I DARE you to not smile while watching this…

I heard about this over on the Daily Coyote's Twitter and it couldn't have come at a better time for me personally. I was grinning so big throughout it, my cheeks hurt. I DARE you to not smile when you watch this!

 

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Tags: Gwen is smiling her fool head off, Ponderings

Uncovering Inconvenient Lies

I'm going to do something I almost never do around here - make a political statement or two or ten. The views expressed here are only mine. I imagine Sybil will be one of the first to say, "WHAT? Are you on CRACK?" when she read this.

It will come as no surprise that I am a Conservative. I have Liberal leanings when it comes to women's rights (believe in choice) and gun laws (member of Million Mom March), but I am a staunch conservative when it comes to the environment and all the horse-hockey we're fed by much of the media and left-wing politicians these days.

Not only that, but I think Al Gore is a grand-standing, self-serving, venal idiot who does not deserve the Nobel Prize. I think he and the "scientists" he employed to make the fallacy-laden farce of a global warming movie should be ridden out of town on a rail after being tarred and feathered. To use Dennis Miller's name, all the "Global Warmons" can kiss my ass. Why? BECAUSE THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MAN'S IMPACT ON GLOBAL WARMING (anthropogenic, if you want to technical term).

What is the take-away from all this? The liberal media and politicos will continue to use Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (a.k.a. FUD) to score emotion points against the current presidency BECAUSE IT WORKS. Folks are fearful about global warming, aren't they? They're uncertain about their future, aren't they? Many doubt America's current political structure, don't they?

I encourage everyone to read BOTH SIDES of the argument and to not be railroaded into listening to only the one side of this discussion. Today's media will make it sound like the sky is falling every time they talk about this just to keep your eyes on their channel/paper/magazine/website. Why? Because it works and advertising dollars follow the eyes. The 24-hour news cycle has done more to cause FUD than anything else. These media outlets have no interest in saying, "Oh well, actually, everything's okay," because then why would you listen to them? If you're scared about what they're going to tell you next, you'll keep your eyes glued, won't you?

Why do I think this? Read on. Several of these bullets were gathered from National Geographic's recent series "Earth: A Biography, Episode: Ice"...

• For 90% of its existence, the planet has been warmer than it is today. We're at the tail-end of the last ice age - that's why the planet is warming, not because of manmade (anthropogenic) reasons.
• The ocean levels will rise no matter what we do, regardless what presidential candidates say they can do about it, because the glaciers are melting due to the natural planetary warming cycle.
• The Earth has been in another of its warming cycles for the last 1,000 or so years. We've only had extensive use of fossil fuels for the last 100. It is supreme arrogance to think that modern man's puny speck of time has anything to do with such a huge, natural shift, or that there is anything we can do to stop it.
• The glacial melting accelerates as time goes on because of melt water "lubricating" the bottom of a glacier toward open (read, lower and warmer) ground, or open water thus increasing iceberg calving. This acceleration is a natural even what at the end of an ice age.
• Today's glacial melting is uncovering evidence of earlier settlements, indicating that this melt/growth cycle is common and has occurred several times in man's time on the planet.
• Over the next 300-500 years (not 5, not 50, not 100 years), rising sea levels due to ice melt will cause significant portions of tidal or coastal human habitation to be forced to move inland. This melt is unavoidable due to the end of the current ice age, not because we've driven cars for the last 100 years. There will be more than enough time to relocate communities before it occurs - the raise of sea levels won't happen overnight.
• If ALL of the land ice melted today, the global average sea level would rise about 266 feet, with the Antarctic ice sheet contributing about 240 feet and the Greenland ice sheet contributing about 25 feet. An unlikely event even with the current trends.

If even the experts cannot agree that the planet is warming, how is it politicians can be certain? Thermometers vary on the tale of the tape, from the Earth's temperature lowering a full degree since 1881, to increasing a full degree since then. Interestingly, recent studies have discovered this variance is primarily due to skewing the data on a chart by 6%, not actually changing temperatures - literally twisting the chart a bit. This is more than a little borderline dishonesty to get the results desired for the political gain.

Don't believe me? Please read the below, from The Register in the UK:

What could be the motivation for the recent changes [in how the data was reported and represented on graphs that have been used to justify the global warming argument]?Further examination of the NASA site might give us a clue as to what is happening.

