When I want to feel good, Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive will always do it for me. I already mentioned that that song was brilliantly used in an episode of Lucifer but it was also briefly used on the final episode of the wonderful BBC sitcom Miranda and it was used in my favourite German movie called Jenseits der Stille (1996). I was just looking at all the versions this evening and decided to stick them back to back in one video…
So, now, when I need a smile, I can watch this on loop and my heart will explode with happiness and warmth each time. I recommend this as happiness tonic for everyone. 🙂
I probably shouldn’t post this – this is not a political blog after all and I am not an American (nor would I ever wish to be) – but oh my goodness, I can’t keep quiet! What is happening in the US affects the world and it affects me and I just need to let it out. So, look away now if you are sick of (left wing) politics and here goes…
From my perspective the US is completely falling apart under the current ‘leadership’ and my heart breaks. It’s one drama after the other coming from the US. This past week alone it’s been voter suppression, lying speeches at the Republican National Convention (RNC) that the Trump base will just lap up as truth and now the shooting of Jacob Blake and the inadequate response to that (#BlackLivesMatter people!)… I just can’t handle it anymore.
Here at home, we already call that man in the White House a wannabe dictator and if that man isn’t checked or, best yet, thrown out (how hasn’t that happened yet?!?), he will turn into one and that will be the end of US democracy. It is so painful to watch what has become of a country that the world, and my kids, used to look up to; the admiration has gone, my kids are disillusioned and stunned at the lies and the nationalist arrogance on display. We now feel disbelief and horror when we look at the US and the way in which this president and his cronies can not show any adequate leadership and, worst of all, are unable to show human decency. Well, First Lady Melania tried in her RNC speech, but her words sounded completely hollow, knowing to what a diseased administration she belongs.
I came across this the other evening: Charlie Chaplin in 1940 from the movie The Great Dictator and his attack on Hitler and Nazism. For a while there, after the Second World War, it seemed like we as a Western society were working towards the ideals he mentioned but we seem to be sliding away again…
It’s time that man in the White House is voted out with a very clear majority in November… I fear it won’t happen (I just can’t understand that Trump still has an over 40% approval rating!) but I so very fervently hope it will. The world, and my family, will be grateful.
I saw this tweet late this afternoon and read the little article behind it…
Winona Ryder: Mel Gibson “said to my friend, who’s gay, ‘Oh wait, am I gonna get AIDS?’ And then something came up about Jews, and he said, ‘You’re not an oven dodger, are you?'” https://t.co/7Cu1UbD939
… and it has made me feel completely sick! That comment about Jews, I will not repeat it here (don’t want those words on my blog) but I didn’t understand it at first. I’d never heard it before so I stared at it for a few seconds. Then it dawned on me what it was supposed to signify and I felt a punch in the gut, tears springing to my eyes. I literally couldn’t believe that such a cruel term existed! How disrespectful and hateful can someone be? How can anyone refer to survivors of the Holocaust like that? I just cannot wrap my head around such an awful comment. Ever since that antisemitic rant of that actor (he is also not worth mentioning) I have cringed at his name. Being drunk doesn’t excuse racist behaviour, it just exposes what is ingrained in a person. And that comment about gay people… wow… how can such a thing be said, even in jest?!?
Just before I read that I also read today (thank you Guylty for premiering the news for me!) that Richard Armitage will be making an LGBTQ+ movie called “Now and Then”. The article says it’s about: “Laura, in her 60s and Chris, her gay, middle-aged son, are forced to undertake an exploration of their past mistakes and regrets to try and make sense of their present condition and their relationship with each other. To find peace with now, it’s necessary for them to make peace with then.” Richard says it’s a role that resonates strongly with him (I would love to hear him speak more about that) and it sounds like a story with great potential. I’m really excited for this one!
