Nestor: The Long Eared Christmas Donkey

Toyfare is my all time favorite magazine despite the fact I no longer actively collect action figures. The reason the magazine forevermore has my loyalty in reading is the fact that it's the most clever celebration of nerdy fanboy/girl humor I have ever encountered. Or simply put? From start to end I haven't read one issue of Toyfare that I haven't gotten all of the jokes in it.

Recently they did a Top 10 of the lamest Christmas movies and specials and number ten was a movie that before now I didn't know anyone besides me had ever seen it. A horribly lame stop motion animation movie called Nestor: The Long Eared Christmas Donkey. Anytime I brought the movie up my friends always stared at me like I was on crack. Especially when I went into the plot synopsis. I'm feeling typically lazy and lethargic so I'm just going to cut and paste what imdb.com has to say about this utterly insane holiday special.

"The wondrous story of Christ's birth is told by an unlikely source: Nestor, a gentle donkey with incredibly long ears and a first-hand knowledge of life in a stable. This simple tale, which takes place in the days of the Roman Empire, is about a humble couple about to take a long journey to Bethlehem and a small, insignificant donkey that is destined to help them along. By all outward appearances, Nestor does not deserve such a privilege. Stable animals tease him incessantly for his long appendages until, finally, he is cast out of the barn into the winter cold. Snow and ice bring about even greater calamity for Nestor until he receives a dose of divine goodness. Nestor meets Tilly, a heavenly cherub (voiced by Brenda Vaccaro) who imparts guidance to the despairing burro and tells him that soon he will be chosen to participate in a miracle involving a star, a baby, a lowly stable, and some travelers named Mary and Joseph. Short and sweet, this stop-motion Christmas gem from Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass is narrated by Roger Miller. Get out the hanky for an understated holiday classic that will appeal to families of all ages."

What they don't comment on is the generally abusive behavior Nestor gets from the stable owner and the other animals. It's fucking hilarious because it's just so over the top in its cruelty. After reading the Top 10 list in Toyfare I went online and found out the movie is currently out on a holiday dvd that also has The Year Without a Santa Claus and Rudolph's Shiny New Year on it.

And yes, oh yes, I have purchased the dvd. Pat? We so have to use Nestor for our bad movie showing at the next convention. I also need to remember to bring those Japanese Anime bible stories, Joseph In Bondage and Sodom and Gomorrah. Such pure quality.

Write Angst or Not To Write Angst?

I've been contemplating writing a very angsty and bittersweet Danish romance story that details Dana finding out she has cancer, telling Alice, and then the two of them rebuilding their friendship and romance. It would be angsty because it would follow the most grim outcome of the disease and Dana dying from the cancer and her spending the final days of her life with the woman she loves.

Writing stories like this tends to be emotionally draining and a very involved task. If I did write it I would set it up much like Neither Angels Nor Demons and have the story be a longer one shot novel. I'm wavering on writing it because although all the women in my family, father and mother's side, have died of various forms of cancer I really don't know the technicalities of treatment and I'm not looking forward to doing research. I would have to do research because if you're going to write something you should write it correctly. Especially about something this serious.

Maybe I could write the story and only focus minimally on the cancer treatment. Towards the end I was going to have Dana and Alice living together in a house on the beach they rent because Dana has always wanted to live by the beach. At that point I was going to have her refusing to go back to the chemotherapy because it's become futile and she wants to spend her last days in what appears to be relative health with Alice instead of hooked up to machines in the hospital.

I might be prejudicial since that's what all the women in my family have done. Then again, I would or will do the same most likely. Dying in a hospital is so very... I don't know. Cold and clinical somehow. Especially when you know the death is coming.

Should I write the story I'm going to name it All The White Horses which is a lyric from the song Winter by Tori Amos. I would also use that song as the theme for the story as well. If you want to listen here's a link:

http://s55.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2SG4AMXYS7WHX0RIHNMXK9N6HN

While I'm not too fond of writing utterly dramatic and emotionally draining stories like this one would be, I'm leaning towards writing it just because I have this awful feeling that Alice and Dana's romance along with Dana's illness is not going to be written in a very developed and I suppose poignant manner. Not that I think I'm a genius when it comes to writing such things. I just want to see it written in close to that manner and I doubt it will be which angers me and makes me want to write it myself, you know?