NASA staff have done some recent bookkeeping and refined the data from 1930-1999. The issues has been discussed extensively at science blog Climate Audit. So what is the probability of this effort consistently increasing recent temperatures and decreasing older temperatures? From a statistical viewpoint, data recalculation should cause each year to have a 50/50 probability of going either up or down - thus the odds of all 70 adjusted years working in concert to increase the slope of the graph (as seen in the combined version) are an astronomical 2 raised to the power of 70. That is one-thousand-billion-billion to one. This isn't an exact representation of the odds because for some of the years (less than 15) the revisions went against the trend - but even a 55/15 split is about as likely as a room full of chimpanzees eventually typing Hamlet. That would be equivalent to flipping a penny 70 times and having it come up heads 55 times. It will never happen - one trillion to one odds (2 raised to the power 40.)

(Authors note: Several readers have astutely pointed out that the probability calculation is incorrect. A proper statistical calculation of coin toss probabilities shows greater than four sigma deviation - which places the odds of a random 55/15 distribution at closer to "one out a million," rather than "one out of a trillion" as originally reported.)

Particularly troubling are the years from 1986-1998. In the 2007 version of the graph, the 1986 data was adjusted upwards by 0.4 degrees relative to the 1999 graph. In fact, every year except one from 1986-1998 was adjusted upwards, by an average of 0.2 degrees. If someone wanted to present a case for a lot of recent warming, adjusting data upwards would be an excellent way to do it.

Looking at the NASA website, we can see that the person in charge of the temperature data is the eminent Dr. James Hansen - Al Gore's science advisor and the world's leading long-term advocate of global warming.

Data Sources

NASA and Had-Crut data are largely based on surface measurements, using thermometers. They both face a lot of difficulties due to contaminated data caused by urban heating effects, disproportionate concentration of thermometers in urban areas, changes in thermometer types over time, changes in station locations, loss of stations, changes in the time of day when thermometers are read, and yet more factors.

NASA has a very small number of long-term stations in the Arctic, and even fewer in Africa and South America. The data has been systematically adjusted upwards in recent years - as can be seen in this graph, reproduced below. Temperatures from the years 1990 to present have more than one-half degree Fahrenheit artificially added on to them - which may account for most of the upwards trend in the NASA temperature set.

I just felt I had to say something on all this. It's been stewing in my gut for a long while. Sure, I'm doing my responsible part by recycling what my community recycles, driving less, striving to lower my carbon footprint. However, I am doing it because of land-fill causes (I'd like a cleaner planet) and fuel costs. Not because I think it will amount to a hill of beans on the "global warming" joke.

Sources:

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2238317.0.Doubt_is_cast_over_global_warming.php

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/02/a_tale_of_two_thermometers/
http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=2964

http://junkscience.com/Greenhouse/index.html
http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/G/great_global_warming_swindle/

http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/al_gore_global_warming/2008/05/19/97307.html

Tags: Gwen, Gwen has lost her bloody mind, gwen is causing trouble again, Ponderings

The Cat’s Meow or Spilt Milk?

As a reader, when I find a new author that blows me away with a new book, one that I tell anyone and everyone about, I get excited and have to head over to their website to check out their backlist, find out a little about them. I've got every intention of glomming every book listed on their site. You know what I mean. That feeling of wow, this book was so great, I can't wait to read another book of hers that has me flipping pages and staying up until all hours just to finish it. You wait for that homepage to load at the website and things are looking pretty darned good as it's all revealed. But then, #^$)@+%(&!!!!!!!! Everything screeches to a resounding halt.

WTF? Where's the Books link? 2007? It's mid 2008, where's the latest info on those books I know have been released recently? Crap, that link is dead. Geez, I don't have time for 97 million graphics to load! Does the music have to blast me out of the darned room? That's the book I'm interested in, but there's no info on it except date released and publisher, no link for an excerpt. Even older books should be given a little something for readers to pick up some info. And a Coming Soon is a must as far as I'm concerned! You really have got to be kidding me. In this day and age of technology, an author can't keep up better than this? And what about those authors who don't have a website at all? That's super irritating.

Yes, the majority of authors do have sites and they're well maintained. You're in and out and have all the information you wanted with no problem at all. Nice 'n easy. My gripe isn't about them. It's that one in ten, two in twenty, however many it is, who don't buck up and do what it takes to keep their sites updated. Or there's just too much going on you can't find anything or make heads or tails out of what is popping up. There's help out there, all kinds of it, that will keep an author's site up to date and running smoothly so that readers like you and me have an enjoyable and easy time navigating around. Yeah, yeah, you're not Nora Roberts and don't make bookoo bucks to pay for site maintenance, but, please. The 'net has anything and everything for everybody. You're used to research. Shouldn't be hard to find. Right? And there's plenty of hosts who help you cheat by giving you page editors nowadays. Can't be easier than that.

