I'm back for what Yeats called, in another context, "speech after long silence." I intend to become as regular a poster to this blog as I formerly was. We start, mindful of the season, with:
"A Bedford Christmas: Homecoming"
I'll be 77 on the same day Mozart turns 263 years old, January 27, 2019. Seven is a very profound number and I'll be receiving two of them as a birthday gift. It's the only gift I'm likely to receive since I've reached pensioner status and live, almost solely, on Social Security. This has been my case for several years now since I'm a journalist and my home, the Guttenberg Galaxy, imploded in 2009, taking with it my last full-time job and slowly eroding meaningful freelance work.
Even though I'm Jewish, I'm a sucker for Christmas, especially because J.S. Bach, G.F. Handel and I. Berlin composed some of their best music for December 25th. I'd be a fool not to listen to and relish it. Since I was born on a January 27th which marked the turning point in Hitler's failed conquest of Russia, I associate particularly cold, harsh, snowy but, ultimately, victorious winters with my Baltimore nativity. They say Mozart's grave is unmarked; I say it's just covered in snow--like everyone else's at this time of year, or once upon the wintry times not so long ago when I was young.
This year I expect a bitingly cold season as Arctic weather gets chased south by climate change. Given my bleak weather and wherewithal expectations, I have prepared a nostalgic mix for penurious sentimentalists like myself who remember pre-MasterCard Christmases funded completely by savings accounts and piggy banks, ones rooted in wishes no department store or its Santa could make come true.
America was at war and homecoming and homesickness were the major maladies of the time. They didn’t stop at war’s end, just morphed into the Korean War and McCarthyism. I’ll never forget reading about Americans who fought in Spain being hauled before Senate and House committees, accused of being “premature anti-fascists” (a euphemism for “Communist”).
So this mix is heavy on love and longing—especially of a familial sort which, as any Philip Roth fan knows, is not a Jewish specialty. Nevertheless, It’s a celebration of “family values”—albeit under duress.
I call it: “A Bedford Falls Christmas: Homecoming,” in homage to the America Frank Capra affirmed in “It’s A Wonderful Life” where George Bailey saw how much worse the world would be without him and went on living to prevent it becoming Pottersville. The songs reflect the values of the world his humanity saves: needs based on compassion not consumption. Hope you enjoy. Remember availability is limited to one week at WeTransfer.
