Good News Grimm Fans!

NBC just announced that they have ordered a full season of Grimm. From 'Grimm' Gets Full-Season Order, Thursday Night Tryout:

NBC's new hit fairy-tale drama "Grimm" has been granted a full-season order, and will receive a special Thursday-night airing next month, the network announced Monday.

In what might be an experiment to test the waters for the series in a new time slot, NBC will air an original episode of the show Thursday, Dec. 8 at 10 p.m., followed by another original episode the next night in its regular time slot, Friday at 9 p.m.

Despite its less-than-desirable Friday night time slot, "Grimm" has performed well for the network, delivering a 2.1 rating/6 share in the adults 18-49 demographic for its Oct. 28 series premiere, a 62 percent improvement over the network's average in the time slot last season. Growing from there, "Grimm" has averaged a 2.3/7 in the demo and 6.9 million total viewers, improving the network's performance in the demo by 50 percent over the equivalent period last season.

That means BOTH fairy tale shows have been picked up for full seasons and are doing well, which I am sure followers here are some of the fans leading to this success. I finally caught up with Grimm over the past week and once again, I like it although I am not overwhelmed yet. Perhaps I feel this way since this past week's episode, Lonelyhearts, has been my least favorite. I like both of them for different reasons and am not going to compare them here, but I wondered if both would survive the first few episodes when I first heard about them, not because I doubted the shows, but the networks who are very fickle. But viewers are supporting the shows and it will be interesting to see where they go now with the knowledge they have 22 episodes to play with.

Arthur Rackham 2012 Calendar

Rackham's Fairy Tales 2012 Wall Calendar is one of my top picks for a 2012 calendar. This is also a great way to get small prints of Rackham's work. If you don't write on the calendar, these also resell well once out of print for that very reason. The prices on older ones are quite fascinating although I am not tempted to sell my own copies.

Here's an image of the back so you can see all 12 images. If my memory serves me well, some of these come from Arthur Rackham's Book of Pictures which is being rereleased next month by Dover, but I will give that book its own post soon.

Fairytale as a Verb and Rebecca Ferguson

So in my semi-regular hunt for fairy tale news for you I stumbled across Rebecca Ferguson, apparently a runner up on a recent UK season of X-Factor, who has a new single released in the UK, but not in the states, titled "Fairytale."

From Entertainment Wise:

Rebecca Ferguson has revealed a new song from her upcoming debut album.

'Fairytale (Let Me Live My Life This Way)' is taken from Heaven, due out on December 5. Her first single, 'Nothing's Real But Love', is released one week earlier on November 27.

The X Factor runner-up, who recently told Entertainmentwise there is a "strong possibility" she will return to the show to perform the single, reportedly became the centre of a £1 million bidding war between publishers desperate for the rights to her music.

We were lucky enough to sneak a listen to a handful of songs from Heaven this week, and think 'Fairytale' is a perfect example of the sassy, sophisticated and surprisingly confident sound Rebecca has on offer. But what do you think?

There's also a video embedded in the article. Unfortunately, all of the videos and sound bites of the song are country blocked, so I couldn't hear it and see how the lyrics may or may not really relate to fairy tale. But a lyrics search was fruitful. No, the song doesn't reference any specific fairy tales, but it has an interesting line in the chorus, I'll provide two:

But let me just fairytale that we are in love
I'd rather live a life this way

So we get "fairytale" as a verb, meaning "fantasize." Not a new meaning, but not a common usage either. Now I wonder if the song will be a hit and if the usage will become a little more common.

If you're in the UK (and probably the rest of Europe), you can buy her Heaven album or the single on Amazon.co.uk on the release date of December 5. We in the US have to wait...

Alice Munro on Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid”

This was a few weeks ago, but I am still adding in things I missed while on vacation. From Maria Tatar's Blog, Breezes in Wonderland, just in case you missed this:

Here’s Alice Munro on H.C. Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid.” In The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen, I referred to Claire Bloom’s memoir, Leaving a Doll’s House. There, Bloom confesses that she gave in to the Little Mermaid complex, embracing the view that love meant pain and suffering: “I believe that the stories my mother quite innocently passed on to me, The Snow Queen and The Little Mermaid, so innocently read to me years ago in a sunlit garden, stories of one young girl after another who had sacrificed herself at the altar of romantic love . . . had given me an extremely distorted image of sexual relationships between men and women.”

Alice Munro tells a different story. She read “The Little Mermaid” and was “appalled”: “She didn’t have to be changed to foam on the sea.” And so, Munro made up her own happy ending, because she had to “do something” about what she had found.

I loved hearing that. She is a kindred spirit.

 

Advertising: Spoleto Pasta and the Bad Wolf

Inside that's how you'll feel.
Spoleto Delicious Pasta

Advertising Agency: Artplan, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Creative Director: Roberto Vilhena
Copywriter: Ricardo Dolla
Art Director: Bernardo Romero

Via Ads of the World.

And I just adore this illustration. The wolf is so very jubilant and the perspective is fun. Maybe I want pasta for dinner tonight...

Video Tribute to Arthur Rackham by joshje777

Here is our Sunday morning video of a Tribute to Arthur Rackham, courtesy of joshje777. Enjoy! Check back next Sunday for the next in the series.

Advertising: Levi's Kids and Fairy Tales

Advertising Agency: BBH Asia Pacific
Executive Regional Creative Director: Steve Elrick
Creative Director: Todd Waldron
Art Director: Eirma Webster
Copywriter: Angie Featherstone
Illustrator: Tye Sok Kuan
Visualisers: Ken Lee, Heng Loong Loh
Account Management: Frances Great, Lesley-Anne John
Production: Asmanic Yang, D'or Tey
Published: March 2009

Via Ads of the World.