So this was a hard thing to do. Pick one of my favorite books? So impossible.
So I thought on this and decided that I wouldn’t talk about Jane Austen. I’m pretty sure you already know how much I love Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, & Persuasion.
So then I thought, what is a book I really, really liked as a child; and still love today?
Then I thought:
I first read this book as a kid when I was going through the Great Illustrated Classics at the library. It was my first introduction to English 19th century fiction.
I love this book a lot. I just loved Heathcliff.
You feel for this orphan man, always mistreated with everyone who ever loved him dying or betraying him. Yep, you know my type:
So in the story we are given the picture of a cruel man, and then go through the rest of his journey in a flashback. He was orphaned with no name and speaking some other language. Mr. Earnshaw found him on his trip to London, and brought him back to his home. He had bratty two children: Hindley and Catherine, who are cruel to Heathcliff. Hindley hates him because his dad likes him better than him. Catherine hates everything, but to her and everyone’s surprise she and Heathcliff become best friends.
When Mr. Earnshaw dies, Hindley becomes man of the house and is incredibly cruel to Heathcliff, demoting him to dog status. He and Catherine fall in love, but she marries the wealthy Edgar Linton, as Heathcliff is too lowborn.
Noooooooooo!!!!!!!
Breaking Heathcliff’s heart.
He leaves, bent on becoming rich and getting his revenge.
So I won’t ruin the rest of the story as it is dramatic, gothic, supernatural, and thoroughly amazing.
Or 10th, 50th, 100th….
And as the extremely handsome Laurence Olivier player Heathcliff in the movie, as you read the book imagine a man just as handsome as him…or him. 🙂
To start the 30 Day Challenge from the beginning, go to Musical Madness
Yes the fangirl posts are back with another installment of some of my favorite things. Hope you all enjoy!
The Brady Bunch
Ah, The Brady Bunch. I grew up watching this show all the time. It was cute, silly, cheesy, and all around good family fun.
The story is of a Mike Brady, an architect and widower, who has three sons; Greg, Peter, and Bobby. He meets Carol, a widow, who has three daughters around the ages of his sons; Marcia, Jan, and Cindy. The two get married, uniting the family, and the show follows them as the kids grow up, getting involved in the usual teenager story lines.
My favorite characters were Greg and Peter. They were just adorable.
I know that today a lot of people make fun of the kitsch in the show, along with the fact that they all get along waaay too fast. But it was really cute and fun.
Daredevil
I was first introduced to Daredevil through the ’90s Spider-man TV show I used to watch. In one of the episodes Peter Parker is working for Wilson Fisk, who unbeknownst to him is the crime lord the Kingpin. He is framed for the crime of selling government secrets, and finds himself being helped out by Matt Murdock, lawyer by day, the vigilante Daredevil by night. Eventually Spider-man and Daredevil work together to take down the Kingpin. From this episode I became interested in Daredevil and I wanted to see the Daredevil filmand read the comics.
Now what makes Daredevil so exciting and different? He’s blind. Matthew Murdock was a young Irishman growing up in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City. He chose to save a blind man crossing the street from being hit by a car, and in turn was hit by radioactive substances (they fell off a moving truck) losing his sight. The radioactive materials gifted him with super powers.
“My hearing is so acute, that I can tell if someone is in a room with me just by hearing the heartbeat! And I never forget an odor once I smell it…Even my fingers have become incredibly sensitive! I can tell how many bullets are in a gun just by the weight of the barrel. While my sense of taste has become so developed that I can tell exactly how many grains of salt are on a piece of of pretzel…But my most important new ability is in the form of a built-in radar that I seem to have developed! It enables me to walk anywhere safely, without bumping into anything!” [Daredevil #1, April 1964, pg. 11-12]
After he graduates from high school, he goes to college to study law. There he meets Franklin “Foggy” Nelson, who becomes his best friend. At this point his dad, a boxer, is murdered for choosing to not fix a fight. Matt deals with his grief, and he and Foggy start their own practice, Foggy’s father bankrolling them. They hire a young, beautiful, blonde, Karen Page, to be their secretary. Now I enjoyed Foggy as he was funny. But Karen
She was always pitying Matt, and that became super annoying. “Oh he’s so handsome if only he wasn’t blind.” “He’s so smart, but oh too bad he’s blind Matt. Ugh.
Karen stop talking
Anyways, when the law doesn’t do enough, especially in the case with his father, he dons a bright yellow suit and goes by the name Daredevil, The Man Without Fear. He also has some cool weaponry. He has a cane that can break down into two pieces, sort of like nunchucks or bobby sticks.
Now they later updated his story, changing him to losing his father when he was a boy, and being trained by a blind man with similar abilities called “Stick.” He also gets a better, dark red costume, and cooler tools. His main villain also become the crime lord, the Kingpin, a villain shared by Spider-man, after all they both are in New York. Daredevil also became a darker superhero. Matt Murdock is the white knight, helper, and the one that stands up for justice. Daredevil is a creature of the night, giving those their sentence. Unlike other superheroes he goes the closest to crossing over the moral line. In order to balance the two, Daredevil relies heavily on his faith, as the morals taught by it are the only things that keep him truly from going over to the dark side.
Now in the 2003 Daredevil the film came out and I must admit that though I absolutely love Ben Affleck, the Daredevil film was not as good as it could have been.
BUT, it was not as horrible as people make it out to be either. I thought Ben Affleck was amazing as Matt Murdock, his costume was perfect, and I thought his cane with the hidden pieces was just amazing. However, Colin Farrell’s Bullseye sucked, the Kingpin just was missing something, and come on; Electra starting a fight with a blind man? Seriously? Come, on. This was also in the early 2000s, and studios hadn’t quite figured out how to make an awesome superhero film.
Now I heard things about the Daredevil TV show, but I don’t have Netflix so I was kind of I guess I’ll see it when it gets downloaded onto Youtube or something. However, last month I went to visit my friend, and she was like “hey you should totally watch Daredevil.”
