Random Linkage: Steampunk House, Enjoying Ebert, and Alice Armor in Film and Tenniel - 2010-03-04 15:17:40
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A Visit to a Steampunked Home
The Steampunk Workshop (blog), 12/03/2009, link via io9
"...The center of the kitchen is dominated by an antique printer's bench topped with engineered quartz stone. The bench wasn't quite large enough to fit the space so Bruce found a salvaged pedestal from a girl’s school near Boston and used it to extend the bench. ...The wainscoting is galvanized tin (not wood) and was likely salvaged from a restaurant or government building. Bruce’s craftsman had to cut the wainscoting down about 10” inches the fit, and painted it with Benjamin Moore Bronze Metallic paint. He also used leftover outside porch balusters to make the separators between the panels."

I really love the look of this house! Especially the reuse of salvaged materials - that's always something I enjoy seeing worked into houses. Of course I can't imagine doing an entire house in the same theme (our nicknacks cover many themes), but it makes it all the more fascinating to look at photos of such a project.

Slaughter Nick for President ... in Serbia
From PRI's The World, 08 January, 2010
"The story of how a forgotten star of a campy 90s American TV show became a political icon in Serbia. ...Popovic says the character taught his son's generation how to fight evil with positive energy and humor.

"Nick Slaughter, he bridged that lost connection with Western civilization. Unbelievable, but yes. In that unlogical period of our history a lot of miracles happened, one of that miracle is Nick Slaughter.""

Such a random story - and there's a documentary being made about it. I think I vaguely remember watching an episode of Tropical Heat - or maybe I just think I do. The plot summary sounds like several other shows that were on at the same time. Anyway should you travel to Serbia someday this will explain why you'll see multiple bars named Tropical Heat.

Though you'd think that the new vampire lit revival would be right up my alley I have to confess to be pretty meh about the whole "vampires as sparkly romantics." (I prefer my monsters old school, thanks.) But I enjoyed this NPR audio review and list of books. There are actually a few in there I'm thinking I should read - after I make my way though all the books I'm trying to finish at present.

For Love Of Do-Good Vampires: A Bloody Book List
Margot Adler, NPR, February 18, 2010
"...But what I started noticing as I read all these novels and looked at all the recent television shows featuring vampires is that their near-immortality isn't the most interesting thing about them. Almost all of these current vampires are struggling to be moral. It's conventional to talk about vampires as sexual, with their hypnotic powers and their intimate penetrations and their blood-drinking and so forth. But most of these modern vampires are not talking as much about sex as they are about power."

I've not always agreed with his film reviews, but I've always enjoyed reading Roger Ebert. It was sad enough when we lost Siskel, because I always liked the back and forth banter of their tv show. When the show was made available on podcast I found myself listening more regularly. Then he lost his voice after one surgery and everything went quiet. Suddenly I found he was blogging more, and then twittering - and now he's probably one of the twitter feeds I enjoy the most. So the recent story of him getting his voice back - electronically at least - made me ridiculously happy.

Roger Ebert: The Essential Man
Chris Jones February 16, 2010, 7:01 AM
"It has been nearly four years since Roger Ebert lost his lower jaw and his ability to speak. Now television's most famous movie critic is rarely seen and never heard, but his words have never stopped. ...A single bed with white sheets has been set up among the books, down a hallway filled with Ebert's collection of Edward Lear watercolors. ...CereProc tailors text-to-speech software for voiceless customers so that they don't all have to sound like Stephen Hawking. ...it's almost impossible to sit beside Roger Ebert, lifting blue Post-it notes from his silk fingertips, and not feel as though he's become something more than he was. He has those hands. And his wide and expressive eyes, despite everything, are almost always smiling."

Hello, this is me speaking
Roger Ebert, RogerEbert.com, February 26, 2010
"After I lost my speaking voice, everybody thought they had this brilliant idea. "Hey! Why don't you just take your voice from your old shows and put it on a computer?" Sounded good to me. ...But it wasn't that simple. They listened to the old shows, and discovered (1) somebody else was always interrupting me, (2) I sounded all worked up a lot of the time, and (3) you could kinda hear the soundtracks of movies playing in the background. ...Before I lost my voice due to cancer-related surgery, I'd recorded commentary tracks for some movies on DVD...These tracks had been recorded separately from the movies, so they could be edited to fit scenes. They might be "pure" audio. ...Yes, "Roger Jr." needs to be smoother in tone and steadier in pacing, but the little rascal is good. To hear him coming from my own computer made me ridiculously happy."

How Roger Ebert found his new voice (Q&A)
Lance Whitney, CNET, March 4, 2010
"... The challenge faced by CereProc was trying to stitch together his voice from audio that was limited in length and poor in quality. Ebert's new voice made its first TV appearance on Tuesday's Oprah Winfrey show where the film critic and his wife Chaz spoke with Oprah and appeared in a taped segment revealing their life at home."

Humorously I wrote the part about me being "ridiculously happy" before I read Ebert's article - no idea he'd used the same words. Also I love that he has Edward Lear watercolors. I remember my dad reading Lear's poems to me. (They're really fun to hear read aloud.)

