Posts Tagged ‘Christmas’
How I spent my Christmas Break (Part III: Finding the Farm)
That’s when I decided to expand my search of good ways to spend my time, and I remembered my friend once told me how she lived with a French family outside of Paris by responding to a listing on HelpX.Net (It’s a good website for people who want to travel around for little money and have the opportunity to live with locals and get to really know a place, rather than just be a tourist. )
I was shocked to stumble across a journalism/ organic farm listing that advertised the opportunity to work with an Oscar-winning filmmaker on a farm in Carrboro, NC. There’s no way I could’ve found this match if I’d been looking.
The next day, and the next day, I called the farm and volunteered to help out. It took about 5 phone calls to convince them that I had no expectations, lots of free time, and I didn’t mind if they were about to leave the country, so I might be doing non-journalism work to help them get ready.
(More to come. Class for now…)
How I Spent My Christmas Break (Part II: North Carolina)
Welcome to North Carolina
Blisters from bass guitar made the plane ride unbearable but by the time I landed in North Carolina, I’d forgotten what it was like to have a finger not throbbing. Plus, I had a whole new audience to share the news with, so I was excited that I had something to show for my hard work.
After the holiday festivities ended, including Moravian Love Feasts, a Happy Birthday Jesus Party, and several non-Jesus parties with friends from highschool, I needed a new way to spend my time besides relaxing on different couches in my house and spending too much money running unnecessary errands.
That’s when I starting researching WWOOF.org late one night. I wanted to find something fun and difficult to do that would make me feel exhausted by the end of the day, so I’d know I’d done all I could do in a day. Plus, I’d been sitting in front of a computer for what felt like the past year, since I spent the summer interning and writing, instead of working outside, so organic farming seemed perfect. I had saved up all the means to travel to Costa Rica to do it, but skepticism from e-mail responses with farm owners there had plunged the energy out of my pursuit…
The Music Tapes Make Spirits Bright in Allston, MA
Hark! The herald angels please let Julian Koster sing! Who in Allston could’ve predicted that their holiday season would be launched by a visit from the orbiting human cirus, also known as Julian Koster of Neutral Milk Hotel, accompanied by 2 other members of the lovely caroling exhibit called “The Music Tapes”?! Traveling to living rooms throughout the States with several singing saws and bowed banjos, who each have names, The Music Tapes home-delivered holiday cheer this season. With them, they brought such an atmosphere of warmth that I nearly forgot about the bone-chilling weather outside. Performing classics like “Jingle Bells” and “Noel,” along with branding originals like “Belief,” which I haven’t been able to get out of my head since, their show fulfilled the empty promise I’d had since I was a kid, when I’d wake up at night and hope to be greeted by a jolly figure who had come to bring me the gifts I’d waited all year for, only to find my un-sneaky parents planting my gifts by the tree. Theirs was much better than any visit from any Santa Claus.
The best part is: Although the night was filled with magic, and all of the events surrounding the midnight concert they played in my friend Liz Pelly’s living room hinted at miraculous intervention (what with the vegan potluck the night before, and the unexpected rebirth of a longtime dead friendship on the night of), there is lasting evidence of their appearance on Greylock Street! Thanks to my friend Peisin, here is the documented footage! May this glimpse of that magical night render what a humble Allston home filled with love and music is like. Let it be a rhythmical reminder of the real reason for the season. Peace!
(Perhaps soon I’ll upgrade to “Videopress” and gain the capability to actually embed videos on my blog, but until being a journalist starts paying, click the video below to see The Music Tapes’ live performance via Vimeo, which works too.)
The Music Tapes Caroling – ‘Zat You Santa Claus? from Peisin Yang Lazo on Vimeo.
