1115.org

Now that the holiday is over and our lives are returning to some kind of normalcy, 1115.org will be returning to it’s normally scheduled content levels. But for now, a quick recap of my personal Thanksgiving highlights and lowlights:

Thanksgiving Dinner: Is it just me, or is the traditional Thanksgiving Dinner the most overrated meal in history? Turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans…it’s enough to put one to sleep from sheer boredom. I’m sorry, but any meal you have to drown in gravy just to get some flavor isn’t a culinary high point.

Thanksgiving Movie: It’s been a while since I’ve seen a movie that made me laugh as hard as Bad Santa. I have to give credit to the filmmakers for keeping the humor and characters dark, without having to resort to the usual Hollywood “touchy-feely” ending. And although I’ve never been a huge fan of Billy Bob Thornton, casting him as the “bad santa” in question was just about perfect.

Thanksgiving Music: My holiday listening was split pretty much between the Lost and Translation soundtrack and Travis “12 Memories”. I was really impressed with the Travis album, though they sometimes sound a little too much like Radiohead to be completely coincidental. But considering how many bands fail miserably when writing lyrics, Travis’ Fran Healey has to be commended for his solid songwriting–I’ve had “Re-offender” in my head for the entire weekend, it seems.

As for the LIT soundtrack, it’s a worthy purchase simply for Kevin Shields’ “City Girl”, which is the closest thing to a new My Bloody Valentine song I expect to hear in my lifetime. (For all of you who are writing me to say that MBV is getting back together, skip it. I’ve heard that story too many times before, and will believe it when I see a finished product on store shelves).

Thanksgiving News: By now, everyone’s heard of the President’s surprise visit to the troops in Iraq. Publicity stunt or not, I’m sure many of the troops over there appreciated the gesture, so I’ll try to hold my tongue about the underlying PR value of it. But this is worth mentioning: the only news network invited to the festivities was — you guessed it — old “Fair and Balanced” Fox News. The administration says that this wasn’t intentional, that it was simply Fox’s turn in the press rotation. Sure it was!