So why chance irritating a reader who's come looking to buy your books? Check those links to make sure they work. Add an extra page for excerpts. Give a blurb on each book to generate new interest. Or that further step, why would an author not even have a website for readers to peruse with the hope of purchasing books?

So, Readers, what gets your dander up when you're visiting authors' websites? What makes you hiss and spit when you've wandered around page after page at a new author's home? Do you scratch and claw at the screen over something in particular or does it take several things to get your fur up?

Authors, am I crying over spilt milk?

Should I just sit back and lick my wounds when I happen upon a website that does a disservice to both author and reader? What are your thoughts on if an author should have a site, how much information should be available there, and how well maintained it should be? Is it as important as I'm making it out to be?

Those of you who do have sites and tinker and play to keep them updated and fresh, you are definitely the cat's meow.

Tags: 2008, Author websites, Ponderings, Sandy M

Mikey Likes Everything

We've had a number of discussions amongst us duckies, as well as with ya'll out there, about how we grade the books we read. Sybil and some of the other gals here at The Pond feel that a book starts out being an average book, a C grade, and then it either rises or lowers from there during the reading of the book.

I'm the exact opposite.

After spending a fair amount of time browsing at my local Borders, after reading a lot of back-cover blurbs to decide which books to buy during my foraging from shelf to shelf, I go home with a bag of books that I feel are the best of the bunch on display at that point in time. Why then would I consider any of those books to be average? If I wanted average, I would just pick up any old book and hope for the best.

Therefore, time and money spent, when I crack open any book, even a debut author, someone I've never heard of before or something new from an old all-time favorite, that book has the potential to be an A+, one the best books I've had the pleasure to read. The onus at that point is truly on the author. She is either going to maintain that A+ by blowing me away with her work between those pages or she's going to go down in grade depending on what she does give me.

I guess the next question is what makes the grade go down for me. Or, conversely, what makes a book maintain that high grade throughout the reading. As I'm sure some of you have noticed since I joined the Pond sometime last year, I'm a very happy reader. I enjoy a good portion of the books I read. Actually, a darned good portion. I suspend belief, thus my love of paranormals; historical accuracy is not important to me; I don't read between the lines (guess that's why I'm not fond of the "classics"); I don't nitpick; I usually don't think outside the cover of the book; I don't look for deep-seated meaning in books. I take what the author gives me. I don't feel it's my place to question the author, who had a particular goal in mind when she wrote her book. There's a reason she wrote that heroine a little whiny the first half of the book or why she used the misunderstanding approach between characters or why she didn't do a million other things readers can come up with after finishing a book. It's her book, for heaven's sake. If you don't care for her book, that's one thing. But to tell her hey, you screwed up when you didn't do this, that should never have been done way, why in the world would you make your characters do that, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Why should I be second guessing her and telling what I would have done? I didn't write the book.

Okay, there are those books you just don't care for, right? That's fine. I have those too. You don't care for the author's voice or writing style; you don't like your favorite author trying out a new genre; you don't care for the time period used in a storyline, that heroine was way too silly for anyone to like. There's multiple non-generic reasons for you just not taking to a book. I have those moments too, even admist all my happiness when reading. That's different from flat out hating a book for certain reasons. Read on, please.

I read to be entertained. I read to leave my crappy world behind and live in a fairytale world where men and women are larger than life, where they overcome huge, nearly insurmountable odds to find one another and have the romance and love of a lifetime. I love an alpha hero. I love when he falls hard for the heroine and will do anything, even die, for her. I love when a wolf finds his mate. I do enjoy a kick-ass heroine too. I also don't mind the aforementioned whiny heroine as long as she gets her act together just as the hero does to deserve that HEA. I want emotion. I want gut-wrenching emotion that pulls tears out of me. I want conflict, believable or not, to make my happy ending all the more pleasurable. I want great and wonderfully impossible love scenes in my books. And with all the great authors out there, I get all this and more every time I open a book.

