Happy Frankenstein Friday!

It is the Friday before Halloween, thus it’s Frankenstein Friday. Another weird holiday! It is indeed the perfect day to read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus or watch the first adaption of the novel from 1910 or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein starring the wonderful Kenneth Branagh as Victor Frankenstein, Robert De Niro as The Creature and Helena Bonham-Carter as Frankenstein’s Bride.

I finally chose a costume for tomorrow. It’s pretty simple, but anyway, I’ll get you some photos!

Ballet Shoes

I first read about Ballet Shoes at Princess Skye’s “Lost Princess” blog. The post made me curious as every girl who commented seemed to know the book, and I didn’t. Well, Ballet Shoes is not very famous here in Germany, to be honest, it is pretty unknown at all. So I ordered it, read it and fell in love.

For those who don’t know the story, here’s a summary:

Pauline, Petrova and Posy Fossil are three (adopted-under-various-circumstances) sisters with quite different talents, dreams and hopes. While Pauline wants to be an actress on stage, Petrova is more into engines, planes and cars and Posy is indeed destined to become a dancer as she was brought into the Fossil’s home with some of her real mother’s (a dancer who had no time for her child) ballet shoes. The story accompanies them during a part of their individual progresses in an early 1930s London.

As always there is the question of which character one likes most. I think it’s Pauline for me – she is the one to develop the most due to her stupid behaviour during her first theatre engagement. I also like Petrova very much, but I just can’t get myself to like Posy and it is still incomprehensible to me why she got no lesson to learn. Talent is no excuse for behaving spoiled rotten and not very social against others at all. Well, I just hope that, as every story continues after the book has had its happy ending to me, she learnt that she is as a matter of fact not the only person on the planet, even more since her oldest sister gave up her dream so that Posy could attend a ballet school in Czechoslovakia. Not very princess-like, indeed. As Princess Skye mentioned in her post about Ballet Shoes, it seems that ballet steals away a part of your soul. Well then, no ballet for me, I’d rather like to keep my soul, thank you very much (and stay with ballroom dancing ^^).

But to quit the Posy issue again, back to the story!

Usually I don’t like based-on movies of children’s books that much. I complained while watching The Secret Garden and A Little Princess and I even refused to ever watch the Disney’s adaption of Alice in Wonderland to the present day as that’s the one that makes everyone think that Tweedledee and Tweedledum or Humpty or the Red Queen belong to Wonderland (they don’t. They live in the land behind the looking-glass. I can’t mention it enough.). But although the Ballet Shoes picture from 2007 held some alterations, I really liked it. I even liked it so much that I have watched it about four times until today (via Youtube as the film aired not in Germany, as far as I know, at least) and would not hesitate to recommend it!

The cast was pretty much perfect (I wish I were as pretty as Emma Watson in that picture), even if the actresses were a little to old for the girls portrayed in the book, but it did no harm to the story. The one I loved most in the entire picture was Garnie, the Guardian. Portrayed by the lovely Emilia Fox, romantically involved with the stunningly not-creepy Marc Warren (also an alteration, but a very cute and fitting one), she showed her not-so-easy life that is not that much illustrated in the original story – imagine raising three pretty different girls with pretty high ambitions nearly without money and running some boarders’ rooms at a time while fighting serious breathing problems – to the audience.

It’s beautifully shot and very sensitive against the whole styling and requisites to fit in the 1930. Gum’s office and palaeontological collection even inspired my GRIMM character’s home.

I reached the conclusion that both, the book and *gasp* the film, are truly worth a look or two.

Or even three.

All Hallows Even’s drawing near…

I just couldn't leave the post without a picture... even if this was taken in June

It’s October now which means that I’m off to university. A fact that surely will not detain me in my plans for Halloween.

I love dressing up. Last year I disguised as one of the walking dead which lead to some very special situations at school and at home.

