So I have fallen waaaay behind with my posts, but as you know I started a book club last year:
Every month we read a book and I do a little post on the book we read and discussed.
There is no theme, other than with each month, a different member gets to pick a book, whichever one they want. It was my turn to pick again and after doing a mystery in The Secret of Chimneysand an altered classic/romance in The Darcy Monologues: I wanted to do something different. So I decided on a fantasy/science fiction and what better than my favorite book as a kid that is going to be a movie soon:
A Wrinkle in Time (The Time Quartet #1) by Madeleine L’Engle
I loved this book so much as a kid. I used to go to the library and check it out again and again and again. After constantly doing that, my mom finally bought me the book so I had my own. It came in a set with the remaining three books-A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters.
This is the book that started the whole time quartet series. In this book the Murry family has moved to New England. Many people are wary of them as both Mr. and Mrs. Murry are scientists. Mr. Murry is often called upon to go to Washington D.C for the President or Pentagon. He left for a trip about a year ago, and has yet to return. Many think he abandoned the family, but his wife and children have faith that he will return. Meg is the oldest, she wears glasses and braces and thinks herself unattractive.
She has a lot of problems making friends as she has a temper,
What???!!!
she also has issues in school as the math is too far below her.
After Meg are the twins, Alexander (Sandy) and Dionysus (Dennys). Both the twins excel in sports, school, and friendship. Last is Charles Wallace, only five years old and a genius. He tries to hide it, but still can’t pass off being “normal.”
One dark and stormy night; three women come in with the wind and set Meg, Charles Wallace, and a popular boy from school, Calvin O’Keefe on quite the adventure. Mrs. Which, Mrs. Who, and Mrs,Whatsit tells the trio that they need them in order to save Mr. Murry who is caught in the 5th dimension.
Help me! I’m confused!
This adventure takes them on a ride through psychics, time travel, tessering, and other planets.
The best characters in this are Meg and Calvin. Besides being intelligent, Calvin is also caring and compassionate. When Meg and Charles become his friend, his loyalty and care with protecting them knows very little bounds. And when Meg has problems controlling her temper; Calvin is able to help her realign her feelings and help her express kindness toward others.
*swoon*
Then we have Meg, oh my gosh we are just the same. Meg has a hard time connecting with people her own age as in many ways she is older, younger, and the same. She has a bad temper, is stubborn, willful, loyal, caring, compassionate, and will defend her friends/family until the end.
Amazing!
One of the best things of this book is two messages- one being, be happy in who you are. Meg is always trying to change herself, but her faults and personality are the things that can help them in this battle. She was designed that way, even though she might not like herself-she was needed to be herself in order to save everyone.
And that love can defeat everything. Love, real powerful Love.
In fact, Meg actually embodies all three of those-faith, hope, love-and uses them to battle the black thing.
It is a fantastic book that has been such a big part of my life!
Day 1) A is for Apocalyptical: Choose a book with an apocalyptic theme
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451 is one of my absolute favorite books. I first was introduced to it at the age of 10, when I came across my parents watching the German film. I didn’t quite understand it, so my mom gave me the book to read. Since then I read it at least once a year.
Or 10th, 50th, 100th….
Every time I read this book it shocks me with how accurate it is in portraying the culture of today. I was amazed at that age, but this most recent time when I read the book, it really struck me with exactly how spot on it is.
The book was published in 1953, and is set in a Dystopian future. No year is given, although it is done after 1960. In this future reading is outlawed
Books are an illegal substance,
and the firemen’s job is to burn the offensive material.
AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t know about you all, but a world without books sounds like a catastrophic end of the world to me. After all:
Guy Montag has always lived life the way culture dictates; has a good paying job, married, no kids as they are bothersome and their are already too many, multiple wall screens to stream TV, etc.
Sound familiar?
But then one night everything changes. He meets the daughter of his new next door neighbor, Clarisse, who doesn’t like firemen.
“And you must be-…the fireman.’ Her voice trailed off.
‘How oddly you say that.’
‘I’d- I’d have known it with my eyes shut,’ she said, slowly.
‘What- the smell of kerosene? My wife always complains,’ he laughed. ‘You never wash it off completely.’
‘No you don’t,’ she said, in awe.” [pg. 4]
She starts talking about all kinds of things, like how firemen at one time didn’t burn things but helped stop fires. She even questions whether he ever reads the books he burns.
Clarisse is completely counter to the culture of the day and a throwback to the past.
For instance, she doesn’t like this obsession with everything has to be in a hurry, driving all is blur with no one taking the time to look, examine, or have have patience. In fact her uncle was jailed for driving 40 mi/hrs, as it was far too “slow”.
Clarisse also likes to go out for walks and and look at the sky, stars, or moon. Something else everyone finds as weird or odd.
