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It’s Atari National Pac-Man Day!

Posted in Pac-Man, pop culture with tags anniversary, Atari, Cavalcade Arcade, holiday, Pac-Man, pop culture, video games on April 3, 2013 by Paxton

Today marks the 31st annual Atari National Pac-Man Day.

Atari declared National Pac-Man Day on the day they released the Atari port of Pac-Man back on April 3, 1982.

(Via Sascha Grant)

Pac-Man was a cultural phenomenon in the early 80s. It was merchandised as thoroughly as anything is today. So on this most auspicious holiday think back on the Atari 2600 and the game of Pac-Man. Maybe head on over to an emulator site and play a game. Enjoy one of the first video games to become a global phenomenon.

Check out these other Pac-Man specific articles:

1. On Episode 77 of the Nerd Lunch Podcast we discuss the Atari 2600 and its games (including Pac-Man)
2. First Perfect Game of Pac-Man played back in 1999
3. America’s Love Affair with a man named Pac
4. Check out some Pac-Man photos in my Video Games Flickr set

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6 Vintage holiday newspaper ads for non-holiday movies

Posted in Back to the Future, Christmas, holiday, movies, Star Wars with tags advertising, Back to the Future, Christmas, Held Over, holiday, movies, pop culture, Star Wars on December 24, 2012 by Paxton

Merry Christmas Eve! Tomorrow is Christmas, let’s celebrate by looking at some awesomely vintage Christmas movie advertisements.

I’ve spoken before of my love of the newspaper movie section. One of the coolest things about this long lost section of the ever fading newspaper is that the ads would be spruced up for whatever holiday was current. But most especially for Christmas and New Years.

So, let’s take advantage of the fact that it’s Christmas Day and look at some vintage Christmas newspaper advertisements for movies that aren’t actually Christmas movies.

Showcase Cinemas Holiday Hits (Dec 16, 1983) – Welcome to “Christmastime at the Movies” in 1983. A full page of movie ads for Showcase Cinemas featuring their “Holiday Hits of 1983”. Not one of which is a Christmas movie. And the majority of which aren’t even remotely family movies. Christine? Scarface? Sudden Impact? DC Cab? Ok, well, who doesn’t love DC Cab, especially during the holidays? But Christine and Gorky Park are filled with murder. Sudden Impact? Rape and murder. Scarface? Cocaine and murder. Yentl? Barbara Streisand. Not one of these movies would I take a child or a family member to.

Back to the Future Part II – From Dec 16, 1989, this ad is a particularly fun variation on the second of the famous Back to the Future posters. They’ve added Santa. I don’t know if this modification exists outside of this ad, but I hope and wish that it does.

Star Wars – For the 1977 Christmas season the newspaper ad for Star Wars was modified to include “in character” holiday greetings. I love the sh*t out of this.

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My pitch for a new Rankin-Bass Christmas special

Posted in Christmas, holiday, pop culture, Rankin/Bass, Santa Claus, TV shows with tags Christmas, holiday, pop culture, Rankin-Bass, TV shows on December 19, 2012 by Paxton

Last week I talked about the Rankin-Bass Santa Claus Trilogy and how those specials are probably my favorite of all the Christmas specials. On Tuesday, the Nerd Lunch podcast cobbled together ideas to create our own Christmas special. However, in preparing for that podcast and picking the characters and plot points I sort of created my own pitch/idea for a fourth Rankin-Bass Santa Claus special to act as a semi-sequel to the Santa Claus Trilogy.

So check out that Santa Claus Trilogy article for a refresher on the first three specials and sit back and let me tell you about my proposed fourth Rankin-Bass Santa Claus special.

It’s many years after the events of A Miser Brothers Christmas. The elves are working in Santa’s workshop at the North Pole late in the night. Tinsel, Santa’s head inventor/technician, is working on some advancements to the workshop’s magical systems. All of a sudden, there’s an explosion in the Workshop and a terrifying man-beast appears in a magical swirl of smoke and sparks. He roars, “I’M FREE!” and vanishes out of the ruins of the workshop leaving Tinsel staring at the empty spot wondering what just happened.

santa_and_mrs_claus

Tinsel immediately reports what happened to Santa who is equally as baffled as the elf. Santa consults Winter the wizard about the strange events and Winter’s face falls and he whispers one word. “Krampus.”

krampus1

Santa asks Winter, “What is a Krampus?” Winter explains to Santa and the elf that Krampus is a malevolent being that thrives on making people feel sad and miserable. “He hates Christmas.”, Winter explains, “And he hates you, Santa.”

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Nerd Lunch Episode 66: Creating the ultimate Christmas special

Posted in Christmas, holiday, podcast, pop culture, Rankin/Bass, Santa Claus with tags Christmas, holiday, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcast, podcasts, Rankin-Bass, Santa Claus on December 18, 2012 by Paxton

Episode 66 of the Nerd Lunch Podcast has stuffed itself down your chimney and is sitting in your stocking. Waiting.

This week we are joined by Mr Michael Digiovanni from The Atomic Geeks for a discussion about Christimas Specials. Except we aren’t going to actually discuss the specials themselves, we are going to take our favorite characters from our favorite specials and start creating our own Nerd Lunch Christmas special.

Via RankinBass.com

We each pick a hero, a villain, some henchman, a narrator and a specific plot device (MacGuffin). Then we all talk about and pick the ones we like best and “Frankenstein” those ideas up into our very own Christmas special. And it turns out pretty f**king awesome. Give it a listen and see if you don’t agree.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.

AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: It’s HALLOWEEN, baby!

Posted in Halloween with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, Halloween, holiday on October 31, 2012 by Paxton

It is time. What I and everyone at Countdown to Halloween have been building up to all month.

Today is Halloween.

Happy Halloween

Hope everyone has had a fun month. I’ve enjoyed following the blogs on the countdown and reading along with everyone else. It’s been another blast this year. In fact, I’m already in the planning stages for AWESOME-tober-fest 2013. Hope you’ve had a great holiday. And remember to check out the Countdown to Halloween blog for the final day of Halloween!

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.