What the #FF?!?: My First Guest Post!

Guess what?  I’m taking the day off!

No, not that kind of day off…I’m guest posting for the very first time over at www.educlaytion.com!

Clay was kind enough to invite me over for the day to guest-post on his Friday Flick Face-Off.  In the post, I wax nostalgic about my love for movie composer John Williams, and offer up three of my favorite Williams’-scored movies as contenders for his head-to-head-to-head battle. 

If you’re unfamiliar with my weekly “What the #FF?!?” post, I make a few shout-outs to the websites and bloggers who rock my socks, and give them a little love, via my site and Twitter. 

Clay’s been an awesome friend during my early days in blogging (which, okay…I still AM in my early days of blogging, this being the third month).  His writing style has a wonderfully witty voice, intermixed with humor, poignancy, and more knowledge than Wikipedia and Alex Trebek combined.  And hey, he also knows how to rock an 80’s sweater and hair style like no other.

Be sure to check out his Wiki-Wednesday feature, where he takes a variety of events that happened on a specific date and connects them all together…think like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, but with no Footloosing, Kira Sedgwick-loving star.  He also can be found on Twitter.

Why don’t you join me over at www.educlaytion.com today and vote for your pick in the Friday Flick Face-Off?  Will it be Hook, featuring Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman?  Or Jurassic Park, where the dinosaurs steal the show?  Or is it the baby of the bunch, Harry Potter the Sorcerer’s Stone?  Only YOU can decide the outcome!

Happy FF Friday!

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Making Christmas

In the movie “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” Tim Burton elegantly weaves a story about the inhabitants of Halloween Town, a fictional land where Halloween reigns supreme, all day, every day.  The town is led by Jack Skellington, a.k.a. “The Pumpkin King,” who accidentally stumbles upon a secret portal to Christmas Town, a land filled with snow, sweets, and Santa Claus himself.

Jack is enthralled with this odd land of merriment and joy, two emotions which are counter to the ennui and melancholy his character begins the film with.  He quickly decides to remedy his growing unease by incorporating elements of Christmas Town into his world, and encourages his friends and fiends to follow suit.

In the song “Making Christmas,” the residents of Halloween Town show how they plan to present their version of Christmas, despite the fact that their vision of the holiday is slightly skewed.  Watch below:

“Making Christmas” from “The Nightmare Before Christmas”

Over the weekend, I was reminded of this song as I began to contemplate my own lot during the holiday season.  I found myself feeling somewhat like Jack, the main protagonist of the story, who begins the movie dealing with a gaping emotional void and no foreseeable remedy.

Now, I am neither a skeleton nor depressed, but I have come to discover a growing emptiness in my heart around the holiday season.  I don’t love Christmas any less, mind you.  On the contrary, it still remains as my most treasured holiday and favorite time of the year…but, due to the inevitable changes of time/destiny/fate, Christmas is just not what it used to be anymore.