Hyperkult

J'taime. Photo: Anna Karina and Jean-Paul Belmondo in 'Pierrot le fou'

Every year around Valentine’s Day I embark on a personal music project: create super-duper, holiday-themed playlist for a coterie of friends who care to listen. I really enjoy the process and absolutely adore V-Day, however constructed and commercialized it may be. Any excuse to shamelessly play Roxette, right?

San Francisco's Union Square, Epicenter of Merriment and Shopping Hell

My secular self makes grand attempts to resist the allure of anything Christmas-related this time of year. Though I profess a love of religious iconography, evidenced by both the rosary bracelet and Virgin Mary prayer charm I’m wont to sport, you won’t likely find me supplicating at Catholic midnight mass. I can only hope that my semi-devotional accessory choice is not sacrilegious.

Yet, “come hither, give in” call those twinkling lights, fine department store displays, sugar cookies, and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You.” By the time I return home, park myself on my parents’ couch and catch one of umpteenth airings of Love Actually or A Christmas Story, it’s all over. I am a blubbering mess as Laura Linney’s tryst with hot-guy-from-the-Chanel No. 5-ad goes awry. I am failure.

This year, I will surrender to the merriment. But I will do things my way. For example, instead of glittery Christmas greetings, I am sending out non-denominational good wishes scrawled on postcards from the Twin Peaks box set. The snowy climes of the series’ setting struck me as fitting, and nothing says “Happy Holidays” like David Lynch, right? Maybe I’ll have my picture taken with lecherous hipster Santa at Melrose’s Marc by Marc Jacobs store, too. I hear they do that right ’round December, sleigh and all.

Critically, the soundtrack to any alt-X-Mas happenings will be a strange collection of songs I deem appropriate. Being half-Filipino, I have traumatizing fond memories of the local church choir invading my house en masse to sing traditional carols, none of which made this cut. Instead, I present to you The Flaming Lips, et. al., on this, my best attempt to make a holiday playlist. Some of the tracks have nothing to do with presents, tinsel and the like, but they do make me want to huddle underneath a blanket and sip on a hot toddy. That’s good enough for me.

Remember, though, this is coming from the girl that sent out David Lynch holiday cards.