Advent Calendar Day 6

Window #6

Today the Christmas Muffy VanderBears and her animal friends came out of their 10-month estivation and began grouping for the Annual Dress Up Parade. Muffy's motto after all was Life is One Big Dress-Up, and Megan took it to heart for her Muffy collection — much cuter than any Barbie collection. When Muffy morphed from toy to collectible, Bob began buying me the annual Muffy Christmas Bear with themed costume — Muffy Santa, Christmas Tree, Snowman, Mouse, Eskimo, and so on. When we needed more bookshelves and added them to the long hallway through the flat, the shelf tops became the perfect venue for Muffy to step out and show what she does best. After the Welcome Santa Bears, the Muffy Parade is my favourite Christmas decoration.

I finally left the flat today for more than a food purchasing expedition. Bob and I went to a concert at Cadogan Hall, near Sloane Square:  Richard Thompson singing bawdy English Renaissance songs backed by Phillip Pickett and the Musicians of the Globe Theatre. A great concert in a packed hall, and Harry Shearer was sitting across the aisle from us. Bob recognised him right away. Other people were stopping to talk to him, and I heard him say things like, "Thank you, that's very kind of you to say." So he must be a nice person.

Phillip Pickett used to be one of our favourites when he directed the New London Consort and was the artistic director for Early and Baroque Music at the South Bank Centre. He put on great concerts and terrific themed Early Music Weekends every September. Then poof he was gone, the Weekend was gone, and Early Music concerts at the South Bank were sparse. The Folk-Rock that made Thompson and Fairport Convention famous in the 1960s was based on English folk music much of which was derived from the words of these sorts of songs of the street which in turn were sung to popular musical airs. In other words it all comes around in the end. So Richard singing songs about Faust, playing a period reproduction Renaissance guitar (made in Duluth by a craftsman also sitting across the aisle from us, identified when he took a bow at Richard's introduction) backed by a gamba, a lute, recorders, and other period stringed instruments sounded great, but the encore of a recent Richard Thompson song backed by these same instruments sounded equally great. For more and better information on the people and the music link to Bob's review here.

Pickett's programme notes talk about a time when music was not divided into narrow categories. This afternoon I watched/listened to a viral U-Tube of the Hallelujah Chorus being sung in the food court of a US mall that was great fun to watch, as people either look confused, look enchanted, or joined in because they know the music. The immediate comments attached are what is pathetic: some are upset that people are daring to mention Jesus in public, others seem to think this is a religious display by evangelicals, but it is clear that few are either familiar with the piece or recognise it as simply a great work of art that lifts the human spirit completely separate from personal points of view.

And finally, Happy Saint Nicholas Day in the lead up to Christmas!