How Did I Miss THIS?!?!?!

The official music video for the David Crowder Band's Foreverandever etc...! It's Jack-tastic!

The 5 Greatest Christmas Movies Evar

For your holiday enjoyment, the GreatMoose has compiled a list of the 5 best Christmas movies to watch this season. I have selected them in no particular order, so feel free to enjoy at will.

1) Scrooged--Bill Murray, Karen Allen, Carol Kane, Bobcat Goldthwait. The best telling of the Scrooge story, hands down. Some great quotes here:

[Props man tries to attach antlers to a mouse]
Props man: I can't get the antlers glued to this little guy. We tried Crazy Glue, but it don't work.
Frank Cross: Did you try staples?

Frank Cross: The b!*#% hit me with a toaster!

Frank Cross: You've got a program featuring America's favorite old fart. Reading a book in front of a fireplace. Now, I have to kill all of you!

Frank Cross: You're staying here with me. We're working late.
Grace: I have to take my son to the doctor.
Frank Cross: GRACE! When I work late, YOU work late!
Grace: But I made the appointment two months ago!
Frank Cross: [sarcastically] I CARE!
[grabbing Grace]
Frank Cross: We're indivisible. If I'm workin' late, you GOTTA work late! If you can't work late, I can't work late! If I can't work late, I CAN'T WORK LATE!!!

2) A Christmas Story--Another classic, about a boy's mania in getting that most revered of all presents: an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle, with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time.

Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] My little brother had not eaten voluntarily in over three years.

Mr. Parker: Where's the glue?
Mother: We're out of glue.
Mr. Parker: You used up all the glue ON PURPOSE!

Narrator: Aunt Clara had for years labored under the delusion that I was not only perpetually 4 years old, but also a girl.

Mr. Parker: It's a Major Award!
Swede: Shucks I wouldn't know that. It looks like a lamp.
Mr. Parker: What is a lamp, you nincompoop? Tt's a Major Award. I won it!
Swede: Damn, hell, you say won it?
Mr. Parker: Yeah, mind power, Swede; mind power.

Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] In the heat of battle my father wove a tapestry of obscenities that as far as we know is still hanging in space over Lake Michigan.

The Old Man: Sons of bitches! Bumpuses!

3)Christmas Vacation--This one is SO good, MissSpeech and I watch it year 'round. Chevy Chase has never been funnier. Observe:

[Todd and Margo Chester, the Griswold's yuppie neighbors, appear]
Todd: Hey Griswold. Where do you think you're gonna put a tree that big?
Clark: Bend over and I'll show you.
Todd: You've got a lot of nerve talking to me like that Griswold.
Clark: I wasn't talking to you (indicates Margo).

Clark: Hey, if any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one: I'd like Frank Shirley, my boss, right here tonight. I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people and I want him brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head. And I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey sh!t he is! Hallelujah, holy sh!t! Where's the Tylenol?

Ruby Sue: Rocky bit my thumb. Him's nervous.
Clark: Nervous or excited?
Ruby Sue: Sh!ttin' bricks.
Clark: You shouldn't use that word.
Ruby Sue: Sorry. Sh!ttin' rocks

Todd: Well, SOMETHING had to come through the window! SOMETHING had to break the stereo!
Margo: And why is the carpet all wet, TODD?
Todd: I don't KNOW, Margo!

4 and 5) Die Hard, and Die Hard 2--The entire plot of Die Hard and Die Hard 2 revolves around John McClane being forced to eliminate terrorists because no one else can do the job. And it just so happens that these events fall on Christmas, which John points out in Die Hard 2 saying grudgingly that Christmas is ruined yet again. The idea is, if he can stop these bad guys, he can go on to have his Christmas the way it's supposed to be, hence the ending of Die Hard 2.

So John is thinking, "It's Christmas. My wife is being held hostage. I want to have a relaxing time at Christmas with my wife. I can't do that until I kill these terrorists."

And there you go.

John McClane: You throw quite a party. I didn't realize they celebrated Christmas in Japan.
Joseph Takagi: Hey, we're flexible. Pearl Harbor didn't work out so we got you with tape decks.

[stealing the dead terrorist's shoes]
John McClane: Nine million terrorists in the world and I gotta kill one with feet smaller than my sister.

