12 Days of Christmas: Christmas In July

Christmas in July (1940) is the second film directed by the brilliant Preston Sturges after The Great McGinty. Although the movie has the word Christmas in the title, that's all that's Christmasy about the movie but for my purposes that's more than enough.

Christmas in July features Dick Powell as an office clerk who has entered the Maxford House Coffee Slogan contest. He has dreams of winning the grand prize of $25,000.

"If you can't sleep, it isn't the coffee. It's the bunk."

Three of his co-workers decide to play a prank on him and send a fake telegram informing Powell that he won the contest. They assume that Powell will find out that he didn't actually win and they can all have a laugh about. Things don't quite go as planned as nobody seems to catch on that Powell didn't win and as a result he goes on a spending frenzy, buying stuff for his mom, his fiance (Ellen Drew) and gifts for all the poor people in his neighbourhood.

For those unfamiliar with Sturges work, he was the master of the screwball comedy. Rocket fire dialogue, the occasional social commentary and outrageous slapstick were his trademarks. His movies are just damn funny stuff. He had string of classics, one right after another. The Great McGinty, The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and of course this film. All of them are worth watching.

Pick of the Day: Harvest King Xmas

Had tonight's Christmas party been held a couple of years ago it almost certainly would have been at the Manhattan Room. That's because most of the principles involved with Harvest King Records, both on the management and talent side, have roots in that late, great punk venue. But that club, alas, is no more. So the party's at the Exchange. Featured bands on the bill include Geronimo (pictured), Kleins96, Lazy MKs, and Orbital Express.

And if you happen to be downtown tonight, The City Streets are playing a gig at O'Hanlon's Pub. Here's video of them performing "Yer Ghosts" in the offices of the Edmonton alt-weekly equivalent of prairie dog called Vue in 2008. (YouTube) Gee, if we weren't bordering on persona non grata in Regina we could do that with bands here. Oh well.

12 Days of Christmas: In Bruges

It's Christmas time in Bruges, Belgium and two hitmen, Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson), are on a forced sabbatical. They are lying low until they hear from their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes). You see Ray has royally screwed up a hit and Harry isn't happy with him at all.

Marie: [to Ray and Harry] "Why don't you both put your guns down, and go home?"
Harry: "Don't be stupid. This is the shootout. "

This is a very black comedy with some brilliant moments of drama and some brutal action thrown in for good measure. The movie is written and directed by first time filmmaker Martin McDonagh. The basic plot is one Hollywood's good old hitman screwed up and killed someone he shouldn't have plot but McDonagh and company make the movie into something so much more than that.

Both Gleeson and Fiennes are excellent in their roles. I'm not usually a fan of Colin Farrell but he is perfect as Ray, an arrogant screw up who really isn't as bad as he lets on but the things that come out of his mouth just make you shake your head and laugh.

"I don't hit women. I would never hit a woman, Chloe. I'd hit a woman who was trying to hit me with a bottle. That's different. That's self-defense, isn't it? Or a woman who could do karate. I would never hit a woman generally, Chloe."

To describe anymore of the story would be to deprive people the pleasure of discovering the film. It's also one of those movies that Hollywood has no idea on how to advertise it. The trailer for it is terrible and really doesn't accurately advertise what the film is about at all. It's better to just watch the movie.

The Midwestern Musical Idiom

So, the Permanent Date and I went to see Grant Hart at the Horseshoe Tavern the other night. A late show on a sleety Monday, the crowd attracted was the same 85 superannuated hardcore fanboys (And 6-10 WAGS of same, oneself included) that might be expected on a balmy Saturday afternoon. The gentleman has his audience. It is small, and nerdy, but it is his. Sporting an elegant and flattering John Waters-esque ‘stache, Mr. Hart played a set that spanned his entire career, giving many generous gestures of antique Husker Du songs to his devoted, though wee in number, following.

(Once upon a time, when I had a regular show on the University of Toronto’s radio station, my announcement of “Coming up, a brand-new track by Grant Hart” stimulated the most call-in’s I’d ever had. If I hadn’t known yet that I was a Bitter Old Punk Boy magnet, well, dammit, I knew then. By the way, the lovely little song, “Barbara”, that I’d go my mitts on? He played it at this show.)

The thing is, I kept wishing that the longtime fans would shut up and let the man play some new songs. Mr. Hart is that rare songwriter who improves dramatically with age. His more recent numbers, like the lovely cabaret songs referencing Milton, or Echo and Narcissus, were far more impressive to me (Admittedly, I am a decade or more out of his PUNK ROCK GOD! radius,) than the stripped down versions of early-eighties semi-hits that his solo, though very aptly wielded, guitar would allow.

It was that rare “nostalgia show” that left me eager, not for reminiscences of times past, but for a copy of the artist’s new album. Really, though, Mr. Hart should tour with a band. A more melodic and less devotee oriented set might inspire an awful lot of new fans. Oneself included, again.

P.S. Dig this YouTube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vefkvjcjNj8, during which a young, tie-dyed Mr. Hart addresses Joan Rivers as he might a boozed-up friend of his grandmamma, “Yes, ma’am, this is the goofy job I do.”

Pick of the Day: Handel's Messiah

There's a Sing-Along Messiah at Knox Metropolitan Church tomorrow night, so you have your choice of that or this performance tonight which features the Regina Symphony Orchestra, the Regina Philharmonic Chorus and invited soloists.

As regular readers of prairie dog know, we're not big fans of organized religion. At least, of those organized religions that try to shove their belief systems down the throats of other people without regard for their right to live their lives as they wish. Having confronted the death of a beloved family member in mid-November, I can see how the idea of life after death and an eternal soul could be of immense comfort to people. But even if Heaven doesn't exist, that doesn't diminish the value of life here on Earth. There's a whole wonderous universe out there, and if we'd just get our shit together we could start exploring and even inhabiting it. That's not going to happen, though, as long as we, as a society, remain fixated on the idea of the Rapture and an impending apocalypse that will herald Jesus's return.