This reminds me so much of our culture today. Everything needs to be instant-instant news, fast food, all TV shows, etc. No patience, no waiting. My niece and I were watching a show on Netflix, and she asked me why they would have these moments where they pause, go to black, and then do a review of what we already seen. I actually had to explain that they used to show these episodes on TV, and there would be commercials in-between. Because you might get people who just tuned in and didn’t see the beginning, and were unable to see the beginning (unless they purchased it on VHS or DVD, they would repeat it for them. And then I had to explain that streaming is something new, prior to it you had to wait a week for the next episode; and when the season ended you had to wait 6 months to a year for the next season.
Now here is a child who has grown up on the world of streaming and the internet and never, ever experienced having to wait for something.
Just like in this.
Anyways, when Montag returns home he finds his wife, Mildred, almost dead, having sucked down a lot of pills. He calls the hospital and they don’t even bother sending an ambulance. So many people these days are trying to kill themselves and end their life with pills, they have a machine like a black snake to pump the stomach.
The next day, Mildred doesn’t remember anything about what happened that night, and all she cares about is her “family” a TV show she follows.
There are all kinds of people suffering in the world or “real issues” that need to be talked about, but are all glossed over by entertainment. All people care about is the TV screens, wanting this giant Wall to Wall circuit. And the shows they watch have no real themes or content to them. Just mindless chatter.
When I reread this, it made me think of the reality shows we have that are just the same thing again and again, no real changes or real content. Keeping Up with the Kardashians for example. Or the endless dating shows looking for love like Flav O Flav, My Fair Brady, etc. Or The X Factor, The Voice, American Idol, etc, And people care more about these shows then real things.
We are strange people.
Then Montag runs into Clarisse. She talks to him, really talks just about anything and everything. Because she isn’t “normal” they force her to o to a psychiatrist.
“They want to know what I do with all my time. I tell them that sometimes I just sit and think.” [pg. 20]
In fact that is something she and her family like to do, just sit around and talk no devices, go out and walk just talking. In this world conversation is dead, no one really talks anymore. Sound familiar?
“He laughed.
She glanced quickly over. ‘Why are you laughing?’
‘I don’t know.’ He started to laugh again and stopped. ‘Why?’
‘You laugh when I haven’t been funny and you answer right off. You never stop to think what I’ve asked you.” [pg. 6]
It gets him thinking, and thinking is dangerous in a dystopian world.
“He felt his body divide itself into a hotness and a coldness, a softness and a hardness, a trembling and a not trembling, the two halves grinding upon the other.” [pg. 21]
Clarrise is a great character because she represents a type of person that is fading out. The one who is still holding on to the values of the past. A type of person who wants to think for herself instead of being spoonfeed an idea from the Internet, government, or teachers.
“I’m antisocial, they say. I don’t mix. It’s so strange. I’m very social indeed. It all depends on what you mean by social, doesn’t it? Social to me means talking to you about things like this…But I don’t think it is social to get a bunch of people together and then not let them talk, do you?…We never ask questions…they just run the answers at you, bing, bing, bing…It’s a lot of funnels and a lot of water poured down the spout and out the bottom, and them telling us it’s wine when it’s not.” [pg. 27]
The other thing I love about Clarrise os that she is so easily relatable, at least to me she is. She is disconnected to her generation because she doesn’t have the same values as they do she is more old fashioned, and because of that she is an 80 year old in a 17 year old’s body. I know exactly how that feels. I love reading, creating things by hand, having things until they wear out, not getting the newest stuff. That’s how I been my whole life which makes it hard to find others who value the same thing. I mean I read Emily Post.
“You sound so old.’
‘Sometimes I’m ancient.” [pg. 27]
Clarrise hates this world of blandness and nothingness.
“People don’t talk about anything.’
‘Oh, they must!’
‘No, not anything. They name a lot of cars or clothes or swimming pools mostly and say how swell! But they all say the same things and nobody says anything different from anyone else.” [pg. 28]
Clarisse opens Montag’s mind up to the way the world is and how it should be, and before he knows it, she and her whole family are gone.
You question in a dystopian world and you are gone.
He asks Captain Beatty if it is true that fireman used to stop fires instead of creating them.
Not good
The rest if the firemen are uneasy, but Captain Beatty knows it is natural for at one pint a fireman to question things. He shows him the history of the firemen and when they were first established.
“Established, 1790, to burn English-influenced books in the Colonies. First Fireman: Benjamin Franklin.
Rules
Answer the alarm quickly.
Start the fire swiftly.
Burn everything.
Report back to the firehouse immediately.
Stand alert for other Alarms.
Before anything else can be done, an alarm sounds and the group heads out. They reach the place and apprehend a women, demanding to know where her contraband is. She won’t tell them but quotes Hugh Latimer.
“Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.”
