Favorite Fictional Character --- Wile E. Coyote & Road Runner

While searching for a appropriate youtube video to put at the end of this post, my roommate commented that he couldn't understand why someone our age would still love these characters.  He said when he catches it on TV now, he just gets annoyed by them.  I told him to mind his own business and buzz off.

How can you not love the classic give and take between these two?  The pursuit, followed by the ultimate humiliation and defeat every time is a classic story. Whether you want to compare it to the relationship between two people who's feelings for each other aren't quite matching up or to the pursuit of your goals that seem to be just out of reach, the story seems to resonate within each of us.  Now what I just described is what I would compare this story to now, as a kid I just enjoyed it for the fun.

Watching this show as a kid was a war of wills for me.  At times I would be rooting for Wile E. Coyote to accomplish his goal of capturing the Road Runner.  I would want his crazy hair brained schemes to work.  I would want the boulder to wipe the Road Runner off the road, I would wait in anticipation to see if his new ACME rocket would help him out in his quest or if it would fail horribly once again.

At other times I would want the Road Runner to get away from the hungry look in Coyote's eyes.  I would sit on the floor with bated breath to see how he would get out of the Coyote's new nefarious trap.  This was the safe side to root for, because no matter what, you knew the Coyote would fail once again and that the Road Runner would live to see another day.

Dawn Of The Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith

Synopsis From Back Cover:

....Dawn of the Dreadfuls-a thrilling prequel set four years before the horrific events of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  As our story opens, the Bennet sisters are enjoying a peaceful life in the English countryside.  they idle away the day reading, gardening, and daydreaming about future husbands-until a funeral at the local parish goes strangely and horribly awry.

Suddenly corpses are springing form the soft earth-and only one family can stop them.  As the bodies pile up, we watch Elizabeth Bennet evolve from a naive young teenager into a savage slayer of the undead.  Along the way, two men vie for her affections: Master Hawksworth is the powerful warrior who trains her to kill, while thoughful Dr. Keckilpenny seeks to conquer the walking dead using science instead of strength.  Will either man win the pirze of Elizabeth's heart:  Or will their hearts be feasted upon by the hoardes of zombies?

When I first heard about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies I was listening to Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me on NPR and while they were making fun of it quite a bit I found myself getting a little giddy in the car.  So when that first book finally came out a few months later I was lining up in the store to get my hands on it.  For the most part the book lived up to what I wanted it to be.  It took a book, Pride and Prejudice, that for what ever reason I found myself falling asleep every time I read it and made it come alive for me.  The book that once bored me to tears gave me goose bumps.  Now I wasn't totally in love with it because it still held the language that I can't get through and not enough zombie action (blame it on the fact I'm a guy).

Fastforward in time to a few weeks ago when I saw someone posting about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls coming out and that same feeling of euphoria overtook me once again. I was so excited to see that it would be a prequel to PPZ and since Jane Austen never wrote such a book, it would be all new. I was bouncing up and down in my chair so hard I think I almost broke the poor thing and I had to get on twitter right away so express my glee. Little did I know that my tweet would be spotted by the wonderfully kind Melissa Monachello from the publisher, Quirk Books, who would then offer me a copy of the book. When I got that tweet, I almost fell on the ground. For the next few days I waited for the book to arrive and once I did it took all the self control I had to set it aside so I could finish the books I had already started.

Now I have finally finished the book and I must point out that this prequel was everything I wanted to PPZ to be. It had more brain eating, limb dismemberment, and gut spillage than the first plus a host of new characters to get to know. The book starts off with one of dryest tongue-in-cheek opening lines I've read in a long time:

"Walking out in the middle of a funeral would be, of course, bad form.  So attempting to walk out on one's own was beyond the pale."

That line promised good things to come.  The book is full of witty dialogue and a wry sense of humor that I find refreshing.  Most books that feature zombies or other such nasties tend to be in the strict horror genre or in the "urban paranormal", "urban fantasy", "paranormal fantasy" or what ever else you want to call it.  Now there is nothing wrong with that last genre, I just find it tends to "sex" up such creatures, which can get rather tedious after a while.  This book, at least for me, played the horror card well but never took itself to seriously.  The bordering on sarcastic sense of humor is what made this book great for me.  It was used to point out the flaws that existed in society at the time as well as looking at male/female relationships and their respective roles in a world gone crazy.

