Shriya Saran Photoshoot, 08 More images after the break...
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Face of the Month — Katharine McPhee
Ritemail Face of the Month — Katharine McPhee, 13 More images after the break...
Too long in Power
Queen Elizabeth II
UK: 59 years
UK: 59 years
Pictures of the world leaders who are very long in power. 12 More after the break...
The 10 Strangest Laws Around the World
01. Singapore
In a bid to keep the streets of this super-efficient city clean, the authorities in Singapore decided in 1992 to ban chewing gum completely. Stick to a mint. 09 More after the break...
Old And Rare Dollar Bills
Old And Rare Dollar Bills, 21 More images after the break...
Beauty and the Beast by John Dickson Batten
Another painting for a Saturday. Batten is perhaps best known today for his illustrations for many of Joseph Jacobs collections. He has a gallery on SurLaLune.
Found via Children's / Fantasy Illustrations, originally from Birmingham Museums and Arts Gallery.
Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast by Joseph Edward Southall
And here's another from Southall who was a contemporary of Walter Crane, this time from Beauty and the Beast. "He was one of the founding members of the Society of Painters in Tempera in 1901 together with Walter Crane and Holman Hunt."
"Beauty Seeing the Image of her Home in the Fountain"
Sleeping Beauty found via Children's / Fantasy Illustrations, originally from Birmingham Museums and Arts Gallery. Beauty and the Beast via Art Fund.
Friday, February 25, 2011
CafePress 15% Off Coupon Today Only
CafePress rarely offers coupons or discounts for shop items, such as the SurLaLune Shop. However, today only, you can save 15% off orders over $45.* Use code FFEB1145.
My favorite things from CafePress are the tiles and ornaments, both of which are popular with others, too. Of course, there are always t-shirts, too...
*Save 15% off for cafepress.com shop orders of $45 or more, excluding shipping charges, gift wrap charges and applicable sales tax. All orders must be added to cart from cafepress.com shops only. Excludes CafePress marketplace purchases (e.g. all products added to cart from URLs beginning with the following (i) http://shop.cafepress.com, (ii) http://t-shirts.cafepress.com and/or (iii) http://www.cafepress.com/sk/), Gift Certificates, Flip products, SIGG bottles, Thermos products, yoga mats and CafePress Make, Groups, and bulk orders. Coupon code FFEB1145 must be entered at check out. Promotion starts on February 24, 2011 at 12:00 a.m. (PST) and ends on February 25, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. (PST). Offer valid online at cafepress.com only, cannot be combined with any other coupons or promotions and may change, be modified or cancelled at anytime without notice. This promotion cannot be applied to past orders.
Using Goldilocks in Education, Especially Recycling
This article described some unusual usage of Goldilocks in education. Thought I would share. From Read all about it: How to make a chair from newspaper:
PUPPETRY, porridge flicking and chair-making are keeping hundreds of crafty youngsters entertained throughout their half-term holidays.
Children's charity ST-ART, based in Barton-Upon-Humber, has been hosting a variety of exciting and innovative workshops across North Lincolnshire this week.
All activities were based on the popular traditional fairytale Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Children transformed recycled newspaper into hand-made stools with artist Michael Scrimshaw.
Callum Oldridge, 11, said: "The workshop was lots of fun.
"I cannot believe that you can make a stool that you can actually sit on simply out of newspaper.
"We used a machine to squash the paper into rolls so it was really hard and then we used cable ties to fix it all together.
"I am surprised how strong the stool is and I will take it home and use it in my bedroom."
Sort of Off Topic: Who Do You Think You Are?
Okay, this is not directly fairy tale or folklore related, but I wanted to share it because I am finding so few people actually know about it. Currently, one of my favorite shows is "Who Do You Think You Are?" which airs on NBC on Friday nights right now. There is a new episode tonight.
CNN had an article about it this week, calling it one of those great shows you aren't watching.
Forget the "NCISs," the "CSIs" and even "SVU." The most suspenseful hour on television is "Who Do You Think You Are?" And it doesn't rely on bullets, blood or a Bieber cameo to deliver thrills.And I will never forget this one either:
For those who haven't seen the show -- and hang your head in shame if you haven't -- this Friday-night NBC reality series follows celebrities as they discover their roots with the help of family members, genealogists and historians.
