Robot Jazz

  The city was cold, but the sidewalk was colder. I stepped over a tangle of tinsel that had seen better days, and that was only forty-eight hours ago. It was December 30th, a time when the lights should still be humming, and the spirits should still be high. Instead, I saw them. The "Clean-Slaters." They were dragging their Douglas Firs to the curb like they were disposing of evidence. They think the season is over just because the wrapping paper is in the bin. They’re wrong. We’ve still got six days of Christmas left, and I’m not letting them go without a fight... 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄 It is time for a rant.  Okay, another rant.  This time, not about the Trump regime but about people who take their Christmas decorations down before the Christmastide has ended.  Two things really annoy the heck out of me this time of year: people who use a 200-hp snowblower to clear driveways a fraction of the size of mine (I clear my driveway, one that has been frequently mistaken for a landi...

  If you are like me, you are probably somewhat desperate for some fresh yuletide entertainment. Sure, The Hallmark Channel offers a seemingly bottomless bowl of copy-and-paste pottage that is their yearly Christmas lineup, but who can stomach that for long? How many times can we watch lazy iterations of the fem-fantasy of the girl boss who travels to the country to find the man of her dreams (who invariably arrives as a rustic but is later revealed to be a former doctor, lawyer, or reclusive entrepreneur)? In the world of Hallmark , love is only for professionals. Well, if you are tired of watching St. Valentine's Day romances thinly disguised as Christmas fare, here is an alternative: Satoshi Kon's Tokyo Godfathers. Seeing that some of the all-time Christmas classics are cartoons ( Frosty the Snowman, A Charlie Brown Christmas , and How the Grinch Stole Christmas , to name but a few!), it shouldn't bother anyone that Tokyo Godfathers  is itself a Christmas cartoon, if of...