Tempting Top Ten: Period Pieces

I grew up rolling my eyes whenever Sunday night rolled around and my mom tuned into Masterpiece Theater on PBS, but it must have finally wore off on me, because I absolutely love period pieces now, movies or TV series set in a particular historical period. So here's my top ten list for the A-Z challenge.

10. The Flame Trees of Thicka (1981)
This was one series on Masterpiece Theater that I fell in love with as a kid, because the main character was a girl my age. Her family moves from Britain to Africa in 1914, and you can imagine the adventures and clash of cultures. Based on a book by Elspeth Huxley. Even better than Out of Africa, in my opinion (in fact Hayley Mills as Elspeth's mother is a contender to formidable Meryl Streep in Out of Africa).

9. The Painted Veil
2006 movie starring Naomi Watts and Edward Norton based on a novel by Somerset Maugham. The period is the1920's, the story of a beautiful London socialite's marriage of convenience to a shy doctor and the gradual transformation of their relationship from indifference and dislike into deep and abiding love. Set in Shanghai and a remote village, Mei-tan-fu, the scenery is as heartbreaking as the story.

8.The Phantom of the Opera
The best version is of course the live musical, but I also loved 2004 movie version with Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum. A haunting love triangle set in the famous opera house of Paris somewhere around the turn of century, 1900.

7. Amazing Grace (2006)
My first introduction to the amazing Benedict Cumberbatch (as William Pitt) and Ioann Gruffudd (as William Wilberforce) and a moving cameo of Albert Finney as John Newton, writer of the famous hymn. Wilberforce and Pitt join forces to end slavery in Britain in the late 1700's.

6. Les Miserables (1998)
Again, the live musical is the best version, but I also love the 1998 film version of this classic story,  with Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, Uma Thurman and Clare Danes. But wait, wait! - there is a 2012 film coming out with Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway that I am most anxious to see! The period is from 1815-1830 in Paris and surrounding towns, about the reformed ex-convict, Jean Val-Jean, who cannot escape his dark past, and is hunted almost ruthlessly by Inspector Javert.

5. Persuasion (1995 version)
There is also a 2007 TV movie version of this Jane Austen novel, but I think the 1995 version is much better. The riveting romantic climax of this story, set in the Regency period of England (early 1800's), is what makes this one a keeper.

4. North and South (BBC 2004 version)
Not to be confused with the series by the same name about the American Civil War (which is another good period piece). I fell in love with this story because of Thornton, the male lead, played by Richard Armitage. He's dark and brooding and complex, and unforgettable. The period is the mid 1800's in England its theme is the clash between the attitudes of the industrial north of England and the agricultural south dominated by landed gentry.

Alas, I had to remove a picture of Richard Armitage which might be copyrighted. He's cast as Thorin Oakenshield in the Hobbit, due out in December. Almost make me want to skip over summer and fall this year.

3. Sense and Sensibility (1997 version).
While the male lead dominates in North and South, the two female leads steal the show in this one. Kate Winslet plays the fiery Marianne and Emma Thompson is perfect counterpoint as her reserved sister, Elinor. Like all Jane Austen books, this one is also set in regency England.

2. The King's Speech (2010)
Set in England in the 1930's just prior to the beginning of WWII, this amazing movie features Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter at their very best. Won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and I cheered. Proof that a great period piece doesn't need any romance to win my heart.

1. Pride and Prejudice (1995)
The 2005 version is also good, but much too short - you really need the six hour BBC version to fully appreciate this most famous Jane Austen story. Plus, Colin Firth as Mr Darcy - perfect. The pride of Elizabeth Bennett and prejudice of Mr Darcy make for a volatile romance, but all the antics of the other outrageous characters make it truly memorable. And did I mention Colin Firth?

Runners up to my top-ten list include:
Miss Potter (2006, Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor)
Young Victoria (2009, Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend)
Anna Karenina (1997, Sean Bean and Sophie Marceau). Another remake is due out in 2012 with Keira Knightley, Aaron Johnson and Jude Law.

My vote is still out on Downton Abbey (it might be a little too soap opera-ish for me: please, don't hate me) (If it had Colin Firth, it might be a different matter). 

Do period pieces make you want to dress up and join the (proper) fun, or roll your eyes in despair?

Tempting Top Tens: Outside and Outsiders

IMAGES REMOVED in case of possible copyright violation (7/27/12)

My favorite thing in the world is to cuddle up in a cozy chair with a cup of tea and a good book to read, but right after that my favorite thing is to get outside - because both the book and the great outdoors offer multitudes of creativity and inspiration.

Time and time again I read blog posts about how someone had a great idea while they were outside exercising. Movement and outside stimuli trigger creativity just as much (or more, possibly) as reading or writing or other artistic endeavors.

Here's my list of top-ten outdoor activities - I hope you'll share the activities that inspire you, too.

