I'm ready for my close up!

Lately I've been obsessed with making videos. Now granted, part of it has been fueled by the desire to document every waking moment of my new daughter's life. But I can't help but think back to what an astrologer told me many years ago when I was having my chart done. He told me that my chart showed that I was destined to be a "social documentarian" and wanted to know if I worked in a field where I was producing video. I shrugged at the time and thought he had sniffed one too many sticks of patchouli incense. Now, I'm beginning to think maybe he was on to something.

Okay, Steven Spielberg I'm not, but I am discovering that video can be a creatively satisfying way to express yourself. And the digital age we live in makes it relatively simple to shoot and edit video. Heck most of our cell phones now have video capability. Plus the video editing software available now makes it incredibly easy to produce a decent short feature out of even the rawest footage.

Unfortunately, I am discovering video now that it is vulgarly popular (need I say, "You Tube). I stumbled onto blogging in the same way and was quite smug about it until I learned I was unique along with about 14 million other people. So my video masterpieces will likely languish along with my blogging masterpieces. But I'm not in this for the fame. I'm in this for the money.

Ha, ha, ha, ha...

Cut!

Spirits of the season

I suppose we have Charles Dickens to thank for making Christmas seem to have more ghosts than Halloween. The story of Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghosts of Christmas past present and future permeate our culture. I can't even count how many times the story has been made into Hollywood or made for television movie. The latest iteration I saw was on the series Las Vegas (one of the most inane programs on television that I watch religiously). It was so bad I imagine Dickens himself was going to come back as the ghost of Christmas past and beat the screenwriter to death with a candy cane.

Regardless, I have always liked A Christmas Carol. It reeks of hope and redemption for the terminally jaded. Scrooge makes a remarkable transformation from a miserly hater of mankind to a kindhearted philanthropist. In reality this kind of shift in behaviour would lead to a diagnosis of bi-polar disease and a whole regimen of mood controlling medications. But you have to love the sentiment.

I guess I actually loved the story because of Tiny Tim. It was one of the few characters in books I'd found with my name. I was totally bummed when that Tiptoe Through the Tulips, ukeleli playing freak came on the scene on Laugh In in the 1960s and tarnished the memory of Tiny Tim.

But I digress.

Anyway, I love the story. I never get tired of Scrooge making that transformation and saving his soul. Sure it is a socialistic political allegory condeming capitalism, but it also is a swell Christmas story (and screw the politically correct reference to "the holidays").

I leave you with the immortal words of my namesake this Christmas season, "God Bless us everyone." Or "Higher Power Bless us everyone."

Elvis Tree (the video)

For several years now, it has been a tradition at our house to put up two trees, a normal one and my Elvis tree. This year I was able to introduce my daughter to the tradition and she loved it. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen...

THE ELVIS TREE!

Bah Humbug

http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=1189605262