My friend posted a link on facebook to the complete Jem and the Holograms series on DVD. Mimi then commented on how I would love it & she is right I do love it.
Obviously I grew up watching Jem & wanted to be the pink haired, awesome eye makeup rock star with magical star earrings. But I want to share a story that shows that I was also awesome as a teenager.
When I was a freshman in high school I had PE first hour, which sucked but what didn't suck was a girl in our class found her Jem cassette player & cassette tape from when she was a kid and she brought it in so we could not only listen, but sing along too as well. I know what you are thinking it is just like that Saved By the Bell episode with the girls singing I'm so Excited in the locker room. You are right it is almost exactly like that!
Yes I still do know the words to the theme song thanks to my freshmen physical educations class.
While looking for a picture of the cassette player I found this picture online and it was crazy how suddenly I could remember exactly how the plastic felt and what the plastic mask smelt like. I can't remember if my mom bought me the costume or if I just wore it at a friends but I know I wore that costume. It is so crazy how I had no memory of that costume a few minuets ago but now I can tell you what it smelt like.
Next to my bed are three piles of books the first is my pile from the library, the second is books I have borrowed from friends & the last is books I have bought. The reason these books are in piles next my bed and not in the two bookshelves next to my bed is they are my to read/currently reading books.
(note these pictures are two month old the shelves already look different & I have another bookshelf in the living room)
I always feel guilty returning books to the library unread, hence why the piles are causing me to feel overwhelmed, which could be why I have been watching the tv series Wonderfalls instead of reading.
Wonderfalls was created by Brian Fuller before his Pushing Daisies days, but it only ran one season. Maybe I will talk about it on another post. But I will say that it does have these two gentlemen in it.
I had never seen the guy on the right before but he was adorable & yes Lee Pace does wear his shirt buttoned very low in one of the episodes, and I didn't mind at all. Oh also the series ended with a Travis song, it could be love.
I am so excited Melissa finally came to a book signing with me! We drove up to north Scottsdale to see James Dashner talk about the last book, The Death Cure in his Maze Runner series. I didn't mind the drive especially since I got to see one of my friends named Jen, who came with her son.
James is very informal and has a great dry sense of humor. He joked about loving Lord of the Rings more than his children. He would also go off on tangents like when asked about movie casting he joked about Justin Beiber and then went onto talk about "Beiber Fever Forever" and how he is actually a good basketball player.
He did a question answer and even told us some of his secret projects which I won't post about but if you want to know I would tell you. He did tell us a script has been written and that they are working on getting a director.
When it was time for the signing James spent time talking to the fans and even asking us questions. Melissa has finished reading while I am only on chapter six. So I stepped away so she could ask her spoilery question.
While leaving we ran into a fan who told everyone we could call him Thomas, I had wanted to get a picture of his shirt, which he made himself. Thomas also asked to get a picture with us his fans. After Melissa commented how fun it is to go somewhere and find your people.
While in line I got my books ready to be signed, sticking the flap of the dusk jacket to the appropriate page and sticking the sticky note with my name on it where it would be easy for him to see. It kind of blew the Barnes & Noble employee away, Melissa told her "this obviously isn't my first rodeo."
I had heard of James Dashner's book The Maze Runner while at a Changing Hands event and found out he was coming so I bought the book, read it, loved it and went to the signing for The Maze Runner the next week. I love that I was able to get my other books signed, it feels wrong to not have every book in a series signed.
Welcome to what I hope will turn into a series of posts I am going to call my "Time Traveler" posts and in them I will highlight time periods I dream of traveling through time to see. It will help me narrow down which ones are my favorite so if the opportunity presents its self I will know which time to visit first.
There are many things that come to mind when I try and decide on an era, like personal hygiene practices for example, but probably one of the main things to consider is the fashion.
Watching Midnight In Paris made me want to be a flapper for Halloween again. I had something come up and had to leave the movie early and wasn't actually able to finish it but what I did see I enjoyed. The opening shots of Paris are reason enough to see the movie.
I love the 20's jargon, it is all the Bee's Knees and the Cat's Meow, and a really fun movie to show fashion, music, jargon & dancing of the 20's is Thoroughly Modern Millie.
I am not sure what is so appealing about gangsters but I do love a good gangster movie and even more so if it is funny. Oscar has great lines that my family like to quote, not to mention a huge cast. I especially love Tim Curry as Dr. Poole...
This isn't one of my favorite Dr. Poole moments but there is a shocking lack of good Oscar clips on YouTube in English.
I have not read a lot of books that involve the 20's I am not a fan of The Great Gatsby although I did read it and see the movie (Robert Redford & the 20's of course I watched it).
And I am sure I will watch the remake with Leonardo DiCaprio & Carey Mulligan just because I am sure the dresses & movie will be pretty.
I am already looking forward to picking my next era to explore.
on Tumblr and then found the artist Nan Lawson's ETSY page and found lots of things I loved, for example...
