patrick stewart | the sydney project

This hard for monster! Have pity on monster!

Posted on October 29, 2013 by sydneyday

First thing’s first: Google #tomnomnom & bookmark it. I know I’ve shared it before, but it will never fail to put a smile on your face & brighten your day whenever you need it.

I had a good weekend, even considering the fact my world almost came crashing down when (spoiler alert), one of my top 2 faves on The Walking Dead, Glenn, got the dreaded virus that’s killing everybody in the prison. I’m serious, if Glenn dies, heads are going to roll. I don’t know who’s heads exactly, but it’s gonna happen. Inconceivable!

I got my Cara box all finished & mailed. My witch skirt for work (we are all dressing up as a coven–pictures to come later this week) is now officially done! And while it was fun to make, it was also a bitch to make. I don’t even want to think about how many yards of tulle I ended up using. I think it ended up being about 10 rolls. My witch hat is also done, and so is a nifty little spell book I made. You can’t be a witch without a cookbook! Then I made gumbo, and preceded to eat all of it in 2 days. But I’m still craving it, so last night I made a little stop at the grocery store & got the stuff to make it again tonight! And I’m really looking forward to it.

Every Monday morning, I check my weekly horoscope on the FreePeople blog. I don’t really put much stock in it, but it’s fun to read anyway. This is my horoscope for this week. All I will say is, the first part was just discussed with a friend Saturday evening. Coincidence? Be your own judge.

LEO

July 23–August 22

An urge for freedom and travel conflicts with responsibilities that sometimes feel like a burden, as liberating Uranus in your adventure sector (feel free to laugh here if you, like me, have the sense of humor of a 12-year-old boy) spars with intense Pluto in your daily-routine house this week. Your job or how you spend your time is evolving, and at the moment your future is a bit of a question mark. An old viewpoint may no longer hold water, and being in between workable philosophies could make you anxious.

As a resilient Leo, you prefer to put the past behind you. But when the sun conjoins Mercury retrograde, the moon and the moon’s node (with the proximity of the node turning the new moon into a solar eclipse), you’re called to face the past in order to move forward. Revisit emotionally charged memories, parental issues and childhood patterns in order to work through your feelings about them. In making peace with what got you to where you are now, you’ll shore up your self-esteem and strengthen your determination to work your way toward change you co-create. An emotional truth within you carries the lesson that will allow you to heal.

Now enough with that hocus pocus.

It’s time for some Whovian news! The Doctor Who Facebook page has a new, fun little feature for “The Day of the Doctor.” You can put your name & picture into an “save the date” video! Here is the link to mine. It’s probably the only way I will ever feature in anything Doctor Who related, so I’m not wasting the opportunity. 🙂

You may have seen this. You may not have. It was just released today…yesterday…I’m not sure anymore. Either way, I’m sharing it regardless because: 1) I’m a huge James McAvoy fan, 2) I’m a big Michael Fassbender fan, 3) I’m a big fan of Patrick Stewart & Ian McKellen, especially when they are together, 4) Jennifer Lawrence, and 5) I absolutely love X-Men & have been since I was a wee one. So naturally, when you add all this up, you get a whole lot of excitement for the first trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past! I can’t wait for this movie.

And now for the grand finale!

Since it’s is the week of All Hallows Eve, and I love dark, weird, creepy, macabre, horror, Halloween-themed movies, I decided to throw together a list of essential movies for this time of year. It was originally going to be one list of 13 movies. Then I realized something: Who am I kidding?! I can’t only pick 13! I could list a hundred essentials to fit this category! So, instead, I broke things down a bit. I still, of course, didn’t get everything on here, but it’s a start. Maybe some more will show up later in the week…(FYI: none of these lists are in any particular order.)

13 essential vampire movies:

Underworld (2003)
Dracula (1931)
Dracula (1992)
Near Dark (1987)
The Lost Boys (1987)
Queen of the Damned (2002)
Interview with A Vampire (1994)
Nosferatu (1922)
Fright Night (1985)
30 Days of Night (2007)
Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
Let The Right One In (Swedish, 2008)
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

13 essential Witch movies:

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
Practical Magic (1998)
Hocus Pocus (1993)
The Craft (1996)
The Witches (1990)
Harry Potter (2001-2011)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Covenant (2006)
The Devil’s Own (a.k.a. The Witches, 1966)
Black Sunday (1960)
The Woods (2006)
Suspiria (1977)

13 essential “Halloween” movies not centered around witches or vampires:

The Corpse Bride (2005)
Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
The Exorcist (1973)
Halloween (1978)
The Mummy (1932)
Psycho (1960)
Legend (1985)
Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Frankenstein (1931) & Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
The Omen (1976)
The Shining (1980)

Monster tired! Monster done for day!

Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay; the worst is death and death will have his day.

