Saturday, November 27, 2010

Thanksgiving, Haggis, Etc.

Becoming a minister kind of shot holidays for me.  My own family is far away, and I've come to terms with the fact that I'm probably never going to spend an actual holiday with them again (even if they haven't).  On religious holidays like Christmas and Easter, I'm generally so exhausted by the time we're done with all the services that I don't even want to think about having dinner with a bunch of people.  And then there are holidays like Thanksgiving.  We don't have an extra worship service, but... it's right between Fall Craziness and Advent Insanity.  And I can squeeze out of it - whoa - two whole days off in a row.  These are not days that I wish to spend with people from church, or with anyone who has the potential to stress me out.  In this, I become the Thanksgiving Scrooge, hoarding my time and ruthlessly turning down well-intentioned invitations to gorge myself on turkey that someone else has prepared.

What I did for Thanksgiving this year:  Slept.  Slept more.  Made mashed potatoes.  Ate said potatoes.  Ate stuffing made by roommate.  Slept.  Watched movies.  Ate pie.  Sang karaoke.

Yes, it's true, I wasn't a total slug all day.  I dragged myself out of the house at about 10pm to sing karaoke.

Yesterday, I once again did a lot of sleeping, and eating of the mashed potatoes, since in grand Thanksgiving tradition I made about ten times what I actually needed.  And then I my roommate and I trekked to Syracuse to see Enter the Haggis.  In the Haggis world, we're experiencing cosmic shift.  They have a new drummer, after about ten years in the former configuration.  Many of the fans have a lot of "feelings" about this.  I like James (old drummer), but I'm not distraught about or personally offended by his decision to pursue another life path.  And I like this Bruce (new drummer) guy.  The old songs have taken on some new life since he came on board, and I think his style is consistent with where they seem to have been headed musically in the last couple of years.  He sets a heavier beat, less fancy, more driven.  I'm not sure what the Celtic traditionalists will think of it.  They already have strong opinions about the band moving away from rocked-up covers of trad tunes - a shift which means that I actually care about listening to this band, unlike the bazillion or so boring Celtic groups that play rocked-up trad tunes.  But since I lean toward the rock side of things, I'm a fan.

Anyway, that was my holiday.  Today I'm back to sort of working, as I have a bunch of stuff to get ready for tomorrow.  Tonight I have a solo gig, so I also need to figure out music to play for a bar full of people who will mostly want to hear country music.  Good times.      

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