John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot

Way out yonder in the pumpkin patch

[Surf’s Up, as published in the St. John's Telegram, on Thursday, October 18, 2012.] 

While it’s evidently customary now for stores to start draping products in orange and black pretty much as soon as the back-to-school sales feel tired, I actually try not to pay attention to Halloween until, well, about this time of October. 

While I applaud my self-control for not (yet) buying a box stuffed with tiny chocolate bars – as if the entirety would make it to the door! – I’ve been checking out a few treats online.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
iTunes

Last year, I loved playing with an app that breathed new life into A Charlie Brown Christmas, which turned the iconic TV special into an interactive storybook. This year, the same makers are back with a take on that other seminal Peanuts holiday classic, It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. 

As with the first, it’ll cost you some money (about $5 in this case), and while I had no trouble recommending the Christmas edition, I’m not as enthralled at all with the Great Pumpkin.

I have nothing against Linus’s hero, I should note. Rather, I have a few gripes with how this particular app is designed, and what it expects users to do.

Again, the app opens with a wonderfully nostalgic tableau: a child’s record player gently spins while you hear a jazz theme by Vince Guaraldi. If you want to be transported back to the Sixties, this will do the trick. 

The problem is that as soon as you get started, you’re taken not to the story, but instead to a staging area where you first must create an account (or log in via Facebook, which I somewhat reluctantly did).

This left a little grit in my mouth, and that uneasy feeling got worse. I could not proceed until I had created an avatar – and I was not at all amused to see the creators trying to sell upgrades, all within moments of getting us to pay for the app in the first place.

Fortunately, you can create a decent avatar and trick-or-treating costume (your character will join the famously dressed Peanuts gang) for no extra cost. Still, by the point that I was finally able to get into the story itself, I was ready to toss an egg at someone’s house. 

The saving grace is that the main part of the app is wonderful. The graphics are crisp and in high-definition, presented as if the elements were layered paper cutouts. The original voices from the TV special are used, as well, and a reader can move through the chapters (tug on the bookmark to advance) or skip to favourite moments. I think this will appeal more to the nostalgic, but maybe children will love the story, too.   

In all, I liked it – but having to go through all those hoops left me feeling a bit like Charlie Brown on his back, foiled yet again by the football-swiping Lucy.

Elsewhere this week 

Shock Till You Drop
When did getting the pumpkin scared out of you turn into such a huge business? Even beyond their home base of October, frightening things demand a lot of our pop-culture attention, and if you need proof, just try keeping up with the movies, shows and games based around zombies alone. Shock Till You Drop caters to the fans who can’t get enough of what scares them, from trailers of upcoming movies to tidbits and links to horror-genre goodies.

 

Ultimate Pumpkin Stencils
Carving a pumpkin used to involve a steak knife and a few minutes. The artistry of a few, though, is now widely accessible thanks to the web, where templates for fairly complex patterns are easy to find. Search for free pumpkin stencils (or templates, as an alternate keyword) and you’ll no doubt find something nice, but if you want something cool and of the moment, you may well have to pay. I’m recommending this site, which sells templates for several dollars, often in batches.

All the Angry Birds, for instance? Got them. Same goes for comic-book heroes, movie characters, music fads (Gangnam Style, meet One Direction) and even oddball choices, like Walter from Breaking Bad. (That, I guess, is if you want to scare the wits out of the higher-brow TV aficionado.)

Scary screensavers

Even scarier

Give your monitor or laptop an all-hallows makeover. Again, you can find an endless supply of options with a search engine, and these are just two options you might like.

I hope to have some more Halloween options in next week’s column. Now, off to watch our son turn a pumpkin into a spaceship! 

 

John Gushue is an editor with CBC News in St. John’s. Twitter: @johngushue.

 

This is not the doctor Charlie Brown expected to be in

The unexpected Peanuts/ Doctor Who combination. 

Via JD Hancock. 

 

What happens when you mix Sherlock Holmes with Snoopy?

Why, you get something like this. As seen here. 

Lucy calls it

When Conan O'Brien and the Peanuts gang merged

I just ordered this shirt from TeeFury. What do you get when you match Coco with Peanuts? Coconuts, of course. 

Dance like Snoopy

Because sometimes, you just have to, and don't care what the Lucys out there think. 

Charlie Brown, the badass

 I never had any of the Peanuts gang down as a poker type, but I would have gone with Schroeder. 

Happiness is a warm blanket

Peanuts specials are plentiful - almost four dozen of them, in fact. Happiness Is A Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown is notable in that it's the first production to be made     since Bill Melendez died in 2008. Melendez was the guiding light of Peanuts specials since A Charlie Brown Christmas (if you listen carefully to Charlie Brown's dialogue, you can hear how his line readings echo Melendez's Mexican accent). Amazon will have it for sale next week.

The script, as always, is based on Charles M. Shulz's original strips, particularly the storyline of Linus losing his beloved blanket, which appeared in the 1960s. (Colour me biased, but prime time for Peanuts.)

Here's a preview:

The best thing I've seen today

Marvel characters, recast to play the Peanuts gang from A Charlie Brown Christmas. As seen on Bot Talk.

Revisiting my musical Advent calendar

Last year, I marked the days leading up to Christmas with a list of some of my favourite Christmas songs and albums.

