SWMBO’s Scary Nails: this year’s edition. Check out them hand-painted thumbnails!
Not only is it Friday today, it’s the day before Hallowe’en, that most sacred of days to people in the party supplies, costumery, and candy businesses.
Eunoia, AKA Old Phat Stu, left a comment with a Hallowe’en-related question: “Elisson, you often blog about various Jewish holidays, so I was just wondering what’s your equivalent of Halloween?”
There’s a two-pronged answer to that. If you’re referring to the semi-pagan, semi-Christian holiday that is a vague amalgam of Samhain and All Hallow’s Eve - a holiday that is involved with witchcraft, demons, sorcery, the Spirits of the Dead, and all that goyische narrischkeit (non-Jewish foolishness), the answer is “no” - we Jews have no equivalent. I remember my Hebrew School teachers telling us that we shouldn’t go out trick-or-treating because Hallowe’en was a Christian holiday at best, a pagan, superstitious celebration at worst, certainly nothing any self-respecting Jewish kid should have anything to do with. Nevertheless, given the completely secular nature of Hallowe’en in the U.S., we just ignored our teachers, costumed ourselves, and cadged candy from our neighbors just like everyone else.
But if you’re referring to a holiday on which people dress up in costumes and exchange gifts of food, the answer is “yes.” Our version is called Purim, a holiday that celebrates the deliverance of the Jews of Persia from a plot to annihilate them - a story that is related in the Book of Esther. It has nothing to do with ghosts and Evil Beasties, however.
Now that we’ve answered that question, it’s time to check out the assorted musical randomosity of the Little White Choon-Box. What’s playing today?
- Barbara’s House - Philip Glass, Notes on a Scandal
- Alice Childress (iTunes Originals Version) - Ben Folds
- Sand Mandala - Philip Glass, Kundun
- Gun Street Girl - Tom Waits
Fallin’ James in the Tahoe mud
Stick around to tell us all the tale
Well, he fell in love with a Gun Street girl
Now he’s dancin’ in the Birmingham jail
Dancin’ in the Birmingham jail
Well, he took a hundred dollars off a Slaughterhouse Joe
Bought a brand new Michigan twenty gauge
He got all liquored up on that roadhouse corn
Blew a hole in the hood of a yellow Corvette
A hole in the hood of a yellow Corvette
He bought a second hand Nova from a Cuban Chinese
And dyed his hair in the bathroom of a Texaco
With a pawnshop radio quarter past four
He left Waukegan at the slammin’ of the door
Left Waukegan at the slammin’ of the door
I said, John, John, he’s long gone
Gone to Indiana, ain’t never comin’ home
I said, John, John, he’s long gone
Gone to Indiana, ain’t never comin’ home
He’s sittin’ in a sycamore in St. John’s Wood
Soakin’ day old bread in kerosene
Well, he was blue as a robin’s egg and brown as a hog
He’s stayin’ out of circulation till the dogs get tired
Out of circulation till the dogs get tired
Shadow fixed the toilet with an old trombone
He never get up in the morning on a Saturday
Sittin’ by the Erie with a bull-whipped dog
Tellin’ everyone he saw, “They went that-a-way, boys”
Tellin’ everyone he saw, “They went that-a-way”
Now the rain like gravel on an old tin roof
The Burlington Northern pullin’ out of the world
Now a head full of bourbon and a dream in the straw
And a Gun Street girl was the cause of it all
A Gun Street girl was the cause of it all
Get ridin’ in the shadow by the Saint Joe Ridge
And the click clack tappin’ of a blind man’s cane
And he was pullin’ into Baker on a New Year’s Eve
With one eye on the pistol and the other on the door
One eye on the pistol and the other on the door
Miss Charlotte took her satchel down to King Fish Row
Smuggled in a brand new pair of alligator shoes
With her fireman’s raincoat and her long yellow hair
Well, they tied her to a tree with a skinny millionaire
Tied her to a tree with a skinny millionaire
I said, John, John, he’s long gone
Gone to Indiana, ain’t never comin’ home
I said, John, John, he’s long gone
Gone to Indiana, ain’t never comin’ home
Bangin’ on a table with an old tin cup
I sing, I’ll never kiss a Gun Street girl again
I’ll never kiss a Gun Street girl again
I’ll never kiss a Gun Street girl again
I said, John, John, he’s long gone
Gone to Indiana, ain’t never comin’ home
I said, John, John, he’s long gone
Gone to Indiana, ain’t never comin’ home - Big Bang Baby - Stone Temple Pilots
- Damn Bugs Whacked Him, Johnny - Minus the Bear
- Back In The U.S.S.R. - The Beatles
This is the version from the White Album, the one with which most of us Old Goats are familiar. - Heroin - Velvet Underground
- Too Much Too Young (Live) - The Specials
- Act III: I Can Keep Still - John Adams, Nixon in China
No comments:
Post a Comment