Harry Potter love
Katniss love
This picture could be Debbie & I.
Margot & Richie love
I really wanted the Darcy & Elizabeth portraits but I am weird in that I don't like shopping online and it just didn't happen. Until I saw that Nan on her tumblr & twitter asked for suggestions and I suggested Ned, The Pie Man from Pushing Daisies. And guess whose suggestion she used...
Guess what I got in the mail today?
The title of this post "Two Gentlemen and a Lady" is a quote from the movie Pride & Prejudice (BBC) and is referring to Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bingley & Darcy's sister Georgina. Don't you think Lee Pace (Pie Man) would make an excellent Mr. Bingley?
Elizabeth Bennett is probably my favorite female in literature, because we so much alike. My sister in law Angie got my brother Brett to watch the Jane Austen movies with her, after she told him about the online quiz of which Jane Austen character you are. She asked him to guess which one I was and he guess Elizabeth, I got a huge grin on my face when Angie told me.
I love that the pictures are of Elizabeth & Darcy because what I love most is how perfect they are for each other. Although I think Lost In Austen had it's fun parts it disturbs me that Elizabeth and Darcy don't end up together and that Elizabeth ends staying in modern day to become a nanny, how progressive of her (insert sarcasm font here). Speaking of Lost In Austen did you guys see that Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle & Julie & Julia) is going to be writing and directing her own version? You can read about it here.
Speaking of fictional boyfriends yesterday I found out that actor Milo Ventimiglia who just happened to play two of my fiction boyfriends Jess from Gilmore Girls & Peter from Heroes
is on Twitter & Instagram. Like my friend Lauren pointed out following crushes on twitter is most likely not going to end with unfollowing. But instagram on the other hand just allows me to look at pictures like this.
I stumbled upon a video of Ellen scaring her guests a few weeks ago and it made me laugh so hard I cried a little.
I think what I love most is how Ellen gets so much pleasure out of it! In my family we also enjoy scaring each other. My dad has a knack for knowing when to scare you in a movie. He made my mom bust her button on her skirt when they saw Frankenstein (I think that was the movie). My brother Mark likes to sneak up behind you and pull your chair so you think you are falling. Mark also started a kind of war with my mom by hiding a fake cockroach around her house. It would go back and forth hiding in each others houses, and scaring each other. Who knows maybe they will keep up the tradition.
I hope you all have a wonderful October, with lots of pumpkins and scares. I have already had a pumpkin muffin, maybe I will get pumpkin shake this weekend!
And it just isn't Halloween with out a little Spooky Scary!
It is no secret that I am a fan of Janette Rallison and her LDS romance pen name Sierra St. James. There is only one I have not read and am only missing a few before my collection is complete.
Tuesday night was her book launch for Slayers, under the pen name for her fantasy books, C.J. Hill. I had bought Slayers the night before and was reading before I left for the event. That was a bad idea, it was really hard to put the book down so I could go. But I am glad I went, I got to find out my Slayer super power! And Janette was entertaining and charming as ever!
Last night was Scott Westerfeld's signing at Changing Hands for the last book in his Leviathan series Goliath. I have really, really enjoyed this series and have loved the audiobooks and really recommend them. Alan Cumming just does a perfect Scottish accent (I am being cheeky he is Scottish) but does the other accents really well too. Deryn is Scottish and says such wonderful things like "barking spiders" and calls people "bum rags". You can get a little taste of the audiobook in this video of Scott & Alan talking about the last book.
I haven't ever made a list of favorite female characters in literature but if I did Deyrn Sharp would be on it. She dresses up as a boy so she can fly and goes to war. One of my favorite complements was when a friend told me in Lord of the Rings I would be Éowyn, because I would dress up like a boy and go to war.
Leviathan is an illustrated series like books from the time would have been. He showed examples one of them being Persuasion by Jane Austen (bonus points for Scott) just like my Pride & Prejudice.
He talked about how illustrators had a lot of power for example...
He asked who this was a photo of, everyone of course answered Sherlock Holmes. He explained never in the text will you find mention of Sherlock wearing a hunting cap and in fact he despised the country & would never and worn one but the illustrator lived in the country and changed the way we see Sherlock.
Scott explained how the camera put a lot of illustrators out of work. He wished he could go back in time and tell whoever drew the camera "Don't draw it dude it will eat your job."
It was a good time I got my book signed and I was able to pick up a couple other books as well.
I almost asked Scott to sign my Lola not that he has anything to do with it but Stephanie is on tour right now with Maurine Johnson and they had all been at some conference, I am just jealous of everyone who got to attend.
C.J. Hill is really Janette Rallison and her signing/launch party is tonight at Changing Hands as well. I really want to go but we will see if I can swing going to Tempe two nights in a row.
I have STACKS of books to read by my bed and I just keep requesting books from the Library WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? I think I just like to have options who knows what I am going to want to read.