The fireman don’t understand this, but Hugh Latimer was executed for his protestantism, under the ruling of catholic Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth’s older sister. He was burned alive for his beliefs, which is foreshadowing as to what is to come.
They find the books and are going to burn them like they always do, except this night is different. This woman, Mrs. Blake, stands their silently judging them.
Montag begins burning everything, but instead of just being things, they feel more alive, like killing animals.
They burn everything, ready to decimate the building, but Mrs. Blake won’t leave. She refuses to give up her books. The fireman leave, ready to let her die; but Montag tries to help her. She refuses as she holds in her hand a match.
Not good
Willing to die for her beliefs.
I think that is why I love this book so much, the fact that it truly explains a connection people have not just to the book but to the author’s thoughts and ideas. Destroying a book is more than destroying a physical object, it is trying to kill the person who created it.
“It’s not just the woman that died…Last night I thought about all that kerosene I’ve used in the past ten years. And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of the books. A man had to think them up. A man had to take a long time to put them down on paper. And I’d never even thought that thought before…It took some man a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life and then I come along in two minutes and boom! it’s all over.” [pg. 49]
Montag returns home after the horror with a secret:
“His hands had been infected, and soon it would be his arms. He could feel the poison working up his wrists and into the elbows and his shoulders, and then the jump-over from shoulder blade to shoulder blade like a spark leaping a gap. His hands were ravenous. And his eyes were beginning to feel hunger, as if they must look at something, anything, everything…He balanced in space with the book in his sweating cold fingers.” [pg. 38]
Montag realizes how empty his life is, he married his wife ten years ago, but can’t fathom why. He doesn’t love her and she doesn’t love him. They don’t talk, they spend no time together, and all she does is watch TV or listen to her device with her little seashell headphones that go in her ears practically disappearing from view. Both people are empty, full of nothingness. There is countless walls between them through the TV shows she watches and she is more connected to those fake creations on the screen than her own husband.
All Mildred does is watch TV, yet even that is so empty that you if ask questions what is it even about Mildred doesn’t know. Mildred doesn’t know anything. It’s like she is on drugs, the way her memory and mind is so foggy.
She is like a zombie.
The next day Montag is sick, not physically but mentally, and philosophically. The death of the woman has troubled him dearly and he can’t understand it.
“You weren’t there, you didn’t see,’ he said. There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.” [pg. 48]
Mildred doesn’t understand it and think that Montag is crazy for taking the death of a stupid radical this way. He should focus on work, on making more money, so they can get more things and TVs and such.
“Let me alone,’ said Mildred. ‘I didn’t do anything.’
‘Let you alone! That’s all very well, but how can I leave myself alone? We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long has it been since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?” [pg. 49]
Then Beatty shows up as Montag has been missing from work. He figured it out that Montag has been questioning the world they live in. So he gives them the spiel he gives out to bring those on the edge back to reality.
“Once, books appealed to a few people, here, there, everywhere. They could afford to be different. The world was roomy. But then the world got full of eyes and elbows and mouths…Films and radios, magazines, books leveled down to a sort of paste pudding norm…in the twentieth century, speed up your camera. Books cut shorter. Condensations. Digests. Tabloids…Classics cut to fit fifteen-minute radio shows, then cut again to fill a two minute book column, winding up at last as a ten- or twelve line dictionary resume…
Speed up the film, Montag, quick. Click, Pic, Look, Eye, Now, Flick, Here, There, Swift, Pace, Up, Down, In, Out, Why, How, Who, What, Where, Eh? Uh! Bang! Smack! Wallop, Bing, Bong, Boom!…Whirl a man’s mind around so fast under the pumping hands of publishers, exploiters, broadcasters, that the centrifuge flings off all unnecessary, time-wasting thought.
…philosophies, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling gradually gradually neglected, finally almost completely ignored. Life is immediate, the job counts, pleasure lies all about after work. Why learn anything save pressing buttons, pulling switches, fitting nuts and bolts?” [pgs 51-53]
Life today. Now this part here really gets me with how PC you have to be 24/7, the littlest infraction and you are out.
“Now let’s take up the minorities in our civilization, shall we? Bigger the population, the more minorities. Don’t step on the toes of the dog-lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico…The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that! All the minor minor minorities with their navels to be kept clean.
Authors, full of evil thoughts, lock up your typewriters. They did. Magazines became a nice blend of vanilla tapioca…But the public, knowing what it wanted, spinning happily, let the comic books survive, And the dimensional sex magazines of course.
There you have it, Montag. It didn’t come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick…Today, thanks to them, you can stay happy all the time…
With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word ‘intellectual’, of course became the swear word it deserved to be…
We must all be alike. Not everyone was born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man in the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, judge themselves against…”
Horrifying, yet that is the world we live in. You don’ like it, they destroy it; and that is happening now. A book about George Washington’s slave, who liked him because she saved his life from an assassination plot, making him a birthday cake was pulled because it isn’t p.c. Uncle Tom’s Cabin? No longer read because it is portrays African Americans in a bed light when it didn’t, Uncle Tom was an extremely powerful character. People don’t even read the book, but destroy it because it might hurt someone’s feelings.
