Ravishing “R”
Chartroose over at Bloody Hell, It’s a Book Barrage! tagged me with a meme. The rules are simple: choose 10 favorite things beginning with a single letter of the alphabet and explain why you like them. The only catch is that the letter is assigned to you by the person who wrote the post you’ve just read. On February 9, 2009, Chartroose assigned me the letter “R”.
So, as promised last week, here are ten things I like beginning with the ravishing letter “R”.
1) The colour red. Vibrant, brass, and deep. Blood red and fire engine red and auburn red (hair). So full of life and brightness and vitality.
Hair the red of feisty, feminist Pippi Longstocking. I found the best sketch of Pippi here, at Sarah’s Sketches. Go see it!
2) Raspberries, which can also be red. The best ones are red: a deep, lush red. They are best mixed in a tub of chocolate ice cream and eaten on a sunny summer’s eve
3)Root Beer. It has to be A & W Root Beer. In a classic frosty mug, of course.
4) Rocks:
Pet Rocks;
River Rocks;
Emeralds;
Jade &
Ebony.
5) Royalty in Movies:
Princess Giselle in Enchanted;
Ever After…etc, etc, etc.
(Bonus points to anyone who can tell me the movie reference.)
6) The Russian Revolution. Anything written about it, that is. I’ve read everything I can find on Anastasia. Honestly, I just find the history of women in Russia to be intriguing. Especially Anastasia and Catherine the Great. It has to do, I suppose, with the fact that such a rich lifestyle is foreign to anything I have ever experienced. I hope some day to visit St. Petersburg, but honestly I’d rather time travel so that I could see it as it was.
7) Remembrance. Things lost. Nostalgia. Memoir. I live within the curse of an examined life. Forever, examining and re-examining my past, my present, my history – the history of everything.
(I wish I could draw an image to invoke the remembrance of time and history).
8_) Renovation Shows. I live in an apartment. I covet the the freedom home owners have to invent and reinvent their spaces. I want a man like Mike Holmes in my life 
I could so Neaten up anyone’s house. I’m a natural neat freak.
And then there is the British import – How Clean is Your House. These are my guilty pleasures. The shows that cheer me up because I know my space will NEVER ever get that messy or dirty.
These are my gossip shows… these are my famous people and their problems that I gloat over!
9) R & R; Rest and Relaxation. I learnt the value of a good nap early and still practice the art of napping every chance I get. I had a nap today. I plan on a nap tomorrow!
10)A revolting, refreshing sense of the absurd. I don’t know if I am macabre or goth. I do know I have a weird, eerie sense of humour.
Here are some of my favourite things:
- Graveyards;
- Halloween;
- Queen Mab & all things fey;
- Oscar the Grouch;
- Gingerdead;
- Para Abnormal;
- the Loch Ness monster.
And, in conclusion,
Yeah, he’s good, like an angel is good. But we ain’t made t’mess wit angels, girl. Angels draw up to all the evil and all the hurt in the world. They watch babies dyin’, that’s what they do. They take all the pain and shout it out. Angels livin’ with evil and with death. That’s their stock in trade. Murderers and thieves and times so hard that you could cry blood. That’s where you find angels. … I’d kill myself before I’d break bread with an angel.
(p. 238 - RL’s Dream by Walter Mosley)
Anyone who is interested in doing this meme can leave me a comment and I’ll give you a letter to explore.
Thank you Chartroose for letting me explore myself within this meme.
Coming Soon
Chartroose over at Bloody Hell, It’s a Book Barrage! has tagged me with a meme. The rules are simple: choose 10 favorite things beginning with a single letter of the alphabet and explain why you like them. The only catch is that the letter is assigned to you by the person who wrote the post you’ve just read. Today, February 9, 2009, she assigned me the letter “R”. Return next week for my ten things beginning with the ravishing “R”. Go to her blog and read her February 6, 2009 post on the letter “A” – Fonzie’s favourite letter.
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day – Reprise
My second post on my fresh, brand new blog was about the movie Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day. http://solitaryspinster.wordpress.com/2008/09/
Since I’ve seen the movie I’ve been able to read the book. Thank the Stars for outstanding local libraries where I was lucky enough to acquire both within six months of each other. To recap: the book is about a day in the life of a spinster governess working in London just prior to WWII. Very much in line with the screwball comedies of the time. It was written by Winifred Watson in 1938 and reissued by Persephone Books in 2001.
