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I'm Jewish, so all my Christmas's growing up were kinda the same. Sleep in, have brunch, wander over to my neighbor's house around noon to see what kind of loo
by jedberg 2y ago
I'm Jewish, so all my Christmas's growing up were kinda the same. Sleep in, have brunch, wander over to my neighbor's house around noon to see what kind of loot they got and help them play with their new toys. Sometimes we'd go out for Chinese food and a movie.
But my favorite was Christmas 1999. My girlfriend was out of town with her family and there was no reason to go home to mine, so I was alone (my roommates were with their families too). I decided to go to the movies in Emeryville.
I was going to see Galaxy Quest, Bicentennial Man, and Man on the Moon. The timing lined up perfectly to see all three. About 50 other people were there to do the same thing. When it was time to go in for the first movie, a staff member came out and told us that it would start about 30 minutes late. This would of course cause us to miss all the other movies.
About 30 people stepped forward at the same time and asked to speak to the manager. :). We explained to him that it would throw our whole schedule off. Since it was Christmas, he was kind enough to adjust the schedule so that we could all see all three movies.
That was a great day.
- ianwalter 2y agoWow what a great set of movies too
- jedberg 2y ago1999 is considered by many enthusiasts as a peak movie year. It was a great cap to a great year. https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=feature&release_date=1999-01-01,1999-12-31 https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=feature&releas...
- ianwalter 2y agoI guess I never really thought about it, but yea a lot of bangers on that list
- cjbgkagh 2y agoOh that explains it, I thought it was just when I came of age. I did become suspicious that perhaps it wasn’t just a personal bias when I noticed the same movies on lists made by very different age groups.
- jedberg 2y agoI graduated in 1995 in LA. Going to the movies was something most of us did every weekend. Just show up and get a ticket for the next thing you haven’t seen yet. Many consider 1994 the best single year for movies ever. I got really lucky that that was also my peak movie going year.
- alex1138 2y ago1994: Shawshank, Forrest Gump... can't think of others right now
- Lio 2y agoPulp Fiction and Shallow Grave were two from 1994 that spring to mind for me.
- jedberg 2y agohttps://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=feature&release_date=1994-01-01,1994-12-31 https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=feature&releas... Pulp Fiction Lion King The Mask Four Weddings and a Funeral Dumb and Dumber The Crow Speed True Lies Interview with the Vampire Natural Born Killers Ace Ventura Stargate Clerks The list goes on. Lot's of movies that turned out to be classics or cult classics, or the start of some great careers.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- TheSpiceIsLife 2y agoIt was around this time, in a little city of about 15,000, in South Australia, when my mum received a gift and voucher from Blockbuster for being in the top ten for most movie rentals in one year. This was a time when movies were on VHS tapes, and there was a bit before the start of the movie that said something like “have you seen every movie ever made?”[1] And at the time it certainly felt like we had watch nearly everything that store and one other had over the previous five years. 1. https://youtu.be/VfuzebAAesk?si=z3-HYkZwJK6mmtWP https://youtu.be/VfuzebAAesk?si=z3-HYkZwJK6mmtWP - I think there was at least a couple variations
- j45 2y agoThat is one pretty unbelievable list.
- vladgur 2y agoOf course it was peak - the Matrix came out
- globular-toast 2y agoNobody even knows about Dark City which came out the same year. Because the freaking Matrix came out too. That's just how many good films there were that year. If Dark City came out today it would be lauded as most original thing in a decade.
- IOT_Apprentice 2y agoDon’t forget about Equlibrium with Christian Bale as a Tetragrammaton Cleric. Gunkata.
- koudelka 2y agoDon’t forget about The 13th Floor, also from 1999.
- vladgur 2y agoYoure right, Dark City was amazing. But the elevator lobby shootout from Matrix -- that scene ruled my home theater configuration for at least a decade
- OliveMate 2y agoWorth mentioning Office Space as well for 99. All three of those films comprise the Pre-Millennium paranoid, existential, system of control trilogy.
- lazystar 2y agohuh, american beauty was 99. i always remember the "plastic bag caught in the wind" scene - when i was in middle school, years before i saw the movie, i was sitting on the sidelines during football practice and saw a plastic bag caught in the wind. it was hypnotizing, enrapturing - i dont know how long i watched, but that floating bag caught against the side of the school building was one of the most beautiful things ive ever seen.
- globular-toast 2y agoIt was peak music too. I really don't think things have got much better since 1999. If you watch/listen to something even from 1997 it seems dated. But 99? Could have been made yesterday.
