When I Santaed (is that a verb?) on Wednesday, the kids and staff gave me a lovely parting present, a nasty head cold. Just a whole lot of snot, thank you very much. Last night, I didn't feel like blogging so I just watched this movie and went to bed.
Hey cool, Andrea Martin is back!
Today, I had a lesson with some adults out in Tagajo and en route home, I dropped into the Mandai there and picked up an ornament and caught a present to put under the tree.
Not a bad little flick, one can see where Bob Clark scammed some ideas for his Black Christmas two years later. I've seen that version a few times, mainly for Margot Kidder and the UofT setting. Maybe it's time for me to watch the sequel.
Silver Chewie will be given to my agent/manager/handler for Christmas when I see him at Royal Park Hotel tomorrow as their main Santa.
I watched the guy put this brand-new Superior Spider-Man in the UFO Catcher bin and figured out how to win it. I scored it in 5 tries!
Speaking of ornaments, I have two others from this series, BP and Grogu. I haven't seen an Iron Man for sale yet.
Black Panther is very well camouflaged in the tree, while Grogu perches nicely in my Halloween Tree.
This display is permanently in place throughout the year, I think Jack needs some dusting.
I'm all huddled up in a blanket and my Gremlin socks and think I'll retire early. I have a full day of HoHoHoing tomorrow.
I plan to show my students "A Charlie Brown Christmas" tomorrow. OR as the Japanese call it "Snoopy's Christmas".
No need to go into details for one and all, if you haven't seen it yet, where the heck have you been? I wonder if seven 20-year old gals and one dude will enjoy this as much as I do every year.
Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't share this iconic moment when the gang is dancing.
Something I have never seen is an accompanying special, "It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown." Best part is the dance routine done with Snoopy and Woodstocks (3) tapping with Candy Canes. Most surprising moment for me is the inclusion of Peggy Jean, a girlfriend of Charlie Brown!
Here's a shot of Snoopy as Santa.
Not a bad special. I'd give it 6.5/10.
UPDATE: This showed up in my feed today and seems apropos.
I spent all day yesterday tidying and watching movies and then when it came time to blog, I was too tired. So I'll make this quick, I have to go to work soon and throw a party for my students. I'm also going to show off some Tsum Tsum Marvel characters between movies. (Why will become apparent later.) Starting with
Large:
First up was Exte (Extensions), a hairy movie from 2007. I saw this in the theatre back then and didn't know what was going on. Now that I have English subs, I'm still not sure.
This is from where I'm choosing my movies.
Medium
Before I nodded off to sleep on Sunday, I watched The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch. Weird but fun and great makeup on the Snake Girl.
Small:
I awoke to the tail end of Audition (1999) and it wasn't pleasant.
I mixed up the order a bit, here's Medium-Large:
Ju-on, the Grudge was the first Japanese movie to give me a nightmare after a viewing in the wee hours years ago. I've since seen it a few times with subtitles, that makes it no less creepy.
Some individual Tsum Tsum with a prop. I'll leave it up to you to guess who is whom.
I missed Hiruko the Goblin in last year's marathon; some good effects, some less than so. Overall pretty good.
I didn't pay much attention to Gakidama, the Demon Within, it wasn't very good so I didn't pay much attention to it. Cronenberg would like it though. Check this out for details. Apparently there's an American remake which is why I can't find a trailer with a cursory search.
High School Ghostbusters (1995) is also a Cronenberg tribute/parody and it was a lot of fun. You can find the whole thing online if you search hard enough.
Evil Dead Trap (1988) was okay if you like the slasher genre (I don't overall).
I caught a few minutes of Lizard Baby, but I saw it recently so I didn't watch it all. I did re-watch As the Gods Will, I enjoyed it in the cinema. It makes a little bit more sense with subtitles.
And then I went to bed. And now to Tsum up why I showed these pictures:
Taadaa!
I have to get going, before I do, here's a quick Yokai.
Not a great translation for Kawa-otoko, Cute man. More apt is River Dude.
When about to prepare dinner, I had an inspiration. I have these two huge potatoes and a large onion. Hmm. I wonder what would happen if I hollowed them out. So I did.
Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Here's a short clip. This Spudkin is cute though a tad derpy. Hey, I even get to eat its innards! Any ideas for a name?
Next, I attempted the onion. Pretty easy going in the disemboweling, carving the face wasn't as simple.
Check out this short. For now, his name is Jack o' Nion. Try and come up with something better. Once again his guts were consumed.
The final spud who I'll call Potat o' Lantern (I urge you to come up with something better) was eaten with a bit of cheese.
I tried to keep his eyes as eyes just to make him look tougher. Not sure it worked. Judge this short and decide for yourself.