Ms. Watson grew up in Newcastle (Great Britain) and worked as a secretary until she married. She wrote six books before she retired to look after her growing family in 1941. Persephone Books reprints forgotten works by (mostly) women writers. Miss Pettigrew is a charming little volume with all of the original artwork included as well.
You may want to read my first post first as I plan to talk here about how the book differs from the movie.
The book opens with an introduction by Henrietta Twycross-Martin (no, no idea who she is) that summarizes how this book brought joyful fantasy into her mother’s life. It introduces us into Ms. Watson’s life, both when she was writing Miss Pettigrew and when it was reprinted. An optimistic story within itself.
Miss Pettigrew’s chapters are separated into hourly type sections. We start the day at 9:15 a.m. to 11:11 a.m and end at 3:47 a.m. It is an interesting life changing day for everyone involved. It differs from the movie as there is no set-up; we are thrown instantly into the meeting between Miss Pettigrew and Miss LaFosse. The book draws one in quickly and never lets go until the end. I finished the bulk of it in two days.
Instantly, Miss Pettigrew feels accepted. They talk to her. Miss LaFosse , her friend Miss Dubarry and the others look to Miss Pettigrew for solace and advice. Miss LaFosse is a grown-up child and Miss Dubarry runs a successful business. They make her over. They take her to a cocktail party, a nightclub, they treat her as an equal. Something none of her other employers have ever done. This, I think, mirrors slightly the British class system and how it works. Here, no one laughs at her for being a governess (and a very bad one at that). Here, they drink up her advice, praise her mimicking skills and her quick wit. It is a world unlike any Miss Pettigrew has ever seen.
The spinster, Miss Pettigrew, is a lot like me. She has never “been in a taxi for pure frivolity before.” She has spent her life catering to other’s needs and waiting for a life to happen. On some days, I feel I do this more than on other days.
Miss Pettigrew has arrived at the age of forty and never been kissed. She states, unequivocally, that she has never been loved in her life. Thankfully, I have loved and been loved and lost at love. I have a village of family and friends who tease and push and challenge and accept me. I choose the spinster lifestyle and relish my aloneness (most of the time).
The movie minimized the drug use that the book portrays as normal. There is cocaine and massive amounts of alcohol use. That the movie minimized this doesn’t surprise me as this is an American adaptation.
The movie also changes and minimizes the friendship between the three women (Miss Pettigrew, Miss LaFosse and Miss Dubarry). It introduces, into the story, conflict that is caused by two of the women being attracted to the same man. This change annoys me. I found the book’s portrayal of the women and their friendship to be more honest.
The movie added to the storyline:
- Miss Pettigrew’s true love; a young man who dies in WWI (as if she is less of a person, in the book, because she has never been loved or loved anyone herself)
- the conflict between two of the women over a man (as if true love precludes any ethics one might feel over stealing away another’s lover)
- the upcoming war was foreshadowed (the author choose to completely leave this out of the novel even though it must have been apparent when she was writing the story)
Yes, in the book Miss Pettigrew does find love. However, not until the last chapters. He is fifty-five, so they are compatible age-wise, in the reader’s mind. Man must always be older than the woman! Introducing the love story earlier in the movie minimizes and trivializes the growing relationship between the women.
In my mind, it is the women who are central to the story. It is these friendships that save Miss Pettigrew and give her what she needs most: a better sense of who she is and what she is capable of.
I would recommend the book more than the movie, However, don’t limit yourself, enjoy both. And I would love to read anyone else’s reviews of both, let me know if there are any out there in the blogosphere.
My Fashion Sense
I read recently about a forty-year-old Hollywood agent who worked during the 1940’s. His wardrobe consisted of suits in two colors, blue and gray, and three hundred shirts all the same; same make, same style, same color – white, I assume. His wardrobe was identical wherever he had a house. He never had to think about what to wear. I envy him.
I’ve never been able to dress myself. Don’t misunderstand – like every child I mastered the basics. I can zip zippers, fasten buttons, tie my shoes. What escapes me is the coordination. What goes with what? What to wear with what? How to look good and still be comfortable. All my sisters, I have five, seem to have picked up this skill – but not me! The last outfit I remember really loving to wear – it was comfortable and made me feel magnificently beautiful, was a lined white lace dress I owned when I was seven. A fancy, dancy, twirlly dress! 
