Hi Everyone:

I intrinsically prefer giving credit to whoever comes up with an idea or shares a link or whatever. The Latvian that brought this link to my attention is one of those who prefers his anonymity to the nth degree, so I have no choice but to not publicly credit him. In any case, it’s a rather cool, holiday-spirit-inspired, flash mob scene at the University of Minnesota. It has nothing in particular to do with Latvians, but I at least think that Letts would be well served to display this kind of collective spirit and togetherness more often because it just plain feels good when you do….so, I hope this perhaps inspires some of the rest of you to share some festive holiday thoughts here, as well.

Holiday flash mob at University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management: http://youtu.be/uH8FvERQHtM

Wishing everyone here at LOL a music-filled, melodic, holiday season this year,

Alberts

Thanks for this, Albert!  It’s a real delight!  And…I just gave it my ‘thumbs-up” (pressed the like button) on FB as well!

Irena

This may not be recorded at Christmas, but it’s definitely holiday-inspired-spirit….and it’s Latvian!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0wwR1OzWl4

Regards,

Al

Hi:

This YouTube version of “Liesmiņa” has both the Latvian and translated English words to it.

Yes, it’s not a holiday song per se but it IS a song of hope. For me personally, holidays always represented a celebration of hope.

Sappy?....Maybe.

Bubble-Gumish?....Maybe, too.

But, emotionally piercing?....Definitely Yes.

So, maybe recently-deceased Apple dynasty co-founder Steve Jobs had it right when he firmly believed that people want stuff that is elegant, easy-to-access, and that connects emotionally.

Just sayin…..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfRNSOooJpw

Regards,

Alberts

Dear Garais,
I appreciate your desire to have sweet and nice predominate among humankind - especially among the people of Latvia, certainly among LOLers - and sugar plum fairies take over LOL and sweep everything unpleasant under the rug.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQBFhaRFPIk  While I also want to have peace and goodwill reign in the world and among all peoples (whatever language they speak or don’t or nationality they claim or reject), I’m here on LOL thinking it’s high time to clean the house since it’s another Holiday with dust, dirt, and worse under the bed.  I can’t help but be bothered, no matter what season approaches, by the mess that’s piled up under the Latvian bed after twenty years of out-of-sight, out-of-mind sweeping and wishing-upon-a (-no-longer-red) star for the miracle of the saliedeta society sitting together around the creche and the holy baby.  Call me a different kind of Pollyanna, but I do think that dust mites and old dirt don’t just go away no matter what effort is made by sugar plum fairies to sweep and sweeten.  A Latvian house this neglected is not really a Latvian house.  Yup, the torch has been passed to post-Trimda and post-Soviet Latvians (or whatever name you choose for yourself there) to clean the house, Holidays or not.  Ignorance fairies are never at rest.  “Never again” means understanding how easily “worthless” dirt piles up over fifty years of Communist trash. 
http://www.google.com/search?q=sugar+plum+fairies&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=PfI&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=YP7cTt-1DbTr0QGhitm7Dg&ved=0CFUQsAQ&biw=1045&bih=472

P.S.
Steve Jobs was not “Saint” Nick.  I did not read the 600 pages about Steve but I did recently finish the 657 pages about Stalin (Montefiore).  It’s not great reading for Christmas, but I’m thinking of re-gifting to someone special on LOL.  By the way, Capitalist Steve did not live as lavishly as Communist Dictator Stalin, who lived better than any king or tsar and far better than that “Latvian dictator” Ulmanis - other “worthwhile” facts to know about life under Communism (note PC).

Where to begin?

Address the bitterness? Weigh-in on the housekeeping recommendations?

Remind the readers that a clever definition of Puritanism is the sneaking suspicion that someone somewhere might be having some fun and how that relates to my personal definition of a certain Latvianesque Solar Disk’s worldview?

Nah. I’m taking the high road.

Instead, let me simply share my thought process when I started this “Speaking Of Music And The Holiday Spirit….” thread. I actually briefly considered shoehorning the upbeat link into one of the existing threads to help offset the vitriol that so many threads quickly get drenched with around here. Then after thinking about it a bit longer, I decided to try an experiment. Start a new season-appropriate thread. Leave politics, abortion, gender rights, language preferences, elections or their aftermath, historical regurgitations and reinterpretations, and all other heavily baggaged overtones out of the mix. Focus on holidays, music, and the spirit that goes with all that.

Start with a clean sheet and see what, if anything happens.

Several possibilities seemed likely to me:
1. No one publicly reacts at all. That’s happened before and could easily again.
2. Positive fires get stoked enough that someone else actually expresses a positive public resonance. (Thanks Irena)
3. Someone, or several someones get seriously alarmed that a pristine holiday punch bowl has snuck into the room and feel an unquenchable need to publicly relieve themselves and find it to be the perfect place to take a very noisy p*ss in. (Someone had to be 1st)

I’m having brain freeze at the moment and don’t remember the name of the Meatloaf song that has the appropriate lyric for the way this turned out….“two out of three ain’t bad.” Well, ain’t that funny? I just checked and THAT’s what the track is called:(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8JA9Qs2Mho)

Ar buču (it’s OK to kiss back….I didn’t drink out of that punchbowl after you p*ssed in it)

Alberts

P.S. You’re quite right about Steve Jobs not being “Saint” Nick. He was actually quite a prick at times, just as you aspire to be. The main difference is that he actually had the ability to turn off that aspect to his personality when he needed to get something productive accomplished.

