Who goes there? Please leave comments so (An Aries Knows)!
Sometime back in the Paleozoic Era, I went to an Eagles concert. It was already a happy audience, but it exploded into a writhing mass of joy when Joe Walsh began “Life’s Been Good.”
I thought of that moment Saturday when I looked at the car ahead of me.
1. Today I can’t seem to stop watching what’s going on in Cairo and Alexandria via Al Jazeera. Apparently, this revolution will be televised. I can’t say I have any great understanding of the political situation in Egypt; here are the things that have interested me.
2. It’s 34 degrees here and I still won’t get any sympathy because it’s so much colder/icier/snowier everywhere else.
3. Does anyone else think Lauren Conrad and Kate Middleton look like each other?
Lauren Conrad, Reality Princess Past – Kate Middleton, Real Princess Future
4. The Google Art Project is great! Today I’ve taken virtual tours of the Tate and National Gallery in London.
Last night, Scott Heim posted a link on FB to a Web site that kept me up an extra two hours because I couldn’t stop laughing while I looked at it. It’s called Totally Looks Like. Check it out when you need to giggle and have some time on your hands.
Meanwhile, for you haters who are always hating in my hate-free zone, just because I’m SO FREAKING GOOD TO YOU, here’s one that really cracked me up, though I am NOT about hatin’ on KS. I just have a sense of humor.
Also, thank you Timothy J. Lambert for directing me to my new user pic for when the hating happens.
On his blog, Jeffrey Ricker asks:
Here’s a question–or actually several: what music inspires you? Have you ever written anything inspired by a particular piece of music? Do you listen to music while you write?
Here’s my answer:
I do make mental and sometimes real soundtracks for the novels I work on. Off the top of my head: Three Fortunes involved a lot of R.E.M. and a bit of U2 (Kieran was Irish, after all). I listened mainly to George Michael while working on I’m Your Man because there’s a lot of yearning in his songs and in the novel. I not only listened to the Pet Shop Boys during the period when we wrote When You Don’t See Me, but their songs became our chapter titles and the band was special to Nick. A Coventry Wedding was all Beatles, all the time, and though a lot of Beatles songs are mentioned in the novel, there are also coded references to their songs or song titles. Here’s one: Jandy meets a crotchety old artist in the book whose name is Wayne Plochman. In reality, Plochman is a brand of mustard: thus, “Mean Mr. Mustard” from the album Abbey Road.
I’d probably need to reread the other books to remember what songs were inspiring me while I wrote.
I write in silence, usually. The exception to this is when Tim and I work in the same dwelling, because he always has music playing. So a lot of times I mentally connect songs to my mood when I was writing something, even though they didn’t necessarily inspire it or have anything to do with it.
Speaking of music… One regret I have is that we took a fragment of a song lyric out of It Had to Be You. Every time I hear the song, it makes me laugh because of the scene it evokes–and not using it cost the readers a laugh in a comic moment in the novel. We were beginners and afraid of being sued.
I actually did this on Facebook, but figured I’d share it here, too. In no particular order, 15(ish) movies that almost made me stop liking movies:
1. A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon. The only good thing about this one was that Tom and I saw it at the Dollar Movie, and the tub o’popcorn was cheap, too.
2. The Godfather, Part III. You realize how thoroughly a sequel’s ruined a franchise for you when you don’t care that a Corleone daughter is gunned down.
3. The Last House on the Left. The original one. It forever killed my desire to score a joint from a stranger on an adventure in the city with my BFF.
4. Big Trouble in Little China. Sorry, Marika, but if I could have those 99 minutes with Tom, Tim, Lisa, and Mark back, anything would be more fun. Except that Jimmy Reardon movie.
5. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. You know, it may not even be Jar Jar Binks. But sometimes late at night, my mind still fumbles with the convoluted queen/decoy thing. Probably because I’ve endured this movie only once.
6. Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man. I only remember this because someone else mentioned it. Though it did give Lynne and me the chance to start many, many sentences with, “You know, my old man told me, before he left this shitty world…”
7. I only watch movies with dogs if someone assures me the dog doesn’t get it. So any movie with a stealthy dog death makes this list, and I can’t name one because I probably required memory-erasing therapy after seeing it. Wait–didn’t a dog die in that movie with John Travolta as an angel? Quick! My Vicodin!
