I'm a writer. I'm also a wife and a parent who works too much and lives too little.
In addition to writing I also love to read, listen to music, travel, cook, I enjoy looking for bargains at flea markets or thrift stores, Christmas, football and of course writing!
How did I come up with the title of my blog? Two things: 1. I live in New England (duh) and 2. Canadian singer Alan Frew once arrogantly told me to "get a New England life"--again--DUH! I already HAVE one!
In honor of Coach Bill Belichick’s departure from The New England Patriots, here are some of my favorite memes and Bill quotes from the past many years:
And a lot of partying we did!
Deflategate special. Such fun times!
Bill made a lot of opposing teams mad with his kind of coaching. The why-didn’t-we-think-of-that moments.
Yes, if I recall, it didn’t really matter that Brady was suspended, right?
Bill with his excited face.
He’s even excited at Christmas
Although Bill was famous for coining the phrase (or was he?) “We’re on to….(place opposing city name here) and the motto “Do Your Job”, he was also known for never giving anything away in his press conferences. Bill’s speeches were often a mystery. And sometimes what he said was downright hilarious:
“I don’t Twitter, I don’t MyFace, I don’t Yearbook.” – that goes for a lot of us
“The only thing I can cheer for in Philadelphia is the national anthem.” – I agree. Not even the Liberty Bell is something to cheer for. But they have a great zoo.
“Don’t out-dumb yourself now.” – can probably be said about a lot of people in the NFL
“Knowing you have a good backup long snapper allows you to sleep good at night.” – it also helps knowing you have a top-notch QB
Looking forward, I’m excited/anxious/curious to see how Mayo does as a coach, where he takes the team, etc. He has some huge shoes to fill and I have every confidence he will “do his job”, as only Bill would tell him to.
All the best, Bill, in everything you do in the future.
So we have reached the final movie in my favorite Christmas movie countdown. Before I get to the skinny on the film, which a new survey lists as the most loved holiday movie, I wanted to give my backstory on how I even came to learn of this movie.
It was 1985 and I listened to the weekly Top 40 countdown with Casey Kasem like clockwork. I never missed a week, and I kept track of all the songs. One song on the countdown that week was Billy Joel’s “You’re Only Human (Second Wind)” and Casey discussed the background of the song. The song deals with teenage depression and suicide, it became a top-ten hit for Joel and he donated all royalties from the song to the National Committee for Youth Suicide Prevention. But in his mention of the background, Casey brought up Frank Capra’s Christmas film “It’s A Wonderful Life” and told how the song’s video pays homage to the 1946 Jimmy Stewart classic.
Until then, I had never heard of the movie. Being a Christmas freak even back then, I knew I had to see it.
I believe I ended up renting it from the video store because back then “It’s A Wonderful Life” was not played on TV as much as it is now. I was hooked from there. In 1996 I bought the 50th anniversary edition on VHS and I now own it on DVD in both black and white and color.
So what’s this five-time Academy Award nominated film about? The film stated by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made? The film selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress?
It’s all about the life of George Bailey (Stewart) from the time he’s a boy saving his brother Harry (Todd Karns) and working in Gower’s (H.B. Warner) drugstore to his father (Samuel S. Hinds) suddenly passing away, to taking over the family bank, the ol’ Bailey Building & Loan and giving up his dreams of traveling the world, to falling in love and marrying Mary Hatch (Donna Reed), to dealing with Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) and all the unruly customers during the run on the bank, to starting a family with Mary, to still wanting to get away but instead helping your community grow by helping people obtain home ownership, to dealing with Henry Potter (Lionel Barrymore)
to having your war hero brother coming home on Christmas Eve, to having Uncle Billy “lose” $8,000 by inadvertently handing it to Potter, to having the authorities after you, to drinking at Martini’s, to getting punched in the lip, to running to the bridge to jump and then…being saved by Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers), Angel Second Class–because he hasn’t earned his wings yet.
Clarence wants those wings and come hell or high water, he’s going to make sure George grasps just how wonderful his life has been so he can earn them. Dammit.
