Like most folks in US/ Canada/ England and other parts of the Dickens-reading world, I'm a fan of Dickens' shortest and most-on-the-nose work, A Christmas Carol.
On Sunday evening one of my favorite movie versions, the 1984 A Christmas Carol starring George C. Scott, was on AMC. It was a good era for special effects, before things went crazy with CG and filmmakers knew how to work within their limitations but had made art out of editing, shadows, light and fog machines. As Scrooge, George C. Scott doesn't come off as goofy or immediately redeemable, but he does appear human - the smiles at Fezziwig's made all the more meaningful as they crack the ossified grimace, or the realization of what is coming as he witnesses his own future.
Film. Comics. Sci-Fi. Superheroes. Pulp. Noir. History. Superman. 20th Century Archaeology.
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Monday, December 17, 2012
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Ann Miller brings some Holiday Cheer
Hey! Christmas Eve is in less than two weeks, so it's time to start panicking. But not Ann Miller! She's adorned her tree with a spear head for some reason, and she's already got a mess of presents ready to go. It looks like she's standing in moss in an infinite void, so she's got that going for her, too.
I wonder why Jamie doesn't dress fancy like that for the holidays...
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Happy Hanukkah from The Signal Watch!
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| I can't source this image, but I dig it |
It's the Winter Holiday Season, and now's where the rubber hits the road and Hanukkah arrives!
I may not be Jewish, but a whole line of people who brought Superman into existence and oversaw him as a character for decades were most certainly Jewish. Joe, Jerry, Mort, Julie and many, many others. Superman most definitely has a Jewish heritage.
So, Happy Hanukkah to all of you who plan to light the first candle on the menorah tonight!
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Achtung!: Krampusnacht is HERE
Time to put on your devil costume, get your switches out and scare the wee ones into their best behavior.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Holiday Party 2012: Wrapped
If I kind of disappeared the past few days, we've been prepping for, and then having, our mostly-annual holiday party.
When we moved back to Austin from Phoenix, we decided that we wanted to have a Christmas party to catch up with friends, many of whom we see all too rarely these days. The first party was both a great "welcome back" party, with a completely packed house, and also, as it turned out, served as one of the last parties before babies, etc... as evidenced by the fact that I dismissed the last guest at 4:00 AM.
We've had the party almost every year since then, with, I believe, only one hiccup. We try to have it early, before December is really in full swing and you're in competition with a thousand other parties. We try very hard not to be jerks about it, but it's a cocktail party and while we adore your kids, this is not the house nor party for having the wee ones running about underfoot. This is grown-up drinking time.
When we moved back to Austin from Phoenix, we decided that we wanted to have a Christmas party to catch up with friends, many of whom we see all too rarely these days. The first party was both a great "welcome back" party, with a completely packed house, and also, as it turned out, served as one of the last parties before babies, etc... as evidenced by the fact that I dismissed the last guest at 4:00 AM.
We've had the party almost every year since then, with, I believe, only one hiccup. We try to have it early, before December is really in full swing and you're in competition with a thousand other parties. We try very hard not to be jerks about it, but it's a cocktail party and while we adore your kids, this is not the house nor party for having the wee ones running about underfoot. This is grown-up drinking time.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Holiday Watch: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
editor's note: This review appears in a different format at the Texas Public Radio website. We were provided a review copy of Kino Lorber's BluRay release of the film, for which we are tremendously grateful.
While the Lifetime and Hallmark networks will duke it out for weeks ahead of Christmas, airing competing schmaltzy movies in which divorcees find love under the mistletoe, there has long been a tradition of quickly and cheaply produced Christmas movies intended for the kiddies. These movies usually assume that no adult will even attempt to watch the flick, and so all bets are off when it comes to bothering with appealing to anyone with more than two digits in their age.
To better understand the pleasantly cynical take on making some green during your White Christmas, it is not hard to imagine an entrepreneur sitting on his cot, looking up at the ceiling and trying to make two things kids like go together into one entirely new package. In our case, the space race is on, and, heck, who doesn’t like Santa?
While the Lifetime and Hallmark networks will duke it out for weeks ahead of Christmas, airing competing schmaltzy movies in which divorcees find love under the mistletoe, there has long been a tradition of quickly and cheaply produced Christmas movies intended for the kiddies. These movies usually assume that no adult will even attempt to watch the flick, and so all bets are off when it comes to bothering with appealing to anyone with more than two digits in their age.
To better understand the pleasantly cynical take on making some green during your White Christmas, it is not hard to imagine an entrepreneur sitting on his cot, looking up at the ceiling and trying to make two things kids like go together into one entirely new package. In our case, the space race is on, and, heck, who doesn’t like Santa?
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Thanksgiving Weekend Round-Up 2012
Well, so that was the long weekend for Thanksgiving.
The Thanksgiving Holiday is over, and we head into the Christmas season.
Before we bid adios to Turkey Day, here's some quick views...
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| that was a really, really good white. No idea what it was. |
Before we bid adios to Turkey Day, here's some quick views...
Friday, November 23, 2012
'Itiseth yon Season?
Just received this dispatch from the North Pole!
could our Holiday friend be back?
could our Holiday friend be back?