Captain Beatty lets them know they got rid of the girl as she was too crazy and out there.
Life’s better bland, nothing to worry about, pleasant life, no problems, no nothing.
He tells Montag it is okay to check out a book, just one, as there is nothing in there. He’ll read it and burn it afterward.
After Beatty left, Montag is furious, but instead of taking something to make him happy, he has 20 books hidden in the house. He has decided to read them, sharing them with Mildred.
Montag goes to see Professor Faber, a man he ran into before. Faber used to work at a liberal arts college, but they closed it down as it was no longer important. He wants to know how to understand the books, to learn and Faber is the only one he has left.
Faber tells him we need three things in life:
“Number one: Do you know why books such as these are so important? Because they have quality…This book has pores…You’d find life under the glass, streaming past infinite profusion…The good writers touch life often.” [pg. 79]
And the second? Leisure. Now Montag brings up that we have plenty of leisure, but he means actual time set aside to read, not bombarded with all types of things.
“You can’t argue with a four-wall televisor. Why? The televisor is ‘real.’ It is immediate, it has dimension. It tells you what to think and blasts it in. It must be right. It seems so right. It rushes you on so quickly to its own conclusions your mind hasn’t time to protest, ‘What nonsense!’
‘…You can shut [books], say ‘Hold on a moment.’ You play God to it. But who has ever torn himself away from the claw that encloses you when you drop a seed in a TV parlor? It grows you any shape it wishes! It is an environment as real as the world. It becomes and is the truth. Books can be beaten down with reason. But with all my knowledge and skepticism, I have never been able to argue with a one-hundred-piece-symphony orchestra, full color, three dimensions…” [pg. 80]
And thirdly the ability to carry out the actions learned from it.
Montag thinks they can change the world by planting books on all the firemen, to bring them down. But Faber knows it won’t help, it isn’t the fireman that created this rule but the public who wanted people to stop reading.
That’s right, we did when we stopped reading.
Montag is afraid to go out as Beatty might mix him up again. Faber gives him these devices so he can put it in his ear so that he can hear Faber. That night he goes home and sees that Mildred is having a party.
Montag is horrified by these women. One just marries, divorces, marries, divorces, no emotions whatsoever. The other has kids who are in school constantly, and never sees them as she doesn’t care. They discuss politics. voting for people based on how they look and their names, rather than what they actually say or want to do.
Montag reads to them but they don’t understand. They’ve been too distorted with TV and the culture with no substance.
Captain Beatty knows that Montag has been reading and plays with him, using the books he clings to to rebut his arguments. They leave as they have a call, and it turns out that it is Montag’s house
Mildred put in the alarm and she is heartbroken. But what saddens her the most? Losing her TV family
Yes, not her husband, home, etc.
Montag is forced to destroy his own home, and afterwards destroys the firemen. After all, his whole life he has been taught, you have a problem, burn it.
He has now become a fugitive and runs. Not knowing where, but just continuing to run.
After running, he plants the books in other firemen’s houses. Montag stops to see Faber, finds out the Hound (the firemen’s robotic assassin) is after them, and continues to take off. Never knowing where he is to go next, but running.
He runs into the country until the end of the all known. He stops when he reaches an area with men siting near a campfire and TV set. They give him a potion to change his perspiration, but it is’t really necessary. The Hound needs to find someone, as after all this is TV, the people need the answer.
They find some poor sop who looks like Montag and kill him to save face.
These men are former professors , intellectuals, etc; who have been running from the law. Each one has taken in a new life, the life of a book. These books are locked away in an area they can never be taken from. The mind.
Eventually the hope is to one day reenter society and bring the books they have been passing orally to the world.
“Do you really think they will listen then?’
‘If not then we’ll just have to wait…you can’t make people listen. They have to come around in their own time…” [pg. 146]
And what book does Montag choose to be? Ecclesiastes.
Besides this fantastic story, we have the amazing language and the great way it was written. Take the beginning:
“It was a pleasure to burn.
It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history. With his symbolic helmut numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicked the igniter and the house jumped up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black. He strode in a swarm of fireflies. He wanted above all, like the old joke to shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace, while the flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch lawn of the house. While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning.” [pgs. 1-2]
This book is only 158 pages, barely any pages, but there is so much power is in that. Amazing amounts of power. I just love this book.
Remember:
Turn your TV, computer, cell phone, and any other device you have off for a while and pick up a book instead.
So last year I posted a Christmas Carol every day in December and I really enjoyed it. I had so much fun picking out the songs, I decided to bring it back.
