Top Five Holiday Tunes: By Laura L.
Published on December 12th, 2009 in: Holidays, Listicles, Music, Staff Picks, Top Five Lists |1. “Last Christmas,” Wham!
Yes, it’s full of ’80s cheesiness, but that’s what makes it so great. You can just picture George Michael and Andrew Ridgely performing this song in sweaters that would make even Bill Cosby blush.
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Top Ten Holiday Tunes: By Christian Lipski
Published on December 11th, 2009 in: Holidays, Listicles, Music, Staff Picks, Top Ten Lists |To me, “Christmas Song” means a song that is about the holiday. I’m not sure what crazed goon chose “My Favorite Things” to include on the Christmas radio station, but I can’t abide by it. That also excludes songs from Christmas specials that are not about the holiday. Like “We’re A Couple Of Misfits” from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer—it’s not about the holiday. Your interpretation may vary, and that’s good.
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Top Ten Holiday Tunes: By Alex Arnott
Published on December 10th, 2009 in: Holidays, Listicles, Music, Top Ten Lists |1. “Donna and Blitzen,” Badly Drawn Boy
I think it has everything. Lush orchestration, festive jangly bells, underrated reindeer, and more than a little bit of indie magic.
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Top Five Alternative Holiday Songs
Published on November 29th, 2009 in: Holidays, Issues, Listicles, Music, Staff Picks, Top Five Lists |By Lisa Anderson
Carols are an inevitable part of the holiday season. Most of us have carols, whether sacred or secular, that we love, and others that we hate. It’s not unusual to end up sick of all of them by the end of the season, either—especially for someone who works in retail. I’ve decided to make a list of five of my favorite contemporary holiday songs. They all take a fresher and more realistic view of the season, as well as not being so overplayed that they barely register.
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The Music of the Scares: A Soundtrack for Halloween
Published on September 29th, 2008 in: Halloween, Holidays, Issues, Music, Top Five Lists |
Halloween conjures many images: candy, costumes, decorations, haunted houses, and horror movies. While these are all integral parts of the holiday, there is one factor that is often overlooked but which is vital to embracing the spirit of the season: music.
Legendary Halloween Costumes: Tom Baker, Doctor Who (1973–1980)
Published on September 29th, 2008 in: Halloween, Holidays, Horror, Issues, TV, Underground/Cult |By Emily Carney
When I was a kid growing up in the 1980s, American public broadcasting stations (PBS) played episodes of the English cult TV series Doctor Who. Personally, as a young child I couldn’t really get into the show; I thought the episodes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus were much funnier, and the guys on that show seemed less freakishly scary than the star of DW, Tom Baker. (Of course, I ask myself now why my parents let me watch Monty Python at age 4. That show could get a bit adult-oriented to say the very least). As a child I found Baker less engaging than other TV characters, and more frightening and unusual than anything. Peter Davison (the next Doctor after Tom Baker) was far more “cuddly” and seemed more tailored to smaller children with his wan, handsome smile and cricket clothes.
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Holiday Horrors: They’ll SLEIGH You!
Published on November 29th, 2007 in: Holidays, Horror, Issues, Movies, Underground/Cult |By Eric Weber
“Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, a creature was stirring. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, but it was hard to say that St. Nick would be there. A Christmas of another color brings a killer on the loose.”
Tagline for 1974’s classic chiller, Black Christmas
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Won’t Someone Please Think of the Children?: Tiny Tim’s Christmas Album
Published on November 29th, 2007 in: Holidays, Issues, Music, Underground/Cult |By Hanna
The first reaction most people have when confronted with the reality of Tiny Tim, in song and especially video form, is “That’s the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.” Or simply speechless horror. Imagine my glee when I found out he’d made a Christmas album. Fun for traumatizing all the family!
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Kris Kringle Konfessions
Published on November 29th, 2007 in: Holidays, Issues, Toys and Collectibles |By John Lane
I admit it: I’m old enough to remember (and can now say somewhat unashamedly with the distance of years) when I actually found myself praying—praying—for the complete Welcome Back, Kotter action figures. What did I know? Could I fathom that Travolta would one day be riding the hot rails toward Scientology? Or that Boom-Boom Washington would not pass gracefully into the eighties? Only TV could make a squalid, inner-city school look so attractive, to a Catholic-school kid like me wearing the obligatory monkey-suit every day.
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Reindeer Games
Published on November 29th, 2007 in: Holidays, Issues, Toys and Collectibles | 
More fun than reindeer
should be allowed to have.
Fear not: this is no paean to the 2000 movie with Charlize Theron and Ben Affleck woefully miscast as two-timing criminal lovers. This is a tribute to a storied family tradition, one involving bizarre rituals and the relentless search for functioning batteries.