Occasionally on a sick day I turn to the nerdom for some entertainment.
I thought I'd share some of my favorites with you.
A note about pinterest issues - please people, pin from the site - I couldn't find many of the original sites for these pictures. Let me know if you know the owners.
Found on pinterest with a broken link - who does this belong to?
Now let's discuss this theory. Any takers? Rose is by far my favorite companion and I'd really like to see a revisit to her and the half-doctor's life. Do we think she had a kiddo?
Grimm's classic tale of Snow White starts like this,
Once upon a time as a queen sits sewing at her window, she pricks her finger on her needle and three drops of blood fall on the snow that had fallen on her ebony window frame. As she looks at the blood on the snow, she says to herself, "Oh, how I wish that I had a daughter that had skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony". Soon after that, the queen gives birth to a baby girl who has skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony. They name her Princess Snow White. As soon as the child is born, the queen dies.
Sadly, the story is not very well attended to in silver screen versions. IMDB tells us that there are 20 movies with the title Snow White, but that doesn't include movies that don't include name in the title, like Willa (An American Snow White).
Okay, before I go off on an tangent, let's look at four of the movies and do a little comparison.
1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
I seriously love this movie. It was one of the first movies I saw in the theater. It was Disney's first movie (in 1938) and one of the first full-length animated films. As for staying close to the story, it doesn't. The witch is pretty real and it is darker than Disney would make a movie now, but it glosses over quite a bit of the story line. And the Dwarfs, don't get me started. And true love's kiss? Okay, moving on.
2. Snow White and the Huntsmen
Obviously I haven't seen it yet, but this is what IMDB says about it::
Snow White is the only person in the land fairer than the evil queen. Unable to tolerate the insult to her vanity, the evil queen decides that Snow White must die. The queen sends a huntsman to kill Snow White. However the huntsman finds himself unable to murder the innocent young woman, and instead ends up training her to become a warrior capable of threatening the queen's reign.
Okay, so it sounds pretty good. Nothing like the original Grimm version, but pretty good. I was actually excited about this one, until they cast it. Kristen Stewart - the girl with one expression playing Snow White? Snow White, the one with they fairest face in the land? Have a little respect for your audience here Hollywood, you can't cast her and expect us to think it is okay - we don't go to the movies to see her (in fact, I try and avoid her). I won't see this in the theater and might not even rent it. She isn't my favorite.
3. Mirror, Mirror
Julia Robberts is playing the evil Step-mother? I know the woman can act, but being evil isn't as easy as it looks (insert maniacal laugh here). I love something dark, which is why I love the Grimm stories. This looks delightful and fun, which isn't what Snow White is about. The tag line says "The Snow White Legend Comes Alive" ... what story did they read? The evil step-mother wanted to eat Snow White's heart.
Does this look like the sort of woman who would eat a heart?
4. Snow White - Tale of Terror
I really thought I'd watch this and it would be more like the original story. It was, sorta. It also made my insides crawl a little. It wasn't really scary, just disturbing. Maybe that is what Snow White should be like. But this was all about the Wicked Step Mother and not really about Snow White at all.
The casting was great, but the addition of some adult themes was a marketing ploy I think.
Now I need an open letter to Tim Burton asking him to please fix the mess that we are in. We need a real Snow White (not anything silly like he did with Alice, but something wonderful like Sweeney Todd).
Okay, so you are stuck on a desert island. In addition to wishing for a great pair of sunglasses and some major sunblock, these are my top five fiction picks for the beachy vacation I'll be having until someone finds me. (Although, I'd like to wish for a Kindle and a solar charger because then I could have a whole ton of books ... but, you know, I'll play along).
These aren't in any order ... if I could only choose one ... well, I couldn't
1. The Complete Works of T.S. Eliot
2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
3. Pride and Prejudice
4. 1984 (because I've never read it and always mean to)
5. Wuthering Heights
Looking at these you do not see my current readying style. I love YA fiction, Dystopian lit, Fantasy novels. Instead my list has three classic novels, a book of hard to understand poetry (although The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is probably one of my favorite pieces of literature ever), and a Harry Potter book. In my defense, these are all I'll have, I want them to be books I love to re-read, I like to wrap myself up in these stories.
I'll leave you with some desert island pics to get you in the mood for making your own top five choices.
