Quick Review: Rise Of The Guardians

I saw this animated film a couple of weeks ago, and it's still around. I suppose that's because one of the characters is Santa Claus, so it qualifies as a "Christmas" movie and they can keep it in the theaters until we get into 2013. But it isn't entirely focused on the Christmas holiday.  When I first heard about this movie being made I was very much excited -- a group consisting of Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, etc. are action heroes teaming up to stop a threat to the world's children, but they need the help of Jack Frost, who in this story is a teen prankster and far from interested in helping. Then I saw the trailers and it was...actually discouraging. The end result was somewhere in between. The plot was kind of dull at times and the villain doesn't particularly seem like a terrible threat, and Santa's elves in this movie are a very poor imitation of the "Despicable Me" minions. And, for some reason, Santa (as voiced by Alec Baldwin) is Russian. It had a few bits that were okay, though. Very much a mixed bag. My grade: C-plus.

Pics With New Phone

It still amazes me that I actually have a smartphone that's among the newest on the market (Samsung Galaxy SIII). Without going into the whole story, we'll just say that circumstances arose and I ended up getting enough of a deal to make it feasible. Plus, unlike the last time I got a new phone, I actually got my number ported over to the new phone. Anyway, it takes decent pictures (although the originals were extremely large because I didn't check the settings, so I resized them to post them here). And although it doesn't have a flash,   the ones I took at night look really nice.

First two are of Jewelers Row on Sansom St. decked out for the holidays. Taken on Tuesday.

These two are of the historic Christ Church, taken Wednesday evening not long before sunset...

On Friday I found one of those ubiquitous sticker art displays, but this one actually hasn't been tainted. So many newspaper boxes have multiple stickers, some of which are peeling or have been written on, as well as graffiti on the boxes, and they look a mess. Not this one.

The Comcast Center standing tall in the background. Taken Friday evening on Market St. just east of 18th.

On Saturday at Frankford Terminal, I noticed this exit sign looking like it was growing hair.

I got the phone as high as I could and got a look at a portion of the top of the sign. What is this supposed to be? Anyone?

The other side of this building faces Rittenhouse Square, if I'm not mistaken. I think I was on Chestnut St. near 20th. I just liked the zigzag look of it.

Photos And Such

After work I went into center city and decided to visit Five Guys. I got there shortly after 5 and it was virtually empty. Just one customer at a table eating. Possibly because it was a slow day and they had lots of potatoes to get rid of, possibly because I put a dollar in the tip jar, possibly both, I got a huge amount of fries thrown into the bag on top of the cup inside. Such joy.

Then I took a look at their bulletin board, where you can have a card tacked up exclaiming your feelings for Five Guys.

Ummm...excuse me?

Not sure whether a child wrote this or a smartass teen or adult, but... (On the odd chance that it was a kid, I covered up the name written in the lower right corner, even though I can't really tell what the name is.)

After I left Five Guys I walked west on Walnut St. to 15th, on my way to the El, and I passed a UPS Store, with a front door that is still anticipating a Christmas rush.

Or maybe they're planning early for Christmas 2012?

Meanwhile, let's talk about cramps. No, not those cramps. Leg cramps. I've occasionally gotten them in the mornings when I wake up, although it hasn't happened much in recent years. But I got one. Last night, while sitting on my recliner. I just moved my leg some way and it hit. Just awful. And then this morning I didn't wake up until 6:50 am. That's the latest I've awakened on a work day since I started the job in October. I won't go into the details of how little and how quickly I washed up before getting dressed. I still managed to get to work on time, though.

Just realized that, with the comic book post I did last night, I have only one overdue story to blog about. Of course, it's now been simmering for just about a year. I actually started on it a couple of months ago and then put it aside. Seriously. The 17th of the month is the one-year anniversary of the tweets that started this particular idea percolating in my head. I may try to finally puzzle out my thoughts by then. It has to do with a singer, a former U.S. Postmaster General, politics and...a board game.