I am indeed not going to a party this year, instead we will play our first adventure of GRIMM. I’ll be carving the pumpkins on Friday and make a nice soup or pie out of the flesh on Saturday. Maybe we will go to town for an hour or two, just to show off in our costumes and prance around a bit (at least, Halloween is the only day of the year that you won’t get silly comments for dressing in black and lace ^^). I just don’t know what to wear (or better: I can’t decide)!

The options are (with short descriptions):

1. Twisted Snow White: Light skeleton make-up, white dress, red bodice, dyed hair (sort of).
2. Twisted Red Riding Hood: Red dress or shirt/ bodice and skirt, cloak and bonnet, wolf teeth, basket.
3. Marionette: Strings attached to limbs, or Puppet: with clockwork and windup key.
4. Titania: A little arrogant, but challenging in white lace, a kind of creepy fairy queen.
5. Something different. But I’d really like to try this make-up this year (I think it is going quite well with the themes above if altered a little bit)!

I’d really love to hear your suggestions and/ or opinions, so please tell me!

10 Pleasures in October

1. The song Popular from the musical Wicked (I’d love to hear this song interpreted by the Red Hot Chilli Pipers or some other folk rock band. Would surely be interesting.), especially when Kristen Chenoweth is singing it (you remember Olive Snook from Pushing Daisies? Exactly.).
2. Tights – opaque ones, of course. With very short shorts or bloomers and a comfy jumper they make a great outfit for those days at which you curl up at your favourite armchair with a good book and a huge cup of hot chocolate of tea.
3. The prospect of All Hallow’s Even. I still don’t know what I’m going to wear, but I will dedicate a whole post to this matter soon.
4. GRIMM: Twisted Fairy Tales – A new roleplaying system I have discovered lately in a roleplaying store on my way from the railway station to university in which you take the part of a child who has gotten into the world of the Grimm Brother’s (who studied in Marburg as well, by the way) tales. But maybe there’s no “happily ever after” waiting there for you…
5. Marburg – My new town. I am pretty enthusiastic about it, the whole children’s book illustration-look-alike thing is absolutely great. The only thing that’s still lacking are the right clothes and looks for me. Continuity, you know…? ^^
6. John Dowland, musician of the Elizabethan Age. We were concerned with some of his pieces when I was in the school choir back at my old grammar school. It matched the interest in Shakespeare that had crept over me when I was about 13 or 14 years old and had a major revival when I saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream again. This music also accompanied me on the graduation field excursion to Tuscany, one of the influences that helped me to feel more like Eleonore, the Renaissance character I wrote my (german-lesson-it-will-be-in-your-final-mark) travel diary for.
7. Sleeping. I appreciate sleep much more since I have got to rise that early in the morning. As it has become a kind of luxury for me to have a good night’s rest (in comparison to the long holidays since my graduation when I had become a late riser by my standards) and I am not sleeping too well at the moment I treasure every moment I can spend in Somnus’ gentle arms.
8. My set of new dice, the NUKE pack from Q-workshop.com. I like that torn look and especially the little stars on side 6 at the d12 and the screwed on side 2 at the d6… I’m a very nerdy princess, sometimes, indeed.
9. Courgette Cake. My mother gave me a full baking tray for this week, with cobs and dark chocolate frosting. I really don’t know why, but there are always loads of courgettes on my mother’s kitchen’s window sill. And they all end the same way…
10. The menthol ointment I got from my secret Halloween fairy at the last swap. It’s good for the little cold I caught last night as well as for the muscle hardenings and headaches. And it smells wonderful!

Castle Waiting

Only 47 more days until moving. Only 26 times of rising at 5 AM. It is quite cold here in Frankfurt and it is even colder in Marburg, but my corduroy jacket and my velveteen hood scarf (or is it a scarf hood?) kept me warm during the last days.

