Charles Dickens – A Christmas Carol – Stave Four, The Last of the Spirits

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…

Read More

Charles Dickens – A Christmas Carol – Stave Three, The Second of the Three Spirits

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…

Read More

Charles Dickens – A Christmas Carol – Stave Two, The First of the Three Spirits

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…

Read More

Live Music

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…

Read More

The Silence of Sounds

One of the oddest effects of depression is being unable to enjoy things that I know are enjoyable.  For me, that is most noticeable with music.  I am completely obsessed with music and have been ever since I can remember.  I have a huge record collection.  I go to shows whenever I can.  I play…

Read More

Parents Just Don’t Understand: Thoughts on Adventure Time’s “Evergreen”

I’d been patiently waiting for new episodes of Adventure Time on Hulu for months. My brother told me that season 6 ended on a fascinating note, and I couldn’t wait until I got to see where Finn and Jake’s adventures would take them. I was stopped in my tracks by the episode “Evergreen,” which is…

Read More

R2-MVP

I’m sure anyone who’s into Star Wars, and many people who aren’t, know of Kenny Baker’s passing.  I am about as big a Star Wars fan as a person can be.  What is now known as Episode IV was the first movie I ever saw.  If you’d like, I can recite the originally trilogy word…

Read More