Just a quick post as I’ve been engrossed in Harry Potter movies the past few days. I decided to watch the 20th anniversary reunion show and that made me realize I’d forgotten a lot about these movies as it’s been ages since I’ve seen them. So, after watching that show, which I found quite touching despite me not being a hardcore fan, I decided to dive into the movies again. I wanted to refresh my memory on the plot but also for the cast, especially Alan Rickman who was so brilliant as Professor Snape. His entrance just after 1 minute 10 in this really fun party scene from the sixth movie Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince gives a teeny glimpse into his magnetic and sometimes very amusing performance as Snape.
I also remember really liking Gary Oldman in Harry Potter…
Seeing (parts of) the movies again, I was reminded how wonderful Gary actually was as Sirius Black and I’m in love all over again. My heart really beats faster for those little winks alone (ask Mr Esther, I adore winks)…
… but also for his wisdom…
… and for so much more…
I so wish he’d been around much more and much longer in the books and movies. Now all that’s left is to daydream about him, so I will go and do that now…
To celebrate, here’s a video I came across today. It was made a year ago but feels quite topical in light of the whole Time’s Up movement right now…
It’s not only Women’s Day today, by the way. Today is also the 47th birthday of my fave feminist in the world: my husband! I know he very much agrees with Alan Rickman here…
We were having dinner this evening and my daughter made a few jokes at the dinner table adding #BlueMonday to everything she said. Someone just finished the guacamole before I could heap on a second helping? Awww, Blue Monday! My son has trouble swallowing because his throat aches (poor boy has the flu)? Awww, Blue Monday! The cats are hungry? Awww, Blue Monday! You get the drift…
So, Blue Monday is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year, usually the 3rd Monday in January, which it is today. It got me thinking: is today really extra depressing?
Well, I won’t mention politics because that really is very depressing. Any time Donald Trump opens his mouth or posts a tweet my political depression and fear for the future deepens. And the populist far right threatens to get more control here too…
Our local music and arts school did have this ad poster that made me laugh…
The first time I drove by this I was wondering who on earth was advertising for Donald Trump’s hair piece! As Jane Austen so fittingly said in Pride and Prejudice: “For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?”. Little things like this do lighten my political depression a teeny bit.
What is also depressing is that this past week I was reminded that it was a year ago that both my hero David Bowie and Alan Rickman passed away… I was able to pick myself up by listening to Bowie songs and here at our house we have started re-watching the Harry Potter movies. My goodness, Alan Rickman really was such a brilliant Professor Snape!
These two men have left a great legacy.
On the personal #BlueMonday front – while I have had several job interviews I haven’t actually landed a steady new job yet. I have done a little bit of freelance work that has paid me very little and I do enjoy volunteer-teaching my small Dutch class every Monday morning (I teach 3 Polish ladies and an Italian man), but I wish for something more permanent with the job situation. Keep at it and keep trying, I guess. Something will turn up… I’m just so sick of applying for jobs… Just hire me already, I’m worth it! (I hope).
Also, today (after the Dutch class I taught) I spent the day helping my sick son get through writing an economics paper that was due today at the end of the day. I really do not enjoy economics, even though I realize that it basically rules the world. In fact, in today’s increasingly populist world, economics seem more important than human rights… and that depresses me too. #BlueMonday.
And Richard Armitage seems to have fallen off (or has possibly skied off) the edge of the earth. All mention of the Miles movie is gone, there are no announcements of new projects, no tweets. After a year of lots of news it feels so quiet all of a sudden. #BlueMonday. Luckily there are photos like this one to look back at (me)…
And yet, this #BlueMonday I also have very happy things to think of! In 10 days my husband and I will be celebrating 25 years together. We’ll go out for dinner on the date itself and then early March we have booked 3 days away in Brussels for just the two of us. I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to that! And speaking of trips – the only positive thing about Brexit for me personally is that, because the pound has dropped in England, it is cheaper for us to go there. So, making use of that, we have just booked a holiday ferry to the UK for this summer! We’ll be going to Yorkshire and surroundings for 3 weeks with our caravan and I will finally finally get to visit Haworth Parsonage where the Brontë sisters lived!
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
So, with these things to look forward to, this #BlueMonday is not quite as blue as it could have been! And for the optimistic #BlueMonday reader out there I’d like to give you the chance to dance along to the ‘Blue Monday’ song by New Order (here in the 1988 remix version). Or it could cheer you up if you are feeling extra blue after all…
And as it’s apparently also Martin Luther King Day, let me leave you with this quote:
Yeah, I know, I’ve been absent from my blog. Busy with other stuff, which means I haven’t blogged or read much of other blogs for a while. Plan to catch up here and there, but who knows… Anyway, crawling out of the woodwork and lo and behold, I find new pictures of Colin and Richard again!
Yesterday was the premiere of Helen Mirren’s new movie called Eye in the Sky. Colin Firth isn’t in it but he’s a producer of the movie and both actors were at the premiere. Some lovely shots of them together, the pictures suggest a real rapport between them.
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Generated by IJG JPEG Library
Awww, I love these! 🙂 Helen was looking gorgeous yet again, Colin was dapper and I love a shot of him with a fan, he looks so pleased.
Eye in the Sky is also Alan Rickman’s last movie… Short synopsis: “A military officer (Helen Mirren) in command of a drone operation to capture terrorists in Kenya sees her mission escalate from “capture” to “kill” just as a nine-year old girl enters the kill zone.”
And here’s a trailer in case your interest is piqued:
And after all of this, I also find new Richard pics (thank you to Perry on Armitage Agonistes for collecting the messages these pictures were shown in!). He’s apparently filming part of Berlin Station in La Palma (Canary Islands) now. Love seeing him with a loose white shirt like that…
Apparently this is one of the last things Alan Rickman recorded:
Great cause and funny too! Good one to share with others. More views = more money to help refugees! 🙂
And another Bowie pick of the day – the last one for now, I think. The song is “The Stars are out tonight” from Bowie’s 2013 album The Next Day. The video stars Tilda Swinton (awesome actress!!) who I read somewhere is already rumoured to play the role of Bowie in a future biopic. Now that would be genius casting! In this video Bowie sees a younger version of himself.
Enough now… time to move on… Remember the past, enjoy the present and embrace the future, right?
The Book of Esther 