[NFBofSC] Week of 12/26/2021 NFB of SC events

Sun Dec 26 19:15:35 UTC 2021

Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Sports & Rec special meeting: 7:00 PM Rocky Bottom Zoom

Movie Night 8:00 PM

National lampoons - Christmas vacation (1989) audio described Federation
Center Zoom 

Plot

Chicago-area resident Clark Griswold plans to have a great Christmas with
his entire family. He drives his wife Ellen, daughter Audrey, and son Rusty
out to the country to find a tree. After walking through the snow for hours,
Clark picks out the largest tree he can find. Realizing too late that they
did not bring any tools to cut the tree down, they are forced to uproot it
instead, before driving home with the tree strapped to the roof of their
car.

Soon after, both Clark's and Ellen's parents arrive for Christmas, but their
bickering quickly begins to annoy the family. Clark, however, maintains a
positive attitude, determined to have a "fun old-fashioned family
Christmas". He covers the house's entire exterior with 25,000 twinkle
lights, which fail to work at first, as he has accidentally wired them
through his garage's light switch. When they finally come on, they
temporarily cause a citywide power shortage and create chaos for Clark's
yuppie neighbors, Todd and Margo. While standing on the front lawn admiring
the lights, Clark is shocked to see Ellen's country-based cousin Cathrine
and her husband Eddie, as they arrive unannounced with their children, Rocky
and Ruby Sue, and their Rottweiler Snots. Eddie later admits that they are
living in the RV they arrived in as he is broke and has been forced to sell
his home and acreage. In addition, the older half of his children are too
busy to join Eddie in the visit. Clark offers to buy gifts for Eddie's kids
so they can still enjoy Christmas. Soon afterward, Clark's senile Aunt
Bethany and grumpy Uncle Lewis arrive as well.

Clark begins to wonder why his boss, Frank Shirley, has not given him his
yearly bonus, which he desperately needs to replace an advance payment he
has made to install a swimming pool for the coming summer. After a
disastrous Christmas Eve dinner, along with Bethany's cat getting
electrocuted and Uncle Lewis accidentally burning down the Christmas tree
while lighting his cigar, he finally receives an envelope from a company
messenger, who had failed to deliver it the day before. Instead of the
presumed bonus, the envelope contains a free year's membership for the
"Jelly of the Month Club". This prompts Clark to snap and go into a tirade
about Frank and, out of anger, request that he be delivered to the house,
wrapped in a bow, so Clark can insult him to his face.

Taking Clark's request literally, Eddie drives to Frank's mansion, and
kidnaps him. Frank admits to having canceled the Christmas bonuses, and
Clark chastises him for doing so. Meanwhile, Frank's wife, Helen, calls the
police, and a SWAT team storms the Griswold house and holds everyone at
gunpoint. Frank decides not to press charges and explains the situation to
his wife and the SWAT leader, both of whom scold him for his decision to
scrap the bonuses. Frank ultimately decides to reinstate the bonuses (with
Clark getting a bonus equal to last year's amount, plus 20% as
compensation).

The family heads outside when Rocky and Ruby Sue believe they see Santa
Claus in the distance. Clark tells them it is actually the Christmas Star
and that he finally realizes what the holiday means to him. Uncle Lewis says
the light is coming from the sewage treatment plant, reminding Clark that
Eddie had been dumping his RV sewage into the nearby storm drain. Before
Clark can stop him, Uncle Lewis tosses a match used to light his cigar into
the drain, triggering an explosion. The explosion sends a Santa's sleigh
decoration flying into the sky. Aunt Bethany starts singing "The
Star-Spangled Banner" and everyone joins in as the flaming decoration flies
into the distance.

The entire family, Frank and Helen, and the SWAT team members then celebrate
inside the house, while Clark and Ellen happily share a Christmas kiss, and
Clark stands outside satisfied that he provided a great Christmas for his
family. As the credits roll, he manages to give Snots the petting he wanted.

Cast

Chevy Chase as Clark W. "Sparky" Griswold Jr., the patriarch of the Griswold
family. Perpetually optimistic, and sometimes in denial, he is nonetheless
passionate about and dedicated to putting on the perfect family holiday.

Beverly D'Angelo as Ellen Griswold, Clark's wife. She does not share her
husband's outlook but still supports him in his Christmas endeavor.

Juliette Lewis as Audrey Griswold, Clark and Ellen's daughter. Audrey hates
the entire idea of the big family Christmas, especially when it affects her
social life. She was previously portrayed by Dana Barron and Dana Hill in
the last two films.

Johnny Galecki as Russ Griswold, Clark and Ellen's son. Russ supports his
father but is greatly annoyed by his relatives. He was previously portrayed
by Anthony Michael Hall and Jason Lively in the last two films.

John Randolph as Clark Griswold Sr., Clark's father.

Diane Ladd as Nora Griswold, Clark's mother.

