Monday, December 21, 2009
The Spin Holly House Winter Formal at Mercy Lounge, 12/19/09
Posted by The Spin on Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 11:17 AM
Check out the slideshows for more photos: Part 1; Part 2.
The Spin woke on Saturday with only one thing on our agenda: some serious X-ma-kwana-hanna-rama-christma-kah-danz-mas partying, as Chuck Mead might say. We spent all afternoon slaving away in the kitchen cooking some special holiday treats: hot chocolate from scratch with Nashville's own Olive & Sinclair chocolate, some apple-cranberry turnovers and our special vegan cookie bars. We gotta say, though, vegans sure do complain a lot--especially when you put 'em in the Cuisinart--but they taste so good with a little nutmeg and cinnamon! By the time the sun had set and our serving platters were garnished, it was time to celebrate the season with the cream of Nashville's rock crop.
The first stop was the home of Dave and Alexis Paulson to pre-game before we hit up the Holly House Winter Formal at the Mercy Lounge. We were expecting a house full of hipsters when we arrived at the local music scribe/recording artist/'90s cover song guru's house, but we were uncharacteristically early and ended up chillin' with their parents. We had no idea that hipsters even had parents--we totally thought they were grown hydroponically in a secret bunker in Williamsburg. (Who knew?) As the time grew closer to rock o'clock, more scenesters trickled in--Out the Other's Janet Timmons, Exit/In's Ryan Bruce, John and Joe from Lake Fever, Rollum and Katie Haas--essentially a whole bunch of folks who wear ugly sweaters even if it's not Christmas time. The wine flowed, as did the hard pear cider, the egg nog and, yeah, we might have spiked the hot chocolate, which in retrospect might not have been the best idea but it seemed like a good one at the moment.
By the time we made our Santa-like appearance around midnight, the evening's music had already degenerated in to drunken debauchery, complete with Caitlin Rose and the Caress siblings performing the Chipmunks' "The Christmas Song" complete with costumes and squeaky voices. By that point "the band" was an amorphous collection of Non-Commissioned Officers, And the Relatives, Tristens and Roses busting out Christmas classics like "Feliz Navidad" and "Frosty the Snowman." Oh, and there was a rapping Santa Claus in there, too, 'cause y'know that's what Santa does when he's been indulging in the drink specials all night.
We were a little disappointed that Shoot the Mountain's John Brock was fully clothed--we were really hoping to see the reindeer thong this year--but his bandmate Joe Blankenship performing the lady parts on The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" was rousing enough to let it slide. The Generation Domination photo booth was hopping with drunken revelers trying to capture the good cheer on film, as it was probably the only way a lot of them would be able to remember what happened. As the night wrapped up and the band banged out an awesome version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," we saw a young couple, clearly in love, kissing passionately as someone barfed all over the floor only inches away--and all we could think about was how we love celebrating the holidays with the Nashville rock scene. God bless 'em, every one--even Ralphy McPukepants.
Comments (12)
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The Spin missed it, but I really dug Hannah Barbarians and the two original Christmas songs that Shoot the Mountain did earlier in the night.
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The Chipmunks thing was astonishingly perfect. Major credit to the Caress siblings and Caitlin for nailing that. Oh, and Brassell's cold open for it was dead on as well. The other "real" songs of the night were great too but this really did blow my mind a little.
Their rhythm section WAS good but needed more color coded clothing and pitch shifted voices.
The Feliz Navidad was easily second greatest number of the night.
There were quite a few highlights for me, despite my headache and falling asleep standing up. But Eric Lehning's acapella bass Blue Christmas was the best.
Aren’t humans amazing Animals? They kill wildlife - birds, deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes, beavers, groundhogs, mice and foxes by the million in order to protect their domestic animals and their feed.
Then they kill domestic animals by the billion and eat them. This in turn kills people by the million, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative - and fatal - - health conditions like heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and cancer.
So then humans spend billions of dollars torturing and killing millions of more animals to look for cures for these diseases.
Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals.
Meanwhile, few people recognize the absurdity of humans, who kill so easily and violently, and once a year send out cards praying for "Peace on Earth."
~Revised Preface to Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm by C. David Coates~
Check out this informative and inspiring video on why people choose vegan: http://veganvideo.org/
Also see Gary Yourofsky: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bagt5L9wXGo
it's not like plants, whose survival skills are multitudinous, are genetically programmed to end up in your skillet either. you have to kill, be it mammal or autotroph, to eat.
You could eat fruit without killing the tree. Bacon is nature's candy! And seafood is my favorite!
yeah man, once you reel in those crocodiles and cheetahs about their meat eating, or our close cousins the chimps about eating other primates, then we can talk about my chicken and brocoli. stuff gets killed and consumed no matter how simple the cell or complex the organism. its part of the machine. i personally hope to do my part and go out in a shark attack.
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