advent Book Calendar” with instructions, a box and an extended due date provided by us. We also talked about whether we should even call it that or something more generic like “Seasonal Holiday Book Celebration” (I’m happy to report the original name was the one we used.)

We talked about how it is difficult to strike a balance, even if you want to, when the majority of seasonal books the library purchases have Christmas themes, the majority of decorations we have to put up have a Christmas theme and every branch has been provided with a Christmas tree to put up during the month of December. (Don’t even get me started on the near fist fight that happened long ago at one branch when someone tried to take down the tree before Ukrainian Christmas was over either!) 😉

One staff member had a great idea to create a display integrating a calendar with informational blurbs about different seasonal celebrations from the obvious ones like Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa to others including everything from International Human Rights Day to Festivus.

I even had a colleague who knows I’m an atheist ask if my family celebrated Christmas.

I replied that of course we do – it’s just that for our family, we celebrate Christmas as a major secular holiday where we focus on certain elements instead of others.

We might not go to a carol service but we enjoy listening to Christmas music (including popular carols!) We put up decorations but with an emphasis on Santa, Rudolph and Frosty rather than Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We don’t go to a Christmas Eve church service but may play a board game or watch a Christmas movie while tracking Santa on NORAD’s web site.

But like everyone – believer or no – who celebrates Christmas, we enjoy gift giving, spending time with family, cooking & eating special meals, sharing sentimental memories of Christmas growing up and so on.

This article does a good job of explaining the secular take on Christmas.