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This Week’s Video Clip
I love movie musicals, especially the dance numbers. As much as I appreciate movie dance mash ups like this one: I’ve so far only found one that references what is actually the Greatest Dance Number Ever Filmed. How great is it? Bill “Mr. Bojangles” Robinson is the warm up:
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This Week’s Video Clip
While This Week’s Video Clip is on the subject of the Nicholas Brothers, here’s one I hadn’t seen before, with some local interest to it:
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Reading the Regency — Almack’s
I’m writing this on Book Day. Lord of the Rakes is in stores an online today, so naturally I’m all about that. (Note: If you haven’t noticed elsewhere on this page, you can read an exerpt and order your copy here.) But I’m still all about reading, and my love of really, really old books. Today’s book is ALMACK’S, by Marianne Spencer Stanhope Hudson and published by Saunders and Otley in 1826. This is one of the famous (or infamous) three volume novels. When it came out, the book created a massive sensation, because it exposed (or purported to expose) the secret system by which the lady patronesses — those…
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This Week’s Video Clip
One of my absolute all time favorite romantic movies is unfortunately very hard to find. It’s the Barretts of Wimpole Street with Norma Shearer as Elizabeth Barrett and Frederic March as Robert Browning and Charles Laughton as one of the creepiest screen villains of all time. A little context for the scene below: Elizabeth Barrett has been confined to her sofa by ill health for a good ten years by this time, writing poetry and trying not to give in to pain and depression. Her many siblings have come in to say good-night, a simple act that has serious consequences:
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This Week’s Video Clip
Wherein Lauren Bacall shows the rest of us how it’s done. Sorry about the ad.
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In Praise of Villains
So, there I was, reading away. It was the latest book in series I love, approaching the suspenseful climax, I was in the groove, the author was in the groove. All was right with the world. Then it happened. The villain turned stupid. Made a sudden,s attack for no reason than an explosion of temper They had been something of a martinet all along, but then, in the turn of a sentence, lost their mind. I hate this. I don’t want the villains to be weak, or stupid, or suddenly short tempered. I want a smart villain, with their overall badness paired with a forward-thinking outlook. I want dark intelligence. …
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What Man of Steel Got Right
THIS POST HAS SPOILERS. GREAT BIG SPOILERY-SPOILERS. MEGA-MONDO-HUGE SPOILERS OF A MOST SPOILERIFIC NATURE. Okay? Okay. In the interests of full disclosure, I will say that Christopher Reeves will always be My Superman. So, I was torn about going to see Man of Steel. But, lately, super hero movies have gotten so much better, which cheers my nerd girl heart, so I decided to give it a chance. And I was really, really surprised at what I saw. Whatever flaws Man of Steel had, and they were legion, there is one thing that movie finally got totally and completely right. They stood one aspect of the continuity they stood on…
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The Lunch Post
I’m not quite a foodie. I would kind of like to be a foodie. I love food and cooking, I adore eating out. I read chef memoirs and I’m addicted to the show Chopped. But I’m not quite adventurous enough to be a True Foodie, and try as I might I can’t take stuff like artisenal toast seriously. I am, however, the Queen of Southeast Asian Bachelor Chow. SABC is one of those things you do with leftovers. I’m working from home today, which naturally leads to a lunch of leftovers. Actually, pretty much every day leads me to a lunch of leftovers, and I ask you to respect my…
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Reading the Regency — Gretna Green in Novel Form
I’ve developed a new book addiction. I’ve always liked old books. Really old books. I admit it. I learned to read out of the Wizard of Oz, grew up on Alice in Wonderland and E. Nesbitt and company. As an adult, I discovered Bronte, Austen, Gaskell, and, of course, Shakespere. What I didn’t know until recently was how many contemporaries Jane Austen had when it came to writing lively, witty romances. The group name for the books were “Silver Fork novels,” as they frequently, but not always, featured noble families behaving badly. Okay, maybe they weren’t all of them quite as good as Miss Austen’s work, but a number of…
