So... Alright - Cleaning out my Notes

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

Geoff goes over the final notes for the year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So today, so today I sat down at a little diner at a little diner, had some megas. They were very fucking good, by the way. And I pulled up my notes to figure out what we're going to talk about today. I hadn't looked at my notes in quite a while because I've been doing the email episodes. and I didn't really need my notes for the Jimmy Cliff episode because I knew what I was doing there. Anyway, first time I've looked at my notes in a while and did that thing where I don't necessarily remember

what the fuck they are. So I thought I'd grab the top four and let's see if we get through them all. The first note I have is, how old are Christmas songs? Okay, so I'm pretty sure I know where I was going with that one. Second note I have is, does underwater painting exist? I assume as an art form. Third note I have is Army Vicky Corps, okay?

And the fourth note is hostile architecture. Oh, yeah, like anti-scapeboarding architecture and stuff. I think some of these came from probably Twitch chat, I guess, or maybe emails. I don't remember where, I think the Army Vicky Corps may have come from an email somebody sent. And then I'm pretty sure the hostile architecture came from just a Twitch chat in the morning. But underwater painting and Christmas songs, I genuinely don't remember. They were the first ones I'd written down. Let's get into it, though.

How old are Christmas songs? Music associated with Christmas is thought to have its origins in 4th century Rome. In Latin language hymns such as Vinnie Redemptor Gentium. That's a 4th century hymn. Let's see what that is. Vinny Redemptor Gentium, which stands for Come Redeemer of the Nations, is a Latin Advent or Christmas hymn by Ambrose of Milan in iambic tetrameter.

Tetrameter? Yeah, right? Tetrameter? Let's see the lyrics. Come thou, redeemer of the earth, and manifest thy virgin birth. Let every age adoring fall, such birth benefits the god of all. Begotten of no human will, but of the spirit, thou art still the word of God in flesh arrayed, the promised fruit to the men despot.

blade. That's pretty rimey. This is very beautifully written. I'll read one more line. The virgin womb that burden gained with vigor, honor, all sustained. The banners there of virtue glow, God in his temple dwells below. Huh. It goes and goes and goes. So that is thought to be one of the very first Christmas songs. I guess it was more of a hymn than a song, but interesting. Christmas girls in the English language first appear in a 1420, work by John Audley. He's a chaplain who lists 25 carols for Christ de M-M-A-S,

C-R-I-S-T-E-M-A-S, probably sung by groups of Wasselers who would travel from house to house. In the 16th and 17th... Here we go, this is what I wanted to know. In the 16th and 17th century, various Christmas carols became popular that are still sung to this day,

such as, God rest, ye merry gentleman, which the earliest version dates to 16-15th. Whoa. So when you sing, God rest ye merry, gentlemen, you're singing a song from 1650. It's also known as tidings of comfort and joy. Well, yeah, of course.

Wow. All right, I feel like we're getting, we're in danger of getting off track. I'm getting sucked into the history of Christmas carols, and that wasn't my intention. My intention was just to figure out how old the songs that we listen to are. but I will mention this. During the Commonwealth of England's government under Cromwell,

the Rump Parliament prohibited the practice of singing Christmas carols, as pagan and sinful. Like other customs associated with Christianity of the Catholic and magisterial Protestant traditions, it earned the disapproval of Puritans. Famously, Cromwell's Interregnum prohibited all celebrations of the Christmas holiday, this attempt to ban the public celebration of Christmas can also be seen in the early history of Father Christmas. Oh, my God. I want to click on that Father Christmas link, but I shouldn't

because we can't keep getting sidetracked. Oh, okay, this is why. The Puritan-Westminster Assembly of Divines established Sunday as the only holy day in the liturgical calendar. Okay, well, that makes sense. I mean, it doesn't make sense, but it makes sense, you know. Sunday was the only liturgical day.

wild. All right, well, I'm not going to let this motherfucker suck us back in. What I want to do, and by the way, I searched at breakfast for a million different, like, best Christmas songs of all time, most popular Christmas songs of all time. I tried everybody's different lists, and none of them satisfied me. So I'm just going to look at a list of Christmas songs that you know, and then we'll just go from there. I'm going to miss your favorite Christmas song, I apologize.

We're just going to go with what I recognize. The first Noel. How old do you think the first Noel is? That seems like an old fucking song. If you guessed 1823, you would be correct. When you sing that song, you are singing a song from 1823. However, O come all ye faithful is much older. It's also known as Edeste Fidelis, and it can be traced back to the 13th century. Wow. I don't have an exact date on that, but somewhere in the 13th century. Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Yeah, I know that one. Glory to the newborn king is, well, that's not too bad.

