From Boycotting Pink to Defining Asexuality: Modern Fairy Tales

Here's a train of thought piece I wrote a little while back, enjoy!

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I’ve recently been reading a book about the effects of societal imagery and marketing on the minds of girls and women.  At least at the beginning, it was framed in the stereotypical paranoid characterized feminist manner – much as the title ‘Cinderella Ate My Daughter’ would lead you to expect.  As I read statistic after statistic, anecdote after anecdote, the authoress seemed to make the probability of my experience of upbringing to be very low, as if the likelihood such things should have not been a part of my childhood the feat of almost god-like powers on my parent’s part.  

Sure, I grew to feel the need to boycott pink as a child, 

and I never doubted for a second that, without any work whatsoever, once I reached a certain age I would suddenly have Barbie^©’s body – exactly.  

In addition, I couldn’t quite decide what ‘I wanted to be when I grew up’ (a question asked practically daily in America at least), but I finally decided I would wear high heels
 (a la the heroines in forties movies, simple, black, elegant) 

and have an office: possibly corroborating the theory that girls feel obligated and compelled to ‘have it all’, and that though women post-1920 can vote and post-1980 have a decent desk job beyond the secretarial, we also need to look cutting-edge at the same time.  

Extraneous from these admissions however, I couldn’t find much else in common with the cultural trends the authoress sourced.  Both my parents have career jobs – my father works at risk management at a major bank, my mother is a neurologist specialized in stroke treatment – and they never felt buying pink promoted femininity, and more importantly, that not buying pink promoted asexuality.  They simply bought clothes they thought looked good on us, and bought the books that taught nice lessons or were well written, and bought a variety of films, again based on quality and their specific taste – our only cartoon movie for quite a few years was ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit.’  

I played with a few Barbie^©’s, but I didn’t have many, and though I shifted a few dresses, it was more about role playing in whatever constructed situation; I had an American Girl doll, but and I think I read one of the poorly constructed non-historically accurate books, but I found it as vapid as it was, and even didn’t bother to find out the girl’s name, and soon tired of playing with the doll, instead spending hours staring at the tiny Victorian bag with the slate and tiny chalk.  The list goes on, but I have other objectives to tackle.  I didn’t have much interest in sports but I loved rolling on hills and I loved playing kickball – a mix of baseball and soccer.  I collected dead bugs on an sophisticated level (whenever I found a new species, I would put it in my transparent grid box and label it with my father’s help).  

In short, my parents raised me on their joint interests, and though my father did a little more scheming to make sure we always read books with positive heroines – down to making an animal character that could be either sex female instead of male when he read before our literacy – 

(specifically, "Jooka Saves the Day" by Gilles Eduar)

overall, they didn’t bother to discriminate this or that influence, and especially, exposed us to their adult interests and tastes more often then delineated things specific to childhood.

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Here's a tidbit I'll add to those thoughts of a few months ago:

To really have a field day concerning the implications of how women are "targeted" in various media these days, watch the web comical commentary series "Target Women."

to see this video on youtube, click here

(I just uploaded in case the youtube link expires)

P.S. Cut N' Style Barbie was my favorite Barbie growing up, only i lost all her extensions early on and didn't get for years why she had less hair and some Velcro on the back of her head.  i just loved her choker and earrings.  I still have her, and I still love her (she's on my desk right now actually, the result of a recent passionate urge to research everything Barbie, but that'll be another post), though I've long lost her original dress.

Petrosinella, Rapunzel, and Tangled: Princesses and the Other, Part 1

otherwise known as: 

My Obsession with Tangled: Part One of Infinity

"And the walls that surround her, and hold her back, are symbolic of walls in anyone's life, those things that hold us back from being who we really long to be. Yes, that is feminist and masculinist and humanist."

- Glen Keane, Executive Producer of "Tangled" and Directing Animator of Rapunzel

In this series, I won't only be discussing Disney's adaptation of Rapunzel, "Tangled."  However it was the teaser trailer that inspired me to look up older adaptations and the origins of the tale in general.

