It's a Christ-Mess Miracle

Well, it's not quite a miracle. But after a nearly two week absence, I've returned to quickly wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Things didn't pan out here on the blog the way that I had originally intended, but that seems to be the consensus for a lot of us these last couple weeks, right?

TBS just started their A Christmas Story (1983) marathon, so I've already caught Flick getting triple dog-dared to stick his tongue to a frozen flagpole. There's tupperware full of sugar cookies sitting unattended on the counter that I'm ready to raid. And my sisters will be home shortly so we can start our yearly tradition of swapping sibling presents the night before the big day. It really is beginning to look a lot of Christmas.

I want to thank each and every one of you for spending time with me here this holiday season. I only wish I could have shared more, posted more about all the treasure and trash that's come my way this month, but there will be plenty of time for that heading into the New Year. Lots of goodies to post about, tales to weave and the long-awaited return of my monthly Free Giveaways.

For now!

For now, I wish you all the very best of holidays. I hope that everyone gets to spend this wonderful time with their loved ones and that Santa brings you that Cobra Terror Drome you've been asking for since 1986. You really deserve it for being such a good doobie this year.

Have Yourself a Merry Jason X-Mas

I can't believe that Friday the 13th fell so close to this Christmas holiday and I didn't think to plan something special to celebrate the occasion. I could have made gingerbread Jasons or sat down with a glass of eggnog and watched Part VII: The New Blood.

What a waste..!

Be Kind, Please Rewind: 'Tis the Season

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.