The local comic shop in Marburg is a really amazing place, full of more or less artistic graphic novels, merchandise, posters, books and other whimsical stuff. It’s showcase is so crowded that one can’t even see the name of the shop that is printed on it. And instead of writing the name on the large, elliptic yellow sign that sticks out to the street, they only have a bat sign there.

I bought a comic there last Thursday, Castle Waiting – The Curse of Brambly Hedge, a very daring interpretation of the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty, by Linda Medley. Something really interesting is the different view on fairy tales and the usual “happily ever after” at their end. The tale may be told for the princess and prince charming, but what indeed is the matter with all the other characters occurring in such stories, afterwards?

I think I’ve got to dedicate a whole post to the topic of the “waiting for prince charming” thing…

Castle Waiting is a magnificent adaption of an old theme, with some great laughs here and there (if you get the chance to read it – what I couldn’t recommend more highly – tell me your favourite scenes! I personally love the frog at the pond the queen is swimming in), tiny, loving details (e.g. the inside of the cover) and stunningly creative and unusual characters. I hope to get my hands on some of the other books of the series soon…

Go and read it!

Update: Alma Mater Inc.

As mentioned before, October 6th was my first day at university. Only the orientation days, but anyway. I met Bambi at the platform for the train from Frankfurt to Marburg at about half past eight A.M. and we in turn met the Satyr at the station in Marburg.

The following three days were full of learning of the names of our fellow students, visiting the elfin (one of Bambi’s fellow students) in her chamber for tea while it was raining Tuesday evening, playing dice for pub tabs and exploring the upper town as well as putting our schedules together.

According to mine you won’t see much of me on Mondays for at least the next two months (or until I moved to Marburg) for it says that I’ll have got to get up early at 5 A.M. to catch the train to the lecture theatre building for my Latin lesson, then switch to the humanities towers (tower E) for Irish. After a two hours’ break (spent in the canteen? We will see.) it will be time for the Introduction to the General Philology Seminar (not to confuse with the Introduction to Philological Studies on Thursdays after Old Irish). Two more hours of “doing nothing” (also known as lunch break or additional learning time) later there will be the last lecture for the day about the “Change of Goods and Ideas. Contact amongst the Ancient Cultures of the Mediterranean, Anatolia and the Middle East” which ends at 8 P.M.. After that I’ll have to catch my train back home at half past eight and will arrive at home at about 10 P.M.. My mother calls it my “marathon day”.

I just finished off my share for the Halloween Swap that I am going to hand in at the post office during one of the breaks at Monday (the last lecture won’t take place until October 19th) and I am – as usual – pretty nervous if the girl would like her present.

Oh, and yesterday evening we – Jules, the Satyr, Bambi and me, as the Imp was at a “get the term started” party and the goblin is kind of out-of-town – decided to spend watching the video of a performance of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream Bambi starred in some years ago (as Starveling aka. Moon. It still makes me grin. His sister – another friend of mine, far, far away at the moment – by the way starred as one of Titania’s fairies with a chant solo.). It was quite weird to see all those people (I’ve been to the original performance back in 2005) that I had known for so long and that disappeared by and by again and to remember those times… apart from that, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is (together with Much Ado Nothing) definitely my favourite out of Shakespeare’s plays.

Next week we will continue by watching The Beggar’s Opera.

Preparing for… Mad Hatter Day

The 6th of October is Mad Hatter Day!

(The 10th of June as well.)

We’re all mad here. And there is even a holiday for it. The Mad Hatter Day‘s date was set by the numbers of the Alice in Wonderland-Tenniel Illustration Mad Hatter’s hat’s price tag showing 10/6. I personally could not decide wether to read the date the American or the European way but that is not really a problem, it just means that I am able to celebrate that holiday twice a year.

This year, Mad Hatter Day will collide with my first day at university (it’s an orientation day, but anyway) so I will not be able to celebrate with Jules who is really sad about it if he hasn’t forgotten yet.

