Post-Christmas Special Treat: The Nightmare Before Christmas

When this popped up in my Google Reader page, I nearly jumped out of My seat. Ever since it came out, I've been a VERY big fan of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. It was this stop-motion animation movie that Disney had absolutely no clue how to market it, but worse yet- or ironically, for some opinions- Disney thought it would be too scary for kids.

This from a company that brought us Bambi's mother getting killed, as well as what some consider the scariest villian of all time, Snow White's wicked stepmother of a Queen. But the film not only surprised the ol' Mouse House, but it's become a timeless holiday classic, not just at Halloween, but at Christmas too. In fact, I make it a point to go to the El Captian theater in Hollywood every October to watch it in 3-D, especially during the sing-along shows.

But this is something really special. This is the Original poem that Tim Burton wrote that inspired the movie. Top that off with the narration by Saruman AKA Dr. Wilbur Wonka, AKA Count Dooku himself, Christopher Lee, one of the last great screen voices we have in Hollywood. 

Merry Christmas from the Geese

I wrote this poem in December of 2007 on the spur of the moment, and decided that this will be an annual event for me. I send this out to everyone of my readers(all three of you), as well as my family who are scattered across this country.





Christmas In Montebello, or A Visit from the Christmas Geese

'Twas the day before Christmas,
And all through the town,
People were shopping and running around.
Last-minute gifts were purchased with haste,
Not wanting a moment to go to waste.
And around our little home, Mom was finishing up,
Wrapping the presents and gifts and stuff.
Dad was busy, getting manny things done,
Making final adjustments for their trip still to come.

And Tommy, My brother, stopped in for a bit,
Taking a break from his work because he saw fit.
And Myself, what did I do, you say?
I waited for sundown to come this way.
For still to be finished were the lights 'round the big tree,
Putting the final touches for all to drive by and see.

The full moon, how it glowed brightly on the river below,
shimmering as the Canadian geese honked and glided along, oh so slow.
The cars slowed down as they drove through the night,
Looking in awe as I made things right.
And Out on the lawn I gave out a shout,
"Mom, Dad, Tommy, You gotta come out!"

My family came running, thinking something's gone wrong,
But what they found was Me singing a song.
They watched as I danced and placed the last of the lights,
My breath easily seen on this cold winter's night.
"What's wrong?" said Dad "You give us a fright."
Mom just looked and laughed as I continued my flight.
Tommy looked down, embarrassed to see,
How graceful a quarter-ton Hippo like me could be. (I kid, I'm not THAT big)

When from the spreading ground gave an incredible sound,
As gaggles of geese made landings all around.
We listened and watched as they crossed through the moon,
Their wings, opened wide, their calls in tune.
Below them, their cousins answered their call,
As they glided onto the water, to come together one and all.

We stood there, all quiet, on the bank above,
Watching as Nature played a song of love.
But before long it was time to go inside,
After all, none of us really have a winter-proof hide.

So we gathered round a burning Yule Log,
And listened as the Geese scared off the fog.
And so, let Me say, as I crawl under the sheets.
"Merry Christmas to all, but beware of cold feet."

Merry Christmas everyone, from ME and the family.

Please enjoy A Currier & Ives Christmas

COMING SOON: New Name, Same Great Work

Well, as we prepare to say farewell to this year, I think it's time to make a few changes around here as well. First of all, the blog ISN'T going away. Far from it, I may sometimes take a couple weeks off from it and do nothing but play my damn online wweb games. or go hang out in Second Life, something I actually haven't done for a while, to be honest, but I'm more focused than ever to be working on this, since it looks like this is going to be how I make my money.

So starting the first weekend of the New Year, Sometime between New Year's Day and January 4th, the Blog name will be changing. Since I'm no longer affiliated with the University Times, I don't see the need to keep them in the title. No offense to all my friends there, but I'm moving on, or should I say back, to my own stomping grounds.

Since the start of the fall, two major events occured, one of which I talked about here. First was the passing of my mentor, Michael Hollander, in late September. the second event occured a week later when I joined the sports staff at the Mid-Valley News, a small weekly newsaper based out of El Monte. 

I spent the rest of the High School Football season covering the Almost and Del Rio Leagues in the Southeat Division of the CIF. But more importantly, I was a regular guest on their weekly Football Roundup show, The Mid Valley Sports Central show. So after a season which saw me spending five straight weeks at one stadium, Whittier District Field, home to Cal, La Serna and Whittier High Schools, I prepared to move on to the Basketball season, but things got interesting at that point.

