(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Kitchen Table Kibitzing 12/26/2023: Boxing Day [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-12-26

Theodor Severin Kittelsen: December (1890)

Good evening, Kibitzers! I hope everyone’s Christmas was lovely, whether you observed that holiday or not. As I write, late on Christmas night, we’re having a “dense fog advisory”, so I’m sure Santa is relieved that he got home before that. Even Rudolph isn’t going to see very far through this stuff!

Today is Boxing Day, which is not really a thing in the US. As we have discussed in past years, it also has nothing to do with prizefighting or taking all your discarded Christmas wrappings to recycling. You can see that 2016 linked diary if you want to hear Good King Wenceslaus, but tonight I plan to instead bring you some songs that may be evoked by the name of the day, even though they don’t really have anything to do with it.

Since Boxing Day is also St. Stephen’s Day, let’s start in the obvious place: From the renowned “closing of Winterland” performance on New Year’s Eve 1978 (more correctly, verrrry early New Year’s morning 1979), the Grateful Dead perform St. Stephen. [7:54]

If you need a longer Dead fix, here’s St. Stephen / Not Fade Away / Eyes Of The World / drums / The Wheel, from the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ, in June 1978. [45:43]

This 1975 Saturday Night Live performance of The Boxer by Simon & Garfunkel is audio only, with a still photo from the show. I didn’t see this when it aired, so I didn’t realize they had sung what came to be called the “Central Park” lyrics, because once they were sung at the 1981 mega-concert in Central Park, NYC, and got onto the live album, that’s what most people associated them with. [4:30]

That’s such a good song, it’s worth hearing again, or so say I. Here are Alison Krauss, Shawn Colvin, and Jerry Douglas, at the 2007 concert at the Library of Congress for the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Paul Simon was the prize’s first-ever recipient. (I see Mark Stewart, Simon’s long-time touring music director, on mandolin off to the left.) [5:51]

(Don’t mind me — when I was putting this draft together, I pasted notes from the YouTube pages to show me what videos went where. For some reason, the text below remained in the interesting font it was in over there, which I’ve never seen happen before, and I am curious to see whether the font survives publication, so I’m leaving it here.) 𝕝𝕚𝕓𝕣𝕒𝕣𝕪 𝕠𝕗 𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕘𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕤 𝕘𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕙𝕨𝕚𝕟 𝕡𝕣𝕚𝕫𝕖 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕡𝕠𝕡𝕦𝕝𝕒𝕣 𝕤𝕠𝕟𝕘. 𝟚𝟘𝟘𝟟 [Oh look, it worked!]

We have to have Malvina Reynolds’ Little Boxes, right? I enjoyed this video, posted by YouTuber beautifuldayx0, who notes: "This is a claymation I made for my high school sophomore English class. The assignment was to choose a politically charged song and give some sort of visual representation, and then lead a discussion with the class about the song; mine was Little Boxes by the amazing Malvina Reynolds." [2:02]

Sarah McLachlan’s Song for a Winter's Night isn’t Boxing-Day-specific, but it is perfect for a winter’s night. [3:48]

So, back to the boxes — at Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, FL, they know that cats like boxes, regardless of the size of the cat. (“Big Cat Rescue is an educational non-breeding, accredited sanctuary and a registered non-profit 501c3.”) [2:47]

On a vaguely related subject, the ShoKo YouTube channel features the adventures of now-adopted shelter cats Shorty (the black one) and Kodi (the calico). Here, their dad Rob has started with a popular meme and written a whole set of parody lyrics for Oh Christmas Tree, Your Ornaments Are History. [2:10]

Since it’s late, I’ll finish with The Late Show. This jazzy performance of Winter Wonderland by Louis Cato and The Late Show Band is from just a few days ago, December 22. Personnel are Louis Cato, Joe Saylor, Jon Lampley, Louis Fouché, Endea Owens, Nêgah Santos and Corey Bernhard. [3:50]

But wait! To close, we’ll reach back to the Letterman version of The Late Show. You may recall, if you were a viewer, that Darlene Love appeared every year on the last show before the holidays to sing Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). This is a montage of numerous such appearances, brought together seamlessly into one song. [4:05]

Please tell us about your Christmas, your leftovers, or whatever is interesting you today! side pocket, we will not make you tell about your trip until you’re ready, but it was good to see you were home yesterday!

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/26/2213689/-Kitchen-Table-Kibitzing-12-26-2023-Boxing-Day?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/