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Posted on 12.22.07 by Widge @ 7:00 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own. Daily we're assaulted by the fact that we're living in the future. xkcd concurs. But there are certain tell-tale signs that we're experiencing Christmas in the 21st Century. Perfect example: an Xmas tree powered by an electric eel. To me that just sounds like something out of a cyberpunk novel. And if the eel truly uses shocks to fend off predators (as the vid states), does it think the Christmas tree is a predator? What a strange world in which Christmas trees are the natural predators of electric eels. Wouldn't you love to see that National Geographic special? Sounds like The Far Side on acid. Categorized as: 13 Days of Xmas
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Posted on 12.21.07 by Widge @ 7:00 pm
Comments on this: just one. Add your own. Categorized as: 13 Days of Xmas
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Posted on 12.20.07 by ScottC @ 7:00 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  For the purported birthday of Jesus, there is an awful lot of sin during Christmas. Greed and gluttony are the usual suspects with wrath and pride following close behind. But I would like to talk about my favorite sin: Lust. Seemingly neglected during the holiday season, it lurks under the covers with every purchase of lingerie and every lick of a candy cane. And there's the fantasy of greeting Santa Claus with more than just milk and cookies. This naughty fetish is epitomized by the song Santa Baby where the singer wants St. Nick to hurry down her chimney but he better have some high ticket items for the privilege. First, we have Ji-eun and how NOT to sing Santa Baby. Categorized as: 13 Days of Xmas
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Posted on 12.19.07 by Widge @ 7:00 am
Comments on this: 2 so far. Add your own.  Today is all about Christmas specials. But not just any specials, no no. The special specials. I've nabbed a trio of them for you. Case in point is our first one: The Star Wars Holiday Special, probably the most infamous of them all. Luckily for you, though, somebody's taken it and shrunk it down to five minutes. Trust me, it's much better digested in this form than in the original long form. Je-sus. Check out the Wikipedia article for more info if you need it. Categorized as: 13 Days of Xmas
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Posted on 12.18.07 by Widge @ 7:00 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  So this post on Senses Working Overtime reminded me just how much Dr. Demento was a part of my growing up. And his Christmas songs were the stuff of legend, especially when you were just a kid and you were tired of hearing all the normal holiday staples. Well, despite the fact he was a no-show when he had committed to stopping by one of our Film Fests so we could present him with a lifetime achievement award for his career and the fact he did so crushed what little I have left for a heart, his contributions to our collective psychosis cannot be denied. Trouble is this: when you're trying to put together a day of Demento, there's very little in the way of videos of the Christmas stuff online. "The Chipmunk Song" we've already posted. Bob & Doug's "12 Days of Christmas" has no video worth posting, nor does Allan Sherman's "12 Gifts of Christmas." The obvious thing is that, yes, you can find Spike Jones' "All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" and Gayla Peevey's "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" online in decent forms, but they're only good for one or two listens before they start to annoy the hell out of you. And I guarantee that by December 18th, you've heard them both at least twice. So. Categorized as: 13 Days of Xmas
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Posted on 12.17.07 by Widge @ 7:00 am
Comments on this: 6 so far. Add your own.  We've all grown with Christmas commercials. And some people try to tinkle on everybody's parade by going on and on about how Christmas is too commercialized and it's just a ruse to get everybody to spend lots of money on other people, most of which they can't really stand. And...well, they're right. But some of us have accepted that and gotten over it. In fact, we rather enjoy it. So you can go pretend to have your spiritually nuturing holiday season over there. Over here we're going to get our retro geek capitalist fix. Thus, our Top 10 list of Christmas Commercials. Enjoy. 10. Anytime you can have John Houseman acting opposite an animatronic toy, you've got gold: Update: Sadly, the Teddy Ruxpin/John Houseman commercial has been taken down. If somebody finds it again, please let me know. Categorized as: 13 Days of Xmas
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Posted on 12.16.07 by Widge @ 7:00 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  Neatorama reminds us that ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive posted, back in February, a great collection of Disney studio Christmas cards that were sent out from 1948 through the mid-50s. They are owned by the family of Clair Weeks. This inspired me: a day of Xmas--about Disney! Trouble is, there's a lot of crap Disney stuff online. I mean, do you know how many vids of High School Musical and Hannah Montana I had to wade through to find anything worth posting? Ah, but this makes it all worthwhile... Categorized as: 13 Days of Xmas
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Posted on 12.15.07 by Widge @ 7:00 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  Ah, the magic that is Thurl Ravenscroft. Yes, he sang the Grinch. He also was Tony the Tiger. And he also did a crapload of other music that I didn't know about until I caught the Thurl Ravenscroft Festival over at WFMU. Direct link for the feedreaders.
Update: Alas, the docu's been taken down. If anybody finds it again, please let me know. Categorized as: 13 Days of Xmas
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Posted on 12.14.07 by Widge @ 7:00 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  So there I was, minding my own business, when I ran across a Dean Martin version of "White Christmas" over at Check the Cool Wax. In fact, here it is now: Direct link for the feedreaders. Not bad, huh? Of course it's not: it's Dino. But this got me thinking: what other versions of "White Christmas" could I find? Categorized as: 13 Days of Xmas
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Posted on 12.13.07 by Widge @ 7:00 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  That's right. Because I've got more time than sense (which if you know how little free time I have is really saying something) and because people seemed to dig our 32 Days of Halloween mayhem, I hereby kickoff the 13 Days of Xmas. (Not to be confused with the children's book of a similar name but with a different spelling.) Now I realize that the 12 Days of Christmas are supposed to actually start Christmas Day, but if you're like me, you want all the carols and shit to stop at 12:01am on December 26th because you're trying to get ready for New Year's and, you know, they've been playing the goddamn carols and having Santa run around since mid-October. For our purposes, we're starting this today, December 13th. Right? 13 Days, starting December 13th? Right? Might as well nod, that's as clever as we get around here, folks. Anyway. So. From now until Christmas Day we'll be posting bits and clips and whatever we can lay hands upon that fits in with our idea of celebrating everyone's favorite Christianized pagan holiday. Ready? Go. Categorized as: 13 Days of Xmas
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