George receives the best gift from Clarence: a chance to see his world without him in it. Bedford Falls is now Pottersville. The Building & Loan doesn’t exist. Martini’s is now Nick’s. Gower is a drunk. Harry died in the sledding accident. Zuzu’s petals are missing. The turning point for George is when he sees Mary has become nothing but a lonely librarian and he scares the shit out of her. That’s when he goes back to the bridge and begs to live again.
And it’s such a joyous moment when Bert the cop comes along and tells George everyone’s been looking for him. And George realizes it’s snowing. And his lip is bleeding. And Zuzu’s petals are in his pocket. And he’s running through Bedford Falls yelling “Merry Christmas!” at everyone and everything.
It chokes me up every. single. time.
The final scene is the best, the party of all parties at George’s house, celebrating Harry’s return, Mary and Uncle Billy have gone around town collecting money to help George, even the bank examiner rips up his papers. And in with the donations is a copy of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, which Clarence just so happens to have been reading when he saved George. Inside the book is an inscription that says it all:
Zuzu closes it out when a bell on the Christmas tree rings and she declares that “every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings” to which George smiles upwards and says “‘Atta boy, Clarence!”.
You just don’t get any better a Christmas movie than this one. It will forever be my favorite Christmas movie. As the plaque on my door declares: “It’s A Wonderful Life”.
Before we get to the number one movie on my Christmas movie list, I want to briefly explain why I left certain ones off this list.
First, I could only choose 25. That was tough enough.
I didn’t choose anything less than an hour because to me that’s more a “special”. So, yes, although I hated to, I left off “Charlie Brown’s Christmas” and “Frosty” and “Garfield”. I know I could have chosen any of the other Rankin Bass films but Rudolph stood out from them all. Doing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and “Year Without A Santa Claus” would’ve taken two spots away from other.
I did not choose any of “The Santa Clause” movies with Tim Allen because, quite frankly, Tim Allen is an ass. So that’s why I didn’t choose “Christmas With The Kranks” either, although I greatly admire Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Aykroyd. I know, you could argue and say Randy Quaid and Chevy Chase are asses too and I’d agree. But I like “Christmas Vacation” better than any of the Santa Clause movies. So I guess that’s my reason.
I was going to put “Trading Places” on the list but then I remembered “Home Alone”. No, I wasn’t going to do “Die Hard” or “Lethal Weapon”. And I didn’t do “Home Alone 2”, although I feel it’s just as good as “Home Alone” but since in some airings have SHITHOLE appearing in it, I left that one out.
There’s many more that I left out simply because I have seen it only once and don’t remember much about it or didn’t care for it. And like I said, there are so many that I could have chosen but just didn’t have the space.
So many “Christmas Carol” versions exist and I chose my three favorites. I adore The Muppets and there are at least two other Muppet Christmas movies I could have included and probably should have.
If you want to make your movie-watching Christmas complete, you must make sure there’s a viewing of this Christmas classic. No Christmas is happy until you witness Bing Crosby dancing with Danny fucking Kaye. Even if you’re not a musical-watching person, this musical is one to watch.
Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know the movie was made post-World War II in 1954 but it opens up ten years before in 1944 during the height of the war. Bob Wallace (Crosby) and Phil Davis (Kaye) are performers in the Army and are doing a Christmas show for their fellow troops. They sing a rendition of “White Christmas” and afterwards Wallace makes a speech about losing their commanding officer General Waverly (Dean Jagger), when unbeknownst to him Waverly is there in the audience watching the whole thing.
Suddenly there’s a bombing and everyone runs helter-skelter. A building almost falls on Wallace but Davis saves him, breaking his arm in the process. Davis holds this arm-breaking /life-saving incident over Wallace’s head throughout the movie. It’s how he worms his way into becoming a duo act with Wallace. Among other things.
About two weeks before Christmas the duo is performing in Florida and are getting ready to travel by train to New York to perform on the Ed Harrison show. Davis keeps trying to set Wallace up with any woman he sees free. Wallace informs Davis that while they’re there in Florida they have to go see an act. It turns out that they received a letter from an old Army buddy, Benny Haynes, and he is asking them to see his sisters Betty (Rosemary Clooney) and Judy (Vera Ellen) perform at Novello’s. As it turns out, Judy wrote the letter and it’s interesting to note that Betty mentions their mother wrote to tell them Benny’s out of the country in Alaska. Because at the time of this movie, Alaska was not even a state yet!