When I see photos of Ebert I smile - because he's someone that's now even more familiar to me thanks to twitter. And because his words almost always make me smile - the guy's always been funny. Like I said, I don't always agree with him on films - but he's so genuine about his opinions, and such a good writer, that I've always had a good time reading him. So when I read that he may possibly be able to talk - it's nothing that benefits me, yet I feel as happy as if something was given to a family member. I don't have some wacked idea that he's someone I actually know - but...well, here's an example. When I see the 5th photo of this series (annoyingly I can't link to #5 directly) - I don't think "my, look at the man bravely continuing to work despite adversity" or anything along those lines - I look at his library and think "wow, what a wonderful room to work in, someday I'd love to be surrounded by books like that." And in the other photos? I mostly just think "there's a man who loves his work." That's what I recognize in him, and what I admire.

Also I REALLY hope he can do a podcast or two sometime. These days I tend to listen to more podcasts than watch tv.

Speaking of movies - I'm really interested in seeing the movie Alice in Wonderland, and I have to admit my primary focus is on the costumes and special effects. Specifically armor. (Definite spoilers! Because the movie doesn't follow the book.)

Tim Burton's Alice to Don Armor, Slay Jabberwocky
Kyle Buchanan, Movieline.com, 24 Jul 2009
"...First, there’s confirmation of the news that leaked from early script reports: Alice must return to Wonderland to slay the Jabberwocky. In a tea party hall devoted to Anne Hathway’s White Queen, props on display for that fight included a sword for the Mad Hatter ("The Mad Hatter stands side-by-side with Alice in the final battle for Wonderland," read the attendant plaque) as well as a pretty comprehensive upgrade for Alice: vorpal sword, shield, and suit of armor.

She’ll don all three to face her prophesied enemy (voiced by Burton regular Christopher Lee), and an additional plaque noted that the shield "is the only protection Alice will have against the Jabberwocky in the film’s climatic [sic] scene.""

So here's the thing, the armor might not be something that Alice wears in either of the books - but I totally know what illustration it comes from. Check out the original illustration by John Tenniel:

Through the Looking Glass: Tenniel's Jabberwock illustration

You can see the rest of Tenniel's Alice illustrations here, thanks to Ignacio Fernández Galván. They can be found elsewhere, like Project Guternberg, but not in such nice jpgs.

Anyway if you look at that image of the Jabberwock you'll see that at the bottom right is the youth fighting the creature. I always assumed it was a long hair'd male doing the fighting because in the poem ("Beware the Jabberwock, my son") it's the son that goes off to kill the beast. And I also assumed that the youth is wearing chain mail. However the long hair is also very similar to Alice's (note her hair, as seen from behind). And I'm sure - from what I've heard about Burton's Alice there's a lot of re-interpretation going on - that someone else realized this and thought it was a great way to make Alice fight some of her demons. In any case look again at the sword in the Tenniel drawing and then the sword here (a glimpse of it, anyway):

Alice in Wonderland - Film Review
Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter, February 25, 2010
"...No longer a wide-eyed child, Alice Kingsleigh (a pitch-perfect Mia Wasikowska) is now an easily distracted 19-year-old who seems hopelessly out of sync with her muted Victorian surroundings. Dodging a garden-party marriage proposal from the dorky son of a lord and lady, Alice instead opts to take off after a pocket watch-clutching rabbit..."

I grew up reading - and having read to me - copies of both Alice books with Tenniel's illustrations. Since I also grew up without seeing many of Disney's films, I completely missed out on their version - and frankly I've always been glad of that. I may actually have seen the film at one point - I just don't remember it, and we never had any of the "fairy tales with Disney's art" books in our house. Frankly I think I had the better deal - because I really love the surreal and detailed Tenniel artwork. When I think of "All mimsy were the borogoves" mentally I think of this scene. And Tenniel's adult female characters are frankly scarier to me than - well, consider this image and this image.

I somehow think Burton will be more influenced by Tenniel than Disney - which is as it should be. Tenniel's artwork is wonderful and fascinating, and as weird as Carrol's writing was. The Disney version seems dull and bland in comparison. Tenniel gives you a glimpse of the world, and there's enough in his details to engage the imagination even more, and make you come up with more questions. (What is that in the background? What are all the things on the White Knight's saddle?) Looking at these illustrations makes me think fondly of being read to - and the Alice books were one of the few things I liked having read to me. (I quickly preferred to try and read things myself, as soon as I was able. Then began the hard task - for my parents - of getting me to put the book down and go to sleep.)

Anyway, no matter what the rest of the reviews say, I'll probably be interested in seeing Alice (theater or dvd rental, either way) just for the on screen art. Because whatever they do with the plot I'll be busy looking around for details from Tenniel. Something tells me this is a movie I'll end up buying a book on "the art of the movie."

And yes, I'd say today's film focus is thanks to pondering the Ebert articles.

Also I was playing around with the blockquote html on this post. Thought I might use it for my words instead of quoted articles, just to see what it'd look like. Probably somewhat confusing if you're used to me using it the other way round.

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