Petrosinella Diane Stanley

Rapunzel Trina Schart-Hyman

Disney's Tangled

- In fact directly after seeing the Tangled teaser trailer a google search lead me to watch my first Barbie movie, Mattel's "Barbie as Rapunzel" - so you see how avid I was to find something to get my Rapunzel fix!

  Anyhow, I figure I'll start by telling you how I became fascinated with Rapunzel/Lady in the Tower tales through the release of "Tangled" in 2010, an hopefully you'll become fascinated along with me!

My freshman year in the usual generic way I was asked to write an essay entitles "An Event that Changed Me."  I felt like I'd underwent much change but could not pinpoint any particular "event."  The following was my first draft.  It was trashed because my teacher did not accept a movie as an event.  Anyhow, it is a good introduction to my love affair with the movie, and after this I will elaborate on the feminist themes I touch on here.

The language is especially fanatic here, don't let that scare you.  I was feeling poetic I guess so I flew off the handle.  Don't worry - I am capable of discussing the faults of the movie, and I'm not starting a cult surrounding it any time soon.  I do however like its themes involving women and the human condition, so I thought this especially colorful intro would be nice.  Here goes:

An Event That Changed Me

Normally it would seem frivolous to name a movie as an event capable of changing someone’s life, but even the severest critic knows the impression the Disney© Company has left on the entire world’s culture; and as a member of the world I have been influenced as well.  When the first teaser trailer for Disney’s adaptation of the Rapunzel fairy tale “Tangled” came out, something hit me; something fantastic, infectious: I had to know everything about it.

The energy, the tactile promise of the hair itself, the possibilities of what such a company was to do with the first CGI fairy tale musical ever let alone my second favorite fairy tale – it lit something up inside me, and I haven’t gotten over it since.

It served as a catalyst that called for action, called for questioning all the concepts that intrigued me, called for me to face various conflicts in my life and provided a lens through which to understand myself more and more.  It begged the eternal balance between the relevance and weight between “to do” and “to be.”



My reader might ask whether I am superimposing something that isn’t there on a simple film; and I would say they are both right and wrong.   The film’s unusual artistry and detail, coupled with its outstanding relevance to me at this time in my life and development, caused a level of involvement, expression, and enthusiasm that can even be described as articulate yet boundless.  You might say it changed me so much because it was already so much a part of me.  Self-awareness and exploration is change too.



It started innocently enough; when the teaser trailer came out, and the bright colors, detailed CGI cloth and hair design, and the smart-ass chameleon hit my eyes I decided to do some research, find out more about it.

I have since collected article after article, filled 2 DVDs with information and videos about its development, merchandizing, face characters, technological publications, and staff, and bought “The Art of Tangled,” the only book so far released discussing the behind-the-scenes decisions and art direction.

So far I have as much as 17 GB total of information not to mention my compilation of concept art, advertising, and other Tangled-related imagery currently adding up to about 2.29 GB (5,350 photos).  Even if these figures are a mystery to a layman’s ear, be assured I haven’t managed to read as fast as I’ve been collecting!  I am a person who likes to delve to the very depths of meaning and form and an animated feature is so complicated in the necessary planning and labor involved that there can be no end to the treasures I can find.

With Disney specifically however, all decisions must have thorough research behind them (John Lasseter stresses this in all interviews, and it does appear to be true to some extent); for example, the very shape and contour of a street-cart that only appears on the screen for thirty seconds must first have been decided from a thorough research on different street-cart designs from across history and across the world, as well as with the shape themes found in certain genres of animated films and the specific shape themes chosen for this particular movie (this is a random example of course - but I can tell you for certain they researched in a like manner for animating the aging Mother Gothel).

