I’m sorry to have been remiss in posting about Nikki Stafford’s imminent Great Buffy Rewatch.
Down for the Count
Perhaps my first lasting Internet connection in days should be spent on something important. (“Ha! Too late!” say the gods of cyberspace.) Maybe this is close enough. (“Maybe not!”) While I reload open pages in the browser to catch up on various blogs during the next inevitable connection fail (“Psyche!”), I also want to publish at least a brief post here because I know that folks can get pretty sick of looking at Santa Claus once Christmas has come and gone.
So here are my contributions to this week’s online Late Show with David Letterman Top Ten contest [dead link], complete with nods as usual to the show’s own running jokes, in the category...
Top Nine Things Overheard During New Year’s Eve in Times Square
9. “Excuse me... You’re stepping on Mayor Bloomberg.”
8. “It’s really more of an irregular polygon with poorly defined borders.”
7. “You think this is a lot of drunk people with time to kill? I was in the audience for Letterman last week.”
Nick of Time
I met Santa Claus last night.
Really, I did; I’ll tell you about it. And the timing was perfect, since the lights have
not been in my favor.
Stocking Stuff
Christmas arrived at The Late Show with David Letterman a day early. Dave is always preempted on Christmas Eve so that CBS can air Mass, but this time the fabled meatball was toppled from the Ed Sullivan Theater’s Christmas tree on the night before the night before the Night before Christmas — when Dave rammed into the tree on a go-kart. He was trying out toys again with Shannon Eis.
A clip of the joy ride is up at the show’s website now; I don’t know how long it will last.
I Sleigh Me
Last week’s Top Ten contest [dead link] at the Late Show with David Letterman website was even more inspiring than usual. If you don’t know the drill you can check out the first post in this category, so without further ado here are...
My Top Ten Little-Known Facts about Santa Claus
10. Born Seymour Klausmann, Brooklyn, 1926
9. Will get you on the “nice” list for twenty bucks and/or a bottle of Jim Beam
8. Goes down more than just the chimney, ladies
7. Eleven months out of the year, crash diets and works as Dumbledore at the Harry Potter theme park in Orlando
6. Holly Jolly Christmas: To you, it’s the name of a Burl Ives classic; to Santa, it’s the name of the gal who takes care of him in the VIP suite at North Pole Dancers
Braids of Glory
My niece E and her cousin L, both 8 years old, each received a copy of Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword for Chanukah — but not before Uncle Brian read it... twice.
A Body Eclectic
I’m always excited by additions to Mike Mignola’s body of work. And while that honestly wasn’t meant as a pun, this post exists to sing the praises of a delightful fugue composed by the creator of Hellboy known as The Amazing Screw-On Head. It began life several years ago as a one-shot comic book; now, its titular story has finally been reissued with like material by Dark Horse in a $17.99 hardcover.
For a long time, I despaired of ever seeing such a collection or, indeed, much “like material” at all despite the (very) occasional Mignola efforts along similar lines in terms of tone if not detail.
Deception
the Following poster
Exploring Inception’s twists and inspirations online after viewing, I was quickly disabused of the notion that it was Christopher Nolan’s sixth feature. His career, early shorts aside, did not begin with Memento. It launched with a 70-minute, “no-budget” film called Following released in 1999.
Holiday Meaning
The setup of the blog’s new home has been awfully slow going, while posts-to-be are piling up and getting stale, so I’m going to give publishing here another try for a limited run. Perhaps the spirit of the season will pervade even the grinchitude of Blogger’s grinding gears... Of course there’s no better way to kick things off than with a batch of word-verification definitions, collected and explained for the curious at that link.
• apersed — n. [ah pur sed] “&” with a cold.
• brqua — n. [burr kwah] Ice water.
• cesinema — n. [see zin eh muh] The niche film genre concerning movies made about the alkali element Cesium. (It’s rare but it tends to get really big reactions.)
On a Boat
I’m sure that everyone and their furry blue brother have successfully viralized it by
now, but just to do my part here’s Grover with a preposition for you.
Sesame Street keeps up with pop culture admirably in spots like this one (riffing on
the instant-classic Old Spice ad starring Isaiah Mustafa) as well as through of-the-moment goofs and guest spots on the show itself — even if once in a great big while they go awry. [Update: I should have warned folks that my last link is to the infamous spot with Elmo and Katy Perry yanked by Sesame Workshop after outcry that her outfit was inappropriate.]
Related: G Love • Swift Kicks • Muppet Monday