I leave tomorrow morning for New York. Wednesday I fly out to Israel. I’m still not really packed, and I have to clean my house. Tomorrow morning is going to be a blast.

Every time I watch “The Sound of Music” again, I insist that I’m just a sappy dork who loves it, and it’s not actually a good movie. But nope. Wrong. It’s totally fabulous.

I am calling shenanigans on some parts of it, though. I always used to fast forward through “Something Good,” when Maria and the Captain finally get together, because love scenes were gross and made me feel uncomfortable (a scene in “Beethoven’s 2nd” also always had to be fast forwarded). My roommate and I are watching now, and it is reassuring–but also terrifying–to see that even old people still get awkward when talking to whomever it is they like. The Captain says, “You know when I first started loving you? The moment you sat on that ridiculous pine cone.” And Maria says, “I knew the second you blew that silly whistle.” Bull! There’s no way.

But in just about every other way, “The Sound of Music” most definitely deserved its five Oscars. As it happens with most films I’ve seen a million times since childhood, I notice something new each time I see it. I pick up on things that Elsa picks up on all along, and things that she kind of mentions when she and the Captain break off their engagement. I guess it’s easier to notice that sort of thing in a movie when you reach the point of your life that you can hear it in real life. You see every time the Captain does glance at Maria instead of Elsa. It makes you realize how hard acting really is. And how sad and complicated sex and love are.

I’ll admit it: not only do I kind of like Christmas music, but I have an entire Christmas music playlist on my iPod. And entire Christmas albums by some artists, namely Mariah Carey and Destiny’s Child. I have just come to the realization that it is now mid-December (ish) and it is at least somewhat acceptable to be listening to Christmas music.

This is where Christian music doesn’t suck, I think. Because, having done a variety of music in choir over the past two and a half years, I can tell you that a lot of Protestant music, when it’s not of the Southern Baptist persuasion, is just not very pretty. Sorry. But it all sounds the same, and it gets boring and ugly to sing. I’m all about Catholic masses or a good spiritual, but wishy washy gospel is pretty uninteresting.

Christmas music, too, when sung by common people, reminds me of “The Star-Spangled Banner”–meaning that it can suck. A lot. Without even trying. And there’s plenty of crappy Christmas music, just as there is plenty of crappy music in just about every genre. I just finished a paper on Sephardic ballads from medieval Spain, and some of them are pretty unattractive, too. So I’m not being biased. There is always good music out there, and there is always ugly music out there as well. But people who are trained to be singers, especially those who also have some extra talent in writing and arranging, can do pretty fabulous version of good Christmas carols. And, because I am a desert girl who never gets to experience white Christmases for herself, it’s all I can do to secretly listen to carols on my earbuds.

American Christmas is a secular holiday anyway. Consumerism, pretending that Hanukkah is an important holiday, drinking eggnog AND eating potato latkes, and buying presents for everyone just because it’s fun. Finals are almost here, but at least classes are done, so I’m not going to stress. Hello, December.

I actually update the playlist.

I never thought it was possible to really know that someone was “good” or “bad” in bed. But it is so possible, and it so makes or breaks your opinion of someone. Sad.

So I pulled my (Catholic) Bible off the shelf to look something up that the student rabbi told me about. Part of my internship is planning events–any sort at all–but putting a sort of Jewish bent on them. I’m having an event next week, so I was doing my research, and I found a goldmine of things that I’ve heard about but never read for myself. Leviticus is a goldmine of anti-feminist Jewish rules (though as far as I know, they’re not rules that have been followed by any Christian sects) and interesting rules about oblations and worship. Makes me want to bring up a lot of things at our next women’s group meeting (it’s strange how all of a sudden I think I’m a feminist, though not in the bad sense of the word, which is why I don’t like to say it). Makes me want to take more Judaic Studies courses. Makes me want to be more religious. But then, I’m really not a fan of being religious. So why the interest?

Then again, the best thing about Judaism is, I think, how intellectual it is and how little it has to do with religion often. At least for me, with my Judaism, with reform Judaism, it feels that way. After all, how many other religions have their own religious book that isn’t just “the word of G-d” the way the Bible is, but a book of moral arguments? I really don’t know, but I’m sure there’s nothing like the Talmud except the Talmud. Though I would appreciate learning about other religions that have similar practices. Judaism is about thinking and learning and asking questions. We’re commanded to question, which seems to be another unique practice. But I guess there is a lot of intellectual material in that “word of G-d” book, and it definitely deserves some analysis.