So we started watching, then we had to see the next episode, and the next and…
We watched Daredevil half of it that night, and the rest the next day; throwing all other plans we had made out the window. And let me say it is one of the best shows ever! Everything is absolutely perfect. Starting with the opening credits:
AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then there was Charlie Cox (hot guy from Stardust) being the perfect blend of white knight for justice and the hanging judge. He captured every essence of Daredevil, from his pursuit of justice, vengeenance, self-doubt, constant questioning, etc. Just perfect!
Foggy Nelson’s character was changed from the original comics so that he too grew up in Hell’s Kitchen, the son of a butcher. He too was perfect as he was hilarious, sweet, adorable, and just all around a great friend. (BTW he is played by the best friend in She’s All That. Yeah I noticed you right away.) Out of all the characters he’s the one that doesn’t treat Matt as if he’s handicapped, but as a regular person; but at the same time does as much as he can to help him with anything.
And Karen was very much improved. Here she is sensible, sweet, not annoying, and stopped pitying Matt all the time. She still had her moments, but they were very few.
But most of all Wilson Fisk was perfect. At first I was like I don’t know…he doesn’t seem commanding enough, but in each episode you peel back another layer and the white suited, Wilson Fisk, Kingpin, Crime Lord is revealed. I can’t wait until he actually starts wearing one!!!! While in the original comics, Vanessa doesn’t know anything about Fisk’s crime lord status and when she and their son figure it out, it causes a LOT of issues. At one point, his son tries to destroy him and take over. But I actually like how Vanessa knows everything, it’s very romantic.
This show is just all around perfect. And if Netflix comes out with season 2, I might just have to buy a membership.
I love music and I love the ’80s. One of my favorite bands from this time period that I totally fangirled over for a long time.
It’s an American/English band (as half the members are English while the other half is American). They have the most amazing beats and amazing songs. The guitar solos in this are just dreamy!
I used to listen to these songs over and over again, 🙂
Some of my absolute favorite songs are Cold As Ice,Double Vision, Feels Like the First Time, Hot Blooded, I Want to Know What Love is, Juke Box Hero, and Waiting for a Girl Like You. Great hits!
My friend came to visit me a few months back and she was all “you have to check out this show North & South. It is AMAZING!” I asked her if it was the one about the Civil War, but she told me no. It was about England, and starred the very hunky Richard Armitage.
I was like why not, and then we watched the show.
It was so awesome I couldn’t stop watching it.
At least this was a miniseries so the obsession wasn’t too much. And yes, obsession.
So the show takes place during the English Industrial revolution, the late 18th century. Reverend Richard Hale has decided to leave the church of England, as they were asking him to commit to things he didn’t want to follow. After he leaves the church, he is forced to leave his parish in the country South, and go somewhere else. With help of an old Oxford friend, Mr. Bell, gets him a place in Milton, located in the industrial North. He brings with him his wife, and daughter Margaret.
The Margaret and her mother don’t like the move, but put up with it as they have no other choice. Her father becomes a private tutor, with only one client, Mr. Thornton.
Mr. Thornton was born poor and worked his way up, now owning his own cotton mill and becoming one of the richest men in the area. He however, still has some insecurity around himself, and therefore not only wishes to support Mr. Hale, but increase his education. Mr. Thornton is undeniably sexy and broody. You know, just as I like them.
He and Margaret get off on the wrong foot, as the first time she sees him, she finds him pummeling a man for smoking.
You see Mr. Thornton cares very much for his factory and his workers. He has the newest inventions, including a wheel to ensure that the cotton fluff that floats about doesn’t get in the workers and give them “cotton lung”, an incredibly deadly disease. This particular worker has been warned multiple times to stop smoking, as the slightest spark could ignite the place in flames.
So you can see how he would be very angry.
Now Margaret doesn’t like the North and doesn’t understand it. This is a point of contention between her and Mr. Thornton, Mr. Thornton’s mother, and his sister Fanny. They think she thinks she’s better than everyone, but in reality she just was raised differently. In fact she is constantly going out among the workers and doing charity work. The type of things she would do in the South as a vicar’s daughter. She ends up befriending Bess, a worker in Mr. Thornton’s mill, and suffering from cotton lung that she got at a different mill.
Unfortunately, just as Margaret and her family have come to the area, there is a lot of unrest. The workers want more money and are threatening to unionize. The thing I love about this show is that it had the views of both sides. You have the workers who need more money to get by and support their large families, but at the same time; you see that Mr. Thornton doesn’t have more money to give them. He may be wealthy, but his money is wrapped up in cotton prices and completely dependent on how well it does, and lack of storms in shipping. Plus he bought new, pricey, technology to help the workers and doesn’t have enough profits to pay everyone what they wish. It’s a complicated issue.
So as all this is happening, Mr. Thornton finds himself drawn to Margaret. She is intelligent, compassionate, thoughtful, beautiful, and doesn’t care about class systems. Margaret also finds herself falling for him, but hasn’t realized it yet.
Things with the workers grow to a head, where they start striking in front of the mill. Margaret, unaware of what is happening, heads over to the Thorntons to ask for a water bed for her sick mother, and gets caught in the mill during the strike. As Mr. Thornton approaches the mob to talk to them, they grow ugly and Margaret runs out to protect him. She ends up getting hit in the head with a rock. Mr. Thornton carries her to safety and decides that her actions are proof that she loves him too.
How romantic
After Margaret is well, Mr. Thornton asks her to marry him. She refuses as 1) she hasn’t realized she is in love with him, and 2) thinks he thinks he is better than her.
When she said no, ah it broke my heart.
Mr. Thornton is amazing!!! How could you refuse him?
Now I know there has been a big controversy over who is better, Mr. Darcy or Mr. Thornton. Well, I have to say Mr. Thornton.
