#elm shakespeare

[shakespearenews]

Rebecca Goodheart, producing artistic director at Elm Shakespeare, and Sarah Bowles, director of education, began the festival by welcoming everyone to ECA’s theater at 55 Audubon St. ​“This is the first annual Elm Shakespeare youth festival,” she announced to loud applause. ​“You will have bragging rights for the next 30 years,” she said. ​“We hope this will grow and grow, because we believe that every young person in New Haven deserves to have a personal and impactful relationship with these words and these plays. We believe this is how we change the world. We’re so glad that you are with us for the start of this journey.”

Before coming to Elm Shakespeare, both Bowles and Goodheart had worked at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass., which has been doing a youth festival for decades. ​“That is, in many ways, how we became the artists that we are and the educators that we are,” Goodheart said. ​“They helped us know how to do this.” 

[aurorasleepsin]

Interesting article. A deep dive that connects the search for knowledge to horror movie tropes/subverted tropes while quoting Shakespeare, Eliot, and Chekhov. Something Is Rotten in Horror’s Use of Pedagogy

[cursed-and-haunted]

web weaving for my oc, Warden

Nathaniel Orion G.K. / Crush, Richard Siken / Dazzled Precise, Anna de Noailles tr. Norman R. Shapiro / Wishbone, Richard Siken / Overflowing With Empty, Judas H. / Waterborne, Natasha Trethewey / The Night There, Mahmoud Darwish / Elm, Sylvia Plath / Amal El-Mothar / The Third Hour of The Night, Frank Bidart / Hamlet, Shakespeare / The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, Sylvia Plath / Daddy, Ramesy / Another Road in The Road, Mahmoud Darwish / @pikslasrce / Ariel, Aneleh / Tragedy, Sanna Wani / Nicola Samori / Underbelly, Nicole Homer / Beric Dondarrion

[jesuisgourde]

A list of all the books mentioned in Peter Doherty's journals (and in some interviews/lyrics, too)

Because I just made this list in answer to someone's question on a facebook group, I thought I may as well post it here.

-The Picture of Dorian Gray/The Ballad Of Reading Gaol/Salome/The Happy Prince/The Duchess of Padua, all by Oscar Wilde -The Thief's Journal/Our Lady Of The Flowers/Miracle Of The Rose, all by Jean Genet -A Diamond Guitar by Truman Capote -Mixed Essays by Matthew Arnold -Venus In Furs by Leopold Sacher-Masoch -The Ministry Of Fear by Graham Greene -Brighton Rock by Graham Green -A Season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud -The Street Of Crocodiles (aka Cinnamon Shops) by Bruno Schulz -Opium: The Diary Of His Cure by Jean Cocteau -The Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson -Howl by Allen Ginsberg -Women In Love by DH Lawrence -The Tempest by William Shakespeare -Trilby by George du Maurier -The Vision Of Jean Genet by Richard Coe -"Literature And The Crisis" by Isaiah Berlin -Le Cid by Pierre Corneille -The Paris Peasant by Louis Aragon -Junky by William S Burroughs -Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes -Futz by Rochelle Owens -They Shoot Horses Don't They? by Horace McCoy -"An Inquiry On Love" by La revolution surrealiste magazine -Idea by Michael Drayton -"The Nymph's Reply to The Shepherd" by Sir Walter Raleigh -Hamlet by William Shakespeare -The Silver Shilling/The Old Church Bell/The Snail And The Rose Tree all by Hans Christian Andersen -120 Days Of Sodom by Marquis de Sade -Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke -Poetics Of Space by Gaston Bachelard -In Favor Of The Sensitive Man and Other Essays by Anais Nin -La Batarde by Violette LeDuc -Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov -Intimate Journals by Charles Baudelaire -Juno And The Paycock by Sean O'Casey -England Is Mine by Michael Bracewell -"The Prelude" by William Wordsworth -Noise: The Political Economy of Music by Jacques Atalli -"Elm" by Sylvia Plath -"I am pleased with my sight..." by Rumi -She Stoops To Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith -Amphitryon by John Dryden -Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellman -The Song Of The South by James Rennell Rodd -In Her Praise by Robert Graves -"For That He Looked Not Upon Her" by George Gascoigne -"Order And Disorder" by Lucy Hutchinson -Man Crazy by Joyce Carol Oates -A Pictorial History Of Sex In The Movies by Jeremy Pascall and Clyde Jeavons -Anarchy State & Utopia by Robert Nozick -"Limbo" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge -Men In Love: Masculinity and Sexuality in the Eighteenth Century by George Haggerty

[arbitrary line break because tumble hates lists apparently]

-Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky -Innocent When You Dream: the Tom Waits Reader -"Identity Card" by Mahmoud Darwish -Ulysses by James Joyce -The Four Quartets poems by TS Eliot -Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare -A'Rebours/Against The Grain by Joris-Karl Huysmans -Prisoner Of Love by Jean Genet -Down And Out In Paris And London by George Orwell -The Man With The Golden Arm by Nelson Algren -Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates -"Epitaph To A Dog" by Lord Byron -Cocaine Nights by JG Ballard -"Not By Bread Alone" by James Terry White -Anecdotes Of The Late Samuel Johnson by Hester Thrale -"The Owl And The Pussycat" by Edward Lear -"Chevaux de bois" by Paul Verlaine -A Strong Song Tows Us: The Life of Basil Bunting by Richard Burton -Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes -The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri -The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling -The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling -Ask The Dust by John Frante -On The Trans-Siberian Railways by Blaise Cendrars -The 39 Steps by John Buchan -The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol -The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol -The Iliad by Homer -Heart Of Darkness by Joseph Conrad -The Volunteer by Shane O'Doherty -Twenty Love Poems and A Song Of Despair by Pablo Neruda -"May Banners" by Arthur Rimbaud -Literary Outlaw: The life and times of William S Burroughs by Ted Morgan -The Penguin Dorothy Parker -Smoke by William Faulkner -Hero And Leander by Christopher Marlowe -My Lady Nicotine by JM Barrie -All I Ever Wrote by Ronnie Barker -The Libertine by Stephen Jeffreys -On Murder Considered As One Of The Fine Arts by Thomas de Quincey -The Void Ratio by Shane Levene and Karolina Urbaniak -The Remains Of The Day by Kazuo Ishiguro -Dead Fingers Talk by William S Burroughs -The England's Dreaming Tapes by Jon Savage -London Underworld by Henry Mayhew

[ripesinner]

MAYBE THE POISON DRIPS THROUGH.

Kendall Roy (Succession. CR: @humanveil) / Mother and Child — Gustav Klimt / Autumn Sonata — Ingmar Bergman / The Journals of Sylvia Plath — Sylvia Plath / Fleabag — Phoebe Waller-Bridge (CR: limitedseries) / 1804/ Autobiography — Dan Pagis / Villanelle (Killing Eve) / Lindsay C. Gibson / Olivia Benson (Law & Order: SVU) / Sharp Objects — Gillian Flynn & Jean-Marc Vallée / Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth — Warsan Shire / Family Tree — Ethel Cain / The Lament for Icarus — Herbert Draper / Russian Doll — (CR: CTO, I found it on pinterest) / Stavros Kazantzidis / Susan Smith — Wych Elm / Antigonick — Anne Carson / Slaughterhouse — Yves Olade / The Return of the Prodigal Son — Guercino, 1619 / King Lear — Shakespeare

[welightthewaysource]

“For Aemond’s walk, there was something I found interesting about Eighties horror icons,” Mitchell says in a murmur, barely audible above the incongruous disco muzak of the tea room we’ve moved to, his face half hidden beneath a black baseball cap. The only dash of colour on his person is a Help for Heroes wristband. ​“No matter how slow they walk, they always catch up with Jamie Lee Curtis,” he says, a smile twitching at the corners of his more-Joker-than-The-Joker lips. ​“There’s something in the physicality of [Elm Street​’s] Freddy [Krueger], [Jamie Lee’s Halloween nemesis] Michael Myers, [the Creeper in] Jeepers Creepers.” Aemond, he says, also wears ​“a big, long duster coat”. Very boogeyman-adjacent. “And Shakespeare,” he continues, ​“he said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. So what does that mean to only have one of them? How do you compensate? Is it through physicality? Aemond’s such a boiling pot of emotions anyway, that just because he’s smiling doesn’t mean he’s happy. He’s ready to go at any minute.” What about the Adidas trackie bottoms and hoodie Mitchell’s wearing today – does he always dress in black? “I do nowadays, yeah. There’s just something about the power of representing [him]. There’s a Johnny Cash music video, [for] God’s Gonna Cut You Down, and someone says in that that wearing black stands for the poor and the downtrodden. And that’s what Aemond is.”

Ewan Mitchell for THE FACE Magazine

photographed by Jules Moskovtchenko (March 2023)

[visit-new-york]

The Mall

The Mall in Central Park is a famous and iconic feature of this renowned urban park located in the heart of Manhattan, New York City. It is a tree-lined promenade, often described as a "grand boulevard," that stretches for approximately 40 feet wide and 0.25 miles long. The Mall runs through the center of Central Park, offering a picturesque and serene setting for visitors. Here are some key details about The Mall:

Design and Landscape: The Mall was designed in the 1850s by the park's creators, landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. It was intended to provide a peaceful and contemplative walkway that contrasts with the surrounding bustling city streets. The design includes a double row of American elm trees that create a leafy canopy overhead.

Scenic Beauty: The most striking feature of The Mall is its canopy of American elm trees, which arch over the pathway, creating a natural tunnel. The lush green canopy provides shade during the summer months and a stunning display of autumn foliage in the fall.

