Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Scoatney Hall is the "new" Netherfield Park

“Did you think of anything when Miss Marcy said Scoatney Hall was being re-opened? I thought of the beginning of Pride and Prejudice – where Mrs. Bennett says ‘Netherfield Park is let at last.’
          And then Mr. Bennett goes over to call on the rich new owner.” [Rose]
“Mr. Bennett didn’t owe him any rent,” I said.  [Cassandra]
“Father wouldn’t go anyway." [Rose]

Monday, May 23, 2011

Which would be nicest? Smidgen of Austen or Bronte

In Chapter 2 (page 24):
[Rose] "How I wish I lived in a Jane Austen novel!"
[Cassandra] I said I'd rather be in a Charlotte Bronte.
[Rose] "Which would be nicest - Jane with a touch of Charlotte, or Charlotte with a touch of Jane?"


What do you think? 80% Austen and 20% Bronte?

I have NO clue. I have never read any of the Bronte sisters' works (unless I blocked them from high school memories). I am adding them to my TBR list. I have quite a referenced list of literature to read from this book (see I am Grigg!). SMH.


Literature
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 
As You Like It (The New Folger Library Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen
What Maisie Knew (Penguin Classics) by Henry James
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
War and Peace (Wordsworth Classics) (Wadsworth Collection) by Leo Tolstoy
The Letters of Abelard and Heloise by Peter Abelard and Heloise
Vanity Fair (Barnes & Noble Classics) by William Makepeace Thackeray
A la recherche du temps perdu (French Edition) by Marcel Proust
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales (Signet Classics) by Edgar Allan Poe


Music
Debussy: Images 1 & 2; Children's Corner by Claude Debussy
Clair De Lune by Claude Debussy
Preludes, Book 1: No. 10. La cathedrale engloutie by Claude Debussy
Préludes, Book 2: 7. La terrasse des audiences au clair de lune by Claude Debussy
Sheep May Safely Graze by Bach

Saturday, May 21, 2011

I Capture the Castle

Scribble Title: I Capture the Castle
Author: Dodie Smith (also author of 101 Dalmatians)
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Paperback: 352 pages
Original Publish: 1948
Genre: Fiction (diary)
Description: From the cover of the green paperback:
"I Capture the Castle tells the story of seventeen-year old Cassandra and her family, who live in not-so-genteel poverty in a ramshackle old English castle. Here she strives, over six turbulent months to hone her writing skills She fills three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries. Her  journals candidly chronicle the great changes that take place within the castle's walls, and her own first descent into love. By the time she pins her final entry, she has "captured the castle" - and the heart of the reader - in one of literature's most enchanting entertainments."


"This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met."--J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series
"Dreamy and funny . . . an odd, shimmering timelessness clings to its pages. A thousand and one cheers for its reissue. A+"--Entertainment Weekly

"I Capture the Castle is finally back in print. It should be welcomed with a bouquet of roses and a brass band. Ever since I was handed a tattered copy years ago with the recommendation 'You'll love it,' it has been one of my favorite novels."--Susan Isaacs

"It is an occasion worth celebrating when a sparkling novel, a work of wit, irony, and feeling is brought back into print after an absence of many years. So uncork the champagne for I Capture the Castle."--Los Angeles Times

"A delicious, compulsively readable novel about young love and its vicissitudes. What fun!"--Erica Jong


Flick Title: I Capture the Castle
Actors: Marc Blucas, Rose Byrne, Henry Thomas, Tara Fitzgerald, Romola Garai, Bill Nighy
Rated: R
Studio: Sony Pictures
DVD Release Date: December 23, 2003
Run Time: 113 minutes

Friday, May 20, 2011

Sir Mix Alot's legacy lives on ... "Baby Got Leads"

Just because it cracks me up ...

HubSpot's original song and music video, "Baby Got Leads," about a rapping marketer's obsession with lead conversion and inbound marketing.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Milk + Honey. Be sure to check it out.

Pass the word ...

Asha May, together with her mentor Debbie Allen, Idris Elba and Lance Gross have created an excellent TV series Milk + Honey. Idris and the Brown Paper Dolls company (Chicagoans and Howard U, FAMU & Spelman, grads Dana Gills, Asha Kamali May, and Jeanette McDuffie) have been working on this series for
over 3 years. The show was created to showcase diverse images of women of color that are rarely seen on the big or small screen, and also to create more opportunities for black actors.

http://www.milkandhoneyseries.com/



milk + honey series trailer from brown paper dolls on Vimeo.

Didn't I See You Before Friday?

In His Girl Friday (1940), Bruce Baldwin is about to lose his girl to the conniving newspaper editor, Walter Burns.

Throughout the movie I kept thinking that Baldwin looked and sounded familiar. However, I could not put my finger on it. Toward the middle of the movie, Burns (Cary Grant) gives Evangeline* (Marion Martin - see Sinners in Paradise, Lady of Burlesque: The G-String Murders, Angel on My Shoulder) directions to help her identify Baldwin to prank. Burns (Grant) says, "He looks like Ralph Bellamy."  I scribbled down a note to look up Ralph Bellamy.

Lo and behold, guess who played the character Bruce Baldwin? None other than Ralph Bellamy. So of course Bruce Baldwin looks like Bellamy. LOL!

Why did Bellamy seem so familiar to me? I knew him as the character Randolph Duke from the movies Trading Places (1983) and Coming to America  (1988). Ralph Bellamy had an extremely long career!

* Evangeline was Louie's blond associate; also referenced as "the albino" by Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell).