Chezz - C'Tack!’s Neighborhood

If you could kiss anyone under the mistletoe, who would it be?

It depends on exactly where the mistletoe was hanging...

John

First of all, it is very important to make it clear that fasting on the day of `Ashura’ – the 10th of Muharram- is of great merits in Islam. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Fasting the day of `Ashura' (is of great merits), I hope that Allah will accept it as an expiation for (the sins committed in) the previous year” (Muslim).

Also, fasting the 9th of Muharram is highly recommended by the Sunnah. Imam At-Tirmidhi reported that Ibn `Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) used to say: We should fast on two days: the 9th and 10th of Muharram to distinguish ourselves from the Jewish community. (At-Tirmidhi)

It is the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to fast on the 9th and 10th of Muharram. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him used to fast on the day of `Ashura'. When he came to Madinah, he found out that the Jews of Madinah were also fasting on this day remembering Prophet Musa (peace and blessings be upon him). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) admired this tradition and said to the Jews, "I am closer to Musa than you are." He fasted and he also told his Companions to fast on this day.

Later, before the end of his life, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) told Muslims to add the 9th day also. Thus, it is recommended to fast on both the 9th and 10th of Muharram.

I deleted my Twitter accounts today. In a world of casual, disposable interactions, it seemed more part of a problem, not a solution. I realized it was giving me nothing and only taking: time, energy, resources. I'm so enervated of late by this weird interpersonal desert I'm wandering around in that I just can't bear that kind of drain anymore. I've spent the last five years of my life living in a strange city, and I still feel like a stranger here. I am stretched thin by 1,817 days of feeling unknown. Things like Twitter -- they don't help me feel connected. They make me feel that much more estranged. Reducing me, and my thoughts or my activities, to one short sentence? To which people may or may not have a reaction, assuming they even read it, and none of it will I ever know about? (Unless they bother to comment or "retweet," which happened so infrequently as to be not at all.) I can't believe I ever thought that was a meaningful way to spend my time! I am chagrined at the things I've tweeted to complete strangers, who don't give one red shit about me or my comings/goings, thoughts, feelings ... .

I wondered today if the only point of knowing people is to have bodies to show up to one's funeral. (If so, Twitter fails even on that count, as most people don't even know where Tweeters live. How would they even know one had died?) If the point of connection with people is to *know* them, and NOT merely have them show up and shake their heads sadly at one's coffin, then I am dumbfounded as to how anything less than good old-fashioned conversation will serve that connective purpose. The ideal is face-to-face bonding, where nonverbal blends with the verbal and humans -- gregarious by nature -- can have that subconscious need for communion fed. Anything less than that are distant runners-up: the phone call (with at least the enrichment of sound and timbre), the letter or email (with the focused effort on communicating one-on-one). And what texting or "chatting" offer in real-time response they sacrifice away in misunderstood tone and loss of nuance. The point is to build some foundation with another person; something that you both can refer back to, and share, over time. How does one build that exclusively through snippets of broken conversation, misread cyber tone, or Tweets?

My life -- all our lives -- are already plenty full of inconsequential interactions. Mine has felt increasingly cluttered with those, to the point that it feels I don't relate to anyone on an authentically personal level anymore. With no job to force me out of my Shoebox, I am down to the following flesh-and-blood flora: the rotating check-out clerk at the grocery store, who peers over my self-checkout process from a distance. (I don't think it's ever the same one twice.) The barista who takes my latte order (IF I decide I can afford the splurge). The stranger who jostles me on the streetcar, sometimes with an apology but usually not. The concierge at my apartment building, who probably knows my last name (because he occasionally drops off deliveries at my door) but not my first. The postal clerk who took my packages to mail back to loved ones in the South. The bank tellers who watch me come and go at the ATM. The homeless man who sells newspapers outside the grocery store. I don't know them; they don't know me. We all make certain efforts to stay closed off and protected, behind a veneer of anonymity. We don'see each other; it's that way by our mutual design. Other than living with my wife, these few, random people are the only regular real human contact I've had this month. In a dearth of the Consequential, one is left with these fractured slivers. It isn't impressive, is it.

