Have You Seen Me Today?

"Have you seen me today?
I was the girl with the hair astray
My form impressioned in the sand..."

-Excerpt of a poem by Anne Pfeiffer

Knights, Ladies, and Dragon-Slaying

I am a romantic. Not in the Valentine's Day, rose petals and "oooh, a cute boy!" way. I love chivalry, heroes and the Middle Ages, fierce battles, brilliant painters, the Renaissance, damsels (who aren't in distress) and the courage to do whatever it takes to kill the dragon. I've been in a sort of giddy, "I want to kill a dragon and run off with a knight as we fight off the evil king and live in a secret castle underground" mood. I've been blasting my swashbuckling movie soundtracks, dancing to "Lusty Month of May" from Camelot and feeling more important than I should while The Fellowship of the Ring's battle music plays. In short, as my brother says, I've been "swashing some buckles." (And if you don't get that joke you need to read up on your Robin Hood, Treasure Island and Hero and the Crown.)

Under Construction

Sorry about the crazy colors and readjustments my blog is going through right now. I'm "remodeling" and it might look a little odd until I'm done. Thank you.

Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea:
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my ANNABEL LEE;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful ANNABEL LEE;
So that her high-born kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!-that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night
Chilling and killing my ANNABEL LEE.

But our love it was stronger than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE,

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling-my darling-my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Shoes I Love Unashamedly

I'm not one of those crazy shoe people, but I love JCrew's shoes, especially the Wellies. I don't know why their clothes seem so British to me...maybe it's because for me, an American who's never been to Europe, Virginia is what I suppose England to be like...rolling hills, gigantic oak trees, old book stores with dust covered volumes, and creeks that are lots of fun to wade in as you wear your Wellies. A Thoroughbred horse or two doesn't hurt either.

Quote of the Week, Saturday November 25th

"A smile is a whisper of a laugh."

-Author Unknown

Cleopatra

Cleopatra is deserving of all the attention she has gotten over the centuries. When the world was dominated by power hungry men, she stood firm and stubbornly worked to make her country as wonderful as it could be, despite a tumultuous upbringing which included a forced marriage to her younger brother. She was bold with her requests and didn't mind raising an eyebrow or two. It's not fair that all people think of when they think of Cleopatra is sexy siren. Yes, sometimes she used her body to um, "forge alliances," which I obviously think is wrong, but she deserves more respect than that. The films that have burned her permanently into pop culture beautifully portrayed the opulence of Egypt, a land where rulers were led to believe that they were gods and all they did was just. The film photographs are of Elizabeth Taylor and Vivien Leigh.

The Screwtape Letters

C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite authors. (Maybe my top favorite.) This book is incredible. It is about two demons, Screwtape and Wormwood, who correspond in letters about the tempting of humans. The book isn't meant so much to be a fantasy novel as a book on theology, a way of looking at our faith in a different way and questioning what we truly believe. You don't have to be a Christian to appreciate this book, nor do you have to be a whiz kid or a minister. It's simple, yet complex, and completely beautiful (as C.S. Lewis' work generally is.) I'm the kind of person who always sees how far I can go before I technically "sin. This book really convicted me. How would your behaviour change if you knew that Satan was luring you over with the little things?

Music That's Rockin' My World

I love early Beatle's music. I love music I can dance to (as you've probably gathered from my previous posts.) They really did change the music scene. My hat's off to those fine blokes across the pond.

I love books. Bookstores are my favorite places in the whole world (next to the woods. I saw a buck right outside my fence today...now that's poetry.) When someone writes a book, they pour a part of their life, their thoughts, their soul, into their work. So when you think about it, a bookstore is filled with pieces of souls. Some of the pieces are confused, some are bits of people's minds I really never wanted to see, but most are wonderful. Thoughts just come out better with some paper and ink. If you leave them bottled up inside too long, they'll get over crowded by other thoughts. And that's why, of course, some people go mad.

Shallow Post of the Week

Heath is gorgeous. The End.

