Catch more of Firebuds on Disney Junior
Mayim Bialik has her own YouTube channel
Apparently she discusses mental health issues. She’s an actual neuroscientist as well as an actress. This was recorded in 2017, so it may not fall on her birthday this year. Happy birthday to her if it does or just in general, and happy Hanukkah to my Jewish readers. Also, I didn’t know that about the Menorah.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
I wasn’t really planning on doing another article until after New Years. I’m taking the post-Christmas week off, spending Monday going over short videos and specials, and depending on when I get Captain Yuletide done for the year post that. (One of these days I WILL make it post on Christmas day again without killing myself and making subpar art for my current skill level!) However, then MatPat over at the Theorist channels had to drop this and it got me questioning, partly thanks to doing Captain Yuletide.
In this episode of Food Theory MatPat tries to make the claim that the milk and cookies (or whatever else is left for Santa in various other countries, one of the things that’s interesting about this theory) may actually be rather unhealthy for jolly old St. Nick. However, while I’m not even close to the biggest expert on Santa Claus, there’s a hole in his theory.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Let’s just get this over with. DC Entertainment, which not only covers the comics but the TV shows, movies, and HBO Max content, is kind of a mess at the moment. That’s to be expected really, given that all of Warner Brothers’ various subdivisions are in a mess as Warner Brothers Discovery tries to figure out what they’re doing with the new fusion. David Zaslav, as noted before, really doesn’t care about the comics. He’s a TV guy, part of the same Hollywood system that looks down on comics except when it can be exploited for the media he cares about.
So what’s happening with their “DC Studios” content? After ditching the low-returns The CW TV network and cancelling the race-swapped Batgirl not for the race swap but because the movie was apparently so bad they’d lose less money NOT releasing, Zaslav has been trying to save the DC brand when it comes to TV and movies. (Again, not the comics.) There have been some interesting and controversial changes, and before I drop into full Christmas mode here at the Spotlight, followed by a Christmas break, I wanted to look at some of those controversies and how positive or negative they really are going into 2023 and beyond.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
If I have any chance of getting this year’s Captain Yuletide done by December I’m going to have to lighten my load on articles this week. There are a few topics I want to talk about and a few more Christmas specials and music I’ll be adding to the playlists, so I’m going to make this pre-Christmas week a little shorter on posts. There are a couple of topics, at least one of which is time-sensitive and already a bit late thanks to general posting schedules anyway, that I want to get out so I’ll work on those, but no comic or book review this week.
I know this leaves a few cliffhangers. Jake Cardigan is caught in a trap and he can’t walk out, Tails and Rotor are on solo adventures while Knuckles looks for his new friends, and I’m almost done with the WildStorm Robotech comics, thus ending that franchise of currently owned comics for a while. (I’d like to get more in the future.) And the week after Christmas I take off altogether to reset before the new year. This has not been a very creative year thanks to illness, though thankfully no surgery like last year or 2016, technical issues, and just a sort of drained feeling as to how much is messed up right now in my life. In fact I didn’t get to talk about it during Art Soundoff because I couldn’t get myself to work on that thanks to health issues. It’s kind of annoying and getting my sleep cycle back on track has been another concern. Still, this has to be done if it can lead to a better comic, which is where all these posts are supposed to be leading up to, making me a better storyteller.
Everything should go back to normal on New Years Day, but we’ll see how well that prediction goes. Hope you all have a great week and a Merry Christmas (or whatever holiday you follow…still hope December 25th is a good day for you) and I’ll try to get the comic done before the ball drops in Times Square.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
While a certain vocal portion of the internet keeps trying to convince me that…a certain R-rated action movie is a Christmas film under the false belief that they can’t watch it at Christmas unless they get it declared such (if you don’t like heartwarming movies, fine…watch what you want but stop trying to convince me it isn’t just a movie set at Christmas, I don’t care how you have to stretch minor points to prove your case IT’S NOT WORKING!!!!!!) I have strong criteria as to what makes a Christmas movie versus a movie set at Christmas…which cancels so much of Hallmark Channel’s current library of “romance movies with the same two or three plots, just set at Christmas and involving vaguely Christmas things” TV movies. The Christmas Special playlist on my YouTube channel and embedded here every December was created for that purpose. There’s still a wide enough range…just not as much blood and dead bodies.
Miracle On 34th Street is most definitely a Christmas movie, and one that’s on my list of great Christmas movies. You all know it by now. A department store Santa Claus has to prove he’s the real deal in court. It’s a Christmas classic for a reason, and YouTube is an embeddable host who has it on their website legally and free with ads. However, as of this writing they don’t like other websites embedding it. I don’t know why; you’d think they still get the ad revenue. Lucky the embed below (which I’ll keep up in case they change their minds) has a built-in link to the movie so hopefully you can still watch it in your area. Yes, I’m going with the original 1947 movie instead of the 1997 movie I haven’t seen yet or the TV movie adaptations that frankly are not as good. Enjoy!
