“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
J. and I have been married for three years now and according to an increasing number of people, we’re supposed to start having kids. Preferably we’re supposed to already have one and be ready to pop out another.
This casual attitude towards our personal choices, from a few close friends and relations but mostly perfect strangers, gives me more angst and headaches than I can successfully convey, but that’s another post entirely. Needless to say, it gets me riled up. These talks, whether instigated by friends, family, or total strangers, leave me feeling very misunderstood, very talked-down-to, and very angry. J.’s aware of this and luckily he and I are on the same page when it come to the timing of such things.
So you can imagine the heights reached by my left eyebrow when glancing through all the treasure to be found in Cecil Court, J. suddenly froze, pointed to a shop’s (Marchpane) displayed wares and declared, “We need that for Stormageddon’s room.”
Stormaggedon being the nickname we use when discussing our future child.*
“Did I miss a very critical conversation?” I demanded.
“Look,” he insisted excitedly.
I looked, and beheld some original, hand colored prints from the 1926 first edition of Winnie-the-Pooh.
This tale only makes sense if you understand that J. loves Winnie-the-Pooh. It was his favorite character as a child, his favorite movies, you name it. My six foot, broad shouldered, grown man, all-American husband loves Pooh. And here were original prints from £15 a piece.
We bought three.
Stormageddon may be years off yet, but he is going to have a fabulous nursery when he shows up. Courtesy of his father.
*Fellow Whovians know why. And how he’ll look at the world.
on Amazon.com this year.
with Patrick Stewart is fan-bloody-tastic! Jacob Marley’s haunting is nice and spooky, Patrick Stewart is appropriately grouchy and reformed (there is a hilarious moment when he wakes up, realizes he’s not dead, and tries to laugh – something he hasn’t done in decades and has forgotten how to do).
until recently. Shocking I know, and deeply upsetting since I love the P.G. Wodehouse short stories of the hapless Wooster and the loyal butler who routinely drags him out of the soup. Luckily, I found the the whole series 
as it tells of how Jeeves came to be in Bertie’s service, but there are dozens of Jeeves and Wooster stories, as well as that hilarious adaptation for television. I mean, come on. Two words:
is a better beauty, although the only really good thing about that version is the music. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
with Kate Beckinsale is my favorite version. She loves the 
with Gwyenth Paltrwo, which I don’t at all. And the latest 
with Ramola Garai, though it got mixed reviews from the crazed Austenites (with whom I do not see eye to eye), I quite liked too. In fact, this novel seems to be the most debated because main character is a bit spoiled, a busybody, and stupidly manipulative in only the way young girls who think they are more clever than they actually are can be. But I like the character of Emma quite a lot. All of Austen’s characters grow, but this is an instance of one of them growing up. “Silly things do not cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way.”
with the divine Emma Thompson, but 
did a version (which aired on my beloved PBS stateside) which I think a lot better. The ages of the actresses were more appropriate and much of the novel which had been left out of the first adaptation was put back in, making the story a bit more as rich as it should have been. And as much as I love Alan Rickman’s broodiness (in everything he’s ever done), I thought Col. Brandon seemed much more noble and likable, which he ought to be, instead of lurking in corners and sighing dramatically. I don’t go much for the Byronic types. They’re aggravating. “She was stronger alone; and her own good sense so well supported her, that her firmness was as unshaken, her appearance of cheerfulness as invariable, as, with regrets so poignant and so fresh, it was possible for them to be.”
is really fun. It’s Austen’s lone almost purely satirical novel, mercilessly lampooning those Gothic monks and ghosts previously mentioned. 
and 
of Persuasion are really very good so it’s a coin toss there. And if I had to choose between 
and 
of Mansfield park, I lean toward the latter, even though neither are very good. Mostly because Fanny Price is the dullest of dull heroines and does next to nothing throughout the course of the book and the second film tried to make her likable.
Partly because it is uproariously funny, partly because even J. liked it. Spoiler alert. Darcy, on the occasion of his first, pompous proposal is rewarded for his pains with a roundhouse kick to the face. Alas, Mrs. Bennett is little changed: her husband is trying to keep his daughters from the clutches of the undead…but she’s still trying to get them married.
is required viewing. Paul Scofield gives a a subtle but brilliant performance of a man who managed to be both conflicted and steady and who ultimately decides to stand by his faith, but more importantly his conscience. The movie could easily have been a trite morality play, but it isn’t. It’s as complex as the idea of conscience and morality itself.
Franco Zefferelli’s 1967 version staring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Why? Because however you choose to read the original play (pro wife-beating, proto-feminism, lighthearted, or sinister), Zefferelli’s adaptation turns the tale into a marriage of equals perfectly suited to one another. Taylor’s Katherine is the less-loved daughter of a man who dotes on her sister (Bianca, a spoiled and manipulative wench). She’s second best and spends most of her day hearing about it, and can only throw tantrums to get attention or satisfiy a sense of injustice. Burton’s Petruchio is a loudmouth bore who’s never learned to behave himself and, in trying to turn Kate into a lady, becomes a gentleman. Fantastic.
from 1989. Did I mention Paul Scofield, Dame Judi Dench, and Emma Thompson are included (along with a not-yet-legal Christian Bale)? This adaptation is sweeping, epic, gritty, poetic, occasionally funny, powerful, and gripping. Again, Mum got me hooked young. As I recall, I hid my eyes during the gory battle scenes or she fast forwarded through them (remember VHS, darlings?). I had memorized the St. Crispin Day Speech before I was 10 and in high school, my friend Moll and I had to make a movie for French class, so we acted out the scene where Alice teaches Princess Katherine English. Honestly, probably one of the best Shakespearean films of all time. “God for Harry, England, and St. George!”
directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Not that it’s referred to as Makiewicz’s movie, it’s invariably called “The one with Marlon Brando.” And with good reason. One of the best scenes of the film is Marc Antony [Brando] orating to the people in Rome’s forum and slowly, subtly rousing the mob to rebellion. The moment when he turns away from the screaming riot and walks into the senate chamber smirking darkly still makes me feel chills.
– Branagh again, this time as the irrepressible Benedict and Emma Thompson as the fiery and fiercely loyal Beatrice. A classic tale about the vicissitudes of love, the interference of friends (and enemies), and kicking up a great row about nothing much at all. Sparkling. “The world must be peopled!”
– a tale of justice, honesty, and deceit, this film is utterly stolen by Al Pacino as Shylock. Now, Scarface has never been one of my favorite actors, but the levels of emotion he poured into one of the most villainous (or victimized) Shakespearean characters is incredible. The whole thing is nice and morally ambiguous. “The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.”
– I first saw this version in the 8th grade, under the tutelage of my teacher The Friar, with whom I keep in contact to this day. It’s never too soon to expose children to gender-bending, right? “Most wondrous.”
, done by the BBC and first introduced to me my Angel two weeks ago. Shakespeare brought into the modern day and frighteningly funny. Hero doesn’t marry Claudio (and good on her, because he was an unbelievable ass and I could never believe she forgave him!) and Katherine, a vicious and snarling MP is tamed by Petruchio, a lonely aristocratic exhibitionist who really just wants someone to think the world of him. “And all we do is set around in front of the telly all day eating chocolates. I know I do, when I’m not running the country.”
Small Dog Syndrome 