FAVORITE....
~TV show~
-Supernatural (SPN). No hesitation there. Obviously, LOST, Merlin, and Firefly come in very close...but my love for Supernatural eclipses those. This is partly because I have been watching this show for all 5 seasons, for 5 years, and I KNOW these characters so well. This picture is from first (or maybe early second) season...Recently, I started re-watching the first season with my friend Beth, and my sister and I kept looking at each other, thinking the same thing--the main characters have developed so much from season 1. They matured, and in ways I never would have expected. The SPN creators' ability to to do that, and to maintain these INCREDIBLE parallels between early seasons and newer seasons is just enviable.
~Book~
-War & Peace. When my sister was in college, she borrowed this book from a friend and I decided to flip through it randomly. I seriously always thought it was some kind of treatise on war and peace--I had no idea it was a novel. Oh my. I read this book in five days, and every morning I woke up, THINKING about it. It spans over about twenty years, so the characters who are children in the beginning are parents with children in the end. The character development is incredible, and like Supernatural, they change in ways you don't expect. The selfish arrogant cold-hearted character gets his heart broken and learns how to love and forgive, the sweet insecure lonely young man inherits riches, marries a beautiful girl who cheats on him, has numerous adulterous affairs, and learns what it really means to be a man. Oh. I could go on forever. These characters make wrong choices and right choices and throughout the book you are so WITH them and you love them even when they screw up. This book seriously had me crying. People who think it's boring are INSANE. I read it when I was fourteen and I was so psyched about the hot guys, the sexy romance, the intense bromance, the suspense, the heartbreak.... Best book ever, IMHO.
~Movie~
-Braveheart. This has been my favorite movie for 12 years. I was 8 years old when I first saw this, and it blew my mind. Sure, it's grossly historically inaccurate, but I didn't know any better. All I knew was that it was a great story, I loved the characters, and it made me cry at the end. I know it by heart, and I seriously still laugh at all the funny scenes and get worked up and angry over the upsetting parts. I love that the characters have little bantering scenes. It makes you really BELIEVE in them. Best scene: William Wallace coming to the British, after Murron dies, and smashin' all their heads to bits. YEAH. I could talk about this movie forever.
~Color~
-Green. It started because I have green eyes, but now it's just for the color itself. Favorite green: olive.
~Actor~
-Jude Law. It took me forever to decide on my favorite actor, but Jude wins out. He's a cad in real life, of course, but I love him in pretty much most movies I've seen him in. (He couldn't stop A.I. or Sky Captain from sucking though, even if he did add to the pretty.) He's got more Brit charm than Hugh Grant, and has such a (deceptively) sweet face. Best Jude movie? The Holiday, hands down. Sherlock Holmes comes pretty close....but in The Holiday, Jude's character is a "major weeper" and "Mr. Napkin-head", so...
~Actress~
-Winona Ryder. No hesitation. I adore her. Visually, of course, with those EYES. But I love her acting skills. Heathers is the BEST. Then there's Girl, Interrupted and Edward Scissorhands. And dude, she dated Johnny Depp. She's also a kleptomaniac. Aw, Winona.
Ice cream flavor
-Cold Stone cheesecake ice cream. BEST. EVER. This photo is from Google and appears to have blueberries in it...but the way i like my Cold Stone cheesecake ice cream is with gummi bears and crumbled Twix bars. *NOM NOM*
~Drink~
~Animal~
~Band~
~Singer~
~Food~
~Disney character~
~Girl name~
~Boy name~
-Thomas. (That's Thomas Gibson from Criminal Minds up there, yo. He's kind of amazing.) But there are lots of good Thomases out there. Like Thomas from Disney's Pocahontas, who was voiced by Christian Bale. Or my very own Thomas, from Three of Swords.
Is it weird that this meme took me several days? I get too distracted/bored. Or I watch too much Merlin? Anyway, I only have 6 episodes left before I'm through with Season 2 of Merlin...then I wait till Season 3 airs in England in September and finds its way onto YouTube. The whole YouTube transition shouldn't take long--people get Japanese shows subbed and up in a week! Anyway...Merlin's excellent, but it has that problem Smallville always had, of taking one step forward plotwise, then taking a half-step back, so the story-arc inches along. Hope it doesn't topple into the suckfest Smallville found itself falling into.
lol.
ReplyDeleteso.
you and me + movie + Manischewitz. yus.
sky captain was soo disappointing. i had such high hopes for that movie. :(
and more supernatural, please! (but we probably have to wait until my sisters leave. they are young and too impressionable. but we also must do fun sister things like Alice's Tea Cup! and free movies on Tuesdays! etc, etc)
you can always get a cat later in life. like, when you're not living with your sisters.
smallville. :( i had high hopes for that, too. but i gave up quickly.
i am one-half not-white-person and have never gotten over my suspicion of pasteles. i am sure they taste amazing but i am not an adventurous person and can never bring myself to try them. but then again i also don't eat tomatoes, eggplant, or olives so it is quite possible i am just ridiculously picky.
