Merry Christmas To All

[Image found here.]

Christmas Eve Hot Links

THIS

Adiós.

Our Man?

Big Lizzie.

Milky the Cow.

The Sole Trader.

One synesthete.

Santa Boot Camp.

Veedub Christmas.

Gingerbread houses.

Christmas Missel Toe?

Lowering the Chipmunks.

R.I.P. Kenpachiro Satsuma.

Ice flotilla [via Bunkerville].

Becoming Father Christmas.

Finding Etzanoa [h/t Paul Y.].

Someone is jealous [h/t Pam M.].

Christmas cards Gilliam style [via Memo Of The Air].

[Top image: This nutcracker baking tin appeared on our kitchen counter last week and it works.]


From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.

Saturday Matinee – Pee Wee’s Playhouse, Dropkick Murphys, Joe Bonamassa & Chris Rea

Pee Wee Herman’s Christmas Special (1988) is kind of self explanatory. Watch the entire show if you really have to.

Dropkick Murphys and “family”.

Joe Bonamassa‘s Merry Christmas Blues album (2013) is free for download (I think).

Except for a hit in 1978, songwriter and perfomer Chris Rea is virtually unknown in the US (having never toured here). Despite long term medical problems, he’s enjoyed a successful career in the UK.

Have a Merry Christmas if I don’t see you, stay safe in your travels, and we’ll be back here tomorrow to trash talk you.

The .Gif Friday Post No. 833 – 6 Puppies Wreathing, Frosty Goes Thumpity & 9 Kittens Sleeping

[Found here, here and here.]

Christmas in Yorkshire

Haworth, West Yorkshire, UK, 27 November 2023, Dave Z Photography
Haworth, West Yorkshire, UK, 14 December 2023, Dave Z Photography
Haworth, West Yorkshire, UK, 14 December 2023, Dave Z Photography
Haworth, West Yorkshire, UK, 03 December 2023, Dave Z Photography
The Shambles, York, North Yorkshire, UK 07 December 2023, Dave Z Photography

Dave Z Photography
https://twitter.com/DaveZ_uk/status/
https://www.facebook.com/davezphoto/

[Update: The location is approximately 117 Main Street. Take a virtual walk via Google Maps here. This was Emily Brontë‘s old stomping ground.]

The Christmas that C.H. met A. & the C’s

From the Utoobage:
This collaboration by Los Angeles Blues-Rock band Canned Heat and Chipmunks creator Ross Bagdasarian Sr. was released in November 1968 as the A-side of Liberty 56079 in time for the holiday shopping season. Though some pressings credit Canned Heat & The Chipmunks on both sides of the disc, the 30 i.p.s. rodents are not present on the reverse, “Christmas Blues”.

[h/t Marc “Savage” D. for enlightening me.]

Batrachophobic Hot Links

Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town, The Harmony Grits (1959) When The Drifters were fired by their manager after an incident at the Apollo Theater, they were immediately replaced by members of The 5 Crowns. Clyde McPhatter had begun a solo career, so the others, Gerhard and Andrew Thrasher with Bill Pinkney and Little David Baughan(?) formed The Harmony Grits, as their former manager owned rights to The Drifters name.  They recorded two songs before renaming themselves The Original Drifters. [More on the story here.]

Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town was first recorded by Harry Reser and His Orchestra, with vocal by Tom Stacks (1934).

Abby?

Wanted.

The Warning.

Hours of Fun!

A gift for Farley.

Happy campers.

Goldblum loses it.

the babe with legs.

Definitely a dad move.

Pa-RUMpa-pum-pum.

Ghostbusters in reverse.

Feltic Christmas decorations.

Tardigrade egg [via Bunkerville].

Raised in captivity, born to be free.

The Santa Sessions [via Mme. Jujujive}.

Brunch in a Jar Sippin’ Cream [h/t Gord S.].

Beware die Schlupfkappe [via Memo Of The Air].

Dan Koft calls Boogie Woogie Santa Claus square dance.

[Top image via Deep Dream Generator and the text prompt “Tardigrade with Christmas lights”.]


From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.

Vukovar, Yugoslavia 1992

Santa Claus with the children during the Croatian War of Independence. Vukovar, 1992.

Vukovar, Yugoslavia in 1992 during the Croatian War of Independence.

The Battle of Vukovar was an 87-day siege of Vukovar in eastern Croatia by the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), supported by various paramilitary forces from Serbia, between August and November 1991.
[…]
During the battle, shells and rockets were fired into the town at a rate of up to 12,000 a day. At the time, it was the fiercest and most protracted battle seen in Europe since 1945, and Vukovar was the first major European town to be entirely destroyed since the Second World War.

A 2013 discussion on Reddit includes analyses of this and other photos found in this collection, and suggests that the Santa photo may have been Yugoslav staged propaganda.

[Image found here indicates a date of 1991.]