Paul McCartney "Wonderful Christmas Time"

Nice holiday song from Paul McCartney and Wings

Bob Dylan "Must Be Santa"

Here's the great Bob Dylan with his wackadoo version of this Christmas song. 

This came out just a few years ago.

Very fun, just like the season should be.

Repost: A Christmas Story

This is a re-post of a post originally appearing on December 17, 2011.  This is one that I've re-posted a few times around the holiday season, kind of like bringing out an old Christmas decoration that youve enjoyed many times before.

One of my recently acquired Christmas obsessions is the fun and enjoyable 1983 movie A Christmas Story. Based upon writer Jean Shepherd's semi-fictionalized account of a young boy, Ralphie, experiencing the Christmas holidays in 1940s Indiana with his parents, his younger brother, and his neighborhood friends. I love movies that convey a time period with great detail, and A Christmas Story clearly fits into this category. 

This movie contains one of the funniest scenes ever, where one of the young protagonist's friends gets his tongue stuck to metal pole in the cold of winter. The main story line, however, also full of funny moments, concerns Ralphie's ongoing quest to obtain a BB gun for Christmas, despite the objections ("you'll shoot your eye out, kid") of various adult figures, including his mother, his teacher, and a store Santa Claus.   

But I think the main reason I find this movie so enjoyable is that its a rather realistic, yet fun, holiday movie that doesn't take itself too seriously. It involves a rather average family doing their best to enjoy the holidays amidst
dealing with everyday life. Ultimately, this movie is about having a Merry Christmas with what you have, and with those you have around you.

'70s Christmas Songs

I posted several '80s-era Christmas songs. Here's some from the '70s.

Elton John "Step Into Christmas"  This one's a well-remembered classic. Very catchy and inviting. It really does make one want to step into the holidays.

John Denver and The Muppets "The Twelve Days of Christmas"  This one is so wonderfully '70s, and always puts a smile on my face.

The Carpenters "Merry Christmas Darling"   A happy memory from a classic '70s duo.  Very traditional and homey, and Karen with her wonderful voice.

Slade "Merry Xmas Everyone"  A fun Christmas song from the Glam part of the '70s. This is more well known in the UK than in the US.

Greg Lake "I Believe In Father Christmas"  And from the Prog side of the '70s, this song which is an interesting combination of Christmas song and protest song. One does not have to agree with all of the lyrics to find it compelling. 

'80s Christmas Songs

Every year I always celebrate the holidays by blogging about Christmas songs, especially from the '80s. So let's start this holiday season with my latest Christmas song post.  All of these were posted before on my blog, but its become a holiday tradition on this blog, so here they are to enjoy. To all my readers:

Merry Christmas

Happy Hannukah

Happy Holidays

Billy Squire, "Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You."  This song is so cheerful, it just picks you up for the holidays.

Wham, "This Christmas." I always say that this is the most 80s-esque song and video of the season, from '80s faves Wham. Check it out and imagine youre in 1985.

U2, "Baby Please Come Home."  From '80s rockers U2, a classy yet very rock n' roll Christmas song.

John Mellencamp, "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." From the same guy who gave us "Hurts So Good," and "Pink Houses." Mellencamp gets all family for Christmas.

Heavy Metal, The Movie

Back in the early '80s, an animated movie came out based on the adult comic magazine Heavy Metal.  The 1981 movie, also called Heavy Metal, ultimately would develop a cult following and become a favorite of the late night movie circuit. Heavy Metal consisted of anthology of several animated stories, all with a style clearly geared to teen males. I love it because it serves as a wonderful time capsule of the era, in particular of the rock-oriented culture of that era, and a remembrance of what was considered cool among early '80s teens, especially males.

Heavy Metal starts with an animated space sequence, with a space shuttle (a form of space transportation then new and exciting) opening its cargo bay and releasing a corvette, which slowly descends back to earth.

A space shuttle releasing a hot sports car into space... an odd sequence that seems so obviously cool in an early '80s context, which I think would appear odd to today's youth.

The initial story involves an astronaut bringing a gift from space to his young daughter: a strange glowing orb which turns out to have great power, and which serves as a central figure in all the movie's stories.

One story features a taxi driver named Harry Canyon living a very rough, distopian future version of New York City . . .a reminder that New York of the late '70s and eraly '80s was facing its own issues of crime and decay.  Canyon's story contains a pulp fiction style with a gritty story line. 

Another story involves a zombie laden account of horror encountered by a World War II bomber crew.  As with all the stories, very teen-male oriented.

My favorite story involves a nerdy teen boy who finds the glowing orb, and takes it home to run scientific experiments on it.

The boy soon finds himself transformed into a bald, muscle-bound hero, and transported to a strange mythical land where the orb is an object of worship called the Loc-Nar.  As his new self, he calls himself "Den", and embarks on a series of adventures involving the Loc-Nar and the inhabitants of the new world to which he has been brought.

The stories in Heavy Metal includes accounts taking place in space and in strange new lands, and involving odd aliens and mythical animals. Altogether an enjoyable combination, but not too deep or complicated in its content. Its practically made for late night, leisurely viewing.

As noted, there is always a reminder of the early '80s era (with lots of leftover late '70s) which produced this flick: as in the sequence featuring drug snorting aliens, and a swinging sex-addled robot. Heavy Metal is not for everyone, but if youre into science fiction told with a pulp style, mixed with early '80s teen rock n' roll sensibility, its worth a watch.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Here's a 1987 Macy's commercial featuring Snoopy. It includes a portion where it shows the shadow of the Snoopy ballon in the yearly Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, an event that was always a treasured part of thanksgiving when I was growing up, and which remains such today.  

And here's a 1988  Metlife Thanksgiving commercial also feautring the Peanuts characters. This is a re-post of this clip, which was featured on this blog a few prior Thanksgivings . . . and it's still warm reminder of the point of this holiday. 

A Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers!!