Historical Significance: The Mall is one of the original features of Central Park, dating back to the park's inception in the 19th century. Its historical significance lies in its role as a tranquil retreat within the bustling city, fulfilling the vision of Olmsted and Vaux.

Literary and Cultural Associations: The Mall has been featured in numerous films, television shows, and works of literature, adding to its cultural significance. It often serves as a backdrop for romantic scenes, leisurely strolls, and outdoor performances.

Statues and Sculptures: At the southern end of The Mall stands a statue of Christopher Columbus, unveiled in 1892. The Mall also includes statues of famous literary figures, such as William Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott, as well as plaques featuring quotes from their works.

Activities and Events: Throughout the year, The Mall hosts a variety of events and activities. These can include art installations, concerts, outdoor performances, and cultural festivals. The pathway is often filled with musicians, artists, and street performers showcasing their talents.

Wedding Photography: Due to its romantic atmosphere and picturesque setting, The Mall is a popular location for wedding and engagement photography. Many couples choose to capture their special moments amid the elegant backdrop of the tree-lined promenade.

Four Seasons: The Mall offers a different experience in each season. In the spring, the elm trees sprout new leaves, creating a lush green canopy. In the fall, the changing leaves create a breathtaking display of autumn colors. During the winter, The Mall can be particularly enchanting when covered in snow.

Access and Location: The Mall is easily accessible by foot from various points within Central Park, making it a central and popular destination for park visitors. It is located near other notable landmarks such as Bethesda Terrace, the Central Park Zoo, and the Central Park Conservatory Garden.

Artistic Inspiration: The Mall has been a source of inspiration for countless artists, photographers, and writers. The atmospheric beauty of the tree-lined pathway and the changing seasons make it a captivating subject for creative expression.

Fitness and Recreation: While The Mall is primarily known for its leisurely strolls and cultural activities, it also provides an excellent space for various recreational activities, including jogging, yoga, and tai chi. The wide pathway and serene surroundings make it an ideal place for outdoor exercise.

Wedding Ceremonies: Beyond photography, The Mall is a popular choice for outdoor wedding ceremonies due to its romantic ambiance and picturesque backdrop. Couples often choose to exchange vows beneath the elegant canopy of elm trees.

Cross-Country Skiing: During the winter months when Central Park is covered in snow, The Mall transforms into a cross-country skiing destination. It offers a serene and snow-covered landscape for winter sports enthusiasts.

Quiet Reflection: Amidst the activities and events, The Mall provides moments of quiet reflection. Many visitors come here to find solitude, read a book, or simply enjoy a peaceful pause from the demands of city life.

Birdwatching: Central Park is a haven for birdwatchers, and The Mall is no exception. The combination of trees and open space attracts a variety of bird species, making it an excellent spot for birdwatching.

Educational Opportunities: The Mall's natural setting and historical significance provide opportunities for educational programs and guided tours. Visitors can learn about the park's history, ecology, and the significance of its design.

Horse-Drawn Carriages: Visitors can often spot horse-drawn carriages offering rides along The Mall and other parts of Central Park. It's a charming and nostalgic way to explore the park while taking in the scenic beauty.

Public Art Installations: Central Park frequently hosts temporary art installations, and The Mall is no exception. These installations can include sculptures, art exhibitions, and interactive displays, adding an artistic dimension to the natural surroundings.

Access: The Mall is wheelchair and stroller accessible, ensuring that visitors of all mobility levels can enjoy this iconic feature of Central Park.

In summary, The Mall in Central Park is a multifaceted destination that caters to a wide range of interests and experiences. Its natural beauty, cultural significance, and seasonal transformations make it a beloved and enduring part of Central Park's charm, providing both New Yorkers and visitors with a tranquil and enchanting urban escape.

[wishesofeternity]

"In a literal sense, the Vikings are of course people of the past, dead and gone—but at the same time they inhabit a curiously haptic kind of prehistory, one that appears to return whatever pressure is applied to it. Many have been tempted to put their fingers on the scales of hindsight and imagined that the impulse to do so came not from themselves but through the revelation of hidden truths buried by time. Medieval monks and scholars reinvented their pagan ancestors either as nobly misguided forebears or as agents of the devil. In the manuscript illuminations of Romance literature, with a kind of Orientalist prejudice, they became Saracens, enemies of Christ depicted with turbans and scimitars. In Shakespeare’s England, the Vikings were taken up as violent catalysts in the early story of the kingdom’s greatness. Rediscovered during the Enlightenment as a sort of ‘noble savage’, the figure of the Viking was enthusiastically adopted by the nationalist Romantics of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Searching for their own emerging identities, Victorian imperialists scoured Scandinavian literature looking for suitably assertive northern role models, expressing the manifest destiny of the Anglo-Saxons through their Nordic cousins. The logical end of that trajectory came a century later, when the Nazis appropriated the Vikings in pursuit of their racist fictions, elevating them as a spurious Aryan archetype; their modern successors still plague us today. Elements of the broad Pagan community now seek a spiritual alternative that draws inspiration from Viking religion, with Tolkienesque flavourings added to a cloudier Old Norse brew. All these and many more, including today’s academics and the audiences for historical drama, have taken the fragmentary material and textual remains of the Vikings and recast them in moulds of their choosing. At times it can seem that the actual people have almost disappeared under the cumulative freight they have been made to bear."

