Krampus Loves You, and So Do I

Happy belated Krampusnacht & Nikolastaug, festive friends! I'm slowly warming up my holiday cheer for this year thanks to an ancient alpine winter monster, a can't-miss holiday soul party, a recently-banned classic, and a few new goodies keeping things interesting. Pull up a chair and, as always, let's get weird!

Krampus the Christmas Demon

You’re probably vaguely aware of Krampus, right? You might have seen him on a funny little postcard or a cheeky t-shirt, but just so we’re all on the same page: Krampus is a traditional Germanic companion to St. Nicholas, dating back to pre-Christianity midwinter folklore, most likely a holdover from pagan rites that were conveniently assimilated into early Christian celebrations to attract more converts. (This happened A LOT.) Basically, Krampus is the anti-Claus. In these traditions, St. Nicholas doesn't even bother with bad children—Krampus comes for them instead. He's a hairy, horned, satyr-like demon with cloven hooves, often wrapped in chains, carrying bundles of switches to swat at the bad kids before taking them away. And yes, there is a Krampus horror movie, and no, it is not good.

I didn’t discover Krampus until the early 2010s, but once I did, I found something new to look forward to in dreary Decembers. My family name is Krampe—from the German, meaning blacksmith or a someone who lives at the edge of a wood. I’ve been learning about my Old World, pre-Christian ancestry over the last several years, and Krampus is the clearest connection I have to those roots. If I’d known about Krampus as a child, I would have told everyone who ever made fun of my last name that my great demon ancestor would come snatch them away to be beaten and eaten come Christmastime. I probably would have gotten in a lot more trouble at school, but it would have been worth it.

When you don’t feel a connection with the overculture in terms of “universal” joyful holidays, it’s hard not to feel lost or even defective. What’s wrong with me that I don’t get into Christmas all that much? Why can’t I just be cheery and positive for a few weeks like everyone else? Krampus is an artifact of the dark side of winter, just as there is a shadow side to everything, something more ancient and enduring than illustrations created by brands a century ago to sell soda. Krampus reminds me that my ancestors felt fear in the dark midwinter, the nights growing longer until the Solstice, that this was a time to hunker down, protect, and wait for the light to return.

He might seem like a trend in the US, but clearly Krampus has staying power. He’s now a permanent part of my holiday celebration, helping me kick off my season with a little mischief and a dash of mayhem. I can’t speak for all Krampes everywhere, but I’m glad to have him in the family.

All Hail The Woman King

Y’all, I am so mad at myself for waiting to see The Woman King, because I absolutely loved it. Viola Davis is perfection, obviously, as Nanisca, the battle-hardened general of the all-women Agojie army protecting the Kingdom of Dahomey in 18th century Africa, but it truly has something for everyone: familial drama, a scrawny kid trying to prove herself, a soupçon of romance, sisterhood and camaraderie, palace scheming, gorgeous hairstyles, and some of the most badass combat scenes I've seen in years.

All of this against the backdrop of the Atlantic slave trade, (as we’re so often reminded: Africans Kidnapped and Sold Their Own People Too!, like it excuses the whole heinous endeavor) so you get a sense of the majesty of these kingdoms and their sophisticated battle tactics, but also the horror some felt once they realized the broader evil they’d become part of. It’s all based on history and honestly beyond impressive to see such loving attention to detail and wonderful  performances all around. I hope this kind of action is what Viola Davis has in store for the rest of her career, because it looks hella good on her.

Willow: The Only Good Reboot?

God, who doesn’t love Willow? If you don’t love this 1988 fantasy classic, please don’t tell me, because I will cry. I wasn’t thrilled to hear it was getting the Streaming Reboot/Sequel treatment, but am relieved to report that the first three episodes are really good. It’s a standard “band of misfits on a quest” tale, but it feels brand new after hitting my limit on “serious” genre series tropes: there’s no gore, no gratituitous nudity or brutality, no background rapes, no incest…nor does it need any of that to be entertaining! The show has the same unfettered goodness and inherent goofiness at the heart of the movie, updated with decent CGI and a new generation of attractive, floppy-haired, inclusive heroes.

Warwick Davis was only 17 when he starred in the original and now that Willow is the Grand High Nelwyn, he’s doing his best to keep his culture and people safe while fulfilling his destiny with Elora Danan. I miss Val Kilmer as Madmartigan, but we now have Boorman (Amar Chadha-Patel) to crush on: a new long-haired, smoky-eyed, cheeky rogue with a nose that should be declared the eighth world wonder. Willow the Show is a genuine “family” show, so it's a little corny at times, but it’s honestly refreshing for those of us who don’t find relentless violence and degradation a must-watch.

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, It's a Holiday Soul Party

You can tell this album is going to be a little different within the first few moments of the bouyant and funky opening track, “8 Days of Hanukkah.” Instantly, you know you’re in for cheeky fun and exceptional soul, which the late Jones and her  band never failed to deliver. The holiday party keeps swinging with the heartfelt yet groovy “Ain’t No Chimneys in the Projects” followed by a fast-paced, Tina Turner-homage version of “White Christmas.” This is my favorite holiday album of the last thirty years or so, with the best original tracks (“Just Another Christmas Song” captures a glint of holiday ambivalence in a sweet and sincere dedication to being present) and the coolest reimagining of classics (“Funky Little Drummer Boy” is the best version of the song ever laid down), and it’s basically a straight listen—no skips, no filler–just like every other SJ&TDK album.

