Superhero Sandbox Christmas Party Playlist 12/22/16

Heard live on WFVR-LP 96.5FM Royalton Community Radio on 12/22/16, from 7-11pm. 

Here Comes Santa Claus-- Sufjan Stevens

I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day-- Ray Price

Jingle Bells-- Count Basie Orchestra

For Unto Us A Child Is Born-- The New Messiah

The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy-- The De Paur Chorus

White Christmas-- The Supremes

Parade of the Wooden Soldiers-- The Crystals

Adeste Fidelis-- Jose Melis and his Orchestra

Sleigh Ride-- Al Hirt

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing- Mass Choirs of Tascosa High School 1966

The Christmas Song-- Bela Fleck and the Flecktones

Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming-- Mahalia Jackson

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen-- The Toreador Brass

Jingle Bell Rock-- The Platters

Sing We Noel-- New York Pro Musica Antiqua

It's the Most Wonderful Time of Year-- Roy Rogers and Dale Evans

What Christmas Means to Me-- Stevie Wonder

We're Going to the Country-- Sufjan Stevens

Jingle Bells-- Sammy Davis Jr.

O Little Town of Bethlehem-- Mills Brothers

And the Glory of the Lord-- The New Messiah

Blue Christmas-- "Christmas to Elvis"

Angels We Have Heard on High-- Church of the Immaculate Conception, Allentown, PA (Walter and Mary Emery, Directors)

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town-- Diana Ross and the Supremes

Jingle Bells-- Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass

We Three Kings of Orient Are-- New American Guitar Ensemble

Lo, How A Rose Ere Blooming-- Sufjan Stevens

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town-- Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons

Frosty the Snowman-- Willie Nelson

The Shepard's Chorus (from Amahl and the Night Visitors)-- Stroud Union High School 1962

Blue Christmas-- Elvis Presley

Christmas Hymn (Palma)-- Musical Heritage Society

Holly Jolly Christmas-- Sufjan Stevens

I Know My Redeemer Liveth-- The New Messiah

The First Noel-- Frank Sinatra

Good King Wenceslas-- Mirror Image

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing-- Mirror Image

The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers-- Don Kinnier at the Longwood Gardens Organ

Lo How A Rose Ere Blooming-- Snap-On Male Chorus

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas-- Bela Fleck and the Flecktones

Maganese-- Riding Shotgun

Auld Lang Syne-- Mirror Image

Silent Night-- Greater Kensington String Band

Do You Hear What I Hear?-- Imogene Peise

Little Drummer Boy-- Emmylou Harris

Hallelujah-- The New Messiah

Skating-- Vince Guilardi Trio

What You Gonna Call Yo' Pretty Little Baby?-- De Paur Chorus

Children Go Where I Send Thee-- John Fahey

Poverty Carol-- University of Vermont Choral Union

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear-- Union Central Chimes (Cincinnati, Ohio)

Angels We Have Heard on High-- Don Kinnier at the Longwood Gardens Organ

Silent Night/Lord Can You Hear Me-- The Flaming Lips

The Holly and the Ivy-- University of Vermont Choral Union

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree-- Irwin the Disco Duck

Up On the Housetop-- "Christmas to Elvis"

The Trumpets Shall Sound-- The New Messiah

Auld Lang Syne-- Lou Rawls

In the Bleak Midwinter-- Royal College of Music (David Willcocks, dir.)

What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?-- Lena Horne

Auld Lang Syne-- Aqua String Band

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear-- Don Kinnier at the Longwood Gardens Organ

Joy to the World-- Sufjan Stevens

Es Ist Ein Ros' Entsprungen-- Die Regensburger Domspatzen

Hallelujah Chorus (Reprise)-- The New Messiah

Skating (vocal)-- Vince Guilardi Trio

Keep Christmas With You-- Sesame Street 

Lo, How A Rose Ere Blooming-- Bel Canto Chorus

O Come O Come Emmanuel-- E. James Kalal

Music In the Air-- Sister Rosetta Tharpe

The Most Photogenic City in America?

I've been fortunate to be living in Trinidad, Colorado for the past six weeks. There's a lot to say about a lifelong east coast resident spending more than a few nights in the Rocky Mountain State. This post is about Trinidad's architecture, and explains why, in my mind, the city is worth seeing-- especially for photographers.

 I was in Trinidad for other reasons than photography, but I realized quickly I could have been there for a week with that purpose alone. Trinidad is a remarkable place, not just for being a collection of incredible, historic architectural buildings, but for the distinct and commanding place it holds in the high desert. From Pike's Peak-- the large plateau-like mountain that looms over the city-- or from the hills on the outskirts in the other direction, Trinidad glistens, like a row of illuminated diamonds shining out from the otherwise-black and empty landscape. Trinidad's streets are as angular as any in New York City, and Main Street runs east-to-west. This leads to blinding sun glare on Main Street at rush hour, but I never saw a rush. At sundown, Trinidad's buildings draw long shadows across each other's facades; telephone polls and electric lines get in the act as well, as the day's sun crawls away down, leaving the city in the high desert cold, dry, and full of wind at night. For a lifelong east coast resident, Trinidad's natural environment is startling: at over 6,000 feet in elevation, Trinidad is said to have some of the best air quality in the United States due to its location on the edge of the wider, lower desert to the south, situating the city in a natural jet stream. Regardless of how hard the wind blows, however, the sun beams bright on most days-- 9 out of 10 days in a row, at least-- to such an extent that many homeowners on the outskirts of town get by with only their own solar power.