The Eagle Waits...

This is the center city Macy's store that was formerly known as John Wanamaker's, where the bronze Eagle stands in the Grand Court. This is where the holiday light show is held every year. Two weeks ago I was passing through and stopped and took a picture, because it seemed to me that the Eagle was standing there, looking up, just waiting for the light show to begin. That photo is the wallpaper on my phone right now.

But I wasn't entirely happy with it because I didn't quite get the top of the Christmas tree. So after I helped my friend move earlier this afternoon (well, yesterday afternoon as it's now after midnight) I stopped in center city on the way home and tried again. The photo at left is the one that is closest to the one I took two weeks ago.

I took a couple more, as well as one from the opposite side, showing the people today sitting around the Eagle waiting for the show to begin (it was 2:30 pm at the time), and you can see that, with the head turned as it is, the Eagle actually isn't looking at the tree...

Happy New Year. Posts on my 2011 in music and this blog coming in the next day or two.

Weird Christmas

I was watching the NFL Red Zone channel, the one that switches between every game going on, and it dawned on me: it's Saturday. And it's Christmas Eve. And I'm watching NFL games. There's a bit of a surreal feeling to the day (although this has happened before, of course). And for me, the holiday season itself has been unusual.

Normally I'd be trying to get through my stash of Christmas movies or TV shows (as listed here). This year, I haven't watched even one. The only Christmas shows I've watched were new holiday episodes of "Glee" and "Community." The "Community" episode was excellent, as it basically attacked "Glee" all night. I have listened to every bit of Christmas music in my iTunes, but that was in part because for the last week or so I've been taking my iPod to work and listening to music during the day. Having a job and a commute that's over an hour each way has really cut into my time. Besides the holiday TV problem, and the difficulty I've had in finding time to go to movies, I only added 12 new posts to the blog last month and just nine so far this month -- and a number of those are quick "post a picture and add a brief comment" posts. It's really frustrating.

I think I'd have an easier time if I had bought an iPad or other tablet PC, and gotten a 4G data plan to go with it, instead of the laptop I bought in September. That way my time on the bus and El (at least before it goes underground) could be more easily spent surfing the web, reading Twitter, etc., and that would allow me more time at night to blog and such. The more I think about it, the more I want to buy a tablet, but now I have this perfectly good laptop.

But I digress.

Too Long For Twitter: Stand Back, Philadelphia...

...because you oughta know whatcha gonna get in me: just a little touch of star quality!

Yep, the Evita song "Buenos Aires" is stuck in my head this morning. (The classic Patti LuPone Broadway original, that is, not the Madonna movie version or that "Glee" thing the other night.) And this, on a little more than 3 hours' sleep after having a rather tough week. This could be an interesting day.

Speaking of star quality, my friend Kurt was fantastic last night in his featured role in the Philadelphia Gay Men's Chorus holiday concert, "Nutcracker: A Tale of Sugar Plum Fairies." There are two more shows, this afternoon and tonight. Go see it.

I hope to see a movie today, and if so, tell you about it more promptly than I did with the ones I saw recently.

For now, I leave you with this: Justin Timberlake's musical comeback hit has already been written for him...

The First Christmas Song Of 2011

Congratulations(?) to the first Christmas song of 2011!...that was played on my Xmas playlist in iTunes when I set it to shuffle mode...



"The Davey Dinkle Song," by the cast of Urinetown, from "Broadway's Greatest Gifts: Carols For The Cure 2001."

MixBlog 12-27-10

Now that Christmas is over, we can look forward to the end of 2010. I thought about doing something on this blog this week, perhaps pointing out some of my favorite posts or something. Anyway, that will be for the week to come. I've got a few things to go through now...

