Brightest Young Things

For 364 days every year, for a number of years, I planned, prepped and executed operations with the Army. Either to help ruin, destroy or force some other group to the USA's will. So, for one day all I wanted was peace; and quiet. Maybe do something nice for someone else; and just be in the moment. I had plenty of time to be a bastard.

I think out of those five or so years I spent 5 or so Christmas days deployed somewhere. Some of those days were in the field, others were just in another country somewhere eating turkey slices covered in gravy shipped in planes so troops could have a "taste of home" with a bunch of other dudes who just wanted to be off duty and find some local bar that served beer. I think one of my favorite deployed-but-n0t-in-the-field days was spent in Tongduchon, Korea. We, the lonely few who spent the majority of our time up on the DMZ, had a pass to go down south for Christmas. Now for most people "south" meant Seoul. Not us, we just got a pass to go to some OTHER Army base that was still "north" enough to where we could be recalled if necessary. This bar had a huge projection screen and a ton of stolen videos (back in 1989/1990 everything in Korea was stolen: they had stores of nothing but hundreds of bootleg cassette tapes that had the covers copied on a B/W copier). The only song that I can remember from that day doesn't fit in with my theme so I'm going to include it here:

Imagine 50 or 60 18 and 19 year olds in a bar in Korea on Christmas, drunk, singing along aloud to that one. Also made us all realize that Airborne Infantry sucked and we should have all be pilots.

Since then there have been a few good Christmases, and more lonely ones. Kind of happens when you're transient most of your life, you don't have any real family, and never really had a "home" to return to. Since I've been in DC for the past 10 years I've spent many a Christmas in a bar, with other orphans and all the people of the Tribe.

I know that for the most of us/you the Holidays are a joyful time. For the rest they can be a bastard. Some of you (Chad) will remember that on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day my friend Dave (and sometimes me, and sometimes others) would have a Country Christmas Redneck party backstage at the Cat. That's kind of fallen by the wayside but I'm going to spend the next 5 days recreating it, because, shit, BYT doesn't have nearly enough Country on here and let's face it, sometimes it's just a bit too goddamned joyful.

So this week is all about melancholy and reminiscing for things lost and enabling your sad. I originally envisioned highlighting one singer a day and their saddest songs, but ditched that in favor of a playlist. Then I came back to it because this -is- the vintage video of the day column. Some will have comments, some won't. You aren't really going to find any modern country, or alt-country songs here because I don't listen to that shit. There may be a few exceptions as the week goes on. We'll see.

There's a Tear in my Beer (Hanks Jr. and Sr.). You just can't argue against Hank Williams Sr's place in the country music catalogue. Unfortunately I couldn't find a video of simply him alone:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0rYNMX32jQ/youtube]

So what do you do when you're a blind dude from North Carolina whose mother passes you off to your grandmother because she thinks your blindness is punishment from God for her life of sin? Become a country music artist of course. Two from Ronnie Milsap:

Smoky Mountain Rain

I Wouldn't Have Missed It For The World (Bonus: couldn't find a video of this song that was any decent until I found this one of a dude who dedicated the song to his race car. Bama.)

Let me bring you up a bit with Johnny Lee's Looking for Love:

Now get sad again. The Dance (Garth Brooks):

Previously in Misc/Awesome:

• 12/28: Terrible Boyfriend/ Girlfriend Generator.
• 12/1: The John Waters Advent Calendar-it starts today
• 11/28: It Chooses You: All I Want for Christmas is Everything from Miranda July's Pop-Up Shop
• 11/3: Things I'd Move to Minnesota For
• 9/6: PHOTOS: Maloof $$ Money Cup
• 9/2: PHOTOS: Chantilly Model Train Show
• 9/1: Libby's List: 5 Things I Want Right Now...
• 8/22: PHOTOS: Best Friends Day
• 8/10: PHOTOS: Lawn Mover Racing, Eastern Seaboard Regionals @ Bowles Farm
• 7/26: Special List: Things the BYGays Want Now That We Can Marry In DC (and NY!)