Wait, hear me out. The reason why Mr. Thornton is more appealing than Mr. Darcy is that he has a fuller character. Pride & Prejudice is told by Elizabeth Bennet, so we only see what she sees. Mr. Darcy at first appears to be a jerk, as you can read more about in my post First Impressions, and then later as she gets to know him better, she falls for his strong moral character. But even though we see development of his character, we never see how he was as a child, we never see how he views that first meeting with Elizabeth, we never see his side of things as much as we do with Elizabeth. We do see it from time to time, but on a whole the story is told by Elizabeth. Now in North & South, the mini-series, as I have yet to read the book, he story is split equally between Margaret Hale and Mr. Thornton. We get a deeper understanding of who he is, his backstory, his impressions, etc. Therefore he feels more real. Besides that he has realistic flaws that make you love him more. He doesn’t always think things through which can cause him to get into trouble, he misunderstands things, he has his own opinions and thoughts and expresses them whether others like it or not, he has insecurities about himself, he has issues with his father and sister, etc. While Darcy seems so perfect, Mr Thornton is perfectly imperfect, and therefore extremely appealing.
So Elizabeth’s mother is getting sicker and sicker, so she writes to her brother in Spain to visit. Her brother was in the Navy and refused a horrible order on moral reasons. Their lawyer is trying to help him, but he had to leave the empire or else he would be imprisoned. Meanwhile, Elizabeth’s friend Bess dies from her cotton lung, and Mr. Thornton stops seeing Mr. Hale for lessons. Elizabeth escapes the unhappiness by going to The Great Exhibition with her London relatives and friends. There she runs into Mr. Thornton, who is giving a talk on the new cotton mill technology. There they talk, and mend feelings a bit.
When Elizabeth returns home, her mother is doing extremely poorly. Her brother arrives in time to see her, but the whole house is under lockdown so no one finds out. Mr. Thornton comes to visit, but is refused entrance. He misunderstands what is going on and thinks that it is because of Elizabeth’s refusal of marriage.
Margaret’s brother has to leave soon, and she goes to the train station with him. Mr. Thornton sees them together and thinks that it is her lover.
Mr. Thornton starts concentrating more on his business as Margaret is a lost cause.
The strike deeply hurt him and he needs to do something to bring up improvements. Mr. Higgins, Bess’ father and the union movement leader, is given employment by Mr. Thornton. The two come up with an idea for a worker’s cafeteria where they can serve nutritious and cheap soup. But unfortunately, Mr. Thornton has to close up his shop.
Noooooooooo!!!!!!!
Meanwhile, Mr. Hale dies and Elizabeth is going to go to London to stay with relatives. Mr. Thornton doesn’t want her to go, and in this scene we have the most poignant one ever. He would totally ask Margaret to marry him again but just needs a sign, any sign. He watches her walk away and keeps hoping that she will look back, showing that she doesn’t want to leave him, but loves him.
But she doesn’t look back until she is too far away.
After she has left, Mr. Higgins reveals that the man Margaret was with was actually her brother, giving Mr. Thornton the whole story. He decides to go after her, and first runs off to her place of birth to better understand who she is.
Meanwhile, Margaret is very unhappy having visited the South and knows she no longer belongs there, and finds herself unhappy in London as well. She misses the North, more than she cares to admit. Mr. Bell, her godfather, comes to visit and tells her is sick and dying. He decides to go to Argentina for the climate, and leaves her all his money.
Margaret returns to Milton, searching for Mr. Thornton as she plans to loan him all her money to start the mill up again. Mr. Thornton has just arrived from the South, and stares lovingly into Margaret. She tries to explain her ideas, but gets so flustered as Mr. Thornton once again tells her he loves her.
I love it.
The Nostalgia Critic
Nostalgia Critic has his own video series on Youtube. My friend Wade was the one to introduce me to him years ago, but I wasn’t interested. Last year however, I watched one episode and then burned through every single one.
So the Nostalgia Critic reviews movies and items from his childhood, ’80-’90s, although when he came back he started to review everything he likes from last week to childhood. He is perfectly creative and a ton of fun. I highly recommend checking him out.
So here we are on post five of my fandom posts. And with each post I write, I realize how I must sound absolutely boring with all the books and TV shows I spend my time watching.
Pretty much
Oh Well.
So here is the next few on my list. I hope you enjoy it and that it strikes your interest in some of these things.
4400
This was a show my sister and I were huge fans of. We started watching it when it first came out and faithfully continued even through the horrible seasons.
So one day 4400 people are just dropped out in Washington. They had disappeared from all throughout time. None of them remember what happened in the years that they were gone or where they had traveled to.
Tom Baldwin and Diana Skouris are the two from Homeland Security that are in charge of figuring this out and monitoring the 4400. The both end up having personal connections, as Tom’s nephew was one that was taken and returned, and Diana ends up adopting a girl from the far, far past.
The show is really interesting as it deals with a lot of different issues. First of all, to those taken it feels as if no time has passed, but they have to come to grips that loved ones may have moved on or died. For many years have passed and everything is completely different, technology, social cues, etc. Plus they have to deal with all the questions about what happened and who they are.
But what’s even more interesting, every person brought back has some kind of power or ability. This makes things much harder on Baldwin and Skouris, as not all use their powers for good.
Friday Night Lights
Friday Night Lights was a show my mother and friends were all SUPER into, and I had seen a few episodes but wasn’t hooked (mostly as I had seen them out of order). But once I had some free time I decided why not try this show out? And burned through the episodes.
I’m on season 5 right now, and slowly going through it.
So the show is about a family that moves to Dillon, Texas. Coach Eric Taylor is the new football coach for the team, his wife becomes the guidance counselor, and they brought their daughter Juliet (vegetarian and a culture snob). They find the town a little suffocating as football means EVERYTHING to the people of Dillon. Coach Taylor also ends up with his star quarterback, Jason, getting injured and paralyzed. He has everyone judging him and giving him advice. It can be hard.
Duh!
He gets through that, but faces more issues in the years to come. He becomes a college coach, but ends up going back to Dillon as he doesn’t want to be away from his family. Then he has a young kid (Jeremy Sumpter) who’s parents try to takeover the team. Coach Taylor eventually gets wedged out and sent to the rival team, in a poorer district.
Besides the awesome football, the great thing about this show is that it deals with real life issues. Sometimes you watch the angst and you are ah, too realistic.
So first of all Coach Taylor is awesome.
He becomes a father figure to all the boys on the team and helps them as much as he possibly can. He has a great no-nonsense attitude, getting the job done. I just love him.
Then we have Matt Saracen.
