Entertainment
DVDs Just in Time For the Holidays
Check out the new DVD releases that will make the perfect gift for anyone on your shopping list!
Jingle Bell Rock
Check out this season's hot CD releases right in time for the holidays.
Dec. 2 CD Releases
Britney Spears, Circus
Akon, Freedom
Ricky Martin, 17
Scarface, Emeritus
50 Cent, Before I Self Destruct
Avant, Avant
Have A Wonderfully Bizarre Christmas
By WGMU Music Director Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson.
It is almost upon us, somehow. It feels like only yesterday we were carving pumpkins, and it really was almost yesterday that we were eating turkey and stuffing, contemplating our Black Friday buys, looking towards the final few days of 2008.
Everyone has their favorite Christmas songs, so I shall not attempt to supplant them with anything here. Instead, I present you with some more eccentric Christmas jams to help celebrate one of the most hectic, expensive, and stressful times of the year.
| Steven Colbert | Another Christmas Song |
| The Walkmen | No Christmas While I’m Talking |
| Blitzen Trapper | Christmas Is Coming Soon |
| Evangelicals | The Last Christmas On Earth |
| Frightened Rabbit | It's Christmas So We'll Stop |
| Mason Jennings | Santa Claus Is Coming To Town |
| Rogue Wave | Christmas |
| Snowden | White Christmas |
| Raveonettes | Come on Santa |
Merry Christmas,
Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
Ten Essential Holiday Movies
By Broadside Staff Writer Ross Bonaime
10. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
In this 1964 B-movie, the real questions about Santa are answered. Not how he gets into homes without chimneys or how he travels across the world in a single night, but what would happen if Santa went to Mars and met aliens. This unintentionally hilarious film is featured with more robots, UFOs and child abductions than you would usually expect in your Christmas films.
9. A Muppet Christmas Carol
Sure, the Charles Dickens story is a great holiday classic, but it was always missing Gonzo and Fozzie Bear. Multi-Oscar winner Michael Caine plays the iconic Ebeneezer Scrooge as Kermit the Frog and the rest of the Muppet gang attempt to make the cold-hearted humbug find the true meaning of Christmas in only a way that Jim Henson could.
8. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
After the Griswold family survived their trips to Wally World and Europe, it is hard to believe that their most difficult trek would be through the holidays with their families. This irreverent holiday tale shows that sometimes the last thing you want for Christmas is your family.
Santa's Naughty Playlist
By Broadside Staff Writer Ross Bonaime. Photo courtesy of Flickr user Bethany L. King.
Ah, it’s the holidays again, and nothing says the holidays like Christmas music and blatant commercialism.
First off is the album Christmas In the Stars: Star Wars Christmas Album. No one should be surprised that you can find any form of merchandise with a Star Wars logo on it. But this is a special type of Star Wars crap.
Remember such classics as “What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Owns A Comb?)” and my personal favorite, “R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas” which is sung my none other than Jon Bon Jovi. Snuggle up by the fire with a loved one as Mr. “Livin’ On A Prayer” sings the lyrics, “And if the snow becomes too deep, just give a little beep, we’ll go in by the fire, and warm your little wires.” It’s so bad, it’ll almost make you forget just how bad those prequels were. Almost.
Baby, It's Cold Outside
By Broadside Correspondent Tierney Kain. Photo courtesy of Flickr user kelly.emma.
Some people like to rhapsodize about white Christmases, and plan snowboarding trips in winter wonderlands, and have snowball fights with Jack Frost. I am not one of those people. My parents tell me that even as a kid, I would stubbornly stay inside while the other kids went sledding. Even then, I was smart. Who wants to subject themselves to the cold and depression and biting misery that winter brings? The minute the season begins to shift from gloriously warm to unbearably cold, I start to feel the familiar depression. Goodbye, sunshine. Goodbye, flip flops. Goodbye, golden tan.
Just after I think I can’t possibly get any more depressed and just before I start looking at vacation homes in Aruba, I remember the one good thing about winter: winter clothes.
Boy In Striped Pajamas: Ending Worth Seeing
By Connect2Mason Writer Emily Culley.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is based off the novel of the same name. The story focuses around Bruno's family, as his father is made a high ranking Nazi officer, forcing them to move from their lavish Berlin mansion to a drab, dull house located just outside a Nazi concentration camp.
While in Berlin, Bruno is able to imagine himself as anything he wishes. Literally zooming past Nazi officers as they capture and detain Jews to send them off to the concentration camp. Once the family moves closer to the concentration camp, Bruno finds himself capture in the confinement of his own home, while surrounded by endless exploring opportunities.
Movie Review: Disney Gets a Thumbs Up with "Bolt"
By Connect2Mason Writer Emily Culley.
The premise to Bolt is as ridiculous as it sounds: A dog who plays a super hero action fighter on television gets lost in the heart of New York City without his “person” not knowing where he is at all. While lost, Bolt finds what he believes is an evil cat, Mittens, in the alley. He immediately ties Mittens up to the other end of his leash and demands that she take him to his person, Penny.
Ivy League Band Vampire Weekend Gets Notice
By Broadside Interim Asst. Style Editor Pearson Jones
You would expect more from a bunch of Ivy League graduate students.
The quartet, known as Vampire Weekend, took a four-year degree from one of New York’s most reputable college, and gambled it away on a self-produced EP carried by a former lead singer of a comedic rap group.
Life In A. Minor: How to Tour Past Your Prime
By Broadside Style Columnist Andy Minor
Two summers ago, at the Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts, Steven Patrick Morrissey, famed lead singer of The Smiths and his own successful solo career, played a birthday concert for me. Well, it wasn't really for me, but it was on the day before my birthday, so I'm going to consider it a birthday concert.
It was an amazing show, probably one of the best I've ever seen, even considering Morrissey has a bit more gray hair and a few more chunky pounds than he did in his heyday. He interacted with the crowd, danced around stage, even took his shirt off, though the shirtless maneuver was about 20 years too late. He also played a beefy set containing songs that spanned his entire career—Smiths and otherwise—which says a lot because everyone knows
Morrissey hates The Smiths and his associations with them.