"A Christmas Carol"

Dear Dan,

Thanks for steering me to the free Christmas music!

Here's a tip "back at you."

Last night, Danny and I watched Disney's anime' version of A Christmas Carol. (The technical term for such rendering is "performance-capture animation.")

I was surprised Danny was so emphatic in his selection since we've seen this version twice since its release two years ago.

Watching it again reminded me what a luminous film this is - whether in 2D (as currently streamable at Netflix), or in 3D - a format Roger Ebert hates but lavishly praises in his (maximum) 4 Star review: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091104/REVIEWS/911059995/1023.

Ebert also "explains" "A Christmas Carol's" mediocre ranking at IMDb: "Should you take the kiddies? Hmmm. I'm not so sure. When I was small, this movie would have scared the living ectoplasm out of me."  

Perhaps parents took their children to see this "3-D Extravaganza" expecting old-fashioned Disney pablum; then, when the house lights dimmed, realized they'd committed themselves to a deeply theological exploration of Heaven and Hell. 

Every adult (not kin to Scrooge) will be delighted - celestially uplifted - by this bountiful rendition in which Dickens' view of Grasping Greed -- and the deadly devastation it works on the human soul -- lend sharp focus to the diabolical cheering that has become shockingly frequent in our public places - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irx_QXsJiao   ///   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcVGzqwfx7k    

"Then they had better die!" Scrooge seethes. "And reduce the surplus population..."

Here is Wikipedia's take on Dicken's novella - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol

And here is a nicely formatted online edition - http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=DicChri.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all

At the following site -- in addition to accessing all Chesterton's online titles -- you will find The Jolly Giant's wonderful biography of Dickens: http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/ 

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Pax

Alan

PS After watching "A Christmas Carol" last night, I spoke with Danny of an essay I wrote 15 years ago - "The Real Presence of Santa Claus." In it, I make the case that Santa Claus is at least as real as you and I: http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2011/12/real-presence-of-santa-claus.html

Humbug!

On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 5:48 AM, Daniel K wrote:

If you are interested in Christmas music, there are usually a number
of interesting offerings at Amazon's 25 days of free page:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=dm_bb_25daysoffree?ie=UTF8&docId=1000453281&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=left-1&pf_rd_r=0FHE9ZHG6YP900QS4TX4&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1337390142&pf_rd_i=163856011

Don't worry if you miss a day, as you can download any of the back
songs at least until Christmas.

I've come across some really good songs in past years of 25 days of
free. Two of my favorites are:

Straight No Chaser - The 12 Days of Christmas [Live] from their
Holiday Spirits album (what a hoot!)

and

Aliqua - Sugarfunscary from their All I Want album.

Check them out on Spotify. In both cases, the entire albums are well
worth listening to.

Enjoy!

Dan