Now I'm dragon dragging out my dragon. This guy is named Ichimokuren, has only one eye and is purported to control typhoons. This afternoon was very cloudy and I even heard thunder though nary a drop of rain. I guess Ichimokuren took the day off.
He's also the god of Smithery. Blacksmiths pray to him for good Smithing. (Smithery? Smithing? Are those legit words?
I managed to dig up a few more Venom items. These special Venom and Carnage pouches.
What makes them so special? The A pouch is Venom, the B pouch is Carnage. How can you tell? Well, the word MARVEL is in either black & white or in red and they each have corresponding coloured straps.
I honestly think, they could have come up with something a little more Venomous.
Here are some NBC sweets I picked up yesterday. I haven't tried them yet. Belgian chocolate!
Late last night, I caught the very first Marvel TV Special featuring Werewolf By Night. I loved it from beginning to end! Without getting all spoilery, I will make a few observations.
I liked WwBN comic when it first came out. I missed a few first appearances but read it consistently from about issue 5 onwards. Mike Ploog rules. Ploog also ruled with early Man-Thing art of which I read every issue. I also read and enjoyed the first few appearances of Ulysses Bloodstone.
Those covers were scammed from the internet. Enough comics talk and back to the special.
Opening credits...AWESOME! Cameo head appearances by several famous monsters. Great fight scenes albeit a little gruesome for Marvel. I'm sure the black and white format helped. ALL the leads were wonderful. Ted looked great!
The dude who played one of the hunters, Jovan, is Kirk R. Thatcher. He was the punk on the bus in Star Trek IV who was taken down by a Vulcanized nerve pinch. There are a few nods to Wizard of Oz in this special and Kirk also happened to direct Muppet Wizard of Oz!
Another unintentional coincidence is that Verussa Bloodstone is played by Harriet Sansom Harris. She was also Frasier's agent on his sitcom. The dog Eddie on that show was a Jack Russell Terrier. Awooo!
Nice little heads up to several (not all) the creators in the end credits.
Furthermore, I like this Special Thanks as well.
I hope there will be future TV specials and many more horror characters brought into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One small quibble about this show was the lack of mention of Moon Knight. Ah well, it was only 52 minutes long.
I happen to have a few items of a lycanthropic nature in my collection. Such as this Silver Bullet.
Apparently if I keep it in the freezer and then place it in shot of whiskey, it'll remain cold.
I also have another boozy item. I think it's a spout that attaches to a wine bottle so it pours slowly and grotesquely.
I also have a large sticker, though nowhere to stick it.
No Wolfman t-shirt handy. How about a Frankenstein instead?
I've already watched two Dr. Phibes movies today and the new Scooby Doo. Yay Velma comes out! (Spoiler but Google spoiled it already.)
I probably going to watch a werewolf movie now that I've never seen before. (Ginger Snaps, maybe.)
May I suggest that you check out AEIOU and sometimes Why just to see what they've got cooking this Countdown...
May the Fourth of May be with you! (That was yesterday.)
Revenge of the Fifth!
Over four years ago, I posted about a set of Star Wars Choco Eggs by Furuta. Back then I didn't have a full set. I have since filled it although I can't find the SECRET one. (It's a Millennium Falcon.) Here's the set:
Two years later, they came out with a second series. I have the entire set including the SECRET which is Luke.
A couple of weird Gatcha-guys.
Last year, they came out with some special Star Wars Coo'Nuts. These roly-poly toys are very cute indeed.
Last year I showed off some Marvel Avenger's Infinity War 'Nuts, here is the set again for your perusal. (Click that link for a video of them in action.)
When Endgame came out, they released another series...
On opening night of the movie, they gave out these cool variants of the characters in their Time Travel suits. I got the Hulk and have since obtained two more.
While I'm in a Coo'nutty mood, I've bought a few others since then, including some in honour of the release of Toy Story 4.
And here are a few other Disney ones and some Snoopy ones.
Other miscellaneous ones include that weird EGG creature called Gudetama, Doraemon, FATE, and just yesterday, I discovered a Conan set. I'm not overly keen on these so I only got one of each.
Another set that I discovered yesterday is VERY cool so I'll probably buy a few more of these. It's a set of famous icons of Japan. I got the God of Lightning, Raijin and a Sumo Wrestler.
These other bobbling toys are not Coo'Nuts per se. Just Weeble Wobbly ones.
Some weird meerkats that I picked up somewhere.
And some Gegege characters that are about half the size of a regular Coo'Nut.
I have lots more Furuta Eggs to show off tomorrow. Stay Tuned...
.JPG)