I am not really sure what I'm protecting myself from. It's habit, really. Too often trying to get to know random people doesn't pay off -- they end up kooky, or outright unhinged. Even dangerous. It seems safer, less trouble overall, to just blur on by. To not be seen. To not see. To let chance rule any outcomes that last longer than a two-second meeting of the eyes or an intrusively overhead phone conversation. Even that "eyes meet" thing has slid beyond my grasp; I came back from Europe with a disturbing new tendency to not look people in the eye. I've spent months trying to figure out what happened to me to make me so resolute to not look at anyone. I came up with a few different explanations, but mostly? It's because I can't bear to not be seen anymore. If I don't look at them, they won't look through me, and I don't have to wonder if I'm invisible. I just ... pretend they aren't there. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy of tragically epic proportions. I see that; I just have no idea how to change it.

Twitter just seemed to be that same meaningless torture on an exponential, electronic scale. So much "look at me, read me," without any feedback or confirmation. I occasionally cared about how many people followed me; I guess it gave me some sense of "accomplishment" to be "followed" by yet another Doesn't Know Me Stranger. Mostly I cared that people commented or "retweeted" me, because that seemed to be proof  that someone, somewhere, was paying attention and listening to me. That didn't happen as much as I'd hoped. And now it won't happen at all.  Which is probably how it should have been all along.

I try to resolve (somehow, with the tatters of what's left of my Give a Shit) to only interact meaningfully going forward from now. Given that I know firsthand how edifying it can feel for someone to really "SEE" me, maybe more of that will come back to feed me if I try harder to meaningfully interact, even if it's only for a moment -- on the streetcar, to sense that someone else understands what it feels like to be trapped in such a small space with complete strangers. Or when waiting impatiently in an endless line, where banter is shared like a drug to numb the irritation. Or on the elevator when someone looks at me when I say hello. It seems I've been trapped in a quicksand of oblivion, and if I don't get out soon, I will drown in it.

Last week, we went to an atheist potluck, a sort of "secular holiday celebration." I enjoyed the last hour of the night most, as we played a "Loaded Questions" game. Some of the questions were merely fun, and enlightening in a cursory way -- what is your favourite movie quote? If you had a yacht, what would you name it? But some questions were more probing, and the more transparent, vulnerable answers to those almost broke my heart. To the question "What did you most want when you were a child?" one man responded "A more loving father." The courage it takes to volunteer such a thing in a crowd of mostly strangers! He shines in my memory like a beacon. A beacon like I've tried to be, but it seems that's been a failure. Cuz I was tweeting when I should have been ... connecting.

The flipside to this loneliness as been an all-too-easy intoxication in perceiving any kind of persistent connection with anyone at all. I behave like a starving ghost of myself, emaciated and grasping at anything that feels warm or familiar and safe. This, also, is not impressive. I really am more than I've appeared to be. I really am ... more. Aren't I?

Christmas with the Jews Elizabeth & the Catapult 1 comment Read More Elizabeth & The Catapult http://weheartmus... Paste and Rolling Stone loves Brooklyn-based Elizabeth & The Catapult

ELIZABETH & THE CATAPULT
elizabethandthecatapult.com ♥ myspace.com

The last time we mentioned Elizabeth and the Catapult, the song "Race You", went straight to the top ten on The Hype Machine. And it's easy to see why, the song is such a fun and cute pop song.

This Christmas song, "Christmas with the Jews", is also fun and cute (and not to mention quite short). But what you're thinking when you're listening to this song, is "er, aren't you forgetting Hanukkah?"

Maybe you can ask them if you see them live:

01/28/10 The Barn Clinton, New York
02/05/10 World Cafe Live Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
02/06/10 8x10 Baltimore, Maryland

THE JOY FORMIDABLE
myspace.com ♥ twitter.com

The Joy Formidable - My Beerdrunk Soul is Sadder than a Hundred Dead Christmas Trees

The Joy Formidable

When I first heard of The Joy Formidable last year, I was impressed. I said I saw "lot of potential" in this band. Based on the free Christmas song, "My Beerdrunk Soul is Sadder than a Hundred Dead Christmas Trees" (available at musicglue.com), I'm still loving the vocals by Ritzy.

