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SEASON'S GREETINGS, LOYAL TAOISTS!


If you love Mythbusters as much as I do (and have watched way more TV than anyone should over the holidays), you've probably seen this once or twice--I think I've caught it about 4 times in as many days.

For everyone else--meet the magnificent MYTHBUSTERS HOLIDAY RUBE GOLDBERG MACHINE!!!

If you're uncertain what a Rube Goldberg machine is, trust me, you've seen one in action at some point--even if you're unfamiliar with the term. Remember that amazingly awesome machine Pee-Wee uses to make his breakfast at the start of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure? Ever played the game Mouse Trap? (and by "played", I mean set it up, watched the trap run, and laughed like an idiot--that's all anyone does with it, nobody ever really plays the "game")

If you said yes to either of those, then you've seen a Rube Goldberg machine in action. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters built one for their Holiday Special--and spent the next hour trying to get the bloody thing working right!

Fortunately, by the end of the show, everything was copacetic. Here's their Magical Contraption in glorious action:




Oh, and while we're on the subject of Mythbusters--our own Colleen recently lamented in a conversation with me that she regrets leaving Mythbusters' smokin hot Geek Goddess, Kari Byron, off of her recent holiday offering of Hotties. Sure, I've got two pics of her in the sidebar---but it's Christmas, dammit!

Hey there folks

Around this time, I spend time youtubing old Christmas specials that my mom taped off the tv for me. Many times I have recounted these stories to my friends, who look at me cockeyed when I tell them my favourite Santa movie is the one where 'he is raised in a forest by wood nymphs'.

A lot of holiday specials I really enjoy were Rankin-Bass. Rankin-Bass really had it going on in my childhood. Not only did they produce The Last Unicorn, The Flight of Dragons (a often passed over fantasy flick I plan on writing about in the new year), The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings cartoon, they were heavily involved in the holidays. Not just Christmas mind you, as they also produced one of my favourite Easter cartoons too about a stuffed bunny that became the Easter Rabbit (of course, tying in with their Christmas theme, the stuffed bunny was given as a Christmas present from Santa).

Ranking-Bass made the most well known of the holiday specials. I am sure you have all seen:
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Frost the Snowman

But do you remember these?



Puppet based
The Year Without Santa Claus
One year, Santa is sick with a cold and decides to cancel Christmas because he believes that the children don't care anymore. Mrs. Claus sends two elves, Jingle and Jangle, to a southern US town where it never snows to find out why people have stopped caring about Christmas. This movie is famous for its Miser Brothers, two sons of Mother Nature. Most people were reacquainted with this movie when Mister Freeze forces his henchmen to sing the Snow Miser's song in Batman & Robin. Not exactly one of my favourite specials but it is alright.


Rudolph's Shiny New Year
After Christmas, Father Time sends for Rudolph's help to find the missing new year baby who ahs run off because everyone laughs at his unusually large ears. With a clock soldier and a camel with a clock in its hump named Quarter After Five, Rudolph travels to many different islands looking for Happy, the baby new year (oh the puns kill me). Each island belongs to a Year after he retires. My personal favourite is the island belonging to OM (short for One Million BC) who yes, lives on an island of dinosaurs and sings a delightfully happy song about "raining sunshine" which my mom always started sisnging whenever it started raining with the sun out. The movie is a little dopey but it was one of my favourites. Rudolph was always a personal hero of mine. My mom's theme for Christmas decorations for me was reindeer, specifically Rudolph. When I was in daycare (which was at a nursing home), we had to sing a little Christmas concert for the old folks. I think I was about 4 at the time, and I had terrible stage freight. When we started singing Rudolph, I burst into tears and all the daycare supervisors started pointing at me, indicating that I was "Rudolph". My mom used that reasoning to associate me with the character I guess haha. My brother loved snowmen, so he got a lot of Frosty stuff. Anyways - as I was saying, Shiny New Year was one of my favourites because it's slightly weird and not many people remember it.