Now, having said all that, there are those books that even I haven't been thrilled with, that I can cart off to the UBS in no time flat. There's relatively few, but they do exist. Although most of my reads are graded highly, I have given some lower grades -- even an F. Only one F so far, but it was deserved. I even recently had a DNF. Wonders will never cease it seems. I don't like a book that gets too silly. I really dislike stupid, inane dialogue. And I hate it when a storyline and characters are totally negative for 299 pages of 300. Bad love scenes give me the willies. And, of course, a book written by someone who should have never put pen to paper really irritates me. Even I can tell when I"ve come across an author like that. These are things that will make a grade drop accordingly for a book from that intial A+. Other than that, most anything else is fair game for me.

So. I don't expect many of you to agree with me. This is how I look at reading and books and authors. Sometimes because of my job my reading time is cut down to nil. Nada. Zilch. Can't pick up a book for days. Withdrawals are imminent. Because of that, that's why, I believe, I look at things a little differently than most of you; that's why I look at every book so optimistically. Why would I want to pick, pick, pick at my books so that I enjoy so very few? Why would I want to be irritated or frustrated with a book or an author when I can be happy every time I pick a book up, when I go in expecting the impossible, the unbelievable, a man in a million, an unattainable love?

I like everything! Just like Mikey. That's my new nickname around The Pond now. I gobble up that everything and love it just like Mikey did his Life cereal.

So what are you? Are you a nitpicker? Are you a history sniffer outer? Do you ask "Why?" of the author when you've closed the book or thrown it against the wall? Do you sigh over and dream about those alpha heroes? What do you look for when you grade a book?

Tags: 2008, Borders, Grading scale, Mikey, Ponderings, Sandy M

Food, Summer, and Fun

This is a question that always gets a lot of interesting answers... so please keep an open mind. It's also something that can be rehashed and discussed quite often. What is this question you ask?What is the strangest thing you've eaten?

For some people, squid (calamari) or octopus are as strange as they go. Others, have had buffalo, ostrich, rattle snake, or moose. A lot of this depends on location, culture, and... potentially how adventurous you are. Or let's go vegetarian - seaweed? Hemp? Bamboo? Jicama?Or, what is the most interesting thing you'd be willing to eat? Beef tripe? Jellyfish? Sea cucumber? Turtle? Monkey? Banana flower? Taro? Caviar? Sea urchin? Softshell crab? Artichokes?

What about in books? Do you notice what the characters are eating? Do you have a favorite meal the characters ate? Or recipes - some authors include recipes from a novel either in the book, or post them on their website. Have you ever tried one?

How do you feel about food? Are you a foodie, a food snob, or could you care less? Do you like cooking? Have any cooking mishaps?

I admit, I've set off the smoke alarm and sliced open a finger before. But I still love cooking and making things from scratch. Would you rather make your own marinara or buy it in a jar? Or, do you love watching cooking shows. Food network, PBS, Top Chef, Hell's Kitchen and the like?

Do you have a favorite seasonal food? I personally love the fresh fruits and vegetables that come with the spring and summer.

And... to get this going - I've eaten quite a number of those "exotic" foods I mentioned. Have you had any of them? Is there a food you'd never be willing to try? Or is there something that weirds you out? I admit, still beating cobra heart is not something I'd go for. Or bugs. People used to (still do?) eat horse in Britain, and I'm sure other places.

Yes, there are a lot of questions, but I'm curious! Feel free to pick and choose what to answer. Food is something all of us can relate to, and generally have stories to share regarding food. So, lets have some fun and discuss one of my favorite things to talk about- food!

Tags: Foodie, limecello, Ponderings, ponderings on exotic foods

Pondering Contest Quacks

I was thinking today (scary, I know) about contests. You have to admit they're fun. Is there a better feeling than getting something for free? But really, it's not always fun for the person running the contest. Sadly, there are some who would ruin it for the rest.

	Contest Whores Contest Whores will enter a contest regardless of what the prize is. There's a prize, that's all that matters. It's pretty shiny and they want... so they enter. All too often Contest Whores also feel the need to brag about all the prizes they've won by entering contests, or to rub in the fact that won."Oh, I already read this book. I won it over at *insert random place here*" or even worse, IMO, are the ones who don't even cop to where they got it. "Oh, I have this book already. And this one. And that one."
	eBay Bitches These are the asshats who enter to win so they can immediately turn around and sell the prizes on eBay. You'll find these ones mostly surrounding contests for ARCs, because there's big money to be made selling ARCs on ebay. Bastards.
	Sad Tales These are the big babies who have a sob story for why they should win. "My husband left me." "My dog just died." "My life is horrible and awful and this would be the only bright spot in my otherwise wretched existence."
	Sybil's Socks These are Syb's favorite! *g* These are the sad, sorry fucks who have no life and make up pretend names/email addresses so they can enter a contest more than once. I've personally never understood the point. But then, I don't really enter contests, so I might not be the person to ask.

