Reads Randomly

Every year around this time I quote the lyrics to some holiday related song and this year is no different. I've been listening to this song a lot as I walked the holiday-decked streets of DC, so it seemed appropriate. Plus, it really was the year of the Muppet this year.


One More Sleep 'Til Christmas

There magic in the air this evening
Magic in the air
The world is at her best, you know
When people love and care
The promise of excitement is one the night will keep
After all, there's only one more sleep 'til Christmas

The world has got a smile today
The world has got a glow
There's no such thing as strangers when
A stranger says hello
And everyone is family, we're having so much fun
After all, there's only one more sleep 'til Christmas

'Tis the season to be jolly and joyous
With a burst of pleasure, we feel it all right
It's the season when the saints can employ us
To spread the news about peace and to keep love alive

There's something in the wind today
That's good for everyone
Yes, faith is in our hearts today
We're shining like the sun
And everyone can feel it, the feeling's running deep
After all, there's only one more sleep 'til Christmas
After all, there's only one more sleep 'til Christmas Day 


And for those of you who never had a chance to see the Muppet Christmas Carol....



Happy Holidays to you and yours! (No matter which holiday it is that you celebrate.) May the coming year be blessed with good health, happiness and security!

For some reason, I've had this one movie stuck in my head. It was a live-action adaptation of the Frog Prince, circa the late 1980s. I'm pretty sure it was on the Disney Channel. (Seems too sweet and girly for Nick.) There were two princess. One was blond, spoiled and selfish and the other, the heroine, was sweet, if a little childish and plain. The thing is that only one of them was a "True Princess" (though they never explained why, but I guess it had something to do with the fact True Princesses had magical powers), but their mother never said which was which because she wanted them to be loved equally. Everyone assumes that the older sister is the True Princess, but as you might expect, she's not. The Frog Prince part comes into play because younger sister gets help from a talking frog-like man (who's really an enchanted prince) and the golden ball that she drops down the well turns out to be magic. Well, actually, it turns out that she just thinks that the ball is magic and she's the one actually doing everything, because she was the True Princess all along. I'm pretty sure the little sister was played by Soleil Moon Frye and I think the older sister had name recognition too. Does anybody remember this? It seems far too real for me to have dreamed up when I was too high on pixie stix, but I'm beginning to doubt my sanity!

In other news, I owe people drabbles. Life's been a little abnormal, but I'll try to get to them as soon as possible. I swear!



ETA: flippet found it!! The Frog Prince! It stared the girl from Annie, not Punky Brewster. That's what was tripping me up. Now the real question is: Do I dare watch it again?

It seems like I always watch more movies when I go home for Christmas than I do at any point during the year.  This year was no exception. Not counting Miracle on 34th Street and Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, I saw five movies this holiday season, which might be a new record for me. So, here they are, in the order I saw them:

SciFi's Alice 
(They can try to rebrand themselves all they want, but they can't make me use their ridiculous spelling.) I've been wanting to see this modern take of Alice in Wonderland for a while.  It's from the same people behind Tin Man, which I enjoyed... at least until it totally unravel during the second half.  Maybe that's why Alice has been in my Netflix queue forever but I never got around to watching it.  But I happened to catch it television when I was home and totally got sucked in. (And so did my mom, which is saying something because she doesn't much care for sci-fi or fantasy. The fact that all three of her kids eat this stuff with a spoon is an endless source of amusement to us all.) The plot was much tighter and the ending far more satisfying than Tin Man, but what really made it for me was the Alice/Hatter ship. OMG! Seriously, I loved that pairing so much that I immediately started looking for fic. (And I sort of added a Hatter/Alice fic to my Great List of Doom. I couldn't help myself!)  I think I might have to check out Primeval now, just because of Andrew-Lee Potts. Even my mom commented that the actor who played Hatter was excellent. 

Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland
Apparently, this was my holiday for Lewis Carroll adaptations, because not two days after we saw Alice, my mom and I watched Alice In Wonderland. I've heard some mixed reviews about the film, but I loved it to bits. The movie was stunning to look at and cast was amazing. Strangely (because I do like her), Anne Hathaway was the only one I found disappointing. I think it's because, even though she's been in a fair amount of comedies, she's now such a Serious Dramatic Actress, she hasn't quite learned how to make lunacy seem natural.  Or maybe because Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter raised the bar so high there's just no way to reach their level. One of the things I loved was in the beginning of the film, everyone she met was meant to remind you of someone from Wonderland, like the Queen of Hearts, the Caterpillar or the Tweedles. But in the classic familiar sense (even physically), rather than the character interpretation that we will meet in this film. It was a nice twist on a familiar trope.

Invictus
Another film I've been wanting to see for a while. I have less to say about this one, mostly because if I try it will just come out trite and corny. But I'm so glad I watched it and would highly recommend it to anyone.

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hollows Part 1
In contrast, I have so much to say about this one that I'm going to save it for a separate post. But be prepared for another shipper's rant. It's totally unavoidable this time.

My Favorite Year
My mom insisted that we watch this when it came on TCM and I'm so glad she did. I laughed so hard. I have to say, working on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows had to be an incredible experience considering how Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, and Carl Reiner all later turned to their time as writers on the show for inspiration.But it's Peter O'Toole's Errol Flynn-like character that makes the movie. I loved him in How To Steal A Million, but it's nothing compared to this! I haven't enjoyed a "modern classic" film (aka any post-black & white film that's at least 20 years old) this much since Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid!

So there you have it. Quaggy's holiday movie guide in a nutshell and I loved each and every one.  Now do yourself a favor and go watch one of them!

So my youngest brother and I went to see Harry Potter this past weekend. (You know, that makes him sound about 9 rather than 22.) We’ve seen all the movies together so far. It’s going to be a little difficult with the last one seeing as they split the damn thing into two parts. It’s tough enough trying to find the time to see one movie when you’re in separate cities, let alone TWO!

As for the movie itself, I really enjoyed it. Possibly more than the book. Not that it was better, per say, just easier to get into. That said, the movie did have its flaws and I suspect it wouldn’t be nearly as good for people who hadn’t read the books.

( Here be spoilers... )

I was looking through my files when I stummbled across this meme that I had started but never finished. If memory serves, it became a victim of November 2008. Thing is, I was almost done and it seems a pity to let all that good work go to waste. So without further ado, here it is.

( Better late than never... )