The sweetest boy ever. His father is in the military and his mom ran away. His grandma is supposed to be raising him, but in actually, he takes care of her as dementia is settling in. He goes to school and gets great grades, works after-school to pay for the bills, and strives hard to be a great quarterback for the football team.
And then we have his relationship with Julie Taylor. He first tries all he can to be nice and be seen as more than just a football freak. And he always lets Julie run the show. If she wants to do this okay, if not then he’s fine doing nothing. He just so romantic.
In season 2, Julie dumps him for a Swedish lifeguard, who sings in a band, and SUCKS. He is not cute, untalented, and stupid. I mean the things he says. Plus he likes getting it on with as many ladies as possible. How could you ever trade Matt in for anyone?
She comes to her senses and gets back with him. And she’s lucky she managed to get him, men like that get snapped up in two seconds.
And then we have Tim Riggins.
Tim oh Tim. My absolute favorite. I LOVE HIM! He is just so dreamy!
First of all, look at him. Taylor Kitsch is a great looking man and a great actor. He really got the shaft on X-Men Origins: Wolverine, barely having any screentime. And his other movies bombed, which is such a shame. But besides that, let’s move onto his personality.
So at first Tim appears to be just a dumb jock, but there is a whole lot more to him than meets the eye. He may not be book smart but he is one savy buisnessman. He knows how to create a proposal, bargain, etc. Plus he’s super handy; coaching, construction, mechanics, etc. Anything physical he can do it. And to top that all off, he has perseverance. Once he gets the drive to do something, nothing will get in his way.
And then we have his sweet heart. Tim is the most caring guy ever! He is great with mentoring kids, helping people out with their problems, and never ever takes advantage of a situation. What can I say? He’s AWESOME!
NOw this series isn’t perfect. The first season is probably the best of all. After that the writer’s do some strange things, like certain characters are missing and NOBODY comments on it! It’s like what happened to that person? For instance Brain “Smash” Williams has a girlfriend in season 1, and then in season 2 she’s not there. No explanation, no nothing.
Otherwise this show is awesome! And you should definitely give it a view.
Game of Thrones
There is no middle ground.
So I did not want to watch this series when it first came out. I knew of George R. R. Martin’s history of killing off the characters and I didn’t want to become another mourner.
But I should have realized that it was only a matter of time until it happened.
So it all started after I finished my finals this past spring. I had free time and saw the DVD for season 1 in the library. I thought I’ll just check this out, and, of course, found myself hooked!
Go here to see which one you should live in.
In fact my roommate (she was already a fan) and I just blew through the first season.
It’s kind of confusing to describe, but I’ll try. So the country Westoros is made up of seven kingdoms, each with a ruler that is united under a High King, kinda like The Black Cauldron. The Targaryens used to rule, as they had dragons, but due to so much inbreeding, the last king went crazy and was thus dethroned. His son and daughter were able to escape and hope to gain back the kingdom. Now Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark were leaders in the rebellion and the people really wanted Eddard to rule, but he didn’t want to be the High King. So he went back home and Robert became ruler. Robert married Cersei Lannister, of the rich Lannister family. The actual series starts 20 years after these events with Robert needing Eddard’s help. His main advisor was on the scent of something and was murdered. Eddard goes into court and discovers one huge secret many would kill to keep quiet. Meanwhile, the princess Daenerys Targaryen is trying to get her kingdom back. Wars begin with all trying to get the iron throne. It is an AWESOME show! But grab those tissues!
So I have a few favorite characters. I try not to love anyone, as I know as soon as you start loving one, it signs their death warrant. However, that of course is impossible to do as the characters are just so amazing. This pretty much describes my watching experiences.
Eddard Stark (Sean Bean) is the patriarch and one of the most honorable men there has ever been. He is kind, caring, sweet, and one of the best fictional dads. Of course as I’m sure you all know from the countless memes, he doesn’t stay long in the series. Oh why? Why George R. R.? Why!?
Then we have Jon Snow (Kit Harrington).
He’s been my favorite from the begining as he is:
And I have such a soft spot for people who are mistreated by others. Love him! And he is such a great older brother, I am so sad that he joined the Wall and doomed to be in that icy tundra.
Robb and the other Stark sons are cool too, but Arya is super awesome!
Swordswoman, and intent on righting all the wrongs in her family.
Now outside the Stark family I only have two characters I love. I once loved Khal Drogo
But George R.R. killed him off
Noooooooooo!!!!!!!
So now I only care for Daenerys Targaryen, the one trying to reclaim her throne. She is strong, powerful, and has dragons.
The other is Tyrion Lannister. Mostly for this:
But besides that he is one awesome dude. If you haven’t jumped on the Game of Thrones train, check it out. If you have, then stay strong fellow fan.
Garfield
I have always loved orange, striped cats. Until I was able to have one of my own I was obsessed with them: coloring them, cutting pictures out of magazines, and of course loving Garfield.
This sarcastic cool cat will always be one of my absolute favorite comic strips as he is hilarious, fun, and describes my own orange cat perfectly. I have a ton of his comic books, stuffed Garfields, other Garfield memorabilia. And I’m always collecting more. Besides the books, I grew up watching his TV series and holiday specials.
So this was a show I grew up watching. I absolutely love it.
So Lorelei Gilmore (Lauren Graham) was born in a super wealthy family, but instead of fitting the “proper” mold she was an extreme wild child. She got pregnant at 16 and ran awau to nearby (but not too close) small town, Stars Hollow. There she raised her daughter Lorelei (Alexis Bledel), more commonly known as Rory. The show is about mother and daughter relationships, as Lorelei and her mother are always on the outs trying to understand each other; while Lorelei and Rory are best friends, making it hard for Lorelei when she should be parenting.The characters are amazing, the references hilarious, and this show makes you wish you could hang out with the crew at Luke’s Diner.
Now my all-time favorite character was Dean Forester, played by none other than Jared Padalecki. Yep, he was just perfect!
Dean was Rory’s first boyfriend and I always wished he were mine.
He was sweet, kind, caring, totally got her, wore a leather jacket…need I really go on?
