When I first moved into my condo six years ago, there was a great outcry during December. No Menorah? Why no Menorah when there is a giant Christmas tree in the lobby? Last year a Menorah with real candles was placed on the front desk. Unfortunately, it was stolen. This year, it was replaced, albeit with electric candles which I deem far less attractive. But the Menorah itself resembles a mid-century sculpture. It’s pretty cool, if that’s an okay word for a Menorah.
The lobby’s faux tree is up and decorated by decorator elves, but it lacks character. I mean to say, it could be any tree in any interior decorating shop. Also, we have the usual potted poinsettias with squiggly things rising upward from red red arrangements. Don’t ask me why, but I’m not in the Holiday spirit, though my small aluminum tree is assembled and decorated. Outside my unit are three trees, courtesy of a couple who recently welcomed their third child…another boy. It’s quiet up here, though I think the great ex-packer Willie Davis arrived this week (he lives in the unit next to me when he’s not in Los Angeles). Did I mention my tree has a tiny Packer nutcracker ornament? The miniature jersey reads: OO. That about says it for the Pack doesn’t it? The carpet in the elevators is beginning to show signs of multiple needles shed from real trees transported
upward. Outside, the staff has strung tiny red and white lights on the branches of the crab apple trees, and back inside a big blaze emanates from the fake gas log.
What’s missing here is the Christmas of my childhood, but I won’t go into that. It’s too shmaltzy.
We had a false fire alarm a week or so ago, but not to fear, it was all the smoke released into a hallway when a resident opened their door to let Holiday guests exit. Gee Whiz, do folks still smoke like chimneys? I notice the dumpsters are fairly bulging with discarded boxes and the UPS guy is around hauling stuff in and out. A light dusting (at this writing) of snow makes it seem a bit more festive, but I still haven’t caught the spirit. It’s more like the ghost of Christmas drifted through, leaving nary a trace.
Today an invitation arrived to attend a Liberace Potluck event at the pad of Milwaukee artist, Jimmy Von Milwaukee. He used to have fab Christmas Craft events, most notably at the old Wisconsin Hotel, and part of the evening’s entertainment will be a DVD of one of his naughtier nites in the venerable old hotel where John Schneider & Orchestra used to play, and the very earliest poetry slams unfolded. It was a blast back then.Yes it was.
There was nothing like watching Schneider tap dance and do back flips and cartwheels on the small stage. We all mostly drank like fools.
Following the Liberace Potluck, the guests at JVM’s head off to the Milwaukee Rep to see “Liberace.” There will be lots of glitz and over-the-top glam and for sure it won’t be just another evening on the town….uh oh, as I write a monster storm is on the way. Perhaps that will put me in a Holiday frame of mind.