10.  Sky-diving
I actually haven't tried this yet but I really want to. It's on my bucket list.

9. Winter skiing (downhill or cross-country)
Downhill provides exhilaration like few other sports. But cross-country gives you time to admire all the beauties of winter.

8. Gardening.
There is something good for the soul in getting your hands dirty, and then seeing something grow out of your efforts.

7. Beach-bumming.
Jumping in the surf, collecting sea-shells, playing tag with the incoming waves, or helping my kids build sand castles. The beach is also great for relaxing and reading.

6. Sailing/Windsurfing
I know motorboats can go a lot faster, but if you've never been sailing then you don't know the addictive power of harnessing the wind, and feeling it strain against you in the lines and the rudder, or the sail you're hanging on to. When wind heels you over it is such a rush!

5. Swinging
I could swing for hours as a kid. Rhythmic motion is soothing and also inspires creativity. It would carry me off into imaginary lands in a heartbeat - it still does.

4. Snorkeling
I used to think this was annoying (always getting water up my nose!) until I snorkeled off a Caribbean beach. Truly this is the closest you can come (outside of scuba-diving or space walking) to being transported to another world. A coral reef is one of the most amazing world-within-a-world places! (I am unable to scuba dive because of issues with my ears).

3. Camping
The whole campfire, s'mores, singing songs, telling stories, grilling food (nothing tastes as good as campfire grilled burgers or steak) experience. Now waking up with a sore back from sleeping on the ground and smoky-smelling clothes and hair isn't the greatest, but its still worth it.

2. Mountain hiking
This one is hard to explain. It's almost a spiritual experience for me. See, I was raised a flat lander (actually, on the shores Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes). I have this theory that if you are raised a city kid, you always crave the peace of the country, and if you're raised a country kid you always crave the excitement and bustle of a city. Same goes for flat landers / mountain dwellers. If you are raised in flat lands, you always crave hills and mountains (I used to imagine the clouds were mountains when I was a kid).

1. Trail-riding by horseback
This is the same as #2, except with the bonus of riding your horse. Not someone else's horse or, horrors or horrors, a poor abused beast from a trail-ride company.  For those of you that aren't horse lovers, it's easy to substitute taking your dog along, or a human companion. It's the wonderful mixture of a good companion and beautiful views that make this my #1 outdoor activity.

I can't not mention The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton,  when speaking of the outside (even though it has a totally different meaning).

This is one of my favorite books ever and it's one of the rare cases where the movie is almost as good as the book, too.  I don't have any brothers but if I did I'd want Pony Boy and Johnny, Dallas and Two-Bit, Darrel and Sodapop (of course it doesn't hurt that they were played by some of my favorite actors, too: Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, Matt Dillon and Emilio Estevez).

What's your favorite outside activity? And if you've read the book, who was your favorite Outsider?

Tempting Top Ten: Non-conformists

I already listed great people I admire for G in the A-Z blogging challenge, but there were so many more I wanted to mention: those who go against the norm, trail-blaze a new way, or just generally make our days a little brighter and hopeful with their antics, jokes, or activism.

It's a stretch to call this a "tempting" top ten (my A-Z theme), but these people  tempt me to try something new, to be myself instead instead of blending in the with the crowd, to dare to be different, or to just applaud them for being visionaries.

10. Gene Roddenberry - for creating Star Trek and envisioning the final frontier

9. Alfred Hitchcock - one of cinema's most significant artists. He did more than any director to shape modern cinema. His flair was for engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else.

8. Monty Python -for pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable in style and content and humor.  "Always look on the bright side of life" "My philosophy, like color television, is all there in black and white" "Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!"

7. Bob Dylan - included in the Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century where he is called "master poet, caustic social critic and intrepid, guiding spirit of the counterculture generation"  Quotes: "A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom"

How many years can some people exist,
before they're allowed to be free?
And how many times can a man turn his head,
and pretend that he just doesn't see?
The answer my friend is blowing in the wind,
the answer is blowing in the wind.

6. Elizabeth I Queen of England - "She is only a woman, only mistress of half an island," marveled Pope Sixtus V, "and yet she makes herself feared by Spain, by France, by the Empire, by all." She was a non-conformist in refusing to marry either for political reasons or for love.

5. Johnny Depp - for being himself. "I am doing things that are true to me. The only thing I have a problem with is being labeled." "I don't pretend to be captain weird. I just do what I do."

Almost never photographed smiling - this smirk is as close as you get to a smile.

 
4. Jeff Foxworthy - for making it cool to be a redneck, and being funny and good-hearted at the same time. "Between New York and LA, there's 200 million people that aren't hip, and they don't want to be hip." "You know you are redneck when you need an estimate from your barber before getting a haircut."