Holiday Soul Party was released in 2015, about a year before Jones died young from recurrent pancreatic cancer at the age of 60, but the only evidence of her sickness on the album is her close-cropped short hair from chemo recovery. She left this world far too soon and though she didn’t even release a record until she was 40, her output in that 20 years was truly legendary. If you’ve never listened to Ms. Jones & Co., this instant classic of a holiday album is a great place to start.

Maus (Because You Can't Ban History)

I had been meaning to read Maus for decades but when it was banned by some conservative school boards earlier this year, I got MAD. Book banning isn’t anything new, but censoring two slim volumes of a graphic memoir/biography about the Holocaust and its generational impacts because there are some illustrations of nude mouse-headed humans in Auschwitz? Get all the way the fuck out, please and thank you.

I bought the set as it shot up bestseller lists once news of the ban got out and proceeded to fly through them in a few days, again, mad at myself for not reading them decades ago. I’m not a comics person, but Maus isn’t a “comic” at all—it’s a portrait of an artist, Art Spiegelman, dealing with his Holocaust survivor father’s aging, his survivor mother's death by suicide, and trying to learn more about the confounding, frustrating man who saw the most heinous acts in human history and lived to tell about it. It’s the story of a man who lost everything imaginable but still managed to keep himself alive to get back to the girl he loved, and it’s also a meditation on how humans cannot even begin to fathom the scope of the atrocities committed in the Holocaust—we have to dehumanize it somehow in order for our brains to even process it (hence, the animal heads on human bodies drawn in simple black & white).

Maus won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 and Spiegelman recently received a Medal for Distinguished Contributions to American Letters from the National Book Foundation, and there's even a new book out about its cultural impact. I strongly believe Maus should be required reading for literally everyone, especially those who want to ban it because of some swear words and an image of the author's dead mother. Those are actual reasons parents gave to hide an essential and extremely accessible account of recent history from their kids because it makes them uncomfortable. Maus has a proud, permanent place on my bookshelf, where it should be in every public and school library as well.

Care for A Little Extra Salt?

🕊 BG IS FREE! After 9 months in detention and being sentenced to 9 years in a Russian labor camp for a gram of hashish oil, WNBA star Brittney Griner is on her way back home where she belongs. We did have to swap her for an actual criminal known charmingly as “The Merchant of Death” and part of me is suspicious that this solution, floated several months ago, didn't come to fruition until two weeks before Christmas, but I’m also a holiday crank trying to avoid an ever-deepening descent into pure cynicism every day of the year, so what do I know?

🙅 Bodies Are Not “Trends”: I really need women’s and popular media to stop acting like the Kardashians are anything but harmful to basically everyone. I also need the media to stop throwing around “heroin chic” like its quaint and nostalgic. The 2000s are making their unfortunate but predictable cyclical return, but the triumphant return of “scary skinny” ain’t it, y’all. I poke fun at body positivity, but we can’t let all the hard work done by fat activists in the last 20+ years be erased because the Kardashians decided they didn’t want to copy black women for fun and profit anymore.

🎶 The Best Part of the Song: As a tone-deaf music fan, I LIVE for a good key change (see also: Lizzo’s “2 Be Loved”) but I've also noticed that ecstatic, goosebump-inducing component has gone way out of style in most modern music. Turns out, there are some interesting reasons popular musicians aren't deploying key changes as much, and it's not because they're so delightfully cheesy in an almost manipulative way.

🧠 Let's All Listen to Temple Grandin: If Temple Grandin, one of the most celebrated neurodiverse professionals of our time, doesn’t think the current approach to learning algebra and other STEM fields is working, we should probably pay attention. I love this excerpt from her most recent book on how different kinds of minds need to learn in different ways. My undiagnosed ADHD and kinesthetic learner brain couldn’t grok the abstractions of algebra in school, but I liked geometry because it had concrete dimensions I could visualize. Dyscalculia (dyslexia for numbers) didn’t help either, so I convinced myself that I just wasn't A Math Person–and ended up excluding myself from subjects I now find fascinating as an adult simply because I didn’t know I needed to learn them differently. One of my sincerest hopes for kids right now is that they are able to find that out sooner, and to be allowed to learn in the ways that work best for them.

🥰 When Jia Met Karen: Oh, one of my favorite writers interviewed my favorite indie rock frontwoman about motherhood, creativity, inclusivity and much more? Of course! Jia Tolentino interviewed Karen O as part of Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Cool It Down pre-launch media blitz, and it’s just an interesting, insightful conversation well worth the read.

That’s all for this edition of The Enthusiast! Thank you for reading, and if you're not a subscriber, now is a great time to sign up (it's free!). Be sure to confirm via the email link to start receiving the newsletter. If you've been enjoying The Enthusiast, send it to a friend!

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Until next week, read a great profile of my favorite badass lady wrestler, get your Frigid Bitch Winter aesthetic in order, and see if your faves line up with any of the many 2022 Year-in-Review Best-Of Lists dropping on a daily basis.

Be good for Krampus's sake,
LKH