Still, I do want to distinguish, as one letter writer in our Dec. 3 issue did, between people and institutions that embody true Christian values, and those scumbags who use religion as a cover for some of the most odious and oppressive ideology imaginable. In the spirit of the former, here's video of a choir in Stuggart under the direction of Helmet Rilling performing "Hallelujah" from Handel's Messiah. (YouTube)

More Copenhagen-Inspired Pranksterism

The Oswald/Harper photo cited in this CBC report is undoubtedly in poor taste, but equally undoubtedly there are plenty of Canadians who wish Stephen Harper and his government weren't representing Canada at the climate summit in Copenhagen. Some of the other photos that people entered in the contest, like the one pictured above, are pretty funny too.

God Calls in One of His Servants, Sends Him 'Down There'

Oral Roberts, one of the first of that particular breed of American holy roller/sociopaths to harness the power of television to share the word of God -- and make shitloads of money -- has died at 91. (New York Times)

In the eighties, Roberts claimed that if he couldn't raise $8 million, "God would call him home." God called in that debt on Tuesday. We -- okay, I -- didn't think God was serious about it, but I guess you just never know people. Deities. Whatever. I can only imagine the kneecapping/waterboarding/nipple twisting poor Oral got for not coughing the money up sooner.

By the way, I got this photo off of a blog called Pandagon, who used the picture of the statue in front of the Oral Roberts University (presumably of Roberts' own greasy, begging hands) to illustrate an article about the university. Pandagon claims the school is a veritable hotbead of greed, sexual abuse and other terribly sleazy things. I am shocked. Shocked.

Rosie's Top Six (maybe the last for a while, maybe)

Reason number six will illustrate why, hopefully to your satisfaction … though I would also say that there’s no way right now I can compete with the awesome posts made by Gordeaux and Paul recently. (prairie dog)

NOT AGAIN … In an effort to keep from explaining why the Canadian Armed Forces aided and abetted those torturing prisoners in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Harper is again threatening to prorogue Parliament (The Globe and Mail). I don’t think I could write anything better than what Canadian Cynic (Canadian Cynic) and The Galloping Beaver (The Galloping Beaver) have already said. Except for James Travers, of course (Toronto Star)

ALBERTA MEDIA, YOU’VE BEEN PUNK’D! Delegates at the Copenhagen climate treaty talks weren’t the only ones who were taken in by the pranksters. So was another source of hot air production, talk-show host Dave Rutherford. (Big City Liberal)

ELDERLY SENIORS DIVORCE TO AFFORD HEALTH CARE The next time someone tries to tell you that right-wing governments are pro-family values, hit them with this story (Challenging the Commonplace). Hopefully you don’t break your laptop doing it.

SCHOOLYARD FIGHT When the Sask. Party announced that it was taking over the duty of setting mill rates (and, therefore budgets) for school boards, few objected (apart from John Conway) because the province already negotiated contracts with teachers, support staff etc. on a province-wide basis. But since the government can’t promise all the money the school boards say they need to keep operating, they’re now caught between a rock and a hard place (Leader-Post).

SOMETHING TO WATCH My university buddy Will Dixon deconstructs and skewers the ‘Save local TV’ campaign. Apparently, we’re not going to be saving much. (Uninflected Images Juxtaposed)

LOOK WHO’S HERE Tammy and I are parents for the third time. Welcome to the world Caitlin Elizabeth LaRose Olmstead, who arrived Saturday afternoon, weighing 8 pounds 5 ounces. Right now, Mom’s a little sore, so I’ll let The Verve do the speaking for me. (YouTube)

12 Days of Christmas: 3 Godfathers

"Hand over the pot. We'll slick him up a mite."

John Ford's 3 Godfathers (1948) was a remake of a 1916 silent film. Based on a book by Peter B. Kyne - the story has been remade at least seven times, including once in 1919 by Ford.

The film has John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz and Harry Carey Jr. as a group of outlaws being chased across a desert in Arizona after they robbed the bank in New Jerusalem. They come across a dying woman on Christmas Eve who gives birth to a baby boy. She makes the three men the baby's godfathers after naming the baby after all of them.

After she dies, Wayne and company decide to try and keep their promise to the dying woman to save her baby. They make the harsh and treacherous way back across the desert with stock Ford actor Ward Bond hot on the Duke's trail.



Brilliant Japanese animation director Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Paprika) loosely remade 3 Godfathers as the film Tokyo Godfathers in 2003.

The movie has three homeless people, a teenage runaway, a homeless man and a transvestite who find a baby on Christmas Eve. The movie follows their adventures through modern day Tokyo as they try to reunite the baby with it's family.

Pick of the Day: Wayne Newton

Danke Schoen, Baby, Danke Schoen

Man, am I so stoked for tonight's concert at Casino Regina Lounge by Mr. Vegas himself.

I've only actually spent six hours in my life in the U. S. (courtesy of a shopping excursion in July 1973 to Whynot Minot on a rainy day during a family vacation at Kenosee). But if I ever do decide one day to aquire a passport and journey south to the land of the brave and the home of the free Las Vegas would definitely be one of the primo destinations I would consider visiting after New York, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Boston, Miami, St. Louis, Denver, San Diego, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, Atlanta, Washington and maybe a dozen other cities.

For now, though, I'll have to content myself with basking in the glow of Vegas royalty at this gig. If Mr. Newton's staying at the Hotel Sask, I might even stake out the lobby in the hopes of catching a glimpse of him. There's plenty of video of Mr. Newton on YouTube, but for true fans, I found this gem. (YouTube)