The Week in Review
We have entered the giving holiday season here at This Recording. I thought it was a dirty little secret that Santa gave Jewish children coal in their stockings, but it turned out my mother was just screwing with me all those years. Things rarely seem as hilarious at the time, and Jackie Kennedy's last happy holiday moments with her husband weren't all shits and giggles. At least there was little in the way of porn stars back then.
kennedy christmas card for 1962In the haze of Christmas morning, I also believed Jesus was a satanic elf for a brief period in the late 1980s. Times were hard, our idea of Christmas was relatively inflexible and included a menorah largely for giggles. For a country like ours to survive this difficult period, we must avoid playing jokes on our Jewish sons, and harken back to the Christmas of olde.
Enjoy our week of holiday-based content:
The wonders of depression-era dating according to Meredith Chamberlain...
We unveiled the top 20 albums of the year...
Ray Zhong on Jason Reitman's Up in the Air...
Almie Rose on the promiscuous, sex positive Grace Kelly...
William Gass' letter for the ages...
All the vampires left New York...
Eleanor Morrow on the films of Yasujiro Ozu...
The aging oeuvre of Nancy Meyers...
The story of Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud...
The young auteurs of You Won't Miss Me...
Tao Lin discussed Thomas Bernhard...
Rufus Wainwright's iTunes playlist...
Elaine de Kooning remembered Mark Rothko...
Bob Dylan met John Lennon...
You can catch up on past Week in Reviews here.
"The Children" - Yeasayer (mp3)
"Madder Red" - Yeasayer (mp3)
"I Remember" - Yeasayer (mp3)
harry truman taking a christmas break in independence