The 12 Blogs of Christmas, Part 2:

Well, we headed down to visit Hans, Missy, and Siena on Friday in preparation for Saturday night's Christmas surprise. Our presents this year were dinner in Baltimore and tickets to some sort of secret event. Turns out it was a show called "One Man Star Wars Trilogy" - and it was hilarious! Charlie Ross, the actor responsible for the show, was tremendous, capturing the essence of all the Star Wars characters, in particular Luke Skywalker. He also did a killer Jabba the Hutt, believe it or not!

One of the highlights of the show was a pair of mid-sixties gentlemen who somehow ended up in the front row, even though they seemed to have neither an understanding of Star Wars nor a desire to be in the theater. In one scene featuring Darth Vader and some eerie, minimalist lighting, they snuck out, never to be seen again. When the lights came back on, in the middle of a line, Ross asked "Did those guys just leave??" They then became the subject of ridicule briefly between each of the three "movies." It was so funny. THANK YOU HANS AND MISSY!!

Other items of note: I very affordably added four more "Siouxsie and the Banshees" CDs to my growing collection, although the only way for you to know that I have finally, 18 years too late, discovered this group, is to be one of my friends on Facebook because I haven't mentioned it here. See - you are missing a lot if you haven't signed up on that other site.

Watched the first disc of the newest "Evening with Kevin Smith" DVD and found it to be a delight.

Very sleepy, so I'm going to go read some comix and drift to sleep. 5:20 AM comes awfully early, especially on Mondays.

Don't forget...

Don't forget about the Christmas Carol I recorded a few years ago with the Boiling Springs Christmas Choir. It can be heard on their myspace page and is guaranteed to get you in the holiday spirit!

The 12 Blogs of Christmas: Part 1

Seasons Greetings, folks! Welcome to my latest challenge: the 12 Blogs of Christmas. Will I be able to write 12 posts before the big day on the 25th? I'm not certain, but keep checking back to find out.

So far, one of the highlights of the season has been my introduction to the movie "The Bishop's Wife." This 1947 holiday film has a story similar to that of "It's A Wonderful Life", and in fact, features appearances by most of the child actors from Capra's more-famous movie. It's more than just a knock-off though. Staring Cary Grant as the angel sent to assist the over-worked Bishop played by David Niven, I would recommend it to everyone looking for a new Christmas-favorite.

Of course, I have also been busy exploring the DVD of this summer's block-buster, "The Dark Knight." I'm so glad to finally have that film as part of my collection. They did an incredible job of being the world of Gotham to life, and almost made me forget about past Batman-stinkers like "Batman and Robin."

Yesterday was my niece Grace's big 8th birthday! I was there for her party a few weeks ago, so I know that she had a blast and received a lot of good stuff. I hope that the actual day was just as much fun.

More to follow as we approach the 25th....