Christmas Music: I just removed the holiday songs from my iPod. Here are my Top 5 Most-Played Christmas Songs:

Baby, It's Cold Outside - Glee Cast (16 plays)
Baseball Glove - Gord Bamford (13)
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Annie Lennox (10)
Put A Little Love In Your Heart - Annie Lennox and Al Green (10)
We Need A Little Christmas - Glee Cast (9)

All of the songs from the new Annie Lennox and Glee albums were played at least 5 times.

Snow: We officially had 12.4 inches Sunday into this morning. The forecasts generally went like this: from nothing (Thursday) to a coating to an inch (Friday) to 6-12 inches (early Saturday) to 10-15 inches (later Saturday evening) to 5-10 inches (late Sunday afternoon). The development of this storm, we're told, was very tricky to forecast. (Aren't they all?) As it turned out, all day and much of the night Sunday, the heaviest bands of snow that were circling around the low pressure as it moved north along the coast were unable to push across the Delaware River and into Pennsylvania.

A Little More On My Christmas Music

I just thought it would be fun to share how many versions of various Christmas songs are in my iTunes (out of the total of 468 holiday tracks), and the most notable performers of each...

Angels We Have Heard On High - 6; Aretha Franklin, "Glee" cast
Auld Lang Syne  - 5; Barenaked Ladies, Chris Isaak (and why is New Year's music played on Christmas?)
The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting...) - 8; Nat King Cole (duh), two versions by Ella Fitzgerald
The First Noel - 4; Annie Lennox, David Archuleta (I think these two names back to back form some sort of musical oxymoron)
Frosty the Snowman - 5; the Ronettes, two versions (again) by Ella Fitzgerald
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - 5; Annie Lennox, Rascal Flatts, Barenaked Ladies feat. Sarah McLachlan
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - 6; Pretenders, Kermit the Frog
I'll Be Home For Christmas - 4; Fats Domino, Kristin Chenoweth
Jingle Bells - 8 (if you include "Jingle Bells?" by Barbra Streisand and the medley "Jingle Bells/Jingle Bell Rock" by the Muppets)
Joy To The World - 5; Lee Greenwood, the Supremes
The Little Drummer Boy - 8; two up-tempo versions by Alexander O'Neal and the Salsoul Orchestra
O Holy Night - 7; Neil Sedaka, and a very funky cover by Musiq Soulchild
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - 9; Gene Autry, Meredith Brooks, and only one version by Ella Fitzgerald
Santa Baby - 4; Eartha Kitt, Madonna, Everclear (male vocal, changed lyrics because heaven knows the band had to butch it up) and Miss Piggy
Santa Claus is Coming to Town - 8; the Four Seasons, the Supremes, the Looney Tunes (I own the CD "Have Yourself A Looney Tunes Christmas" -- not the greatest Bugs Bunny & Company work Warner Bros. has put out there, although it's mildly amusing at times)
Silent Night - 13 (this looks like the winner); Wynonna, Mahalia Jackson, the Salsoul Orchestra (non-discofied!)
Sleigh Ride - 9 (including the Kristin Chenoweth/John Pizzarelli duet medley of "Sleigh Ride/Marshmallow World" but not including the Alexander O'Neal song with the same title but different lyrics; I also have a version by the Spice Girls
White Christmas - 7; besides the obvious Bing Crosby, there's Darlene Love, the Supremes...and there goes that Ella Fitzgerald again with two versions...
Winter Wonderland - 6; of course, my favorite is by Eurythmics, though you can't go wrong with Johnny Mathis
We Wish You A Merry Christmas - 4, including Weezer

And with that, I wish you a Merry Christmas as well, if you celebrate it. Or, just follow Krusty the Clown's advice: "So, have a merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, kwazy Kwanzaa, a tip-top Tet, and a solemn, dignified Ramadan. Now a word from MY god: our sponsor!"

The Day I Was Santa Claus

And now, a Christmas story! No, not that Christmas Story.