So with everything going on in the world, and the way people have been acting: I think we need a little Christmas in our lives. So I choose that song.
We Need a Little Christmas is from the musical Mame based on the novel Aunt Mame. In the story Mame gains guardianship of her nephew and starts to raise him. At this point in the musical, Mame has lost everything in the stock market crash of 1929. With everything practically gone, she decides to have Christmas early as she doesn’t know what will happen.
Of course that isn’t the end of the play as Mame has many more interesting antics. However, this song is great and just the right thing to put us in the mood.
This version is sung by Angela Lansbury, from the first musical cast of Aunt Mame.
Every hipster I have ever met have been these horrible elitist who think they are better than everyone.
Ugh. They drive me crazy. They take all the stuff I have loved for years and jack up the prices. Oh, and don’t get me started on their fake glasses wearing. Wearing glasses can be a hard life and the people who do face all kinds of challenges and it bugs me to no end to see these people wear them for “fashion.” It’s like people walking around with hearing-aids for “fashion”. It’s so rude.
I just can’t stand them, and to make things even worse everyone thinks I’m one.
You see I have always loved older things. I love classic literature (and actually have read them, not just pretended).
I love records, especially the art of the album cover!
I only like music from the past as that is what I grew up listening and I just cannot connect to modern music.
I love classic cinema as that is what my mom used to show us when we were growing up. I remember being the only kid who liked “black and white” films.
Or the only one who knew Alfred Hitchcock, William Powell, Errol Flynn, Laurence Oliver, Gregory Peck, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, etc were.
I also only shopped at thrift stores as it was cheap and my family stressed the idea of using something until it was broken and unfixable. For instance I carried a CD player around with me into high school. Yes about 6 years ago when everyone had an iPod or something, I was still carrying my CD player to school and CDs to change them out.
So people think I’m a hipster, but I was doing far before the “hipster” movement came out.
Like Ginger said, I was raised old fashioned. And that’s how I like it.
It is the truth.
That’s how I was raised. Vintage, old, historic, traditional; these were a way of life for us, and especially me.
That’s right. I don’t follow the current trends, even if they are “new-old” ones. I do what I like and enjoy the things I love. Sometimes the books, clothing, film, or even dating styles I like aren’t popular:
But I don’t care if it goes against the crowd or isn’t what “everyone else is doing”. I enjoy the things I enjoy and I’m going to keep living my life the way it is.
So Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! You all know what Saint Patrick’s mean on this blog, another 17 Irish heroes.
Once again it was difficult trying to find 17, but I started last November and finally completed it. Here we go!
17) Patrick from The Accidental Husband
New York Fireman Patrick (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is about to marry the girl of his dreams; that is until her mind is changed by a relationship radio host, Emma Lloyd (Uma Thurman). Patrick becomes so enraged after his fiancé leaves him that he decides to get revenge on Emma. Emma is also about to get married, making a big tadoo about the event. Patrick has his friend hack into the courthouse files and make it so that Emma is already married, and married to Patrick. When Emma finds out, she goes to Patrick to try to get an annulment. Patrick, in Overboard style, starts off trying to antagonize Emma, but ends up falling for her. But will he be able to figure out a way to win Emma away from her fiancé? And what will happen when Emma discovers the truth about their “marriage”?
Why Patrick is Awesome:
If you can move past the fact that this actor plays Dean and Sam Winchester’s incredibly absent father and his whole revenge plot-plus all the other awful things he does…I guess he’s a pretty cool guy. The scene with the cake tasting is just adorable. I could see why a girl would fall for him, maybe. I’m sorry I really just needed a #17 and he was okay.
16) Kevin O’Reilly from Star Trek: The Original Series
In Star Trek the mission of the Starship Enterprise is to go boldly where no man has gone before, to explore strange new worlds, and to seek out new life and new civilizations. The crew has many adventures as they meet all kinds of races and encounter all types of creatures.
Why Kevin O’Reilly is awesome:
Kevin O’Reilly is not a well known Star Trek character, mostly because he was only in a few episodes in the series. O’Reilly worked as a navigator and was later put in engineering. He was a silly kind of guy, fun and the comic relief.
15) F. Scott Fitzgerald from Midnight in Paris (2011)
Gil is a wealthy, Hollywood, screenwriter who suffers from severe nostalgia. He wishes he could be a novelist, but even more so one in the 1920s, like his heroes F. Scott Fitzgerald or Ernest Hemingway. He and his girlfriend are visiting Paris and one night he is out walking around after midnight when he is approached by a 1920s Peugeot Type 176 car. The people are dressed in 1920s clothing and Gil goes with them. He finds himself traveling back in time and meeting some of his favorite artists; such as Salvador Dali, F.Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Zelda Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, and Gertrude Stein.
