Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Kissmas













Santa and his Ninjas. Crazy.



Christmas.

It's the time of year for reconciliation and hope. A time when family and friends get the chance to put their differences aside and gather around the manger for quiet reflection. Sure it's commercial, rushed and tends to be a bit stressful but dang it, it's worth it.

As we sit around the Christmas tree sipping eggnog with Christmas carols playing in the background and laughing together at this or that, suddenly, quietly there comes a disquieting sense that you're merely acting out something you saw in a film. In fact, it's 35 degrees and everyone has jumpers on. As you step out of your chair, eggnog smashing in slow motion to the floor you realize there's a blazing fire and the heat has sent you stark raving mad. You rip off the santa hat and the jumper, exposing your black t-shirt. Pointing to everyone who have now frozen in toothy smiles with looks of confusion you scream out the command to turn the shiny poisonous music off.

You sink to your knees, fists at your ears, eyes squeezed tightly shut....

Christmas.


Look I don't hate Christmas... it's just that Christmas and me don't speak so much anymore. We both decided it was better for all involved, you know (conspiratorial whisper)
the kids.

Actually I do hate Christmas, but if I opened this entry with "My giddy aunt I hate Christmas..." most people may very well go "Well
there's a surprise..." and go and spend their time on a less dysfunctional activity.

But let me explain.

The whole thing tears me up because I can't make up my mind. I wouldn't want to call for an end to Christmas, not that anyone's asking me to make that decision for them. Cut to:

(It's a darkened room, like those war rooms you see in Armageddon and million other stupid films full of men in uniform)
General (sweat drips from his forehead): It's time to call it Mr. Limb
The camera pans taking in anxious faces.
Limb: (Head down teeth clenched, he suddenly looks up): Burn him, burn the fat man.... end Christmas.
General: We have it men, GO GO GO!
It's pandemonium in the room as men run through the room with guns - a massive computer display featuring a flashing Santa with a cross through him with the title:

MISSION: Burn Fat Boy, Burn.

Anyway I digress. Not that anyone's about to ban Christmas. If people decided to ban Christmas I'd worry about a future event involving empty streets with newspaper and tumble weeds wandering listlessly about with gray houses filled with miserable children staring at an empty corner. I'm not ready to call it quits, but nor do I want the ordeal. You see I'm jammed.

The arguments for it aren't compelling.

1.It's a time for family to get together.
Let's face it, if that's the only time the family gets together then maybe it isn't worth the trouble, I mean they're not busting their guts to get together at any other point in the year. Should these people really be in the same room together with a surplus of food and alcohol.

2.Gift giving.
Love presents - but I don't like presents given under compunction. They end up being shit. You know I like the way Patrick thinks about things. He's a fan of coming across something and thinking "Such and such would like this..." Versus scrambling about a few weeks or even days before the event grabbing anything that looks substantial in wrapping paper. A possible solution is to do something along the lines of Patrick's idea, but hold onto until Christmas. If you are that organized chances are you probably don't enjoy Christmas, it will kill you or alternatively it all becomes such a competition for you that you should not be allowed to participate on the grounds that you are in danger of turning the whole thing into a Jihad.

3. Jesus' Birthday
No, it wasn't.
Here's a little history of Christmas
Here's a little something about the date of Jesus' birth
and here's something else
Yeah but it's an opportunity for people who don't go to church to, you know, go to church. See point number 1.

Having said all that there are some people that just love doing the cards and the presents and all the other cute red and white celebratory stuff and at the end of the day you've just got to let them be, live and let live. Unless of course they start imposing their views on you. Then it's time to burn the fat man.






This image was going to be my title image. But then I thought about it and... well, here it is for your viewing pleasure. I couldn't pull my eyes away there's just so much that's... wrong. Go to the website - many other images, many.

taken from: http://www.dudeirock.com/
worth checking out if you have a moment or two...

Oh, and then I found this. Always loved this guy, but this is really something else.

15 comments:

  1. Its a feastivus for the rest of us Justin, thats what we are celebrating this holiday season at work.

    Bring on the feats of strength!

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  2. have a good break,
    I will be working!!!!
    The land of the travelling suitcase never has a break

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  3. Max... but you get to travel and see the world and do your hair. Slap a tourist on the back of the head and smile at the sweetly for me.

    Sean... serenity now!

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  4. liked it. Well written - very clever - u hv a natural touch - but I've said that b4

    laughed out loud at a couple of points

    thot u said u don't swear when u do comedy tho?

    re: Patrick blog. I liked he 5000 word essay consisting of 5 x pictures - "A picture says 1000 words" right?!