Rory screwed it up by cheating on him with another guy. That about broke my heart as Dean was just so perfect! Eventually the writers tried to bring them back together, but the way they did it with Dean being a cheater and Rory the “other woman”, just ruined the romance and ended his time on the show. Although I can’t be too mad or sad at his leaving. Because after that he moved on to Supernatural, and you all know how I love that.
Loved the series, but the truth is; the Dean moments are my absolute favorite.
Words can not describe how much I love this film. It is just one truly amazing work.
So anyone who knows me, knows that there is no meme as true as this.
I am always peppering my conversations with movie quotes, and most of the time it’s The Godfather.
And why not? It IS the sum of all wisdom:
Every life lesson you need to know is in there, and one day I will do a huge post on it. But today, is not that day.
So The Godfather, as I mentioned in an earlier post is a fav film of my family. We used to watch it every Thanksgiving together. Now when I went away to school, I was mentioning how amazing this film is to my friend Aylin, and it turned out she had never seen the films. We decided to watch it together, and after the first one she was obsessed. Even more than me.
We watched them all, over and over again. We even traveled over an hour away to see the rerelease in theaters. And let me tell you that was awesome! As we watched the movie so many times, each one of us was given a character as to who we thought was the most similar. I got Michael.
Don’t mess with me!
That should tell you a lot about the type of person I am. 🙂
So the first film is the absolute best.
Such an awesome film! The Godfather is a story about the Italian mafia in the 1940-50s. This specific sect is overseen by Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando). He has three sons; Alfredo (played by John Cazale), Santino (James Caan), and Michael (Al Pacino); and one daughter, Connie (Talia Shire). Santino is next in line to be godfather. Unlike his siblings, Michael wants nothing to do with his father’s business, instead wanting to live a “legal” life. When Don Corleone is shot by a rival, it changes everyone’s plans as they are all spiraled down a new path. You really feel for Michael as he ends up becoming someone he never wanted to ever be.
Now the second film was great, but not as good as the first. In this we have two storylines interweaving. We switch between the flashback of Don Vito Corleone and present day Michael Corleone. In Vito’s storyline we his immigration and early start in America; ending with his completion of becoming “The Godfather.” In the present, we have Michael: now moved to Nevada in hopes of being legitimate, his interests in Cuba, and FBI hearings.
The third movies was horrible don’t watch it. TRUST ME! Don’t watch it! The first & second, but the third is just—it really shouldn’t have been made.
No I’m talking about Neil Gaiman’s series TheSandman Chronicles.
Yeah? Pretty good looking. So the series is really interesting. Gaiman actually melds together different things to create his stories. Christianity, Greek mythology, Shakespeare, fairy tales, Egyptian mythology, fantasy, science fiction, retelling of classic literature, etc. And what comes out of this is AMAZING.
As my friend described it, you fall in love with Neil Gaiman’s brain, and his creation, Dream.
So Dream is one of the Endless, those who were in the beginning and will last until the last human dies. First there was his older sister Death, then his brother Destruction, Dream, the twins Despair and Desire, and lastly Delight who became Delirium.
At the beginning of the series, Dream has been captured by a man. The man was afraid of dying and had attempted to capture Death, but accidentally captures Dream. He traps him for years and causes his son to as well. Eventually, Dream escapes and find his kingdom and all the the dreaming places in ruin. He has to repair it along with dealing with the issues that were caused by his imprisonment.
It is really interesting as Dream’s story and his siblings are told in present day, along with flashbacks. You see how he was, but then how he has changed due to his imprisonment. And that’s not the only thing that is attractive about him.
He’s so eloquent. How he speaks, sigh. It is beautiful.
He himself is just so, sorry couldn’t help it, dreamy! He’s one of those tall, dark, handsome, broody types you all know I love and adore.
Now let me warn you. I wouldn’t go farther than book 8. It just, well I don’t want to give anything away but his reigns ends.
So here we are with post two on my fandoms. As I mentioned in Fanning All Over the Placethere was just too, too many to include in one post so I split them up into a series. Here we go again! 🙂
Archie Comics
I first got into Archie Comics through my parents. They had grown up with the comics as kids, and bought my sister and I our first comic books for Christmas one year. We quickly grew to love them.
So the comics came out in the 1940s, and are about a clumsy, accident-prone, redhead, Archie Andrews; who moves to Riverdale meeting a blonde, girl-next-door, Betty Cooper and a food-consuming, girl hater Forsythe “Jughead” Jones. As the series progressed they added more characters, and changed the history to being everyone grew up in Riverdale together. I love the comics from the 1940s-90s. The ones that have been written in the last ten years are not really my favorites as these newer ones seeming to have something missing. So here are the fun characters:
Archie Andrews is the sweet, all around “good guy”. He’s your average male, but has a heart of gold. He is always having issues in his classes, and constantly going to summer school, but is still a pretty clever guy as on more than one occasion he manages to outwit Reggie. He does every sport known to man and also is the school’s newspaper editor. His biggest flaw is that he is girl crazy. Not only does he form a triangle with Betty and Veronica, but he will run after any pretty girl he sees. Add to this a habit of attracting disasters, and he is one funny guy.
Betty Cooper is the girl-next-door. Blonde, sweet, a great cook, and always lends a hand when one is needed. She is not only pretty, but brainy to boot.
She also is a mechanic, school newspaper reporter, sews her own clothes, and a budding writer.
That’s a lot!
Betty is the best. She was always my favorite character and I felt bad about her constant competition with Veronica over Archie. Betty has loved Archie since the first time she saw him, and will wait around, anytime for him. I know they need her to be one of the points in the love triangle, but I aways wanted Betty to say love me or leave me; no more in-between. In one issue she did dump Archie and started dating this guy Adam, but the fans didn’t like it and she and Archie got back together. Betty and Veronica may compete over Archie, but they are also the best of friends. Veronica is the total opposite of Betty, and Betty often uses her morals and kindness to show Veronica a better way to be. Betty is one of the few characters with siblings; having an older brother that works for the FBI, Chip Cooper; and an older sister who is an investigative reporter, Polly Cooper.
