DECK THE HALLS WITH BOUGHS OF CRAWLY

If you’re in an anti-festive mood—I’m not, and I’m sorry if you are, but in case you are—check out my list, on Topless Robot, of The 12 Messed-Up Days of Christmas.

COMING OF AGE?

A couple of months back I wrote, here, about the return of Beavis & Butt-Head to MTV, & that for me, they hadn’t aged a day since the ‘90s, either chronologically or in terms of the quality of the shows.

Well, I’ve watched a few more episodes since, & there is a difference. Now, in addition to ragging on music videos, the boys also comment on clips, sometimes lengthy, from MTV “Reality” series like Jersey Shore & 16 and Pregnant. The thing is: They come across as less imbecilic, more clear-headed & sensibile, than the pathetic douchebags on these shows. Much more, sometimes. Again & again, our heroes seem to be on the verge of saying “These kids today, I tell ya…”

I refuse to insult Mike Judge’s post-modern Tom & Huck with the suggestion that they might be maturing, so I must conclude that real-life society’s sensibility has actually sunk below their mental, emotional & moral level. I suppose there are critics who would suggest that the original Beavis & Butt-Head itself played its part in this de-volution, but I think, now as then, that this is killing the messenger: Check out reality TV, especially the youth-oriented stuff, & Judge seems pretty freaking prescient.

As in 2010, this past year I kept a list of the books I read in the order I read them, not including magazine & newspaper articles, reviews, essays, poems, blogs, short stories, comic books, etc:

Democracy: An American Novel by Henry Brooks Adams

The Giaconda Smile by Aldous Huxley

Discoveries: Early Letters 1938-1975 by Robertson Davies, ed. Judith Skelton Grant

A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie

The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

Murder in Canton by Robert van Gulik

Judge Dee at Work by Robert van Gulik

Djibouti by Elmore Leonard

Scumbo: A Novella and Stories by Barry Graham

The Willow Pattern by Robert van Gulik

Small Town by Lawrence Block

The Champion’s New Clothes by Barry Graham

There is a Serpent in Eden by Robert Bloch

The Red Pavillion by Robert van Gulik

The Slave by Isaac Bashevis Singer

The Magician of Lublin by Isaac Bashevis Singer

The Origin of Evil by Ellery Queen

And On the Eighth Day by Ellery Queen

The Captain and the Enemy by Graham Greene

EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SECTS

After the screening of Martha Marcy May Marlene, I had the opportunity to participate in a brief roundtable interview with the director, Sean Durkin. You can read my very short Q&A piece here, on JabCat on Movies.

The star, Elizabeth Olsen, was also there; she told me her influences included “Sinatra musicals,” & that her acting idols were Annette Bening, Diane Keaton, Kate Winslet & Michelle Pfeiffer.

By the way, Beavis and Butt-head are back on MTV, with new adventures—like the Peanuts gang, or Bart Simpson, they’ve done an admirable job of staying young since we last saw them, in 1997. My friends know I’m a great fan of the lads & their creator, the estimable Mike Judge, but even so I was willing to glumly admit it if it seemed to me that the world had moved on & the new shows just weren’t the same.

Well, I’ve watched several episodes now, & apparently imbecility is always in style, at least for me. The new shows convulsed me just like the old ones did. For all the excellence & subtlety of King of the Hill & Office Space & Idiocracy, I think that B&B is Judge’s true masterpiece.

RIP to commentator Andy Rooney, departed at 92, screenwriter Hal Kanter, departed at 92, & heavyweight great Joe Frazier, departed at 67.