Christmas Links #5

Kiss me, Chromedome: how the Transformers found peace and same-sex partnerships:
"A spin-off comic has shape-shifted the smash ’em up Transformers robots into a world of same-sex partnerships and a leader modelled on Tony Benn."
[Friend of the blog and DWM reviewer Graham Kibble-White writes for The Guardian! -- ed.]

Couple rewrites 'Baby It's Cold Outside' to emphasize importance of consent:
"A couple from Minnesota has re-imagined the classic Christmas song "Baby It's Cold Outside" for a 21st-century audience, changing the song's lyrics to emphasize the importance of consent."

Recipes: from venison meatballs to mulled glögg – food cooked over a birch fire:
"So much Swedish cooking is about fragrance. Since I run a restaurant that doesn’t use gas or electricity, only Scandinavian wood, I appreciate the scent of burning logs and coals as much as I do the sweet caramelising of meat or the nuttiness of melting butter. At home, I often cook outside with birch fires; the smell of wood and spices mingling in the fresh winter air is delicious."

Sight and Sound's Best Films of 2016:
"Time again for our annual international critics’ poll of the year’s top movies. This year we asked 163 critics and curators to name their five best films of the year – and the results are a small triumph for diversity (not to mention a lot of treats still to come to UK cinemas over the next few months). Films directed by women make up the majority of the top five, alongside Barry Jenkins’ gay black coming of age portrait Moonlight in second place."

Christmas Lights Turned on in Bethlehem:
"Hundreds of people gathered in Bethlehem to attend the annual turning on of Christmas tree lights in the West Bank city, marking the start of the Advent season."



BBC One Christmas Advert 2016.
[Fabulously inclusive film about the audience.]

Premature twin family prepare for first Christmas:
"A couple who refused to switch off their baby's life support after her sister died have told how she "never gave up" on her fight for life."

A Grinch stole a Grinch, but fret not, Seattle. Christmas will come:
"I want to highlight a good deed that someone has done this Christmas season."

Record 1,378 Christmas trees at Melton Mowbray festival:
"A Christmas tree festival has again broken its own record for the number of trees in a church."

The Snowflake Trail:
"From 1 December – 3 January Liverpool city centre will be transformed into a festive spectacle by the return of the Snowflake Trail; the city’s very own winter festival of spectacular light and sound that will capture the imagination of young and old alike."