Making Merry

Seems like the appropriate moment to post Ken Brown's immortal pastiche-art masterpiece, Parable of the Pie (1993), right?

Tater and I (plus dogs Molly and Thomas) and a group of hardy hiker friends, the Full Moon Tribe, are heading out to Joshua Tree for an extended camping weekend and a brief blog hiatus, but I do want to extend holiday greetings to all ye faithful.

Yesterday I was on my way back from the Small World bookstore on the beach, having bought a copy of Bird by Bird to give to my postman as a holiday tip (he's working on a novel), and a guy on a bike coming from the other direction, total stranger, called out, "Merry Christmas!"  It was one of those nice surprises, as opposed to the not-nice ones that seem to greet me every morning when I pick up the newspaper, and I said it back instinctively, glad that we were both using the politically incorrect version of such well-wishing.  I've never cottoned to the now-official "Happy Holidays" thing, even though I'm Jewish and would like to recognize Kwanzaa and Ramadan and whatever else you got.  It always sounds too generic Hallmark to me, and after all, the particular holiday that many of us will be celebrating come Tuesday is in fact... you know.

Never been a big fan of all the conspicuous consumption that comes with it (and don't get me started on New Year's, which really bugs me) and the idea that on and around just one day of the year, the bulk of hostile humanity is suddenly forced to be civil to their brethren has always struck me as the height of absurdity. 

Nonetheless!  At this moment, one of the most depressing Christmas seasons I've ever lived through, given the writer's strike, the ongoing wars and famines overseas and the wars at home (rich versus poor and planetery-conscious v. isolationist, et al), I want to raise a glass to one and all, wishing you merry thoughts (as in eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we... whoops! forget that).  Hey, how can you have a glass half empty when someone's pouring egg-nog into it?

Living RomCom will be back next week with the annual Astas for 2007's best in romantic comedy, so please, do let me know what tickled your love-funnybone this year.  I leave you with another pastiche creation by Dave Thomas (click on the jpg so you can read Dave's funny text) of what could've been a holiday movie release in some alt-rom-com universe.  Merry Whatever Everybody, In Spite of Everything Else!  May your Santa be kind and generous.

 

Comments

[s]

Merry Christmas, Billy, and thanks for all your great posts throught out 2007. Have a great camping trip, and all the very best for a wonderful 2008

[Christina]

Have fun camping! Sounds like a nice way to spend...the holidays.

The movie I was most impressed by this year that falls into rom com territory is Once. I enjoyed Dan in Real Life a lot, but would rate Once higher. I was underwhelmed by Knocked Up - don't know why it wasn't a big hit with me. I like what I've read of the Juno script, but haven't seen the movie.

I would like to give Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married a mention - I'm the only person I know who made an effort to actually see it and can tell you it was much better (more cohesive, addressed real issues) than a lot of conventional rom coms, i.e., it was better than the ghastly The Holiday and Failure to Launch from last year!

[jess]

See, in CA, you can go camping in the winter.

Up North, people who go camping in December are called "psychos".

Hope your Santa brings you an abundance of awesome dialogue and perfect plot twists! :)

[Diana Celesky]

Merry Christmas, Billy! Here's hoping you have a fun, uneventful (as in no bears) camping trip. I've enjoyed your posts here this past year, and look forward to reading more from you in 2008.

[chris soth]

God bless us every one.

chris

[E.C. Henry]

Regaurding Ken Brown's "Parable of the Pie," do you realy think if Jesus served pizza to that family or His disciples they would agree on toppings?

Hope you have a great camping trip, Billy. With the Astas coming up, Christmas presents to buy at the mall and all, my salutation of choice remains ol' tride-and-true, "Merry Christmas!"

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

[mernitman]

S, Christina, Jess, Diana, Chris and EC: Thank you and best wishes back at you all!