Veronica Lodge the final point in the love triangle. Veronica is the only daughter of gazillionaire Hiram Lodge. Mr. Lodge worked up from nothing and now has not only billions, but his fingers in every financial pot. Him and his wife were unable to have children for a while and had her in their old age. Veronica can be nice but is mostly spoiled, conniving, materialistic, and devoid of any skills besides ordering people and looking nice. Unlike Betty who has eyes only for Archie, Veronica flits about with any guy she finds attractive. She is also highly temperamental and can be a major ice queen if one little thing upsets her. Of course this is somehow irresistible to Archie (as with most guys). Her constant scheming to get Archie away from Betty, while dating more wealthier and cuter guys, always brings laughs.
Triangles are not for me:
Forsythe “Jughead” Jones is an interesting character. Jughead pretty much marches to the beat of his own drum. He wears a crown instead of a hat, shirts with the letter “S” on them, is a girl-hater, and an immense lover of food. Yep, he eats nonstop. But hey:
Jughead doesn’t always do well in school, but is one of the cleverest guys out there. I believe that he just has his own way of learning that hasn’t been discovered. He loves to always pull one over on Reggie. Besides eating, his hobbies are sleeping, video games, and almost every sport. Ethel Muggs has the hots for him, and is always trying to get him to date her but Jughead is not interested. Usually if Jughead is “dating”, the girl’s parents own some restaurant he wants free food from. He and Archie have been best buds since day one, and will stay that way until the end.
Reggie Mantle is one of those jerk characters I love anyway. Think Gaston. He’s completely superficial, narcissistic, a prankster, and all around jerk. But all Reggie sees in himself is perfection.
Reggie is also spoiled as he is an only child and also comes from a very wealthy family. He, like Archie and Jughead, doesn’t do the best in school and plays every sport offered. He is an amazing athelete, as he always manages to outscore Archie. He mainly dates Veronica, but also chases any girl he thinks is hot. The other girl he is interested in is Midge Klump, something her boyfriend doesn’t appreciate. What’s interesting about Reggie is that he and Archie have what I call a “Bert and Ernie” relationship. At times they seem to be each other’s enemies and can’t stand one another, but other times they are best buds.
Ethel Muggs is a tall, gangly, girl who has the hots for Jughead. If Betty is a doormat, then Ethel is even lower than that. She doesn’t have too much more of a personality other than her comedy of trying to win Jughead’s heart. She is nice, an athlete, and does well in school.
Dilton Doiley is a genius. Besides being great in school, he is an all around nice guy. He is picked on by Reggie, and finds it hard to get a date. Mostly Dilton comes in the story with some kind of invention he’s made. Sometimes they are great improvements, other times they create big messes, but they always produce something hilarious.
Chuck Clayton is African-American and was introduced into the series with his girlfriend Nancy Wood. Chuck is a great student, one of the best athletes in Riverdale, and a terrific artist (his favorite media is cartooning). His father is the assistant coach at Riverdale High and is always encouraging Chuck and his friends to do well and go to college. While Archie is goofy, Jughead unique, and Reggie deeply into himself; Chuck is more level-headed and less likely to get into crazy scrapes. In fact, he often tries to talk Archie out of them.
Nancy Wood is also African-American and was introduced the same time as Chuck. Like Ethel, she doesn’t have a lot of interaction in the comics besides being Chuck’s girlfriend and a friend of Betty. She is a tremendous athlete and student.
Moose Mason is the brawn to Dilton’s brains. Moose is tall, muscular, and loves sports excelling in everthing. School, however, gives him a lot of trouble. He’s a real nice guy always eager to help out, although he becomes insanely jealous if anyone even looks at his girlfriend Midge.
He and Dilton are best friends.
Midge Klump is Moose’s girlfriend and friend of Betty and Veronica. She is a great student & athlete; although a bit of a gossip. She wavers between liking Moose’s jealousy and constant attention to feeling stifled by how much he “cares”. This is a continuos issue for her, which causes her to time and time again date Reggie to “test” her feelings. This of course hardly ever turns out well for Reggie.
Cheryl Blossom is a redhead, snob, gazillionaire, conniver, and the archenemy of Betty & Veronica. She somehow is irresistible to all the guys in town and is constantly cooking up some strategy to steal them away from their girlfriends. At one point in the story she moved away and the writers introduced her replacement, Ginger, but fortunately they realized that Cheryl was too good to leave her out for long. With Cheryl around, humor abounds.
Besides almost every character having their own actual comic book, there is also Archie’s Weird Mysteries. These stories involved Archie investigating into some strange occurrence in Riverdale. This eventually became a TV series, and I would watch it every Saturday morning.
I used to watch this show everyday. My friends and I were huge fans and fangirls over it!
So the story is about Cory Matthews, a middle son in a five person family. It covers them and their friends, all living in a suburb not too far from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was funny, sweet, and even hit the really hard issues.
Cory Matthews is our main character and he starts out your average preteen boy. He only cares about sports, food, etc. As he got older he fell for Topanga Lawrence, and the two became inseparable.
Cory is an all around sweet guy. His best friend is Shawn Hunter, and the two were living a bromance before the word was ever invented. Shawn grew up on the “wrong side of the tracks”, but Cory never let that come between them or saw it as a bad thing. The two remain best buds until the end of the series.
Shawn Hunter is Cory’s best bud. He also is the bad boy with the heart of gold that all us ladies love!
Now he was the stereotype of the hot guy who does okay in school and gets all the ladies, but he was also much more than that. His mom and dad ran off and he had to deal with that abandonment along surviving without them. He was afraid to get close to any girl, as he was afraid they would leave him, but at the same time recognized what Topanga and Cory had was really special. He did everything he could to get them together, and keep them together. Eventually he fell for Angela, but they had some problems as he had to once again deal with those issues brought on by his parents’ abandonment. It’s the same reason he had so much trouble letting Cory go when he and Topanga married. He was afraid of losing another person he loved.
Later on in the series he finds out that he has a half-brother Jack (played by Matthew Lawrence). That brings more issues for him as the two try to figure out what it meant to be brothers and how to deal with not having had each other in their lives.
Topanga Lawrence is one of the most unique characters on TV.
She is the youngest daughter in a hippie family that owns a health food store. She wore what she wanted, and just ultimately was herself. However weird it was at times.