I had, really, honestly, wanted to put together another list this year ... but my hands started shaking in late November when I started thinking about the time it would take just to think of a list, let alone do a daily update. It's been too busy this year for that, I'm afraid.

But, in the interests of recycling, I thought it would be fun to revisit the list.

24. The Chieftains: The Bells of Dublin. Sparkling collaborations with a wonderfully cool bunch of singers, from Nanci Griffith to Marianne Faithfull to Elvis Costello and more. Crucial for a good house party.

23. The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl: Fairytale of New York. Profane, poignant, heartbreaking and soaring, all at once, this is my pick at the ultimate Christmas song. 

22. Chris Isaak: Christmas. A little retro, a little cool, a little hipster, a little sincere. And something for the whole family.

21. Greg Lake: I Believe in Father Christmas. How many songs are embraced by atheists and Christians alike? Lake's song about the inevitable sadness that comes with growing up has seen a recent revival, thanks to a U2 cover.

20. Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin: It's a Marshmallow World. This live rendition from a Dean Martin Christmas special features a pair that may well have been sloshed, and shamelessly tearing their way through a kiddie tune. Click through on the above link for the video.

19. Band Aid: Do They Know It's Christmas? Bob Geldof wanted to raise attention and a modest chunk of change for victims of famine in Ethiopia. The 1984 single, for good and bad, changed how music and charities mix. The song still holds up.

18. Sackville All Star Christmas Record. A gem of a recording, with three (now long deceased) American jazz masters playing with Canadian Jim Galloway for a one-off Christmas recording for the small Toronto-based label Sackville. Christmas kicks into gear into our house when this album plays: it's that good.

17. Amber Christmas. Produced and led by Figgy Duff's Pamela Morgan, Amber Christmas is one of the finest recordings to come from Newfoundland, Christmas or otherwise. Look for the masterful recordings of two songs: the Cherry Tree Carol and The Holly and the Ivy. 

16. Joni Mitchell, River. Somehow, a song about a romantic breakup in Los Angeles has become a Christmas staple, albeit a melancholy one. Mitchell included River as part of the 1971 classic downer album Blue; it's since been recorded by many others, notably Linda Ronstadt, Sarah McLachlan and James Taylor. Click on the above link to see Corner Brook's Allison Crowe's rendition.

15. A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector. Out of print for a while, this 1963 album has been cleaned up and remastered, and proves why it landed (fairly high at that) on Rolling Stone's survey of the best 500 albums of all time. With Darlene Love and Spector's stable of groups, it set the template for Christmas pop and rock albums since ... whether or not the performers even knew it.

14. The Waitresses: Christmas Wrapping. Made quickly in 1981 (with dated lyrics, less), the post-punk outfit's single about a year's worth of romantic missteps topped by "a very happy ending" has become evergreen with age.

13. Rufus Wainwright: Spotlight on Christmas. A relatively recent song, but a clever comment on the spirit of Christmas, how all the gifts in the world won't make you happy, and unconditional love. And I lik the tale about "a mensch, a virgin and a god."

12. White Christmas. Bing Crosby turned the Irving Berlin song into the best-selling recording of all time, and a Christmas perennial, but I think I prefer the Drifters' take on it, thanks.

11. Eartha Kitt: Santa Baby. It seemed oddly fitting that Kitt died on a Christmas Day (in 2008), as her sultry voice - and kittenish sense of humour - makes this song a favourite every holiday.

10. Kate Bush: Home For Christmas. A B-side released in 1993, this short, sweet song was largely unavailable for years, until it turned up in an anthology. It's worth seeking out. (Time, though, is less kind to her bigger, earlier Christmas tune, December Will Be Magic Again.)

9. Great Big Sea: Seven Joys of Mary. From Newfoundland, a lively interpretation to a song that member Bob Hallett knew through family connections. A hearty singalong that ties into the religious side of the season.

8.Tony Bennett: My Favorite Things. Leave it to Tony Bennett to take a song from the Sound of Music and turn it into the coolest thing for the coldest season. 

7. Crash Test Dummies: The First Noel. An early single from the Winnipeg group, first produced for the snarkily-titled Lump of Coal compilation, this version features the blend of Brad Davis and Ellen Reid on vocals.

6. Aretha Franklin: Joy to the World. The Queen of Soul rocks a very old hymn. Wicked good. 

5. Leon Redbone: Christmas Island. A gem of an album, featuring the best-ever version of Frosty the Snowman, in a duet with Dr. John.

4. Louis Prima: Shake Hands With Santa Claus. Fun, saucy, sly and celebratory, all at once; a swinging Christmas song for the grown-ups. 

3. Sufjan Stevens: Songs For Christmas. A package of five discs, consisting of four EPs Stevens made for friends and family with a disc of specially recorded material.

2. Vince Guaraldi Trio: A Charlie Brown Christmas. For my generation, the Peanuts Christmas special is an essential part of our DNA. No other album makes our house feel quite so instantly Christmassy; it's only been as an adult that I picked up on the melancholic strands in Guaraldi's music. 

1. Ella Fitzgerald: Wishes You A Swinging Christmas. Recorded in 1960, the album features Ella Fitzgerald in her prime, and sparkling arrangements by Frank DeVol, particularly on the horns. Some bits sound dated, but most of it - like Fitzgerald's honey-smooth voice - is timeless.