Why F. Scott Fitzgerald is awesome:
I love F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work, The Great Gatsby being one of my favorite novels. The reason why I choose this representation of Fitzgerald was that I thought Tom Hiddleston captured the sweet personality, dreamer, people pleaser, and all of his insecurities he had. I thought he also did a great job showing his two loves: writing and Zelda; and how the two did not always meld well, sometimes being toxic for the other.
The Baby-Sitters Club books, films, and TV series followed a group of 8th and 6th graders who own their own baby-sitting business. Besides baby-sitting they do normal teenage things, solve crimes, fight racism, and more. It was a series from my childhood that I just loved reading.
Why Stacey is awesome:
Stacey McGill moves from New York to Connecticut because of her dad’s transfer. She is cool, sophisticated, and mature; yet not snobbish or rude. She is also kind, compassionate, and helpful. She does have a few faults; like being boy-crazy and letting other plans slide for the guys in her life. However, she is always there when you really need her. She leaves the BSC for a bit, tempted by what she thinks are “cooler” people, but eventually realizes her mistakes and works on being accepted back into the group. I always liked Stacey’s books as she had interesting stories; such as old friends growing apart, divorce, dealing with her diabetes, letting go of a need to control, etc. Plus her outfits were always interesting.
13) Betty O’Shale from Flintstones Viva Rock Vegas
This prequel tells the story of how Fred, Barney, Wilma, and Betty all met. Wilma Slaghoople has had enough of her rich lifestyle. She escapes to Bedrock and meets Betty, who mistakes her as a caveless woman in need, and decides to open her home to her. Meanwhile, Barney and Fred have started work at the rock quarry and are both hoping to meet the women of their dreams. They meet Betty and Wilma at the burger joint, and soon are spending all their time with each other. But when Wilma’s past comes out, Fred starts feeling insecure. And when they travel to Vegas they get into all kinds of shenanigans: gambling, rock stars, showgirls, wrestling, etc.
Why Betty is Awesome:
Betty is incredibly kind and sweet. She is willing to open her home to a stranger and help out all she can. Besides her kindness to Wilma, she also helps out at food shelters and helps feed the homeless. Betty is the best friend you could ever have; wonderful to all she meets.
This film-noir film is based on a true story. Eleven years earlier, a cop was killed when visiting a speakeasy. Two men were tried and convicted for the murder. In modern day, an ad by a Polish washerwoman giving $5000 for information of who the real killer was bring Reporter P.J. McNeal on the story. At first McNeal is extremely skeptical, but as he talks to the inmate and researches the case he starts to believe him and try to find a way to free him.
Why P.J. is awesome:
P.J. is first of all played by Jimmy Stewart, so he is gorgeous. But the most important traits are that he is intelligent, dogged, compassionate, and kind. He may be skeptical, but when he decides to back something he truly gives it his all; doing everything he can to help this man. Even at times risking his own career and good name to search out the truth.
11) Brian O’Conner from The Fast and the Furious Franchise
Oh, Paul Walker. You were gone too soon. I’ve always had a crush on Paul Walker, but the film that really cemented it was his portrayl in The Fast and the Furious.
Brian O’Conner is an FBI agent sent undercover to investigate whether a group of car racers is stealing from trucks. It takes a while, but he infiltrates the group; befriending the racers.
He ends up getting too close and losing his objectivity and job. In the sequel he is a racer only now, but is asked by the FBI to come on a case. Afterwards, he is brought back to the FBI, but leaves it for his friends.
Why Brian O’Conner is awesome:
Brian is nice, intelligent, and attractive. However, his best trait is that he is the most loyal man you will ever meet. Brian cares about his friends and will do anything to help them, even sacrificing his job and reputation.
Mary’s mother has just passed away so she travels to Jamaica Inn to stay with her cousin Patience. While there she discovers that the Inn is thought to be haunted and full of unsavory characters. To makes things even worse, her cousin is married to an abusive and lecherous man, Joss. As she is trying to settle in, she discovers that her uncle is actual part of a ring of pirates, taking out the lighthouse and salvaging from the ships. She saves one from being hanged and finds herself on an adventure she never dreamed of.
Why Mary is awesome:
Mary is incredibly kind, brave, bold, and assertive. She will not stand for the way Joss treats her or her cousin Patience, standing up to him in every way. When she sees that Jem Trehearne is about to be hanged, she saves his life even though it may cost her own.
Las Vegas is a TV show about a group of people running the fictional Montecito Hotel & Casino Resort in Las Vegas. They deal with the usual issues: staff problems, card counters, performers, chefs, etc; along with helping each other in personal problems. The one thing that made the show lovable, although completely unrealistic, is that all the people enjoyed helping others and would go the extra mile. Because it is Las Vegas, we also get amazing cameos: Wayne Newton, Jean-Claude Van Damm, Sylvester Stallone, etc.
