Pages

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Just A Blah Day

Not sure quite what to post today, but I know it's time to post something. Last post I mentioned how I've been playing around with Jane Austen screencaps and adding captions or single words to them. I mostly did this so I could use them as signatures or avatars on other sites I go to.

Here's just a sampling, I made over 25 one day when I was just playing around. If you want to have some fun, try to name the film they're from.

Photobucket
1. Tranquility

Photobucket
2. Regrets

Photobucket
3. Hope

Photobucket
4. Style

Photobucket
5. He Loves Me

Photobucket
6. Laundry

Not much going on in my world, just a lot of work lately. I have been enjoying the Emily of New Moon TV series with my sister and have also watched the film Stardust which has period dress in it. I've also just started to read Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott again with the design of getting to Rose in Bloom which is one of my absolute favorite books!

Hope you're having a lovely week...

Mood:
discontent
Discontent

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Happy Birthday Miss Kirsten!

Photobucket

I've been having some fun adding words to screencaps of Jane Austen films. This one of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood I thought was rather appropriate for my post this time which I dedicate to my sister Kirsten Beatrix.

Photobucket
We have a cake...

Photobucket
...we have presents...

Photobucket
...and we have a very happy birthday girl.

Happy Birthday Miss Kirsten!

We really did have a lovely day - went to Olive Garden for dinner, went candle pin bowling, had a lovely cake, and opened lots of presents.
I still can't believe that my baby sister is officially a teenager. She's the best friend a girl could want, we have lots of fun together, and I love her very much.

So what's so old-fashioned about my post today? Well besides the Sense & Sensibility photo the other old-fashioned things were Miss Kirsten's presents. Besides the latch hooking kit she's holding in the photo she also received a dress for Kit (her depression era American Girl doll), an American Girl cookbook, and the complete Emily of New Moon TV series (which we are anxious to watch). Anyway, those are my excuses for posting about my little sister. ;)

Have a great day! I'm so glad it's officially spring!

Mood:
chipper
Chipper

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Widows' Peak

Photobucket

The sudden and tragic death of actress Natasha Richards has prompted me to post about the movie Widows' Peak in which she stared as Mrs. Edwina Broome.

Photobucket

I first saw this film when it was shown on TV a couple years ago and liked it instantly. The story centers around a group of controlling but well-meaning widows in a small Irish town. Their orderly world is upset when Mrs. Edwina Broome comes to town charming all the young men, eluding the scandal loving widows and becoming a rival to Miss O'Hare who takes an immediate dislike to her. When it seems that Edwina is trying to ruin Miss O'Hare the whole town is in an uproar and they are no closer to solving the mystery of her life.

Photobucket

Widows' Peak really is a lovely film filled with humor, romance, gossip and plenty of doddering old ladies. I can't remember any language in the film or off color scenes. If you've never seen this film I think it's worth a look and just wait for the surprise ending!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while but I've been so busy with work and now I'm just coming down with a cold! But I have had some adventures that I'll have to tell you about next time.

Mood
blank
Blank
(very out of it, I need rest and vitamin C, and my eyes are blurry)

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

My Fair Lady meets Sherlock Holmes?

Photobucket

Lately I've been watching old episodes of Sherlock Holmes on YouTube. I love this casting of Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Homes and the other characters, I think they are the best I've ever come across, yes even better than Basil Rathbone! I've watched this series on my local Public Television station for years now, and always enjoyed it but it wasn't until recently that I started wondering about the actors.

Last night I went to my favorite actor's search engine and looked up actor Jeremy Brett's rather lengthy filmography, his films and TV movies number roughly 70. After thinking what a great gruff, bold, and almost evil Holmes he makes I was very surprised to see that his early acting credits include a role in My Fair Lady. I couldn't imagine who he could of played and was surprised beyond belief when I discovered that he had played Freddy Eynsford-Hill!

Photobucket

Not only did he do a wonderful job playing Eliza Doolittle's love interest but it was actually his own voice that sang On The Street Where You Live for the film! So of course I had to find a snip it of him singing the song:



I watched the clip in total disbelief as tears rolled down my face. I've always loved Freddy Eynsford-Hill and On The Street Where You Live has always been my favorite song in the whole movie, it's just so romantic! You really could have knocked me over with a feather. Sherlock Homes and Freddy Eynsford-Hill just seem like totally different characters to me, one gruff and brisk, the other carefree and boyishly romantic. But both of these character were portrayed by one great British actor. I was also in awe when I discovered through reading a short bio on Jeremy Brett that he was married for a time to veteran period actress Anna Massey (who was just a gem in Mansfield Park, Importance of Being Earnest, Oliver Twist, new Tess of the D'Urbevilles) and also to Mystery! and Masterpiece Theatre producer Joan Wilson who died of cancer. Truly an interesting man and a great period actor!

Mood
impressed
Impressed

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

The Water Is Wide

Photobucket

For a few years now I have really enjoyed the song entitled The Water is Wide. When listening to the melody though a thought of having heard it before but with "Christian" words sung to it. My search led me to Wikipedia and the revelation that there are at least four different sets of lyrics sung to the same tune. Two more religious set of lyrics are When I Survey The Wondrous Cross and The Gift of Love.

I was glad to find these lyrics because the ones to The Water is Wide though lovely are very sad:

The water is wide, I cannot get o'er
Neither have I wings to fly
Give me a boat that can carry two
And both shall row, my love and I

A ship there is and she sails the sea
She's loaded deep as deep can be
But not so deep as the love I'm in
I know not if I sink or swim

I leaned my back against an oak
Thinking it was a trusty tree
But first it bent and then it broke
So did my love prove false to me

Oh love be handsome and love be kind
Gay as a jewel when first it is new
But love grows old and waxes cold
And fades away like the morning dew

When cockle shells turn silver bells
Then will my love come back to me
When roses bloom in winter's gloom
Then will my love return to me



On the other hand the lyrics to The Gift of Love which were penned by Hal H. Hopson in 1972 are much more encouraging and challenging. The idea for the lyrics comes from 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter.

Though I may speak with bravest fire,
And have the gift to all inspire,
And have not love, my words are vain,
As sounding brass, and hopeless gain.

Though I may give all I possess,
And striving so my love profess,
But not be given by love within,
The profit soon turns strangely thin.

Come, Spirit, come, our hearts control,
Our spirits long to be made whole.
Let inward love guide every deed;
By this we worship, and are freed.



What a good prayer to sing, and I've certainly been singing it as I go about my work with the Alzheimer's residents. We have one lady who has been very trying lately and I've been singing to her while I've been helping her instead of grumbling at her. "Let inward love guide every deed..."

Mood:
rejuvenated
Rejuvenated