Okay, folks. It’s Friday, and I think we’re all probably in need of some end-of-the-week funnies. Christina Blanco’s rendition of ’80s classic, “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” totally delivers.
There have been some great covers of this song in the past, notably the “Literal Video Version” from Funny or Die (seriously, if you haven’t seen this yet, you are missing out). Here, impressionist and comedian Christina Blanco performs the song in the style of 19 different divas: Adele, Cher, Judy Garland, Patti LuPone, Kristin Chenoweth, Edith Piaf, Bette Midler, Julie Andrews, Liza Minnelli, Bernadette Peters, Gwen Stefani, Zooey Deschanel, Britney Spears, Shakira, Alanis Morissette, Norah Jones, Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion, and Barbra Streisand.
No, no, not the tummyache that you have from all the Halloween candy you’ve been eating! I’m talking about that impending sense of excitement and delight known as NaNoWriMo, thirty days of profligate literary abandon. WriMos (those who choose to follow the rules, that is) tear their way through 50,000 words by the end of the month, scribbling with fast and furious intensity. That’s roughly 1667 words each day, for those who like to think about goals in more manageable “chunks” — a bit daunting, but certainly not impossible.
I have to admit, I haven’t always been this enthusiastic about NaNo. My friends starting doing it in college, taking November to churn out cheesy Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fan fiction. Back then, I was a much less disciplined writer. I jotted down things when the muse struck, writing in long — but infrequent — chunks of time. I was also pretty skeptical of the idea that anyone could write a novel in a single month. However, since then, I’ve discovered useful things like “editing” and “drafting” (not part of my repertoire in my youth). Am I going to be able to write a perfect and complete novel in 30 days? Well, no, not unless it springs from my head armored and fully-formed. But I can write the draft of a novel that I’ll continue to develop and refine in the weeks and months to come, and that’s no small feat.
I won’t lie — I’m a teeny bit nervous about NaNo. November’s always felt like the month where things go wrong, when the dog doo hits the fan and life becomes more or less intolerable. This is probably because I’ve spent most of my life as a student, and November is the Month of Doom: mid-terms, projects, papers, prepping for final exams. November’s also when I get crazy attacks of allergies and/or the flu, brought on by lack of sleep and stress — not the best time to try my hand at writing a novel.
But for the first time ever, I have been plotting. I have a Scrivener file filled with notes and index cards and summaries of scenes and all sorts of wild stuff. I have a folder bulging with location descriptions and profiles, and lots of research to refer to when I get stuck. I have a story that’s unfolding before my very eyes, and the pure magic of it all is enough to leave me itching for the chance to write. I’ve been bouncing around like a 5 year old on a sugar rush, and all I want to squeal is, “Can I start writing now? Is it November 1st yet? Can’t I just, y’know, write the scene that won’t leave me alone??”
As Em and I have been saying for the past few weeks, NaNoWriMo should be about fun, not fear. This is about the delight of meeting new characters and learning their stories, and the utter joy of discovering new worlds. I don’t know if I’ll make 50k by the end of the month. With papers to grade, books to read for school, and a draft of my MA thesis to write, I’ll be pretty darn shocked if I can pull it off. Even if I don’t “win” (and as trite as it sounds, I think all WriMos are winners, whether or not they reach 50k), I’ll have a whole body of research under my belt, a kickass outline, and pages with words on them. I’ll have the beginning of something special, and the satisfaction of knowing that I took a chance and aimed for the impossible. As Les Brown said,
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.
For today’s Friday Free-For-All, I’m tackling a subject near and dear to my heart: fashion. I am an unabashed devotee of all things connected with the industry. Each month I eagerly devour my issue of Vogue, and I drool over the pretty photos on style.com on a regular basis. As a starving grad student, however, all of this research is even more important, because I don’t have lots of money to throw at things that I won’t wear. As a result, I commonly do lots of research on the current trends and quite a bit of window-shopping before I charge into the store and plunk down my money.
Although summer has finally reached my perpetually foggy coastal town, in the rest of the northern hemisphere, the march towards autumn is well underway. I’ve turned my attention to the fall trends, and found a lot to be excited about.
While there are a ton of awesome trends for the fall, but today we’ll look at my current favorite: color-blocking. It’s not new by any stretch of the imagination (honestly, are there any completely original fashion trends?); really, I think it calls to mind the work of twentieth century artists, like Dutch painter Piet Mondrian.