As the series progressed her unquie qualities dimmed down, but she always remained the powerhouse she was.
So later on in the series they actually changed her family. Her father was played by three different characters, of which the second and third were high ranking businessmen that only seemed to care about money. At one point her family moves away, but Cory and her are able to convince her aunt to let her finish up high school with him.
Then as the two are planning to get married, Topanga finds out that her parents are getting divorced and she stops believing in love as she saw her parents as an ideal. To make matters worse, the divorce is because of her father’s infidelity. Cory fights hard to win her back, as nothing will stop him from loving Topanga.
Eric Matthews is Cory’s brother and he was played by Will Friedle. He was Cory’s hot older brother.
He wasn’t book smart, as he didn’t do well in school, but was full of brotherly wisdom. He loved the ladies and was a girl chaser, but when he had a women he focused solely on her. He was hilarious, sensitive, and had some great moments. He and Jack become friends, and he helps the socially awkward guy meet the ladies. He and Mr. Feeny have a really great relationship as well. Mr. Feeny mentors all, but he and Eric are even closer than that.
Near the end of the series they made Eric really dumb, which I always hated as I loved the old Eric.
Mr. Feeny, you just can’t have a Boy Meets World post without him. Mr. Feeny lived next door to the Matthews and was the kids’ teacher in middle school. When Cory and Shawn move up to high school, they are thrilled to be done with him, only to find him becoming the principal and teacher at their high school. The year Cory, Shawn, and Topanga graduate, he decides to retires. Luckily the writers decided that was a bad idea and brought him back. He first attends college as a student, and later becomes a professor there.
Besides school teachings, Mr. Feeny was always a great mentor, friend, and grandfather to the kids. He could be hard and strict.
But always encouraged them
and tried to teach them life lessons.
Sarcastic, sweet and ultimately lovable. This series really won a place in everyone’s heart! So much that Disney decided to bring it back (sort-of) with a series chronicling Cory and Topanga’s daughter Girl Meets World. Power of the fans! We rock!
When you become friends with someone one of the first things you do is try and brainwash them into liking everything you like.
It’s not like you are trying to make them into something else, change them, or anything like that. It’s just you love something so much you want to share it with the world. You want everyone to love it as much as you.
This is what happened with my friend Elaine and the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I had heard of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as I like Sarah Michelle Geller, but I was never really into the show. I did see the 1992 film and loved it. It was more of a horror-parody than scary film, and Joss Wheedon decided that with the TV show he wanted to take it to a deeper level.
So in the show we have a blonde, sweet, “damsel in distress like character” be the Slayer. That is the woman who is going to save the world slaying demons, monsters, vampires, aliens, bug creatures, etc.
Buffy is a strong, independent woman that totally kicks butt and goes against every female stereotype. The only thing that I wonder is if you know you are going to be hunting vampires, why not invest in heavy duty turtlenecks?
She is lead by Giles her Watcher or mentor. He’s the type of guy you’d want as a dad or uncle.
One if her best friends is Willow (played by Alison Hannigan) a shy, insecure, brilliant girl. Later she takes care of spells and reversing curses.
We have Xander who is a total goofball. He is the comic relief and has some hilarious moments. He also has some really stupid ones. But that’s to be expected.
Cheating on his girlfriend with his best friend. Going off with Faith and sleeping with her.
But he does have his moments. Like the Halloween episode when everyone turns into their costumes, and he becomes this intense military guy.
Then we have Cordelia, the snooty, rich girl. At first she is Buffy’s nemesis, but she actually ends helping the group out. The more you see her the more you love her. She and Xander date for a while, until Xander screws it up.
And then you have Angel (played by the sexy David Boreanaz).
Oh yeah, one of the best characters in the series.
Angel was a guy living in Ireland in the 19th century. He was turned into a vampire and wrecked havoc on the world. He was cursed by a group of witches in getting his soul back, forcing him to have feelings and a conscious. He turns from his life of killing, to protecting; attempting to atone for his mistakes. He’s just the way I love them:
He’s just one of the most romantic characters ever!
To read more about him, come back next March and check out my Saint Patrick’s Day post.
Besides a great show, great actors, great characters, and great lines; it has one amazing theme song.
I love Captain America. I just think he is one of the best superheros ever. He is so earnest, sweet, perfect!
I mean he is just everything you want in a guy. 🙂 I loved the film Captain America: The First Avenger. At first I wasn’t going to see it because of Chris Evans. I mean I never hated the actor, it’s just he did a horrible job in the Fantastic Four films, and let’s be honest. Practically every film he’s ever been in he plays an egotistical jerk. Not Another Teen Movie, Cellular, Fantastic Four, The Nanny Diaries, etc. But when I watched the film it was perfect, PERFECT!
I think that prior to The Avengers, it was the best superhero created yet. I completely forgot that it was Chris Evans and instead just saw the Captain America I love!
Perfect!
This past spring break I went to Disneyland as my graduation present to myself. One of the recent changes they have made is that in Tomorrowland you can see the Iron Man suits, Thor props and meet him and MEET CAPTAIN AMERICA! I was thrilled and fangirled out!
I couldn’t wait to meet him. I mean I was like Phil Coulson. Anyways, when we found out, my friend Elaine and I made plans to go asap and get our pictures with him. As we waited in line, I was joking around that I wasn’t sure what I would do. I might even totally fangirl over him and throw myself at him. LOL I’m not that crazy, lol.
Yeah right.
So once we reached the second floor that housed the superheros, even though Captain America was to the right they forced you to go all the way around through the Iron Man and Thor exhibits. Elaine and I had already checked those out, so we took off running past Iron Man, Thor, playstation etc. We reached Captain America and were like third in line, excited although really tired.
When we got to Captain America, I totally lost it. Even though I knew that the guy wasn’t the real Captain America he just seemed so real! I threw myself at him and hugged him like five times. I babbled on that he was one of my favorites and how happy I was to see him.
A total fangirl.
He was cool with it. In fact he was perfect. He took the whole thing in stride.
After we took like ten photos (me & Elaine), we were heading out when this happened:
“Captain America: Hey, Moreland.