1739. Man, some of the shit is, oh, Silent Night. How fucking old is Silent Night? Not as old as you think. 18-18. Oh, here's a good one. The 12 days of Christmas. be very old.

Oh, late 18th century. Yeah. Let's look at some more, I guess, contemporary. That's crazy that some of those songs that I recognize are from the 15th. I mean, why wouldn't they be, right? Like, Oh, Holy Night. How old is this song? 1847.

Yeah, a lot of Christmas girls that we sing are from the mid-1800s. On the more contemporary side, with Santa Claus is coming to town, that's a good one. That was 1934. Have yourself a merry little. Christmas. 1984. Walking in a winter wonderland? How old do you think that is?

1934. Jingle Bell Rock? 1957, that makes sense. Rudolph Red Nose Reindeer. 1939. It seems like we're either singing songs that were all composed in a period of time in the mid-1800s. or we're singing songs that were composed

in a period of time in the 1930s and 40s. Here comes Santa Claus with Gene Autry from 1947. Yeah, it's crazy. So many of these songs are from Little Drummer Boy, 1941. Baby, it's cold outside, 1948. White Christmas, 1940. I mean, a lot of these were made for fucking movies, obviously.

But Carol of the Bell's 1936. So I guess the most famous recent Christmas song would probably be Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You, which was 1994. Did you know, all right, we're getting sidetracked again, but do you know what the most played Christmas song in the UK is? Apparently, fairy tale of New York by the Pogs. Number two, all I want for Christmas is you by Mariah Carey. Then do they know it's Christmas from Band-Aid? Last Christmas by George Michael. Interesting. Definitely didn't go into this looking to fire. the most popular British Christmas songs, but I'm glad I looked that up. It's interesting that

there are recognizable songs that we enjoy now from the 1300s, but most of them, it seemed to be like these little like mad dashes where maybe it becomes in vogue to create Christmas songs or people find success and everybody else wants to jump on it. It seems like the mid-1800s and then the 1930s, 1940s were just a big time. Maybe it was sort of a post-World War, well, No, it was pretty far past. Maybe it was in the Great Depression. Maybe people were singing, maybe that's what it was. Maybe people were trying to lift spirits

by writing Christmas songs during tough times because the Great Depression was 1929. When did the Great Depression end? 1940s? When did the Great Depression end? 1941, yeah. So, what was that, 11 years it was going? Huh.

Wonderful. on to something there. Does underwater painting exist? Does underwater painting exist? Underwater painting is a real and fascinating art form where artists use specialized techniques, non-toxic paints, and equipment like diving gear to create art directly beneath the water's surface. Artists like Olga Nicotina and Hussein Eiffal continue the practice adapting materials to the aquatic conditions to portray immersive scenes. Underwater painting courses. Underwater art is becoming a very popular modern art nowadays. The original pioneer of underwater painting was André LeBond, the engineer of Cousteau's team. So he worked for Jacques Cousteau. The first underwater

boxes for cameras are his invention as well. He was a chemist, so he created a special cover for canvas, and he found out what colors are possible to use underwater for painting, and ones that aren't toxic for the environment. He's been painting underwater for 20 years and his works are now all over the world. Oh, so you can actually, what is a underwater art course cost? You can go to the Red Sea in Egypt. The underwater painting school is based in Sham Safaga Diving Center, Sathaga, Egypt. Small historical town, 56 kilometers from her. Hergata. Interesting.

What does it cost, though? I can't seem to click on any of these. None of these are links. They're just underlined. Our school. So there we go. Scheduling courses. Open water diver or advanced diver.

Say we're open water diver. Okay. This is not very helpful. I'm having trouble tracking down how much this costs, which tells me it's probably very expensive, but I am learning about it. The course is designed for every certified diver. No art skills are required. Everyone can try and create underwater painting under an instructor's supervision.

The briefing is about an hour and a half. The dive is 60 to 90 minutes at a max depth of about 10 meters. The instructor chooses the area. They set up the equipment. They show underwater painting process. And then students participate in the process. They put colors on palette, mix colors, et cetera. Contact, yeah, there's...

Yeah, I'm going to have to do some work to figure out how much this actually costs, but I also probably won't. I would like to see the... Oh, they have available artworks. Okay. Okay. Let's see. So if you go to O-L-G-A-N-I-K-I-T-I-N-A-R-T dot com, you can see the underwater painting that they have for sale. Is it for sale?

