Phone it in Friday CXV: YouTube Roundup CLXXV: Star Wars Figurines

26 December 202524 December 2025 The Portly Politico3 Comments

I’ve been going through a bunch of my old stuff in preparation for moving items to the new house. In doing so, I’ve come across quite a few Star Wars action figures and collectibles.

I was a huge Star Wars kid. I loved the original trilogy and tolerated the prequel trilogy (indeed, I was super excited for the latter). I particularly loved the miniatures. I’ve sold most of the action figures in the following videos to a colleague of mine—he will take excellent care of them—but I am keeping the miniatures. They are so cool!

So, here are some recent videos featuring these fun figurines:

TBT^4: Napoleonic Christmas

25 December 202523 December 2025 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas! And it’s a Thursday, so yours portly is TBT’ing to a classic of yesterchristmas.

Back in 2019, I wrote this piece about Napoleon. It took off because it gained some traction on WhatFinger News, which came along after Matthew Drudge inexplicably went woke. The name of this alternative news aggregator always strikes me as vaguely inappropriate, but they ran my link and it got tons of views at a time when I was getting discouraged with the blog (a perennial issue, it seems—perseverance is a virtue for a reason).

Napoleon is a complex and intriguing figure. Whatever his personal and professional attributes, he indelibly changed Europe and the world. It’s hard for us to understand today, fixated as we are on the failed Austrian painter with the Charlie Chaplin mustache, but Napoleon’s impact was still being discussed actively in the early twentieth century. He totally upended the gameboard of Europe—for good or for ill—and the fear and/or hope of another Napoleon endured for quite awhile.

YouTube philosopher Agora made a great video linking the two figures—and warning about why those links miss some key differences:

The important thing to remember, however, is that humanity’s conception of “greatness” is false. Remember, Christ Was Born today as a simple baby in the most humble of circumstances—literally bedding down in a feeding trough for barnyard animals. He Died a humiliating Death on the Cross. He Rose from the dead and Conquered Death, and Will Return again!

No Napoleon could ever achieve what He Did.

With that, here is 26 December 2024’s “TBT^2: Napoleonic Christmas“:

Wayback Wednesday: Christmas Eve

24 December 202523 December 2025 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

It’s Christmas Eve! In looking back at past posts from this season, I realized that this year, Dr. Wife and I will be creating more of our traditions. Last night, for example, we watched 1984’s Gremlins while wrapping Christmas presents. I’m not sure if we’ll watch the same flick every year, but wrapping gifts together was fun (there is also a marked difference in quality between the gifts she wrapped and the ones I wrapped; I’ll let you guess who did a better job).

What are some of your favorite Christmas/Christmas Eve traditions, dear readers? Leave a comment below.

With that, here is 24 December 2019’s “Christmas Eve“:

Open Mic Adventures CLX: Church Attempts “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains”

23 December 202523 December 2025 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Way back in January I featured the missionary hymn “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains” as part of “Open Mic Adventures CXV: ‘From Greenland’s Icy Mountains’” as a jingoistic tribute to the then-recent inauguration of President Trump, who had designs on annexing Greenland. Instead of singing the piece—a very old missionary tune by composer Lowell Mason, with words by Reginald Heber—I played it a few times as a bit of instrumental prelude music.

There this obscure piece of music sat until my September, when my pastor had the idea to pull out some lesser-known hymns for our church to sing during our fall revival services. My pastor shares something of my absurdist sense of humor, so when he stumbled upon “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains,” he half-jokingly proposed we sing it one night as our congregational piece. I enthusiastically agreed to play it, and so it became reality.

I took the opportunity to record a little bit of it and upload it to YouTube. Below is the church’s valiant attempt at singing a song that virtually no one in the congregation knew:

Memorable Monday Morning Movie Review: A Very Portly Christmas: It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

22 December 202522 December 2025 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

With Christmas just a few days, I’m continuing to look back to Christmas movie reviews of yesteryear. Today, I’m reflecting on what might be the quintessential Christmas movie, 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of every purchase made through that link, at no additional cost to you).

I have a vivid early memory of watching the movie on Christmas night at my late paternal grandparents’ house, and staying up very late to finish it. My Papa was sitting in his recliner, and my cousins and I were on the floor. It’s wild to consider that a black-and-white film could hold the attention of a roomful of rambunctious younguns, but that speaks to the quality and the magic of this film.

With that, here is 29 December 2022’s “Delayed Monday Morning Movie Review: A Very Portly Christmas: It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)“:

Failure!

