Winter Wonderland

OK, so this is a complete departure from the usual fodder and fare, but this is out of control. I simply must dish about something that only happens once in a blue moon in the fair jewel of a city Vancouver, BC. It has snowed my friends, and I mean snowed! Check this out.

Snowy Vancouver December 2008

Snowy Vancouver December 2008

Snowy Vancouver December 2008

Snowy Vancouver December 2008

Snowy Van December 2008

And this is right in the heart of downtown Vancouver, just minutes away from the famous Sea Wall and English Bay! Having arrived from a more northern clime not too long ago, my youngling and I are elated! We must confess that we missed the snow which did fall in copious amounts and lasted from October until May sometimes where we used to live approximately three hours from Hyder, Alaska.

In the heart of downtown Vancouver, snow covered streets are a rarity and everyone with low profile tires is literally either stranded, panicking, or discombobulated. At every corner everybody’s feet are getting super soaked and one must find a strategic way to walk through slushy snow drifts. It’s really quite hazardous to Vancouverite fashion sense. Many corporate execs and fashionistas alike are bemoaning the treacherous winter weather. Not us though! My cutelet and I awoke exhilarated and joyous to see the winter wonderland. Our spirits are considerably raised. Truth be told, we don’t mind the rain, but we had no idea that winter in Vancouver is more like monsoon season in India.

What a snowy gift. It definitely feels like Christmas now, and I’m pretty sure the snow will stick around til Christmas Day, so we’ll have a very white Christmas after all! So, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Joyeux Noel!

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The Tale of Despereaux In Theaters Tomorrow

The Tale of Despereaux_Amazon.com

There is more Universal movie magic coming your way for the holiday season. The Tale of Despereaux is out in theaters tomorrow,featuring the talented vocal stylings of Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame, and the low pro Mr. Parker himself, Matthew Broderick ( we love him in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off ). This is a classic, well loved children’s story come to life, just another example of literature leaping to the silver screen. I wonder if it will be great? Will you take your youngling to see it? I probably will.

Tags: Harry Potter, movie, the tale of despereaux

Santa Goes Green Is A Runaway Word Of Mouth Hit!

Not bad for a children`s book to sell 13 000 copies its first month on the shelves! Actually, it`s pretty stellar. Who says you need a big budget advertising campaign to make ends meet? And it’s available just in time for Christmas, which I’m sure is no coincidence, my friends. Santa Goes Green is written by Anne Margaret Lewis and is beautifully illustrated by Elisa Chavarri, and published by Mackinac Island Press. It’s also available for a preview before purchase at the publisher’s website which is just good foresight and always a nice touch. It may also be the contributing factor as to why this book is enjoying such runaway success coupled with news spreading by word of  mouth.

The topic is hot right now because it has Santa, a polar bear, walrus and a beluga (my youngling’s fave!), and a conscientious youngling named Finn who is very concerned about global warming and sets out to do something about it. It has been said that this generation will truly be custodians of the Earth, the humanitarians. It is highly believable, as this generation seems to be highly conscious of things at a very tender age; things we ourselves at that age were never concerned about, and maybe even as adults still ashamedly haven’t become as concerned and involved as we should  and could be.

So, thanks for the heads up from my fab friend in far away Spain about this book! And it is the way most people have been hearing about it before it hit the media radar; through the grapevine, and the news is spreading like wildfire! So I’m off to pick it up for my own youngling, and as a gift for some other little special ones, because anything that encourages caring and is inspiring to boot is well worth giving! Happy holidays!

Tags: christmas, global warming, polar bears, Santa

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Happy Holidays!

From Your Brighter Scribe,

Kyra…;o)

Classic Vanity Fair Continued As Promised!

OK y’all as promised…….will the real Vanity Fair please stand up?

Loooooooong before Vanity Fair the magazine, there was Vanity Fair the book. This literary adventure was written in the 19th century (1847 - 48 to be exact) by William Makepeace Thackeray. He was a contemporary of Charles Dickens (who wrote such classics like The Adventures of Oliver Twist, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, (we loved the Gwyneth Paltrow, Ethan Hawke version by the way!),  A Christmas Carol, etc…). In 2004, Thackeray’s masterpiece was adapted for the silver screen starring the ever captivating Reese Witherspoon as the plucky heroine Becky Sharp. (Filmed while Reese was pregnant, but you’d never guess because the director was so creative.)