After one show, my boss, Sports Editor Joe Torosian, asks me if I might be interested in doing a weekly racing column, since I had been hinting at the idea of expanding the paper's online coverage to the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, my old beat with the LA Times. Seeing a good opportunity to exand the readership, as well as reminding him that there was already an MMA column written by another member of the staff, I got my green light.

So, getting back to the original intent of this post, namely announcing the change of name for the blog, We're going to change the blog's title to...

Backstretch Burnouts with Tony Solorzano

We're still going to cover most of the venues in Southern California, from the track at Irwindale to the Winternationals at Pomona, the Sprint Cup Weekends, the Long Beach Grand Prix, the AMA Supercross races in Anaheim and the Superbikes at the Auto Club Speedway. We're also going to be posting some more audio and video content to the website, maybe as soon as I can get an MP3 player with voice recording capabilities. 

This weekend, I will be previewing the new blog with some video from last month's Red Bull World Drifting Championships in Long Beach. I will post the trophy presentations, as well as the interviews with the top three drivers.

So enjoy your holidays and get ready for change in 2009. 

Christmas Video Time

Hey everyone, it's getting close to the end of the year and another Festivus is almost upon us (Up your nose with a rubber hose, BillO the clown). I kid, of course, except about the part about BillO and the aforementioned hose, but as is becoming a tradition I'm starting, I'm going to put up a few YouTube Videos I think are so cool for the season.

First up is a little Ditty courtesy of the good folks at Crooks and Liars' terrific Late Night Music Club  which takes the Outkast hit "Hey Ya!" and mashes it up with my most favorite animated Christmas special, "A Charlie Brown Christmas." I love how it's totally synched up to the music. ABC ran the spcial tonight and it's companion piece, "Happy Holidays, Charlie Brown," Which was produced a few years ago before Charles Schultz shuffled off his mortal coil and joined the Choir Invisibule (Bonus points if you know that reference).

Second is the first of those Midwestern Animated shorts that were staples on sets in Chicago, Milwaukee and all points "Fargo-esque." Some of you are familiar with the classic "Hardrock, Coco and Joe" but those of you who aren't this was a little stop-motion animated gem that, as I said ran on TV's across the Midwest. We out here on the Left Coast really missed out on something like this, all we ever had was than damn, "Currier and Ives Christmas" loop that was as ubiquidous to Los Angeles sets at Christmas as the WPIX Yule Log was to Manhattan and the Boroughs. First, here's the classic tale of the three dwarfs who drive Santa's seld every year...

Second is the tale of everyone's favorite bundle of shave ice come to life, Frosty the Snowman. It's done in the same manner as HCJ but it literally follows the song that made everyone's favorite frost bitten friend so famous. Ironically, the creators of this version, UPA (United Productions of America) ushered in the era of the "Limited Animation" style of production, which utilized a more contemporary design and Stylized movement of the characters, something that would become the staple of the Hanna-Barbera studios in the 60's.

Finally, the third of the so-called "Midwestern Trilogy," was the story of Suzy Snowflake. This one, which premiered on Chicago's  WBBM just after Christmas day 1953. This has also become a beloved staple of the Christmas season. The Museum of Broadcast Communications offers all three of these, along with the animated take of Peter Cottontail, also another Midwest stapale at the Easter season. 

So Enjoy, and stay tuned for the annual "Yule Log" playlist on Christmas eve

Another Year, Another Birthday

I just wanted to jump on real quick and send a quick shout out to The Man, the Main Man, The Mac Daddy of Sports Bushido, Vic "The Brick" Jacobs, who's been part of the Los Angeles sports radio scene for a decade. I've known Vic for a long time, going back to the mid-1990's when he was still sports anchor at KCOP TV, where he first grew his unique personality.

Not only is he a sports broadcaster, he's probably the only Samurai sportscaster in all of sports talk radio. Plus as you cn see by his photo above, he's got a look like no other, especially the fur beefeater hats he sports these days (Ironically enough, with the temperatures dropping so far these days in SoCal, those hats are looking mighty warm right now).

He's got some crazy shtick, but he comes as it honestly. And so I say, Happy Birthday Vic, Feeling You!!!

Listen to Vic, Steve Hartman and Mychael Thompson on the Loose Cannons show on KLAC AM570 http://www.570klac.com