I loved going over to my grandfather’s house when I was a kid. He’s 6’4″, and was this larger than life man who gave my brothers and I as much candy and toys as we could handle. To top it off, he had cable, a luxury that my family couldn’t afford. We would arrive at…
Carrie Fisher died today. I wasn’t going to write about it. Even though I’m a huge Star Wars fan, I figured there were tons of pieces being written by better, more knowledgeable writers. What could I add? But, as I was reading many of these pieces this afternoon, I realized something. I seem to be…
Well, we’ve come to the end. This stave is really more of a coda than anything else. It is here to show us the results and nothing more. Scrooge awakens on Christmas morning a changed man. He is happy and friendly and truly sorry for the way he acted before. He reconciles with his nephew…
Of all the staves, this is probably the easiest one to get right on film. The spirit is nothing more than a black, hooded robe with a “spectral” hand outstretched. There are a few conversations about the death (Scrooge doesn’t realize it is his own death, but it’s obvious to the audience). Then a scene…
This marks the center of the story. It is probably the most famous part of the story as well. We have Scrooge travelling with the Ghost of Christmas Present. It contains the scene in the Cratchit household where we meet Bob’s family and Tiny Tim says, “God bless us, every one!” It also has the…
Well, my schedule was thrown off a bit, but I’m back with the second installment. The first of the three spirits is more commonly known as the Ghost of Christmas Past. Of the three spirits, Christmas Past is the one that never looks right on screen. Dickens says: It was a strange figure – like…
I took my daughter to see The Nutcracker. It was fun. I know next to nothing about dance, but from my perspective, they did a nice job. Yet I didn’t enjoy it as much as other productions I’ve seen because there were no live musicians. The company was dancing to a recording. I found that to…
I have a Christmas tradition that I would like to share. Every year, for the past twenty or so years, I have read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I always read it over five nights, one stave per night, so I finish the book on Christmas Eve. I don’t know exactly why I started…
There’s a great scene in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine where our heroes (Captain Sisko and his officers) are battling the villains (the Jem’Hadar), and offer them the chance to surrender: That phrase, “The order of things,” has stuck with me since I first watched this episode all the way back in 1997. For the Jem’Hadar,…
I was recently asked about one of my posts about depression. The question was basically asking how I felt about my post. I answered that I didn’t think it was great. It takes a lot of energy to write, even the short posts, and, as a result, I feel like many of my posts are…
