The holiday is fast approaching, too fast approaching, and we haven't even begun to celebrate here at the 'ole Trash Pile. The tree is still packed away in the basement and I've barely started checking things off on friends' and loved ones' Christmas wishlists. No eggnog or Lego advent calender and certainly no visions of sugar-plums dancing in my head. The days are running out, passing by while all my favorite traditions fall by the wayside.
At some point over the last few years, one of the things I've adopted into my holiday season is watching a cherished Christmas special from my youth and documenting it by taking pictures with my cellphone. Nothing screams "Happy Holidays!" like low-res photos of two decades old animated features, right?
Well, you lucky ducklings, I've decided to share my inaugural attempt [from the 2011..!] with you.
No, your eyes do not deceive you. That really is a VHS-copy of He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special (1985). More specifically, it's a bootleg and it's one of my absolute favorite videos in my collection. It was originally acquired by a friend of mine at a collectors' show circa 1998, but with a little persuasion, it ended up in my possession a few years back. The fact that I owned a functioning VCR and he didn't probably worked in my favor. I may also have begged a little, drooling like one of Pavlov's puppies, at the sight of that gorgeous, yellow plastic-shell.
I have no shame.
Now, before we get to the main event, just a friendly reminder that these pics were taken with a cellphone camera from a bootleg VHS that's well over a decade old. You just sit back, relax and embrace the low-fi wonders you're about to see.