Now I know some of you, the Jane Austen purists to name a few, will probably not even give this book a chance, either because it plays around in the universe created by a beloved author or for the simple fact pleny of innards are spilled and devoured.  I would only ask that before you reject it out of hand, you give it a thought or two to see if you could maybe find yourself laughing aloud, while being horrified at the same time.

The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Reclusive tycoon Sir Oswald Coote and his melancholy wife, Lady Coote, have hit upon the ideal plan to spice up their quiet lives.  They'll host a lavish weekend part at Chimneys, their isolated estate, and invite only "bright young things."  But the festive mood is clouded by doom.  A practical joke involving seven clocks and a sleeping guest has ended in accidental death-and cuase for alarm.  For the guests may not be all that they appear.  And as whispers of a strange clube called Seven Dials echo through the halls of Chimneys, all hands will be pointing to murder....

First of all I have to say I loved this book and I'm going to have to put it up near the top of my favorite Christie books.  This book brought back a fun loving character from a previous books, "Bundle" Brent who first appeared in The Secret of Chimneys, she shines in this one.  Like most of Dame Agatha's female characters, Bundle is a strong minded woman who not only solves the case but finds love all at the same time. 

I really can't get into too much of the overall storyline as it would give too much away but I will say while there are a few murders, this book reads more like a spy vs. spy read though you aren't sure which incidents are really red herrings that are leading the reader down a path that really doesn't exist.  I have to say I was surprised by the ending and I wouldn't have had it any other way.  This was a affirmation for me of how good Agatha Christie really was at mapping out plot line that has twists, turns, and false paths that all make sense at the end.

This book qualified for both the Thriller & Suspense Reading Challenge 2010 and the Typically British Reading Challenge 2010 both of which are hosted by Carolyn of Book Chick City.

Mailbox Monday for 03/29/2010

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marica at The Printed Page

Now I have already broke my book buying ban, I'm such a bad boy.

I bought A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen from Barnes & Noble

I won Black Hills by Dan Simmons in hardcover from Nely over at All About {n}

I got 12 by Jeffrey Marcus Oshins from Goodreads giveaway program

I made a trip to the library and stopped in the Friends of the Library Bookstore and walked out with 5 books.  I bought The Terror by Dan Simmons, Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, and The Married Man by Edmund White all in trade paperback for $.75 each.  I also got The Elder Gods by David & Leigh Eddings and Into Darkness by Barbara Michaels both in hardcover for a $1 each.

Triumphant Tulips

Not much to say. The Dallas Arboretum spring spectacular does its talking with flowers. I'm working up some haiku or poems, but for now, today's stroll shall suffice.

Whew! Spring

Tulips tower power

Republican Smear Campaign?

Is this a new Republican smear tactic? George W. Bush wipes his hand on Bill Clinton's shirt after greeting Haitians.

Sunday Funnies

The Jets: The Best Band Of All Time

Ok, they really aren't the best band of all time but they are my favorite.  The first year we were with the carnival I saw them in concert about 8 times at different country fairs in Minnesota.  So for those of you who may not remember them, here is a few of their videos.













Sorry, it's a lot of videos but I couldn't narrow it down any further.

A Film Meme, Now For The Second Time

I was tagged by Ceri form Not in the Pink for this one and since I love movies as much as books I said what the heck, lets do it.  Now I had already done a version of this meme on August 3rd of last year, so I will try to expand on my answers and not repeat myself.  Now a few of the questions are different but most are the same.

Name a film that you have seen more than 10 times.

The Thin Man would be one I've seen over and over and over and over and over again.

Name a film that you’ve seen multiple times in the cinema.

I'm not a big lets go to the theater to see it over and over kind of guy.  Now because of a past relationship I do remember seeing The Cell with Jennifer Lopez and Mission Impossile 2 in the theater twice each.

Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a film.

Parker Posey

Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a film.

Nicholas Cage

Name a film that you can and do quote from.

Monster Squad. "Kick him in the nards, kick him in the nards.......the Wolfman  does have nards!"

Name a film musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.

The Phantom of the Opera, only because I loved the stage musical first.

Name a film that you would recommend everyone see.

To name a few I didn't name last time:  Gosford Park, The Thin Man series, Gremlins, The Last Starfighter, The Orphanage, Pan's Labyrinth, and I will end it there otherwise the list will never end.

Ever walked out of a film?

Another movie I walked out of was 12 Monekeys.

Name a film that made you cry in the cinema.

Ok I have to give a different answer from last time and since I mentioned two of them then, the first movie that comes to mind this time is Evita.  All I ask is that you keep the snickering to a minimum.

Popcorn?

The more butter the better.

How often do you go to the cinema (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?

Not as much as I used to.  It's about a few times a month now.  It used to be once or twice a week.

What’s the last film you saw in the cinema?

I'm not sure but the last few movies I've seen in the theater are: Ninja Assassins, The Road, Precious, and I know I have seen movies since then but my mind is drawing a blank right now.

What’s your favourite/preferred genre of film?

My second favorite would be mystery.  I can never get enough of a good murder.

What’s the first film you remember seeing in the cinema?

I also remember seeing pretty early in life: The Creep Show, Dawn of the Dead, and The Sword in the Stone.

What film do you wish you had never seen?

Twilight.  I finally broke down and saw the first movie and I've been kicking myself ever since.

What is the scariest film you’ve seen?

After Halloween it would have to be The Blair Witch Project, that ending scared the hell out of me.

If you could be any character portrayed in a movie, who would it be?

Zorro or Tarzan.  It would be so cool to be either character, The Lone Ranger comes to mind as well.

Total number of films you own on DVD and video.

137 plus another 25 seasons of different TV shows

Last film you bought.

I bought Snow White, Poltergeist, Mannequin and Mannequin 2: On The Move all at the same time.

Last film you watched.

I rented The Hurt Locker and I loved it as much as I did in the theater.  The last movie I watched off of TV was Them! which I had on my DVR from TCM.

Five films that mean a lot to you.

I tackled this thinking if I could only watch 5 movies for the rest of my life, what would they be?  So I chose; The Women, Auntie Mame, The Thin Man, Halloween, and Christmas in Connecticut.

Poderes psíquicos

  Poderes psíquicos ou capacidades psíquicas são alguns dos termos generalista que em Crónicas Obscuras são utilizados para referir poderes mentais inatos, como por exemplo, telepatia ou telecinesia. 

  Tais poderes distinguem-se claramente daquilo que é definido como magia porque não fazem parte de uma arte estruturada patente de ser ensinada, não carecendo de palavras para ser invocada apenas da  concentração do seu possuidor.  Ou seja, feitos que outros fazedores de magia precisam de aprender formulas para executar, um psíquico pode fazer apenas com um pensamento. 

  Apesar de ter poderes psíquicos ser aquilo que distingue os feiticeiros e feiticeiras dos bruxos e bruxas, não significa que todos os psíquicos se tornem fazedores de magia. Na verdade, várias espécies de Ocultos que possuem tais poderes inatos são incapazes de executarem magia.

  Em posts futuros falarei de alguns destes poderes.

Spring Ahead to Waterfront Reads

Spring arrived, albeit with snow, but let's ignore that fact and revel in the thought of a pier, wooden deck chair, or sand and a beach umbrella. Let's contemplate spring/summer reading. The Book Lover by Cynthia Crossen is one of my new favorite columns (WSJ 3/19/10). Here's one thing she had to say, "On the beach, however, I like being interupted by the ocean, so I want a book into which I can dip, daydream, dip,etc."
She recommends The Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher, Becoming Strangers by Louise Dean, and Stone's Fall by Iain Pears.

