This is an excellent movie. It helped me stay up way too late after rehearsal last night, getting to the ribbing of the latest DNA scarf. It contains no knitting at all, but does have a jaw-dropping scene of a Simon and Garfunkel tune played on a bagpipe.

I have given up on finishing something black to wear for tonight’s concert, and also on perfecting the music. I will stand in the back in ill-fitting clothes, singing as best I can. Let’s face it: preparation time is past. However, I still hope to finish the last hat-and-scarf set in time to ship for Christmas. Assuming I give up sleeping.

That Man and I were talking yesterday about new Christmas carols: had there been any really good new carols since the 1930-1950 Christmas song renaissance? All we could think of offhand — except for John Rutter, about whom more later — were horrible songs like “Holly Jolly Christmas,” “Little St. Nick,” and “Grownup Christmas List.”

John Rutter has written numerous lovely original Christmas carols, including ”Christmas Night” and “What Sweeter Music.” I can’t give you links to these, since they are new and under copyright, but you may want to seek them out. However, they are all rather elaborate choral pieces, with 6 parts and so on, and not things the average family or group of friends wants to sit down and sing around the piano in the parlor of an evening. I think they are therefore disqualified as useful songs for this project. But they have all been recorded, and I hope you will consider them if you feel the need to spruce up your CD collection.

However, I have since though of a wonderful new carol, “Come to the Cradle,” by Michael Card. This is a lovely song, easy to sing, and amenable to guitar or piano accompaniment. It was written in 1993, and has not, as far as I can tell, been recorded except by Michael Card. I can’t give you a link, for the same reasons discussed above, and the sheet music is also hard to find — you have to track down his out-of-print Greatest Songs book. Here is a link with a little clip: http://www.mp3.com/Michael-Card/artists/1872/summary.html  It is not the same as a good connection with words and music, though, is it?

Well, it is still a better song-of-the-day than “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” In case you disagree, here is a link to words and music for this recent classic: http://www.always-safe.com/grandma.html #2 daughter and I sang it with the radio on the way to Tulsa last weekend. I had not previously grasped that the Grandma in question was actually dead. It is kind of fun to sing, though, and lends itself to raucous shouting, if that is your favorite kind of singing. It could be played on any instruments, I would think, but I would love to hear it with a tuba.

Just to finish the story, I must tell you that I completed my electronic shopping successfully.

A man — Dweezy – has weighed in on the whole electronics-shopping thing. He says he can’t get people to help him at all. He takes his sister-in-law with him to get the attention of the salesmen. Presumably his presence keeps them focussed. In both stores I visited in my quest yesterday,  I asked women for help, just to see whether it would make a difference. And in both cases, they called guys over to do the helping. They were very helpful.

The fellow in the first store clearly explained the difference between — okay, I don’t want to give away the secret, so I will say between XXX XXs and XXXs. It was just a bunch of numbers, anyway. The guy in the second store did not laugh at me, even when I asked him, “As a former boy, do you feel that this is the coolest-looking one?” I did have to make one phone call to #1 daughter to make sure that I should not have gone with the round tortoise-shell thing instead of the one I did get, but I am now contented.

I have been linking you to a song every day, sort of a virtual advent calendar of music. Mostly, I have suggested songs that are fun and easy to sing. Today’s song is not easy. It is “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” one of the most beautiful tunes among the beautiful Advent hymns. http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/l/e/letallmf.htm The words are 4th century Greek, translated by G. Moultrie. The tune is the 15th century French hymn, “Picardie”. It was the great Ralph Vaughan Williams who put the tune and words together and arranged it. You can find the words set to other music, but don’t mess with perfection.

This is not easy to sing. It demands a fairly large range. It has some challenging intervals. And, frankly, it sounds best when sung by someone with what we often call a “good” voice. That is, more like Josh Groban than Bob Dylan.

Last night I sang through my Gibbons solo with the choir for the first time. I found that my counts were off in several spots, an embarrassing discovery to make as you sing the thing in front of the choir and instruments. I suggested that, since it was a solo, I could just sing it the way I wanted — who would know? But the director unaccountably disliked that idea. The rest of the choir went off to practice “What Sweeter Music” while I stood with the organist beating out the Gibbons. The organist, bless his heart, wrote in all the counts for me (“1 2 3 4/ 1and2 3 4″ and so on) in the hard parts. I am singing this on Sunday and hoping not to be humiliated. Or not more than I already have been. I may have to beat time on the baptismal font.

