Random Wednesday: Seasonal Music, Non-seasonal Music, and The Zen Of Rick And Morty

Welcome to another Random Wednesday episode of The Zen Pagan. This week, just a few links for your reading and listening pleasure.

It’s a holiday edition, so let’s start with some Christmas music. This article by Michael Brendan Dougherty about The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York” is from last year but still more than worth a read:

It is a masterpiece of compact storytelling:

…

Five words to tell us it’s a Christmas song and a love song. Four more and you know it’s unlike every other Christmas song you’ve ever heard and discover what kind of man the protagonist is. Ten more and an old man evokes the ghost of Christmas future, summoning death to the whole proceeding.

…

This may sound narrow of me, but if you can’t identify with the protagonist, I don’t think I want to know you or want you to live in my neighborhood. The longing of “Fairytale” for a better land, for better luck, and for better selves in the midst of vice and failure is nearly liturgical in its construction.

On a creepier note, check out the results of “neural karaoke” attempt to teach a computer to write a song based on a photo. Subverting Christmas seems to be an instant recipe for creepy, now that I think about it. There’s something sort of Gremlins-esque about it.

And on a non-seasonal note, read about how back in 1980 the Navy Band met Frank Zappa at the San Francisco airport with a rendition of “Joe’s Garage.” The video is a thing of beauty.

Finally, I suggest you take a look at Zen teacher Brad Warner’s recent reflection on the ineffable nature of reality — probably the only piece you’ll read this week that ties together Alan Watts, Rick and Morty, Neal Stephenson, and Donald Trump:

I think we have to learn to live comfortably and honorably in a world in which nothing is certain. And when I say nothing, I mean nothing at all. Not the political system. Not the news. Yeah, yeah. Got that. Burp!

That’s just small potatoes. Try not even your own body. Try not even your own mind.

We’re questioning everything. Good. The problem is we still think there’s an answer. But there can be no answer to the questions we’re asking.

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