Tag: Memorable Monday

Memorable Monday Morning Movie Review: A Very Portly Christmas: A Christmas Carol (1951)

The Portly Politico4 Comments

Back in 2022 a couple of my regular contributors and I each took turns reviewing the 1951 film adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (for links to all three reviews, click here).  The film has since became almost annual viewing for yours portly, a tradition I hope to continue with Dr. Wife.

With all the busyness of the wedding and last week’s school play (as well as this week’s school concert), I decided to take this morning to look back at my review from three years ago.

The film is a poignant reminder to keep the joy of Christmas alive in our hearts, something that is often difficult as the trials of adulthood responsibility exact their toll.  But Christmas is the time of year to celebrate the Birth of Jesus, and to recapture—to the extent possible—the simple magic of childhood.

With that, here is 19 December 2022’s “Monday Morning Movie Review: A Very Portly Christmas: A Christmas Carol (1951)“:

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Memorable Monday: Happy Labor Day [2025]!; New Releases!

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Pick up my newest releases, Electrock III: Euroclydon and Säx, for 50% with promo code storm (promo code is good for any release and works through 1 October 2025).

Another glorious Labor Day has dawned here in the United States.  I hate the Communists, but God Bless those red diaper babies for getting us a random day off in September.

This Labor Day is particularly auspicious:  I’m releasing two albums today, Electrock III: Euroclydon and Säx.  I was hoping to release a third, Ringtone Circus, but my distributor, CD Baby, took issue with the use of the word “Ringtone” in the title.  Apparently, that set off some kind of filter against what they call “pre-cut ringtones,” which they do not and will not distribute.

I pointed out that I was using the name euphemistically, and that the pieces are not ringtones, but, alas, I had to change the title of the album and its related track.  So now I’ll be releasing the album as Triple Deluxe on Monday, 15 September 2025.

I’m also working on Spooky Season IV, which still has a long way to go before it’s ready for distribution and release.  It will likely be my last full-length release for the year, with Leftovers V landing the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Otherwise, I’m not sure what today has in store for yours portly.  I do know that the first couple of weeks of school have already kicked my butt (but they’ve been awesome), so I’m hoping to catch up on some rest today.  Dr. Fiancée has to work, sadly, but such is residency.

With that, here is 2 September 2024’s “Memorable Monday: Happy Labor Day [2024]!“:

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Memorable Monday Morning Movie Review: A Very Portly Christmas: A Christmas Carol (1951)

The Portly Politico2 Comments

Yours portly has had another busy weekend, one full of Christmas cheer.  It was very nice to spend time with family and Dr. Girlfriend.  Naturally, the blog and the Advent Calendar have fallen by the wayside a bit, but I’ll be getting caught up with both.  It’s Exam Week this week, so I have the most free time I’ve had since summer break, so my hope is to work ahead on the blog enough that I don’t need to touch it much until 2025.

Last night Dr. Girlfriend I started watching the 1984 film adaptation of A Christmas Carol starring George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge.  We didn’t get to finish, but it’s remarkable to me how well done this version is.  It brought to mind the 1951 version, which is an exquisite adaptation in its own right; indeed, it might be the definitive version.

So it is that I thought I’d cast a glance back to my own review of that version from 19 December 2022.

With that, here is “Monday Morning Movie Review: A Very Portly Christmas: A Christmas Carol (1951)“:

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Memorable Monday^2: Veterans’ Day 2018, Commemoration of the Great War, and Poppies

The Portly Politico12 Comments

After the ultra-patriotism of last week, it seems only fitting to take a day to honor those who were the ultra-ultra-patriots:  the men who fought and sometimes died for their country.

I don’t have much to add here that hasn’t already been said, but I am thankful for those who gave their service and even their lives so that we might be free.  Nothing is more quintessentially American.

With that, here is “Memorable Monday: Veterans’ Day 2018, Commemoration of the Great War, and Poppies“:

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Memorable Monday: Happy Labor Day [2024]!

The Portly Politico6 Comments

Ah, yes, another glorious Labor Day—the last gasp of summer.  Sure, we technically have another few weeks of the calendrical summer, but Labor Day marks the end of the cultural summer.  Schools all over the country are back in session—or will be tomorrow.  And there are few days off from here until Christmas.

