Thursday, October 31, 2013

Killer in the corn

What makes a cornfield so scary?  Last year I posted about scarecrows, but sometimes a field can be spooky looking even without the scarecrow.


 In Season 6, episode 12 of BonesDr. Brennan and FBI agent Booth discover
a grisly murder in a cornfield.


Recently I had the pleasure of hearing Brock Zeman perform  a crowd favourite,
his spooky song: "Killer in the Corn"


If you click on his name it will bring up his touring schedule.  He may be coming to a place near you!


In the Alice Sebold's novel, The Lovely Bones the main character, 14 year old Susie is murdered in a cornfield and she tells the story from her perspective as her soul lingers nearby her family while they try to cope with her loss.  Here is an excerpt of the first chapter which describes what happened to her.  (It is quite graphic so don't read it if it might disturb you.)

Saorise Ronan stars as Susie Salmon in The Lovely Bones

A film adaptation was made from the book in 2009 and was directed by Peter Jackson.  (It just happens to be his birthday today! ) Here is an interview with Jackson where he discusses the movie.

Director Peter Jackson has just wrapped up filming of his 3 part adaptation of The Hobbit, starring Martin Freeman as hobbit Bilbo Baggins and none other than Richard Armitage as the heroic dwarven leader Thorin Oakenshield.  There have been many interviews since part 1, An Unexpected Journey hit theatres last December.  Part 2, The Desolation of Smaug will be this Christmas season's offering.  The interview I would like to feature here was a film screening, and an interview session from Sydney, Australia known as Popcorn Taxi.

View the photo gallery here!

There are quite a few videos of this interview on Youtube and even on the Popcorn Taxi site, but I like that they also have the transcript here.
I have enjoyed listening to this interview more than once, but this time it was this quote which stood out for me.  When asked if he considered himself a "method actor", here was his response:
We were always told, ‘Don’t bring the character to you, go to the character’. I always preferred leaving lots of myself outside the room and exploring the world through the eyes and the body and the mind of a different person who is ultimately better than you are. Even if they’re a mass murderer, they’re infinitely more interesting than you are. People talk about The Method, or whatever. I don’t think I’m a Method actor. I have a method but I don’t believe you have to be a mass murderer to play a mass murderer.

So there you go.  Thankfully, Richard Armitage is definitely NOT the killer in the corn!
(I know I'll sleep better tonight!...)


Monday, October 14, 2013

Thanksgiving Time

We've been having some lovely fall weather lately, nothing like last year!  I only wish it could last longer.  But some strong winds keep blowing away that glorious golden foliage.  My back door (which needs replacing) keeps banging open and shut and it startles me every time.  This is also the time I am cleaning up our cabin to close it for the dreaded winter!

The song Four Strong Winds keeps running through my mind.  My favourite version is sung by Neil Young with Nicolette Larson from his Comes a Time album (1978).  This album is not only one of my favourite Neil Young albums, but also one of my all-time favourite albums period!

I found this video of the title song from the album.  The video seems to suit this season quite well.


I love Neil Young songs, but mixed with the harmonies of Nicolette Larson - it is so good it makes the hairs stand up on the top of my head!  I love to sing -- I used to be in a church choir, very small but we had some very good male voices and we were able to do 4 part harmony.  Sometimes, when I was singing and I hit a certain note, it mixed with the other voices I was hearing and gave me a buzz like a micro-second eargasm!  Have you noticed I love harmony?

But wait, now I'm off on a tangent -- this was supposed to be my Thanksgiving post.  I guess I get bored doing similar posts every year.  What else can I say?  Here was my post in 2010, my first year of blogging, where I attempted to explain our Canadian tradition of Thanksgiving:
It's Thanksgiving in Canada.
The next year I was lucky enough to be able to share a Gizzy cartoon, especially made for Thanksgiving by a fellow Armitagemaniac who is much more talented than I! :
Give Thanks for Gizzy!

So while Canada celebrates our Thanksgiving Day, I hope Armitage fans around the world have seen this wonderful video from Morrighan's Muse.  She has just celebrated her first anniversary as a fan of Richard Armitage.
Thank You Richard Armitage / by Morrighan Muse


Tomorrow I'll be baking some pumpkin pies and 
taking them over to my sister's house for our big turkey feast!


This is the best I could muster from my limited graphic skills, 
thanks to a couple of great free apps on my iPad.