- auselen 2y agoI wasn’t aware of this, was still a teenager at that time. May be because of this I was never impressed with later years…
- JKCalhoun 2y agoI punched in 1972 and there were some fantastic movies that year (The Godfather, Deliverance, Cabaret, Solaris, Jeremiah Johnson, Aguirre - the Wrath of God, The Last House on the Left, Silent Running, The Heartbreak Kid, Fat City, etc.). Also tried 1973 — same (The Day of the Jackal, Soylent Green, Westworld, The Wicker Man, Papillon, American Graffiti, The Sting, Serpico, Mean Streets, High Plains Drifter, Don't Look Now, Badlands, The Long Goodbye, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Three Musketeers, Fantastic Planet, etc.). I think they simply made better movies decades ago.
- kizer 2y agoMaybe if they stopped the endless reboots, remakes, sequels and derivatives. There’s still a good one every once in a while. Oh well, I know what movie I’m watching today… you’ll shoot your eye out, kid!
- JKCalhoun 2y agoWelcome to Hollywood's two decades of superhero movies.... I'm sure historians will greedily watch many of the classics of this early part of the 21st Century. It's Christmas, I shouldn't be so negative. I think I'll indulge in Alastair Sims' version of "A Christmas Carol".
- cjbgkagh 2y agoIt’s the J.J. Abrams misery box storytelling that ruined most TV shows / movies for me. Turning lazy writing from a vice into a virtue. Many shows now feel like they’re actively and intentionally wasting my time, ironically curing me of my desire to watch TV/Movies freeing up time for better uses. The other lazy writing is the lack of conflict resolution enabling a continuous source of needless conflict, making an entire show out of a situation that could have easily been resolved if there had been a single ‘adult’ in the room. This has the added problem of normalizing the extreme confrontational or evasive communication styles as opposed to productive engagements. I guess this is what happens when TV raises a generation and then that generation goes on to make their own TV shows, each cycle worse than the previous. As bad as ‘engagement’/‘rage bait’ YouTubers are now I shudder to imagine what the next generation would bring.
- tux 2y agoThe Mummy (1999) was the first theater movie for me, it was an epic experience!
- 29athrowaway 2y agoJews have contributed significantly to what is recognizable today as Christmas time. Many catchy classic Christmas songs were written by Jewish songwriters.
- madnthrow 2y agoThat's nice!
- petre 2y agoBob Dylan has Jewish heritage as well, although I don't recall him writing any Christmas songs.
- defrost 2y agoI don't think he wrote any .. but he did release an entire album of classic christmas songs .. Christmas in the Heart (2009) - 34th Studio album by Bob Dylan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_in_the_Heart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_in_the_Heart
- asveikau 2y agoDidn't he go through a phase in the 80s in which he was super into Christianity?
- petre 2y agoYup, he embraced Christianity, that's why I wrote "heritage".
- midnightchair 2y agoRudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was written by a great Jewish man, how cool is that! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._May https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._May Rudolph has an odd nose, and he gets chosen to lead all the other Reindeer! Kids love this song. You teach it to them when they are young and they'll never forget it!
- consf 2y ago[flagged]
- Sam6late 2y agoI'm Muslim, so all my Christmas's school and college days were kinda the same, 1980s. I would have a real small tree xmass decorated at home and no one would blink about it, then wander over to my christian friends' neighborhood around noon to see what kind of cherry and wine they were serving. This is that neighborhood now https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1031546789002116&set=pcb.1031546879002107 https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1031546789002116&set=pcb...
- assimpleaspossi 2y agoA Jewish friend of mine would get a small tree and call it his "Moses bush".
- abustamam 2y agoI'm Muslim too and I always find it interesting to see how various non-Christian theists observe Christmas. Obviously we don't "celebrate" but I personally don't see anything wrong with partaking in the secular parts of Christmas (and let's be real, in the west, it's pretty much all secular). My parents felt otherwise when I was growing up, so my siblings and I weren't allowed to do anything Christmas related, but now my wife and I would do seasonal things like watch a live performance of Nutcracker or Pentatonix or TSO. And can't forget about watching the holiday classic movies like Elf and Die Hard!
- sgt 2y agoI spoke to a muslim who basically just "gave in" and started doing Christmas at home because the kids wanted it. With the tree and Xmas presents etc even.
- abustamam 2y agoYeah that's probably more common than you might expect. My mom is a teacher at an Islamic school and some of her 1st graders would often say stuff like "we have a Christmas tree at home but my mom told me not to tell anyone," which might give you an idea of how Muslims view Christmas. It's not something I personally want to do for my family, but I don't think any less of families that do that.
- Simon_O_Rourke 2y agoI'm largely of the "hell is other people" mindset around Christmas, from the overtly fascist elderly relatives to the incomprehensible demands of immediate family. I would love just one Christmas like that!