(Technically "Dirty Dancing" should have been the shallow post, but I managed to embarass myself by trying to make it high and lofty.)


The Real End.

Quote of the Week: Saturday, November 18th

"Do one thing every day that scares you."

-Eleanor Roosevelt

Dirty Dancing

I love dancing. It is so freeing. I love ballet (though I'm not very good at it,) swing, show dancing, modern...making your body look like it's totally loose, while you really have to control every muscle and know how to move each one individually, fluidly. I just watched Dirty Dancing again tonight. I know that morally speaking, it's not that great, but I love dancing...I can't watch it and not want to dance.

Film Flash: Corpse Bride

Tim Burton's visual style is so unique: you know instantly if you are watching a Burton film. I love the fairy-tale quality, stretched out proportions and subtly sarcastic nature of the movie (Danny Elfman's soundtrack doesn't hurt much either.) Stop-motion animation is a dying art form. Hopefully more people will get interested in it from watching this beautiful film.

Mary Cassat

These pictures might look generic to you, but at one time, they were revolutionary, even rebellious. Mary Cassat was a painter when it was considered improper. There were very strict rules for painting: everything had to be painted realistically, and only classical subjects, such as mythology or Bible stories, were considered worthy of any consideration. Instead. Mary chose to use loose brush strokes and paint ordinary people doing ordinary things. You don't always need to run away or dress goth to be rebellious (though these things aren't always bad.) Sometimes you just have to look at the world a little differently.

Film Flash: Marie Antoinette

The new film Marie Antoinette, by Sofia Coppola, has recieved a lot of media attention, both good and bad. Though the acting midght be mediocre and the plot watered down, the costumes, stunning scenery and rock music soundtrack make it a great film to watch: it is almost like a moving painting. This is a film I would love to watch in pieces (all at once is a bit long) any time I feel the aristic side of my films is uninspired. The best scenes are the party scenes: it really humanizes the characters, and takes away some of stuffiness we tend to attribute to royals.

Music That's Rockin' My World

My dad found KT Tunstall's cd at a used record store for $5, and I'm really glad he bought it. Her voice is deep and jazzy, and her songs all have an acoustic folksy rock ballad vibe (what do you think of my new musical category?) You might know her song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" from American Idol, or "Suddenly I See" from The Devil Wears Prada. I promise it only gets better.

Sirens

There have always been certain woman in pop culture who have that extra "oomph." Women who aren't afraid to be curvy (or use a very good corset,) women that every girl wants to be and every man wants to date, women who effortlessly walk the line between classy and trashy and glamorous.
The screen siren style never truly dies. A siren, unlike a bond girl or a tramp, has brains and mystique to match her curves.


Some of these women are: Veronica Lake, Marilyn Monroe, Faye Dunaway, Evylyn Nesbit, Donna Reed, Greta Garbo, Angelina Jolie, and Jessica Lange. Pictured are Scarlett Johansson, Elizabeth Taylor, Beyonce and Eva Mendes.

A Little Magic Never Hurt Anyone...

If you've read my blog before, you've probably noticed how much fairy tales have influenced my work. So it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to find that my returning blog after a long absence is devoted to magic. (Of the fairy tale sort, of course.)

I recently saw the film The Illusionist with my brother and his friend. The movie is made to look old, and has a deliberately slow pacing that makes it compareable to old 1940's films or an old book. Even if you couldn't care less about a film's quality, I think you'll like this film...the story keeps you guessing until the last three minutes, and the magic performed in the film will make you wish that you were an illusionist.

My other note: I found these funny little pixie dolls on a website called www.moolka.com. This website has lots of whimsical, creative toys that makes me wish that I was little again.

The Music That's Rockin' My World

I was introduced to the soundtrack for the musical Ragtime by my friend Charles, a fellow actor. When he told me it was better than Les Miserables, I was skeptical, but all I had to do was hear it, and I was hooked. The story line blends back and forth between historical and fictional, comedic and dramatic, bid show tunes and soaring ballads-it's definitely worth listening to. I could write on and on and on...but just take my word for this one (or Charles'.)