Deck the halls and Saturday Afternoon at the Movies

Since Bleubeard and I are hosting Art Journal Journey this month,

we have a journal page for you that represents our Favorite Season.


You need a bit of glitter,

a few funky letters that spell the words

and maybe even a tag or two to add some dimension

and holiday cheer.

Glittery balls are important, too.

For this page, I began by laying down a sheet of wet baby wipe to which I added a blue reinker.  The pattern came from the baby wipe.  I deconstructed an old Christmas card, and a Christmas postcard.  I then added the two tags to make this a truly magical and glittery time of the year.

Bleubeard and I are simply thrilled you chose to join us today and hope to also see you at Art Journal Journey where our themes are My favorite season or 'Tis the season.

I am also playing along with CJ and Kathy who recommend a movie every week.  This is based on a meme CJ found awhile back.

In my opinion (and now others' also), this is the best Christmas film ever.  I've even said it for years on end, too. In 2010, Die Hard was voted "The Greatest Christmas Film of All Time" by Empire.  A critic on Rotten Tomatoes claimed "John McTiernan's tour de force has become regarded not just as one of the definitive 1980s action films, but also the definitive alternative Christmas film."  

This is the 30th anniversary of the film, and if you live in the U.S. and have the cable channel IFC, they are playing it back to back to back for 24 hours on Christmas.  The film is being hosted by Reginald VelJohnson who played Sgt. Al Powell, McClane's police contact on the outside.  You can be assured I'll watch it at least once, probably several times on Christmas day.

In case you don't know what the film is about, here is how Rotten Tomatoes described it:

It's Christmas time in L.A., and there's an employee party in progress on the 30th floor of the Nakatomi Corporation building. The revelry comes to a violent end when the partygoers are taken hostage by a group of terrorists headed by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), who plan to steal the 600 million dollars locked in Nakatomi's high-tech safe. In truth, Gruber and his henchmen are only pretending to be politically motivated to throw the authorities off track; also in truth, Gruber has no intention of allowing anyone to get out of the building alive. Meanwhile, New York cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) has come to L.A. to visit his estranged wife, Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), who happens to be one of the hostages. Disregarding the orders of the authorities surrounding the building, McClane, who fears nothing (except heights), takes on the villains, armed with one handgun and plenty of chutzpah. 
 

Wikipedia has a more extensive plot review:

On Christmas Eve, NYPD detective John McClane arrives in Los Angeles, intending to reconcile with his estranged wife, Holly, at the Christmas party of her employer, the Nakatomi corporation. McClane is driven to the party by Argyle, an airport limousine driver. While McClane changes clothes, the party is disrupted by the arrival of a German terrorist, Hans Gruber, and his heavily armed team: Karl, Tony, Franco, Theo, Alexander, Marco, Kristoff, Eddie, Uli, Heinrich, Fritz, and James. The group seizes the tower and secures those inside as hostages except for McClane, who slips away, and Argyle, who gets trapped in the garage.

Gruber interrogates Nakatomi executive Joseph Takagi for the code to the building's vault and reveals that he plans to steal $640 million in bearer bonds, with the terrorist act merely a distraction. Takagi refuses to cooperate and is killed by Gruber. McClane secretly watches, but accidentally gives himself away and escapes. He sets off a fire alarm in an attempt to alert authorities, so Gruber sends Tony to investigate. McClane kills Tony, pocketing his weapon and radio, using it to contact the LAPD. As Sgt. Al Powell is sent to investigate, Gruber sends Heinrich and Marco to stop McClane, who kills them both. Powell arrives and is greeted by Eddie, posing as a concierge. Finding nothing unusual, Powell prepares to leave, but McClane drops Marco's corpse onto his patrol car to gain his attention while Alexander shoots at the car from the building with an automatic rifle. Powell summons the LAPD, who lay siege to the building. McClane steals Heinrich's bag containing C-4 explosives and detonators.

James and Alexander use anti-tank missiles to disable a SWAT armored car before McClane violently kills both of them by pushing C-4 attached to an office chair and computer down the elevator shaft, blowing up their floor. Holly's coworker, Harry Ellis, attempts to mediate between Hans and McClane for the return of the detonators. McClane refuses, prompting Gruber to execute Ellis. While checking explosives attached to the roof, Gruber encounters McClane; Gruber passes himself off as an escaped hostage. McClane offers him a gun and Gruber attempts to shoot McClane, but the gun is empty. Karl, Franco, and Fritz arrive; McClane kills Fritz and Franco, but is forced to flee, abandoning the detonators.

FBI agents take command of the siege, ordering the building's power shut off; this, as Gruber anticipated, disables the vault's final lock. Gruber demands a helicopter on the rooftop for transport, but the FBI prepare to double-cross him by sending helicopter gunships. McClane discovers that Gruber intends to detonate the explosives on the roof, faking the deaths of his team so they can escape with the bearer bonds. While making final preparations, Gruber sees a news report by intrusive reporter Richard Thornburg that features McClane's children and deduces from a desk photo that McClane is Holly's husband. The criminals order the hostages to the roof, but Gruber takes Holly with him to use against McClane, who in the meantime defeats Karl in a fight before heading up to the roof, killing Uli in the process. He sends the hostages downstairs just as the FBI appear and start shooting at McClane, believing him to be a terrorist. Gruber then detonates the explosives, destroying the roof and the FBI helicopter; McClane barely manages to survive.

Theo retrieves their getaway vehicle, but is incapacitated by Argyle. A weary McClane finds Holly with Gruber and his remaining men; Eddie and Kristoff. After knocking Kristoff unconscious, he confronts Gruber and is ordered to surrender his machine gun. McClane does this to spare Holly, but distracts Gruber and Eddie, allowing him to grab a concealed pistol with only two bullets taped to his back. McClane shoots Gruber and kills Eddie with a single shot to the forehead; Gruber crashes through a window, but grabs onto Holly's wrist. Gruber raises a pistol and attempts to shoot them, but McClane removes Holly's wristwatch and Gruber falls to his death.

Outside, McClane and Holly meet Powell. Karl emerges and attempts to shoot McClane, but is shot dead by Powell with his police revolver. Argyle crashes through the parking garage door in the limo. Thornburg arrives and attempts to interview McClane, but Holly punches him before she and McClane leave the area with Argyle.

For those who don't believe it's a Christmas movie, I give you screenwriter Steven E. de Souza's response.   "If ‘Die Hard’ is not a Christmas movie, then ‘White Christmas’ is not a Christmas movie.”  He even has the chart to prove it.

Still, the nagging question persists.  Is Die Hard really a Christmas film, or a film set at Christmas?  Although the internet has been split over the argument in recent years, 20th Century Fox may have just settled the debate with a re-cut and very festive trailer for the Bruce Willis action film, claiming it is “The greatest Christmas story ever told."

 You know how I feel!  Ho! Ho! Ho! and Yippee Ki Yea!