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Out of the office for two days without reading email, and I only have 350 new messages waiting for me this morning. It's a holiday miracle!

For masochists who don't mind staying up late tonight

From DCist:

The Star Wars Holiday Special

Back in 1977, a little independent film by the name of Star Wars had some modest success. Its creator, George Lucas, wanted to make the sequel bigger and better, but like so many indie artists, didn't want to sell out his vision to a big studio. So he did what any similarly principled underground director would do: he licensed his characters for a holiday variety special of the sort the '70s were exceptional at producing, and went happily to work on his sequel while the nice TV folks made the special. The result is generally considered to be one of the most abominable television programs ever to see the front end of a cathode ray tube, and the most egregious insult to the Star Wars legacy until the production of The Phantom Menace. I was watching when it aired that Christmas in 1978, but for a significant portion of my internet-free childhood, I thought it was just a dream I'd had. What really happened is that Lucas, seeing what he'd unintentionally wrought, managed to ensure that it would never air beyond the one telecast guaranteed in the contract, in an attempt to bury it far away from the conscious minds of an entire generation. But the glorious wretchedness of The Star Wars Holiday Special could not be contained, particularly when legions of doting fanboys spent most of the '80s dubbing 2nd, 3rd, and 10th generation VHS and Beta bootlegs of the broadcast. If you can find a video store with a copy stashed in its shelves, you're lucky, and if you can find a public screening, you're luckier still. Takoma Park's Video Americain is offering just such a rare occurrence tonight at 10:30 p.m. The plot, such as it is, revolves around Chewbacca trying to return to his home planet of Kashyyyk for a "Life Day" celebration (it seems the Wookies scored a resounding victory in their own War on Christmas). Along the way, there is the inevitable pursuit by the evil Galactic Empire, a return to that hipster dive in Mos Eisley where Greedo got iced, some cartoons, and the cast of Star Wars in extremely bad television makeup singing heartwarming Life Day songs. Mark Hamill is wearing so much eyeliner he might as well be in drag. Oh yeah, and there's Bea Arthur dancing with aliens. If your head hasn't exploded yet, you are the target audience for this movie, and you should get a transport to Takoma tonight for a full two hours of this insanity.

View a five-minute condensed version of the special.
Playing at Video Americain in Takoma Park, at 6937 Laurel Avenue tonight at 10:30 p.m. Free.

New Year's

I still don't know what we're doing for New Year's Eve. Catsitting during the day, but no plans yet for the evening. The only thing I know of offhand (and I may be forgetting stuff) is the Crucible party, which could be reasonably entertaining. I'd really like an excuse to dress up. I suppose I could organize a small dinner out, which worked pretty well last year , or have people over for cocktails/champagne. Must ponder this.

[Twitter] Stuff. And things.

• 22:19 I must own this CD: tinyurl.com/2gkfow Lullaby versions of Cure songs!
• 22:25 Correction: I want one of almost every entry in the Rockabye Baby! series. What demented genius turned Tool songs into lullabies?!?
• 22:31 tinyurl.com/29v9xq (the series, as carried by Amazon's MP3 downloads section)

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