THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
Believe it or not, the Christmas season is still in full force around the world and will be through January 6, the Twelfth Day of Christmas. January 6th is also referred to Epiphany, Old Christmas, Three Kings Day and sometimes Little Christmas, depending on the local tradition.
I doubt anyone knows the exact day Jesus was born, but some time in the Fourth Century—to capitalize on the existing Pagan/Yule celebrations—December 25 was adopted by the Western Christian Church as the official date of Christ's birth. The Eastern Christian Church adopted January 6 as the celebration of the nativity. The period bridging these two is referred to as the Twelve Days of Christmas. It represents the Wise Men’s journey to Bethlehem, with Christmas Day celebrating Jesus’ birth and January 6 celebrating the Kings’ arrival at the manger.
In Latin America, Three Kings Day is the tradtional gift-giving time as children leave grasses under their bed or in their shoes for the camels. They wake up to find that the grass has been eaten and a Christmas gift from the Kings has been left.
According to Spanish tradition, Melchior, Caspar, and Balthasar [various spellings exist for each king] representing Europe, Arabia, and Africa, arrived on horse, camel and elephant, bringing gold, frankincense and myrrh, respectively. January 6th is also the traditional gift-giving day in Spain.
So, even though the radio has stopped playing Bing Crosby and the After-Christmas sales are winding down, our tree is still up, in a nod to the Twelve Days of Christmas and Epiphany.
LA HOLIDAY CELEBRATION
Our friends Byron and Shephard invited us to the LA Holiday Celebration, which has been a Christmas Eve tradition for 47 years. We arrived at the 2500-seat Dorothy Chandler Pavilion about 30 minutes before show time and stepped into a line that was as long as Main Street, U.S.A. In a short while, though, we were seated in the 2nd balcony as host Sheryl Lee Ralph introduced the first of many acts.
Over the next two hours we saw a sharply-dressed Rat Pack band, a 10-voice a capella choir, the “Snow Scene” from the Nutcracker Ballet, and a juvenile mariachi group whose smallest member played the biggest instrument [the oversized guitarron.]
Our two favorite professional acts were the LA Philharmonic Master Chorale and the all-female Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles. On the amateur side my two favorites were the The Salvation Army Tabernacle Children’s Choir and the Activities for Retarded Children and Adults Handbell Choir.
There were still four hours left in the program and the same long line outside when we left. There was something for everyone as you can see in these photos. http://www.lacountyarts.org/holiday.html Here's a brief history of how the celebration came to be http://www.lacountyarts.org/docs/47thhcdocs/06nsbackground.pdf
Thank you to Byron and Shephard--we had a great time!
A CHRISTMAS EVE DRIVE
After dinner that night, Daryl and I drove around LA looking at Christmas decorations.
Santa was still receiving children on Hollywood Boulevard at the L. Ron Hubbard Winter Wonderland. In addition to a complimentary candy cane, I wonder if Santa’s helpers made sure each child was given a free stress test?
On Rodeo Drive, the lampposts were adorned with Baccarat chandeliers. Only in Beverly Hills.
THE DAVID HOUSE
At the intersection of Third and Muirlands, amidst the mature trees and Tudor mansions of idyllic Hancock Park, is the jarring residence known throughout Los Angeles as The David House.
It’s a boring white home with a white wrought iron fence surrounding the almost treeless front yard. The circular driveway has seventeen roman columns, each supporting a four-foot statue of Michaelangelo’s David. The roof is graced by seven busts of Caesar, and the driveway gate has giant letters spelling out “Youngwood Court.”
Surprisingly, this “crass menagerie” does not violate city ordinances, and the owner, Norwood Young, is an interesting person. His backyard is just as understated and his dogs are died pink and blue. It’s all in this LA Weekly article. http://www.laweekly.com/best-of-la-2006/best-garden-anti-gnomes/14680/
For Christmas, Young added a Santa hat to each David, covered the lawn with white batting, and set up a life-sized Santa and Mrs. Claus whose faces were painted jet-black. There was also holiday music and miles of Christmas lights at which many people, including us, stopped to gawk. Here’s a picture I found online:
http://www.cherrycapri.com/photos_2005winter/youngwood1.jpg
ST THOMAS THE APOSTLE
By 10:00, we were seated at St. Thomas The Apostle, an Episcopal/Anglican church not far from Grauman’s Chinese Theater. We enjoyed the service, but had forgotten how much incense is used. It’s supposed to represent the people’s prayers making their way to heaven, but by the end of the service I felt like I was in a Cheech and Chong movie.