The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
A hands down favourite Santa movie of mine. It starts out with the council of Immortals, who must decide that night whether they will grant Santa Claus the mantle of Immortality. This was a big deal for them, as no mortal had ever been given immortality. The Great Ak, the master woodsman who had a hand in the raising of Santa Claus, tells of his life among the forests, raised by a woodland nymph and a lioness. The baby, Claus, is sent out to live with mortals once he becomes a young man. He is joined by a friend, a sound imp who teaches him all languages of man and beast. He becomes well known for making toys and acts of kindness. Ther eis a lot more to this movie and I do not want to give it away at all! Let's just say it was described as a very dark Christmas movie. The best part is it's a novel of the same name by L Frank Baum - the man who wrote the Oz series. This movie is hard to find because it is not on DVD. Apparently it is now, but I question the quality haha. They tried to do a cartoon remake of the story, without the songs and it was terrible.. terrible!!


The Leprechaun's Christmas Gold
I gotta say, this one is pretty bad. It's like they were trying to make a St Patrick's Day Special but decided that they had to throw Christmas in there somewhere. There is nothing Christmasy about this at all. A Banshee needs to have gold given to her before Christmas or she turns into tears. That's all there is about Christmas in this one. View at your own risk.


Nestor The Long Eared Christmas Donkey
A donkey with unusually long ears is made fun of (running theme for these movies) but finds his purpose as the donkey that carries Mary to Bethlehem. This movie used to make me cry, but it really is a tamer version of Disney's Small One (youtube that one if you want to have a misty-eyed night).



Oh hell, Here's Small One too


Frosty and Rudolph's Christmas in July
I haven't seen this one for awhile, but Frosty and Rudolph help a cowgirl (yeah...) have a Christmas circus/rodeo thing in July. You need to have seen Frosty's Winter Wonderland for the story of his wife in this clip.



Little Drummer Boy
A Drumemr Boy and his band of animals in another sad movie. Drummer Boy goes to the Wise Kings to heal his dying sheep. I haven't seen this one for awhile either.



Cartoons
I guess at one point they got tired of using puppets and claymation and did the animation thing. Which was fine by me!

Frosty's Winter Wonderland
The following winter, the kids miss Frosty. As soon as it is winter time again, he comes back and enjoys playing with them. But at night when the kids go home, Frosty is left alone in the snow. The kids decide to make him a wife. Jack Frost, jealous of Frosty's popualrity, tries to thrwart all their plans. Short and goofy, but Paul Frees is the king of voices as usual. Apparently this one still gets shown on ABC during the 25 days of Christmas.



The Stingiest Man in Town
My absolute favourite version of A Christmas Carol (Muppet's Christmas Carol is a close second. A remake of a live action musical done on the Alcoa Hour. This one has so many great voice actors in it (Tom Bosely, Walker Matthau) and I find the songs really catchy. It's hard to find because I guess a lot of stations don't have the rights to it. The whole thing is uploaded on Youtube and you CAN get it on DVD - it's on a Christmas Classics collection. They won't let me embed this one, so here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykm-nZ6bIoI

Bonus!!

I don't know where this one came from, and it is strange ... I do remember the intro vividly. I don't remember what else happens in this Christmas Special because I can't get myself to part 3.
Candy Claus

HO FREAKIN' HO!


Hmm...looks like I CAN still do jump breaks--I just have to post with my crappy old Yahoo account that cuts me off from my dear ones on Google chat when I use it. Merry Christmas and Suck my Balls, Blogger!


So here's the dealio: I don't have jack shit to do for the Holidays--so I'm taking advantage of my solitary misery for the benefit of you lucky peoples, who, gods willing, will be spending this Yuletide with your RL friends and loved ones.

Over the next three days I'll be posting various holiday related articles and content for you and your families' Christmas enjoyment--all I ask is that you remember me in your prayers to Santa.


Tonight, I'll once again be attempting a Youtube "Simulcast" of an MST3K holiday classic--a Mexican import more horrific than Montezuma's Revenge: K. Gordon Murray's production of "Santa Claus"!

Some of you may wonder why I don't go with the more traditional "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians"? Well, bad as that film is, and hilarious as the episode is, I always found this one to be a few notches above it on the WTF-o-meter. Come on! Santa lives in a castle in space, forces kidnapped children from around the world to make his toys and sing festive native songs on command, works with Merlin the Wizard, carries potent narcotics in a little pouch on his belt, and battles Satan one-on-one! (and I won't even get into the demonic wind-up reindeer!) Ok, granted, there's no lame-ass cardboard robot--but in every other way, this film is a superior romp in the jolliest circle of Hell.

