Pickup my newest release: Leftovers III! Use promo code ziggurat to take an additional 20% off all purchases on Bandcamp! Code expires at 11:59 PM UTC on Tuesday, 31 December 2024.
Hard to believe that it’s the last day of 2024! Instead of a retrospective, though, I’m looking ahead to a new album, one that I’ll release at some point in 2025.
To celebrate the new year, I’m featuring the first track from that planned album, “Blue Field”:
The Ponty film reviews continue this week, closing out a year of excellent film reviews. We’ve laughed. We’ve cried. We’ve danced.
Today’s review from Ponty features a film that’ll have you doing all three. It’s definitely one of the “modern” classics, even though the flick is nearly forty-years old at this point. It features so many iconic scenes, it makes you wonder why Jennifer Grey ever got that nose job.
With that, here is Ponty’s review of 1987’s Dirty Dancing:
The old year is waning, with just a few hours left. What will 2025 hold? Will yours portly expand to his greatest heights—and girth—yet? Or will I fly too close to the sun on my beautiful hot dog wings?
The future is full of mystery, but the past is a done deal. 2024 was, like any year, one full of ups and downs. As the old year passes away, I’d like to focus on the ups—the “best” posts of 2024.
I put “best” in scare quotes because I am basing that assessment purely on quantitative performance, not the relative qualitative merits of the posts.
The only other criteria are as follows:
That’s it!
2024 was a so-so year for the blog. No posts written/published in 2024 “popped off,” as it were; the highest viewed posts published this calendar year are all under 100 views.
(For the curious, the post with most views—304—was 29 September 2023’s “Phone it in Friday XLIII: Ray Nelson’s ‘Eight O’Clock in the Morning’“; I imagine people searching for the short story are stumbling upon my post.)
So, here are the five Best Posts of 2024 based on views as of 19 December 2024 (the time of writing):
So there you have it! The “best” of the year!
I often do a “worst of” list, but it takes forever, and the whole point of Lazy Sunday is to be, well, lazy. I’ve already put in more effort on this post than most Lazy Sundays. I always hoped that the “worst of” lists would see people clicking through to neglected posts out of morbid curiosity, but that does not seem to be the case.
Of course, if you do like the “worst of” list and look forward to it each year, please leave a comment! I can always churn it out in the New Year.
Speaking of, Happy New Year!
—TPP
Other Lazy Sunday Installments:
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2024 was one helluva year. In some ways, it felt like three years in one, at least for me.
The first half of the year was a joyless grind. The next quarter was a blend of summertime boredom and renewed purpose as the school year dawned. The final quarter has been incredibly exciting and uplifting.
What a difference a few months make! October and especially November felt like major turning points for the world, the United States, and even yours portly individually.
I’ve been thanking God for His many Blessings. I though it would be appropriate, then, to glance back at the year that is nearly expired, and to celebrate what He Has Done.
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Besides the awesome Trump minifig, Dr. Girlfriend also got me the LEGO® Christmas Tree (40573). It is a really fun build, albeit a tad tedious at some points. That tediousness is worthwhile, though, and is necessary: it means the tree has incredible details.
Way back in 2019 I wrote a post entitled “Napoleonic Christmas“; it took off thanks to being featured on a conservative news aggregator that, at the time, was presenting itself as an alternative to The Drudge Report, which inexplicably but notably turned hard to the Left after the 2016 election, in which it played an important role in getting GEOTUS Donaldus Magnus elected.
Napoleon has always fascinated me. Indeed, I wrote an entire tone poem about the enigmatic figure:
I don’t think Napoleon was a good guy, but he was great, in the sense that he was—much like Trump—sui generis, a man unto himself, and a man for the historical moment in which he found himself.
At Christmas, however, the Greatest Man Is a little Baby in a manger. The Son of God Humbled Himself to become like us. No Napoleon or Trump (the latter of which I like very much, and who I believe has God’s Hand of Protection over him) could ever do that—or would.
With that, here is 28 December 2023’s “TBT: Napoleonic Christmas“:
Merry Christmas, everyone, from The Portly Politico!
Here’s wishing everyone a day of Christmas cheer and merriment with family and friends.
While opening those gifts, don’t forget the reason for the season: the Birth of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Christ Is King!
Merry Christmas!
—TPP
Pickup my newest release: Leftovers III! Use promo code ziggurat to take an additional 20% off all purchases on Bandcamp! Code expires at 11:59 PM UTC on Tuesday, 31 December 2024.
I’ve just released my tenth album of the year, Leftovers III. It’s really an EP, as it just contains five tracks, but it also contains the longest piece I’ve ever composed, “Hanging Gardens.”
This week I’m featuring the third track from the album, “Rainy Wednesday Morning Waltz“; it’s looking like tomorrow (Christmas!) is going to be pretty rainy, so it seemed apt:
Good old Ponty is always bailing me out when I need it most. Actually, I now have ample time to loaf about and enjoy the fun of Christmas Break, but that’s precisely the time I don’t want to be dreaming up films to review.
Cue Pontifex Maximus with a chestnut roasting over an open fire. That chestnut is a faith-based film based on a story by Max Lucado that is, apparently, good. Finally, Christians are making some good art!
It sounds like a lovely film, and a good antidote to the endless array of cookie-cutter Hallmark films out there.
With that, here is Ponty’s review of 2013’s The Christmas Candle:
Can you taste it, dear readers? It’s the peppermint-encrusted taste of Christmas! Let’s continue our with the reindeer with this pre-Christmas Lazy Sunday:
Happy Sunday—and Merry Christmas!
—TPP
Other Lazy Sunday Installments:
The Portly Politico 