What to do on Mad Hatter Day? Well, as there isn’t any other Alice in Wonderland holiday (at least I couldn’t find one), why don’t have a themed tea party? Dress up as one of the characters from Wonderland or the world behind the mirror, add a hat and invite your friends to do the same. Have scones with clotted cream, strawberry tarts and caramel tea at a nicely decorated table (how about white and red roses and playing cards?). You could also enjoy a game of croquet – but don’t hurt any hedgehogs, please!

My problem is that I’ll be engaged the whole day through at university. So: What to do when you are not near your friends at all, there’s no way for a real tea party and you should dress a little less fancy according to the “first sight” people get of you at the first day or the fact that you have to go to work? Here are some suggestions:

1. Take your tea with you in a thermos flask. Make sure it doesn’t leak and take a cup with you – not your best china, it could break -,but a less fragile mug that has a nice touch to it, though.
2. Make some muffins or tarts for lunch. I would go for something like chocolate, walnuts or caramel, nothing that could get squishy. Maybe you would love some silly sweets, too.
3. Don’t forget something “sensible” to eat over all the sugary stuff! I’d recommend sandwiches with ham, peanut butter, green basil cheese or, of course, cucumber.
4. Don’t go without a hat! It has not to be the weirdest, most fancy exemplar. A bowler, a simple top hat or even a beret with some additions (e.g. plumes, buttons or pendants) will do. I personally will go for one of my velveteen caps, maybe with a nice brooch and some ribbon and feathers. Especially for the first day at a new environment like university I don’t need all the attention at once but I wouldn’t want to negate the holiday, either.

My Favourite Things

I really like the mosaic maker. It is astounding how for every person the “answer pictures” match with each other perfectly!

The things are:

1. Favourite Colour
2. Favourite Car
3. Favourite Gemstone
4. Favourite Animal
5. Favourite Band
6. Favourite Era
7. Favourite Plant
8. Favourite Fairytale (Alice in Wonderland doesn’t count. ^^)
9. Favourite Kind of Fashion

The rules are the same as with the “pictured facts” mosaic: Choose your answer, type it into the “search” field of Google Pictures or DeviantArt, take a picture from the first page and copy its URL into one (of 3×3) of the mosaic fields.

I’d love to see your mosaics on your blogs!

(And I’ll post something more relevant next time. ^^)

13 Random Facts

I really like “random facts” lists. They are rather senseless and hogwash but fun.

Here is mine.

1. I tended to shout “That’s not historically correct!” in front of the TV when I was eight. I still do that.
2. Every day I make a tally sheet on how many comments I have already made at pupéegirl.
3. I love ballroom dancing but always fear that I am not good enough (any more) after years of only dancing alone in the privacy of my chambers.
4. I indeed wanted to be an acrobat – a wire walker, to be more precisely – when I was little. I’m still fascinated by the circus theme.
5. I get really nervous when I notice literal errors in magazines and books and have the urgent need to correct them, a habit that can lead to weird situations.
6. I think that a Sapphire as the “September birthday gemstone” does not fit at all.
7. My waist circumference is three clothing sizes smaller than my hip and bust according to tables. And I’ve got to admit that I’m proud of that. ^^
8. I know that a hair brush with wooden bristles would be nicer and healthier but I prefer metal bristles as they are more effective on my hair.
9. I’ve shown allergic reactions on: Strawberries, house dust, peanut butter, a guy from my dancing lessons and theatre make-up/ paint.
10. The hair colours I have had include black, chocolate brown, purple, pink, natural red, blonde (when I was about two years old), a horrible apricot-orange-thing, black-red, red and dark blonde (natural).
11. Ham noodles with apple mash taste great. I would not have them any other way.
12. At several old schools of mine I have been known as “The (little) Girl with the Survival Backpack”. According to my mother, my backpack will never be stolen as possible thieves would fear that the backpack would come alive and eat them.
13. For the last four terms at school I spent over one-and-a-half hour at least on each of my time tables.