At the time of writing, I’m not exactly sure what I’ll be doing this Labor Day, but I imagine there’ll be a lot of lounging around and maybe playing some video games.  Whatever the case, I’m thankful all those unions made a fuss and got us a day off in September.

With that, here is 4 September 2023’s “Memorable Monday: Happy Labor Day [2023]!“:

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Memorable Monday III: Monday Steakhouse Blues

The Portly Politico5 Comments

Well, it seems that my resolve yesterday to get back to our regular schedule waivered, before breaking down completely.  Yours portly has been exceptionally busy lately—March and April are always difficult, but this February was also quite brutal—and what little creative energy I have has been laser-focused on composing.

I also haven’t really watched any flicks worth reviewing.  To be clear, I have reviewed plenty of bad movies.  Lately, though, nothing has leapt out at me as worth hammering out 600-1000 words.  Maybe Ponty will finally write that rebuttal to my award-winning, trenchant, insightful, powerful, persuasive review of Donnie Darko (1999).

So I thought I’d cast back to an old post about eating a steak alone on a Monday night while using my cellphone to write a blog post.  I wrote the post on the eve of the annual South Carolina Independent School Association (SCISA) Music Festival, which is one of the marquee events of our music program.  It’s a huge and chaotic undertaking, but super fun, and I love seeing my students get ready to perform.

I’m pretty on-the-ball this year, but that on-the-ballitude accounts, in part, for my poor posting—I’ve been working ahead on school and Music Festival stuff.

There probably won’t be any steak tonight, but there might be Thursday after I get back from the Festival.

Regardless, here’s 9 March 2020’s “Memorable Monday II: Monday Steakhouse Blues“:

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Memorable Monday: MLK Day 202[4]

The Portly Politico1 Comment

I’m on my way back from a much-needed trip to the mountains, and I’m phoning this one in, folks.  It’s MLK Day here in the United States, which is like getting a bonus day of Christmas Break right after being off for however long it is.  It honestly feels a bit frivolous so soon after Christmas and New Year’s, but I’m sure it’s what the Reverend Doctor would have wanted.  He was, after all, a notorious libertine.

What would MLK have become had he lived?  My suspicion—a sad, jaded one—is that he would have gone the way of race hustlers since.  I do not think he was a race hustler, but I think he was starting to trend in that direction with his view on poverty, and for a man who clearly took advantage of his power to engage in some truly heinous sexual escapades, it’s not a big leap to assume he’d go full on Creflo Dollar eventually—or, more likely, full on Al Sharpton.  Yikes!

Regardless, his “dream” of a nation based on judgment of character and not skin color has not exactly come to fruition.  I mean, it did for about thirty years.  Ever heard of Lando Calrissian?  It seems like we had a good run from roughly 1980 until about 2010.  Now we’ve gone from trying to treat everyone as equals to privileging certain races over others.  Isn’t that what all those 1960s radicals fought so hard against?  Yet they’re the very ones celebrating the new apartheid.

Well, whatever.  I’m just a honkey enjoying a weekend in the mountains.

With that, here is January 2020’s “MLK Day 2020“:

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Memorable Monday: Christmas and its Symbols

The Portly Politico4 Comments

Merry Christmas, everyone!  I’ve been in the Christmas spirit far more this year than in recent years, likely due to a number of factors.  I will note that the bout of cold weather we’ve in South Carolina this December has really helped—it actually feels like Christmas.  We’ve had plenty of Christmas seasons that are hot, humid, rainy, etc., and they really dampen the sense of the season, both literally and figuratively.

It being Christmas, I’m not writing my usual movie review today, but am offering up a reblog of a post from Christmas Day 2019.  With that, here is “Christmas and its Symbols“:

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

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With Christmas Break looms large, I’m taking it a bit easier with the old blog.  I’ve seen some great—and not-so-great—movies lately, but they can wait a few weeks for 2024.

Instead, I thought I’d take a look back at a timeless Christmas classic of yesteryear, a film I reviewed along with Audre Myers and Ponty during the 2022 Christmas season.

That film, of course, is 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life.  It’s a film that is somehow more than a mere movie.  It’s a flick that can be judged and appreciated as a movie, of course, but it’s also one that transcends the medium, and is part of the whole Zeitgeist of Christmas.  It’s hard to separate it from the very notion of “Christmas.”

With that, here’s my review from last year:

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