But I really should buy myself a Tanak book to go with my Catholic student Bible. Seems only fair.

I just got a letter from my roommate’s friend who I’ve met just once. He moved to Seattle and wrote a letter to each girl in our house. What a guy. What a nice thing. I like letters. I used to have many penpals.

I also just wrote/edited three songs. I recently entered a song lyric contest in American Songwriter just for the hell of it, because the entry fee was included in the price to renew my subscription. It may not be my novel, and that’s going to hurt me if I want to get into this writing program this summer, but it’s a good thing because writing anything helps you work on your writing.

Jason Segel wrote a song and performed with the Swell Season.

And I have a hundred books (actually more, but close to that number in my room that I haven’t read) that I desperately want to read, but I have so much homework for the rest of the semester it’s ridiculous. And really I just want to go to sleep right now.

I keep starting entries and not finishing them, because I don’t really know what to say. The problem with having something to say is that I live my job, and then I go to school, and I don’t really do a lot of other things. I don’t remember the last time I went to a movie theatre, I haven’t seen my parents or my sister in a couple weeks,

Thank G-d for this day off tomorrow. Not that I really have the day off, since one of my jobs decided that every time I have a day off, I have a meeting at Hillel, and that made me schedule work at Safe Ride as well, since I’d already be on campus. But just the fact that I got to take a nap this afternoon and not worry about when I had to wake up was absolutely brilliant. Now for a little piano practice, and then off to an excellent party. Tonight will be a good night.

I read a compilation of interviews in a book called Song, by editors of American Songwriter. I skipped quite a few, because the book is nearly 400 pages long, and after awhile I’m not too interested in country music, but there were many of them that were just fabulous. I’ve scarcely been writing lately, but songs are something that are coming a bit easier to me now. When I look at them again, I think that they’re probably not that good, but I probably shouldn’t second guess myself. A lot of songs look like they suck if you just look at the lyrics, but somehow they work. And I may as well try them out. Next step, writing music. That’s the really hard part for me. And does anyone want to give me Garage Band lessons?

I’ve started mostly paying for music again, and it’s wonderful, because now I don’t listen to crap, and I support indie music aside from just when I go to shows, AND I get to find out that the Swell Season released a new deluxe album, and I just downloaded it a few hours ago.

I’m not sure that most people would like them, given that a lot of what makes them awesome is the movie “Once,” so if you haven’t seen it, you may be confused. Also, though their concerts are cool, they play with the Frames, so even in a place as small as the Rialto, say, it’s still a loud cacophony of noise compared to their studio recordings, in which you can actually hear the musical part of the music. However, while they’re not my favorite people in the entire world, I really like them a lot and respect their way of doing the whole music thing. The Swell Season is really a band for musicians, I think, especially for musicians who love the Irish musical tradition. Which is awesome.

The first problem with understanding the Swell Season is that there is no real way to categorize them. Not that “genre” is ever really helpful, but where do they go? Indie music, yes, but are they folky? Bluegrassy? Irish? Something else? Their albums are collections of songs, but the songs don’t always have much to do with each other. You have Glen Hansard writing himself songs to sing, and they’re interesting lyrically, because if you just read the lyrics, they look like bad poems, but somehow they work. Then sometimes he likes to get loud with his Frames buddies. And then, out of the blue, everything will stop, and here comes Marketa Irglova with the most depressing, heartwrenchingly sad, sad song that makes you want to die, but it’s so pretty and so universally personal that you can’t help but think she’s amazing. And then, if you listen really closely to the other songs, you hear her harmonies behind Glen, and you wish that they would have evened out the levels a bit.

What I love about them is that they make music that tells you how much they love making music. It’s not really trying to be this perfectly produced gem with songs that music supervisors are clamoring for. They are not going to end up on “Grey’s Anatomy”–at least, probably not. But, just like I’m at my happiest when I am belting any song while driving in my car, you can tell that they just love what they’re doing. And they each have this unique background that they’re coming from, and they just sound like people experimenting and having fun and sharing–”We do this in Ireland.” “Oh, really? In the Czech Republic, we do this”–and just being musical. The Swell Season is like music in progress.

Definitely this album is easier to like if you’re not really music-y or if you’re not me than their previous one, which was a bit too hard to discern what the harmonies and melodies were. I’m liking it so far. Yay music! It makes me want to get writing again. G-d, I miss writing so much.

dear hannah,

where did you go? and who is in your place?

sincerely,

hannah