Being the first CGI film with hair as such a main plot point, all new technology was needed to create realistic hair – but it also had to be stylized, for just as an actress in a movie could not physically hold up so much hair, neither can an animated character – so a stylistic physical world had to be created – the very laws of physics changed, both for immediate simulation and for artistic manipulation at an animator’s convenience.  I’ve always loved physics – though I am by no means naturally gifted in the field – but it was Tangled that made me realize just about anything one is inclined to like can be applied to a work, an opus, a vision.  Such a marriage of process and artistry is in my mind the very essence of life.

Tangled specifically also mirrors the long history of the Disney company, for even dating back to the days of the founder, Walt Disney (with whom I happen to share a Birthday) an adaptation of the Rapunzel story was in development – and saw trials and errors, attempts and failures, all documented in a library, creating a wealth of ideas to draw from; and it is often proudly advertised by Disney that their greatest treasures lie in their past mistakes.  The challenge with the Rapunzel story also mirrored the challenge of life in the sense that the problem always went back to the enclosing and limiting space of the one room the fairy tale Rapunzel is necessarily trapped in.

Can fiction – and, by implication, thought, action, interesting and incentivized life – take place in an enclosed space?  Which – if interpreted metaphysically – could be seen as the human condition’s earth and mortality itself?

These concepts were also layered within the story – not just with the original fairy tale, and the implications of what they could do with it, which was the subject of my constant musings before it came out in theaters – but also with the movie itself, which once it was out in theaters I saw ten times.  – But I’m getting ahead of myself.  After that first trailer, I experienced a whole lifetime of change even before the movie came out!  In particular, the idea of contained then released energy – the “imprisoned” girl, her hair almost representing a compressed spring, and then the release, the liberation.

In the Grimm version the release is first banishment, but the ending is very clear – she was once in a tower, defined by a tower, and now she is out of the tower, and it no longer defines her.  Very identifiable for a 20 year old girl who chose to take two years between high school and college, spending a lot of time about books in her room – not looking out the window perhaps, but looking out into the internet – to the potential of thought and expression.

This image of the girl looking out the window in a sort of wistfulness for the unknown – not just the “Manifest Destiny” concept of literally exploring the rolling hills leading to the horizon – but in constantly wanting to find more, earn more, do more; the hunger born in everyone’s soul.  Conversely, the idea of Rapunzel – her riches in seclusion (for the dim prison of the Grimm story is not accurate to the gilded “cage” of the original story, “Petrosinella”) – coupled with Disney’s Rapunzel – the ultimate expresser, painting the walls “to make them disappear” as Glen Keane, the head of her animation, said – she HAS to express herself.

As Glen Keane also said, “Even her hair is growing" to an extreme length symbolizing all she can and wants to be – attracts a very alluring concept of an private, isolated, and permanent home, a pedestal, the wish to in fact never “escape” – as Freud would put it, the wish to retreat back into the mother’s womb.  But Rapunzel in many versions does the exact opposite, doesn't she?  She becomes a mother herself.

Mother Gothel discovers Rapunzel's Pregnancy
(because her dress becomes too tight)

Rapunzel Paul O. Zelinsky

Nevertheless I knew such feelings must be fleeting, for both heroines got sick of their beloved privacy and broke free, risking everything for the chance to share their world with someone else. And surely I would do the same.  Such thoughts and images feverishly fleeted though my mind as I googled and read forums and papers and interviews and theories, all attached to what some would simple-mindedly call a simple film; or even, a conventional, pandering propaganda machine.

Even such an accusation as I have just made calls to mind the stubborn quest for the idyllic – controversy – denial – debate – hope – failure – independence.  I confess in my exponentially growing obsession I lost much sleep and saw much less people for a while in the contemplation of these terms and the study of these concepts; but Tangled also made me a more involved person.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don't forget too, the Rapunzel Tale starts with a girl - I don't know of one that starts with a princess.  A girl destined to be a princess, of course, but not a girl who was born to be a princess, or knows herself to be one, or to even be destined to be one.  Yes, in the Disney version, possibly to stress her arrested potential, they have Rapunzel a born princess, ignorant of her birthright.  But the truth of the tale remains the same: the tale starts with a girl, just some girl, usually a very common, if beautiful, girl.  In all interviews the Directors and Animators and Developers of Tangled's Rapunzel stress they designed her to be more of a "girl next door," a girl you could imagine meeting, even being - not a distant princess archetype.  So you see this old fairy tale has a very immediate, earthy sense to it.  I'll be exploring that a bit more as well, - if all goes well.  It's a meeting of opposites: the humble girl and the crown.

