Because nothing says Christmas as much as a quiz, here is another Christmas quiz to go with our previous quiz on music from classic Christmas films and TV specials. Here, see how many questions you can answer out of the following nine questions about Christmas in the movies. Answers appear at the end.
Happy first day of winter this week. It can be difficult to become excited about winter if one lives in a place with bitter cold weather and lots of snow. I wish we all could embrace the coming winter with child-like anticipation. But as we get older, we focus on the ice, the treacherous roads, and the cold. Still, it does not have to be that way.
One may find an example of discovering joy in the coming of winter in a Northern Exposure clip from the episode “First Snow” in Season 5 of the series. In the sequence, the residents of Cicely, Alaska emerge from their homes after the first snow to happily wish each other “bon hiver” (pronounced Bone-ee-VARE), which is French for “good winter.” [December 2015 Update: Unfortunately, the Northern Exposure video clip of the scene is not currently available on YouTube, although a detailed summary of the episode and the script for the episode are available online.]
I like the way the Northern Exposure characters in “First Snow” happily embrace the first snowfall, even knowing what pain the cold weather might bring later. It is a good lesson about life to enjoy the fleeting moments that we can.
As the characters celebrate the first snowfall, Chris Stevens (John Corbett) reads a poem where he focuses on the happy beginning of the poem “Beautiful Snow.”
O the snow, the beautiful snow, Filling the sky and the earth below! Over the house-tops, over the street, Over the heads of the people you meet, Dancing, flirting, skimming along. Beautiful snow! It can do nothing wrong.
But the poem, “Beautiful Snow,” which is about a dying prostitute, has a sad ending. John Whitaker Watson (1824-1890) wrote the poem, which first appeared in Harper’s Weekly on November 27, 1858 and later appeared in Watson’s Beautiful Snow And Other Poems (1869).
In Martin Gardner’s Famous Poems from Bygone Days, he notes that in the 1800s it was not unusual for poets to write about the tragic deaths of prostitutes. Apparently at some point, someone added music to make a carol out of part of the poem. And “Beautiful Snow” was so popular that many writers composed parodies of the poem.
In Watson’s original poem, the prostitute begins by describing the “beautiful snow” as Chris quotes, but she also realizes the snow gets “trampled in mud by the crowd rushing by” and blends with the “horrible filth” on the street. The poem ends with her contemplating death with the knowledge she is a sinner: “For all that is on or about me, I know / There is nothing that’s pure but the beautiful snow.” Brrr!
From looking around the Internet, it is unclear whether anyone embraces the “bon hiver” greeting tradition you see in the Northern Exposure clip. But even if the television show was not inspired by real events, the episode in turn inspired viewers. In a previous post, we noted that musician Bon Iver took his performing name from the Northern Exposure episode as a result of an important experience in his life.
So, on the shortest day of the year, we wish you “bon hiver.” May you and yours be well throughout the winter, and may all your snows be beautiful. If nothing else, remember that starting this week, we will get a little more daylight every day until summer. Below, to help you get through the coming months, listen to Big Maceo Merriweather singing “Winter Time Blues,” recorded in 1945. Bon hiver.
Do you like winter or is another season your favorite? Deposit your two cents in the comments.
One of the most anticipated movies for the coming year is Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and its trailer was just released. The film will be released in December 2012 as the first of two films adapting the novel, and it looks like anyone who enjoyed The Lord of the Rings movies will also like this one.
As you can see from the trailer, many of the actors from The Lord of the Rings movies appear, so that the “prequel” feels like a part of the series rather than a different movie altogether. The trailer includes Andy Serkis (Gollum), Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Elijah Wood (Frodo), Orlando Bloom (Legolas), and Cate Blanchett (Galadriel). The Hobbit is set sixty years before the events of The Fellowship of the Ring and follows Bilbo Baggins, who is played by Martin Freeman, on a journey where he discovers Gollum and the ring featured in The Lord of the Rings. I can’t wait.
In other anticipated trailer news this week, a theatrical trailer for The Dark Knight Rises was also released.
When Jimmy Fallon hosted Saturday Night Live in 2011, he got together his old gang of Horatio Sanz, Chris Kattan and Tracy Morgan to reprise their classic funny performance of their song, “I Wish It Was Christmas Today.” They have made a few versions of the song through the years.
Here is the original, which I think is from December 2000. From Sanz’s travel guitar, to Fallon’s screw-ups on the organ, to the look on Morgan’s face, it captures four guys having fun and thinking, “I can’t believe we’re doing this on TV.” [December 2013 Update: The original video is no longer available for embedding, but you may watch it here on YouTube.]
The song has reappeared in several forms through the years since 2000. Sanz again performed the song on Saturday Night Live in 2004 with the Muppets. Another Fallon-Sanz version appeared December 2009 on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The performance with the Roots featured a surprise guest appearance by Strokes lead singer Julian Casablancas, who had covered the song. [December 2013 Update: That video is no longer available, so below is a video of Casablancas playing “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” live at one of his concerts.]
Finally, the new December 2011 version is below. This version is nostalgic instead of adding much new, but it is fun to see the four reprising their roles. The funniest part may be that Morgan and Kattan came back to visit the show for this performance where they do not say a word.
If you made it through all three versions, good luck in getting the song out of your head now. Happy holidays!
What’s the funniest part of the performances? Which is your favorite version? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In case you were too busy planning and then canceling a debate because nobody was going to show up, here are some of the pop culture stories you might have missed. This week’s roundup features some “Best of 2011” lists.
Etta James is terminally ill with chronic leukemia. Since we posted recently Rachel Crow’s version of “I’d Rather Go Blind,” let’s give a listen to James singing her great song.
Steve Carrell of The Office got snubbed in the Golden Globe nominations. That’s what she said.
After interviewing the Kardashians and others on her special, Barbara Walters revealed that her “Most Fascinating Person” for 2011 is the late Steve Jobs.
Ho Ho Ho! Check out these photos from Life magazine of Santa making kids cry. We hope that your wishes come true without any crying in the upcoming holiday weeks.
What were your favorite pop culture stories of the week? Leave your two cents in the comments.