God Save the Queen(s of the Stone Age)

I, apparently unlike many people, am not interested in Princess Kate’s pregnancy. I wish her all the best, but I have more important cultural events on my mind, like how Fringe has only five episodes left. How can they possibly wrap it up? How will I live without their faces? HOW? I’ve never been fascinated with real, in-my-lifetime royalty of any kind, but I do enjoy many a royal thing.

Here are some of my favorite “royals”:

“Royals” in Books

Summer Knight by Jim Butcher is the 4th book in the Dresden Files series, an urban fantasy series that is in its 14th book and has never let me down.

Queenpin by Megan Abbott. Abbott has written six very good books, the first four of which are noir. Queenpin, her third, won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original.

I can’t not mention Stephen King. I’ve only read two of his books: The Green Mile and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and I enjoyed them both.

“Royals” in Films

Buttercup, Princess of Florin in The Princess Bride. There’s a certain set of people who can quote “The Princess Bride”; those are my people.

Photo source: imdb.com

Princess Caraboo. I know what you’re thinking, but I watched when I was a youngish and I remember it fondly. Plus, it’s based on an actual story and it has Phoebe Cates and Kevin Kline in it.

Photo source: fanpop.com

Cate Blanchett‘s Elizabeth. This was Blanchett’s breakout role and while my Lord of the Rings knowledge is sparse, I’m pretty sure her character in those films, Galadriel, is a royal, too.

Photo source: http://kingarthur.
wikia.com

Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I was fairly old when I was introduced to this telling of King Arthur and his knights which is probably a good thing because who wants a seven-year-old running around saying, “watery tart”.

“Royals” in Music

Photo source: http://www.qotsa.com

Queens of the Stone Age. They will rock your face off with subtle lighting.

Photo source: http://www.sharonjones
andthedapkings.com/

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. They will also rock your face off, but in a different way.

Prince. I don’t think this needs any explanation.

-aisha, who thinks her “royals in music” list would be a great lineup for the new royal baby’s christening

Not All Who Wander Are Lost: A (Short) 1,001 Movies Update

Previously, on the 1,001 movies project, I decided that maybe I was pushing myself a little too hard, and that I should slow down on my frantic film-watching pace. This decision, for better or worse, meshed with an extremely busy month in my life, in which I bought and moved into my first home. As a result, I haven’t watched a whole lot of movies since my last project-related blog post. And while part of me hangs its head in shame for not making more progress toward my goal, a larger part of me is having so much fun picking out carpet and curtains that it’s completely forgotten to feel guilty.

Enter Frodo Baggins.  Literally and metaphorically.

When my own personal Scooby Gang learned that I had never watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy, despite being a lifelong fan of the books, they took matters into their own hands. Graciously opening up their home to a posse of wise-cracking MST3K wannabes, my dear friends planned a series of get-togethers so that I could at least cross three movies off my list during an extremely busy time in my life. And if you stop and think about it, that’s an awful lot like Sam stepping up to the plate and helping Frodo when he started to droop under his extremely heavy burden.

Okay, okay, perhaps I exaggerate. But struggling to achieve this goal, and having my pals come to my rescue, has me thinking about Tolkien, his good friend Mr. Lewis, Joseph Campbell, and the wealth of fairy and folk tales passed down through the ages.  A common thread they share is that of the hero/ine who passes through a period of despair before s/he triumphs.  Said hero/ine is frequently aided by a friend, human or animal, who provides some sort of aid and comfort to the hero/ine so that s/he has the strength to go on.  I like that, after thousands of years, we are all still living , reading, and watching the same kind of story.  Our obstacles may be spreadsheets, deadlines and overly busy schedules instead of witches and dragons, but the song remains the same, no?

So, after tonight’s planned shenanigans, we’ll be able to log this leg of the movie-watching journey as follows:

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

for a total of 232 movies.

Any encouraging words you have at this point are welcome, constant readers. Now that we’ve exhausted the Peter Jackson trilogy, I fear I may need some verbal dynamite to bust out of my rut and get back on track…

–Leigh Anne

who gets by with a little help from her friends