My favourite Christmas song.
Bing Crosby and David Bowie.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
You might prefer the Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly version.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Pluribus – season 1
Have you watched this weird, original, unpredictable TV show?
Pluribus is a post-apocalyptic science fiction series that follows Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn), an author who finds herself angry and isolated after an alien virus transforms the rest of humanity into a peaceful and content hive mind. …
The hive mind happily accommodates the wishes of those who remain unaffected, but admits that it will ultimately seek to assimilate them when it figures out how to do so. Carol is adamantly against their efforts as she searches for a way to reverse the Joining. …
It wraps up Dec. 23rd on Apple TV.
Personally, I would probably have gone all Samba Schutte as Koumba Diabaté. He definitely understood the assignment. 😀
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
F1 (film) 2025
I hate motor racing — but can highly recommend F1 on Apple TV.
It’s a feel good holiday treat.
… starring Brad Pitt as Formula One (F1) racing driver Sonny Hayes, who returns after a 30-year absence to save his former teammate’s underdog team, APXGP, from collapse. …
Racing sequences were adapted from the real-life races, with F1 teams and drivers appearing throughout, including Lewis Hamilton, who was also a producer. …
Pitt was paid $30 million for his performance in this very profitable film. But it’s not about the money … 😀
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
Author Amy Quan Barry played on the Danvers High School field hockey team in the late 1980s.
Many of the events around the infamous Salem Witchcraft trials actually took place in Danvers, Massachusetts, which at the time was known as Salem Village.
Barry’s writing touches on a variety of genres, including magical realism and speculative fiction.
We Ride Upon Sticks (2020) is the fictional story of the 1989 Danvers Falcons Field Hockey team.
This team is not very good.
BUT near the end of summer training camp, they call on witchcraft invoking new powers both on and off the field.
If you were alive in the 1980s, the highlight of this book are the many, MANY pop culture references.
It’s often laugh-out-loud funny.
A whimsical read.
If ReTrumplican politicians are looking for yet another book to ban in schools — this would fit the bill.
It’s all about personal identity in terms of the race, gender, and sexuality of 17-year-old High School senior girls. And one boy on the team.
REVIEW – BookReporter
Life on Svalbard by Cecilia Blomdahl
I’ve subscribed to Cecilia’s YouTube channel for a few years.
She makes videos about her daily life in the Northernmost town in the world.
Cecilia’s a Swede, who lives live in an arctic cabin outside of Longyearbyen with her boyfriend Christoffer and their Finnish lapphund Grim.
Svalbard is the place where ANYONE from ANYWHERE in the world can live legally, so long as they have a job and housing.
Her short 2024 book is called Life on Svalbard: Finding Home on a Remote Island Near the North Pole.
She’s lived there since 2015, enjoying life, taking photos, and sharing the unique experience with others.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Artificial Intelligence VIDEO editing
Easy to use image generation and editing artificial intelligence software is here. Almost anyone — even Ron 😀 — can get amazing PHOTO results very quickly, just using their phone.
Me? I’m still waiting for FAST, EASY VIDEO editing A.I. software.
December 2025 here are 3 clips created in about 2 minutes each using Envato Image Gen (Google’s Veo series (specifically Veo 3.1), MiniMax Hailuo 02, ByteDance Seedance 1.0, and Kling AI.)
I first gave the software 2 still beach photos.
It created these 3 video clips from simple prompts.
Click PLAY or watch the A.I. edits on YouTube.
Not bad. But still too slow. And I don’t have enough control of the result.
The Good Cop by Brad Parks
Brad Parks is an award winning author I’d never read.
The Good Cop, deals with the subject of illegal gun smuggling and starts with the suicide of a Newark, New Jersey police officer.
A serious topic. But an entertaining, lighthearted read.
His novels are known for mixing humor with the gritty realism of their urban setting. Library Journal has called him “a gifted storyteller (with shades of Mark Twain or maybe Dave Barry).”[1]
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Some consider this book one of the greatest murder mysteries of all time.
The Woman in White is Wilkie Collins‘s 5th published novel, written in 1860 and set from 1849 to 1850.
He considered it his best book.
The story can be seen as an early example of detective fiction with many of the sleuthing techniques of protagonist Walter Hartright being employed by later private detectives.
Problem is … the audio book is 28 hours long!
I only got through about 25% of that. Excellent and entertaining writing. I’m shocked it was so well done in 1860.
Christmas in California
California in December is amazing.
Trump welcomed me into the USA — then had me attacked by wild horses. 😀
California is a great place to visit in winter. I’ll be doing plenty of cycling and hiking.
For 2025, it’s Christmas here with my brother Rob and his wife Yvonne. And their dog Charlie.
We’ll have our official Christmas dinner in Calgary on January 11th. The Great White North.
Ho. Ho. Ho.
My Berlin Koffer by Michèle Allaire-Rowan
My Berlin Koffer – Blissful Memories (2025) is the 2nd of my friend Michèle’s series of lifetime retrospectives.
It’s available on Amazon.
Michèle reads the audio version.
Her first autobiography is Crossing Borders and Cultural Divides (published 2022) which ends 1975.
This book is focused on Michèle’s 10 years in West Berlin — one of the most unique and interesting cities of the world. She lived there 1976 to 1986. Moving only to marry her husband Garth.
If it wasn’t for Garth, she might still be living in Berlin. 😀
Formally controlled by the Western Allies (England, France, USA), West Berlin was surrounded by the Berlin Wall, built in 1961, and bleak East Germany.
German students going to school there could avoid military service. The counter-culture was artistic freedom and living life to the fullest. Nightclubs had no closing. A haven for hippies, punks, musicians (like David Bowie & Iggy Pop), Michèle, and her friends.
My Berlin Koffer is a time capsule of West Berlin between 1976 and 1986, a time when the city was literally an island of freedom in the middle of Eastern Europe, restricted by the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall.
After a few years of teaching in England and in France, Mimi is looking for a change in her life.
West Berlin in the 1970s offers affordable rents, a good university, part-time jobs, and an abundance of cultural events.
For a young, educated woman with plenty of room in her suitcase, the island of freedom seems to be the ideal place in which to settle.
It’s a long and winding road to learning German, studying for a master’s, and finding an interesting job, while enjoying cinema, theatre, music, art, as well as socializing with cosmopolitan friends and adapting to a new culture.
Will this extraordinary city which never sleeps enable Mimi to find what she wants and eventually fill her suitcase?
And if it ever overflows, will she ever be able to leave?
I’d been waiting for Michèle’s Berlin book because my first flight to Europe (1974, I believe) landed West Berlin. I recall that trip vividly. It was a really BIG deal for me. Checkpoint Charlie.
A Gymnastics tour organized by Hajo Elsholtz.
I’m wondering if German boyfriend Alex has a copy of this book. 😀
Rick McCharles 