Now, Becky Sharp was very unhappy about her station in life to say the least. Never one to leave her fate and fortune in the avaricious hands of others, she determined to climb to the top of the social echelon. She is a truly audacious woman, yet charming for a rogue, and she desires nothing more than to prove that she is just as good as the duchess next door. Though Becky is a fictitious character, she is most memorable and truly extraordinary. In fact, Vanity Fair is one of my favorite movies. It juxtaposes the adages anything is possible and be careful what you wish for and all’s well that ends well. As a woman in the Victorian age of strict class and tight circles, she proves that one can be more than what society deems you should be. As a woman with no title, family alliances or money, she was faced with many, many obstacles and disadvantages, but our Becky took all this in her stride. (Might I add that despite her father being an artist, this prestige was unfortunately cancelled out due to the fact that her mother had been a singer, which was tantamount to saying she was a woman of questionable morals, if you know what I mean.) Through Becky Sharp’s ambitious eyes we can catch a glimpse of English elitism. We can also revel in Miss Sharp’s ruthless desire to hike to the highest rung of the social ladder by almost whatever means possible. This movie is definitely a fun filled romp and I highly recommend you watch it. It is filled with roguish high jinks and spunky, daring maneuvers, yet sweet and still possessed of a certain innocence and charm, and even grace. There are moral pitfalls around almost every corner and keen explorations into the complexity of human relationships. It left me feeling happy and thinking that it is indeed funny how life works sometimes and who and what we end up with when all is said and done. Sometimes because of the choices we make, sometimes because of fate, and sometimes because of luck.

~P.S.~ I wonder what Mr. Thackeray would have thought of this movie? I’m pretty sure he’d be pleased.

Big Screen Comics

Just in case you haven’t already heard, Charlize Theron has been tapped to play the lead role in Jinx. No, don’t panic. This is not the same Jinx played by Halle Berry opposite Pierce Brosnan in the James Bond flick Die Another Day. This movie is based on a character created by Brian Michael Bendis and his comic book world Jinxworld. Miss Theron will play the comic book bounty hunter Jinx. If you saw her in Aeon Flux you already know she can kick butt while looking great in a poured on vinyl suit. This movie is just one of many comic book creations coming to life and looming large on the big screen. What fun, what fun. Will you check it out? Has anyone ever even heard of this comic book series before? Hollywood is like a hungry marauder searching for treasure on every land mass. They can’t turn books of all kinds into movies fast enough. (I love it even though it’s alarming!) I wonder if the voracious Big H machine is ever in danger of running out of fodder? There is soooo much money to be made plundering comic book territory. Have you seen the size of the Marvel Universe alone? What’s next I wonder?

~P.S.~ Can y’all say The Spirit, due out Christmas day. That dude knows how to roll. Just check out his mask and tie. Very classic. I’m beginning to think all these comic book creators, story writers and illustrators are planning to take over the world. Remember that Brad Pitt movie, Cool World? Nowadays, cartoons are real in Hollywood. Go figure.

Classic Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair is a brilliant, savvy magazine which has had a lot of great covers and even better interviews. In fact, no one does avant garde and controversial better. It is a glossy extravaganza of ads and money, Annie Leibovitz and a stellar celebrity galaxy. They’ve produced issues that are definitely archive worthy; like the infamous issue where they interviewed Jennifer Aniston and probed for answers on the divorce of the century between herself and the dubious Brad Pitt. A scant few years later, they were anything but bashful when preening after scoring a gorgeous cover, breathtaking pitures and a juicy interview in July of 2008 with the new Mrs. Brad Pitt, the ever beautiful and voluptuous lipped Angelina Jolie. (Did I mention how we loved it, by the way?) Vanity Fair is after all unbiased, and all is fair in love and war. (We love that, too!) It is a media outlet that is a very fine reflection of our pop culture; it maybe even defines who we are as a western culture, civilized and polished, all glossy and airbrushed and well financed in order to be considered perfect and worthy and accomplished. If one would look back on our society 100 years from now and gather information based only on the content of a Vanity Fair magazine, I think they’d be very amused and entertained to say the least, at how much pandering we were obsessed with and how star struck we were on a whole. Now don’t get me wrong, this is not a rant, it’s more of an unbiased observation. I am right there with the best of them enjoying the pantheon of the stars in the entertainment constellation and the great past time of wanting more. I think it is amazing how little we’ve changed as a civilization. Celebrity is the new nobility, and now anyone can be king or queen, no matter their station in life. If you have the heart of a social climber, and the grit and the fangs to get you to the top, a meteoric rise to stardom is not impossible if you’re hungry enough. Vanity Fair is such a fitting name for a magazine that showcases the lifestyles of the rich and famous and what you need to get there. However, before Vanity Fair the magazine, there was another piece of literary success that chronicled the fictitious life of perhaps the most prolific social climber and one of the most important heroines of the Victorian era. Tune in later and I’ll tell you what and who.

