Denro notes that in England it’s been a holiday tradition in recent decades to get snockered and sing-scream “Merry Xmas Everybody”, by the 70’s British Glam Rock band Slade. You’ll find it in part 8 of this video, the finale to the stellar Christmas 1973 edition of Sir Jimmy Savile’s “Top of the Pops”, posted on YouTube by one of its best members, NYrainbow.
The new “Doctor Who” series features a Christmas episode every year, including one that will premiere Christmas night…
… and a couple of the past installments of Who have included bits of “Merry Xmas Everybody”.
I have several posts in draft form, but they haven’t come together yet. Besides being busy with real-life stuff, I’ve had my mind on things other than this site; although I did update WordPress to the current version, and for the first time I was able to take advantage of the automated update script, so it took all of five seconds, with no ill effects, as far as I’ve noticed. Amazing.
The Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood, is available on Netflix HD streaming. I’ve watched half a dozen installments from the first season, and it looks and sounds great, but so far I’ve been slow to warm up to the series. I’m doing better getting used to Matt Smith as the new Doctor, and Karen Gillan as the new companion, Amy Pond, is definitely a major asset to the series. So, stuck as I am for a blog post, I’ll embed these webisode videos that Bismo pointed out to me.
Season 5 of Doctor Who isn’t available for free on Netflix yet, but Amazon has it. Paying $12.87 to buy — not just rent! — all thirteen episodes is a bargain, but with a $10 credit from a previous purchase, I procured it in HD for only $2.87. A measly 22-cents per episode! And as Bismo has seen, played with the Roku HD-XR on my Panasonic 720p projector, the picture quality is stunning. Who needs Blu-ray? Who doesn’t.
Here’s a 50’s sci-fi/horror movie I’d never heard of, but to my surprise Eric knew what it was in an instant — Night of the Demon. It’s also known as Curse of the Demon, and we caught only the last few minutes of it on Turner Classic Movies, so I’ll be watching it here for the first time. But first… It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is on again. But why does Charlie Brown keep saying, “I got Iraq?”
Halloween’s a week away, and after seeing X the Unknown, to further get in the spooky mood, here are two of the very best 50’s sci-fi/horror movies. You may need to be patient for these videos to buffer up.
Minutes ago, on TCM (Turner Classic Movies), I finished watching a movie that I’ve wanted to see for years and years — X the Unknown. It’s from Hammer, the English studio that’s best known for its Gothic horror movies with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. X the Unknown is a typical “monster appears and must be destroyed” flick, but with an intelligent script and understated performances, it’s way better than the plot would suggest. Here’s the whole movie.