ReplyDeleteand you are really making me want to read war and peace now...:-)
Brittany Ann,
ReplyDeleteI was pleased to read that you are aware of the historical inaccuracies in the film 'Braveheart'. That film has a lot to answer for. The facts about Scottish history, and Sir William Wallace in particular, interests me. It irritates me when I come across blogs which makeout that the events depicted in 'Braveheart' are literally true. The following is an extract which I tend to include in any comment which I submit to them -
'William Wallace has attracted a great deal of attention from interested enthusiasts, but surprisingly little from historians. Of the several readily available at the time of writing, not one has been written by anyone with a background in medieval history generally, let alone with a scholarly understanding of the society in which Wallace lived. The lack of an understanding of the context has led to the easy acceptance of material that is at best questionable and at worst fraudulent. This is most evident in the film 'Braveheart'. Not content with relying on Blind Harry's largely fictitious poem 'The Wallace' as the sole source of material, the writer, Randall Wallace, simply changed the story to suit a script that made no sort of historical sense and has, in fact, deprived Scottish people of part of their history by effectively undermining the factual material. The benefit of the 'Braveheart' phenomenon is of course the extent to which it has heightened interest in medieval Scotland: an important consideration in a country where there is no viable programme of history in schools. Although 'Braveheart' did help to make Scots more aware of their past, the damage done to our perception of Wallace and of the early period of the Wars of Independence is incalculable. If it is true that a picture paints a thousand words, how damaging is it when the picture is a fantasy?'
SOURCE: 'WILLIAM WALLACE: The True Story of Braveheart' by Chris Brown, page 125, ISBN 0-7524-3432-2.
In what you call the best scene you refer to the 'British'. I think it is important to clarify this. The word 'British' did not come about, especially in a political sense, until 1 May 1707, following the Treaty of Union between the realms of Scotland and England, - 410 years AFTER the Battle of Stirling BridgeSince then the word 'British' has been used to refer to ALL the inhabitants of this island and also includes those UK citizens who live in Northern Ireland. On a passport application in the UK if the applicant gave their nationality as being Scottish, English, Welsh or even Northern Irish the passport, when it is received, would state nationality as being 'British'.
Michael - Yes, as I said in the blog, I saw "Braveheart" when I was 8 years old and had no idea about anything historical (I still thought George Washington had cut down that cherry tree!). But when I was in high school, I started reading history books for fun and learned more, particularly about the French Princess, and fully understood how historically inaccurate the movie was.
ReplyDeleteI still love it however, and think of it as a fictionalized version. It's just a movie, and yes, while it is unfortunate that many people may think of it when they hear anything about Scotland, honestly those people would never research William Wallace or Scotland in the first place. People who are actual authorities would do research, not rely on the movie.
On another note, why do you submit the same comments to anyone who talks about Braveheart? It's just a movie. I know a lot about Tudor history, and shows like The Tudors are grossly inaccurate, but I don't let it bother me.
Brittany Ann,
ReplyDeleteAs Scotland is a small country which at the present moment is an integral part of another country it is convenient for many to disregard its history, largely out of political expedience, to avoid facing inconvenient facts. The longer a historical inaccuracy is allowed to go unchallenged there is a greater chance of that inaccuracy becoming accepted as fact. It is only since the late 1970's that such inaccuracies have been effectively challenged. One such example is an event which occurred in 1820 and is the subject of the book 'The Scottish Insurrection of 1820' by Peter Berresford Ellis and Seumas Mac A'Ghobhainn, ISBN 0 85976 519 9. The following are extracts from the Prefaces to that book -
'Curiously, we discovered that all records apart from one or two items which had, at the time, been lodged in a "Baga de Secretis", which we tracked down to the London Public Records Office (PRO KB8), had been removed.'
'The trials for High Treason were actually held under English Law and not Scottish Law, contravening the Treaty of Union of 1707.'
'However, it is very exciting to look at the developments which have taken place since this book was first published. At that time people were astounded that such an event, resulting in 85 indictments of High Treason, in public executions, in transportation and imprisonment, could have been so effectively eliminated from historical consciousness.'
'Even after publication, the event was regarded with some discomfiture by certain sections of academia. Perhaps there was a feeling of guilt that such an important event had previously been ignored by historians.'
Even now, thirty years later, that event is still largely not known about.
Michael, most people don't CARE ABOUT HISTORY. If you continue to expect the majority of people to care, you will continue to be gravely disappointed by people. Just love what you love and stop getting upset that not everyone is interested. A lot of people have incorrect ideas about lots of historical figures, like Napoleon or Descartes, but it'd be silly to chase everyone down just because they happened to mention that they believed Descartes sat in a fireplace when he thought up "I think, therefore I am" or that Napoleon was a midget! Do you comment on every blog where Braveheart is mentioned?? I hope not!
ReplyDeleteAnd YES THANK YOU, I do know that the movie is inaccurate and that Scottish history is not well-known. Neither is Bulgarian! Or Puerto Rican! Or Malaysian! But all I mentioned on this blog was that I liked the movie Braveheart, which I KNEW TO BE INACCURATE, so calm down and stop quoting!
I love William Wallace and Braveheart, while inaccurate was a great tribute to him. I agree with you. It's one of those movies you can watch over and over and still feel so strongly about. Randall Wallace is an amazing writer so be able to come up with all those wonderful lines in the movie. It was the only movie I have ever cried while watching. If you like Scottish history, come and visit my blog : bonnetsandbroadswords.blogspot.com I did a whole bit on Wallace last August. I'd love to hear more of your thoughts about him :-)
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