Popcorn in Bed - Sneakers

 

The people in the Pocorn in Bed community say "Sneakers" is "so underrated" and a "hidden gem". The community is correct.

Recalling the Luleelurah

 

Listening to a vanilla, adult, mainstream radio station and this song by Fall Out Boy comes on. I guess we're in that point of time where music from this era stops being out of fashion and comes back around as nostalgia. And listening to this song, I couldn't help but remember the lyric video that goes with it.

I think Emo was an interesting phenomenon for me in that it was the (pretty exact) point at which I fell out of fashion. I was the young guy who knew the current trends in music implicitly and then one day I hear there's this new genre I've never heard of. Where did it come from? Who's listening to it? It all had to be explained to me.

To be honest, I don't fully understand to this day. But none of that matters. This video is a classic of the pre-youtube days and everyone should see it.

So... Why a Leg Lamp?

 

The Leg Lamp from "A Christmas Story" is one of the great gags of the movie and in recent years has become iconic. The movie explains that it's an award but never explains why anyone would award a leg lamp to anyone.

A few weeks ago I accidentally stumbled upon the explanation and feverishly began researching a full article. I looked up primary sources and began to buy reference books, but in my searches I found tons of trivia sites which already had the answer. My full scholarly article is cancelled.

Still, not everyone knows so here is the short version.

The company running the contest/sweepstakes was supposed to be the Nehi soda company. At one point, their logo was a single woman's leg (Nehi = Knee High) so the prize for their contest was a lamp of the company's logo.

"A Christmas Story" is based on the radio show/writings of Jean Shepherd. Shepherd reveals the Leg Lamp-Nehi connection in the TV movie "Phantom of the Open Hearth" which was made 7 years earlier, in 1976. Shepherd also talked about it in interviews.

Introduced in 1924, Nehi was bought by Royal Crown, which was bought by Dr. Pepper and is actually still made today. You can actually buy it.

"A Christmas Story" will be re-released to theaters December 10th and 13th for its 40th anniversary.

I quite like that the origin of the lamp is left unexplained. It reinforces the theme of childhood - the world is a strange place and rarely makes sense.

Film Flam - Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

Dylan 'Bruiser' King's cameo, it seems, is all too brief.

Pocorn in Bed - Little Miss Sunshine

 Delightful as always.

Colton Dunn of Dudez A-Plenti

 An interview with Colton Dunn, better known as Dan/Lorraine/Samantha, of Dudez A-Plenti. 

One of the sneaky good qualities of the Dudez-A-Plenti pieces was how realistic it was. It seemed to me that the "band" might not even be in on the joke. But after repeated viewings, where I've concluded they must have, I then wonder how much of it was improvised.