So Wallace and Davis witness the Haynes sisters singing “Sisters” and in not-so-obvious ways they all fall for each other. We learn that Judy is as interested as getting Betty settled down as Davis is as getting Wallace settled down. And who knows? Maybe Judy and Davis will hit it off as well.
Davis learns that the girls are headed to the Columbia Inn in Vermont to perform over the holidays. And the girls learn that the sheriff is there to arrest them because they owe the landlord $200 for burning a hole in a rug. Davis sneaks them the train tickets because their train tickets aren’t good until the next day. Ironically, Davis and Wallace happen to end up on the same train. And they don’t end up going to New York. They end up going to snowy Vermont.
They arrive in Vermont, minus the snow. Go to the Columbia Inn and ironically discover that–gasp!–General Waverly owns the place. What are the chances?
And the inn, normally jumping this time of year, is hurting because of the lack of snow. Wallace and Davis get the idea of moving their show up there to bring in business. So be ready for a lot of singing and dancing. Great dancing. Dancing that even if you’re not into dancing, you’re going to enjoy it. Davis and Judy are mesmerizing in their moves.
A slow burning love story plays out between Wallace and Betty, as well as between Davis and Judy. A little tiff happens between Betty and Wallace when she thinks he’s pulling some kind of business stunt when all he’s really trying to do is get General Waverly’s platoon to the inn for Christmas. Because the General is down on his luck and is depressed because Washington doesn’t want him any longer.
In the end it’s a truly happy ending for all when Davis and Wallace become Davis, Wallace, Betty and Judy. And what better way to end it than with the same way it began: singing “White Christmas”.
Next year this Robert Zemeckis-directed holiday classic will be twenty years old. Yet it feels like just yesterday when I first saw it with my daughter when she was just a child.
It is based on the 1985 Chris Van Allsburg book of the same name and was optioned in 1999 by Tom Hanks, who would go on to play five characters in the movie. Originally he was slated to play all the characters but became exhausted in doing so. It is not exactly a cartoon and in 2006 was listed by Guiness World Records as the first all-digital capture film.
If you haven’t seen the film, it’s about Hero Boy (voiced by Daryl Sabara) who is in his “crucial year” of believing in Santa. So when The Polar Express stops by his house on Christmas Eve, he’s reluctant to get on, much to the Conductor’s dismay and frustration. But he does board The Polar Express and meets Hero Girl (Nona Gaye) and Know-It-All (Eddie Deezen). At the final pick up stop, a boy named Billy (Jimmy Bennett) is reluctant to get on. Interestingly enough, Billy is the only one with an actual name. He refuses to get on but then changes his mind, runs after the train and Hero Boy pulls the emergency brake to stop the train. Much to the Conductor’s displeasure.
After Billy gets on and everyone settles down, the Conductor asks if anyone wants hot chocolate. Who doesn’t? A fantastic music and dance scene of waiters serving hot chocolate ensues. Also, throughout the train ride the Conductor punches holes in each passenger’s golden ticket, revealing a letter.
Along the train ride Hero Boy encounters The Hobo (also played by Hanks), who is actually a ghost on the train. He intimidates Hero Boy through the train ride and is probably a big part in Hero Boy finally believing in Santa (who, by the way, is also played by Hanks).
Before The Polar Express reaches the North Pole, it travels through some treacherous areas and steep canyons, adding suspense to the already magical ride.
Upon finally reaching the North Pole Hero Boy, Hero Girl and Billy find themselves within the inner workings of what appears to be either Santa’s workshop or a warehouse. There Billy finds his gift and they all end up in Santa’s sack where they also discover Know-It-All. All four are returned to the Conductor where he finishes stamping out their golden tickets to reveal an appropriate word for each child. And Steven Tyler, dressed as an elf, sings.
Santa chooses a child for the first gift of Christmas, and it just so happens to be Hero Boy. The gift is a bell that only believers can hear. Hero Boy loses the bell but then it magically appears again to him on Christmas morning in a gift from Santa.
Not only is this movie a charm to watch, but the music is also ear-pleasing as well. The Grammy-award winning song “Believe” is played at the end.
michellemchatton.com 
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