The problem is that, while I have a good instrument and excellent pitch, I am not so good at reading music. I am good at phrasing and interpretation and I take direction well. But accuracy — forget it. This may be more than mere illiteracy — it may be a central character flaw, as all who know the story of the felted clogs, or who have seen my mitered corners, will attest.

So “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” is a good song for me to sing. Since I know it by heart, I can sing it without anyone knowing that I am not actually reading the music. This allows the positive aspects of my singing to show. Having it for song of the day may make me feel better about what I did to the Gibbons. Maybe it will turn out to be a good song for you to sing, too. I think it would be good to play on violin or cello, or perhaps the flute. However, since you are the director of your own song of the day, you can play it on the kazoo while singing it in the style of Willie Nelson, and no one can stop you.

I am sewing black clothes for Friday’s concert. I also have rehearsals tonight and tomorrow night, volunteer work and school charity stuff, plus my job and daily life and Christmas presents to make, so I am feeling a little pressed. Multitasking can help a lot, if you can dovetail your work effectively, but I have found that I cannot really cut out sewing patterns and do Pilates at the same time. Nor does listening to the workout DVD while sewing actually have the same effect as doing the workout. Oh, well.

It has also been brought to my attention that my electronics shopping methods will not work for everyone. I rely on the computer guys’ being reminded of their dear mothers when I ask them a question. Glamorous young women cannot do this. When they ask a question, the young men are struck dumb — or at least stupid. They stammer, strut, or try to impress the girls. Their ears turn red. They can’t be helpful to save their lives. I should have realized this, because I was not unaware of this phenomenon in daily life. I just hadn’t thought of its retail application. The young woman who pointed it out to me says she just has to have her husband do the shopping. Nice if you can arrange that.

At first, I thought that the best solution would be to have women sell electronics equipment. On further thought, I realize that this is needlessly sexist. (So is the fact that nearly all electronics salespeople are young men, but that is another subject.)  Instead, there could be modifications in the overall shopping experience.

First, customers could choose a badge when they enter. One would announce to the salespeople that the customer is a technologically savvy person, old or young, male or female. Customers thus identified just want to chat about specs or something, and do not need help distinguishing the MP3 players from the phones. Another design of badge would say clearly that the shopper wearing it is not capable of finding his or her inkjet refill cartridges without help.

Then the stores could be arranged simply, with the MP3 players in one area and the phones in another, and the hybrids in between. There could be buttons to press, as in zoos, with recordings clearly stating the identities of the items, what they do, the legal difficulties if any associated with their use, and some simple reasons for the vast differences in price among them. “The $40 ones,” the recordings could announce, “are assembled by children working for $2.95 a day in locked rooms,” or whatever it might be. Charts explaining all the numbers could be displayed for those who want to get it all clear in their minds. Packages could say clearly not only what the item in the package is (using words, if possible), but what other electronic items must be owned in order to use the thing in the package.

If this is too extreme, then the electronics stores could hold pre-holiday workshops on the trendiest items. I can explain the difference between all-facts and regular math flashcards in under 30 seconds, so I am sure that those electronics guys could, with a little practice, put together a quick introduction to whatever all the kids are wanting that year. They could show the items that offer the highest level of coolness for each price range.

I am heading out this morning to finish my electronics purchases. Perhaps I will suggest this to those nice young men — right after they help me find the mysterious objects I seek.

As an antidote to feeling overbusy and overwhelmed (end of semester, anyone?), why not hum “Silver Bells”? You can find it here:  http://www.geocities.com/singingsnowmen/silverbells.html   This site has music, lyrics, ads, and cheesy dancing snowmen as well. This seems appropriate for a song that is largely about shopping.

Another of the holiday songs of the ’50s, this one has been recorded by everyone from Garth Brooks to Elvis Presley, Kate Smith to the Supremes. There is no chance that you do not already know about this song. So why am I reminding you of it? Because it is the most relaxing song for a sing-along. Only one person needs to remember the words. Everyone else can echo: “Silver bells!” (“Silver bells!”) “It’s Christmas time in the city!”  You can also find easy guitar chords and tabs, it is easy to sing and play, and it is very suited to humming. Tunelessly, if need be. It is even good for skating to.

What’s not to like?