Sounds ho-hum? Hardly!
Each episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?" packs more twists and turns than a week in the life of Charlie Sheen.
Last season, Sarah Jessica Parker learned that her 10th great-grandmother, Esther Elwell, was involved in the Salem witch trials. But was Esther the accused or the accuser? First, a commercial!
Vanessa Williams visited the National Archives to find out more about Carll and was not only presented with a tintype photograph of him in uniform, she discovered that he was born a free man: Asked on his pension file whether he had ever been a slave, he wrote, "Never."
Not "no." "Never."
Anyway, I watched all of last season's seven episodes when they aired. See, I am an enthusiastic amateur genealogist. I even interned at a genealogical library in grad school. (It wasn't all fairy tales and children's lit with me.) I am the family historian and archivist, too. So I eat this stuff up. I had them all on my DVR and didn't erase them until I preordered the first season on DVD
.The good news is that the show did well enough--and NBC is doing poorly enough--for this to have gotten a second season. To be honest, I could care less about the celebrity aspect although it does add a level of knowledge and foreknowledge going in and I guess is necessary to pull in more viewers. Personally I'd love to see the same with some not-so-famous people, too.
Last season's episodes about Lisa Kudrow and Spike Lee were probably my favorites with Matthew Broderick of interest, too, since I am a Southerner and he visited places I know. As did Vanessa Williams for that matter--she walked through the Tennessee State Capitol, something you can do, too, if you visit the Southern Festival of Books in October.
Now many of the full episodes are online on the show's site. They are free to view. The second season, best of all, learned from its mistakes in the first season and has only improved with less repetition and more thorough investigations. There is also a lot more history sharing in general which makes it interesting on a whole other level. I thought the episode two weeks ago with Tim McGraw was one of the best yet and I learned some history I didn't know.
And, yes, this is genealogy at its glorified best. The dead ends are not emphasized, only the triumphs. The nature of the show is to entertain but it also inspires. Money pays for experts in their fields. Money pays for trips to locations that aren't necessary in real genealogy work but make great visuals for television. Brooke Shields got some of the best with several European locations.
Tonight should be great, too. It's Kim Cattrall and I know there is some bigamy involved. Susan Sarandon had a similar experience last season. It always amazed me how much knowledge we lose within just a few generations.
And, yes, there is some folklore involved because that is how we also learn about our ancestors. Set your DVRs or watch online, but do watch if this interests you at all. I am hoping for a third season and need your help to get it!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Film, Women and Fairy Tales
Yes, there are a lot of articles about Hollywood's explosion of fairy tale projects. Here are some excerpts from another interesting one. From From fairy tales to scary tales: Hollywood embraces dark fantasies by Liam Lacey:
What’s happening is the guys continue to enjoy fantasies of mid-air acrobatics, gun fights and explosions, while women are attached to supernatural tales of sex and terror.
Looking at the recently minted celebrities associated with these projects, you get a clue to the audience for these new films: Stewart, Seyfried, Hudgens, Gomez, an Olsen twin. They’re all stars to girls and young women. The Twilight movies, which have made almost $1.8-billion worldwide, are the model for girl movies that mark the transition from fairy tales to horror.
According to the Motion Picture Association of America’s numbers, almost half of the movie-going audience in the United States and Canada is under 24 years old (though the total audience is only a third of the population) and a slight majority of them is female, including the horror fans.
For decades, it was assumed that horror movies were outlets for young males to watch girls in their underwear getting chased by masked knife-wielding maniacs. But nowadays women under 25 constitute about 52 per cent of the horror market and studios are increasingly catering to that group. Orphan (2009), written by Red Riding Hood’s David Johnson, is typical of the trend of creating horror films with a female heroine – it stars Vera Farmiga as a mother defending her family from her evil adopted child.
The distance between fairy tales and scary tales isn’t that long in a girl’s life. Particularly successful for studios are scary movies that earn the PG-13 rating in the United States, or parental guidance for those younger than 13. In other words, these are first-date movies. In an Entertainment Weekly story, Mandate Pictures president Nathan Kahane, who produced The Grudge movies and Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell, put it this way: “Girls are driving the ideas for those early dates. There aren't that many social opportunities to be in the dark holding hands, and that's what the PG-13 horror film offers.”
