2021 Holiday Season: Week 3!
Sorry about this week’s thread being a little late — we were busy recording the next podcast.
This doubles as The Thanksgiving Thread. Well, it does if you live in the States, at least. If you do, let’s hear about how you’re celebrating, what you’re eating, and how you’re spending the rest of the extended holiday weekend.
I’ll also add a secondary survey to this week’s thread. Since it’s Thanksgiving and all, name three things you’ve been thankful for this year. (Trivial stuff is fine! If the damned Spider-Man trailer made you happy, go with it.)
Here are three of mine:
1) I’m thankful for Halloween the Cat, a bright spot in a year that got pretty dark.
2) I’m thankful for HBO Max, especially RN, because I like having instant, eternal access to A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation and that Thanksgiving-themed third-season episode of The Sopranos.
3) I’m thankful for my remaining stock of Pecan Caramel autumn candles, which I bought extras of before Michaels switched over to pine. They calm me!
This week’s background noise is the 1990 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. We covered this exact parade on The Purple Stuff Podcast back in 2019. It’s the one with the infamous Quik Bunny intrusion. Enjoy!
2021 Holiday Season: Week 2!
It was slow around these parts last week. Maybe people weren’t aware that After Dark would remain updated through the holidays, or maybe Halloween is just a bigger draw. Doesn’t really matter — whether a thread gets 300 comments or just three, I’m gonna keep a “build it and they will come” attitude.
So, here’s your thread for Week 2 of the 2021 Holiday Season!
This month has been busy as hell. The Funpacks and podcast are always on the monthly to-do list, but since everything kinda needs to be delivered before Thanksgiving to have any relevance, I don’t have my usual wiggle room. Still, it’ll get done. One way or another, it always does.
My fam finally locked their plans for Thanksgiving. It’s going to be a smaller party than usual, though “smaller” in my giant Italian family doesn’t exactly mean “small.” To be honest, I’m all for having a more low-key TG this year. After all of the exhausting craziness of 2021, I’d rather have a reflective, relaxing holiday.
This week’s background noise: Garfield’s Thanksgiving, the 1989 TV special that made us love Grandma Arbuckle that much more. (Bonus points: This is an official upload from Garfield’s people, so the quality is excellent!)
Oh, and since last week was pretty quiet on After Dark, maybe I can liven things up with a survey:
In the comments, name a holiday dish that you’ve always heard/read about but never tried. Preferably something you really want to try.
I’ll go with oyster stuffing. I’ve been reading about it forever, but to date have never even seen it in person, let alone had a chance to sample it. I followed a recipe for Stove Top with minced clams last year, and since that was surprisingly good, I’m betting that homemade stuffing with oysters has gotta be a winner, too.
This is your free-for-all thread for Week 2. Answer the survey question if you wish, but you can also talk about whatever ya want, all week long!
2021 Holiday Season: Week 1!
I hope everyone had a nice transition from Halloween into the HOLIDAY SEASON — if you’re ready for it, that is!
I’ve been taking it slow myself. Giving myself a moment to survey the landscape and figure out what I wanna do, both on the site and IRL.
For me, it kinda needs to be a low maintenance holiday season, so I’m gonna apply the same take-it-as-it-comes attitude to November and December that I did during September and October.
On the site front, I gathered up all of the Christmassy VHS tapes I’d purchased in the last year or so, and I’ve been mining them for old TV commercials and more. I’m glad I remembered to check, because I had some heavy hitters in this VHS batch. You’ll see some of those goodies very soon!
For tonight, here’s a wonderful compilation of Thanksgiving-themed TV commercials from the ‘80s. This isn’t one of my comps, but it really grabbed me. Such a fun mix of holiday and “general” TV spots from that decade. Should put you in a good mood!
I’ll be back next week w/ some new stuff. Working the kinks out of a few videos and articles, and of course we have the podcast on the horizon, too. For now, here’s your first free-for-all thread of the 2021 holiday season. Talk about whatever!
Halloween 2021: Week 8!
Well, we’re entering the FINAL WEEK of the 2021 Halloween season! I hope you’ve all had a great one so far, and I hope it sticks the landing for ya this week!
It’s been a massively different sort of season for me, for many reasons, but I’ve enjoyed myself. Very happy that I got so many videos done this year, as not doing that has been my biggest regret with the last several Countdowns.
I’m mostly just happy that I avoided the weird depression that I always seem to fall into during October. Gonna be real, I had to fight it off here and there, but at least it was a successful fight! In prior years, I got so rocked during October that I couldn’t wait for it to be over just so I could “wipe the slate.” Not this year, yay!
Another plus has been a sincere attempt to live in the moment, which isn’t always easy for me. I’m often either stuck in the past or obsessed with the future. This season, I kicked that habit. It’s been nice to revel in the many awesome things Halloween has to offer, whether it’s a cold drive at night or some dumb new candy at CVS.
Living in the moment also meant that I didn’t get ahead of myself with the next holiday season, like I usually do. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll hit the ground running come November 1st, but I’m glad to let Halloween have its proper sendoff, both in public and private!
Next week will be a busy one. The must-dos include one more video and this month’s big podcast. I’d also like to get another edition of 2021’s Best Halloween Junk Food on the site, but we’ll see how well I manage my time.
This is your free-for-all thread for WEEK 8 of the 2021 Halloween season. I haven’t decided if I’ll post another thread next Friday, since by then there will only be three days left before 10/31. We’ll see.
For now, chat about whatever, and enjoy what’s left of the season!
