CALENDAR
thursday, dec.4
Fair Trade Holiday Sale. Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 11 a.m., all ages, FREE.
Holiday Open House.
Kansas Union, 12 p.m., all ages,
FREE, www.sueevs.com.
Hinder/Trapt/
Revelation Theory.
Uptown Theater, 7 p.m., all ages, $27.50.
American Civil Liberties
Union Benefit with
Samantha Clemmons/
Panda Circus/Brother
Bird. Eighth Street Tap
Room, 10 p.m., 21+,$3.
**That Damn Sasquatch.**
The Jazzhaus, 10 p.m., 21+,
$3.www.myspace.com/
damnthatsasquatch.
Opposite Day/New Franklin Panthers.
The Replay Lounge, 10 p.m., 21+, $2, mymypace.com/newfranklinpanthers.
friday, dec. 5
FREE PLAY at the Replay (Pinball). The Replay Lounge, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., all ages, FREE.
"A Christmas Story."
Lawrence Community Theatre, 8 p.m., all ages, $14-$20.
Juliana Hatfield/
Everyday Visuals/
Kirsten Paludan Band.
Record Bar 9:30 p.m., 18+,
$10-$12.
American Civil Liberties Union Benefit with Gerald Strokes/ Snugglebugs/Sadie Soul. Eighth Street Tap Room, 10 p.m., 21+, $3.
The Sunshine
Rains/1,000,000 Light
Years. The Jackpot, 10 p.m.
18+,$5-$7.
Cosmic Bowling. Kansas Union, jaybowl, 10 p.m., all ages, FREE.
Horse and Buggy Christmas Parade.
Downtown Lawrence, 11 a.m..
all ages. FREE.
saturday, dec. 6
Paul Green School of Rock. Record Bar, 4 p.m., all ages, $5, schoolofschool.com
The Tooth of Crime.
The Bottleneck, 7 p.m., all ages,$7.
"A Christmas Story."
Lawrence Community Theatre, 8 p.m., all ages, $14-$20.
Ad Astra Arkestra/
Black Christmas/
Spirit of the Stairs.
The jackpot, 10 p.m., 18+,
$5-$7. mywww.com/spirfthestairsmusic.
Trucker. The Jazzhaus, 10 p.m., 21+,$5.
Cosmic Bowling. Kansas Union, Jaybowl, 10 p.m., all ages, FREE.
Holiday Shopping Expo.
Holiday Inn Holidome, 10 a.m.,
all ages. FREE.
sunday, dec. 7
Eldridge Hotel Gingerbread Festival.
Eldridge Extended. 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., all ages, FREE.
Smackdown! The
Bottleneck, 8:30 p.m., 18+, $5.
Limbeck. The jackpot, 10
p.m., 18+, $7-$8, www.limbeck.
net
monday, dec. 8
Rural Grit Happy Hour.
The Brick, 6 p.m., 21+, $3.
Karaoke. Jazzzhaus, 10 p.m.
21+, FREE.
Sissy Wish/Andrew
Morgan/Fiat. The Record
Bar, 10 p.m., 21+,$7.
Metal School with DJ Motley Cruz. The Replay Lounge, 10 p.m., 21+ $1.
Symphonic Band and
University Band. Lied
Center, 7:30 p.m., all ages, $5.
tuesday, dec. 9
Tuesday Night Concert Series. Signs of Life, B p.m., all ages, FREE.
Tuesday Nite Swing. Kansas Union, 8 p.m., all ages. FREE.
Aaron Neville. The Voodoo Lounge, 8 p.m., 21+, $30-$40.
wednesday, dec. 10
Jack's Mannequin/
Eagles of Death Metal/
Anberlin. The Midland
Theatre, 6 p.m., all ages,
$19.65.
Bob Walkenhorst and Friends. The Record Bar, 10 p.m., 18+, $7, www.myspace.com/onefortheteam.
Pride Night. The Granada,
9 p.m., 18+, $5.
venues
The Brick
1727 McGee S.
Kansas City, Mo.
(816) 421-1634
Eighth Street Tap Room
801 New Hampshire St.
(785) 841-6918
Lawrence Community Theater
1501 New Hampshire St.
(785) 843-7469
The Midland Theatre
The Milford Theatre
1228 Main St.
Kansas City, Mo.
(816) 471-9703
The Record Bar
1020 Westport Road Kansas City, Mo. (816) 753-5207
Uptown Theater
3700 Broadway St.
Kansas City, Mo.
(816) 753-8665
editor's note
Every holiday season, my mom's side of the family gathers
'round the hearth for a lively viewing of the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
The way we get excited about watching this film—the way we recite entire scenes and laugh at every joke even though we've heard them dozens of times—would make you think Christmas Vacation is some genius work of cinema. An Oscar-winning masterpiece that rocks viewers souls, if you will.
But as we know, the film is in fact not even close to genius. It's a raucous romp through the holiday season with the dysfunctional Griswold family.
So why is this film so appealing to us? Maybe it's because we live in Kansas, and the movie's trastiest, crudest character, Cousin Eddie, lives in Kansas.
It could also be because we're from Topeka—codename:The Dirty Dirty—and for some reason the same domestic catastrophes depicted in the movie tend to pop up in our local newspaper's headlines.
Or maybe it's just because we've always watched this movie together and always loved it. It's a tradition, and so watching it makes us feel connected to each other.
So is the appeal of many films we know as "cult films." They're not necessarily great because of what's in the film, but because of their quirkiness, their exaggerations, their clichés and how all these things resonate with us in our lives.
We have the obvious cult classics of our generation such as Donnie Darko and Napoleon Dynamite. But rather than relishing the campiness of recent films, I've always found it more entertaining to dig into cult films of the past. Cult classics from the 1980s are my favorite, as I get to see Christian Slater before he outgrew his good looks (Pump Up the Volume) Winona Ryder before she robbed Saks Fifth Avenue (Heathers) and Johnny Depp before he was Disney's demigod (Cry-Baby).
Check out Derek's story on page 15, which explores just how certain films get elevated to cult status, as well as what makes us love these films.
No matter now dysfunctional my family is, we know we can never top the Griswolds and their misadventures in Christmas Vacation. Maybe that's the real reason we watch it.
- Megan Hirt, editor
jayplayers
Editor Megan Hirt
Associate editor Sasha Roe
Photo editor Jon Goering
Designers Drew Bergman, Peter Soto, Becky Sullivan
Contact Carly Halvorson, Matt Hirschfeld
Health Asher Fusco, Susan Melgren, Reale Roth
Manual Heather Melanson, Ariel Tilson
Notice Matt Bechtold, Nina
Libby, Sean Rosner
Play Brianne Pfannenstiel,
Derek Zarda
Contributors Mark Arehart.
Clayton Ashley, Darron Carswell,
Francesca Chambers, Matthew
Crooks, Miller Davis, Chance
Dibben, Chris Horn, Dani Hurst,
Mia Iverson, Amber Jackson,
Danny Nordstrom, Meghan
Nuckoilis, Abby Olcese, Amanda
Sorell, Elise Stawarz
Creative consultant Carol Holstead
Contact us
joyplay08@gmail.com
Jayplay
The University Daily Kansan
111 Stauffer-Flint Hall
1435 Jahawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045
(785) 864-4810
December 4,2008
3