3. Melissa McCarthy - for being a brilliant actress (you KNOW she stole the show in Bridesmaids) and showing us there are other ways to be beautiful than the skinny one.

2. Emma Watson - first of all for playing my favorite female hero, Hermione, a girl who made it cool to study hard and learn like crazy. Second of all, for being a non-conformist about her image:

1. So many pioneers that braved places it wasn't "acceptable" for them to go, 0pening doors for countless others:  Marie Curie,  Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Susan B. Anthony, Dorothea Dix, William Wilberforce... I could name so many more.

Who are your favorite non-conformists?

Tempting Top Ten: Mythical Creatures

A couple months ago I started posting the occasional Mythical Madness post, a homage to my love of myths from different cultures and especially mythical creatures. So of course for M in the A-Z challenge I have to list my top ten favorite mythical creatures - the creatures that have tempted me to write stories about them.

10. Pegasus - just because winged horses are so beautiful.  I love Robin McKinley's Pegasus because she really develops what a culture of pegasi might be like.
 

9. Mermaids - I used to dream of being a mermaid when I was a kid (the kind that can also come out of the water because the tail can magically turn into legs). I'm sure the movie Splash with Tom Hanks and Darryl Hannah had something to do with this dream.

8.  Phoenix (sometimes also called a Fire Bird). My love affair  with this myth also began when I was a kid and read David and the Phoenix, where a smart-talking phoenix decides to take on the "education" of a young boy, being distressed that David knew so little about anything mythical. This book also features a sea serpent, another mythical creature that there simply aren't enough stories about... am tempted to try my hand at one someday.

7. Griffin - a creature with a body of a lion  and head and wings of an eagle, usually known as a guardian of gold, sometimes able to dig up gold. I like to envision a smaller version with the body of a house-cat and the head and wings of a hawk that will guard the households of anyone with enough magic to control it. It can disguise itself as a statue.

6. Sphinx - body of a lion, head of a human, sometimes with wings, in Egyptian and Greek myths often a guardian of tombs or city gates. The most famous story is from Greece of a sphinx who asked a riddle of travelers, and if they failed to answer correctly, she gobbled them up. But I envision a story of a lonely sphinx who is tired of her endless task of guardian, and longs to have someone finally answer her riddle and set her free from her cursed form back into the beautiful woman she once was.

5. Shapeshifters
Common in almost all myths and folklores, humans changing into frogs or wolves or bears or birds - sometimes by their own will, sometimes forced into a animal shape by a curse. One of my favorite and lesser known shapeshifting myths is from Hungary, the "Woodland Fairy". A fairy is turned into a  tree but is freed when a king has the tree chopped down. He immediately falls in love with the fairy, but a jealous gypsy turns the fairy into a fish and then disguises herself so that the king ends up marrying her instead. Eventually the fairy finds a way to return to human form and becomes a servant in the king's palace. When she is asked by the king to tell a fairy tale, she tells her own story, so the king finally recognizes her. The gypsy is sent away, and the fairy becomes queen. Source: http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/rrHungarianF.html

4. Wilis
I like this female, ghostly take on the vampire myth. Wilis are beautiful and sometimes evil female spirits from Slavic myths also called  Vila, Wila, Wiła, or Veela. Wilis are best known from the classical ballet, Giselle based on a poem by Heinrich Heine. The story is of a young peasant girl who falls in love with a prince. When she discovers he's betrothed to another lady, she kills herself in grief and becomes a wili. The Queen of the Wilis demands that she take her vengeance on the prince by dancing with him until he dies of exhaustion, but Giselle still loves the prince and protects him, thus freeing herself from the curse of being a haunting ghost so she can rest in peace. 

3. Jinns/Genies
Described in the Qu'ran as a spirit being made of smokeless flame, genies are also mentioned in the stories of the Arabian Nights (or One Thousand and One Nights), most famously in the story of Aladdin's Lamp. I also love novels about Bartimaeus, a ancient jinn with an attitude. I'm working on a story where a girl finds a magical lamp, but discovers the lamp actually contains two genies instead of one - and the genies are immortal enemies. So much for three wishes. 

2. Fire-breathing dragons.
Perhaps the most famous and most ferocious of all mythical creatures, though I think it is the modern proliferation of stories with dragons that become allies with humans, even friends, is what have made them become so popular.  One of my stories tells that the reason why dragons aren't seen anymore is that they have turned themselves into mountains... or, in some cases fiery volcanoes. I love the idea of a creature so giant its only way of disguising itself is with something as big as a mountain. But then I recently came across this picture of a lapdragon, small enough to cuddle on your lap (if you don't mind that it occasionally sets your sofa on fire).

1. Unicorns.

Here's the logline for my story about unicorns:  In order to save the last remaining refuge of the unicorns, Selty needs help from her worst enemy: a human girl. 

What's your favorite mythical creature?