Once upon a time (because all of these tales have to begin with that, don't they?) there was a little boy. He was in the third grade when his school decided, in the middle of the year, that he should be in fourth grade instead because they thought he was so smart that he was bored in third grade. From then on, he was always a year or so younger -- and more importantly, less mature -- than the other kids in his class, and it was really tough. Grade-wise he was able to keep up, but when it came to making friends and such, that didn't really happen at all.

(Let's drop the third-person narrative now. Of course, this is about me.)

Flash-forward to a few years later. I think I was in 7th or 8th grade. One of those "My Weekly Reader" type publications had a short Christmas play in it, and our teacher decided that our class would perform the play for the 1st- and 2nd-grade kids right before schools shut down for the holidays. So she was asking who wanted to play various roles -- elves, reindeer, etc. For some unknown reason --

My Go-To Christmas Music

Before I get into my main lists, I want to share a new favorite I discovered on Todd Zolecki's Phillies blog at MLB.com. It's "Baseball Glove" by a Canadian country singer-songwriter, Gord Bamford. The lyrics talk about the many things the family wants, but all he wants is a baseball glove -- specifically, "a genuine cowhide Rawlings Pro Special, one autographed by Roy Halladay." Bamford is a Blue Jays fan and it was released last year, before Halladay was traded to the Phils, but it doesn't matter. Click the above link and you can watch the video and find a link to download the song for free.

There are so many new Christmas albums now, but in recent years I've only bought a few. These are the albums I bought in the last couple of years that I really enjoy:

Glee Cast - Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album (love the Chris Colfer/Darren Criss version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside")
Annie Lennox - A Christmas Cornucopia (I love what she did, but I kind of wish this had a couple of fun, not so serious/religious-oriented selections, like Eurythmics' "Winter Wonderland," one of my all-time faves)
Kristin Chenoweth - A Lovely Way To Spend Christmas
Barenaked Ladies - Barenaked for the Holidays (their quirky humor shines in a number of songs, especially "An Elf's Lament;" also includes a few Hanukkah songs)
Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas

I also found a couple of CDs that had been released previously: "A Classic Cartoon Christmas" and "A Classic Cartoon Christmas, Too." They feature tracks from many classic TV shows (and some that aren't so classic). Between the two, they include "Welcome Christmas" and "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" from "Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas," songs from "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town," Jimmy Durante's "Frosty the Snowman," a couple from the Muppets, and -- most happily -- the "Heat Miser" and "Snow Miser" songs from "The Year Without a Santa Claus." (I really need to edit them into one mp3 so when my music is in shuffle mode, I won't hear one and not the other right away.)

The following are the Christmas CDs I've had the longest, and are still my favorites:

The Philly Holiday Shows

I already posted these videos to Facebook but I thought I'd share them here as well, since I blogged about my Wednesday plans. First is a short clip of the finale of the Macy's Holiday Light Show. The Macy's show has been around forever -- well, over 50 years -- dating back to when the downtown store was Wanamaker's. It's been freshened up a bit, though. It's been a while since I've seen it so I was surprised that the narration, which had been recorded by the late John Facenda (known nationally for his work on NFL Films) is now done by Julie Andrews. I think, as a uniquely Philadelphia show, the vocal should have stayed local. Still, it's a charming old-fashioned tradition:



This is a longer clip, from the Comcast Holiday Spectacular (I would record a bit and then hit "pause" so it's not a full version of the show, just some excerpts all in one video):




The Comcast show is, as befits a high-definition age in a building that only officially opened in 2008, high-tech. The video is played on a giant hi-def LED screen on the wall. But other than the shot of the city skyline, there's nothing that says "Philadelphia" about it. Nice, but less than spectacular.

Christmas Is Coming!

