Stray Hawkeye

As is Stray Hawkeye Christmas tradition:

Tuba Christmas is coming up again.  If you don’t know what Tuba Christmas is, or why it’s awesome, or want to find one in your own region, see my previous post here.  More details on this year’s Twin Cities event below:

TUBACHRISTMAS 2011
The 24rd Annual MINNESOTA TUBACHRISTMAS Concert will be Sunday,
December 11, 4:00 p.m. at Central Presbyterian Church, 500 Cedar St., St. Paul.

Audience Admission Free.

Free parking (see directions)
For directions and parking info see:
www.cpcstpaul.org/directions.html

To Play the Concert:
If you play Tuba, Sousaphone, Euphonium or Baritone you are invited to play. (NO other instruments)
All ages welcome. There will be over 100 players. (Players age range from 10 to 80+)

Registration: 2:00
Rehearsal: 2:30
Concert: 4:00

Registration fee $5
Music book $18
Hats & Scarves available $15 each.
Head bands $10 each

Decorate your instruments.
Bring a music stand if needed.

Per Stray Hawkeye blog tradition (2008, 2009), here’s your yearly dose of Imogen Heap’s “Just for Now”. I don’t really have anything new to say about it from the last two posts, aside from I still love this song, and think it’s perfect for the holidays.

Merry Christmas.

In case you were planning to go to Tuba Christmas this year in the Twin Cities, it has been postponed due to the snow.  It will be held next Sunday – December 19th, with the concert at 5pm in the same place.  Full details from the organizer are below:

Due to the 17+ inches of snow from which we are all digging out, the TUBACHRISTMAS concert is postponed to Next Sunday, Dec. 19. with registration at 3:00, rehearsal at 3:30 and concert at 5:00. Note time changes are an hour later then previous. Location, the same is, Central Presbyterian Church.
See below for details.

TUBACHRISTMAS 2010

The 23rd Annual MINNESOTA TUBACHRISTMAS Concert will be Sunday,

December 19, 5:00 p.m. at Central Presbyterian Church, 500 Cedar St., St. Paul.

This year’s concert will be a memorial for TubaChristmas founder Harvey Phillips who died Oct. 20.

Audience Admission Free.

Free parking (see directions)

For directions and parking info see:

www.cpcstpaul.org/directions.html

To Play the Concert:

If you play Tuba, Sousaphone, Euphonium or Baritone you are invited to play.

All ages welcome. There will be over 100 players. (Players age range from 10 to 80+)

Registration:   3:00

Rehearsal:   3:30

Concert:   5:00

Registration fee is $5

Music book $18

Hats & Scarves available $15 each.

Head bands $10 each

Decorate your instruments.

Bring a music stand if needed.

Tuba Christmas in the Twin Cities this year will be held December 12, at 4:00 p.m. at Central Presbyterian Church, 500 Cedar St., St. Paul. Admission and parking are free. What’s Tuba Christmas? Why would I want to go? Can I play there? How can I get more details? See my previous post on the subject from two years ago – all the details are the same except that it’s on the 12th this year rather than the 14th.

I was at Walgreens a couple of days ago and saw this sitting by the checkout counter, the Christmas tree from A Charlie Brown Christmas for $10:

My first reaction was that it was the coolest thing ever, the perfect tiny tree for my tiny apartment, and an awesome use of 10 dollars.  But about a second later before I could even reach to pick it up, something stuck me as weird about buying a store made Charlie Brown Christmas tree.  I couldn’t remember exactly how the show went, but as best I remembered, the whole point of the show was focusing on the hand-made, endearing crappy-ness of the tree.  So, it being the future now, I came home and looked up a clip of the show on youtube thinking I could always go back and buy the tree if it warmed my heart after watching the show.  Here’s what I found:

Yeah, think I’m okay with not buying one.

Previous episodes of my childhood favorites being slow destroyed by remakes, updates, etc here (Transformers) and here (Legos).

I posted this video last year around Christmas time too, and I think I’m going to make it a tradition.  I still really like this song, and love the performance of it.  I think it fits the season and time of year well, and it’s just pleasantly calming for me in a time of year that can have a lot of stress.  So, here you go, Imogen Heap singing Just For Now:

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Also, due to travel, holidays,  job stuff, generally taking a break, excessive bowl game watching in one last binge of college football before The Long Painful Months Without College Football, etc, etc, I’m going to be mostly AWOL from posting for the next couple weeks – somewhere between sporadic and non-existent until early to mid January, and then should resume the standard “most every weekday when I remember and can find some spare minutes” posting pattern.  Til then, just keep watching the above video in a loop.  It’ll make you feel better.

The end result of Pavlov’s diabolical plan to make everyone drool while Christmas shopping.