K.A.C. 2024 - T - 06 Days ...

 

     1994 - Get ready to go dark ... WAY dark as we present this award-winning stop-motion animated Christmas short, The Junky's Christmas, produced by Francis Ford Coppola, narrated by and starring William S. Burroughs, based on his short story. It's very rough sledding, but surprisingly touching at the end. Not For Everybody - Discretion Advised:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-CCKaORM80 

     

 

     What the heck ... in for a penny, in for a pound. Our second holiday gift is ALSO a Burroughs production, this time pairing him with Tom Waits. Hop in the Wayback Machine as we go back four years to 1990 and their collaborative musical The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets - imagine The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari as a musical and you BEGIN to come close to this weirdness. The Wikipedia article below goes into more description, but
why spoil it for yourself? Hit play first!

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbQkzAbCjio 

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Rider 

 

 

 

 

      Is there ANY way to salvage this day and shed SOME ray of happiness? NOPE! Instead, we're shedding TEARS here as we TRIPLE down with the 2024 John Lewis (UK) Christmas ad which has people up in arms - why? Watch it and read the article below:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4U8-km4pc8  

     https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/nov/14/john-lewis-christmas-advert-shopping 

     There, there, it's all done - that wasn't so bad, was it? I'm sure we'll have something happy tomorrow. Wellll, relatively sure ...     

       

     

K.A.C. 2024 - T - 07 Days ...

 

     1993 - The perfect Christmas/Halloween/Easter/Arbor Day (?) film comes out this year on October 9th and cements Tm Burton's reputation as one of the most innovative directors of this era. The Nightmare Before Christmas is 31 years old as of this writing and has become a perennial holiday favorite, with its charming stop-motion animation and its memorable tunes and score by Danny Elfman. The favorite song that all OUR friends like to sing? Yeah, you know it ... 

 

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QapSxz7QXs 

    

     Now HERE'S a Very Special Moment: Filmed at the Hollywood Bowl on 10/31/2015, Danny Elfman, Catherine O'Hara and Paul Reubens perform 'Kidnap The Sandy Claws' as their characters Lock, Shock and Barrel LIVE after a showing of the film. Needless to say, the audience loses their minds! A beautiful moment for all who love this film. Thank you, YouTube!

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yHQBcUma8I 

     

     Think we've gone as dark as we can with Disney? Puh-leeese! Since we're already deeply entrenched in the weird today, we might as well let this ball roll all the way to the bottom. Check out this article from the UK Sun entitled 'Happy Ever After? From Cinderella to Snow White and Sleeping Beauty – The Hidden Health Risks Disney Princesses Face': 

      

 

     https://www.thesun.co.uk/health/32339890/cinderella-snow-white-sleeping-beauty-health-risks-disney-princesses/ 

     

     We end today with Shaun the Sheep and the Newbury Coat singers (just seeing which of you are paying attention) and their UK Christmas ad for Barbours ... or is it Baa-bours?

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtcVopAT7Pc 

     Our numbers are dwindling as we get closer to the Big Day - back tomorrow with more.

    

     

K.A.C. 2024 - T - 08 Days ...

 

     1992 - Before we get to today's tales, we must pause to welcome back in those rascally rapscallions Hardrock, Coco and Joe, as we do every year at this time. Longtime K.A.C. followers know all about the Three Little Dwarfs, but if you're new here, read on!

 

     "On December 18, 1956, WGN-TV's "Garfield Goose and Friends" introduced Chicago area children to Santa Claus' three favorite elves, Hardrock, Coco and Joe. At two-feet-high, Hardrock drove Santa's sleigh while Coco navigated and Joe tagged along for fun. To create the animated short or "song cartoonette", Hill & Range Songs hired Centaur Productions. The company was established in the early 1950s by Wah Ming Chang, a sculptor in Walt Disney's Effects and Model Department who created the model of Pinocchio; and George Pal, a producer and Academy Award nominee. The shorts were produced in black-and-white using stop-motion animation, a cinematic process that brings figures or puppets to life by minutely reposing and photographing them frame-by-frame, resulting as fluid movement on screen." (Chicago Museum of Broadcast Communications) Once these three lads appear, all bets are off as it signals the OFFICIAL start of the Christmas season, with one week to go! Make sure your ears are nice and clean for the earwig that follows:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDM6Bbt9WDY  

     There, now that that's stuck in there nice and tight, let's see what else we have today:

      ITEM: What's the scariest line you'll hear from the K.A.C. this year? How about this? "Hi! My name's Noel and I have a happiness!" Sounds innocuous, right? Guess again, peeps! This little red guy from '92 will take your heart on a roller coaster ride in just 22 minutes - I don't know HOW I missed this back in the day, but I'm glad I did! Now that I've caught up to it, however, I'm not going down alone - it's YOUR turn. Do YOU want to have a happiness? SURE you do ... all it takes is one little click ...

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoSRUeYchMU 

    

     ITEM: Also from '92 (thank the Gods) is another Christmas special to take your mind off of the tragic horror of Noel. Let's turn instead to someone who is MUCH more in touch with our brand of lunacy here, Mr. Bean. Relive his holiday antics in 'Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean' below!

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2UCRNldC3s 

     More tomorrow!

K.A.C. 2024 - T - 09 Days ...