- Neil Price, “Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings”

[aquariclione]

[ID: 9 striped horizontal flag. colors from top to bottom are stratos blue, st topaz blue, shakespeare blue, polar white, viking blue, polar white, tradewind green, elm green, daintree blue. end ID]

deep sea agender male flag with mlm gay + uranic elements for anon

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

1, 3, 24! ❤️❤️❤️

1 . How many books did you read this year?

33 so far (plus like. some fifteen-odd seasons of actual play which feel like books to me)

3. already gave my top five but here are my honourable mentions

Stephen King's On Writing

Frank Goldammer's Im Schatten der Wende (this guy writes historical crime novels that are always GREAT historical and really bad crime novels, but this one was, while still pretty confusing, a marked improvement, and the historical part was fantastic)

Erich Kästner's Der Gang vor die Hunde which was fucking depressing but great, which surprises nobody because I am an unapologetic Kästner lover

Pim Wangtechawat's The Moon Represents My Heart, which was such a cool concept and had some really fascinating sections about the Kowloon Walled City that I loved!

24. Did you DNF anything?

Loads.

Tana French's The Witch Elm: I really liked The Seeker but this one did not grab me at all

Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass: This was really lovely but I am a super hard sell on nonfiction and this was too slow-paced for me so it lost me

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: I know I know! I'll give this another go at some point maybe but I got like halfway in and was just so bored

Thomas Mann's Death in Venice: Listen this is a German classic and I figured hey, this is Mann's shortest book why not, but I hated the topic and everything about this story.

Marcus Aurelius' Meditations: Not suited to audiobook format, I gave up

Homer's Odyssey: Again, I know. I tried guys but I just. Can't. With traditional Greek theatre. Or theatre in general. I hate reading a play. Shakespeare can stay. Sometimes.

Blake Snyder's Save the Cat!: Didn't learn anything new in the first third and was quite bored, so I stopped.

Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park: This was okay. I'd already seen the movie though and felt like this wasn't giving me anything the movie hadn't already, so I stopped around halfway through.

end of year book asks!

[grandhotelabyss]

The reasons for the outsized influence on the academic humanities of the French poststructuralists (as opposed to the more moderate critics of scientism such as Midgley) is no doubt overdetermined, but which explanations do you find most convincing?

I can only speak for the English department, but the most convincing answer is the most benign one, the one that least involves "Cultural Marxist" subversion of the west or CIA anti-communist skullduggery, the one immanent to the institution of academic criticism itself: the humanists had no theory of their practice, no global meta-discourse to guide individual instances of their discourse. This left them at a disadvantage in explaining themselves to their students and to the public in the face of scientific hegemony. They needed a system.

Academic criticism felt too amateurish, too gentlemanly, even after certain modernist assumptions had been assimilated by the middle of the century. New Criticism had rigor but you ran against its limitations very quickly, not even so much because of its ahistorical and Christian presuppositions, but because it only really works at all on certain types of texts, i.e., lyric poems of a riddling disposition, as well as the few larger forms that can look like such poems if you squint (early modern drama, for example, or modernist fiction). Psychoanalysis and Marxism in their pre-theory forms were too reductive, not even textual hermeneutics really, and therefore left the critic too little to say (Hamlet wants to sleep with his mother, Dickens is petit bourgeois: so what?); this goes, too, for the pre-theoretical attempts at identity politics, like early feminist criticism of the "images of women in literature" type. Myth criticism had a certain visionary appeal, but too often decayed into a predictable game of spot-the-archetype (another Christ figure in a modern novel? tell me a new one).[*]

On the other hand, the structuralist and poststructuralist ideas coming out of France promised a theory of language that was also a theory of society—even a theory that language was society and vice versa—and a therefore promised a systematic science of the literary text qua text as well as an Archimedean lever with which to shift the political (and indeed the scientific) in language. "Il n’y a pas de hors-texte." It opened up the whole world of European philosophy to Anglophone literary criticism and glamorously updated everything they were already doing with a self-conscious methodological sophistication. Close reading for balanced ambiguities became textual analysis aimed at subversive aporias.

This turn to englobalizing method would in the long run dissolve any plausible mission for literary studies per se as opposed to an "everything studies" that doubles as a "nothing studies," even as it ironically became the new cultural lingua franca of the whole educated class, supplanting the literary itself. I went to see the horror film It Lives Inside the other day. In the genre-obligatory high-school classroom scene, our heroine, her loyalties painfully divided between white American assimilation and her immigrant family's Hindu culture, tells her teacher that John Winthrop's city-on-a-hill sermon is, and I quote, "a normative fantasy." (The film then labors, with mixed success, to supply a rival normative fantasy.) 40 years ago, in A Nightmare on Elm Street, the teens in their English class just recited a scary speech from Shakespeare.

