12 Days of Christmas Cassettes: 10 A (Not Quite) Very Special Christmas 2

Welcome to the Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks 12 Days of Christmas celebration extravaganza!!! (Don't send me messages telling me that the 12 days of Christmas actually BEGIN on Christmas and end on January 6th, with the Epiphany. I know. But I'm not celebrating that way... so let us quickly move along.)

Today is another solo tape, and so I am taking advantage of this post to share not only a Christmas cassette, but also a Christmas-y surprise I found at Goodwill just a few days ago. But first... Today's Cassette!

I desperately wanted to find the original "Very Special Christmas" on cassette tape to share with you here. This one is not as good. BUT it still has some very notable tunes included nonetheless. Tom Petty's "Christmas All Over Again" is an absolute favorite of mine,

and Sinead O'Connor's cover of Bob Dylan's "I Believe in You" while arguably not a Christmas song is another great listen.

But the winner for most bizarrely awesome song on this tape goes to Mr. Frank Sinatra and Ms. Cyndi Lauper for their duet to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"

At the time, it was a move that would have "broken the internet" or whatever bulls**t thing it's called these days. A blue-eyed, classic, classy crooner from the gin-soaked rat-pack like Sinatra, teamed up with flighty, rainbow-muppet-come-to-life, "girls just wanna have fun" screeching Cyndi Lauper? 

Yes please. And it comes off sounding pretty damn great! Honestly! The rest of the tape is a mess really. Either artists I can't imagine anyone liking, or songs that did NOT need a remake of ANY kind (No one but Stevie Wonder is allowed to sing "What Christmas Means to ME"!!!) or artists we LOVE doing stupid songs (Aretha singing "O Christmas Tree"? Really?) 

-Side A- 

1. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Christmas All Over Again

2. Randy Travis - Jingle Bell Rock

3. Luther Vandross - The Christmas Song

4. Frank Sinatra & Cyndi Lauper - Santa Claus is Coming to Town

5. Boyz II Men - The Birth of Christ

6. Jon Bon Jovi - Please Come Home For Christmas

7. Paul Young - What Christmas Means to Me

8. Aretha Franklin - O Christmas Tree

9. Ronnie Spector/Darlene Love - Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

10. Michael Bolton - White Christmas

-Side B- 

11. RUN DMC - Christmas Is

12. Extreme - Christmas Time Again

13. Bonnie Raitt and Charles Brown - Merry Christmas Baby

14. Tevin Campbell - O Holy Night

15. Debbie Gibson - Sleigh Ride

16. Vanessa Williams - What Child is This? 

17. Ann & Nancy Wilson - Blue Christmas 

18. Wilson Phillips - Silent Night

19. Sinead O'Connor - I Believe in You

And now on to something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!!!

So while looking around at Goodwill the other day I found a bag of colorful cookie-cutters in the toy section. I gave them a cursory glance (there were some giant Halloween cutters in there, bats and Jack o' Lanterns, and I have a weird cookie-cutter thing going on) and since they were a buck and appeared to be ones I didn't already own, I grabbed them. I saw a reindeer in the mix, and it looked like Rudolph, so I figured a buck was worth it for a licensed cookie cutter of that character alone. But what I discovered when I got this home was that they weren't just ANY cookie cutters, there was a nearly-complete set of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer 3D cookie cutters in there! The only character missing is Sam the Snowman... and I have his butt. Just no body.

Each cookie cutter comes with a body and a leg cutter. You cut out two legs for each character, and then stand the cookie up on the leg pieces. the top of the cutter is a stamp for making the character look how they're supposed to. This one is Santa Claus (These are all from the Rankin and Bass stop-motion TV special btw).

I was VERY excited when I found Yukon Cornelius in the bag... it was at this moment that I realized I had a set of Rudolph-themed cutters.

This is either adult Rudolph or Blitzen, Rudolph's father. the expression on his face makes me kind of think Blitzen... but I can pretend whatever I want.

Herbie! The dentist elf! Have you ever noticed how un-elf-like Herbie is physically as well? Is this where the inspiration for the movie Elf came from?

Santa's sleigh. Meh. I'd rather have had Sam the snowman. But oh well.

Rudolph himself! Why they made Blitzen but not Clarice I will NEVER KNOW. They didn't even need to make her her own set of legs. She could have just shared Rudolph's!

Once I figured out I had a set of Rudolph cookie cutters, I only really cared about one thing: Did I have Bumble? Turns out I did. Relief washed over me like I'd just urinated after a long car ride. It was that satisfying to find this guy in the bag. Aaahhhhhhhhhhhhh. 