I'll leave you with those thoughts for now.

Here's A taste of the blog entry to come -

Part 2: Rapunzel Film Adaptations Before Disney Gave it a Go

Pandora and Eve

I'm posting an essay I wrote - assigned for school, as will be obvious, but nonetheless I did write opinions that were in fact my own and therefore are worth posting.  This was written when I was first starting freshman year of college after two gap years so be kind.

A little explanation is necessary before you read.

Using three very specific texts, namely Eve's mention in the second and third chapters of the Bible's Genesis and Pandora's mention in Hesiod's Theogony, lines 507-631, and Hesiod's Works and Days lines 42-100ish, we were to compare Pandora and Eve.  However, we were strictly to avoid thinking of Pandora  in the sense of the well-known myth - her being forbidden to open a box, which out of curiosity she opens and it turns out to have all the bad things in it.  Apparently though this tale is widespread there is no ancient primary source that mentions anything like it, other than she opened a cask at some point, and therefore our beloved legend must be some sort of modern development.

Thus our modern minds would be especially tempted to have an Eve-like interpretation of Pandora off the bat - curiosity leading to the downfall of man, etc., which is hardly the way to approach the actual proof of period views of these ladies.

(Harry Bates - Pandora, 1891, front 

- on temporary display at Tate Britain, August 2010)

At any rate, this essay is strictly the interpretation of texts, not involving much outside knowledge of culture, and with no other scholarly sources.

Here are links to the texts if you wish to read or refer to them at any point -

these aren't the translations I used, but I don't think I can legally share those with you, and these are close enough of course:

The Bible: Genesis chapters 2 and 3
Hesiod Theogony starting line 507
Hesiod Works and Days starting line 42

Yay! Here we go.

Pandora and Eve; Femmes Fatales of Old

In the creation of Woman the Hebrews and Greeks saw great potential for explaining the dynamics between the sexes; both stories call to question the function of woman with reference to Man and God. In not asking the reverse – what function man and god has to woman - Pandora and Eve are both rendered second class citizens in their own creation stories. Pandora and Eve, through the weakness indulgence creates, are both sources of all womanhood and the doom of mankind; and, as opposed to the natural creation of Man out of dust (whether it be the Hebrew God or the Greek Prometheus), these original women are created differently and for a different and specific purpose, as an afterthought – certainly not part of an original plan – , and solely for man. However this is where there likenesses end; for the Hebrew Bible goes to lengths to give Eve enough autonomy to decide to take of the forbidden fruit, and, though it brands woman forever as the original sinner, in so doing she must be made a person to be capable of such an act. With Hesiod’s Pandora, she is a curse hidden as a gift that was meant to be returned, and that is all; she is a mere object and burden and her purpose and self are one in the same.

Eve After the Fall, Alexandre Cabanel

Neither Pandora nor Eve was born. They were created; after man and for Man, through a divine imperative. Made through a completely different process than Man, in a very specific and graphic way, they are in a sense rendered less natural than Man and less human. Consider Pandora’s second name after “Woman” – “manufactured maiden” (Theogony 510-515) and Eve’s first description by Man as “bone of my bones/ and flesh of my flesh” (2:23); the picture of the Hebrew God effectively drugging Man in order to extract the necessary body parts to assemble Eve feels more contrived than sacred: "the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman" (2:22). This distinction between Woman and Man leads to the concept of different roles; of weaknesses in particular, perhaps through unconventional assemblage. Both Eve and Pandora, through their relationship with man, bring much “toil” (3:17, Theogony 595-600) to him, to “hurry about [his] work…until the sun/ Goes down” “by the sweat of [his] face” (3:19). As result of her influence over him, he is “cursed” (3:17) – in the case of Pandora, she is literally called “the lovely curse” (Theogony 585-590).