TGTBTU does contests because we are a reader site for readers. And we love the idea of helping readers find their next MUST READ author. Especially if they happen to be MUST READ authors for us. Tis fun to share, no? But sometimes I wonder if it's worth it to give away ARCs, to hold contests, to share the wealth. But then it's not really fair if one person ruins it for everyone, is it?

Tags: Contest, Holly is being a pain again, Ponderings, socks, The Book Binge

Happy Mother’s Day! Romance and my mom

It seems that every blogger has to have a story about why they read romance and how they started. Mine, it turns out, was because of my mother.

My mother raised all three of us to be readers. I remember snuggling next to her on the couch with my head on her shoulder while she read to us. She says that all of us kids had our favorite books which we read over and over. Mine was Winnie-the-Pooh and the honey Tree. It was only a matter of time until I developed a taste for reading on my own. I've come a long way from the days of Winnie-the-Pooh, but my mom still influences my taste in reading.

It was Mom who introduced me to books that became favorites. Mom read me the book version of The Wizard of Oz after I came to love the movie. Mom read my first Nancy Drew book to me. Hell, she even read me the occasional Baby-Sitter's Club book, which I never really got into but thought I ought to because they were popular. She didn't have to read aloud to me, once I got old enough to start reading on my own, but even until I was a teenager I treasured the times that she would.

I'll never forget the day Mom introduced me to my first real romance novel. I was ten years old, and it was shortly before school started. For some reason we were alone in the house and it was raining. Probably she didn't know how else to keep me occupied, so she pulled out Phyllis Whitney's Thunder Heights. I'm pretty sure the book I linked to is the one she actually had. Anyway, I was enchanted. Here was my first real grown-up book and I went on a huge Phyllis Whitney reading jag. I didn't care that her formula was pretty much the same--you could always tell who the bad guys were, who the love interest would be, etc. I loved the exotic settings and the Gothic atmosphere.

Later I left romance, but I always kept coming back to it, invariably because of Mom. Mom encouraged me to read Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I read Perfect and Almost Heaven both by Judith McNaught. More recently, Mom got me interested in Marjorie Liu, who is one of my favorite authors. Even if the books aren't to my taste, (Mom loves Katie MacAlister, who I don't see the appeal of at all), I'll still try any author if it passes the Shannon's mom seal of approval.

My mom has been a hugely influential person in my life. I am pretty sure that, both good and bad, I owe a lot of who I am to her. The fact that she made me love reading is just the tip of the iceberg as far as I'm concerned, but it's something for which I'll always be grateful to her.

Tags: May 2008, Mother's Day, Ponderings, ShannonC

ShannonC looks for Recs: Lora Leigh

Sandy M.'s latest review got me thinking about Lora Leigh. She is one of those authors that everyone seems to adore, particularly my fellow duckies . But the two short stories I tried by her, one in the Hot Spell anthology and the other in the A Wish, A Kiss, A Dream anthology didn't work for me at all. And then there are the incest books, which people either love or they hate.

But despite all that, Lora Leigh sells like hot cakes and I keep thinking maybe I should try one of her full-length novels before I give her up completely.

But she has a huge, scary backlist, and I don't know what to read. So I turn to the collective wisdom of the Pond.

Recommend me your favorite Lora Leigh book in comments and tell me why I should read it. The person whose comment actually manages to convince me to try one of her books will receive some sort of prize book donated and signed from Lora Leigh. Don't ask me what prize--I am not the contest duckie nor do I play her on TV. [ed note: tis ok I answered for you cuz I can do that go team me!] Extra points will be awarded for creativity and/or attempts to make me snork a beverage out my nose.

Tags: all your books are belong to us, book recs, Lora Leigh, Ponderings, Shannon has no taste, ShannonC, The Pond

How to drive a cover model ’round the bend, in ten easy steps…

Hi folks - haven't been around a lot the last couple of weeks due to a work project.  But I just couldn't pass this one up...

After I read Lynne Connolly's report from RT about the cover model who Lost It, I wondered how does a cover model go about losing it, and is there anything we can do to help them along.  I came up with the following list.  Please feel free to add to it.  Or criticize me for being an insensitive witch.  I'm surprisingly okay with either reaction. 