We need movies like that to counteract the prejudice voiced by people like in the article above. We need more movies about antisemitism (that are not solely related to the Holocaust). Gregory Peck once made a good one in 1947 called Gentleman’s Agreement that may be a bit dated, yet still rings true today. It’s about a journalist who has to write a piece about antisemitism and to do so poses as a Jewish man for a few months…
In more recent years, we’ve also been getting some really good LGBTQ movies that have made it big, like the Moonlight movie last year that I loved about a young black man struggling with being gay, told during three key times in his life…
… and The Imitation Game about World War II code breaker Alan Turing who had experienced the necessity and cruelty of hiding that he was gay…
… and the movie Colin Firth made a decade ago called A Single Man about a college professor in 1962 wanting to kill himself after his boyfriend dies.
For Colin, this meant his first Oscar nomination and a turning point in his career when finally much better roles started coming his way again. I hope something like this will happen for Richard too, that this will be the door opening to other and better roles for him as well. Most importantly, though, this movie is a great thing in the fight against prejudice! The arts are so important…
I just finished my 10 days, 10 fictional crushes challenge yesterday but as I am someone who develops crushes all the time, I decided on a bonus edition. So, here are some images of other fictional crushes that I’ve had that didn’t make it into the 10 days. This time I’m sticking to few or no explanations, as was originally intended.
Let me start with a daddy crush on Charles Ingalls/Pa (Michael Landon) in Little House on the Prairie…
Gilbert Blythe (Jonathan Crombie) from Anne of Green Gables from when I was a teen.
I also really like Anne with an E‘s Gilbert (Lucas Zumann)…
…but he’s the age of my son, so it’s more like a mommy-crush. I keep on wanting to take care of him because he is an orphan and I keep on wanting him to be happy with his girl. I made a ton of Anne with an E (and Gilbert) videos, viewable here.
Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) in Roman Holiday…
James McKay (also Gregory Peck) in The Big Country...
Captain Keith Mallory (Gregory Peck) in The Guns of Navarone…
Sebastian Flyte (Anthony Andrews) in Brideshead Revisited…
Sir Percy Blakeney (also Anthony Andrews) in The Scarlet Pimpernel…
Don Pedro (Denzel Washington) in Much Ado About Nothing. Beatrice should have accepted him…
Harry Kennedy (Richard Armitage) in The Vicar of Dibley…
John Porter (Richard Armitage) in Strike Back….
Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) in The Hobbit…
Neo (Keanu Reeves) in The Matrix…
Alex Wyler (also Keanu Reeves) in The Lake House…
Remington Steele (baby Pierce Brosnan) in the 1980s tv show of the same name…
Daniel Rafferty (Pierce Brosnan) in Laws of Attraction. For me, sexier than James Bond…
I made a couple of Pierce Brosnan videos for Remington Steele, Laws of Attraction and Love is all you need, to be seen here if you’re so inclined.
Not normally a Mr. Bingley fan but I love this Mr. Bingley (Naveen Andrews) for this scene in Bride and Prejudice. I can’t tell you how often I have seen this clip. This is the sexiest Bingley I know.
Thor (Chris Hemsworth) from the Thor Avengers movies.
And finally, Sebastian Lacroix, or Bash, (Dalmar Abuzeid) from Anne with an E…
OK, now this really is it and I am finally, truly ending this challenge. These were the honorary mentions; I’m probably missing a few more but it should still be enough.
I’m avoiding the news this morning (so, also social media, but will check in with all that later today. It’s too disheartening these days to try and catch up with that before breakfast and now I need to work). However, a bit of entertainment news did come through, thanks to my tiny friend I mentioned in my Aragorn crush post yesterday. She mentioned to me that this had just happened:
A Lord of the Rings cast reunion on Zoom! Apparently, Josh Gad did this. I don’t know how it came to be, but I’m so excited that this happened! I’ve only seen the beginning of the video as I need to work now, so I took this screenshot towards the end of the video because I wanted to see who would be in it. I know, spoils the surprise, but I was too curious. And yes, most of the principal players are there…
This has been online since Sunday and already has 1,8 million views. I have to get on with work now but I can’t wait to become the next number in that viewing statistic. I need to watch this. Maybe I’ll ditch work for an hour after my 1 pm meeting ends. Why oh why does work have to interfere with fangirling?