Adam and Eve, Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1597

Though both women are referred to solely though the roles they play, that is where the material difference between them is found. Their names speak of the function assigned to them: “Pandora” meaning “all gifts” – “the gifts which all the gods/ Had given her” (Works and Days 80-85) and “Eve” meaning “living,” “because she was the mother of all living” (3:20). Eve, despite her mistakes, is nonetheless called only a few simple names – “woman” (2:22, 2:23, 3:01, 3:02, 3:04, 3:06, 3:12, 3:13, 3:13, 3:16) “wife” (2:25, 3:08, 3:20, 3:21, 3:17) “Eve” (3:20) and “mother” (3:20). She is a member of the family. She was made because “It is not good that man should be alone;” she is Man’s “helper and partner.” Not so with Pandora. Her name’s meaning is a plural noun; and she herself represents a collection of objects: women. Pandora is called many, many vicious names – “an evil thing for [Man’s] delight” (Works and Days 55-60), “this ruin,” and “this ruin of mankind” (Works and Days 55-60, 80-85) “deep and total trap” (Works and Days 70-75) “Into the image of a modest girl” (Works and Days 70-75); it is made clear she was designed as a false sexual parasite and nothing more – to “fill [her belly] up/ With products of the toil of others” (Theogony 595-600).

Pandora, Jules Joseph Lefebvre

In her entire story in both the Work and Days and Theogony scripts she only commits two verbs: “thrilled” (Theogony 585-590) and “opened” (Works and Days 90-95); the first is the ironically innocent depiction of the a girl as belle of the ball “thrilled by all her pretty trappings”, unaware that she was brought “to a place/ Where gods and men were gathered” in order to “[seize] the mortal men and gods,/ To see the hopeless trap, deadly to men” (Theogony 585-590). In the Works and Days version it is made clear that she is not so naïve and childlike as her first verb would make her appear – for, thanks to Hermes, she has been given “sly manners, the morals of a bitch” “lies and persuasive words and cunning ways” – and, most importantly, Aphrodite’s gift, “painful, strong desire, and body-shattering cares” (Works and Days 60-80). Through these terrible, if passive vices she is made to be the “price for men to pay for fire,/ An evil” (Theogony 570-575), being desirable, irritable, and useless simultaneously; with only enough personality to carry out her second and last verb: “But now the woman opened up the cask, and [scatter] pains and evils among men” (Works and Days 90-95) – that is, disease and death.

Attributed to the Niobid Painter. 

The Creation of Pandora. 

Attic Red Figure, Calyx krater shape. 

Archaic Period. British Museum, London, UK.

Creation of Pandora, interior of Cylix,

470-460 B.C., British Museum, London, England

Eve is guilty of many verbs – “saw” “desired” “took” “ate” and “gave” all appear in the same verse (3:06); likewise she is born naked, whereas Pandora’s very creation is expressed through the applying of clothes: she has “robes” “belt” “necklaces” “wreath” “crown” “flowers into a crown” – all detailed and made by Gods specialized in those fields (Theogony 570-585, Works and Days 60-85). Eve’s lack of adornment emphasizes her person and her actions; Pandora is defined as all adornment; even her “skills” are bestowed upon her by the Gods. Eve speaks; Pandora does not. Though both illustrate the power of indulgence to destroy – Eve partaking of the fruit, Pandora inciting lust –Pandora was specifically created to, and Eve was not. Most importantly, Eve is given punishment, and Pandora is punishment incarnate – Eve is doomed to “desire…for [her] husband” concurrent with “pangs of childbirth” (3:16) whereas Pandora causes man to “[live] all his life/ With never-ending pain inside his heart/ And on his mind” (Theogony 610-615), and to add insult to injury, she (and so saying, all women) is “No help to [men] in poverty/ But ready enough to share with [him] in wealth” (Theogony 590-595). Eve sins (whether arguably to her lesser nature or no), and she suffers consequences; Pandora merely exists as consequence to others.