21 December 2025 The Portly Politico6 Comments

Last night‘s Christmas gig was a bust. I will have more details next Saturday, but after driving about 415 miles, the client—who booked me to play, smooth, jazzy Christmas music—said it wasn’t what they were looking for. Basically, they wanted some booty shaking butt music.

I had a bad feeling going into the gig, but my desire for a few extra bucks at Christmastime got the better of me.

It is a good reminder, not to get greedy, and to trust your instincts.

GigSalad tins to attract a demographic that does not necessarily understand the concept of contracts. It has been one of my primary beefs with the service.

That said, I will walk away with about half of the guarantee. The gig itself will be a bit of a wash financially. Fortunately, I racked up a lot of miles, which I can at least write off on my taxes.

I am now about to narrate my church’s Christmas cantata. Then it is back up to see Dr. Wife.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

—TPP

SubscribeStar Saturday: Christmas Gigging

20 December 202520 December 2025 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive. To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more. For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

Christmas is a goldmine for musicians, one I have not cashed in on in any meaningful way in years. Christmas parties mean Christmas music, and a subset of those parties opt for live music.

Yours portly has been a longtime user of GigSalad as a free member, which means there are some limitations on my account. From my experience with the service, it’s not worth the considerable price to upgrade to any of their paid versions. However, lately I’ve been doing a bit better with bookings, landing two gigs within a week of each other.

Last Sunday afternoon, for example, I played for a young man’s proposal to his girlfriend (she said yes). That saw me driving up to Wilmington, North Carolina after church. It was an extremely cold and windy afternoon, and I played outside for about thirty minutes. In spite of the weather, it was an honor to be part of such an important moment (and the client seemed pleased!).

Tonight, I’ll be heading down to Summerville, South Carolina, to play a couple of hours for a Christmas party (indoors, thank God!). I loaded up a binder with copies of alto saxophone Christmas music from 8notes.com, an incredible online resource for music education and free sheet music. It’s a two-hour solo engagement, which can be a bit daunting on sax, but it’s totally doable.

To read the rest of this post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.

Phone it in Friday CXIV: YouTube Roundup CLXXIV: Cruise Art

19 December 202517 December 2025 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Dr. Wife and I took a cruise for our honeymoon aboard Royal Caribbean‘s Explorer of the Seas. The artwork impressed, delighted, and even confounded me.

As such, I put together a brief video showcasing some of the art onboard the ship. This video only captures a small fraction of the collages, paintings, photographs, mosaics, etc., aboard Explorer of the Seas. The selections were often odd, but they really fit the atmosphere of the ship, and added a touch of elegance and class to the cruise.

TBT^4: Joy to the World

18 December 202517 December 2025 The Portly Politico2 Comments

At this year’s Christmas Concert, the program accidentally included the lyrics to “Joy to the World.” In the past, my students have played it as a singalong for the audience, but we haven’t done so in a few years. I’m not sure why the lyrics got included in the program, but I briefly contemplated “winging it” and shouting the chords at my students while everyone sang.

I did not give into that temptation. One that I have learned is that other people’s errors do not necessitate me fixing them in haphazard ways (usually). We simply announced there was a mistake in the program and went on from there.

That said, the larger mistake was, indeed, mine—I should have put it in the Christmas Concert! I love “Joy to the World,” and it’s really fun to play and sing. I suppose next year I’ll have to toss it into the mix.

With that, here is 12 December 2024’s “TBT^2: Joy to the World“:

Midweek Midterm Exams Update

17 December 202517 December 2025 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

It is midterm exam week here, which means my schedule is a bit more flexible. My World History students take their midterm exams today (Wednesday, 17 December 2025), which means I’ll be monitoring and grading throughout the day.

With a bit more flexibility this week, I have been going through my belongings to prepare items to sell on Facebook Marketplace and/or eBay, and to find things to donate to neighbors, friends, family, and/or Goodwill. It is wild how much detritus one accumulates in a small house over the course of seven years, especially when it’s someone with latent hoarder tendencies like yours portly.

This morning a colleague purchased these Star Wars action figures from me (as well as a few other Kenner figurines I had sitting around the house):

My father-in-law went on a Facebook Marketplace kick when he and my mother-in-law were downsizing earlier this summer (see also: my U-Haul adventure), and my own mom does a brisk business through it as well, so I’ve been turning stuff I don’t want to move to the new house into moderate treasure. Some items move quickly and/or generate lots of interest; others sit in unsold purgatory, awaiting either redemption into paradise or a bleak end in the donation pile.