Why Danny is awesome:
Isn’t this man dreamy? Anyways, Danny was simply amazing and the type of guy you want. He was born and raised in Las Vegas, but left to join the Marines. He returns and works for Ed in security. Danny is sweet, adorable, protective, loving, etc. Most of all Danny has a huge heart and is always willing to help others out, something that makes him almost fall for a scheme, like two women trying to take his father’s inheritance. But even though he is sweet, you don’t want to mess with him as he can just as easily take you out.
8) Tom Hagen from The Godfather (1972) & The Godfather: Part II (1974)
In The Godfather, Vito Corleone is the father of five children: Santino, Alfredo, Connie, and Michael; along with adopted Irish son Tom Hagen. While everyone is involved in the family business, Michael wants no part. That is, until the Godfather is injured, soon everyone is doing all they can to protect the family.
In Part II, we are split between Vito’s story of his immigration and the next steps Michael takes of being the Godfather. It’s not easy as he is trying to expand into Cuba, go legitimate, and protect the family.
Why Tom Hagen is awesome:
While Sonny is the brash and tough one, Fredo the incompetent, Connie the high strung, and Michael cool-headed and clever; Tom is the reliable one. He’s the best businessman out of the family; always thinking, calculating, and planning what can be best for the family.
Tom cares strongly for his family, doing anything he can for his parents, brothers, and children. Out of everyone in the whole family he is the only one who achieved exactly what his parents wished he would, staying focused on the goals of being a lawyer and aiding his family.
Lucy works at a toll booth, but dreams of something more. She also dreams of the guy who passes through her booth every day, Peter Callaghan. One day he gets roughed up and thrown before an upcoming train. Lucy saves him and through a mistake, she is also believed to be his fiancé. As Peter is in a coma, the Callaghan family welcomes Lucy into the fold. But as Lucy spends more time with the Callaghans, she starts to fall for the other brother; Jack. What will Lucy do when Peter wakes up?
Why Jack is awesome:
Jack is a great older brother who always wants to believe the best in his younger brother. He is also kind, charming, sweet, encouraging, and a dream date. Not only does he care for Lucy, but he also listens to her thought, hopes, and dreams; doing all he can to make them come true.
Dr. Henry “Hank” McCoy is extremely eloquent, brilliant, and well-educated. He has degrees in science, biochemistry, genetics, mathematics, along with being well versed in art and literature. His powers are agility and beastlike strength. He was part of the original X-Men; alongside Angel, Iceman, and Marvel Girl and Cyclops. He looked human before, but later after an accident he turns blue and looks more werewolf/bestial.
Why Hank is awesome:
Hank is the perfect gentleman and everything you’d want in a guy. He sweet, romantic, intelligent, educated, strong, and adorable. I’m not sure what more I can say about his many merits.
5) Marshall Mike Meagher from “Wichita’s New Year’s Day Gunfight” from Draw: The Greatest Gunfights of the American West by James Reasoner
This book is a collection of the West’s most famous and greatest gunfights. Covers everyone from the Earps to Bat Masterson, to the Younger Brothers and Pinkertons, etc.
This particular passage tells of Marshall Meagher’s cleaning up of Wichita and the famous gunfight against Sylvester Powell.
Why Marshall Mike Meagher is awesome:
Marshall Mike Meagher was elected to clean up the town of Wichita which was horribly wild and out of control. In fact he did such a great job and destroyed the bad reputation, that the city officials ousted him out as they felt he was doing too good a job. However, their interference didn’t last long, as the people wanted him back.
Now Marshall Meagher was an amazing gunslinger, a crackshot, intelligent, brave, and just incredible.
So the most famous gunfight was the New Year’s Day gunfight. One night when he was making rounds he came upon Sylvester Powell, horse-thief. Marshall Meagher confronted him, and arrested him. However, Powell was freed by the company and then went out to look for the Marshall for revenge. While Marshall Meagher was in the outhouse, Powell shot it up, but only managed to hit him in the leg. Marshall Meagher burst out and was then hit in the hand, but even though that happened he still was kicking, shooting after Powell. Powell took off down the street, out running the Sheriff who already suffered from a limp and now had a wounded leg.
Powell had slowed down and was casually walking when all of a sudden he heard his name being called. He turned around and there was Marshall Meagher; who then shot him right in the heart.
Boom! What an amazing guy; limping, shot twice; and still gets his quarry. What a hardcore hero.
4) Franklin “Foggy” Nelson from Daredevil
Daredevil is the comic book that follows a blind boy turned superhero, Matt Murdock aka the Daredevil. He lives in Hell’s Kitchen, New York; and works hard as a lawyer by day with his friend and partner in the practice, Franklin “Foggy” Nelson.
Why Foggy is awesome:
Now I’m a big fan of the older Daredevil comics, but the Foggy in those was a bit…annoying. It wasn’t that he was rude, whiny, or mean; he was just always pitying Matt all the time. It got old quick. He also was a rich kid and not a vert good lawyer, using Matt’s talent to help his own insufficiency.
