Tag Archives: christmas

Advent Calendar 2014 — December 2

Find out the treat behind December 1 by clicking here!


You step through the odd painting onto what appears to be the soundstage of a television sitcom.

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The set looks like the kitchen from a show you used to watch called The Wonderful Dr. Dad and suddenly, the mysterious painting of the man and boy makes sense. It’s the series’ stars, Gary Oldman and little Henry Underwet from the episode where Dr. Dad turns himself into a balloon so he can attend his son’s birthday party without his ex-wife finding out.

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Before you have a chance wrap your head around this new information you get a tap on the shoulder, and turn around to find Gary Oldman himself staring at you.

“I know they don’t like me snacking in between takes but it’s been two hours since my last biscuit and if I don’t feed soon there’s no telling how it’ll effect my character and if my character doesn’t perform then the show doesn’t work and if the show doesn’t work you don’t have a job and if you don’t have a job, well… I’m not sure what you’ll do with the rest of your life but the fact that you’re a fetcher on a poorly rated sitcom can’t mean you have very many useful skills, capiche?”

Stunned, you muster the only words that come to mind:

“Yes Mr. Oldman, I’ll fetch you some dinner.”

To which he replies:

“Darling it’s quarter past two if I ate dinner now I might be inclined to turn into a werewolf. And please, call me Mr. Oldman.”

You’d always heard about the eccentricities of actors and make a mental note to write of this encounter in the comments section of the next blog you read that mentions Gary Oldman.

You’re off the find the actor some food and quickly locate a fridge in a kitchen area used by craft services. Before opening the fridge you take note of the art adorning its facade–mostly notes from the crew joking about stolen plums and a racy picture of Kathy Ireland sucking on an ice cube with “who is this??” scrawled over top by an inquisitive horn dog. Before you have time to provide the answer using a marker you find tucked behind your ear,  something else attracts your attention:

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Maybe it’s simply a bit of anti-war propaganda spread by Hollywood liberals who wouldn’t know a front line if it was drawn on the back of their hand with a ruler, but something tells you it’s more than that. You take a deep breath and open the fridge to reveal:

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Impossible! A full, walk-in freezer behind the door of a standard-sized Maytag? You look behind you to see a pissed-off Gary Oldman fast approaching brandishing a knife and fork. You take two deep breaths: one for courage and one to taste the air of network TV one last time and step through the fridge. The adventure continues…

Advent Calendar 2014 — December 1

It’s that time of year when you can start talking about Santa’s sack of toys without mom slapping your chest and telling you “it ain’t quite time for the big guy to fly”. In honour of all the good things that happen during the Holiday season, glennmacaulay.com presents this year’s Advent Calendar Adventure…


You awaken on the marble floor of a wide, opulent hallway lined with enormous pillars of obsidian holding up 75 foot ceilings. Each wall is covered with unusual and unfamiliar pieces of art of varying size and style. You rub your tired eyes, stand up and catch your reflection in a polished mirror that’s been grafted to one of the walls below a painting of a guitar with boobs. You’re dressed in plain white cotton from head to toe and on your feet you wear shoes of red canvas. You have no memory of how you arrived here. The last thing you remember clearly is being called to a meeting at work where an an improv troupe was attempting to sell the company on a corporate package that included expert instruction from a guy who looked like a bat.  You look up and down the hallway, which appears to have no end or beginning. Out of the corner of your eye, one piece of art catches your attention. It looks like this:

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There’s something that sets this piece apart from the rest but you can’t quite put your finger on it until you ignore every rule you’ve ever heard regarding art galleries and put your finger on it. It seems to be on some sort of hinge so you you feel around its frame and swing it open toward you. On the other side, another painting reveals itself:

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You don’t know why, but something about the strange painting entices you to touch it, probably because there isn’t anyone around to tell you otherwise and touching the first painting yielded results. Rather than feel the texture of the painting itself, you hand goes right through it as if it wasn’t there. You pull your hand back suddenly and examine it closely. It’s fine. Without second-guessing you climb through the painting and an adventure that you’ll never forget, begins…

Advent calendar – December 9

You were quite displeased when your mother pulled the homemade Advent calendar out of her bonnet. Traditionally, you had got your calendar from the magician around the corner, whose wondrous tricks translated surprisingly well to counting down the days in a month. Expecting yet another porridge-covered raisin, you peel off the December 9 window–stuck on with last summer’s gum–to reveal a pleasant surprise:

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It’s a wealthy woman trying lobster for the first time! You look back to where your mother is working on her album, expecting a wink or a “I put her there”. Instead, she goes about her business and you think that maybe, just maybe, the magician around the corner is totally boning her after all, for only his magic could produce such a treat.