E. G. Marshall as Art Smith, Ellen's father.

Doris Roberts as Frances Smith, Ellen's mother.

Miriam Flynn as Cathrine Johnson, Ellen's cousin.

Randy Quaid as Eddie Johnson, Cathrine's husband who brings his family to
Chicago unannounced and uninvited.

Cody Burger as Rocky Johnson, Eddie and Cathrine's son who has a lip fungus
that hasn't been identified yet and is mostly silent.

Ellen Hamilton Latzen as Ruby Sue Johnson, Eddie and Cathrine's daughter who
was formerly cross-eyed.

William Hickey as Lewis, Clark's grouchy uncle and the husband of Bethany
who wears a toupee and smokes cigars.

Mae Questel as Bethany, Clark's 80-year-old senile aunt and the wife of
Lewis.

Sam McMurray as Bill, Clark's co-worker and best friend at work.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Margo Chester, the Griswolds' yuppie neighbor who
despises Clark and takes the brunt of the Griswolds' antics.

Nicholas Guest as Todd Chester, Margo's husband who also despises Clark.

Brian Doyle-Murray as Frank Shirley, Clark's boss. He does not remember
Clark's first name and calls him different names until the final scene of
the movie.

Natalia Nogulich as Helen Shirley, Frank's wife.

Nicolette Scorsese as Mary, a lingerie counter clerk.

Alexander Folk as Lead SWAT Officer

Doug Llewelyn as the voice of the Parade Announcer

Production

Development and writing

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation originated from a short story by
writer John Hughes called "Christmas '59," which was published in the
December 1980 issue of National Lampoon magazine.[4] "The studio came to me
and begged for another one, and I only agreed because I had a good story to
base it on," said Hughes. "But those movies have become little more than
Chevy Chase vehicles."[5] Director Chris Columbus initially was to direct
the film, but due to a personality clash between him and Chase, Columbus
left the film and was replaced by Chechik. Hughes eventually gave Columbus
the script to Home Alone.[6][7]

Filming

Principal photography began on March 27, 1989, in Summit County,
Colorado,[8] with footage shot in Silverthorne, Breckenridge, and Frisco.[9]
>From there the production moved to Warner Bros. Ranch Facilities in Burbank,
California, where the set of the Griswold family's house and street is
located.[10]

Music

The musical score for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation was composed by
Angelo Badalamenti. It is the only installment of the Vacation film series
not to include Lindsey Buckingham's "Holiday Road". In its place is a song
entitled "Christmas Vacation" that was written for the movie by the
husband-and-wife songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and
performed by Mavis Staples of The Staple Singers fame.[11] The song was
covered in 2007 by High School Musical star Monique Coleman for the 2007
Christmas album Disney Channel Holiday.[12] Popular Christmas songs featured
in the film include Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters Hawaiian-themed "Mele
Kalikimaka",[13] and, during the climax of the film, Gene Autry's "Here
Comes Santa Claus".[14][15] For the latter song, Autry's re-recorded 1957
Challenge Records version is used.[16]

Despite several popular songs being present in the film, no official
soundtrack album was released. In 1999, a bootleg copy containing music
featured in the film along with select cuts of dialogue dubbed as the "10th
Anniversary Limited Edition" began to appear on Internet auction sites with
the claim that Warner Bros. and RedDotNet had pressed 20,000 CDs for Six
Flags Magic Mountain employees to sell to customers entering the park.[17]
However, while the discs were individually numbered out of 20,000, only
7,000 were sold as a part of an on demand production printed at gift shop
kiosks within the park.[18] Forums on movie music sites such as
SoundtrackCollector later declared the disc to be a bootleg due to its
inaccuracies.[19] For instance, the cut "Christmas Vacation Medley"
(claiming to be the work of composer Angelo Badalamenti) is really a track
called "Christmas at Carnegie Hall" from Home Alone 2: Lost in New York by
composer John Williams and does not actually contain any of Badalamenti's
Christmas Vacation score.

 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4awrn7eddQ&t=16s> Click here to view the
National Federation of the Blind of SC 2021 PSA!

Federation Center Zoom

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Meeting ID: 803 254 3777 Passcode: 124578

One tap mobile +19292056099,,8032543777# US (New York)

Note: recordings are deleted on Sundays. If you need a copy of the recording
for taking minutes, please send Steve Cook a message at
<mailto:cookcafe at sc.rr.com> cookcafe at sc.rr.com

 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4awrn7eddQ&t=16s> Click here to view the
National Federation of the Blind of SC 2021 PSA!

Rocky Bottom Zoom 

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Meeting ID: 864 878 9090 Passcode: 124578

One tap mobile +19292056099,,8648789090# US (New York)

Note: recordings are deleted on Sundays. If you need a copy of the recording
for taking minutes, please send Steve Cook a message at
<mailto:cookcafe at sc.rr.com> cookcafe at sc.rr.com

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