Show Notes
Merry Christmas 2018! This year’s celebration centers around our shared national obsession, Hallmark Christmas movies. Whether you love them or hate them, they are no doubt in your mind this season. For this particular episode, we generally trash them, but as always we try to find something redeeming about them as well. They clearly do reflect a desire for something good, but how much damage to the collective imagination is that worth? Joining Danny today is Kim Anderson, Jordan Poss, and Christopher Pipkin to share, reminisce, and theorize. Danny’s own argument in this show is that these films are not ‘lowbrow’ popular entertainment, but rather ‘middlebrow’ disposable art that perpetuates Capitalism’s most oppressive structures. But they are also rather fun, he supposes. Also in this episode, a “make a Hallmark story” game you can play with your family! If you’re going to watch these things, you might as well do something productive with them. Also, Chris Pipkin and his wife have created an online 12 Days of Christmas and everyone is welcome to check it out. Merry Christmas to all and check out the links in the shownotes!
Links:
“Hallmark Christmas Movies: Guilty Pleasures No More”
“Made for TV Christmas Movies are Big Business for the Hallmark Channel”
Deck the Hallmark Podcast
“Hallmark Channel is Finally Producing Holiday Movies with Black Leads”
“Why are Hallmark Movie Casts So White?”
“Five Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Hallmark Holiday Movies”
Danny’s Article about Tom Waits’ “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis”
Pipkin’s Twelve Days of Christmas Site (Highly Recommended!!)