Only 16 days until you say “I’ll give you your present later” to your significant other, hoping they’ll get horny enough to ignore the fact that you didn’t get them anything, relying on your body and aptitude for sex to keep them satisfied.

Advent calendar – December 8

While the cider softly boils on the stove next to a pot of warm butter–ready any weary traveller with fresh buns on his knees–you sit down in front of the TV and excitedly peel back the December 8 window on your calendar revealing these two staring into your yellow eyes:

ImageAfter some initial disgust you realize that they aren’t the prize but rather the prize-mongers, presenting a potted weed, just for you.

“Plant this next to your toy shed,” said the one you figure is a man.
“It will ward off child bandits,” furthered the one you assume is the man’s wife, who you assume is a woman.

You take the weed and close the window on the calendar. You take a long sniff of the thing and it smells like the most delicious candy you’ve ever smelled with rich notes of chocolate, caramel and cherry dust. You remove a small leaf and feed it to your test cat, who gobbles it down without a moment’s notice then ages in front of your eyes into the old girl you always wanted. You now understand the power of the weed and quietly thank Saint Nicholas, for your toy shed had up until that point been the most vulnerable on the compound.

Only 17 days left until your family takes turns bringing gravy to the toilet because you used baking powder instead of flour and they were too scared to tell you. Remember what happened when no one liked your Brussels sprouts? Your cousin never did regrow his nose like you said.

Advent calendar – December 7

Since it’s Saturday and you don’t have to sheer the goats until sundown, you take a thermos of sauce down to the old barn for today’s calendar treat. You take a seat on the same hay your mother fed to you as a baby and take the Advent calendar out of its folder. Using the fingernails you grew for Halloween and decided to keep because they pick zits so well, you peel back the December 7 window to reveal…

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….ooooo look at that! An official NASA terraform sampler set, the very same brought to space by astronauts looking to trade our trees for the aliens’ cure for runny bums. The mission was of course unsuccessful but I’m we’ll all never forget Captain James Bafe’s famous quote, “we thought they’d notice us if we started peeing on the moon, but they never showed. Goddamn cowards”.

Only 18 days left until you go to church only because it’ll kill time before you get that new drill.

Advent calendar – December 5

You can’t believe that it’s December 5th already, mainly because you were in a coma for most of November. With shaky hands and clouded vision (holdover from the coma), you take an pocket knife to the leather window on your Advent calendar to reveal:

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You very own tortoise slave! A big one too. You won’t get to give it a name until you train it to bathe you, but you’re thinking something along the lines of ‘King Plomp’ after a character in the epic dream you had while comatose. 

Only 20 days left until talking to anyone but your family is considered terribly rude. 

 

Advent calendar – December 4

You invite your friend Mobert over to share in the opening of the December 4 window on your Advent calendar. After readying the barf bucket, you peel back the steel-enforced cardboard to reveal:

??????????????????????????????????????????????A woman pigging out, watching a closed-circuit feed of you opening the window. You don’t close the window for fear of the universe collapsing on itself.

Only 21 more days left until we take our stockings down and put them back on the big feet of our nation’s basketball stars. For 25 days in December they have to use oven mitts.

 

Advent calendar – December 2

After a lovely breakfast of spiced ivy and cranberries on rye, you excitedly peel back the “December 2” window on you calendar to reveal this one act play, already in progress:

imjustdoingmyjobfinallarge-500x383The play is called “Rina’s Tacos”.

Only 23 more days until rich people show poor people who’s boss when it comes to putting smiles on the delicate faces of our planet’s children and well-bred pets.

 

Advent calendar – December 1

You open the “December 1” window on your Advent calendar to reveal this beautiful, handmade toy:

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Only 24 more days left until Santa takes his reindeer out of the pit, loads up his sleigh with Gatorade and hot dog wieners and slides down your chimney to drop off toys and use the shower.