I'm totally JEALOUS of my friend Gretchen who is on the trip of a lifetime in Austria right now. In fact, I wouldn't be as jealous if I didn't know that she had invited me to join her ... and I turned her down because of school (insert a super sad face here). Sigh. Well, because she is a great friend, she has been providing me LOTS of pictures and, if I squint and put on my imagination hat, I can almost feel like I am there!
Today she went to the Strahov Monastery Library in Prague and sent these great shots along to me.
Copyright Gretchen Pinkston 2012
Copyright Gretchen Pinkston 2012
For those not in the know, the Strahov Monastery Library was started in 1149. They hold the largest photography collection in the world and have more than 125,000 books (according to Frommer's).
The Strahov Monastery Library website has lots of information about the history of the building and the collection, in addition to all the details on visiting.
I'm adding this to my list of libraries to visit someday. Too bad I'm not there right now!!
When I grow up I want to be a super awesome ninja librarian like these fantastic examples!! Check out some of these librarians, library workers, and passionate library addicts that I find awesome and see the whole list of Library Journal's Movers and Shakers here.
Emily Ellis has increased her program attendance by 133%!! She also initiated a Teen Film Festival by working with the local high school. In 2009 there were 373 attendees and in 2010 that jumped to a whopping 768!
JP Porcaro might look like a rap mogal, but he is actually a super hip librarian who sees things a little differently. He wants a librarian to be on the cover of Rolling Stone, to be on Jersey Shore, and famous on MTV. Before you make some assumptions that he is just another radical YA librarian, notice that HE ISN'T! He is actually head of collections at his library and has some big dreams for modernizing librarianship and bringing it into the future!
Scooter Hayes' Dewey Decimal Rap might sound like a joke, but it is a real life song that has turned into a tour, CD, and turned this Early Literacy Consultant into a librarian innovator. Check out his video here --
It is hilarious and you don't want to miss it!
There are lots more Movers and Shakers to check out, see if your librarians made the list!
I started re-reading The Hunger Games today! It is amazing for quick a read it is once I've read it twice and seen the movie. Oh, so lovely to compare the movie to the book. I realize that the reason I didn't picture the rooms/town/Panum that way, was because the book doesn't really describe them and so I didn't picture them any way. The focus here is on the event and the characters. Fantastic!
Whether it is because I'm a librarian, a linguist or a nerd - I LOVE QUOTES! Some of the best ones come out of books because they capture that moment that you want to remember forever. They sum up a relationship between two people or sad event. What are your favorite book quotes? All of the following come from pinterest and can be found on board - Book Quotes.
I nearly forgot that we are celebrating this week!! It is National Library Week!!! So everyone go hug you favorite librarian and check out these vintage posters.
It was kinda a long day at the library today, between Spring Break and lots of gorgeous weather - I'd probably be spending my time outside instead of in the library as well. That is, if I didn't have to work. Here are some pieces to cheer me up a little and remind me why I want to be a librarian.
Oh, my, that is HILARIOUS! It amazes me how little some people really know about the library. My favorite question: "How much does it cost to rent books?"
This picture sorta sums up my life, my life is built by books and they could probably tumble down on my in any moment. Wouldn't you love to come and play here?
Um, I am thinking there needs to be a party for when the DVD is released. So, I'll be making these cupcakes, and dressing up as Effie Trinket! Who is with me??
This library is both enchanting and horrifying at the same time. Someday, when the world has come to an end, will the libraries look like this? Falling apart, still full of books, yet filled with foliage? However, a library with a skylight and a tree growing in the center is also pretty awesome :)
It is a fact of life, the movie is never better than the book. They all fall short in some facet or another. Harry Potter always left out my favorite parts, the Twilight movies actually made me dislike the books, the upcoming Snow White movies (which is my favorite of the Grimm tales) both look like major disappointments. However, I saw a movie this week that I was expecting to be disappointed in, and wasn't. The Hunger Games was actually one of the better adaptations of a book into a movie that I've seen in a long time. Before I cast an official judgement I want to see it again.
The Pluses - Well cast, lines that came directly out of the book, enjoyable, less violent than I imagined
The Deltas - Everything felt more modern than I pictured it, I hated that they changed how Katniss got the pin (which is such an important part of the story), and her costumes were NOTHING like I pictured them.
Reader Question - if you haven't seen it yet, what did you think about the Katniss/Peeta romance? Do you think it is real? Everyone who has read the book knows what is going on, but I think that if you haven't read it you aren't quite sure. Any thoughts?