Posted on September 24, 2013 by sydneyday

In case you didn’t guess from the title of this post, part 1 of The Hollow Crown, a collection of film versions of Shakespeare’s Henriad, FINALLY aired in the US on PBS Friday night. I have been waiting for ages to watch these. Seriously. As soon as the air dates were announces, I wrote them on a sticky note and stuck it to my calender, where I have started at it for months and months on end.

Part one was Richard II, starring Ben Whishaw as the titular character, and including Rory Kinnear, Patrick Stewart, Clemence Posey, Jake Purefoy, David Morrisey, Lindsey Duncan…it goes on. And this is only the first film. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint. And now I’m dying for Friday, so I can watch part two, Henry IV: Part 1, which starts Jeremy Irons as the title character, and my favorite, Tom Hiddleston (eek!) as Prince Hal. It also boasts the amazing Julie Walters, whom I love, and Simon Russel Beale as Falstaff. Is it obvious that I’m really, REALLY excited for this? Does that make we weird? I don’t really care if it does, I was just wondering.

Ok, I will move on from Shakespeare. Though it is not without difficulty.

Other than watching Richard II twice, I also did some crafting this weekend. I made three Fall/Halloween pennant banners. I finally spent some more time working on my cousins birthday present–which was about two weeks ago–and hopefully I will finish it this weekend. As long as it’s not another really busy week. Last week was crazy. I still haven’t made new fall wreaths. I have everything gathered and has been sitting on my kitchen table for three weeks. So my goal is to get them done by this weekend & get them out. My other goal to get my Halloween decor out! I want to make a few things, and I need to try and mend my favorite Halloween sign that one of my dogs ate last year. I have a feeling it’s a lost cause, but keep your fingers crossed anyway.

Let’s see, what else? I got caught up on the past two weeks’ episodes of Breaking Bad–and watched this week’s–and saw that I had missed some serious business. (Spoilers! Avert your eyes!) I can’t believe that Hank is dead! And I was on the verge of tears when I thought they were going to kill Jessie. Intense. That was intense. I watched the Emmys, too. They didn’t suck, but they weren’t great either. It was also the season finale (and possibly the series finale, if I here correctly) of Copper. Oh, and I watched episode 2 of Orphan Black, which I’m loving. I’m so BBC America is airing the first season so I don’t have to Netflix it. My queue is backed-up enough as it is!

I have a feeling I’m forgetting something from this weekend…oh well. Onward!

So, it’s Tuesday, which means it’s Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and the Bookish (but I will get to that later), and tonight is Face Off on SyFy! Yay! It doesn’t really feel like a Tuesday, but I can’t figure out what day it does feel like. I barely remember yesterday. I think my brain decided just take the day off & chill at home while my body was at work.

This week is Banned Books Week, so instead of using the TTT topic for today–favorite sequels–I’m going to do my top ten favorite banned/challenged books! But before I get into my list, a bit about Banned Books Week the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom has more information on banned & challenged books, including multiple lists broken by year or decade, as well as a neat timeline.

Now, onward to my list! There are a few contemporary titles on here, but the majority are classic. And according to the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, at least 46 of the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century have been either banned or challenged. I have also included some of the reasons given over the years for banning or challenging each book (quotations all come from this ALA page on banned classics).

The Great Gatsby by F. Scot Fitzgerald – Banned/Challenged for: namely language & sexual references.
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee – Banned/Challenged for: language, racial slurs that promote “racial hatred, racial division, racial separation, and promotes white supremacy,” “psychological damage to the positive integration process,” objectionable content, adult themes including rape and incest, inappropriate for age group.
Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak – Banned/Challenged for: dark and disturbing nature.
The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky – Banned/Challenged for: homosexuality, suicide, language, drug use, alcohol use, anti-family, abuse, inappropriate for age group.
Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling – Banned/Challenged for: portrayal of witchcraft as good, occult/satanic themes, violence, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group.
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien – Banned/Challenged for: demoralizing content, excessive violence, language, racism, sexual content, “defamatory towards minorities, God, women, and the disabled,” satanic.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller – Banned/Challenged for: language, content.
Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell – Banned Challenged for: racism, language.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – Banned/Challenged for: anti-ethnic, anti-family, language, violence, occult/satanic references, sexual explicit, unsuited to age group.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger – (Now, here is a testament to how much I hate book banning: this is one of my most hated books. I wish to all that is good that I could love this book, but it’s never going to happen. I hate it! But I hate book banning even more, and this is one of the most banned books there is, so I had to include it.) Banned Challenged for: “anti-white,” obscenity, language, sexually explicit including prostitution, “undermines morality,” alcohol abuse.

Go on & be a rebel! Read a banned book this week!

P.S. I remembered what I was forgetting from my weekend: I read volumes one through four of Locke and Key!! It’s official, I’m in love. Highly recommend. I plan on finishing volume 5 tonight!