 

     1991 - "Well, Philip, what do you think of today's K.A.C. story, 'A Sheep's Coat at Sunrise, A Man's Coat at Sunset', or The Tale Of the Newbury Coat'?" "BAAAAH!" "Hmmm, yes, in retrospect, that's what I thought you might say." Since you're already here, why don't YOU read about this perennial challenge:

     https://www.berkshirehistory.com/articles/newburycoat.html 

     

 

 

 

 

     We'll leave him to chew on that for awhile as we play catch up with another of the contemporary UK Christmas ads for this year. 'Sweet Suspicion: A Waitrose Mystery' is a cheeky ad done in two parts: the crime and the interrogation (Part 1) and the reveal of the criminal (Part 2):

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4Ll30xiwAU 

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO6hDK5GGww 

    

     Finally, looking for a NEW Video Fireplace Yule Log for your Christmas party this year? Ramp up your party (and the SOUND!) with the NASA Rocket Engine Fireplace! This glow will keep you toasty all night long - the links below include the 8-hour loop - Blast Off!

     https://plus.nasa.gov/video/nasa-rocket-engine-fireplace/?fbclid=IwY2xjawHNSZFleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHdNPIZSi2gJcaxDJjecIfrWrZDrEbSTnPaB0_LuzZUiwXM1yhmdckAqqOg_aem_0cZl5BaAm05NCrAAtpDhnA

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cgTVTwu4nw 

     There's also the NASA RS-25 Yule Log embedded in the link.  Back tomorrow (after splashdown) with more.

    

K.A.C. 2024 - T - 10 Days ...

 

     1990 - "Merry Christmas, Ya Filthy Animals!" Another decade down and already there are rumblings in the air as technology continues to advance in leaps and bounds. Uneasiness in tech circles is starting to surface over what happens to computers worldwide in ten years, with a face on the problem, named Y2K building to intensity from 1995 on. As the world held its collective breath, what happened? A big snoozefest of a nothing, by and large! 

    

     While it was all playing out, it made a whole lot of people wish they were living in simpler times, when computers were non-existent and you got from Place A to Place B thanks to snowrollers. Never heard of them? Educate yourself thanks to the good folks over at Tamarack Hill Farm:

  

 

 

     https://www.facebook.com/photo/fbid=985579476933744&set=a.472320848259612 

    

     Our entries end this year at the year 1999, so on this Sunday edition let's give you a sneak peak at next year's entries, which will cover the years 2000 - 2024. Here's a look back at SNL's TV Funhouse from 2001 entitled 'The Narrator That Ruined Christmas'. Keep in mind this aired only a few months after 9/11:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UihZm6T2T5g 

     Back tomorrow with more!

K.A.C. 2024 - T - 11 Days ...

      1989 -  Christmas, you say? Hold your horses, kid. Better yet, hop in to this car while I tell you about a superstar from this year: Toonces the Driving Cat. One of the funniest and stupidest skits Saturday Night Live ever came up with premieres this year, with Robert Smigel 'obsessed' with it, crediting Toonces with his own goofball follow-up, Triumph The Insult Comic Dog. Read the article and re-live Toonces's driving skills below:

     https://latenighter.com/news/robert-smigel-obsessed-snl-toonces-the-cat-sketch/ 

     

     '89 also brings us, fresh from silly shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, the Simpsons in their own long-running series on Fox, beginning with the December 17th episode 'Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire'. The Simpsons Wiki below gives you a breakdown of the plot and while the whole episode isn't online, a truncated highlights version can be found there, too:

     https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Simpsons_Roasting_on_an_Open_Fire

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A0ZA1QyuQk&t=395s  

    

     We'll close out today with a classic piece of animation gone WAY wrong: 1937's Gifts From The Air, a Columbia cartoon in the style of another K.A.C. psyche-scarrer, 'The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives'. Make sure you have the volume for this one W A Y up as the Naughty Elves from RIFFTRAX provide their OWN narration to the action!

     

 

 

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NhqdqHmYnI&list=PLL_S- sMSTL3Ys3wiIh336Fv0WeN3rJr9m&index=13 

      Back tomorrow as we begin our last ten days!

K.A.C. 2024 - T - 12 Days ...

 

     1988 - The unexpected Christmas film of the year that no one saw coming was DIE HARD, with Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman. It still is a fountain of holiday memes, 36 years later.

    

 

 

 

 

 

      Not to take anything away from that tear-jerking, bullet-spewing, heart-warming (and bleeding) tale, but we here at the K.A.C. have one OTHER Christmas tale that we prefer from this year - one of our all-time favorite versions of A Christmas Carol, where EVERY trope gets stood on its head. We're referring of course to the Blackadder Christmas Carol. While we can't provide you with a free link to it (it's been taken down from YouTube and as of this writing is on the Vudu streaming service), we can do the next best thing. Below is the trailer for the show and the Complete Script, which given the brilliance of the writing, is a welcome Christmas gift indeed. True fans will hear Rowan Atkinson and crew's voices perfectly as they read along:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al4dn_oIM6o 

     https://blackadderquotes.com/blackadders-christmas-carol-full-script 

      And speaking of holiday memes, we're WAY behind in showing you this year's UK contenders for Best Christmas ad. We left off with the 'Bubbles' ad a few days ago, so we're going to play catch up with some of the others.

     First up is ASDA's ad showing us how THEY do last minute decorations. HINT: They get a lot of help from GNOMES, such as Indiana Gnome to our left. Link below:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6HITAAtPEI 

     

     Next up, Sainsbury's teams up with Roald Dahl's BFG (and helpful employee Sophie!) for a very tasty treat of an ad, with just a touch of his magic:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8dczAGg-Qg 

     

 

     Finally, we'll close our trifecta of ads with that champion of champions, Kevin The Carrot, star of ALDI's ads (and improbable UK cult figure) - and this year, seemingly competing for Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible job. As Kevin himself says: "Cheeky!"

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ1vQesB9hk

     Back tomorrow with more!