_______________________

[*] When I used to teach this class, I would look at various handbooks for undergraduates, and it was always interesting to see how they'd characterize the pre-theory era. Terry Eagleton in Literary Theory and Peter Barry in Beginning Theory tendentiously called it "liberal humanist," with their skeptical eye on the Arnoldian idea that literature could unify and redeem an otherwise class-ridden society; but Nicholas Birns in Theory After Theory more persuasively said it was the era of the "resolved symbolic," when critics had faith they could provide a final interpretive answer to the riddle of the isolated text, as opposed to theory's later claims that everything is a text and that texts by their nature are permanently open-ended.

[atotaltaitaitale]

.

After you come a few time to London (it’s my third time this year -visit 1 & visit 2) and you’ve seen the major tourist spots you start to just walk around. Since I love wandering around Paris and finding fun facts about the city I started to look for some interesting pieces about London

So this time I planned my walks to go check out

*The tallest door in London - Opened in 1904, it was once home to the Elms Lesters Painting Rooms, used to store and produce theatre scenery and backdrops. The tall door allowed the huge scenery to be maneuvered.

*The fence made of stretchers from WWII - During the war, many of London’s housing estates lost their original metal railings when they were manufactured into weaponry to serve the war effort. With a large stockpile of stretchers following the war, the London City Council decided to have the stretchers welded vertically together, fixed onto poles, sunken into concrete, and used to replace this missing fencing. The two kinks in the poles, designed so that they could be rested on the ground then picked up easily, can still be seen on the railings today.

*The House of St Barnabas / Charity House with the Victorian Penny chute for donation.

*St Bartholomew's Gatehouse - The earliest surviving timber framed facade in the City . It comprises a two-storey 16th century Tudor building with parts of the stonework and archway from the 13th century. It was the gatehouse to the Norman Priory church of St Bartholomew- the Great , founded in 1123.

The first photo is the oldest churches in the city: St Bartholomew-the-Great (protect by the gate above) founded in 1123 as a Augustinian priory. It was fully restored in 1932 and it retains some of the 13th century stonework from the original nave. Fun facts: The church is featured in several films: Four wedding and a funeral; Shakespeare in Love, Avenger: Age of Ultron; Sherlock Holmes; Transformer: the last Knight; the Other Boleyn Girl.

[turnupswritessometimes]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Thanks....

I've taken my time with this one, beause it's quite a big question, lol

I'm someone who moves on pretty quickly when it comes to interests, and nowadays I don't even watch/read stuff more than once. But here's the list (not in any specific order):

1.) Stitch from Lilo and Stitch

Lilo and Stitch was one of the first films I ever saw in cinemas as a kid, and it still makes me sob to this day. Just! Stitch! In the woods! With the Ugly Duckling book! And he repeats it and looks around because he's got no family!

There's so much love and thought put into how he moves (see gif - the head tilt - the eyes! He's baby!) that shows his thought process and emotions. His arc is complimentary to Lilo's and it's my favourite film. Plus, he's cute and fluffy!

2.) Myka Bering from Warehouse 13

This space was a toss up between Claudia and Myka from this show. As an 11-13 year old watching this show for the first time, I had the biggest crush on Claudia, but I loved Myka too. And rewatching it now, I love her more.

Warehouse 13 revolves around a bunch of agents tracking down 'artefacts': objects that usually kill people in horrific ways, but sometimes have benefits. (A great episode is Shakespeare's lost folio: touching a page with doom you to die the death of the character depicted, unless you can say that character's final lines.) Myka's come from the secret service and is the more pragmatic one compared to partner Pete's comic relief and pop culture references. (I love Pete too, though!) Myka's also a nerd! A classics nerd! (Middle name Ophelia!) She loves H.G Wells (me too!) - and H.G Wells is in this show (see gif) as a very cool woman who Myka's more than a little in love with. (Me too! Sadly it's all subtext because this shows 10 years old now.) She's capable and cool but has a softer, human side that's allowed to come to light as much as her partner's. They take turns being vulnerable with each other and it's what makes these characters feel real.

She also has the line: "some girls play with barbies, others take fencing lessons." which! come on! It's so good!

3.) Baron from The Cat Returns

He's voiced by Cary Elwes (Westley from the Princess Bride), which makes him instantly cool! And, honestly, he's basically Westley; he's suave, sneaks into places with disguises, and is a master of swordplay. (Maybe I just like characters with swords?)

The Cat Returns is my favourite Studio Ghibli movie, because it's so similar to the Nutcracker, which is a favourite of mine too. The ball scene still makes me feel like a teen with a crush; there's a romanticism to it all that comes from how suave Baron is. His minature world is charming too!