Then again, according to Ms.Crossen, critic Anatole Broyard wrote, "The thought of people reading in the sun, on a beach, tempts me to recommend dark books, written in the shadow of loneliness, despair, and death. Let those revelers feel a chill as they loll on their towels." For that she suggests, Blackwater by Kerstin Ekman - a grisly murder mystery.

Enough of snow and winter and rainy, drab dreary weather. Let's think about sunshine, blue water, and summer reads. Or sitting on a rock and staring into space.

Winner of Raven Stole The Moon by Garth Stein

Now is the time to announce the lucky winner of Raven Stole The Moon by Garth Stein.  Using random.org  the winner was:

Krista

I will be sending an email shortly and Krista will have 8 hours to forward me her shipping info or a new winner will be picked.

Word Verification Balderdash

For those of you unfamiliar with the greatness that is Balderdash, here is what you do. You write down all the word verifications you come across as you are commenting on other people's blogs. Then you play balderdash with them. Now for those of you who don't know how to play, you take a made up word and come up with an authentic sounding definition of it. Do this for a week and post your best ones on Thursday.

Come back and leave a link to your post and I will add it to the bottom of the post.

Here are mine for this week:

 

Phodem:  Race of demons, first encountered by the Charmed Sisters, that are able to transport themselves via telephone lines.  Once out of phone lines they are able to send large gusts of words at their victims, causing hearing loss and cell phone envy.  The Charmed Ones were able to beat them by canceling their phone service and ever since the Phodems have been making a nusiance of themselves to Harry Dresden.

 

Locail:  Slang term used for the stupid, ididotic, and crazy spam email that manages to find itself to your inbox everyday.  Whether it's for sex sites, erectile disfunction cures, offers to share millions of dollars, or to join the wonderful field of animal control; locail is annoying and I for one think we need to start a petition to end it once and for all.  Of couse some of those sites are interesting, so maybe not.

 

Verax:  Small lynx like animal that was tamed by great heroes of history, Gilgamesh and Abraham Lincolon among them.  Veraxes, are wonderful creatures that bond with their owners for life and grant them great wisdom and courage.  It is rumoured that a Verax can actually take over the body of their owner, giving them unnatural abilities at time.  This may explain the recent revelations of the vampire hunter skills that Abraham Lincoln was know for.

 

Conage:  Cage matches where to convicts are place in a ring and forced to fight to the death.  The jusitfication gives was that the prison system was becoming overcrowded and space needed to be made for recent arrivals.  The added fiscal benefit of televising the matches was whole heartedly welcomed as well. They were in vogue around the same time the hit TV game show, The Running Man, was popular.  Both practices after years of scrutiny were pronounced barbaric and have been outlawed.

Eleições - Mr. "A vingança do lobo"

Depois de ter feito um post para eleger a mais bela das personagens femininas, chegou a altura de darmos uma hipótese aos moços. 

Força, digam de vossa justiça quem é o macho alfa do sex appeal em A vingança do lobo?

Favorite Fictional Character --- The Women

I was watching one of my favorite movies, the 1939 version of The Women, and it reminded me that I havent' mentioned the great characters in a FFC post yet.  So here I am today, rectifying that wrong.

For those of you not familiar with the movie, here is a link to IMDB site that gives the full cast list and synopsis.  The movie is a brilliant remake of a Broadway play that took a intimate look at the cat fights and interpersonal politics in a group of society women.  The cast was all female and all the male characters were off screen and never heard from.

I want to quickly talk about the three main characters and the fabulous actresses who played them.  Norma Shearer (in the middle of the picture) played Mrs. Stephen Haines or Mary for short.  She was the wronged woman who's husband was having an affair behind her back.  She was also the last to know about, her friends, gossiping behind her back, took great relish in knowing something that Mary never did.  As played by Norma Shearer, Mary was demure but strong at the same time.  She demanded the respect that every woman should get from her husband and when things didn't quite go her way, she left him.  She wanted to be the modern, independent woman, who was the equal of her husband.  She also wanted to be needed and loved by him and if he would have played it differently she never would have left.  By the end of the movie, you can see the pain Mary is still feeling, two years after her divorce.  You can tell she still loves her ex husband and you get to see Mary, playing by the rules of her friends, to get him back.