CHRISTMAS DAY
We opened presents in the morning and then readied the house and began cooking for our friends JJ and Adam and their dog Hamish. We have a DVD of a roaring fire which, as ridiculous as it sounds, warms up the apartment. Hamish spent most of the evening curled up in front of it or waiting for food to fall from the table. JJ entertained us by reading from a collection of Christmas stories her mother, Jill Caruth, had sent from London.
POTATOES CARUTH
For dinner, JJ brought her mother’s roast potatoes. These little round spuds were crispy on the outside but soft on the inside and completely delicious because they had been slow roasted in duck fat. I’m getting hungry just thinking about them.
It was a new dish to us but I found several mentions and recipes for “duckfat potatoes” online. One site called the dish pommes salardaises because it was popularized in the town of Salard, France. We call them Potatoes Caruth in honor of JJ’s mom.
STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING
As if the potatoes weren’t enough, JJ also brought a sticky toffee pudding, a traditional English dessert that originated in the Lake District. It was warm cake sweetened with dates and covered with gooey warm toffee. Some people serve it with ice cream but I think it’s perfect all by itself. Read more about it and see if it is available in your area at this website: http://www.stickytoffeepudding.com/
NEW YEAR’S EVE
The only New Year’s Eve tradition that Daryl and I have is “Spend it together.” This year we played Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit and UNO with our friend Cynthia. Each of us won a game or two and we all had champagne. It was a fun evening.
Here are some various New Year’s Eve rituals I read about in the LA Times:
- While the clock strikes midnight, eat twelve grapes and make a wish on each one.
- Japanese customs include hanging origami cranes in the windows.
- A Caribbean tradition requires that at midnight, the house be as clean as possible to make room for the luck to enter.
- Some Chinese purchase a kumquat bush.
- No lobster after midnight. They move backwards and that’s a bad omen.
- Wearing new, red underwear to welcome love.
Daryl and I were in Joshua Tree to see my Uncle Carl and to catch up with my Uncle Billy who was in town with his family. They had driven all the way from West Palm Beach and stopped off for a few days before they headed on to San Diego for whale watching and to Colorado for skiing. Busy folks!
THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE/NOHO ARTS CENTER
This sounded like a fun show—Pirates of Penzance set in 1930’s Coney Island with Tin Pan Alley arrangements and lyrics updated to include Depression-era references—but we were disappointed. There were a few clever touches, but overall, we felt like the production wasn’t fully developed.
On the bright side, in a clever bit of stunt casting, the Major General was played by the world’s fastest talker, John Moschitta Jr. Best known for his FedEx and MicroMachines commercials, Moschitta did a great job with the role and got the laughs of the evening.
THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA/AHMANSON THEATER
Winner of six Tony Awards, this romantic and atmospheric musical takes place in 1953 Italy as an American mother and daughter meet Fabrizo, a young native eager to show them the sights. I watched it on PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center but Daryl got to see the National Tour when it stopped in LA.
He tells me that Christine Andreas’ performance was stellar as the overprotective mother from Winston Salem and that David Burnham’s Fabrizio lit up the stage, character and voice-wise. If the tour is headed your way, we both recommend it. You may not be humming the score when you leave the theater, but you’ll never forget the story. http://www.piazzaontour.com/
STAR SIGHTINGS
I was walking by Soundstages 1 & 3 where they were shooting the new Disney film Enchanted when Patrick Dempsey [McDreamy from Grey’s Anatomy] walked out to announce "Twilight on the Lot!"
THE YEAR IN BOOKS
I only read 10 books this year, but five of them were about screenwriting. My favorite of these was Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! Written with humor and lots of insight about the current state of the industry, this is a terrific guide to the basics. Blake maintains a website and has recently introduced his own writing software. http://blakesnyder.com/
[Thanks again, Byron and Shephard].
THE YEAR IN MOVIES
Because each screenwriting book recommends about twenty films to study, I watch a lot of movies. This year, I saw 305. Not all of them were award-worthy, but each one was an opportunity to study scene structure, character development, pacing, tone and dialogue. (If you’re interested in the complete list, I’ll forward it to you.)
I learned the most from watching black and white classics like Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, The 39 Steps, Gilda, Requiem a Heavyweight, and The Postman Always Rings Twice. The storytelling is generally slower than today, but filmmakers were able to convey just as much adult material with only PG language and visuals.
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL
Not realizing that the opening scene takes place, coincidentally, on New Years Eve, I finished off the year with High School Musical. No one could have predicted the movie would hit as big as it did, but they obviously followed one of the most important rules when writing a film: Know your audience.
My only gripe with the film is the title. The story stops before the musical is actually performed, so the movie should really be called High School Audition.
JANUARY
I planned to send this out on January 1st, but we ended up having a busy day. Tell you all about it next month.
Happy New Year!
James & Daryl
