The Day at Last (Forgive the Mess) - Now with brief WW84 reaction - Friday Video Distractions with Mike Norton

 

     Another holiday week, and another patch of poorly-regulated chaos. Trying to dispatch those formal obligations that keep the lights on and food in the kitchen, while trying to come to some sense of a campaign plan for Christmas itself. Or, maybe you were much better organized. If I live long enough I'll learn to do that, rather than learn just enough to regret my cyclical lack of preparation -- again and again.
     By the time this posts, it'll be the 25th, and such preparations as we've made will be a fait accompli - pretty much just the way it is. I hope this finds you as well and safe as you can manage, and with some happy thoughts for the day. Thoughts for tomorrow will likely be next week's theme. Today... let's not rush.

     Today's a time to try to bask in the glow of the day based on one's plans and level of responsibility in them. I'll be doing food prep all morning, as we'll be having a Thanksgiving redux today. Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pies, etc., though in a nod to the extended family holidays that had been in play for both my kids up until changes last year, we'll be including kielbasa with sauerkraut in the mix. The extended family was primarily Polish-American, and their Christmas meal was much more ham-centered. While I enjoy a spiral-sliced ham, I get hammed out pretty quickly. If that's managed well, it can roll into workday lunchtime sandwiches for the following

week, and the rest end up in a ham and bean/split pea soup if the intent stays strong, but even then that last form will be spaced out with the remaining ham and bone tightly wrapped and frozen until we've gotten far enough from the source meal that I'm in the mood for it. Often this is a race between the recurrent rise of appetite and the remainder crossing the line into the freezer-burnt, and ends up tossed instead. As I said, my appetite for ham's satisfied pretty quickly, especially for dinner. Kielbasa with sauerkraut is always in the mix there, too, and that's far more casually managed, so it's in the mix this year. I didn't go the completing step of pierogies.
     So far none of this has anything to do with video. I know I've noticed.
     Several times it came to mind to do a piece on favorite movies and/or tv shows with a focus on Christmas. It didn't get far beyond the intent, and I haven't even gone so far as to seek out some of the best-remembered ones. Well, no, I did try with a few.

     The fondly-remembered NBC and then Sony sitcom Community did a couple of Christmas-themed episodes worth revisiting -- particularly Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas from the show's second season - episode 11. A stop-motion animation episode, as Abed's friends try to find out what's gone off for him this year, discovering that it's a sad milestone year for him despite his initially cheery greeting. They're pulled into it once Abed notes that he awoke that day realizing he and the world had become clay, stop motion versions, and was trying to divine the significance. There are

musical numbers and a quest, and touching revelations. I'm going to try to watch that before the day's out.
     I may also jump to the third season's 10th episode, Regional Holiday Music, which is as close to an episode of Glee as I care to come. It's fun, but doesn't have the same underlying poignancy as that second season episode. That's more of a battle with an adversary that turns out to be much more insidious than just a clash of tastes. Community series is currently on both Hulu and Netflix, btw, and I'm reasonably sure watchable versions are to be found between YouTube and Vimeo, if that's a clearer shot for you.
     One holiday episode of a sitcom that sticks with me - and it comes to mind quicker than the rest - is from the fourth season of The Jeffersons, one of the highly-successful spin-offs of All In The Family. While I watched much of the series back in the day as a matter of habit, as best I can recall it's the only episode that stuck with me.

     Louise, wife of self-made, rags-to-riches dry cleaning mogul George Jefferson, discovers that George has been keeping a secret for years. He's been secretly sending money each month to an apartment in Harlem, and gave one of his employees, Leroy, the task of dropping a Christmas present off at the same address. Leroy forgets to take the present, so George breaks off from his other plans to go deliver it himself. Suspicious that the signs are adding up to the possibility of her husband having a secret life, Louise decides to follow him.
     What she discovers is that the address is one that George's family, when he was a young child, had lived in. They'd been desperately poor, and each Christmas had been a cycle of hopes and disappointments. Young George had made a pledge to himself that if he ever made it out of there and became successful, he would do what he could to make sure that life would be better for whoever lived in that apartment, and that the holidays would be brighter. Hence, the anonymous monthly monies and the holiday presents.
     A casual look around shows that The Jeffersons is almost completely locked down in the miser's fist of STARZ, which is one of the pay services I don't have. I see that the show - and this episode - is set to air on basic cable's TV One channel on Sunday January 3rd, at 11:30 am Eastern. I can make no claims as to how intact that 1977 episode is after over 40 years of having time carved from it to make room for more commercials.
    Holiday-themed episodes of shows are the tradition going back to the early days of the medium. So many come quickly to mind. Which ones stick with you?

    Back to the things I've been watching or am planning to watch, I'll again hit recent (as in last week) notes about The Expanse (Amazon Prime) which has been upping the ante each Wednesday, and The Stand (CBS All Access) which dropped its second episode on Thursday and still has my attention even with its decision to not tell the tale in a linear fashion; this second episode added more of the characters, while giving cameos to story mainstays I expect we'll be better introduced to next week. While over on CBS All Access I also have to note how much I continue to enjoy Star Trek: Discovery, deeply into its third season, though as with too, too many fandoms in social media, I advise great caution in which fandom forums you dip your ladle for a drink. So much toxicity. Sadly, that's the state for almost everything. So many people holding so many absolute opinions on why almost anything you enjoy is a sign of your lack of discernment. I remind myself that people don't realize how narrow and generally horrible they can be. The usual stance and defense is one of intellectualism and honesty, forgetting that they are not omniscient and infallible, and it's asinine to take such absolute stances in aesthetic and emotionally-sourced matters. I say all that knowing I've been just as guilty (well, maybe not just as - some of these people are well-practiced Lords of Prickdom - and I don't think I've been quite as bad as that in a long time, though we're usually blind to it when we're the ones doing it) from time to time.  

     The big media event of the day, at least in my sights, is HBO-Max premiering the repeatedly pandemic-delayed Wonder Woman 1984. I believe it's set to go live as of noon Eastern. That's set to be in place for 31 days. I'll check a bit later, as I want to get all of my dinner prep obligations out of the way so I can relax and enjoy it.
     Addendum: WW84 was a considerable disappointment. In typical "fan" fashion in the age of social media, it's already become a polarizing issue. It strikes me that the ones who enjoyed it most are responding to the spirit of the film, which is very much in tune with the Richard Donner's Superman (1978), whereas those of us reacting badly to it are doing so on the basis of plotting and writing that is poor and dim.
    I'll also note that in a similar move, Disney+ is premiering the latest Pixar feature, Soul, today, too. For whatever reason I don't tend to jump on most of the Disney and Pixar fare despite them now being a few button pushes away, but as ever, your mileage may vary.
     Well, I have food prep to get back to. Take care, and I hope to see you back here next week.