4.) Nancy Thompson from Nightmare on Elm Street

Nancy's my favourite final girl. There's a great interview were they talk about how determined she is; she will find the truth, and she won't stop hunting for it. She takes active measures to ensure she can investigate and wake up in time. I don't have many points on this one: I just think she's neat!

5.) Sora from Kingdom Hearts

Again, I'm torn between two characters from the franchise - Sora and Roxas. But I played Kingdom Hearts 2 first, and that has more of Sora!

The whole series has a lot of nostalgia for me, and Sora's the heart of that. He's the player's world into exploring all these Disney worlds. I actually love the twist that Sora's not really meant to have a keyblade at all; Riku's the one who was meant to be. It's a cool reverse chosen one. Recently, it's more interesting to see how Sora's relentless optimism is being chipped away at. He feels like a very generic protagonist who's being subverted in a very clever way.

6.) Peter Pan, in like, a vague sense

No particular version of Peter, because I'll devour any Peter Pan retelling. A straight, fun disney version is heart-warming and escapist; Syfy's Neverland was like a magical Oliver Twist, with all the emotional beats; darker ones explore the strange, darker (unintentional) subtext of the novel. (Which I do love; it's just so memorable.) All of the Peters, please!

(I vividly remember seeing a Peter Pan panto and Peter was played by a young woman and oh boy! Finding out girls can play boys was a big moment for me!)

7.) Cinderella...from Cinderella

I could easily do top 10 Disney characters, but this is the last one for this list. And again, it's more about what Cindie represents. She keeps her kindness and her empathy throughout her story; she works hard and makes sacrifices and that earns her happily ever after. I think that manta of 'Have Courage and be Kind' in the live action one is a great phrase to live by, and easily applied to real life. I've worked two jobs throughout my masters, so the idea of hard work being rewarded someday is comforting. I hope it's true, lol.

8.) Tails from Sonic

He's just real neat! A good little guy! He can fly and he's super smart! I always mained him on Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, and I've liked him since I was a kid. (I really struggled to fill this space, so runners up were Zuko, Nico Di Angelo, Vanitas and Link.)

9/10.) Ash Lynx and Eiji Okumura from Banana Fish

I can't separate the boys! They go together!

Honestly, this shouldn't be a surprise, lol. Oddly, though, it's hard to answer a question of why they're so dear to me. Ash is a very interesting character to unpack; and unpacking those darker elements of his story is? Intriguing? I think is the best word for it. That depth comes across in the manga and is probably what made it endure.

Eiji has a similar depth that I feel like gets washed away a bit, by the fandom. He's 'normal,' but he's not, really. He's exceptionally compassionate, and just as impulsive as Ash. (He is all in within meeting this boy for ten minutes.)

And it's their implied relationship in the series that is just! So! Much! The trust and care and the fact that they do act like two teenage boys messing around with each other. (Which is something I don't think either of them got to have.)

Honestly, I've been writing the both of them for so long that they do feel like a part of me, now, even though they're not my characters.

And that's ten! Thanks so so much for the ask! I love getting to waffle nonsense to a captive audience! Sorry it took so long to answer! <3 xxx

[marjaystuff]

New Blog: A Quandary, A Conundrum, A Dilemma

I have a quandary, a conundrum, a dilemma. I have a new book by one of my favorite authors and I am struggling to read it.  Not because of the characters; they are very interesting.  Not because of the story lines; I just read a similar book by another author.  It is because it is about Shakespeare and somehow I just missed the gene that finds him interesting and his writing superb.  So what do I do?  

Meanwhile I read another book online about Werewolves, wolves and people.  Again the wolves were broken down into packs with an Alpha and a Beta with their mates being called a Luna.  This time they added another category of wolves, called the omegas.  The lowest of all the classes where they are expected to be housekeepers and cooks, and seamstresses to the pack.  The book was called The Omegas Best Friend by Sasha Johnson.  I ended up reading it online at a site where it was free, however, quite often there were pages that were all messed up and perhaps in a different language.  I was never sure.

I also read Kristan Higgins’ newest book Look On the Bright Side.  What a great novel that was. I enjoyed the main character of Lark and her family.  I enjoyed the story line, although I did need tissues, a bunch of tissues.  The story line does go back and forth in time (staying with Lark).  There are also chapters with other characters being the narrator to tell various parts of the story.  The book was fascinating in that respect.  I really enjoyed it.  

Elise sent us in an interview with  Alyssa Maxwell about  two of her novels (Murder at the Elms and Murder at Vinland).  The novels take place during the gilded age in Newport RI.  Along with the historical aspect of the rich and famous people, there is a mystery to be solved in each book by Emma Cross.  Both of the books sound like fun reads.  Elise also sent us a review of the newest Tom Clancy Shadow State books written by M P Woodward featuring Jack Ryan.  

Meanwhile I am going to read another book…not about Shakespear.