How to Drive a Cover Model Insane, in ten easy steps...

10. Replace their baby oil with WD40 and then ask them to sit on a hard chair.  That might be kind of fun actually...

9. Replace all the mirrors at a shoot with fun-house mirrors.

8. Put Ben-Gay in their thong/jock and then make then stand still for three hours during a photo shoot.

7. Tell them they have to pose with this woman.

6. Replace their hair gel with the stuff used in There's Something About Mary (yes I know what it was).

5. Tell them they're actually Fabio's love child with this woman.

4. Tell them their next Harlequin "guys & daughters" photoshoot is with this little girl.

3. Tell them the trend is hairy men, right after a full-body wax.

2. Tell them Nathan Kamp got all of the cover model jobs left.  Oh wait...

and the #1 way to make a cover model Lose It...

1. Don't give the Mr. Romance award to them!

Any of you have some ideas on how best to drive a cover model insane?  Comment here and share the giggle.

Tags: Gwen, Gwen's in Bev's glue again, Ponderings

Is that a Powerful Sword in Your Pocket?

Friday night, I was channel surfing, looking for something to have on in the background while I worked on a post. Suddenly, I came across a movie that I was starting to think existed only in the murky recesses of my fevered brain. A movie so ridiculous, so strange, I must've dreamed it up. It was "Legend." Anyone seen it? An extremely young and miscast Tom Cruise, dressed like Peter Pan, frolicking in a merry woode? Unicorns, elves, goblins that look just like the Leprechaun, Ferris Bueller's girlfriend? Constant, disturbing yelping in the background? Classic fantasy cheese.

Though we're at no loss for 80'snostalgia, the subgenre of campy, medieval, swords-and-sorcery fantasy flicks often gets overlooked, IMHO. I mean really, how often can we talk about Heathers and John Hughes movies? [Well, pretty often, actually. I never pass up a re-airing of Sixteen Candles.] But fantasy films had just as much influence on the reader, and adult, I was to become.

There were the great ones, like Labyrinth. David Bowie, incredibly sexy despite huge hair, set my tween heart aflutter. I couldn't understand why Jennifer Connelly didn't stay to be his Goblin queen. And freaky muppets! Or Lady Hawke, which managed to be awesome despite the weird power rock soundtrack and odd casting of Michelle Pfeiffer and Matthew Broderick. Was it just me, or was Rutger Hauer both incredibly creepy and incredibly hot?

I watched Willow about a thousand times for Val Kilmer as roguish warrior Madmartigan. Ah Val, what happened to you? I was an Iceman girl. I've even watched The Saint. More than once. Willow was a great flick, with adventure, romance, and a cute little baby. I saw The Princess Bride three times in the movie theatre, back when I was in the sixth grade. A slightly different animal of course, definitely tongue in cheek, but "As You Wish?" Sigh.

There were others, of course, perhaps not as memorable, but deserving of a mention. Dragonslayer had Peter MacNicol (yuck) saving virgins from a fate worse than death, that is, being eaten by a dragon or something. All I remember from Excalibur (Arthur, of course) is that I think it was the first time I saw a man's butt onscreen. Lancelot and Guinevere were doing it in the woods. I may be wrong about that, though, I might have to double check for research purposes.

I never watched The Dark Crystal, looked too scary. Even at seven, perhaps I knew that it was just no good without man-candy. And let's not get started on the Conan movies. Or Beastmaster. Good times, good times.

When vampires, werewolves, demons and ghosts were still way too scary, mechanical dragons, beautiful princesses, little people in costume and Celtic music were more than enough to feed my imagination. I figure that's where I learned the value of a sweaty, well built man with long hair, brandishing a big sword. Epic struggles of good and evil, passionate romance, noble quests-it all fed my future reading tastes.

I also blame these movies for igniting an obsession with the Middle Ages, leading to FIVE years of Latin lessons, and a particularly useless Liberal Arts education. These days fantasy movies seem to be relegated to the kids. I think Peter Jackson and LOTR set the bar too high. But how I long for simpler days, when cute actors vaguely attempted British accents, wore tunics, and made out in magickal forests.

How about you? Love fantasy movies? Hate ‘em? Will the Willow fans please stand up?

(While trying to think up a title for this post, my husband suggested "Movies that make you want to kill yourself." Agree? Disagree?)

Tags: 2008, Devon, Fantasy, March 2008, Ponderings, random thoughts

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