Holly Gennero McClane: After all your posturing, all your speeches, you're nothing but a common thief.
Hans Gruber: I am an exceptional thief, Mrs. McClane. And since I'm moving up to kidnapping, you should be more polite.

Al Powell: What's this about?
John McClane: Oh, just a feeling I have.
Al Powell: Ouch. When you get those feelings, insurance companies start to go bankrupt.

John McClane: Just once, I'd like a regular, normal Christmas. A little eggnog... a *&%$#' Christmas tree... a little turkey. But, no. I gotta crawl around in this *&$#&*@^$' tin can.

So, enjoy your Christmas with some classic holiday films!

For Shelly

In celebration of my wife's birthday, I wanted to dedicate my latest AMV to her. The song is one we heard on a episode of ER, and we both kinda liked it (Breakfast at Tiffany's reference!). Anyway, the song was the incomparable Open Your Eyes by Snow Patrol. I've been a Snow Patrol fan ever since. Like most SP songs, it's a great love song (if a little sad).

The anime chosen for this video is the stunningly beautiful The Place Promised In Our Early Days. The visuals are breathtaking, and really should be seen on a full-size TV or monitor to be fully appreciated. The story is a love story, about a guy and girl that meet in middle school, and start to form a relationship. From the wiki:

The anime follows the story of three friends living in Aomori on the northern end of southern Japan: two boys, Hiroki Fujisawa and Takuya Shirakawa, both child prodigies; and one girl, Sayuri Sawatari. In 1996, the three are in eighth grade, their last year of middle school, and they are fascinated by the Hokkaido Tower visible across the Tsugaru Strait to the north.

On the last day before spring break, one of Sayuri's friends, Kana Matsuura, confesses to Takuya that she has romantic feelings for him, but he does not return her feelings. Takuya tells Hiroki that he should date Kana instead, but Hiroki declines, as he is actually romantically interested in Sayuri. Hiroki stays after school for archery practice while Sayuri stays after school for violin practice; they ride the train home together and get to know each other, and Sayuri becomes close friends with the two boys.

The two boys have found a crashed Maritime Self-Defense Force drone plane. Naming it the Bella Ciela, they work on rebuilding the plane, scrounging parts from their workplace, the Emishi Manufacturing factory, with the help of their boss, Mr. Okabe. The three teenagers promise to one day fly to Hokkaido to visit the Tower. However, before they can do this, Sayuri mysteriously disappears during the summer.

Three years later, Takuya and Hiroki have stopped working on the plane, having taken different paths after the grief they suffered at Sayuri's disappearance. Sayuri is revealed to have been hospitalized over the past three years, having developed an extreme form of narcolepsy; she has been sleeping continuously for most of the three years. Her mind is trapped in an unpopulated parallel universe, where she is all alone.

Hiroki has moved to Tokyo where he attends high school. He is haunted by frequent dreams of Sayuri and suffers from depression, leading a miserable and lonely existence. A letter written by Sayuri before she became completely comatose eventually reaches him and he reads it in March 2000, giving him a lead to go looking for her. Though in separate universes, the two manage to make brief, temporary contact, and Hiroki realises that the only way to wake Sayuri is to fly her body over the Tower, to take her to the "promised land of our childhood".

It's a heartbreaking and beautiful story. One of the main themes of the film is "dreams", and when Shelly and I first started dating, she gave me Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams, because she knew I loved to read. That meant a lot (I still have the book). Also, I just really wanted to make a video for Shelly, so here it is. Enjoy, and let me know what you think.



Love you, babe!

Happy Birthday, MissSpeech!

Kaiser and I wanted everyone to know that today was, in fact, MissSpeech's Birthday! We also wanted to take the opportunity to thank her for all she does for us, and for the love she shows us everyday. She's a wonderful wife and mommy. Happy birthday, Sheh!

A and K

PS: Gifts and donations in all denominations are being accepted throughout the month of December. Give early, give often!

Now Is The Time To Become Excited

I originally viewed the news that there was to be a new Indiana Jones movie with, shall we say, mild trepidation. Ford's a bit long in the tooth, Nazis are passe (say the movie execs, at least), and Shia Of-The-Beef is in it. Eh. Well, I am happy to say that the GreatMoose is now officailly pumped for this film. And here's why:

BEHOLD THE POSTER!!!



Oh, and the juicy tidbit that this film and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind will be related! Bravo, says I!