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arts entertainmentHolidays

Skip the politics, pass the pop culture conversation this Thanksgiving

Here's the deal, you're about to be stuck around a table or on the couch with your relatives. Yes, you love them, but sometimes Uncle Ernest can be a little insufferable because he always wants to talk about politics and religion.

GuideLive gets it. We consider ourselves a family and we want to give you the gift of fun things to discuss this holiday season. Here are our suggestions from our family, to yours:

Adele

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Hellooooo, from the other side...of the table. Yes, as SNL showed us last week, Adele's sadness heals all wounds. Her new album 25 is not available on streaming sites like Spotify or Apple Music, so you're gonna have to party like it is 1995 and buy a physical copy of the CD. If you're like me and have zero disc drives in your life, then perhaps your conversation will turn to explaining the Cloud, why your music is there and if it will soon be gone forever. 

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Goats

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Goats in 2015 are no Billy Goats Gruff. In fact, they are a cultural touchstone to the GuideLive staff. Our own, Brentney Hamilton hails from Telephone, Texas, where her family runs a goat ranch. You read right, a goat ranch. Here a goat, there a goat, everywhere a goat goat. They raise Kiko and Toggenburg breeds of goats. Brentney's mom confirmed that they avoid Boar goats because "they seem too sensitive and our goats have to be hardy." They also once received a pygmy goat on accident during a trade. Whoops. Contrary to popular belief, goats are selective eaters and are naturally curious. It only makes sense why animals of such discerning tastes would be such great conversation starters.

Leon Bridges

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Bring Leon Bridges home to your Thanksgiving table. The Fort Worth native is practically having his cake and eating it too with all the love he's gotten in the past year. What better time to invite him into your home than the holidays. Bust out the old record player, grab a vinyl copy of Coming Home and start dancing the turkey off.

Baby announcements

If you're like me, you both dread and wonder every year if a relative will announce a pregnancy. Well, this year you can skip that all together and watch this North Texas couple be told they are going to be grandparents. Naheed Rajwani, a staff writer for The Dallas Morning News, has the full story. It is adorable. Read it. Pass your phone around to share the video. Discuss. 

Star Wars

May the Force be with you at the table. There are parts of the Star Wars series that everyone can agree on. A few that come to mind: Darth Vader is Luke's father, Jar Jar Binks was the worst and how the freaking adorable BB-8 has been the star of the trailers thus far. Take some time this holiday to share your favorite quotes. Regale your family with stories from when you saw your first Star Wars movie or memory — mine was buying the remastered original trilogy box-set at Target with my dad. For the record, I wanted to be an Ewok and I still do.

Hamilton, the musical about Alexander Hamilton

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If I were to pick one thing to talk about during my Thanksgiving meal, it would be Hamilton. The musical is currently on Broadway after a successful run at the Public Theater in New York. Written and composed by Lin Manuel Miranda, Hamilton is the story of Alexander Hamilton and the founding of America. The Founding Fathers are all played by what a cast that Miranda has described as "America now, playing America then." The music is hip-hop and rap because it is the natural choice for a scrappy young nation trying to make a go of it. It is also the only genre that can pack in enough syllables per measure for Hamilton's ideas and sense of urgency to be expressed. Fall down the YouTube hole, go check it out on Spotify, sing every song with your family.