1960 - Well, THAT'S unsettling! Is that a jolly, stretched-out smile? Is he bloated? Is he MOUNTED? What in the name of Christmas Eve is going on here? All will be answered when you watch the holiday Popeye cartoon below entitled 'Spinach Greetings'. Tell me Tim Burton didn't see this sometime in his youth and filed it away for decades, until it came time to make The Nightmare Before Christmas - 'Kidnap the Santy Claws' is a direct successor to this beauty. First up is the cartoon itself, then The Nostalgia Spot breaks it all down for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuF7C01fUI0
https://thenostalgiaspot.com/2021/12/17/dec-17-popeye-the-sailor-spinach-greetings/
Next up is a joyous holiday surprise that landed quick as a flash from Santa's Reindeer Jet - a note and video from my former work-study student and longtime friend Justin Rivers. He had seen how we started off this year with the Mabel Beaton Marionettes, and being a puppeteer himself, shared his thoughts on them. He's also a talented musician and co-wrote a Christmas Carol to his local mall, the Colonie Center, in beautiful Albany, New York - https://shopatcoloniecenter.com/ - as he related to me: "We wrote a song about the Santa at Colonie Center,
our local mall, and then when we wanted a music video we were running out of
money so I hired a guy on Fiverr from the Philippines to do some simple
animation, but he didn't really speak English or understand Christmas at all. I
had to send him photos from Google that corresponded to what I roughly wanted
him to depict. A few things still didn't translate but it was
on-budget.
Later, I performed the song live myself at a songwriters
night at a local brewery, and in the spirit of the Bad Santa vibe I went in
character, dressed up in a dirty t-shirt, a Santa hat, and a pair of green wool
overalls. I played a beat up old guitar that I had glued back together.
The strap was made of a woman's belt, fished out of the trash. As I was
singing, a friend from my hometown, who I hadn't seen in ten years, leaned
over to another friend and said "wow...Justin really hit rock
bottom."
*Sniff* - I'm just so happy! Revel in the joy of 'Shopping Mall Santa' (from the album A New Noel) below and sing along!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7j8S1g8zHM
You can find the whole album over at Spotify below:
https://open.spotify.com/album/2IxL5HdZMJycDCQSqppKZo?si=sfHkCZWQR0-2RLpbhcVP3A&nd=1&dlsi=3dc2098388c44890
What better way to lead into our last entry for the day, '10 Weird Christmas Songs You Probably Haven’t Heard':
https://www.billboard.com/lists/weird-christmas-songs-holiday-music/
Come back tomorrow as we explore 1961.
No comments:
Post a Comment