I grew up in a small town in Saskatchewan in the 1960s. What was in fashion were mother/daughter outfits and dressing sisters all alike. We were poor. My mother and her friends would make my two older sisters and me identical dresses and include a matching shirt for my baby brother. I wore my sister’s hand-me-downs and therefore, could wear the same dress for years and years and years. (It felt like I did!)
I was a wild child. A tomboy. I didn’t care what I wore as long as it was comfortable. I would have my mom braid my hair in one long braid down the back and sleep like that for days until next bath day. As a child, I bathed once a week and in my teens I bathed twice a week. So my long hair was often in snarls. I wanted it long, fought to keep it long. Well into my teens I would wear an outfit for two days in a row – if it were still clean. I stopped when I was thirteen and overheard a classmate, a boy I had a major crush on, whisper in disgust “didn’t she wear that yesterday.”
This is when I started reading fashion magazines. It didn’t help. After twenty years of reading these types of magazines I still don’t have a clue about what to wear. All their well-intentioned advice has not helped. Does this make me a hopeless case?
Then again, I don’t and have never looked like those models. I am not a small breasted, skinny girl or a middle-income professional woman. I am fat and tall and poor. I shop more often at WalMart than at Neiman Marcus. I am looking for quality at an inexpensive price and not finding it.
What I find are clothes that never seem to fit. Long shirtsleeves have a habit of being 3/4 length unless I buy shirts that are too large. Pants are never long enough and always leave my ankles feeling exposed. Bras never fit right. I’m tired of feeling ugly and uncomfortable no matter how much money I spend. I want to look professional and be comfortable. I want people to notice me and not my lack of fashion sense.
I want a simple wardrobe. One that is wash & wear and requires minimum care. I want to be able to let kids crawl on me without worrying about my clothes. I don’t own an iron though if I have to I can and will iron. I hate when I buy something and it shrinks the first time I wash it or the buttons and threads unravel. Therefore, I have learned to do basic mending. My youngest half-sister and stepmother can sew a marvel of an outfit from nothing. Oh, to be that talented!
I want a simple wardrobe: black pants, colorful tops, a jacket, some flats, some sandals. I want to be like that Hollywood agent. I want to be able to walk into my closet and not have to think about what to wear. I want to walk out of my closet looking professional and feeling comfortable.
gigi (not necessarily)
Urban Fantasy One
February 22, 2009 at 8:35 pm (Book Commentary) (Carrie Vaughn, Chanterelle, Jeri Smith-Ready, Kitty, urban fantasy, vampire, werewolves, music, rock 'n' roll)
Kitty and the Midnight Hour is the first book in the werewolf series and I liked it enough that I will be reading the others. It is by Carrie Vaughn, go explore her site to find out more. The playlist she included in this book is the music she listened to while writing about Kitty.
It’s the second book that I want to talk about today. Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready. It is, according to the cover blurb, a novel of sex, blood and rock ‘n’ roll. Which, these days, usually means, vampires are involved. I have a fascination with vampire stories. Now, I’m no naive Chanterelle (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lie to Me: Season 2: Episode 7 etc.), I don’t believe vampires to be blessed or benign or real.
I like urban fantasy. I like history. This novels gives me both. I like learning something new. I don’t listen to a lot of rock music. I like folk, old country, indie stuff and many Canadian bands. I was a teenager in the seventies, rock music was still relatively new then. Rock ‘n’ Roll was everywhere so I know the basics of its history, its legends, if you will.
This story taught me a little bit more about rock ‘n’ roll; what it is, how it evolved, why it matters to so many of my generation. After reading these books, I went to YouTube to search for and listen to the songs. I had heard about half of them before. A new favourite is: Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle by Cake, a band I’ve never heard of. (But will definitely be looking into further.) The playlist in Wicked Game is integral to the story itself.
I ended last week’s post with a quote. It is from a novel about, the blues singer, Robert Johnson. Robert supposedly sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in Mississippi. To find out what that rock legend has to do with tonight’s novel go to Ms. Smith-Ready’s website and read about Monroe’s turning and then, when you’re done exploring the websites, read Wicked Game and write down when the sequel Bad to the Bone is coming out because you’ll want to read that one too!
So what, in my opinion, would make these books better. Sell me the music CD along with the book. Can’t be done, you say. Has been done, I say. Okay, arguably, it would be expensive to negotiate all the rights to the music but I think it would pay off in the long run. Anyone game to try?
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