Illustration for John Milton’s “Paradise Lost“ by Gustave Doré, 1866.

The two famed female figures may both have a reputation as femmes fatales, but they carried out their sentence on mankind in very different fashions; Eve diverting from a chosen path through personal will, Pandora simply in being herself as she was created. They are both cited as the first woman, and both directly or indirectly caused punishment to be inflicted on the whole of man; however the Hebrew account chose to personify where the Greeks objectify. Neither can really make proud any conventionally modern feminist group; but perhaps the ideology behind Eve can more clearly exemplify the Hebrew view of woman was mother and wife first, sinner second.

~end of essay~

What I've Been Up To

GREETINGS ALL

... yet another comeback entry ^~^

It has been four months today since my last post! Sheesh!

It's been a crazy four months. Mostly filled with me working on this blog.

Which obviously means I have no idea what a blog actually is. I keep doing research and making videos and uploading pictures and writing scribbles on saved drafts till each one becomes the length of a book. I've also had a full-time albeit temporary job and begun applying for college.

Anyhow the geekily self-proclaimed "idiosyncratic feminist" is back to re-explore what I possibly could have meant by that term.

To give you a mental picture of what the past four months has been for me, consider this a little snapshot:

In two weeks it will be the year anniversary of this blog so I figured I'd better get cracking. So first I'd thought I'd show my reader(s) that I have far from forgotten them and have in fact been thinking only of this blog for the past four months. It may have occurred to you by now that I'm a bit of a perfectionist. And you'd be... very right.

Ok so this blog entry is a bit of an inbetween non-entry because it doesn't really have a topic, so I thought I'd list the upcoming entries that I'm hoping I can make myself publish before they are encyclopedia length (these are working titles):

• Subli-mer-inal Images and How We Channel Them
• Rapunzel & Tangled
• Tangled
• The Allure of Break-Up Songs
• The Big C
• Ariel
• The Little Mermaid
• Fan Disney Music Videos - A Limitless Source
• Judith and Holofernes - Biblical Gore
• My Favorite Fairy Tale OF ALL TIME
• Girls as Heroines
• Childhood Ambition of Office and High Heels
• Virginia Woolf & "A Room of One's Own"

... not to mention ideas for entries I haven't started.

I thought a good way to convey just how busy I've been (though it's hard to give you an idea without giving too much away) would be to list tidbits here and there. So here I go.

Oh wait but first I'd like to endorse a company that I very much approve of, especially as it comes with a blog - "Aladine Wings" run by Aladine, my sister. If my theme may be considered discovering what the **** feminism is, hers is exploring the border between fantasy (specifically folklore and fairy tales) and reality. Her business is in the contruction of fairy wings - wearable and mountable. They are beeeautiful and as Halloween is coming up I'd thought I'd do you all a favor by pointing you in her direction.

Sister Fairies! I know I'm being a bit of a pitchman right now, but her work is particularly close to my heart especially as she painted on my face for photo shoot ideas yesterday - which I forgot to wash off - so in the morning when I drove my little sister to school and I saw my old highschool principal outside I hoped he wouldn't see my newly dark dyed hair tips combined with the day-old wings/horns painted on my face and draw conclusions about my new lifestyle. Plus I hadn't had any coffee yet. Well anyway I got away before I was seen.

Anyhow...

Click the image below to be re-directed to her official website - http://flavors.me/aladine - you may notice I've made this a permanent side-bar to my blog so you won't have to look for this entry every time!

And yes, I know she makes fairy wings which have little or nothing to do with mermaids, mermaid fins, or their ilk, but I like mermaids so there.

Her official blog may be found at this link - http://aladinewings.blogspot.com - her new experiments with the lost in the woods/ don't trust the old hag who claims she'll help you type concept are very interesting.