    Christmas - got to comment here. I am a big Christmas person, but u probably would hv guessed that knowing me well. Every reason and any reason is a good reason for Christmas - well that's not entirely true. The commercialism of it I really dislike (see the closing chapter of "More 4 Me" www.more4me.blogpsot.com)

    Was is when Christ was born? I'm not too fussed - the point is that is when we choose to celebrate his birth. I think that is an important distinction.

    Loved the sweating in ur jumper drinking eggnog anecdote.

    Got a question for u in general re: ur blog

    do u right it as a way of recording comedy and writing for ur own exercise and purpose or are u writing it so others will read and (be honest here) think - hey this guy is funny, clever, witty. The last choice is a perfectly viable one in my books, but if it is No. 2 I think u should start writing blogs that u don't hv to scroll down to see the next bit. People will start reading something they know they can finish. They'll spend 1 min reading a page, but 2 secs scrolling down 3 pages - so if u want more people to read it I'd say make them short and sharp.

    That said if ur answer is No. 1 I'd say keep them this length because that format is perfect for part of a comedy routine

    Interested to hear ...???

    BTW - for this blog I read every word

    Lincoln

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  5. i'm all for having christmas,
    i just hate it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yeah... but that's what I said. Beautifully put by the way.

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  7. ha,
    battlestar galatica eh,
    the thing to do here, is get my brother to want it,
    then he will buy,,
    possibly,
    also.





    wait for it i had something..
    oh yes,
    that girl is my eldest sister,
    she's not particularly an angel,
    and i do deserve this sickness.
    that is all.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I know what you mean hey.

    You go to the shop..and want to find presents for everyone but do so as quickly as possible to stop the jazzed up carols residing in your subconscious forever.
    Presents turn out to be crap..

    eg: Got my Grandma an umbrella..
    in Australia..in Summer..
    They were playing Jingle Bells at the time.

    Nevertheless, have a lovely christmas.

    Ps. That family portrait has disturbed me so much.

    ReplyDelete
  9. yes christmas is bittersweet....

    it just seems to drop out of our memory and then...BAM...its there again and we rant and rave about the same old stuff. we think... its ok...its great...it'll be fine IT'S CHRISTMAS. then comes the dull ache of someone driving a spoon into your chest in an effort to extract your heart....every year!

    but at least there's presents, sweet food and SOME great company. the rest (including some family and add-ons) is just bitterly disappointing.

    j

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  10. Sometimes I wonder if I should just leave some things unsaid.

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  11. I've actually been mulling the whole 'Christmas is bad, I hate it' thing over in my head for a while.
    On sunday, two days before Christmas, we learn that my sister is trapped in an airport with almost no money or supplies, and bail her out. Last Christmas, my grandmother (mum's side) died. Christmas before that? Mum went into hospital for emergency surgery on CHRISTMAS EVE.

    Know what? I love christmas. Because that shit is awful no matter when it happens, but when push comes to shove I bought a nice little crystal moo0cow for my mum, a robosapien which looks like Homer Simpson for my dad, got some cool stuff in return and ate lots of food. Commercialism is present no matter what time of year it is - they just add some gold bells to it in december.

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  12. There's got to be an aspect of "it's cool to hate Christmas" here. Kind of like it's cool to hate certain music artists etc.

    C'mon what is so bad about Christmas? At worst be neutral about it. How can Christmas be a generally negative experience (exceptions aside)??

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  13. Christmas is like slowing down to watch the car accident your life has become.

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  14. Gostei muito desse post e seu blog é muito interessante, vou passar por aqui sempre =) Depois dá uma passada lá no meu site, que é sobre o CresceNet, espero que goste. O endereço dele é http://www.provedorcrescenet.com . Um abraço.

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  15. In response to:

    "Christmas is like slowing down to watch the car accident your life has become."

    Gasp! Well if that's how people see their lives, then yes, Christmas would be like that.

    Notice I said how people "see" their lives, as opposed to how their lives are.

    I certainly don't have a rosey past or upbringing. To me it's a matter of perspective as to how we see our lives.

    But if my life truly was a car accident (and believe me - yours certainly isn't either) - then at least each year I'd want to stop and look at it in slow motion to see what was wrong that I could begin to fix.

    I can't help but be reminded of this poem:

    Two men looked out through prison bars.
    One saw mud and one saw stars.

    ReplyDelete