(courtesy Pinterest (c) Charles M. Schulz) Merry pop culture Christmas everyone! I have had a ball as always this year writing about all kinds of books, movies, TV/streaming shows, graphic novels/comics and songs, and while it’s been tough to keep writing in my spare time when my day job as Continue Reading
Animation
Happiness is a The Snoopy Show Christmas episode: “Happiness is Holiday Traditions” / “Window Wonderland” / “Spike’s Old-Fashioned Christmas”
(courtesy AppleTV+) If ever any pop culture property had a hold on what a Christmas tradition is, it’s Peanuts. The iconic and much-loved comic strip by Charles M. Schulz has become almost as well known for its exquisitely well-drawn and joyously nuanced television specials such as A Charlie Brown Christmas, Continue Reading
Imagine how love makes us real: Festive thoughts on The Velveteen Rabbit
(courtesy IMP Awards) I have read so many books in my life that remembering ones that particularly struck me, even as a child, isn’t easy. But one of the twenty or so books that has stuck to my head and my heart like storytelling super glue is the moving 1922 Continue Reading
The short and the festive short of it: The Real Santa aka Father Christmas
(courtesy YouTube) Oh my heart! What a lovely story and yes, it might be an ad for Netto Marken-Discount in Hannover, Germany but it has so much originality and warmth and loveliness that you want to watch it again and again. Focusing on the idea that “It’s a gift to Continue Reading
On 8th day of Christmas … I watched DC’s Merry Little Batman
(courtesy IMDb (c) Prime Video) You have to hand it to anyone who looks at a venerable piece of pop culture property, in this Batman who is 84 years young, and thinks there must a way to bring some new life to it. It’s a brave thing to do because Continue Reading
Hello tinsel-tinged nostalgia: The lost 1980s Christmas specials
(courtesy Laughing Squid) Christmas used to be defined by the specials that aired on Network TV. While videos were a thing, it wasn’t yet common in the Eighties for people to routinely have the movies and TV shows they loved on the shelf to watch whenever they wanted, and so Continue Reading
On 6th day of Christmas … I put 15 more pop culture ornaments on my tree incl. ABBA, Parks and Recreation, Ziggy and Goofy
(via Shutterstock) What, what, you say, you have yet more ornaments to place upon the tree? Why yes, yes I do; every year I tell myself I’ll stick to 9 or 10 new ones, just the best of the best and yet every year, 50 to 60, sometimes more make Continue Reading
The short and the Christmas short of it: Gordon Goose – Christmas Tree
(courtesy YouTube) Gordon Goose, so his official page says, is a “typical corpo goose with atypical life” with a work life that is, we’re assured, even worse than the one you’re enduring. Still, even with all that corporate existential angst drilling a great big hole into his soul, Gordon finds Continue Reading
On 1st day of Christmas … I put 15 new pop culture ornaments on my tree incl. Ted Lasso, Schitt’s Creek, Shazam, Peter Pan, Peanuts … and more!
(via Shutterstock) Take one look at this blog and you realise I love pop culture. LOVE IT! So while the first ornaments I bought for my own grown-up tree in 1992 were relatively standard baubles and department store trinkets, soon followed by Hallmark ornaments by the metric ton, I soon Continue Reading
Animated festive movie festival: The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday + Trolls Holiday
(courtesy IMP Awards) The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday So, you’re likely used to the rather appealing idea that Christmas is all giving and doing unto others etc and not about grabbing and stealing and having a narcissistic time of it. Well established as that may be as a Continue Reading