New mix for a new year

January is an odd month. After all the hurried activity leading up to the holidays near the end of the previous year, it feels like somebody slammed the brakes on reality. Heck, the early Roman essentially treated it and February as if they didn’t even exist–they just lumped them together into a dead space outside […]

Movie: Underworld (1985)

I don’t consider myself to be much of a Clive Barker fan, though his work does have some distinctive elements which lend themselves to interesting screen adaptations.  Take Nightbreed, for example, which had a dangerous tribe of monsters living outside of society, and these were the heroes.  That isn’t too dissimilar to 1985’s Underworld, in […]

Movie: The Elephant 6 Recording Co. (2022)

The band names read like they were the product of a random phrase generator: Black Swan Network, Synthetic Flying Machine, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sunshine Fix, Dixie Blood Mustache, Marshmallow Coast.  These were just a few of the acts that comprised the Elephant 6 collective. It is difficult to define exactly what this organization was, though […]

Movie: Gay Purr-ee (1962)

UPA should have been a winner, an animation studio to persist to this day.  Instead, it became a fairly obscure part of animation history, remembered at best for its Mr. Magoo shorts.  In addition to shorts and informational films, they produced two features, 1001 Arabian Nights (1959) and Gay Purr-ee (1962).  The former was crippled […]

Movie: Positive I.D. (1986)

Every one in a while, I will encounter a picture I categorized as a “laserdisc movie”, even if I never owned a copy in that format.  I apply this designation to movies of a kind that largely comprised the laserdisc library I once had, usually small indie films from the late 80s and early 90s, […]

Movie: Rare Exports (2010)

The concept of Krampus has been absorbed into the popular consciousness for a few years now.  I find that curious, despite being able to follow a trend leading through the decades up to this, starting with How the Grinch Stole Christmas in 1966.  Really, this dark and cynical contemporary take on Santa is just an […]

Movie: Holiday Inn (1942)

It always surprises me when a movie as old as 1942’s Holiday Inn has a meta moment in it.  It will be obvious to contemporary viewers the titular building is a set, both inside and out, despite supposedly being a farm in Connecticut.  The surprising bit is near the end, when the set that is […]

Movie: The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945)

In Ingrid Bergman’s autobiography, she writes about how much she enjoyed filming 1945’s The Bells of St. Mary’s.  She attributed that feeling to being able to eat as much ice cream as she wanted, as she is clad throughout the film in a nun’s habit.  I suspect she exaggerated her increased size during this shoot, […]

Recipe: Vegan mini-quiches

I’m not sure how the idea entered my head, but I decided to make mini-quiches as a side for this year’s Thanksgiving. I made three kinds, all of which had cheese in them; therefore, those weren’t vegan. Simply omit the cheese and, voila, fully vegan quiches. The three varieties I made were: The basics of […]

Movie: White Christmas (1954)

I’m not much of a Christmas person.  It isn’t like I actively dislike the holiday.  It isn’t like I have traumatic childhood memories associated with it.  I actually like some music associated with the holiday, even some of the traditional fare.  What I don’t like is the saccharine sweetness of so much Christmas entertainment.  Much […]