No, this is sold. How much is this one? Man, you can't click on shit on this website. even though it looks like he can. Okay. Well, I got to say, I don't know what I expected, but it's art.

It looks like high-end finger-painting art, and I don't mean that in a bad way. There's just a lot of broad strokes, which I think is obvious, but, you know, I can see a shipwreck, the wreck of the thistle gorm, I can see a soft coral underwater painting. These are quite lovely paintings.

Oil on canvas. Oh, they're oil. So there's some sort of an interesting. They're using an oil that doesn't pollute the water in any way. I feel like before I move on from this, I should look up Andre Labon, the man who invented underwater painting. Oh, here we go, Divernet.

Father of underwater art, Andre Labon. I just want to see some of his art. I'm pretty impressed with this guy's art. Yeah, I have a feeling that this guy's very, very interesting. I'm on a website here that is basically talking about his career working with Jacques Cousteau. And I'm sure it's incredibly interesting, but I don't want to get bogged down in it right now. If anybody out there is familiar with the work of Andre LeBahn, send an email at Eric at jestboss.com. I did find a catalog of his paintings, and it's pretty impressive.

I thought the other art was okay, but this Andre LeBond stuff, it's on a different level. All right. So it looks like he worked for Jacques Cousteau for 20 years, invented a lot of stuff for him, was a chemist, became very good at maritime paintings and landscapes, and then moved on to French experimentalism that required the palate knife to help convey what he saw. Soon enough, he was seeing blue everywhere. This is from divernet.com. While working on Calypso, Jacques Couso's vessel of exploration, in 1966, he began painting while underwater. No one person can be said to have invented the idea of painting underwater, but he was certainly the father of the technique. His canvases were coated with grease and oil paint, thick enough to be worked with both knife and brush, usually at depths of 15 to 25 meters. Some of these images are awesome. I mean, beautiful already, but knowing that they were painted underwater, like, knowing their landscapes that were painted in the landscape, adds another element that makes it way more impressive, honestly. Huh.

I'm glad I looked that up. That was really cool. Army Vicky Corps. Ah, this is it. The Army Cyclist Corps was a core of the British Army active during the first. World War and controlled the Army's bicycle infantry. It's the Army Cyclist Corps. Volunteer cyclist units had been formed as early as the 1880s with the first complete

bicycle unit, the 26 middle-sex rifle volunteers being raised in 1888. Cyclists were employed on intermittent basis during the South African War whilst they were not deployed as organ. Man, I love bicycles. so much. I ride my bike every chance I can get. I haven't ridden in about a week and it's driving me nuts. But I cannot imagine fighting a war on a bicycle. There was the 10th Cyclist Battalion, the 8th, there were a lot of different battalions. Oh my God. The Corps was disbanded in 1920 and by 1922 all remaining territorial cyclist battalions had been converted

back to conventional units. On the outbreak of the First World War, the cyclist battalions were employed on coastal defenses in the U.K. Their role was considered to be so important that initially none of them were sent overseas. In 1915, the Army Cyclist Corps was founded to encompass these battalions. It later extended to cover a dozen more battalions raised from second-line yeomanry regiments

which had been converted to cyclists. Huh! Army Cyclist Corps. Man, these pictures of the bicycle entry are fucking hilarious. The development of pneumatic tires coupled with shorter, sturdier frames during the late 19th century led to the investigation

of possible military uses for bicycles. Man, if that ain't the fucking truth right there, military gets their hands on any technology. They immediately try to figure out how to use it to kill people. To some extent, bicyclists took over the functions of dragoons, especially as messengers and scouts,

substituting for horses and warfare. I guess that makes sense. Man, I would really not want to be on a bicycle while I'm getting shot at, though. Good Lord. Oh, you know, it says the British disbanded theirs in 1920, but it kept going for a while in other places. In the invasion of China in 1937, terrible, by the way.