[burningexeter]

I realized very early on that I've always been attracted to in media and fiction, unconventional protagonists that while are heroic, they're NOT at all the typical type of "heroes" you'd expect. I've always found that way more interesting and compelling than most other regular or conventional type of stories. Here's a list of the ones that I think are some (or in this case, a LOT) of my biggest influences when it comes to the characters that I write, the protagonists that I write where it's unconventional main characters fighting the odds or facing the highest stakes possible or BOTH in incredible situations or scenarios BUT are again NOT the generic "heroes" you'd think or expect them to be:

• Andy Dufrense & Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding — The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

• Paul Edgecomb & John Coffey — The Green Mile (1999)

• John McClane — Die Hard (1988)

• Arthur Morgan — Red Dead Redemption 2

• Mrs. Brisby — The Secret Of NIMH (1982)

• Norman Babcock — ParaNorman

• Frank — Thief (1981)

• Alice Johnson — A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master & A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

• Miguel Rivera — Coco (2017)

• Eddie Valiant & Roger Rabbit — Who Framed Roger Rabbit

• Marty McFly & Emmett "Doc" Brown — The Back To The Future Trilogy

• Samantha "Charly" Caine — The Long Kiss Goodnight

• Walter "Heisenberg" White — Breaking Bad

• Ezekiel "EZ" Reyes — Mayans MC

• Peter "Spider-Man" Parker — Spider-Man 2 (2004)

• Michael De Santa, Franklin Clinton & Trevor Philips — Grand Theft Auto V

• Niko Bellic — Grand Theft Auto IV

• Jaguar Paw — Apocalypto (2006)

• Jack Sparrow, Will Turner & Elizabeth Swann — The Pirates Of The Caribbean Trilogy

• Poindexter "Fool" Williams, Alice Robeson & Roach — The People Under The Stairs

• Shane Vendrell — The Shield (FX)

• Matt Parkman — Heroes (Season 1)

• Bob & Helen Parr — The Incredibles (2004)

• The Man With No Name & Tuco Benedicto Pacífico Juan María Ramírez — The Dollars Trilogy

• Matt Murdock, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Frank Castle & David "Micro" Lieberman — Marvel Netflix

• Robyn Goodfellowe & Mebh Og MacTire — Wolfwalkers (2020)

• Kevin Garvey — The Leftovers (HBO)

• El Mariachi — The Mexico Trilogy

• John Hartigan, Marv & Dwight McCarthy — Sin City (2005)

• Andrea Grimes — The Walking Dead (Comic Series)

• Kenny McCormick — South Park

• Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture, Malcom "The Monarch" Fitzcarraldo & Gary "Henchmen 21" Fischer — The Venture Bros.

• Gwen Tennyson — Ben 10: Alien Force & Ben 10: Ultimate Alien

• Literally all of the protagonists — Generator Rex

• Virgil Ovid Hawkins/Static Shock & Richard "Richie" Osgood Foley/Gear — Static Shock

• Al "Spawn" Simmons — Todd McFarlane's Spawn (HBO)

• Billy "Shazam!" Batson & Frederick "Freddy" Freeman — SHAZAM! (2019)

• Frank Bannister — The Frighteners

• Ann Darrow — King Kong (2005)

• Sarah Bowman, John "Flyboy" & Bill McDermott — Day Of The Dead (1985)

• Rick O'Connell, Evelyn "Evie" & Jonathan Carnahan — The Mummy (1999)

• U.S. Army Captain Benjamin L. Willard — Apocalypse Now

• Staff Sergeant Mikhail "Mike" Vronsky — The Deer Hunter

• Mikasa Ackerman — Attack On Titan

• Max Rockatansky — Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

• Sheriff Hassan — Midnight Mass

• Historia Reiss — Attack On Titan (Manga)

• Grey Trace — Upgrade (2018)

• Seth Gecko — From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

• Cecilia "Cee" Kress — The Invisible Man (2020)

• Private Cooper — Dog Soldiers

• Quintus Dias — Centurion (2010)

• Lucius Vorenus & Titus Pullo — Rome (HBO)

• Seth Bullock & Al Swearengen — Deadwood (HBO)

• Alita — Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

• O.J. Haywood — Nope (2022)

• Puss In Boots & Perrito — Puss In Boots: The Last Wish

• Po — Kung Fu Panda 2

• Bob Belcher — Bob's Burgers

• Atticus Finch — To Kill A Mockingbird

• John Rambo — First Blood

• Bruce Wayne/Batman — Batman (1989)

• Logan/Wolverine — Logan (2017)

• Charlie Shakespeare — Deathwatch (2002)

• Edward Boyce & Lewis Ford — Overlord (2018)

• Solomon Kane — Solomon Kane (2009)

• Alan Wake — Alan Wake (2010)

• Private/Sergeant J.T. "Joker" Davis — Full Metal Jacket

• Lee Everett — Telltale's The Walking Dead (Season 1)

• Bigby Wolf — Telltale's The Wolf Among Us

• Heather Mason — Silent Hill 3

And that's just merely the tip of the iceberg.