Last Christmas I gave you my heart I listed the Christmas TV specials from my DVD or VHS collection that I try to watch every year. Well, this year I haven't watched a single one yet, and time is running out. (Although I have listened to every Christmas song in my iTunes. I want to try to do a holiday music-related post this week as well.) But it's not as if I haven't watched any Christmas programs. I've got both the "Glee" Christmas episode and this year's Christmas-themed "Simpsons" episode guest-starring Martha Stewart and (in live-action with Muppetized Simpsons) Katy Perry on my DVR and have watched both two or three times.

I also just recorded the TV-movie "A Diva's Christmas Carol" starring Vanessa Williams -- surely this helped lead to her becoming Wilhelmina Slater on "Ugly Betty" -- and right now I'm recording "Bad Santa" from Spike TV, although I'm sure it's a censored version that may disappoint.

Tomorrow I plan to try and add to my DVD collection, if I can find an inexpensive DVD of "Scrooged" starring Bill Murray. Like the Vanessa Williams film, it's another update of the Dickens classic, but with a more satirical streak. The soundtrack included the duet by Annie Lennox and Al Green of "Put A Little Love in Your Heart," a non-Christmas song that is now, for me, a holiday classic.



Yes, Christmas is coming...although the case can be made that it arrived early this year...

My Wednesday...Something

This still represents how I feel about winter (now that it's officially here).

Not sure what word to use with Wednesday that compares to Sunday Funday. Anyhoo, I'm going to try and accomplish the following tomorrow:

1. Comic books
2. Macy's Holiday Light Show (haven't seen it in a while)
3. Comcast Holiday Spectacular (haven't seen it at all)
4. If it opens as scheduled, lunch at the new Five Guys Burgers on Walnut St.
5. The movie "I Love You Phillip Morris" at the Ritz at the Bourse
6. ....well, at this point there's nothing else. If you have a suggestion or would like to hang out with me instead of stalking me from a distance, let me know. ;-)

We'll see if all of this works out. If there are crowds at Five Guys I may skip it and wait for another day.

Now I REALLY Have The Christmas Spirit!

Santa, on the other hand, has had some Christmas spirits...



I haven't laughed this hard in a while!

MixBlog 12-8-10

So I had a thought today -- pause for wisecracks regarding my actually having thoughts. I might do another random blog post, but at some point I'd be repeating myself in the titles. Random Thoughts, Random Musings, More Randomness, Randomly Random Randomness...I needed something different. But what? Anyway, I was on the bus today and for some reason the word "mixtape" popped into my head. Suddenly, I had what I needed: MixBlog! (Please note that the date in the title corresponds to when I started typing, before midnight.) So, without further ado...

• I love some of these Twitter accounts that either impersonate celebrities or purport to be TV or movie or other famous characters. (I'd like to do one myself. I need to find a character that I know well enough to make it seem realistic, as well as one whose name hasn't been used on Twitter. I had an idea or two but the Twitter names I had in mind were already taken. One or two times the Twitter accounts were created but they're pretty much dead accounts, with no tweets at all or no tweets in a long time.) Here's something about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" from a famous newspaper reporter that I laughed at today...
  
  
  
  
  It was followed by "Oh, crap. You all weren't supposed to know that." I can't get that image to upload to the blog, though.

• Speaking of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell,"
  

Sorry, Annie Lennox

I've decided against a trip to New York City to see Annie Lennox.

That sentence is blasphemous, I know. So here's the deal:

The other day I was on Facebook and there was a post from Annie's page with a link to apply to get tickets to see her perform at the taping of "Christmas at Rockefeller Center." It said there were 500 tickets available. I clicked on the link and registered with the website (which has tickets to a number of TV show tapings, it seems). I requested two tickets, and actually got a confirmation. I clicked to print, and only one page came up (noting that it was for two people).

Then I noticed something on the website. It said that if your ticket was for two and you showed up alone, instead of being allowed in, you'd be put in the standby line! Since no one was able or willing to go with me, I wasn't going to make the trip up there unless I was guaranteed that I'd see the show.

I went back to the website today.