Japan employed some 50,000 bicycle troops. During the invasion of Poland in 1939, most Polish infantry divisions included a company of bicycle riding scouts. The Finnish army used them. The Joman Volksgrenator divisions each had a battalion of bicycle infantry. So it looks like everything started to decommission. I guess the UK got to it earlier but it looks like the rest of the world

started to decommission in the 1940s although much used in World War I bicycles were largely superseded by motorcycle transport in more modern armies, yeah, that makes sense huh, man I'm glad I looked that up okay, the last thing hostile architecture

I don't know what there really is to say about hostile architecture other than it fucking sucks if you're not familiar with it Hostile architecture, well, I'll just read the description of it. It's an urban design strategy that uses elements of the built environment to purposefully guide behavior, i.e., they weld little knobs and stoppies to ledges so kids can't skateboard on them and homeless people can't sit on benches for too long. It often targets people who use or rely on public space more than others, such as youth, poor people, and homeless people by restricting the physical behaviors they can engage in. Yeah, I like the way I said it better. architectural architecture is often associated with items like anti-homeless spikes, studs embedded in flat surfaces to make sleeping on them uncomfortable and impractical. God forbid, we allow people to use chairs and benches that we put in public spaces for them to be used. God forbid a person who doesn't have a fucking bed would lay on one for more than 10 minutes to try to get some

fucking rest. Jesus Christ, how inhospitable have we become. I became aware of hostile architecture as a teenager. As skateboarding really took off, street skating really took off in the 90s, suddenly there were what we called them stoppies everywhere, like little welded brackets or like knobs or spikes that were put inconveniently on ledges or rails to stop you from trying to do complicated skate tricks on them that I wasn't good enough to do anyway. So it was kind of a moot point.

But, you know, that's not sure. I fucked around with some ledges. I never went down a rail or anything, but I fucked with ledges. I could grind. I could slide. I mattered. Anyway, hostile architecture is employed to deter skateboarding, BMX, inline skating, littering, loitering, public urination, trespassing, and as a form of pest control.

That's a good call, too. If you ever see ledges on buildings, especially in big cities like New York, you'll see those long, thin spikes that stick out. out and kind of like fan out. Those are pigeon stoppers. I guess those have been around for fucking ever. Although the term hostile architecture is recent, the use of civil engineering to achieve social engineering is not gross. Antecedents include 19th century urine deflectors. Sorry, well, I'm not going to complain about a urine deflector. Oh, and urban planning in the United States designed for segregation. Well, there you go. That's just fucking hostile architecture

as you can conceive of. American urban planner Robert Moses designed a stretch of Long Island's Southern State Parkway with low stone bridges so that buses could not pass under them. This made it more difficult for people who relied on public transportation, mainly African Americans,

to visit the beach that wealthier car owners could visit. God damn, that's disgusting. Ha! just goes on to list a million different ways humans suck. The applications include spikes, sleeping deterrence, like the Camden Bench, which is a design that discourages sleeping, littering, and skateboarding by not having a flat surface. Semi-seating, which prevents users from lying down by having a pole through the middle of it. There's a million different ways to create uncomfortable and inhospitable seating, just in case

a fucking a person without a roof over their head wanted to lay down. God damn. Or some kids wanted to get some physical activity. Also, maybe knock a few chunks out of the concrete and probably scuff it up a fair amount and put some wax on it too. And listen, they're going to fuck it up a little bit. But what else were you doing with it? It's a ledge. Sprinklers can be found in areas where spikes are considered too permanent. The solution involves spraying water on those staying in a particular place at a particular time. Jesus Christ. Oh, man.

All right. Well, that's a depressing one. That's hostile architecture for you from its racist origins to its current anti-scapeboarding and homeless applications. It is maybe the example of the shittiest form of architecture. Not a fan. Okay. We made it through the notes.

I'm kind of happy about that. I wasn't sure that we would. I wasn't sure that each thing would be worth talking about. Seems like it was. But now I've got to come up with some sort of a song for you guys. Oh, that's not too hard because I have Mates of State, Think Long. God, this would have been somewhere between like, let's see when this album came out. 2010 maybe.

Mates of State think long. God, when this out, 2006, man, when this album came out, I listened to it over and over and over and over. again. The entire album is fucking awesome. But think long is a great. It's not even the best song on the album or anything. It's just popped up in my suggested the other day. And so I, and I remember it and I listened to it and had an absolute blast. So maybe you'll enjoy it too. Maybe you're already familiar with it. Great husband-wife duo making really cool early to mid-2000s indie pop. And I think some of the best of the best. Thank you for listening to another episode of the So All Right

Podcast. Thank you for checking out my streams over on Fake Jeff on Twitch. Thank you for listening to the Regulation Podcast. Thank you for supporting my wife's podcast, Clutch My Pearls. Thank you for a wonderful 2025. We are wrapping it up pretty quickly here. I'm not sure

where this one's going to fall in the timeline, but I think this may be the last episode of the year. If it is, thank you for making in 2025, one of the most exciting and fulfilling years of my life professionally. I really appreciate it. I can't tell you how much your support means to me. And I hope to see it right here again next year. All right.