[eyssant]

Central Park: A Timeless Oasis in the Heart of New York City

Central Park, a sprawling green oasis nestled in the heart of Manhattan, is one of the most iconic urban parks in the world. Covering 843 acres, this beloved landmark offers a tranquil escape from the hustle and bustle of New York City. With a rich history, diverse attractions, and year-round activities, Central Park is a must-visit destination for locals and tourists alike. This article explores the history of Central Park, highlights its key attractions, and provides tips on the best times to visit.

The History of Central Park

The idea for Central Park was conceived in the mid-19th century, driven by the need for a public green space in a rapidly growing city. In 1853, the New York State Legislature set aside over 700 acres of land in the center of Manhattan for the creation of the park. A design competition was held, and the winning proposal, known as the "Greensward Plan," was submitted by landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.

Construction of Central Park began in 1858 and continued for over a decade. The project was a massive undertaking, involving the relocation of thousands of residents and the transformation of a rocky, swampy area into a lush, landscaped park. The design incorporated elements of both formal gardens and naturalistic landscapes, creating a harmonious blend of open meadows, woodlands, and water features.

Central Park officially opened in 1858, but its development continued well into the 1870s. Over the years, the park has undergone numerous renovations and restorations to preserve its beauty and functionality. Today, it stands as a testament to the vision and ingenuity of its creators, providing a serene and picturesque retreat for millions of visitors each year.

Exploring the Central Park

Central Park is home to a wide array of attractions, each offering unique experiences and sights. Here are some of the must-see places to explore within the park:

Bethesda Terrace and Fountain: Bethesda Terrace and Fountain is often considered the heart of Central Park. The grand staircase, adorned with intricate carvings, leads to a stunning fountain featuring the Angel of the Waters statue. The terrace overlooks the picturesque Bethesda Terrace and Fountain, a popular spot for photography and relaxation.

The Mall and Literary Walk: The Mall, a wide, tree-lined promenade, is one of the most iconic features of Central Park. It is flanked by American elm trees, creating a lush canopy overhead. At the southern end of The Mall is Literary Walk, which features statues of renowned writers, including William Shakespeare and Robert Burns.

Strawberry Fields: Strawberry Fields is a tranquil, meditative area dedicated to the memory of John Lennon, the legendary musician and member of The Beatles. The centerpiece of this serene spot is the Imagine mosaic, a tribute to Lennon's vision of peace.

Central Park Zoo: The Central Park Zoo is a favorite attraction for families and animal lovers. It houses a diverse collection of animals, from snow leopards to sea lions, and features interactive exhibits and educational programs. The adjacent Tisch Children's Zoo offers a hands-on experience for young visitors.

Belvedere Castle: Belvedere Castle, perched atop Vista Rock, provides panoramic views of the park and the city beyond. This charming, medieval-style structure houses a visitor center and an observation deck, making it a perfect spot for sightseeing and photography.

The Great Lawn: The Great Lawn is a vast, open space that serves as a gathering place for picnics, sports, and concerts. It is surrounded by trees and offers stunning views of the city skyline. The Great Lawn is also home to the Delacorte Theater, where the annual Shakespeare in the Park performances are held.

Bow Bridge: Bow Bridge is one of Central Park's most romantic and picturesque locations. This elegant cast-iron bridge spans the Lake, offering stunning views of the surrounding landscape. It is a popular spot for couples and photographers, especially during the spring and fall seasons.

The Ramble: The Ramble is a 36-acre woodland area designed to resemble a wild, natural landscape. It features winding paths, rocky outcrops, and dense vegetation, creating a haven for birdwatchers and nature enthusiasts. The Ramble is ideal for those seeking a more secluded and immersive experience within the park.

The Conservatory Garden: The Conservatory Garden is a formal garden divided into three distinct sections: the Italian Garden, the French Garden, and the English Garden. Each section features beautifully manicured lawns, vibrant flowerbeds, and ornate fountains. The garden is a peaceful retreat, perfect for a leisurely stroll or quiet contemplation.

The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir: The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir is a scenic water body surrounded by a 1.58-mile running track. It offers breathtaking views of the city skyline and is a popular spot for jogging, walking, and birdwatching. The reservoir is particularly beautiful during the spring and fall, when the surrounding trees are in full bloom or adorned with vibrant foliage.

Conclusion

Central Park is more than just a park; it is a cultural and historical treasure that continues to captivate visitors with its natural beauty and diverse attractions. Whether you're exploring its iconic landmarks, enjoying a peaceful moment in its gardens, or partaking in seasonal activities, Central Park offers something for everyone. Its timeless appeal and ever-changing landscape ensure that each visit is a new and memorable experience. If you are not a native New Yorker, keep a time zone converter handy to get NYC time while planning your stay.