So fairy tales are Hollywood's way of marketing to women? They aren't being ignored? At least not the older ones who spend money. Then there's the recent studies that horror jumpstarts women's libidos and women make up 52% of the horror viewing audience. (Sorry I lost the reference on this computer.) So we have most of these being made into horror type films. This is much more than Twilight influences. Discuss...
Thoughts on Storytelling
From American linguist explores ancient town by Sonali Shenoy, about storyteller Cathryn Fairlee:
Next on her itinerary is Kancheepuram, where she is attending a village performance of the Mahabharata. “Not many people in the US know much about Hinduism or what an incredible story this epic really is. And when I tell it, I put the names up on a board like the Pandavas or Draupadi, because although the names are foreign, people can follow the story this way,” she explains.
But these adjustments never affect the story itself.
“I always tell people that if you don’t like a story, don’t tell it, but never change the ending.” A case in point?
The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson. In the original version of the 1837 tale, the mermaid dies, far from the happy ending most of us remember courtesy Walt Disney’s movie adaptation. But why not change the ending to make people happy? There is no hesitation in Cathryn’s reply.
“You know if a story has been told for over a hundred years a certain way, it is not right to disrespect it, or the way it was told.”
This lady of the yarn says that it is getting harder to come across stories she has never heard before.
“I remember once when my husband and I were in China, and we were listening to a woman narrate a story in a dialect that I could not understand. After she left, her son began to translate the story and I was so excited because I realised that it was a Chinese version of Beauty and the Beast!”
Lots of food for thought in just a few short paragraphs. The debate over modern storytellers (not writers, but storytellers) changing old tales is a long one. I'm rather neutral on it since I know how much all tales are changed. However, when presenting tales as part of our cultural heritage as Fairlee does, I agree. And don't you want to hear that Chinese Beauty and the Beast?
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Cinderella Ph.D.
From University offering crash course in 'Cinderella' by Becky Wright:
Weber State University is offering a Cinderella Ph.D. course. It's not a comprehensive program teaching the arts of fireplace cleaning, the language of mice, and ballroom dancing. It's a deeper look at a fairy tale that crosses time and culture.
"Cinderella Ph.D." is one of the sessions at this year's Weber State University Storytelling Festival. The crash course is at 1:30 p.m. Thursday in the Hetzel-Hoellein Room of the Stewart Library, on WSU's Ogden campus at 3848 Harrison Blvd. Admission is free.
The four doctorate holders conducting the class are Jean Andra Miller, who retired from WSU as a professor of French studies, and professors Kathleen Herndon, Eric Amsel and Rosemary Conover.
"It's not just a superficial story for children," said Herndon, chairwoman of WSU's English department, about the story of Cinderella. "It does seem to have some interesting insights about human nature, and the steps and stages we go through in a lifetime."
There are more than 1,500 versions of the story from around the world. Herndon herself has a collection of about 30 Cinderella tales set in different places and times.
And more:
The overall story has universal themes and symbols, Conover says, and each culture puts its own stamp on the tale.
Footwear is one of the symbols in almost every version -- which she suggests may be related to the theme of social mobility. The shoe material is glass in some versions, and gold or leather in others.
"These details offer intriguing little insights into the cultures that spawned those versions," said Conover, from the university's anthropology department.
The slipper is glass in the French version.
"I think by that time the French had perfected glassmaking, and understood its special, malleable consistencies," Conover said, noting that glass can be shaped, then hardens. "It had to not bend to any other foot but the one it was made for. ... It became something only one person could possibly fit into."
Fairy godmothers
Amsel, a psychology professor, looks at the story as a tale of adolescence.
"I think the point of the story is transformation of a child to an adult," he said. "It's the story of an adolescent girl in a dysfunctional relationship with her family, who experiences the blossoming of love and passion, and I'm afraid that isn't an unusual situation for adolescents."
Teens struggle with new roles and relationships as they try to find their place in adult society. That can lead to fights with parents, including stepparents.
"It's very easy to get caught up in sort of seeing an adolescent as an adversary, as a parent," said Amsel, "It helps if you understand that the fights you're having over rooms, clothes, and this and that, is really a negotiation of when someone earns the right ... to make their own decisions."
Anyway, a good article and an interesting event. To learn more about the festival itself, go to ‘Williams Tell’ Annual Storytelling Festival.
