Is it Christmas Yet?

Normally I am not one to blog twice in a day so close together, but really. [Also, this was supposed to be posted in October, I just missed my mark due to preparations for my sister's wedding that was November 1.] Isn't it disturbing to walk into a store (before Halloween mind you) to see skeletons, goblins, frankensteins, fake blood, creepy decorations directly across from the Christmas decorations? I mean, lets have angels, nativities, pretty decorations, fake snow, cuddly winter critters next to a holiday that celebrates the dead, the harvest and was a day when animals were slaughtered for winter storage.

When I was younger, probably in the early years of middle school/high school I thought that it was ridiculous about how early stores hocked Christmas wares. I always said that sooner or later stores would have their Christmas junk out before Halloween and this year that prediction rang true. Honestly. Why October? Why that freaking early? This is getting out of hand and ridiculous. I am a firm believer in nothing to do with that holiday until AFTER Thanksgiving. Heck, in my house we never decorated immediately after Thanksgiving, it was usually the first or second weekend of December.

I guess this goes to show the over-commercialization of this holiday. Truthfully, it means so much more than we give it credit for. I am abhorred by all the people who practically through their Christmas stuff up almost immediately following Halloween. The holiday spirit is fine, it's ok to love Christmas, but this is seriously just wrong.

Another disturbing tidbit, one of my favorite soft rock stations is now playing Christmas music. In fact, they basically started they day after Halloween. To me, November 1 is even still too early. Why can't stores, or people wait until mid-November at the earliest? Thinking about Christmas while trying to celebrate Halloween is just wrong - it will never be right. If this trend continues, why bother taking down Christmas stuff at all? Just leave it up all year round. Then again, if that happened I would have to stay away from any form of physical store. But internet shopping is getting much better and shipping definitely more reliable.

Patience is a virtue. Stay away from Christmas until it is actually November-December. Is that too much to ask?

New Online Lit Mag Premiers

SIR! a new journal of poetry and prose has its first issue online. This new online magazine boasts some well-known names in the online and print literary scene, such as Blake Butler, Ryan Walsh, and Mike Young.

It is a nice, new online magazine with a good collection of poetry and prose. I don't know why, but I am usually a bigger fan of poetry than short prose - maybe because I can't write short prose to save my life. It takes quite a bit of talent to make short prose work, to tell a story so concisely. Anyways, I digress.

This new magazine is definitely worth checking out. I thoroughly enjoyed the poems by Chad Reynolds and I loved Brooklyn Copeland's "How Many in Their Daring." Spencer Troxell's poems add some well-crafted humor into the mix. His poem about fruit flies was amusing and definitely rang true this year. At least in Michigan where fruit flies seemed to appear in abundance and one had to wonder where all those little buggers were coming from.

Charles Lennox's piece "What the Other is Thinking" is an interesting look at the connection between lovers and how they realize that they aren't as connected as they thought. Another favorite among the collection is Elisa Gabbert's "Blogpoem the Second." It really hits home with writing and the internet today.

All in all, this is a great new online magazine. Definitely a must for people starving for great writing who can't necessarily afford subscriptions for print journals. Besides the poetry and prose, there is also a page of links to other magazines that are great sources for more good writing. Take a gander at the site and enjoy a few chuckles.
[http://sir-magazine.org/]