That’s how you respond to a world-class school choir singing “Liesmiņa”, ambersun?  That’s just weird.

I wasn’t aware that this piece existed until I turned on the car one day and this came over the radio.  I googled and found a number of versions out there!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PuJiNT3rkI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri0_C2q08HI&feature=related

Albert, thanks for the thread!
ambersun - have you never learned a Latvian Christmas song?

Sveiki Anita!

Great links. Thanks for posting them. I’ve been a big Andrejs Jansons fan for a long time too.

Beautifully done. Nothing quite like hearing choir members make beautiful noise together….

I take that back.

The best of all is finding a choir to sing with and make some of that joyful noise yourself.

Al

The Lay’s Potato Chip Commercial Said “Eat All You Want…We’ll Make More”, So Here’s In Keeping With That Sentiment.

This one is a bit different, but features some photogenic rabbits and puppies dressed up for Christmas frolicking….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFcJ_IZOMns (It’s actually not my cup of preferred musical tea, but I’m trying to expand my horizons. You might call this X-mas bubblegum music, tho’ Herman’s Hermits don’t make a cameo appearance to make it official. It has a hauntingly catchy lyric however, “tu esi pirmā manā Ziemassvētku sarkstā” that really sticks with you)

For those with young kids in the picture, you can never have too many Sūpuļdziesmas at the ready during the holidays…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG6sXzxnTYo&feature=related

As for this one, there’s just nothing like lookin’ at a ridiculous pile of snow draping the pine trees and hearing the word “vecmāmiņa” over and over again to put you in the mood for Christmas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xatIbAuHu34&feature=related

Happy Holiday spirit hunting….if you look about a bit, you just might find it,

Alberts

Anita, full of Al’s catchy Holiday spirit (and punch and potato chips), seriously asks on behalf of all Latvians who are dying to know: 
“ambersun - have you never learned a Latvian Christmas song?”

Anita,
You just keep singing all those Latvian Christmas songs and don’t worry you little lurking Latvian self about me.  I may not have gone to Saturday school and Garezers but I had many songstress aunties and a wonderful singing Latvian social world in my youth. Some of the best singers were the old trimdnieki and those old Latvian Legionnaires.  Today, when I sing all the Latvian songs I know and love, unlike you, I sing them with enthusiasm, passion, and, yes, healthy Latvian Pride - like this should never end.  If I were you, maybe start thinking about teaching Latvian Christmas carols to your Russian cab driver in Latvia and those other 180,000 Russian-speakers in Latvia who signed the “Latvian Christmas Carols Next Year in Russian” petition.

P.S.
Anita - have you never earned a Book Award?

ambersun, it is so hypocritical that you carried on about people not knowing you but making conclusions about you - and then you said this about me:

“Today, when I sing all the Latvian songs I know and love, unlike you, I sing them with enthusiasm, passion, and, yes, healthy Latvian Pride”

Say what you will about me, but anyone who knows me will vouch for the fact that I love singing Latvian songs, mainly tautas dziesmas, and that (outside of “Skaista ir jauniba” and “Es nenacu sai vietai,” which I would be thrilled to never, ever hear again) I invariably sing with “enthusiasm, passion, and, yes, healthy Latvian pride.”  Not always with great pitch, mind you, but we all have our burdens to bear.  Wanna have a dziesmu kars???

And yes, I’ve been awarded books any number of times.  Why do you ask?

But back to the topic at hand… somehow doing wrong (according to you) by posting musical links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPOa-DoH4T4

I’d love to have been present for these!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z_G-Qe-XD8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8oGFXOVFnQ&feature=related

Hi Anita:

Thanks for the links. Viewed them all and enjoyed them.

However, I’m not sure that I concurred with your assessment about the last two: “I’d love to have been present for these!:” because looking at the very visible, omnipresent , visually unmistakeable, “d*mn it’s cold” dvašas, it was looking mighty cold to me…..(grin)

Alberts

I’m glad you started this thread, Albert and I bet a lot of other people are as well (those who look but never post).  I’ve really enjoyed listening to all this wonderful music, thanks to you, Anita…Don’t let the other humbuggers out there get to you and as the Latvian saying goes, ‘Lai Dziesmas Skan’!

Irena

PS Who also loves Latvian Schlager, though she knows better!

Aivar,
Aleks,
Andri S,
Anita,
Ārija,
Ambersun,
Bobby “Little Boat”,
Bruno,
Džon,
Elizabete,
Irēna,
Jandž,
Lauri,
LigitaR,
Mikus E,
Ojār K,
Pēter B,
Pēter C,
Pēter K,
Talisman,
Vidas,
....and anyone else I’ve dialogued with this past year,
....and all you lurkers in the shadows:

I wish you all a Merry Christmas, peace, good health, A Happy New Year, and a winning lottery ticket.

I don’t often gamble myself….but when I do I prefer a winning ticket because it seems to impart a better mood and - God knows - we could all benefit from finding our way to better moods around these threads.

In some quarters they call it the Holiday Spirit. Nothing wrong with trying to create a “Year Round” spirit, either.

Gaišus Svētkus vēlu Jums visiem!

Alberts

Ačiū Albertai ! Su Šventėm !