OhBuoyancy! » Holidays

Christmas Photo Essays

Reese — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 21:53:06 +0000

Check out these Christmas photo essays from TIME.

Crazy Christmas Traditions – Photo Essays – TIME.

It Happened on Christmas Day – Photo Essays – TIME.

Christmas Sing-Along

Reese — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:28:15 +0000

Ah Christmas music, some love it and would listen to it all year long, some can’t stand it, some are indifferent.

I like Christmas music but only around Christmas time. When the radio stations and stores start playing it before Thanksgiving I find it a bit annoying.

That being said, I do have 16.7 hours of Christmas music in my iTunes library and wanted to share just a few of my favorites with you. (please note there is audio embedded in this post, if you are reading this in a RSS reader you may need to click over).

1.
[See post to listen to audio]
Sufjan Stevens – The Friendly Beasts : This song is just cute and sweet and I love it. Johnny Cash’s version (titled “The Gifts They Gave”) is also worth a listen.

2.
I don’t think I ever watched a full episode of The O.C. but I know it had some good music and the Christmas album is great with tracks such as:
[See post to listen to audio] Ravonettes – The Christmas Song and
[See post to listen to audio]

3.
This album has its good and bad but it’s the best of the “Happy Christmas” series if only for this track alone.
[See post to listen to audio] Copeland – Do You Hear What I Hear?

4.
While I like Conor Oberst, there are only two Bright Eyes albums I can tolerate, Digital Ash in a Digital Urn and “A Christmas Album.”
[See post to listen to audio] Bright Eyes – Little Drummer Boy

5.
Christmas classics to most people bring up thoughts of Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby, but for me it’s Dolly. This is the Christmas music I grew up with.
[See post to listen to audio] Dolly Parton – Hard Candy Christmas

6.
[See post to listen to audio] John Lennon – Happy Xmas (war is over) I don’t know what it is about this song, but I love it.

7.
I just realized there are several volumes of Christmas with the Rat Pack, the one I have is mostly Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. I just got it last year, but it’s already a staple.
[See post to listen to audio] Christmas with the Rat Pack – A Marshmallow World

Bonus: [See post to listen to audio]

What are some of your favorite Christmas songs? Or does Christmas music make your ears bleed? Let me know in the comments.

For a full list of the Christmas music in my iTunes library read on

A Brad Paisley Christmas
The White Stripes – Candy Cane Children
Chris Isaak Christmas
Pedro The Lion – Christmas Volume II
Bright Eyes – A Christmas Album
Personal Christmas Collection
Diana Krall Christmas Songs
Christmas With the Rat Pack
Classic Holiday Treasures
A Familyre Christmas Volumes 1 & 2
Sleeping at Last – Ghosts of Christmas Past
Happy Christmas Volume 4
Songs for Christmas
Pedro The Lion – I Heard The Bells
A Lovely Way To Spend Christmas
My Morning Jacket – Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas from Yo La Tengo
Merry Christmas Have a Nice Life
Music From The O.C. – Mix 3 Happy Christmaka
Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers – Once Upon a Christmas
What A Night! A Christmas Album

and many singles.

An Asthmatic Christmas

Reese — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 20:14:44 +0000

Check out Asthmatic Kitty’s Christmas page.

It has Christmas goodies from Sufjan and others including an e-card, games, ornaments to color, videos, and 8-bit (Nintendoesque) Sufjan Christmas ring tones.

I Conserved Energy

Reese — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:47:52 +0000

And helped the environment, by not posting on Earth Day.

What did you do for Earth Day?

(Disclaimer: I, in fact, fully intended to post on Earth Day and even already knew what I was going to post, but I was very busy [Jury duty, lit paper, government presentation] and ended up not posting)

How…original

Reese — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:01:38 +0000

This coming Thursday, March 20, would have been Mister Rogers’ 80th birthday, and in honor of the best neighbor ever it is Sweater Day. Weather permitting, I will be wearing a sweater, how about you?

Next time you need to promote something, think of Christvertising it. Hilarious. (via Joshua Blankenship).

At this moment I am drinking my coffee with granulated sugar. I am not a happy camper. While I only have a few snobberies about my coffee, this is one of them. It reminds me from part of the movie Le Divorce, where Naomi Watts’ character feels insulted by her mother-in-law calling her use of sugar grains “original.”

“Sugar grains. Original.”
Meaning how bizarre.

Meaning, “Why don’t you have sugar cubes
like a proper French girl?”

I’m also listening to the music you guys recommended right now and will make a post about it shortly. Though I should be finishing up this book I’m writing a review of for the school paper, and doing my other school-related reading.

Grammar and Music

Reese — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:47:00 +0000

Would you believe that yesterday was National Grammar Day and I’m just now finding out about it. What luck.

I am in need of some new instrumental type music to listen to, any recommendations would be great. I prefer instrumental (or just very little singing) music on the rock/experimental side or what I think is called downtempo, a few examples of what I already listen to: Unwed Sailor, Sigur Rós, Foxhole, Questions in Dialect, Jack or Jive, Dntel, Air, Bell Orchestre, Prhizzm, Caribou, Boards of Canada, Explosions in the Sky. You get the picture. If you have any recommendations please comment. If you want to recommend something completely different that’s good too, I’ll try anything once.

Edit to add something I just found through Google News, Patrick Swayze was diagnosed with cancer and told he has only a few weeks to live.

The Christmas Post

Reese — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 23:22:16 +0000

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and at least took some time to remember why we really celebrate it.
Sure, you constantly hear people say “Jesus is the reason for the season,” and see plenty of church signs with the same statement, but is that really at the forefront of our minds this time of year. I admit I haven’t spent as much time focused on Christ or in the celebration of His birth as I should. It’s so easy to get caught up in earthly celebrations of gifts, food, and even that of family. Not that there’s anything wrong with celebrating family (or food, or how blessed we are to be able to give and receive gifts), but let us not forget what it’s all about. Celebrate and have joy in our Savior!

Tomorrow I will be leaving for Ocala to go to Holiday Youth Convention. I made a sort-of last minute decision to go; I’m getting to old for it and I figured if I didn’t go this year, I would definitely feel too old to go next year—not that there won’t be other older than I there, there definitely will be.
I’m bringing my laptop along in hopes that there will be free wireless in the hotel, but with the expectation that I won’t have much time to use it anyway.