Joan Crawford played Crystal Allen, the gold digging saleswoman who gets her claws into Stephen Haines.  She is the perfect vamp, played to the nth degree by the wonderful Joan Crawford.  You want to despise the woman for destroying what was a happy marriage, but by the end of the movie you realize that as catty and selfish as Crystal is, she still comes across as a understandable character.  That you can understand her motivations and wish her the best.

Now comes my favorite character, that of Mrs. Howard Fowler, we can call her Sylvia.  She is played by the hysterically funny Rosalind Russell, who is still my favorite actress of all time.  She is the bitchy, gossipy cousin of Mary who stays right in the thick of things the entire time.  She enjoys seeing other women's marriages fall apart because it means she doesn't have to think of her own that is slowly dying because her husband is falling for a chorus girl (Paulette Goddard).  She is both conniving and funny at the same time.  You love it when she joins Mary in Nevada to get her own divorce, because you think she deserves it.  You love it even more when she turns on Crystal at the end and rejoins the side of a very dubious Mary.  You know she has no morals but you love her anyway.

There are some other fantastic performances in this movie by Ruth Hussey, Lucille Watson, Phyliss Povah, Joan Fontaine, Marjorie Main, and Mary Boland.  Hedda Hopper even appears as herself.  You put all these women together and you get a wonderfully entertaining group of characters that never fails to make me laugh.

Weather Plot Contrivances

First day of spring in Texas generally heralds blue sky, sunshine, shorts, and spring break - idle poolside contemplating swimsuit season.

First day of spring 2010 - I don't think so. First 1-1/2 inches of rain and then the dreary day turned worse. Far more foreboding with snow flurries that accumulated. One inch in Bedford. Record snow for this day and almost a season record from DFW Airport. We were 1/2 inch behind for the year. Darn.

My flowers said, "What?" "Why?" "Oh, My God!"

New exciting rock treatment in the backyard - snow?

Yep -truth is stranger than fiction. Thus, my next plot point twist and turn could be snow on the first day of spring. Driving hazards, freeze dangers - just the whole description of snow and the fascination. Lovers hunkered down in front of a fireplace. Or the reality - punching the button once again on the thermostat and trying to figure out where that fits in the budget. Will folks believe it? They better!

The Creation Of Eve by Lynn Cullen

Synopsis From Back Cover:

The Creation of Eve is a novel based on the true but little-known story of Sofonisba Anguissola, the first renowned female artist of the Renaissance.  After a scandal in Michelangelo's workshop, Sofi flees Italy and joins the Spanish court of King Felipe II to be a lady-in-waiting to his young bride.  There she becomes embroiled in a love triangle involving the Queen, the King, and the King's illegitimate half brother, Don Juan.  The Creation of Eve combines art, romance, and history from the Golden Age in Spain in a story that asks the question: Can you ever truly know another person's heart?

I'm still trying to figure out how much of this book I enjoyed and how much of it just wasn't for me.  On the one hand we are presented with a fantastic character in Sofi.  A woman, with the support of her family, pursues her passion of art.  Her father pushes her and supports her to the point of getting the attention of Michaelangelo himself.  She is constantly trying to prove herself in a world dominated by men.  Through her own actions she is forced into a situation where she is bound to serve the King of Spain as an attendant to his new bride.

Now if the book would have stayed with her story at this point I would have enjoyed the book more, as it was it seemed she was the tool used to tell the story of King Felipe, Queen Elisabeth, and Don Juan.  That everything Sofi did or said, even about her own life, was to illustrate a point abou the lifes of those she was obliged to serve. 

What I was wanting, was more of Sofi's story.  More about her childhood and the reactions of her community to what she was doing and how far her father was willing to go to help her.  I wanted more details about the art aspect of her life, about her process and actual works.  I wanted to know more about her life after she left the service of the royal family, I know it's talked about in the afterword, but imagine how much better it would have been to have her entire life fleshed out in prose.  Essentialy, I wanted more of Sofi and less of everyone else.