I'll be going right up through Christmas day itself posting more, so be sure to join me back here tomorrow for more of the 12 Days of Christmas Cassettes celebration!!! Merry Christmas and Happy Hunting!

Halloween Countdown Day 27: Goodwill Finds!

There are only 3 days between today and the BIG day ladies and Gentlemen! That means this will probably be my last straight-up "Stuff I Bought at Goodwill" post between now and then, because I'll be focusing more on the festivities around the house and just sort of rounding up anything else I've got to share before the night arrives. So let's take one last look at some Halloween-y items I've picked up at Goodwill! 

Possessions: Unclean Getaway from Oni Press is a fun little graphic novel starring a young girl possessed by a demon. This girl is added to a collection of supernatural characters including a poltergeist, a haunted jukebox, the ghost of a headless woman, and a talking, glowing sphere. The story is all about the demon Gurgazon the Unclean who has been added to the collection at the Llewellyn-Vane House for Captured Spirits and Ghostly Curiosities, and who desperately wants to escape. It has a distinct "Great Escape" meets "Perhapanauts" vibe, but almost more for the YA reader set. It was definitely a cool little tale, and one I'll probably check out the following three volumes for. 

"...MORE OF THE NIGHT HE CAME HOME." Ha! I thought I had never seen this movie, but after picking it up at Goodwill and watching it, I realized I must have seen it. I guess this one gets kind of a bad rap... but sitting and watching it back-to-back with the first Halloween, I have to say I kind of enjoyed this one more. There was more going on, the characters were a little more fleshed out, and the pacing was a little more to my liking. It could simply be that I hadn't seen it in so long that it felt new and fresh compared to the very familiar-to-me first film. After rewatching the original Halloween again this year with my daughter, I realized something: There are still some great scenes and classic moments that horror fans NEED to experience, but at times I found myself almost... bored. Sure, parts of the Hospital setting in part 2 (and some of the kill scenes) feel a little hackneyed and hokey... but it does have a nice consistent vibe to it. I don't think it deserves the bad rap it seems to have in some circles. 

Here we have a "Panther Alien" from the early 90's Alien action figure line. Sadly, he did not come with his projectile, which apparently was some sort of firable parasite creature, but he's still pretty neat. As much as I can admire his sleek frame and interesting pose, not being much of a fan of the oddball Alien figures of various different genuses and species, I passed this guy on to a new home almost immediately. 

As we leave the city limits of Halloweentown and move on to other things... we find this novelization of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome! "He's a lone warrior in a world gone mad! She is the only power in a land of fear." I have not seen Thunderdome in many a year, but I remember it being weird, and disturbing, and really liking it a lot. Again, its a movie that seems to get a bad rap in most reviews I've heard or read, but I don't get it. Finding a novelization of the film really made my day! 

There was also a grab-bag I picked up that had these three handsome fellows included: a couple different versions of Raphael from the mid-2000's toy line, and a PVC figurine of Robbie from the Dinosaurs sitcom! The Raph on the left does a backflip if you bend him over at the mid-section. The Raph on the right is from the 200's series of toys, a Cave-Turtle character. 

A handful of Sesame Street books in A Visit to the Sesame Street Museum, Show and Tell, The Tool Box Book, and Who Am I? These are all nice classic-feeling Sesame Street books.

And keeping in line with the Sesame Street theme, we have this set of cookie cutters! Big Bird, Prairie Dawn, Grover, Bert, Ernie, and Elmo, all in different modes of transportation. Not sure if these are true cookie cutters or if they came with a play-doh set or something, but either way I picked up a little baggie of them for .99 cents.

Some more Jim Henson-themed books in a Fraggle story and a Muppet Babies story.

This was an interesting find. "Little Toot from Walt Disney's Melody Time" on a vinyl record. This just caught my eye and had to come home with me.

Couple of other random properties here in kids' book form. A Garfield book I already have a copy of that I will probably send off to a friend, and a "Ring Raiders: Doom on Ice" book. Ring Raiders were toyline released by Matchbox back in '89 and consisted of jets that you wore on rings on your fingers. There was also a cartoon show to advertise... I mean to tell the story behind Ring Raiders.

This is a set of Tupperware stencils from the 80's. My wife already owns a complete set of these (missing the yellow case) from when she was a kid. I don't know exactly what I plan on doing with these... but letting my kids play with them is the first idea that springs to mind. Which... is admittedly unusual for me.

So there you have it! I'll be back soon with more Gutturally Growling Goodwill Goodies... so until then, Happy Haunting!