Tag: Pontiac Dream 39

Ponty’s Pen: Road Trips in the USA

The Portly Politico20 Comments

Every now and then we get something for Christmas that really sparks our imaginations, allowing them to run—or, in this case, drive—wildly to other lands.  For a young Portly, it was receiving a copy of Sid Meier’s Civilization II from my aunt one Christmas.  That game opened up vast new worlds and incredible historical “what-ifs,” and was partially responsible for my decision to study and teach history for a living.

For Ponty, it’s an annual copy of Fodor’s Best Road Trips in the USA.

Travel guides have always been one of my favorite genres, too.  Sure, travelogues are more engaging and adventurous, but travel guides let us learn about places without a great deal of authorial embellishment.  We get the basics about an area, and then can put ourselves immediately into those places, imagining visiting the great sites and destinations—or the backwater burgs and forgotten byways—of the world.

Ponty captures that spirit of adventure and fun in this touching, personal, and engaging little piece about his imaginary—and, let us hope, someday real!—travels around the United States.

With that, here’s Ponty with some reflections on Christmas and road trips:

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Monday Morning Movie Review: Ponty’s Top Ten Best Films: #5: Rear Window (1954)

The Portly Politico8 Comments

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly two months since Ponty’s #6 pick in our countdown of the Top Ten Best Films.  A combination of Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday, and Ponty struggling through a gnarly sinus infection pushed back our foray into the halfway mark of his reviews until now.  We also went into reviews of two classic Christmas films across three different authors, but now we’re back!

I grew up in a house full of Alfred Hitchcock.  My mom has always been a big fan of the portly director, and issues of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine still clutter bookshelves and spare crannies all over my parents’ Queen Anne-style home (built in 1901!).

It’s a tad remarkable, then, that I have not (yet) considered any of the director’s films in my own list.  That is a massive oversight on my part.  Thanks for Ponty for expanding beyond my 1980s myopia with a classic Hitchcock gem.

As always, he delivers.  Just reading his review reminds me of how intense this thriller is—and makes me eager to watch it again.

With that, here is Ponty’s review of 1954’s Rear Window:

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Lazy Sunday CLXXVII: Review of A Christmas Carol (1951)

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“You there!  Yes, you, boy, reading this post in your underwear before a long day of festivities.  What day is it?”

“Why, it’s Christmas Day, sir!”

“Here—take this blog post and go buy the biggest goose in town.”

“But it doesn’t work like th—”

“Never mind—-it’s Christmas!”

And—scene.

Yes, it’s Christmas, probably the one day a year no one is reading any blog posts.  But The Portly Politico marches on, Christmas or no.

To celebrate, I thought I’d look back at the three recent reviews from Ponty, Audre Myers, and myself about A Christmas Carol (1951).  They’re pretty good:

Well, time to get dressed—it’s Christmas Day!

Merry Christmas!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

A Very Portly Christmas: Ponty’s Review: It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

The Portly Politico12 Comments

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) is one of those films that holds a special place in the hearts of millions, myself among them.  I’ll never forget watching it one Christmas night on the floor of my paternal grandfather’s den, he in his recliner, my cousins and myself on our bellies.  Implausibly, I was allowed to stay and watch it while my parents took my brothers home (we lived probably twenty or thirty minutes away at the time, and my mom loathed the inefficiency of multiple trips anywhere—a thrifty trait I have inherited), and my dad came and picked me up afterwards.  I was happy and utterly exhausted, but I’ll never forget that good old mom made me take a bath anyway, even though I could barely keep my eyes open.

Ask anyone who has seen this film, especially in childhood, and they’ll have a similar story.  Ponty relates his own tale in this wonderful review, and it’s something that contributes to the timeless and heartwarming quality of the flick.  It’s a Wonderful Life is not just a movie, but an experience, something shared across generations, and indelibly linked, for as long as film as a medium exists, to Christmas and family and love.

With that, here is Ponty’s review of 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life:

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Lazy Sunday CLXXVI: 2022’s Top Three

The Portly Politico4 Comments

It’s still two weeks to New Year’s Day, and while there’s plenty of time for some wayward posts to take off—or some new ones to exceed the three listed here—it’s the last Sunday of the year that isn’t Christmas.  As such, I decided to do the best (in terms of views) posts of 2022 today.

Before getting on to the posts, let me point out that they’re all quite different—and one of them is from our own Ponty/Always a Kid for Today—and the #1 most viewed post of the past year remains a mystery to me.  It’s a good post—I write in earnest humility—but for some reason it will randomly get dozens of views in a day sometimes.

I’m not complaining—I think it’s great!—but the mystery intrigues me.

Well, enough of that!  Here are 2022’s Top Three Posts:

  1. “Driving the Georgia Backroads” (384 views) – I actually wrote this post in 2021, so I suppose it’s technically ineligible for this list… but I’ve already written the lengthy preamble about it and I’d rather not mess around with changing it (remember—it’s Lazy Sunday).  Regardless, it’s about driving the backroads to Athens, Georgia, and all the quaint little communities along the way.
  2. “Monday Morning Movie Review, Guest Contributor Edition: The Purge (2013)” (176 views) – Once Ponty started writing movie reviews for the blog, his shameless whoring of the posts over at The Conservative Woman really brought in the traffic.  He’s also a great writer and reviewer, so that probably has something to do with it, too.
  3. “Alone” (157 views) – True to human nature, we all love tales of woe and misery.  “Alone” was my magnum opus to heartbreak (actually, my magnum opus to heartbreak is my solo EP, Contest Winner EP).  I was at a low point, one from which I clawed myself, but I’m a bit back at square one.  Oops!