With that being said I enjoyed the author's writing style and her way she was able to bring every scene to life in my mind.  It's obvious she did some serious researching and while quite a bit of the personal stuff may have been made up, whe was able to put in enough "reality" that the rest of it was still believable.  I found myself being dissapointed in the book anyway. Now this could simply be the fact that I'm not familiar with that much historical fiction, as this is really the first non mystery historical I've really read.  It could be that maybe this genre really isn't for me.  I don't know but I'm willing to read more to see if it could be. 

For more on the author please visit her website, lynncullen.com.

I was give the opportunity to read, review this book by Trish of  TLC Book Tours.

You Can Read More Reviews Here:

Wednesday, March 3rd: Scandalous Women

Thursday, March 4th: Café of Dreams

Monday, March 8th: Books and Movies

Tuesday, March 9th: Booking Mama

Thursday, March 11th: Peeking Between the Pages

Monday, March 15th: Fyrefly’s Book Blog

Tuesday, March 16th: The Tome Traveller

Wednesday, March 17th: Educating Petunia

Thursday, March 18th: English Major’s Junk Food

Monday, March 22nd: A Few More Pages

Tuesday, March 23rd: Devourer of Books

Wednesday, March 24th: Wordsmithonia

Thursday, March 25th: A Bookshelf Monstrosity

Monday, March 29th: Katie’s Nesting Spot

Tuesday, March 30th: Dolce Bellezza

Wednesday, March 31st: Raging Bibliomania

Friday, April 2nd: Thoughts From an Evil Overlord

Mailbox Monday for 3/22/2010

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page

Forests of the Heart by Charles de Lint in hardcover was purchased from the Friends of the Library Bookstore for $2.

I purchased Sepulchre by Kate Moss in hardcover from the bargain table at Barnes & Noble.

Bruxos/bruxas

Ao contrário dos feiticeiros e feiticeiras os bruxos e bruxas não tem a vantagem de possuírem poderes sobrenaturais inatos, contudo, isto não significa, de modo nenhum, que sejam obrigatoriamente mais fracos. Para executar feitiços é preciso muito mais do que talento natural, pois um fazedor de magia é um estudioso de uma arte complexa e volátil, cujo domínio exige muita dedicação e paciência.

Não é a diferença de poder que distingue a magia de um bruxa da de uma feiticeira, mas o modo como cada uma a executa e os gastos energéticos necessários.

Por exemplo: imagine-se que uma fazedora de magia tem como objectivos fazer levitar um livro. Se a fazedora de magia em questão for uma feiticeira cujo poder natural é a telecinesia tal função está a um pensamento de distância, agora, se ela for uma feiticeira cujo poder natural não é telecinesia ou uma bruxa, para a levitação do livro será preciso fazer um verdadeiro feitiço, com palavras para invocar a magia e gestos para direccionar o seu poder.

Assim, não é preciso nenhum talento particular para se tornar um fazedor de magia, o que não significa que qualquer um o consiga, tal como nem todos nos podemos tornar músicos virtuosos ou atletas talentosos.

Another Meme I'm Stealing From Alexia

Well I was blog surfing and came across another meme at Alexia's Books and Such..., called What I Do and Do Not Like.  It looks really easy and since I've been hitting a reading slump I would give it a go.

The rules are really simple, all you have to do is fill in the blanks after each bold word and tag 3 of your friends, I'm not a big tagger so if you feel like joining in, consider yourself tagged.

I like cold fried chicken,
I like root beer.
I like getting my hair cut.
I like ferns.
I like anything that is flavored with butterscotch.
I like being home by myself.
I like thunderstorms.
I like listening to old mystery radio shows.
I like Christmas cards.
I like the way snow looks on pine trees.
I like Limon salt on my popcorn.
I like raspberry vinegar.

I love my son.

Today is just begining.

I hate clowns.
I hate falling down the stairs.
I hate overly hot Summer days.
I hate watching golf.
I hate FOX News.
I hate leeches.

I (secretly) like eating in public by myself.

I love books.

Sunday Funnies