dual personalities

December 5, 2011

In some ways, you’re far superior to my cocker spaniel.

by chuckofish

Well, as they say, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. And that means: Christmas movies! This month I will be blogging about my favorites. First off: White Christmas (1954) directed by one of my favorites, Michael Curtiz, and starring the most wonderful cast ever, Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen, who had to be the model for the original Barbie Doll.

In this well-written, fast-paced musical film, a successful song-and-dance team become romantically involved with a sister act and team up to save the failing Vermont inn of their former commanding general. Sentimental and G-rated, it somehow never seems dated. This has to be because of the witty script and the stellar cast, not to mention the great tunes by Irving Berlin.

I have seen this movie every year since my family had a television and my sister (and dual personality) and I knew the whole Sister Act scene by heart and frequently regaled our family with our rendition.

When my husband and I bought our first VCR in 1986, the first video we bought was White Christmas. It was so great not to have to wait and see when it would be shown on TV–and no commercials! My kids loved it too and it was a big event and the start of the Christmas season to watch it all together. One year in elementary school daughter #1 wanted to be Betty Haynes for Halloween! (I talked her out of it.)

The movie even has a reference to Smith College (which both dual personalities attended).

Bob Wallace: You don’t expect me to get serious with the kind of characters you and Rita have been throwing at me, do you?
Phil Davis: Well, there have been some nice girls, too, you know.
Bob Wallace: Oh yeah, yeah. Like that nuclear scientist we just met out in the hall.
Phil Davis: All right, they didn’t go to college. They didn’t go to Smith.
Bob Wallace: Go to Smith? She couldn’t even spell it.

What could be better than that?

After the Advent Service of Lessons and Carols, White Christmas is truly the beginning of the Christmas season.

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December 5, 2011

Stand ye still, and ye shall see the salvation of the Lord

by chuckofish

Tonight I went to our service of Advent Lessons and Carols at Grace Episcopal Church. We sang all the great Advent hymns, including (56) O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, (66) Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, and (265) our all-time favorite, Gabriel’s Message, the one about “thou lowly maiden Mary, most highly favored lady.”

There were eight lessons, scripture readings from the old and new testaments, and a variety of carols sung by the Choir of Men and Women, the St. Nicholas Boys Choir, the St. Cecelia Girls Choir, and the (adorable) St. Patrick Training Choir. This AND a homily from the visiting Rt. Revd. Stephen Dokolo, Bishop of the Diocese of Lui, Southern Sudan, who looked like a Masai warrior without a spear. Very impressive indeed.

The highpoint for me was when fourth grader Brigid strode across the choir, bowing before the altar, and proceeded up to the lectern to read the second lesson. Clearly enjoying herself, radiantly self-confident, she smiled and read Isaiah 40:1-8: “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God” better than most adults are able. She never stumbled over such stumbling blocks as “recompense” or “constancy”. She read with conviction, “‘Cry out!’ And I said, ‘What shall I cry?'” She brought to mind Linus in A Charlie Brown Christmas.

I am particularly fond of Brigid and her siblings because daughter #2 has been babysitting them for many years and so I have a tangential, proprietary attachment to them. They give me faith in the next generation.

So onward through Advent: Look toward the east, O Jerusalem, and see the joy that is coming to you from God.

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