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photos: zoolights
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Zoolights, National Zoo, Washington, DC -
musings: a tale of twenty-two parties
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Ah, ’tis the season of love, joy, and parties. This year, we have two work parties each, two more parties at our house, a couple trips to the theater, and about half a dozen happy hours between us.
Not that I am complaining, but I actually had to stop commuting to work via bicycle in mid-December, because we have something just about every day after work for the last two weeks before Christmas. Thank God we finished up our Christmas shopping in late November, or a lot of people would be getting a whole-lotta nothing.
The highlight so far — for us, at least — was the Christmas Cartoon Extravaganza. Each year we collect as many television Christmas specials as we can, and throw a party where they are playing in the background. Our place is a bit small, but we managed to cram in twelve people to watch three and a half hours of pure animated Christmas goodness, including A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty Returns, Robbie the Reindeer, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends christmas special, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
I think this is only the second or third time the lady sparkler and I have thrown the Extravaganza, but I have done something similar on and off for the last decade. I wish I could take credit for the notion, but the idea originally came from a Theatre Department tradition at the College of William and Mary where people gathered each year and managed to turn How the Grinch Stole Christmas into a drinking game.
The basic premise of the College version was to drink each time you hear the word “Who” — as in “All the Who’s down in Whoville” and “Cindy Lou Who who was no more than two.” As you can imagine, the “winner” was essentially declared by the first commercial break by looking around at whomever was still standing.
Fortunately, the thirty-something version entailed just sitting on the couch and thinking warm thoughts of friends and family, though we did “go crazy” by slipping some peppermint schnapps into the cocoa.
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theatre: spamalot
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Photo courtesy of Monty Python’s Spamalot.i normally don’t stoop so far as to shill for touring companies, but we saw monty python’s spamalot at D.C.’s national theater tonight and it was just incredible.
i haven’t seen Holy Grail since college, so i’m by no means a connoisseur. (actually, most of the complaints i have heard about the show have come from hard-core fans.) even so, i thought the show was smart, bawdy, funny (with a minimum of toilet humor) and just consistently great.
in my experience, it’s pretty common for a show to have 4 great songs, and then a bunch of crap filler to pad the rest of the show. while Spamalot didn’t really have a marquee song per say, there wasn’t a single bad song … and i never once looked at my watch wishing the show would hurry along. that, and the lady sparkler didn’t stop laughing for 2 1/2 hours straight.
oddly enough, i just heard it is playing in Vegas now (fitting!), along with the usual london and new york. needless to say, if you have the means, i highly recommend.
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home: christmas expedition
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IMG_7551, uploaded by [ecpark].the elementary school next door has a christmas tree sale every year, but some strange reason it’s not until the second week of december. (who waits that long?!?) as you can imagine, being genetically unable to wait for pretty much anything, the lady sparkler and i decided to head out of our hamlet and forage for a tree.
we passed through the seven levels of the rock creek forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and to a magical place called “north Georgetown.” we found a small, Christmas forest of pre-cut trees located at the corner of “Wisconsin” and “Calvert.” a kindly old man with a chain saw assisted us with the finest of skinny trees, and strapped it on to our late-model, german engineered sleigh.
there is nothing quite like a city christmas.
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Photos: Colonial Williamsburg
Explore the Photo Set:
Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Virginia -
musings: christmas extravaganza
it’s the weekend after thanksgiving, which means it’s the official start of the “get-evan-prepped-for-christmas” season. you laugh, but i have found that after 30+ years of christmases (christmi? christmasuses?) i have developed a pre-christmas routine that boarders on obsessive.
first, we have the music. i’m currently sitting on 600+ christmas songs (from 30+ christmas albums) which means i can listen non-stop for about a day and a half without repeating the same version of a song. my itunes currently features 18 versions of silent night (my favorite is a classical russian folk recording) and if you ever want to have a conversation about the definitive recording of “o holy night” then i am your man (my vote is for the new orleans benefit version featured on studio 60 last year).
but mostly, we have the movies. and television. and cartoons. it all started about a decade ago when i noticed that the more christmas “stuff” i watched, the more likely i was to have a good christmas. this has now officially spiraled out of control, and has resulted in me watching about 20 dvds worth of goodies each holiday during November and December. actually, i have taken to throwing a “christmas cartoon extravaganza” each year to help spread the love (or share the burden, as it were).
my checklist for this year has 50+ items on it. while i certainly won’t get through more than about half of what you see here, i’ve documented the whole list so i don’t have to keep recreating it every year. if by some strange miracle i have forgotten something worth seeing, please mock my omission in the comments.