However, in Netflix’s revamping I like the improvements on the Foggy character. In this Foggy is a great lawyer, not as good as Matt; but intelligent and able to hold his own. He also is not some silly rich kid, but the son of a butcher doing all he can to achieve his dreams. I think this makes his character stronger and more equal to Matt. He also is less pitying in this than the orginal comics. While he feels bad for Matt’s lack of sight, he is also the one person that doesn’t treat Matt as if he’s handicapped, but as a regular person.
3) Calvin O’Keefe from A Wrinkle in Time Series and The O’Keefe Family Series.
So I’m not quite sure how to describe these two series but I will do my best.
So A Wrinkle in Time Series involves Calvin O’Keefe, Meg Murray, and her younger brother Charles Wallace involved in a huge adventure to stop an evil force from destroying planets. They are taken through space, time, and dimensions. In the sequel Meg and Calvin travel into Charles’ body in order to save him from destroyers trying to erase his existence.
In the O’Keefe series; Calvin is all grown up and married to Meg with children. In the first book he is working on an experiment when his intern Adam arrives, unsure whether he should trust Dr. O’Keefe or turn him in to a spy orginaization. In the second book, the O’Keefe family save a young boy from a horrible plot and attempted murder whilst on a ship in the ocean.
Why Calvin is awesome:
Calvin was raised in a very large Irish family with a father who is abusive and a mother who doesn’t care as she is dissatisfied with her life. Calvin has grown up never feeling loved or cared for; except a few teachers and the school librarian who has encouraged his love of learning.
He meets Meg, Charles, and the family; finding a place of belonging. Like Calvin, those two also have trouble finding their place with normal people as their intellect or attitude cause major roadblocks.
Besides being intelligent, Calvin is also caring and compassionate. When Meg and Charles become his friend, his loyalty and care with protecting them knows very little bounds. And when Meg has problems controlling her temper; Calvin is able to help her realign her feelings and help her express kindness toward others.
And in spite of all the odds, Calvin not only achieves immense scientific and financial success; but he is an amazing father and wonderful husband.
In Star Trek the mission of the Starship Enterprise is to go boldly where no man has gone before, to explore strange new worlds, and to seek out new life and new civilizations. The crew has many adventures as they meet all kinds of races and encounter all types of creatures.
Why Bones is awesome:
So I love Karl Urban as Bones, but I felt that it was only right to go with the original. Bones is a medical doctor, appointed to the USS Enterprise under Captain Kirk. He was divorced before he joined the ship, and later remarried.
The best thing about Bones is his wit and sarcastic nature. I love all his sayings, I mean every word that drops from his mouth is just so sassy and fun. He is so hilarious and part of the dream team that made Star Trek a hit.
He cares deeply for Captain Kirk, seeing him as a brother. This causes a strained relationship with Spock as Bones doesn’t like to see him trying to horn in on his buddy. However, the two at times overcome those issues and have moments of friendliness.
1) Rick O’Connell from The Mummy (1999) & The Mummy Returns (2001)
Thousands of years ago a priest was sentenced to the worst death for betraying his Pharaoh. He vowed he would rise again. Now in 1920s Egypt, librarian Evie and her brother have found a map that leads to the hidden city rumored to have the best treasure imaginable. It turns out that Evie’s brother stole them, making the two have to recruit the original owner, ex-foreign legion soldier, and American; Rick O’Connell. It turns out that they aren’t the only ones after it, and when they arrive in the city they awaken their worst nightmare, the mummy.
In the sequel it is about eight years later, Evie and Rick are married and have a son. When their son looks into something he shouldn’t and helps awake the scorpion king; the O’Connell’s once again have to travel to Egypt, this time racing against time and a reawakened mummy.
Why Rick O’Connel is awesome:
First of all, Rick is played by Brendan Fraser and I don’t care what anyone else says; he is super hot! Yes I love Brenden Fraser and everything he has ever been in.
So back to Rick, not only was Rick completely hardcore in his intelligence, strength, and crackshot abilities; but he is just one awesome warrior. He does start off a little rude, as his complete loss of his group of soldiers has made him unhappy and not want to be a part of life. But being with Evie has reawakened his compassion and made him want to not only help but protect her. He is an amazing adventurer and hero.
In the sequel we see Rick as a father, and he is a truly dreamy one. Not only the perfect husband, wiling to do anything to help and protect his wife; but will go to any lengths to protect and aid his son. We also once again see his warrior prowess as he battles the scorpion king and the mummy.
So that ends my list for this year. You all know what I’ll be doing with the rest of my day. Eating some soda bread made by my sister blog, MysteriousEats.wordpress.com. And my yearly tradition, watching the Disney Channel Original Movie: The Luck of the Irish.
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