Me: Yeah?
Captain America: Maybe I’ll see you around.
Me: Okay!”
I was like:
Even though I knew the odds were zilch and not going to happen, there was still a small fraction of me that was hoping maybe, just maybe we would run into each other again.
Yep, the mentality of a fangirl. This is why we have places like tumblr where we can be understood for our irrationalities.
Thank goodness it was Elaine who was with me and understood.
The next day we were heading back to our apartment and stopped off to see Elaine’s parents. We showed her mom all our pictures. She was looking at the Captain America one, and wondered out loud what kind of padding he was wearing. I told her that there wasn’t any padding. Those muscles were real.
If you love Captain America as much as I do, come back in March and check out my St. Patrick’s Day post to hear more on him.
So while other kids grew up waiting for a letter to Hogwarts, or Camp Half-Blood, or any of those other places I was like whatever. I wanted to go to Narnia. I read the books and watched all the BBC films. I was so disappointed that I could never find a wardrobe to take me there (no matter how hard I tried).
It was the first fandom I have ever been in and the one I’ll be in until I die. I will never grow tired of C.S. Lewis’ books. You’re never too old for them.
The first book in the series is The Magician’s Nephew (1). It was actually the sixth book, but he wrote it as a prequel to the rest of the series. I thought it was okay, but he introduces a backstory that gives me more questions for the whole series. It’s not bad, but not one of my favorites. In it Digory and a Polly find themselves being sent to multiple worlds, having some of those enter their own world, and even witnessing the creation of Narnia.
The actual book that started it all was The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (2). This is my favorite as it is the first and AWESOME!
The time is the 1940s and four siblings, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, are sent to the country to get away from the bombs of London. While staying at the house they go through a wardrobe into a magical world. The four find themselves caught in a battle between the evil White Witch and the Godly Lion, Aslan.
It is an amazing adventure story with magic, animals, swordfighting, everything you love and want! I always wanted to be Peter the High King and Lord of Narnia. I thought that he was just amazing as he fights the White Queen, werewolves, etc. One Christmas my mother bought me a bible cover that had images from the books and one was Peter with his sword held high. I used to joke that the guy I ended up with had to have the inner soul of that. Yeah-not a joke.
The “next book” is A Horse and His Boy (3). I don’t really like this book as it was written fifth and doesn’t fit in the timeline right. In The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe it ends with the kids having lived far into their lives and returning home to discover they are back to their orginal ages and had only been gone a few hours. This book takes place in the middle of that time of them ruling. It bugs me as it just doesn’t go. I could have lived without it.
The next book Prince Caspian (4) was another of my all-time favorites and was orginally the sequel to the first. Time between Narnia and our world is much different. In the first book 40 years passed and it was only a few hours. In this one, hundreds of years have passed in Narnia. The land is ruled by men and talking animals, dwarfs, etc.; no longer roam the area. Prince Caspian is a young prince, about 10-12, who has grown up hearing the stories of King Peter, Queen Susan, King Edmund, and Queen Lucy. His uncle is ruling the land until he comes of age. One night he has to flee for his life as his uncle is set on killing him and making his newborn son the next in line for the throne. He rallies the rest of the magical creatures and calls on the help of the four from the first book.
This was another of my favs as it had the same kind of action and magic of the first one.
Then comes Voyage of the Dawn Treader (5). In this one Peter and Susan are no longer allowed back into Narnia as they are too old. Lucy and Edmond go back, and take along their horrible, annoying cousin Eustace (on accident). They find themselves on the Dawn Treader a boat built by King Caspian, now in his 20s. I loved this book as they are traveling through the lone islands and searching for the lost Lords exiled under his uncle. This has amazing adventures, swordfights, magic, dragons, etc.
In The Silver Chair (6) Lucy and Edmond are also too old to return to Narnia. Instead a bullied Eustace and Jill Pole find there way there. It has been many years in Narnia, as Caspian is now an old man. His son was lost to him years ago, just up and vanished, and Aslan sends Eustace and Jill to find him. They meet up with a Marshwiggle named Puddleglum, who is so negative it is hilarious. In here they continue their adventuring coming upon giants, black knights, underground men, etc.
The last book is The Last Battle (7). This book is the end of the series. It has been hundreds and hundreds of years since Caspian and his son. One day a monkey finds a lion skin, clothes a donkey with it, and proclaims him Aslan. There like in Animal Farm, he begins to use his newly gained power to turn the animals into slaves. Eustace and Jill use the magic rings from the first book to help Narnia, and are soon followed by everyone. Endings are always sad, but this one goes out with a bang.
The BBC films are amazing as they copy the books to a T. The actors are also fantastic. The special effects are so-so, but that was the technology they had and you got to give them props for that. The Disney versions are horrible. HORRIBLE! Trust me, don’t watch them at all. Read instead.
Copper is one of those shows that was amazing and got canceled far too early (only two seasons). I’m still upset over that.
So I wanted to watch Copper when it first came out as it intrguied me. It was a historical drama and plus it had him:
Let me back, up I’m getting too far ahead of myself. So Copper takes place during the mid 19th century in New York City. New York has a lot of tension not only between the Southerners and Northerners; but the racial clashes between “Americans”, “White” Europeans, Irish, and African-Americans. The main character, Kevin “Corky” Corcoran is an Irish immigrant, who has become a “copper”. He tries to keep the notorious Five Points in line with its murders, thievery, prostitution, opium trade, etc.
During the war, Corky worked with the wealthy Robert Morehouse (played by the hot guy from Alley Cats Strike). Morehouse used his influence to get Corky that job. Matthew Freeman, a freed slave who fought with them during the Civil War, acts as Corky’s pathologist and coroner.
They had the first season free on Amazon Instant Watch and I breezed through it and the second one as well.
The main character is amazing as he is just what I like:
And Irish. 🙂
He also really cares about the people in his neighborhood and protecting him. He not only a honorable man, but one of action who goes out and takes care of things. Super attractive!
Besides all those wonderful things, Copper also has a great intro.
I read the books and watched all the BBC films. I was so disappointed that I could never find a wardrobe to take me there (no matter how hard I tried).