Best Christmas Cartoons & Best Christmas Specials
this selction include christmas cartoons (rankin-bass!) and several live action specials including various muppets. also included are television show episodes worth re-watching during the holidays, especially aaron sorkin productions (who has a knack for christmas that i wish he could spin into the other 364 days of his work each year).
Best Christmas Movies
some are good (miracle on 34th), some are bad (santa conquers the martians) but anything is fair game (die hard) if it happens at christmas.
About a Boy A Christmas Carol A Christmas Story Bad Santa Christmas in Connecticut 
Christmas Vacation (National Lampoon’s) Christmas with the Kranks Die Hard Die Hard 2: Die Harder Elf Ernest Saves Christmas Holiday Inn Home Alone It’s a Wonderful Life Love Actually Miracle on 34th Street (1947) Miracle on 34th Street (1994) Prancer Santa Claus Conquers the Martians Santa vs. Snowman Saturday Night Live Christmas Scrooge Scrooged The Muppet Christmas Carol The Nightmare Before Christmas The Polar Express The Ref The Santa Clause The Santa Clause 2 Trapped in Paradise White Christmas again, if i have forgotten something worth seeing, please share.
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Photos: Virginia Air & Space Museum
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Virginia Air & Space Museum, Hampton, Virginia -
photos: virginia zoo
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Virginia Zoo, Norfolk, Virginia. -
taylor twellman is a twit
the championship match of major league soccer returned to D.C.’s RFK Stadium again this year. unfortunately, after having the best record during the regular season, D.C. United flamed out in the first round of the playoffs and blew the chance to play for the cup on their home turf.instead, we watched the lady sparkler’s hometown team (the houston dynamo) hand the new england revolution (employer of the twit mentioned above) their fourth cup defeat in the last six years. you can guess our allegiances (have i mentioned he’s a twit?) and i can safely say that we were in a small, small minority of people cheering for houston as they sent the revolution to the bad side of the record books.
now, not everybody cares about fútbol/soccer, but focus for a moment on the futility factor here: 4 championship appearances, no wins. only two professional teams share this dubious honor (the buffalo bills and the minnesota vikings, both of the NFL, both 0-4 in the superbowl). hockey has only one team that comes close (st. louis blues, 0-3) and basketball/baseball can only muster a few 0-2 teams (utah jazz, phoenix suns, new jersey nets, san diego padres).
the amazing thing is that major league soccer is just a decade old. imagine what their futility mark could be like with another 30 years of championships to lose. how would you like to be part of a franchise like that? i meant to ask some of the 30,000+ Revolution fans as they were leaving the stadium grounds, but …
back to the twit. i’m normally not one to shower the hate on people, but it’s even worse that i can’t figure out why i loathe him so. part of it could his gawd awful kick medic commercials i have to watch every weekend on fox soccer channel. part of it could be that no matter how good he is for his club (83 goals in 145 appearances, or 57%) he is equally bad for his country (6 goals in 28 appearances, or 21%). or it could just be because he wears his shirts two sizes too small.
regardless, houston won their second straight (the only team other than D.C. to do that) and twinkle-toed twellman and the revs lost … all is right with the world.
Explore the Photo Set:
MLS Cup 2007, Washington, D.C.
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it’s easy for us trace our current state of happiness to the fabulous people who surround us, and so we want to take what time is left in 2007 to say thank you. with that in mind, may the very best of the season be with you this holiday, and may you experience in your life the joy, love and peace that you have brought to ours.