Beautiful Twilight

So, you have to be dead not to have heard by now the craze that Rob Pattinson has caused as Edward Cullen in the monster hit Twilight. In fact, because of this movie, he has been catapulted into stellar stardom almost instantaneously. Rolling Stone has dubbed him the hottest actor of 2008! Go figure. Even Rob himself is baffled by his sudden effect on women, declaring one minute he couldn’t get a date, now girls are clamoring over him. LOL. Let me tell you, I have stood in line at bookstores accidentally eavesdropping on teenage girls gushing and nearly swooning over this movie!!! It is quite hilarious and painful to admit however, that I, too, have joined the plethora of gaa gaa girls and am a willing acolyte of the Twilight Saga. But I digress. You see, I have been waiting a looong time for a vampire like Edward. Edward Cullen fulfilled all my wishes for the depth of feeling and anguished yearning I ever wanted from Lestat but was never given. If truth be told, I have been waiting a long time for the blatant honesty of Bella Swan, too. She embodied all the earnest awkwardness and angst ridden devotion of being a teenager. Their casting as the lead characters was a stroke of pure creative and instinctual genius. There was an electric chemistry between these two actors. There was a deep ebbing of passion coursing through this movie, yet Pattinson and Stewart were able to retain the pureness and innocence of first love, of true love. My thoughts on Twilight? Beautiful. The film style was up close and personal; it is a character story mostly and the camera feels like you’re actually in the room. It almost felt like spying at times. Forgive the special effects and the $37 million dollar budget. It’s a story about love. Deep, abiding, and eternal. A love worth waiting for. Twilight has loud whispers and strong undercurrents of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It also has deeper, slightly theological nuances and pulse. Eve does fall for temptation, but it is Adam who offers her the forbidden fruit, and desire is the serpent in the garden of the undead. In a surreal twist of fate, Bella Swan is tempted by everything that Edward Cullen is. She is tempted by the very curse that makes him immortal. And she is irrevocably tempted, beguiled, enthralled by the knowledge that she is unfathomably and seductively different from him; human. Edward Cullen is tormented by her mortality, and inexplicably drawn to the one person who could make him want to be human again. How can he stay away from her when she is his life? How can he be near her when his very nature is to lust for her blood?

~P.S.~ If you haven’t seen the movie yet, go see it! You will love it! Folks at Hollywood.com say, “The most epic romance since Titanic.” Justified!

Is Discombobulated A Real Word?

Suprisingly, yes, discombobulated is in fact a real word. It is a fancy adjective, and we here at The Scribe’s Desk absolutely love, love, love adjectives of all kinds, and the fancier the better. The definition of discombobulated as found at www.dictionary.com is as follows: to throw into a state of confusion. Less fancy synonyms for discombobulated are addled, confuse, upset, frustrate, you get the picture. The word rose to fame on the popular sitcom Seinfeld. In fact, the first time I ever heard the word was on that show, which by the way I watched religiously as part of my I think it was Thursday line up on NBC. Years passed before I heard it again, and I never heard it regularly. If I ever used it in my repertoire I was met with doubtful stares. I remember thinking, “This is not a real word!” I thought it was a “Georgeism”, just a funny word that George would use whenever he relayed another lame excuse or an anecdote of his daily foibles. Now I hear the word everywhere and almost daily. It’s used in everything from TV commercials to my daughter’s kids’ shows on the Treehouse station. So, now that you know, try using it in a sentence sometime. Carefully watch the expression on peoples’ faces as they try to figure out if you’ve just used a real word and if and where they’ve heard it before. It’s absolutely hilarious!