The festivities begin at 7PM EST (I'm in Central, sure, but most of my audience seems to be further east)

If you're uncertain how to find this chunk of Christmas Crapcake--either search for "mst3k santa claus" at youtube itself, or go to my youtube channel (see link list on sidebar) and check the favorites.

We'll (assuming anyone shows) be chatting live in the comments section as we watch--Join us for some hilarious, disturbing, Holiday cheer!


I'll be back with more Christmassy goodness as I said, for now--here's a taste of the aforementioned film. It's not an MST3K bit, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to find the creator of this work of genius and bear his/her children.



Until tonight!


Scooter Claus

I was doing some Christmas shopping today when I came upon a rack of DC t-shirts. I always like to look through those as I have a tendency to buy and wear them (still looking for a good Aquaman shirt).

Anyway, I stumbled across one of the most bizarre DC shirts I've ever seen. Usually super-hero shirts are one of three kinds: they're either the hero's logo, a shot of the hero/heroes, or less often an image of an actual comic book cover.

But today I saw a shirt that had an actual page from a comic. But it wasn't some really iconic or famous image. It was the scene from Blackest Night where "Batman" is brought back to life and everybody waves their hands and something bad happens.

It's a really weird subject for a shirt. It's got all these little boxes of heroes looking on in wonder/confusion/horror at the Black Lantern "Batman" but no caption boxes or word balloons. I mean, I can see such a shirt possibly selling in a comic book niche market. But I saw this at a Target.

I don't think the general public is in the market for a zombie Batman shirt. But then, considering fashion trends in recent years I may be wrong. I mean, when did it become acceptable to wear sweatpants everywhere all the time?

To those who celebrate the holiday... Merry Christmas.

This Christmas Eve is Thursday Night Thinking! So here are some holiday thoughts from the one and only Batman:

Rest assure, you'll be seeing more from Batman tomorrow.

Merry Christmas, y'all. Sorry I'm a couple days late, but you know I had planned to do a Thursday Night Thinking post for Christmas Day. I had a fantastic panel of Batman thinking about Christmas all ready to go.

But then in the wee early morning hours of Christmas Santa Claus did arrive. With him he brought me something I haven't had since I was a child:

Yes, Virginia, I did have the flu.

I'm still not completely recovered. I won't go into the gruesome details (though I will say that festive red and green were on the reverse menu). But I just wanted you all to know that I'm alive (if barely) and will resume posting here sometime in the next few days.

Now I'm going to lay back down...

It's Christmas Eve and the holiday is right around the corner. This will be my first proper Christmas in three years. Sure, there will be presents and feasting. But let's not forget what this season is really about:

God bless you, Superman. Merry Christmas, all.

Bonjour! I just came home from a long day of Christmas shopping (with a soon to be one year old) and capped the evening off with a fun sushi dinner avec the hubby and I am finally feeling festive (it's about time, right). I owe my festive holiday cheer to all of you out there with your beautiful and inspiring blogs! So, I shout from the rooftops...THANK YOU! Some (not all) of these amazing blogs are....
Catherine at A Thousand Clapping Hands

TangoBaby I have to say reading her blog changed my life, Ok, maybe not changed it, but definitely made it a brighter better place. I'm addicted now!

Paris Hotel Boutique I am obsessed with this beautiful blog! The images are always stunning and the content so original!

Of course my favorites of all time, The Paris Apartment, A Rendezvous with Style, and French Essence

I love visiting Catherine at Versailles and More, I always learn something new and it is always beautiful.

I am not sure where these photos are from but I thought they were dreamy! Knowing my photo catalog, I'm guessing they are somehow French. These Trees/dresses are fantastical!

Bisou Mon Amis!

Judith~

La sapin de Louis Vuitton

In Paris for the holidays the fashion world contributed 44 designer Christmas trees at the annual "Les Sapins de Noël des Créateurs" charity auction. A grand total of €101,000 was raised for the Sol En Si charity organization that helps children and families living with AIDS.

Chanel *sigh*

Jean Charles de Castelbajac

La sapin de Jean Paul Gaultier

Gucci (of course)

Happy holidays from my home to yours! I hope that this holiday brings you what your heart desires most, and I don't mean the store~bought desires. Many, Many warm wishes your way!

Valentino *sigh*

La sapin de Christian LaCroix

Bisou Mon Amis!