Shortest Day and Longest Night

A change of avatar and a last downbeat reflection before the fun and mayhem of the Christmas Holiday proper.

Last night the buyers of music 'rose up and fought back against the X factor phenomenon' by buying Killing in the Name by Rage against the Machine. I wonder did they all look at the lyrics, what did they interpret by them? I'm not saying the x-factor track would be preferable, but sometimes I wish we could go back to tracks with jingle bells, snowflakes and reindeer that we can share with the average 6 year old.

In the meantime, ever since hearing the name of the band and the title of the song, the words revolving in my head have been from Henry Reed's poem, 'Naming of Parts' – I think this is one of the most powerful war poems, follow this link and you will see the words in full and at the bottom of the page an audio of the poem. Today we have reflection, yesterday we had snow and to-morrow morning we shall go Christmas shopping. I am grateful that my life is simple and I am thinking of those who are separated from loved ones, for whatever reasons in the darkest days of winter.

The Spotify playlist to accompany this post is here.  I’d love to know what you think of this collection, in particular the Mathieu Ruhlmann.  Here is what his website says about it “In 1853 while in exile Victor Hugo began conducting séances, as a way to communicate with his daughter who had drowned in the Seine.  During these séances he claimed to have spoken to the Ocean, the Moon, Plato, Galileo, and Jesus. 
During one of these meetings he received a message 'from the otherside' that described the afterlife as a return to the Earth in four states depending on how you conducted your life. If you lived a terrible life you would come back as a stone/pebble and then next step plant then animal/insect and if you lived a good life you would come back as a human again. What interested me in this idea was that life would be involved in everything that rocks, plants, stones hold this history of life in them and by working with these objects you can extract this history sonically.”