Happy Sunday—and Merry Christmas!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

A Very Portly Christmas: Ponty’s Review: A Christmas Carol (1951)

The Portly Politico22 Comments

Good old Ponty made a proposal (not an indecent one involving Tina and a million dollars, fortunately) that he, Audre Myers, and myself write reviews of two classic Christmas films, the 1951 adaption of A Christmas Carol and the 1946 classic It’s a Wonderful Life.  I’m dubbing this series A Very Portly Christmas.  Cue the French horns and the sweater vests.

While I imagine we’ll all have quite positive things to say about these time-honored Christmas classics, our hope is that we’ll each see and take something different from the films, and our shades of perspective will reveal to readers previously unseen hues and details.

Or we’ll end up with three remarkably similar reviews and it will make for dull, repetitive reading.  Such are the risks of blogging, eh?  But knowing these two characters, I doubt that will be the case.  All I know is I’ve got to get crackin’ on my homework—It’s a Wonderful Life is over two hours long!

But I digress.  Ponty is kicking us off this Christmas season, and, boy, what a great way to start!  I think you’ll find his review as insightful and engaging as I did.

With that, here is Ponty’s review of 1951’s A Christmas Carol:

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Ponty Pans: Halloween Kills (2021)

The Portly Politico50 Comments

Halloween might be over—noooooooo!—but the Halloween film franchise will never die—or End, as the latest installment claims.  If you’re like Ponty and myself, you try to watch at least the 1978 John Carpenter classic at least once a year, preferably on Halloween.

Unlike Ponty, I haven’t seen the plethora of sequels, besides—of course—Halloween II (1981) and the unusual Halloween III: Season of the Witch.  I’ve also seen the “soft reboots” since 2018, thought I haven’t seen Halloween Ends (2022) yet.

As Ponty points, I, like many others, will.  I’ll also see Halloween Ends Again or whatever comes out next.  Heck, I’ll probably see Halloween Ends Again III: Season of the Witch: The Musical, with an original score by Andrew Lloyd Webber, including that annoying Silver Shamrock jingle.  These franchises know how to hook in suckers like yours portly, who will never hesitate to drop a $1.25 RedBox coupon to sample some tasty trash.

But I digress.  Ponty asked to take a stab—no pun intended—at reviewing 2021’s Halloween Kills, a film I reviewed last November.  Ponty assiduously avoided my review, so it’s interesting (though not entirely surprising) that we walked away with some similar reflections on the film.  “Evil dies tonight!”—ugh.  How could anyone miss that braying mantra?

Regardless, Ponty’s review goes far deeper than my own, delivered with his own brand of acerbic and longsuffering wit.

On a lighter note, he also includes some pictures from his and Tina’s Halloween festivities.  Well done on the decorations, Tina!

With that, here is Ponty’s review of 2021’s Halloween Kills:

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Monday Morning Movie Review: Ponty’s Top Ten Best Films: #6: Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

The Portly Politico22 Comments

Ponty’s list of flicks has been full of pleasant surprises, and his #6 pick is no exception.  I wasn’t expecting a dark comedy from 1944—a “farce,” as Ponty calls it.

Like his review—surprisingly succinct coming from our loquacious Ponty—I don’t have much to add.  Let’s just say I’ve always wanted to see this film, and thanks to Ponty, I can finally do that—he includes a link to the full flick on YouTube.  You can, too, and I encourage you to do so.

It also gets bonus points in my book because Boris Karloff was in the stage version, and would have been in the film if the producers hadn’t been worried about stripping the stage production of its entire leading cast.  Sorry, Boris—you deserved better!

With that, here is Ponty’s review of 1944’s Arsenic and Old Lace:

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Monday Morning Movie Review: Ponty’s Top Ten Best Films: #7: La La Land (2016)

The Portly Politico14 Comments

If readers thought my placement of 1983’s sci-fi/fantasy/swashbuckler Krull at #7 was shocking, this week’s #7 pick from Ponty will truly blow your staggered minds.  From the man who just wrote about Halloween (1978), I’d never expect a splashy musical.

I remember seeing this flick back in 2016 on a date, and remember enjoying it (not just due to the excellent execution and story, but probably thanks to Emma Stone—shew!).  Suddenly, my students wanted to play “City of Stars” all the time, and jazz piano enjoyed an all-too-brief resurgence.

Ponty gives it a very thorough review, as you’ll see, that really brings out some of the sparkling details of the film without spoiling anything.  It probably also holds the distinction of being the only review of a film musical to reference Grand Theft Auto 5, so that should be worth something.

With that, here is Ponty’s review of 2016’s La La Land:

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Lazy Sunday CLXVIII: Video Games II: Ponty’s Picks

The Portly Politico4 Comments

Ponty is a regular fixture here at The Portly Politico, and readers most likely know him from his extensive film reviews.  But when he’s not watching movies, he’s playing video games, often with his lovely girlfriend, Tina.

The good fellow has written three killer video game reviews of late, two with distinctly spooky themes, so why not give the old boy another edition of Lazy Sunday?

Apologies for those brief descriptions—my rotten dog has been hounding me (no pun intended) all morning, and is currently scratching vigorously at the door.  These games are quite good, and Ponty gives them the love and affection they deserve.

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments: