Fresh Loaf

The Clickable Advent Calendar is almost over for 2008, so here are some items I couldn’t get to, in the spirit of “stocking stuffers.”

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention humorist David Sedaris, who made his name with acerbic commentaries on Christmas, particularly The Santaland Diaries (the theatrical version of which currently runs at Horizon Theatre and stars Harold Leaver, whom I interviewed in 2004). This year, for some reason I’m flashing on Sedaris’s “Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol” in which a typically caustic theater critic takes on a school pageant.

Other favorite holiday TV shows include “Justice League’s” Christmas-themed “Comfort and Joy” (which features a great subplot in which the Flash and a bad guy called the Ultra-Humanite team up to give some orphans an impossible-to-find Christmas gift), the “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special” and pretty much any “South Park” Christmas installment. (I found this video of Cartman’s “Swiss Colony Beef Log” via a The Onion A.V. Club.)

Slate has “A slide show of some of America’s weirdest holiday light displays” (I particularly like #2, from Batesville, Miss.)

The blog Musical Fruitcake lives up to its billing as “A collection of the worst Christmas songs ever recorded.” Hear a girl sing “Mom and Dad, Please Don’t Steal for Me This Christmas.” Speaking of Christmas music, Andisheh drew my attention to WFMU’s Beware of the Blog post on MORE Christmas Disco!

Alejandro pointed out the Elf Yourself site, and since I saw it, I know at least one friend who’s elfed-up her family.

For atheists and agonistics alienated at advent, here’s Thomas Bell’s secular variation on “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” “Yes Shirley, There is a wide body of evidence suggesting there may be a higher order to the universe.”

And finally, for your Christmas Eve reading, “A Download from St. Nicholas:”

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The old quip “You have a face for radio” could be amended, without the implied insult, to say that someone has a voice for public radio. NPR stars like David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell have superb speaking voices, but they’re definitely idiosyncratic. The high-pitched humorist/broadcasters are like the equivalents of quirky Oscar-winning character actors compared to the stentorian tones of the usual newscasters and talk radio hosts.

Vowell most famously voiced the invisible teenager Violet in The Incredibles, but ironically, her quavering tones make her sound even younger as “herself.” Atlantans will be able to hear (and see) for themselves at The Carter Center tonight at Vowell’s lecture and book signing for  The Wordy Shipmates. Vowell’s latest trek to the neglected corners of Americana visits the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and their heritage in present-day American culture.

No less self-deprecating, Sedaris has more of a faintly-lisping purr that perfectly serves his famous Billie Holiday impression. For a more recent, substantial clip of Sedaris in action, Aubible.com provides exclusive to Creative Loafing readers this audio book file of the complete short story “Solution to Saturday’s Puzzle” from David Sedaris’ most recent bestselling humor essay collection, When You Are Engulfed in Flames. (For my thoughts on the book, click here.) Audible.com also offers a sample of the audio book of Vowell’s Wordy Shipmates, for those who want to get a Vowell fix without going through “This American Life.”

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