Thursday, November 22, 2012
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Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation
October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States
A Proclamation
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
Abraham Lincoln
By the President of the United States
A Proclamation
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
Abraham Lincoln
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Your Time Killers For Pretending To Work on the Wednesday Before Thanksgiving
Ah, that magical day in the office where time becomes meaningless. If you're like me, it's you and Nick, the Graduate Assistant as the only ones planning to show up for work on Wednesday. It'll be an odd mix of the clock moving too slowly and the ability to actually get some work done for once without the weird guy from around the corner coming to your door and killing your schedule for the day.
I have a very warm place in my heart for The Addams Family movies. Their commentary on The First Thanksgiving.
Some guy re-enacts a key scene from Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
Here's a Thanksgiving puzzle...
I have a very warm place in my heart for The Addams Family movies. Their commentary on The First Thanksgiving.
Some guy re-enacts a key scene from Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
Here's a Thanksgiving puzzle...
Monday, November 19, 2012
Happy Turkey Week
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| I don't even know where to start... |
It's that magical week of the year! I'm not sure when you kids are checking out for the week, so I thought I'd just pop up now and wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving.
<festive> Happy Thanksgiving! </festive>
I'm feeling much better now than last Wednesday evening, and I seem to be a few degrees away from hail and hearty. Much better way to enter the holiday than worrying about contaminating the yams.
This year Jason is headed off to Phoenix, homeland of his ladyperson, AmyD. It's going to be a bit more quiet around these parts, and I'll surely miss having him around at my folks' dinner, but I guess I've been disappearing with Jamie for Thanksgiving for years and years at this point. Fair's fair.
I anticipate no Thanksgiving madness. The family may not be "sane" or "stable"- but they are predictable. The only wildcard is my pal JuanD, who is joining us for dinner and who is smart enough not to get into a heated debate with my 15 year old cousin or throw a punch at Jamie's dad.
If it is looking like it's going to get rough, prepare mentally and physically and think: what would Superman do?
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| Lois's dad is decidedly not fun to deal with |
We're having a bit of a Holiday shindig on December 1 (sure, come on down), so I'll also be spending the weekend cleaning and decking the halls. I still haven't been to Home Depot to see if they have a bear for the front yard. I kind of want one.
Aside from that: football. Probably a movie or three. I'm not laboring under any delusions. It's a three-day weekend with a "workday" of consuming bird and pie tacked on to the start. I work for a university, so I'm looking at the clock for when they shut us down from Christmas til New Year.
I am going to watch a VERY SPECIAL Christmas movie, so I look forward to posting on that.
Anyway, gobble, gobble, y'all.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Novemberama! Joan Crawford!
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| Joan really looks like she knows her way around a sharp, deadly knife... |
No. Just, absolutely, no. We are not doing this.
Happy Turkey Month, everybuddy!
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Halloween Close-Out
Well, that was a whole lot of Halloween on this blog. I hope you kids enjoyed it.
I figured I might as well do a real Halloween blowout here once, so, that was it. I like me some Holidays, for sure, but Halloween and it's focus on lightweight scares, costumes and candy has always been a favorite.
In days of yore I might have tried to make more of Halloween night itself, but these days I'm pretty happy just to spend the evening in the driveway and get the chance to see the kids come up in their costumes. And this year we had a heard of turtles. Man, there were a lot of kids.
Some great costumes from Adventure Time characters to Kermit the Frog to Witches and Werewolves to somebody named "Minecraft Steve", who was the kid across the street with a box on his head. And, because memes never really die, we had The Honey Badger.
Jason and Amy came by, so we had some company as we handed stuff out to the trick-or-treaters. It's always more fun with company.
Anyway, it is a weird Halloween partially because the next several days are going to be nuts. I have serious meetings at work followed by a work trip to Denver that will last all of 36 hours and end on Monday.
Hope your Halloween was fun!
If what I saw at CVS when I popped in this evening was any indication, we are now officially in the Christmas season.
I figured I might as well do a real Halloween blowout here once, so, that was it. I like me some Holidays, for sure, but Halloween and it's focus on lightweight scares, costumes and candy has always been a favorite.
In days of yore I might have tried to make more of Halloween night itself, but these days I'm pretty happy just to spend the evening in the driveway and get the chance to see the kids come up in their costumes. And this year we had a heard of turtles. Man, there were a lot of kids.
Some great costumes from Adventure Time characters to Kermit the Frog to Witches and Werewolves to somebody named "Minecraft Steve", who was the kid across the street with a box on his head. And, because memes never really die, we had The Honey Badger.
Jason and Amy came by, so we had some company as we handed stuff out to the trick-or-treaters. It's always more fun with company.
Anyway, it is a weird Halloween partially because the next several days are going to be nuts. I have serious meetings at work followed by a work trip to Denver that will last all of 36 hours and end on Monday.
Hope your Halloween was fun!
If what I saw at CVS when I popped in this evening was any indication, we are now officially in the Christmas season.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Signal Watch Call for Entries: What Spooky Movies Shall I Watch this October?
Hi y'all!
October is just around the corner. I need to consider what spoooooky movies I can watch as we head into the haunted season.
If you've hung around the past few years, you should know all about my love of Frankenstein movies and classic Universal Horror films. And, of late, I've liked a lot of the Hammer films I've had a chance to see. I'll check out a Vincent Price flick, and I'm pretty fond of stuff that rides the line between cheesy and scary.
October is just around the corner. I need to consider what spoooooky movies I can watch as we head into the haunted season.
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| let's blow the lid off this Halloween! |
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