If You Could Hear Me Think... (Wednesday Morning Thoughts #1, 11/23/22)

“The Rich Odour of Its Savoury Stuffing”

Happy 4th-Thursday-of-November, however you choose to celebrate it. For those who call that celebration “Thanksgiving”, here is a relevant paragraph from Northwood, the celebrated novel by “Mother of Thanksgiving” and Laurel Hill Cemetery permanent resident Sarah Josepha Hale. This is from a larger section during which Hale is describing a traditional New England Thanksgiving feast, circa 1825:

The roasted turkey took precedence on this occasion, being placed at the head of the table; and well did it become its lordly station, sending forth the rich odour of its savoury stuffing, and finely covered with the frost of the basting. At the foot of the board a surloin of beef, flanked on either side by a leg of pork and joint of mutton, seemed placed as a bastion to defend innumerable bowls of gravy and plates of vegetables disposed in that quarter. A goose and pair of ducklings occupied side stations on the table, the middle being graced, as it always is on such occasions, by that rich burgomaster of the provisions, called a chicken pie. This pie, which is wholly formed of the choicest parts of fowls, enriched and seasoned with a profusion of butter and pepper, is, like the celebrated pumpkin pie, an indispensable part of a good and true Yankee Thanksgiving; the size of the pie usually denoting the gratitude of the party who prepares the feast. The one now displayed could never have had many peers.

Frank Black Friday!

This year will mark somewhere between the 10th and 15th time that I will celebrate the day after Thanksgiving as Frank Black Friday. You can join in, simply by listening to the solo work of Frank Black, aka Black Francis of Pixies fame.

The origins of Frank Black Friday are becoming shrouded by the ever-swirling mists of time, but the story is something like this: at some point between 10 and 20 years ago, Black Friday sales events were getting completely out of hand, or at least I thought so. Stores and shopping malls were opening at midnight on what has traditionally been known as “Black Friday” to let in hordes of shoppers hoping to snag one of the super cheap VCR/DVD player combos on offer.

Eventually, some of these stores were pushing their open times into the waning hours of Thanksgiving evening. It was ludicrous, especially when we all started anticipating the Black Friday evening video evidence of violence happening in the name of these cheap VCRs.

It was a sorry state of affairs and I wanted nothing to do with it. At the same time though, I wanted to do something more than just sit around all day on Black Friday.

But sitting around all day on Black Friday while listening to Frank Black albums? I could get behind that. And I have, with varying degrees of enthusiasm every Frank Black Friday since then.

This year, I’ve loaded a mega-playlist, featuring nearly every studio track from Black’s discography. I keep thinking that one of these years, I’ll curate a “Frank Black for beginners” playlist but for now I’ll suggest that if you would like to observe Frank Black Friday but are new to his work, start by listening to this eponymous debut album and his epic Teenager of the Year follow-up. If these work out for you, you can investigate further Frank Black albums next Frank Black Friday. Maybe by then, I’ll have prepared a detailed guide to the collected FB albums, but I wouldn’t count on that.

Jingle Bells Jawns: A Not-So-Sleight Return

Sometime on Frank Black Friday, I will be posting the third in my series of Jingle Bell Jawns entries on CD and vinyl albums in my Christmas music collection. I had taken a break after writing my first two, mostly because I realized I ultimately wasn’t ready for Christmas music, but the time has arrived. Stay tuned!