the bastard strikes again.

[kaigou]

Yesterday when I was at the market, I realized I'd forgotten the single most important reason to NEVER LEAVE THE FREAKING HOUSE (at least for the month of December): the goddamn christmas songs everywhere.

Okay, some songs aren't entirely christmas songs, but they fit the mood, like in the aisles at the locally-owned (since 1897! it trumpets) hardware store and hearing Billie Holiday singing I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm. I could do without ever hearing The Little Drummer Boy ever again for the rest of my life (if only I could be so lucky) and no I don't care who covered it, I still hate that damn song. Most hymns I can let go in one ear and out the other, although I do find it somewhat disturbing, to this day, that Little Town of Bethlehem is in a minor key with some pretty depressing modulations in there; even as a child I had the impression that the song was saying the entire event was going to go south and fast, possibly with multiple deaths and some foreboding hints at a sequel.

So I'm gritting my teeth while I'm searching for the sweet potato chips CP likes, and doing a passable version of keeping my internal conversation loud enough to drown out the worst of the auditory pap -- until I get to the check-out counter. The girl is ringing me up, and I'm just standing there, card in hand waiting for my turn in the dance, when I realize the song playing overhead and wishing I had the ability to throw a curse back through time to whomever though such unadulterated tripe would make for a great holiday song, and then suddenly -- for what might even be the first time ever -- I don't listen to what the song means. I just listen to what it says.

I ask the clerk, do you hear that?

Clerk: what?
Me: the song. The song that's playing.
Clerk: Uhm. Yeah. *confused but pleasant* What about it?
Me: the words. What they're actually saying *points to ceiling-speakers*
Song: Where nothing ever grows / No rain nor rivers flow / Do they know it's Christmastime at all?
Clerk: Uhm.
Me: My god, that is the most freaking xenocentric, ego-freaking-tistical, culturally-biased goddamn line and I've been hearing this song for how many years now and I only just realized it? Who wrote this crap!?
Clerk: *stops ringing stuff up, totally distracted* I think it was a bunch of people.
Me: A bunch of freaking morons, you mean. Come on! *points to ceiling-speakers, listens to refrain* So basically the message is that everyone's miserable but if they just knew it's Christmas that they'd be happy, or something?
Clerk: It's supposed to be a christmas song.
Me: Yeah, but we're assuming the people they're singing about actually care whether or not it's christmas. If they're not christian, then the answer is probably, gee, not freaking much.
Clerk: *not even trying to keep track of ringing stuff up*
Me: Okay, honestly, Chunyun is way better.
Clerk: *stares* What? *mumbles* I don't know what that is...
Me: Chunyun! *manages to keep straight face* No way! Chunyun! What kind of heathen are you?
Clerk: Uhm.
Me: Four out of every five persons on this entire planet celebrate Chunyun! It's the biggest holiday! It's when you're with loved ones, celebrating, giving gifts, spending time together after not seeing them--
Clerk: *tries to smile* Uhm, it's Christmas?
Me: *cracks* Actually, it's New Year's. Chinese New Year's. But man, see, when January 18th or whatever rolls around, you could be happy but you'll be miserable because you don't even realize it's Chunyun! You'll be lucky to make it through the night alive, you'll be wretched and pathetic, but noooo, if only you knew it's Chunyun!
Hispanic guy behind me in line: February 14th.
Me: Hunh?
Clerk: Valentine's Day?
Guy: Chinese New Year's. It's February 14th.
Me: Whoops. Okay! Miserable on Valentine's day, how's that for irony.
Clerk: How do you know when New Year's is?
Guy: Because my wife is Chinese... *grin* And we always celebrate Chunyun.
Me: AHAH. I rest my case.

I still hate that song, but at least I feel better now that I have a rant practiced and ready for smoother repetition the next time I have to hear it while in line. Or maybe this year I'll finally wise up and have my iPod with me, with headphones, and just tune out the entire listening experience. Who knows what else might set me off...

Comments

[kaigou]

Cripes, I'd thought (all this time) it was for South Africa, though that could be because I'd confused it with yet another "bunch of rich western singers get together and hold hands" song, like maybe the one about apartheid. Erm.

Yes. Ethiopia. Okay, I think we've passed beyond heddesk moment. Far, far beyond. It never even occurred to me that the song was about the Ethiopian famine -- probably because, uhm, that country does have rivers, and hey, mountains, too, along with the whole Christian-state and one-third Muslim population and no small percentage of Jews, along with being mentioned in the xtian Bible and being one of the few African countries to have a full seat in the United Nations, IIRC. Not exactly barefoot and ignorant, I mean.

Then again, this would also presume that anyone from Hollywood and/or the music business actually had a freaking clue, which may be too much to ask, in most cases.

[squalay.livejournal.com]

Considering this song gets trotted out everytime the Western world is a Generic African State's only hope for survival, I wouldn't be surprised if they did do a version about the arpartheid. But the original was written in about three days after Bob Geldof saw a news report about the Ethiopian famine.

And of course, there is always the argument that the money raised by that single went to prolonging the war in Ethopia and the dictator-enforced famine by proxy so. It really is a travesty of a song on every level.

[kaigou]

My 9th grade teacher had to flee Ethiopia with her children when the monarchy fell, so we actually learned more about that country than any of the rest of the African countries, because she had first-hand knowledge. She didn't push pro-monarchy on us, but what we saw in the news wasn't the entire story (not that it ever is). Thanks to her, to this day I know all sorts of stuff about Kush, which also frustrated me to do a paper on it -- there was almost no information at all, one of the greatest cities of ancient history, and yet you can find tonnes of papers and articles if you headed farther north to where the citizens had been lighter-skin tone. A real eye-opener to a fourteen-year-old kid.

As I mentioned to Triv (below), I suspect if I have chance to trot the rant out again, it'll be considerably different next time, and even more full of snark at the truly epic fail.

[dogemperor]

Yup, it was about the Ethiopian famine--of course, there are also people in the US who'd claim Dewahedo Orthodox aren't "Real Christians" because they're from a strain of Christianity that substantially predates the Catholic church, are the one country outside of Israel itself that is quite well documented as having a pre-Christian Judaic tradition, and because they tend to use pre-Gregorian calendars to date Christmas (either the Julian calendar or an earlier one than that--my sister was the one who knew the Ethiopian refugees, not me, unfortunately).

Or, for that matter, in most Eastern Rite churches (including the Dewahedo Orthodox church) that Christmas is primarily a religious holiday, that Easter tends to be treated as more important a religious holiday, and that the primary gift-giving holiday is actually Three Kings' Day (which is actually where the whole gift-giving tradition in Christmas supposedly comes from, at least according to Christian mythology¹). (Yes, you're reading this right. In most Orthodox churches, Christmas is a religious holiday and NOT the primary gift-giving holiday, and even in a lot of Catholic countries this is still the case. Presents on Christmas (rather than on 6 January) is actually a Germanic innovation and still tends to be restricted to countries speaking a Germanic language as a majority tongue--and the UK and US do count, even if English is essentially a Saxon/Norman French patois that has evolved into a language proper.)

[dogemperor]

¹ Of note, I'm not using "mythology" in a pejorative sense--I'm using it in the sociological sense of a common mythos. Just to note so the Christian readers don't get too offended. :D