Tag: Christmas

Open Mic Adventures CLXI: “Clean-Shaven at Christmas”

The Portly Politico4 Comments

Christmastime is pretty busy for yours portly, which means my shaving routine tends to get disrupted.  I usually find myself nearing beard capacity by the time Christmas approaches, so I always take the time to do a thorough shave before the big day.

That being the case, I made up a little song, “Clean-Shaven at Christmas,” some years ago.  My nephews in particular love it, and will sing it—unprompted!—as Christmas approaches (I also taught them to wake up on Christmas morning shouting, “It’s Christmas!  It’s Christmas!”).

So it was that I decided to piece together a YouTube Short of the phases of my shaving with my voice accompanying.  There’s even a gross closeup of where I cut myself while shaving—gasp!

Read More »

Lazy Sunday CCCXLX: Christmas Cheer 2025, Part III

The Portly Politico2 Comments

Well, Christmas has passed, but I choose to believe that the Christmas season lasts until Epiphany, so we’re going to keep the good times rolling with a look back at some pieces from this recently-expired Christmas week:

Merry Christmas!

—TPP

TBT^4: Napoleonic Christmas

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

It’s Christmas!  It’s Christmas!  And it’s a Thursday, so yours portly is TBT’ing to a classic of yesterchristmas.

Back in 2019, I wrote this piece about Napoleon.  It took off because it gained some traction on WhatFinger News, which came along after Matthew Drudge inexplicably went woke.  The name of this alternative news aggregator always strikes me as vaguely inappropriate, but they ran my link and it got tons of views at a time when I was getting discouraged with the blog (a perennial issue, it seems—perseverance is a virtue for a reason).

Napoleon is a complex and intriguing figure.  Whatever his personal and professional attributes, he indelibly changed Europe and the world.  It’s hard for us to understand today, fixated as we are on the failed Austrian painter with the Charlie Chaplin mustache, but Napoleon’s impact was still being discussed actively in the early twentieth century.  He totally upended the gameboard of Europe—for good or for ill—and the fear and/or hope of another Napoleon endured for quite awhile.

YouTube philosopher Agora made a great video linking the two figures—and warning about why those links miss some key differences:

The important thing to remember, however, is that humanity’s conception of “greatness” is false.  Remember, Christ Was Born today as a simple baby in the most humble of circumstances—literally bedding down in a feeding trough for barnyard animals.  He Died a humiliating Death on the Cross.  He Rose from the dead and Conquered Death, and Will Return again!

No Napoleon could ever achieve what He Did.

With that, here is 26 December 2024’s “TBT^2: Napoleonic Christmas“:

Read More »

Wayback Wednesday: Christmas Eve

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

It’s Christmas Eve!  In looking back at past posts from this season, I realized that this year, Dr. Wife and I will be creating more of our traditions.  Last night, for example, we watched 1984’s Gremlins while wrapping Christmas presents.  I’m not sure if we’ll watch the same flick every year, but wrapping gifts together was fun (there is also a marked difference in quality between the gifts she wrapped and the ones I wrapped; I’ll let you guess who did a better job).

What are some of your favorite Christmas/Christmas Eve traditions, dear readers?  Leave a comment below.

With that, here is 24 December 2019’s “Christmas Eve“:

Read More »

SubscribeStar Saturday: Christmas Gigging

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

Christmas is a goldmine for musicians, one I have not cashed in on in any meaningful way in years.  Christmas parties mean Christmas music, and a subset of those parties opt for live music.

Yours portly has been a longtime user of GigSalad as a free member, which means there are some limitations on my account.  From my experience with the service, it’s not worth the considerable price to upgrade to any of their paid versions.  However, lately I’ve been doing a bit better with bookings, landing two gigs within a week of each other.

Last Sunday afternoon, for example, I played for a young man’s proposal to his girlfriend (she said yes).  That saw me driving up to Wilmington, North Carolina after church.  It was an extremely cold and windy afternoon, and I played outside for about thirty minutes.  In spite of the weather, it was an honor to be part of such an important moment (and the client seemed pleased!).

Tonight, I’ll be heading down to Summerville, South Carolina, to play a couple of hours for a Christmas party (indoors, thank God!).  I loaded up a binder with copies of alto saxophone Christmas music from 8notes.com, an incredible online resource for music education and free sheet music.  It’s a two-hour solo engagement, which can be a bit daunting on sax, but it’s totally doable.

To read the rest of this post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.

TBT^4: Joy to the World

The Portly Politico2 Comments

At this year’s Christmas Concert, the program accidentally included the lyrics to “Joy to the World.”  In the past, my students have played it as a singalong for the audience, but we haven’t done so in a few years.  I’m not sure why the lyrics got included in the program, but I briefly contemplated “winging it” and shouting the chords at my students while everyone sang.

I did not give into that temptation.  One that I have learned is that other people’s errors do not necessitate me fixing them in haphazard ways (usually).  We simply announced there was a mistake in the program and went on from there.

That said, the larger mistake was, indeed, mine—I should have put it in the Christmas Concert!  I love “Joy to the World,” and it’s really fun to play and sing.  I suppose next year I’ll have to toss it into the mix.

With that, here is 12 December 2024’s “TBT^2: Joy to the World“:

Read More »

Open Mic Adventures CLIX: “Dido’s Lament”

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Want to play the sax like yours portly?  Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.

Years ago, my dear mom found a copy of The Usborne Book of Piano Classics (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through that link, at no additional cost to you) at a book sale and picked it up for me.  I have used that book countless times over the years for gigs, piano lessons, practice, arranging, etc.  My High School and Middle School Music Ensembles have performed arrangements based on those in the book many times at the annual South Carolina Independent School Association Music Festival.

While it consists of piano arrangements of famous pieces from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods, I often play the pieces on saxophone.  I found myself pulling the book out in preparation for a gig this past Sunday (a wedding proposal—the client’s girlfriend said yes!), and came upon a melancholy piece from the Baroque composer Henry Purcell, “When I am laid in earth,” perhaps better known as “Dido’s Lament.”  It’s from Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas.

Read More »

Lazy Sunday CCCXLIX: Christmas Cheer 2025, Part II

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Merry Christmas, TPP Readers!  I’m back with some more Christmas-related posts from the last week:

Happy Sunday—and Merry Christmas!

—TPP

SubscribeStar Saturday: Christmas Concert 2025 Postmortem

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

Good afternoon, my loyal subscribers!  Apologies for a late post today; yours portly crashed out after a long but productive day at work yesterday, which included my students’ annual Christmas Concert.

I’ll allow GEOTUS to articulate this sentiment in the way only he can:

Regardless, in the grand tradition of The Portly Politico, it’s time the annual Christmas Concert Postmortem, where I break down the program and how everything went.

For non-paying subscribers, don’t worry—the kids did a fabulous job, as they always do.  My Middle School Music Ensemble (MSME) played three pieces:

  • “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”
  • “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”
  • “Last Christmas”

And my High School Music Ensemble (HSME) played four pieces:

  • “What Child is This?”
  • “Mary Did You Know?”
  • “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
  • “O Holy Night”

For whatever reason, the HSME played a lot of songs whose titles are questions.  Don’t ask me why!

To read the rest of this post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.