Christmas Is Canceled

Remember that year when Santa was about to cancel Christmas because the snowstorm at the North Pole was too powerful to allow him to take his sleigh out to deliver presents to all the good little boys and girls, but then Rudolph saved the day thanks to his shiny red nose? Well, here's some horrible news...

Where is OUR Rudolph, dammit? Where is our hero to chill the air so Christmas in July go on as scheduled? Oh, wait, he's already left town...

Some Rambling Random And Shirtless Stuff

I've got a few things that popped through my head recently that fit into the TLFT (Too Long For Twitter) category, so I figured lumping them together into a single blog post would work...

• When did songs like "Sleigh Ride," "Winter Wonderland" and especially "Baby It's Cold Outside" become Christmas music? There's nothing about Christmas in any of them. I'm not complaining. Would the beautiful voice of Annie Lennox have ever been heard singing "Winter Wonderland" if not for the holiday connection? I just got to wondering how it happened. Who was the first person to link these songs to Christmas? A singer, record producer or radio DJ, perhaps?

• On Christmas morning there was still tons of leftover snow from the storm 6 days earlier. Except for the areas shoveled -- paths along the sidewalk, people's driveways and some parking spots, and the part of the street that was plowed -- snow was piled up all over the place. The next day, virtually all of it was gone. Thanks to a soaking rain that started Christmas evening and temperatures that soared into the 50s the next day, you would never know that we had 23.1 inches of snow (the official total, although in my neighborhood I think it was more like 14 or 15 inches, which is, believe it or not, a lot more manageable) a little over a week ago.

• Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals is my favorite non-Flyers player. I love the fact that he's not just a goal-scorer. He doesn't shy away from hard hits or complain to the referees about them (unlike a certain whiny Pittsburgh Penguin); in fact, he revels in the physical aspect of the game. It does concern me that some of those hits lately have trended towards being dirty, and he recently received a two-game suspension for one such hit. I hope he reins himself in enough without completely losing that component of the game. Meanwhile, he was kind enough to pose shirtless for a Russian publication. Should we be concerned that he seems to have a tramp stamp on his lower back?

• I have an ethical dilemma. Would it be wrong for me to wish that my TV would die? I really want to join the HDTV age but I can't justify the expense, especially with my finances in their present state, unless the old TV dies. It's over 10 years old now (I've had it at least as long as I've been in my house, if not longer) and stubbornly refuses to die! Is there any way I could throw a brick through the screen and make it look like an accident?
  

Merry Christmas!

I am about to shut down the computer for the night -- hard to believe, isn't it? -- to eat dinner, followed by what's become my own little annual Christmas Eve tradition: baking chocolate chip cookies for Christmas with the family tomorrow. Sorry, they're not made from scratch, just the store-brand version of Pillsbury's tubes of cookie dough. But they're still good! While baking I'll be listening to Christmas music, either on the radio or my iPod, and I'll squeeze in a few DVD or VHS recordings of holiday specials. I've watched some already the last two nights, and I won't get to everything in my collection, but I'll get the most important ones...

Watched: A Pinky & The Brain Christmas, It's A Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special, Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales, Opus & Bill in A Wish For Wings That Work, The Year Without A Santa Claus (because I am a Heat Miser, as evidenced by my earlier Tweet), The Nanny Cartoon Christmas Special: Oy To The World

Plan to watch tonight: A Charlie Brown Christmas, Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas (the cartoon, not the Jim Carrey movie!), at least one of the Simpsons' Christmas-themed episodes through the first 12 seasons, the ones out on DVD (including the very first episode of the series, "Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire")

Maybe next year: A Christmas Story, Scrooge (the musical starring Albert Finney), Animaniacs: Helloooo, Holidays!, A Muppet Family Christmas

So I leave you for now with this holiday classic. The video is tacky but I love the song:



Seriously, though, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, whichever one you celebrate. And have some chocolate chip cookies. They're really good.