Maison Moschino, Milan
Today I wanted to share a clever hotel located in Milan, the Maison Moschino. It was recently picked as one of the ‘Top Ten Sexiest Hotels in the World’ by The Luxury Travel Bible. (Another that made the list was The Library Hotel in New York which has been on my wish list for a while already.)
One of the rooms offered at the Maison Maschino is the Little Red Riding Hood. There are many other themes that would make me waffle between choices such as The Forest, Clouds, and Sleeping in a Ball Gown. Here are some images of the other rooms. All of these are interesting juxtaposition of ultra modern and whimsy.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs Evil Posters
I think these are rather cute. I have to admit, I do want to to see this one. The more I see of it, the more I remember I actually enjoyed Hoodwinked
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Fables Will Be a Video Game
But a small San Rafael, Calif.-based videogame company thinks it has the winning formula as the business moves to digital.
Today, Telltale Games is announcing an exclusive worldwide publishing agreement with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to develop videogames for the comic-book series Fables...
Telltale’s games are written as a narrative or a cinematic adventure and are divided into five separate episodes. Players download a new one every four weeks for a six-month period. A season pass for a game, including all episodes, costs roughly $35.Telltale then repeats the process and sells the games across a combination of consoles, mobile devices, tablets, PCs and Macs.
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters Brief
Update: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters now has a release date of March 2, 2012 and will be shot in 3D.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Princess and the Pea Sighting
Totally random: So tonight's episode of House on Fox, the episode titled "Two Stories," used a poster of this Edmund Dulac illustration to provide House's inspiration for solving the medical mystery of the day. I'm an occasional House watcher and this wasn't that great an episode but the Princess and the Pea moment made me smile.
Reminds me that Big Bang Theory also had a Shoemaker and the Elves reference several weeks ago. It was the Season 4: Episode 12: The Bus Pants Utilization.
I always appreciate it when the writers of popular shows know their fairy tales....
Actress Priyamani Photoshoot
Actress Priyamani photoshoot, 05 more images after the break...
Guess What ?
Can you guess what happen in next picture ? 05 more images after the break...
Bali Sea Temple — Pura Tanah
One of Bali's most important sea temples, Pura Tanah Lot ("Temple of Land in the Middle of the Sea") is a spectacular sight, especially at sunset. 20 More images after the break...
The Smallest Aquarium
Russian miniaturist Anatoly Konenko engaged microminiature art for three decades. He came up with its own technology letters on rice, poppy seed, as well as human hair, and has recently created the world's smallest aquarium with live fish. This tiny tank is made of fiberglass on the bottom rising living algae, and fish in it too, very real - 5 danio rerio juveniles, whose size does not exceed 4 mm. Volume mikrorezervuara - 10 ml. That is 2 teaspoons. 06 more images after the break...
Snow White (Blanche Neige) by Benjamin Lancombe
As promised, here is Blanche Neige (Snow White) as illustrated by Benjamin Lancombe. Alas, the book is not available in English, but the French version is available at Amazon.fr. Now here are the stunning images:
Il était une fois by Benjamin Lancombe
Last week, Midori Snyder shared a book trailer for Benjamin Lancombe's pop-up book, Il était une fois, on her blog. Need I describe the ecstasies experienced by this fairy tale and pop-up book lover?
I will share the video below, but I had to learn more about Lancombe. The most exciting part was discovering he has illustrated an entire picture book of Snow White (Blanche Neige). I will post about it separately right after this post. Lancombe also has a website where you can view his other fantastical work, although most of it is not directly fairy tale related.
Isn't that wonderful? I think I will be making an overseas purchase soon...
Sunday, February 20, 2011
South Side Madhurima new Photoshoot
South side Madhurima Photoshoot, 08 more images after the break...
Stars with their fathers
Donald and Kiefer Sutherland
14 More Stars with their fathers after the break...
A new look at the wall
Thinking about unusual and interesting wallpaper to decorate your walls. Site EazyWalls a wide selection of great works of art - photographs and illustrations that can be used as photo-wallpaper. Prices start at $ 230, depending on size. To choose from different styles of photos to your tastes - historical ruins, breathtaking ocean views, funny little creatures, space themes, urban landscapes, flowers and even the American flag. Moreover, you can order the wallpaper of your favorite photos or illustrations. 35 more images after the break...
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