- andrepd 2y agoIndeed. If you have a nice family to be around at Christmas cherish it, it's not so common as it seems!
- BLKNSLVR 2y agoI think people tend to fascism as they age, the more they've done and seen and accumulated, the more conservative they get and the more their personal experience of the world must be maintained, protected. Talk to them about their youth, when they were wild and rebellious. Find out what trouble they caused. Remind them, and it just might crack the encrusted exterior a little bit.
- shdickxnsks 2y ago[dead]
- wholinator2 2y agoSee, i believe this is generally trueish for the current moment, has it always been true though? For example, I've already passed the time in which my father _insisted_ I would become conservative and have very much not developed anything like the conservative values of modern America. Though, maybe it's just that conservatism has drastically changed since the 70s. For instance, i certainly have become less insistent on things like UBI and more realistic about single payer Healthcare, but i have not developed disdain for illegal immigrants, the desire to force birth, anti-gay marriage, anti-trans, etc. Were these perquisites to be conservative in the 70s? I'd say im fiscally slightly left, but socially i simply cannot understand the rights positions, it just sounds like hater shit to me
- vixen99 2y agoAre you conflating fascism with conservatism? Stalin was a socialist, a fascist and a conservative in the sense in which the 'c' word indicates 'maintenance of the status quo'. Certainly conservatives like to conserve & we hope that means saving that which is generally considered worth conserving though opinions differ when it comes to the details. Hitler was a national socialist and most definitely a fascist. Unregulated powerful elements in any society will always tend towards a degree of compulsion to maintain their status and we're not short of examples in the West. 'and the more their personal experience of the world must be maintained, protected.' is merely an assertion which you choose to believe. I'm sure examples can be found but also plenty of counter examples. You can't generalize.
- kleiba 2y ago> But my favorite was Christmas 1999. My girlfriend was out of town Classic.
- i_am_a_peasant 2y agoI’m Jewish too. But I’ve always been around people who celebrate Christmas. I don’t bother lighting the Menorah for Hanukkah this year since I live alone. I got half a mind to go to the local temple and sit with strangers there but I don’t really feel like it. Treating myself to some McDonalds a la uber eats today. I never eat the stuff.
- bowmessage 2y agoPlease don’t poison yourself with that chemical food!
- mathgeek 2y agoI hope that Christmas finds you in a wealth of joy and whatever you’re looking for that causes such comments. We are all fighting our own battles and this is my sincere hope that you win yours!
- stormfather 2y agoSorry, what? Not wanting someone to poison themselves is an expression of love
- asveikau 2y agoOne meal won't kill them.
- throwawayq3423 2y ago> The dose makes the poison
- i_am_a_peasant 2y agoif it makes it any better I had a plant burger xD, i find it hilarious how everyone fixated on the mcdonalds part of the comment
- romanobro56 2y agoIf you started 30 minutes late you wouldn’t miss all the other movies just the middle one
- AznHisoka 2y agoOK, i am ignorant, but why do most Jewish people eat Chinese food on Christmas? Is there something I am missing?
- fumplethumb 2y agoMost other places are closed. Chinese restaurants are typically open on Christmas!
- chuckwnelson 2y agoMy understanding is it's the only other places that are open on Christmas.
- pitaj 2y agoI believe it's because Chinese restaurants historically are the only ones open since they don't celebrate Christmas.
- tasty_freeze 2y agoChinese restaurants are often owned by first or second generation Chinese immigrants who (1) aren't Christian and (2) haven't been in the US long enough to adopt local customs. Since restaurants often are marginally profitable, they tend to stay open on Christmas because there is profit to be made, especially since most of the competition is closed that day. If you are Jewish, Christmas obviously isn't nearly as important to your (often nominally) Christian neighbors and there isn't much to do on Christmas day. If you decide you don't want to cook, Chinese restaurants are way over-represented in the choice of open restaurants. Once you do that for a couple years it becomes its own tradition. I grew up in a Catholic household but my family, after years of making Turkey and spending hours cooking, for the past few years has switched to Chinese food on Christmas. I don't miss the turkey and gravy.
- throwup238 2y agoChinese restaurants will also often have whole roast duck which is an easy way to get the dinner centerpiece if you’re cooking the rest. My family doesn’t eat out but we always get a whole duck on Christmas and Thanksgiving (it’s a 20 year old tradition at this point).
- memhole 2y agoThis is the top comment I hope for on every Christmas. Some of us draw snowmen instead of Santas. We all get a day to enjoy in our own way though. Sounds like a great time.
- duckmysick 2y agoMy upbringing was pretty secular but we still did plenty of snow angels.