The City of Trinidad rests just beyond the shadow seen in this photo.

Trinidad is the wild west-- as wild as it still  is-- and a great jumping-off point for further adventures deeper into Colorado. Only stopping for fuel at the gas station by the Holiday Inn and WalMart-- one exit farther south on I-25-- is a waste, because Trinidad is a city worth seeing, if only for twenty minutes and from your car window. Unlike some other aspiring tourism destinations (and, sadly, most of my beloved state of Vermont), Trinidad has multiple hotels, reliable cell phone and wi-fi coverage, plenty of places to eat, and is host to more cultural events than one might expect.

It is, for me, the history of Trinidad that is most enticing, be it the gunfights of the 1890s, the coal mining communities of the early 1900s, or the Black Hand and 'mafia' operations in the 1920s and 1930s. The physical locations in downtown Trinidad and the surrounding residential community transpose an early 20th-century affluence into our bustling 21st century. The economic and social growth of Trinidad is not rooted in any one strain of its history, or in any one arts initiative, and not even linked solely to its presence along the highway, which is said to be second only  to Denver International, in terms of popular ways to get into Colorado.

While I brought a 35mm film camera with me, I couldn't get the light meter to work properly, even after replacing the battery. So I gave up on analog visual media (for this trip, anyway), and committed to using my Samsung Note 5 as often as possible. I did not accomplish nearly as much photography as I had hoped; the images below represent less than half of what I would consider valuable and aesthetically-pleasing American architecture in Trinidad. For those interested in taking photographs of buildings-- especially the grand and large buildings of the early 20th century, in as "authentic" a condition as possible-- Trinidad is a figurative goldmine. I am not a professional photographer, but could have happily pretended to be one, could have sat around Main Street for a week watching the light change.

The photographs collected in this post represent a few weeks' worth of casual effort to capture some of the architecture within Trinidad's city limits. Many, many historic buildings of Trinidad are not pictured here. Some images depict businesses or advertisements. Some buildings are in good shape, while others are not. In posting these images I am making no endorsements or criticisms, but rather acknowledging what I saw as being unique to Trinidad, if not different and noteworthy. These photos are presented in no specific sequence, and the ownership and addresses of locations depicted here remain unidentified. The City of Trinidad and the Trinidad Public Library have extensive documentation of some downtown buildings; visitors are encouraged to not only see Trinidad, but to learn for themselves about what is there, and why. It is a beautiful city, one of the most photogenic in the United States.

To learn more about visiting Trinidad, click HERE

To learn more about the history of Trinidad, click HERE

First and Last Trip to Hastings (Overland Park, KS)

Less than 72 hours after my doctoral graduation ceremony, I stood in one of the last locations of the nation's third-largest bookseller. Within weeks, the most contentious election of my lifetime would end in a two-million vote landslide, with the winner of the electoral college becoming the definitive President-elect before the sun rose. But the light was bright in Hastings on that mid-October Monday afternoon in suburban Kansas City, Kansas, where a team of youthful workers cordoned off empty sections of the store, and prepared shelving and racks for liquidation. There was still a variety of products available: outmoded iPods, undesirable video games for a host of platforms, racks of strategy guides for long-forgotten PC games, and only a few hundred or so books left. Many of them were political; many were flash-in-the-pan, ghostwritten autobiographies, no longer useful to the celebrities that wrote them. The selling of their book was no longer useful, either. The empty walls of the store, still ordained by larger-than-life faces, each captivated by the former store's product, loomed with anti-intellectual foreboding. There were plenty of CDs-- Hastings took in used product from customers-- so among the dozens of specific, highly-promoted mainstream titles (Scott Weiland's "Happy" and Triumph The Insult Comic Dog's "Come Poop With Me" are two examples I'll never forget), I found interesting, off-label re-releases, some neat jazz CDs by unknown players, and plenty more. Most were 90% off their labeled price; reflecting that discount and all others, my receipt claimed I "saved over $450.00" by shopping at Hastings. 

Why did this bookstore-- diversified into a bookstore, media store, novelty gifts, coffee bar, whatever works-- why did this national chain fail? A few years back, I used this blog to say goodbye to Borders Books and Music, a similar chain that was an integral part of my growing up. I was unfamiliar with Hastings, but as I stood among the empty CD racks and array of empty bookshelves, I felt like I understood the business they had been trying to operate. One blogger discussed Hastings' decision to, within months of what would be their final bankruptcy declaration, increase their selection of graphic novels; whether or not Hastings carried indie, and not just mainstream graphic novels, would have made little difference (that blogger did post an interesting PDF, of Hastings' indebtedness in June, 2016). Hastings became defunct on October 31, 2016. 

I want to think people are still reading, as much as they were back when erecting such a supermarket-sized bookstore was not just feasible but profitable. I don't know if looking at one's smartphone screen counts as reading; I don't think that activity asks the same from the brain's wiring as the action of reading a book. I do know that browsing on Amazon or other sites is nothing like the experience of wandering about in a physical space, allowing for the surprising and/or the unexpected to appear before us, and maybe change our lives. Will we, as a culture, find something to fill this now-empty space?