It's Christmas, It's Supposed to Be Cheesy

[vovat]

On Thursday, Beth and I went to the Imperial Theatre to see Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken's Christmas show. It was fifteen years ago when they were finalists on American Idol, and we used to watch that together back then. It was kind of more fun when the people involved with the show weren't yet totally sure what they were doing. Anyway, the show was pretty cheesy, as you might expect; but still fun, and the two of them are still great singers. Much of it was in the style of a variety show, with jokes and skits between (and sometimes during) songs. In addition to the two of them, the cast was made up of five backing singers and dancers. It did get a little more serious in the second act, with recorded segments of Clay and Ruben getting sentimental about past Christmases. I didn't realize Ruben's brother had died; I remember him showing up quite a bit on set during Idol.


We'd been to the Night of Lights at Creamy Acres Dairy Farm with Beth's mom and uncle for the past two years, and we went again on Saturday night, even though it was raining a bit and the ground was muddy. It's pretty impressive what they can do with some of the displays, including many that switch on and off to create the illusion of movement. Some particularly notable ones were Santa Claus going fishing, riding a dinosaur, and shooting pretzels out of a cannon.

I really have to wonder where the idea for that last one came from. One minor complaint I have is that there was a tour guide on the wagon, but it was often difficult to hear her. She really should have had a microphone. The employees wore green elf outfits with peppermint buttons, and we saw some just like that at Target afterwards, so maybe that's where they got them.

One thing I forgot to mention in my last entry here that I probably should have was that I won an Alamo Drafthouse gift card at the Kevin Geeks Out show because I was the last person standing in the game determining if there were pictures online of various celebrities in Santa suits. I'm really surprised, actually, considering that I was eliminated from the same game on, like, the second person last year. I also wanted to say a little more about Tumblr, specifically that I wonder if there's going to be a mass exodus from there with the new guidelines. It's generally my medium of choice to post random interesting pictures I find online, but is it worth doing so if no one will see them? Well, it's not like it could hurt, I guess. I'm really more concerned about people seeing things I do myself. I know my Oz stories are going to have limited appeal, but sometimes I post about a new one on several different apps, and even people who might be interested don't see it. I'm working on a new Christmas-related Oz story, but there's a good chance I won't finish it before Christmas. Maybe I'll post it anyway, though; I'm always in a hurry to get feedback soon after finishing my first draft. Or should I just ask if anyone wants to see it, instead of making it a blog entry?