"Composition II in Red, Blue and Yellow" (1930)
When it comes to fashion, color-blocking refers to strategically placed contrasting yet complimentary colors, like this dress by French designer Yves Saint Laurent (inspired by Mondrian’s work above):
"Mondrian" Day Dress (1965) by Yves Saint Laurent
This fall, colors are bold and bright, going beyond the primary colors used above. Here are some of my favorite looks:
From the Runway
Bottega Veneta, Fall 2011 via style.com
I love this swing coat and skirt combo from Bottega Veneta, partly because the combo of orange and fuchsia works really well here, but also because it channels the 1960’s Mad Men-esque vibe that’s really popular right now. I also want to figure out how to copy that model’s deconstructed beehive — one more thing to add to my to-do list. 😉
Giambattista Valli, Fall '11 via style.com
A simple combo here: bright pink shell with a gold skirt. I’m not too sold on that big bow (I don’t need anything else adding inches to my already-ample hips), but I like the overall look.
Narciso Rodriguez, Fall '11 via style.com
I really like this outfit from Narciso Rodriguez because it seems so much more wearable than some styles that are paraded down the runway. The big blocks of black and white, popped with bright red and pink, work really well here.
For this week’s Friday Free-for-All, I’ve had books on the brain. The wonderful and amazing Jenny Hansen posted yesterday about the way writers read, and today about her love affair with books, and it set me to thinking about all the reasons why books are awesome.
One of my favorite quotes about books comes from John Milton’s pamphlet Areopagitica, a treatise denouncing censorship and Britain’s Licensing Order of 1643. It’s a stirring defense of freedom of speech, and contains some of my favorite invocations of the power of books and the written word:
For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them… Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the earth; but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on a purpose beyond life.
Milton’s words are eloquent and grandiose, his arguments lofty and soaring. Areopagitica is worth a read, and is available on the public domain from Project Gutenberg.
I love the idea that books contain the “living intellect that bred them.” Indeed, whenever I read a book, I feel connected in some small way with the person who wrote it. Reading allows me to traverse time and place, to commune, if only for a few hundred pages, with the mind that gave birth to the book in my hands.
In an effort to give my blog a bit of structure, I’m wading into the world of theme days. From this point forward — or until I change my mind — Fridays at Flights of Fancy will now all about the “free-for-all.” The overall goal? Fun, frivolous, and fabulous.
Today I offer sexy fun in the form of my favorite actor ever, Hugh Jackman. He first surfaced on my radar in his role as Wolverine in Bryan Singer’s X-Men (2000), and ever since then I’ve managed to catch almost every film that he’s been in.
His range is impressive. He’s done big-budget action films like Swordfish and the X-Men franchise. He’s played the lead in romantic comedies like Someone Like You and Scoop, and tried his hand at drama (see Erskinville Kings and The Fountain). Better yet, he also cuts a fine figure in period costume (Kate and Leopold and The Prestige are the best examples of this), which never fails to make my heart beat a bit faster.
While Hugh is an incredible actor, it’s his singing and dancing skills that make me swoon. A true triple threat, he got his early start in musical and stage productions in Australia, and eventually found his way to London’s West End for his turn as Curly in the 1998 revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma.
Hugh earned an Olivier nomination for this role and it’s little wonder: he was (and still is) charmingly infectious, with a voice that sends shivers down my spine.
Since then, he’s gone on to win a Tony award for his role as Peter Allen in The Boy from Oz. He’s also hosted the Tony awards three times (one of the few performers to have that honor), as well as the 2009 Academy Awards, for which he won an Emmy award. The opening number, complete with silly cardboard sets and an incredibly cute duet with Anne Hathaway, is one of my favorite moments in Oscar awards history.
More recently, Hugh’s been on tour with a one-man show (sadly, I missed his run in San Francisco, and I am totally heart-broken about it). He also appeared on the 2011 Tony awards with host Neil Patrick Harris for a hilarious “dueling duet.”
While he has a few films in the works, including Reel Steel, coming out in November 2011, I’m more excited about the recent announcement that he may take the role of Jean Valjean in the upcoming big screen production of Les Miserables. I’m crossing my fingers that the project actually happens, as Les Miz is one of my all-time favorite musicals, and I think Hugh’s got the acting and singing chops to pull it off.
I close with this 2010 Lipton commercial for a final fun, silly, frivolous trea for this Friday. The dancing! Seriously, he looks like he’s having so much fun that I am torn between giggling like mad and sighing with delight.
Lena Corazon writes steampunk and fantasy novels, drinks far too much tea, and has an unhealthy obsession with Byronic heroes. She blogs about books, sparkly things, her masochistic relationship with academia, and anything else that tickles her fancy.