8. I think Russell Crowe must have killed my dog in a former life, because if he’s in it, I just can’t bear to watch it.
9. Nine Months. I think that’s how long the movie lasted, too. When good actors get talked into doing bad things.
10. Bedazzled. When bad actors get talked into doing worse things.
11. Queen of the Damned. Dreadful.
12. Rhinestone. Why, Dolly, WHY?
13. A Clockwork Orange. Yeah, I know. Whatever.
14. Jabberwocky. Do they take the Internet away from me if I don’t like something with tenuous connections to Monty Python?
15. The War of the Roses. HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE.
Rhonda has never made any secret of her disdain for Bella Swan, angsty, self-absorbed heroine of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. Through the first two movies, she was completely supportive of those vampires who track, stalk, and otherwise terrorize Bella. Rhonda says she hasn’t seen Eclipse, the third movie, but she’s heard rumors that Victoria is creating an army of vampires for the sole purpose of avenging the death of her mate–a death for which Victoria holds vampire Edward responsible. Naturally, Rhonda supports Victoria’s goal of killing Bella Swan to punish Edward.
Fans of the books/movies generally divide themselves between Bella’s two suitors/defenders, assigning themselves to Team Edward or Team Jacob. When we watched the extras from the second movie, New Moon, Rhonda appreciated the T-shirt given to actress Rachelle Lefevre, who played Victoria in the first two movies, by her stunt double:
When I got Mattel’s Victoria doll, Lindsey privately remarked that Rhonda should own one of those dolls–but wearing a Team Rhonda T-shirt. This was something I could make happen. I also thought about getting Lindsey an Alice doll, since we both like Ashley Greene’s character, and making a Team Alice shirt.
Sadly, when it came time to shop, there was no Alice doll on the shelves. But I did find the Victoria doll for Rhonda. Here, modeling the T-shirts I made for Victoria, are my Alice, Bella, and Victoria dolls:
Since we all saw and liked Alice in Wonderland, Tim suggested an addition to Alice’s T-shirt:
I think I finally found a Barbie doll Rhonda likes:
Dear The Rhonda:
I wanted to reassure you that it’s here.
What? I waited sixteen hours after it became available before I bought it. On sale!
Love,
Becky
The evil Jane is coming…
The final episode of Season 8 of Lifetime’s Project Runway aired last week, with three designers showing at Fashion Week and the winner announced. Five of five people at The Compound disagreed with the outcome.
Hopefully those of you who’ve stuck with my dolls throughout this season won’t be as disappointed by my results. I was a little miffed during Episode 10, the “make your own fabric” challenge, because that had been my plan all along for my final collection.
First, I painted sixteen 9×18 pieces of unbleached muslin:
I further challenged myself by deciding that I couldn’t cut the fabric. I could sew it, but after showing the collection, I wanted to be able to remove the designs from my models, take out all the stitching, and once again have intact paintings. I’m putting my twelve (plus one–the Heidi challenge) looks behind a cut because there are a lot of photos.
Heidi: We’ve made it to the end of the challenges of this season’s Runway Monday. Though there are dust bunnies racing with abandon across the hardwood floors of Becks’ house, and The Compound grass has all died again, at least she’s managed to produce a record twenty challenge looks this season.
Barbie: Not to mention an additional fifteen looks for us throughout the season.
Summer: Tonight, however, we’re dressed in Mattel. Not just so Becks could concentrate on this week’s challenge, but because she’s working on her final collection.
Heidi: Why? How does she know she’ll be picked to show a collection during Fashion Week?
Summer: Maybe because she’s the only designer we’ve got?
Heidi: Oh. Right.
Barbie: I chose tonight’s dresses because–
Heidi: They remind everyone that Christmas is right around the corner, and Barbies are a girl’s best friend?
Barbie: –because I felt guilty about not using any of the Birthstone Beauties as models this season. So I thought we could at least wear their dresses.
Summer: I’m in May. Heidi’s in January. And Barbie’s in April. I wonder what this week’s runway model will be in?
Heidi: Manhattan. On the most recent episode of Lifetime’s Project Runway, Mayor Bloomberg gave the designers the entire city of New York to use as their inspiration.
Summer: Becks chose Midtown, most particularly the majestic Art Deco skyscrapers.
Barbie: She’s dressing Esperanza as the Empire State Building?
Heidi: Let’s see!