December Coffee Mixtape.
Music is an essential component of my coffee drinking experience. These are the songs I’m listening to with my cup of coffee this month. Each side is 45 minutes long, just like the blank Memorex tapes I used to buy as a kid, and about the time it takes to enjoy a leisurely cup of coffee…or three.
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Editor’s note: Music is an essential component of my coffee drinking experience. This is what I’m listening to with my cup of coffee this month. Each side is 45 minutes long, just like the blank Memorex tapes I used to buy as a kid, and about the time it takes to enjoy a leisurely cup of coffee…or three.
SIDE 1: As the rains come down in the Pacific Northwest and the snowflakes back home in the Midwest, I've been snapped from a decade-long intermission, spending my winters watching for whales from a favorite bench overlooking the beach.
There is such a pleasant melancholy to Neil Young's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart." Side 1 floats along just above and dipping below the line where we become very aware of our joy, very aware of our sadness, and yet can look upon those emotions as part of the whole of the timeline. The intensity that the year began with has dulled and numbed. As the fire rages in the hearth and the drip-drip never ends, I'll be spending December embracing the entirety of the past year. It has been a doozy.
And, maybe swaying side to side...just a bit.
Side 2: I used to be a bit of a Grinch, in the derogatory variant of the phrase. I always thought he was a bit misunderstood. Just leave the poor guy alone in his cabin, amiright?
So maybe, I was more of a Scrooge—cranky around the holidays but without all active ill intent. Regardless, somewhere in the past half-decade (perhaps one of the early Covid-winters), a switch was flipped. I began to see Christmas as a lovely surface-level distraction that brings joy even to those of us who don't partake in the day's religious origins.
It's more of a seasonal reason to enjoy pretty lights, laugh at stupid movies, create new traditions, and take in the beauty of survival. More than any of our other holidays, the proximity to New Year's puts an emphasis on Christmas. The countdown isn't just a change in gimmicky calendars that will all be on sale soon, but a reminder of our place upon the soil that forces us to confront the mortal coil of being human.
Dang, that was deep, no?
Side 2 of the December Mixtape, for listening while you drink your coffee, is a collection of holiday songs I particularly enjoy.* I can't (or won't) vouch for the lyrical contents of all the songs. I don't advocate for any of the behind-the-scenes religions or overtly politically incorrect content. I just enjoy the vibe of the holiday music playing while we put together a puzzle or eat pancakes in the glow of the pretty lights emanating from our tree in our neighbors' yard.
*The Nutcracker song (or the Tetris song when you've begun playing well) is a bit of an outlier. No doubt it is a Christmas song, but it isn't quite my holiday vibe. I do like it, but more so, I love seeing the uncontainable lightness and joy it brings to my wife when it comes on the speaker.
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Ryan Woldt