Maybe there was a problem with my download, but the MP3 track is 4:56, where the last 30 seconds of the song is complete and utterly garbage... it sounds like it was encoded in error and not part of the song. I've edited out the crap part for you.

The tour information they sent me is as follows:

January 2010.
Fri 8 USA New York Terminal 5 w/Passion Pit.
Sat 9 USA New York Terminal 5 w/Passion Pit.
Mon 11 USA New York Union Hall.
Tue 12 USA New York Pianos.

February 2010.
Sun 21 Norway Oslo John Dee w/The Temper Trap.
Mon 22 Denmark Copenhagen Vega w/The Temper Trap.
Tue 23 Denmark Copenhagen Vega w/The Temper Trap.
Wed 24 Sweden Stockholm Debaser Slussen w/The Temper Trap.
Fri 26 Germany Hamburg Molotow w/The Temper Trap.
Sat 27 Germany Berlin Postbahnhof w/The Temper Trap.
Sun 28 Germany Cologne Gloria w/The Temper Trap.

March 2010.
Tue 2 Germany Munich Atomic Café w/The Temper Trap.
Wed 3 Germany Frankfurt Nachtelben w/ The Temper Trap.

THE MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA
themanchesterorchestra.com ♥ myspace.com

The Manchester Orchestra - 12 Days of Christmas

We're on Day 10 of the 12 Days of Christmas, so hurry on over if you're a fan of the Manchester Orchestra. Each of these songs are acoustic live versions of their song. My only complaint is that you have to listen to these songs on the computer - so if you've got 30 minutes to spare, sit and listen away.

My favorite track is "One Hundred Dollar", you can simply hear the anger as singer Andy Hull asks to borrow $100. While the song is short and doesn't offer much explanation, you, as the audience makes up your own background to the song. Anyway, the song is from their latest album, Mean Everything to Nothing, they'll probably be playing loads of their new songs on tour:

01/29/10 Salt Palace Convention Center^{^} Salt Lake City, Utah
01/30/10 The Fillmore^{^} Denver, Colorado
01/31/10 The Black Sheep* Colorado Springs, Colorado
02/02/10 The Marquee* Tulsa, Oklahoma
02/03/10 Juanita’s Cantina Ballroom* Little Rock, Arkansas
02/04/10 New Daisy Theatre* Memphis, Tennessee

^ with Brand New
* with Harrison Hudson

SIA
siamusic.net ♥ myspace.com

Finally, we have Sia. This actually has nothing to do with Christmas, unless you count getting a new music video as a holiday gift. But just talking about the video for "You've Changed" isn't enough to warrant its own article, so I thought I might as well stuck her here.

Sia has always seem to me to be this child trapped in a grown-up's body. The latest video is wonderful, it features this weird stop-motion, "dress up" video-gamey feel to it. I don't know who's idea it was, I'll bet it's a combination of Sia's child-mind and director Dennis Liu of @radical.media, but it came together pretty great.

Be sure to watch the high-resolution video of it (you'll need it to read the song lyrics scrolling at the bottom).

Sia - You've Changed

 12/23/2009 04:58:16 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com

I don't know how I missed the fact that Oral Roberts died last week.  I mostly know the televangelist from the controversy that occurred in 1987 when Roberts revealed that Jesus was holding him for ransom.  During a fundraising drive, he stated that if he didn't raise $8 million by March, God would "call him home."  People laughed, but Roberts raised the money and didn't die, thereby proving that he was right.

Oral Roberts

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This young man is forced to keep his Islam a secret as he still lives with his non-muslim mom and step-dad... BUT WHEN ISLAM COMES TO THE HEART, NOTHING CAN STOP IT!!! :):):)