She's also got a facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aladine-Hand-Crafted-Fairy-Wings/147031118655261) if those two sites weren't convenient enough

for you.

PLEASE click this image for a bigger more gorgeous version of two of her wearable hand-crafted fairy wings featured at the "Rubanesque" in Ireland.

Ok. NOW on to the list!!!!!!! You remember - the list of thing's I've been up to.

1) Perry

Yes, I was over at a new friend's house with Disney's "Phineas and Ferb" playing in the background - soon to be the foreground - it was love at first sight. Anyone who knows me can tell you, I am obsessed with the Platypus. Have been for years. I have a partiality for oddball creatures but the Platypus is what started it all. I have an unfinished novel/ novel series idea starring a Platypus. So when I found out this show, starring a completely awesome secret agent Platypus named Perry, had been existent for a couple of years now, well. I was frusturated but I committed the rest of my time to watching as much as possible. I LOVE IT.

My new credo is "What would Perry do?" (Right after "What would Barbie do?" to be explained in another entry...)

My new hope is that they'll invent a surgery to become a cartoon Platypus so I can marry this character. I also happen to be a fan of the other aspects of the show, but right now all I want to say is PERRY PERRY PERRY PERRY (which I at first spelled in my head as "Peri").

What does this have to do with feminism? Well, if you were paying attention earlier, this is an entry explaining how I've spent my time and it may come as a shock to you but not all are immediately applicable to feminism. Although... I could come up with something later. Just to please you. Like, I don't know, a discussion of why they chose to make Perry male, or whether or not their adherence to the conventional structure of conventional older sister against younger unconventional brothers (if in an obvious attempt at parody) offends me (it doesn't)/ is a smart decision/ perhaps the parody part is overlooked?/ what does Perry's animal role do to offset the sibling gender rivalry/ analyzing individual episodes.

See? I could come up with something.

Anyhow, here's my husband's theme song.

And HERE is a slideshow of my mere 374 screencaptures of Perry in slideshow form. I set it to autoplay so in the time reading/skimming/skipping the previous material of this entry you may have missed earlier bits but there's plenty to see and you can always mill through them at your own convenience by clicking the Perry immediatly following my little slideshow:

Perry

And now, for my new and ultimate favorite Perry video, YOUR WELCOME!

Oh, and some BRILLIANT Doofenschmirtz videos, I love his character too, though he of course isn't a Platypus and therefore cannot touch Perry's epicness. And I think he knows it. Though as human he gets pretty close.

Oh, and I might as well include a non-perry related clip that is blatantly a tipped hat to the feminist movement. Quite adorable, actually. The whole episode is.

Ah and in case you were curious, I'll embed the very first episode I ever saw, that turned me on to the Phineas and Ferb/ Perry and Doofenschmirtz/ Perry craze (I've now seen all episodes available in the US right now plus one): "One Good Scare Oughta Do It!"

Okay, on to #2 on the list of the things this particular busy bee has been doing...

#2) finding better and better quality/ obsessing over film adaptations

Particularly of "The Little Mermaid," my ultimate favorite story of all time. But it's been tough. Some of these things took some real digging, hours of work first finding them and then God Forbid finding them in DVD quality (since some of them aren't even available on DVD these days, though I'm still hoping.) I feel like Ariel trying to hoist her Prince to the surface of the water. I know it'll be great once I get up there, but JESUS hotness is heavy!

It's actually been so much work and such a continual pursuit I'm considering constructing a website in collaboration with this blog devoted exclusively to the story of "The Little Mermaid," because oddly enough there isn't one out there - other than the too specific, like Ariel, and the too general, like all Hans Christian Andersen.

Anyhow here are some compare and contrast, before and after screen captures to give you an idea. It'll be even more obvious if you click for a larger version (which will open in a separate window.) In all cases the first is a screencap from a version found on youtube, and I'd like to take this moment to thank the people who uploaded these for changing my life by providing these because damn they are hard to find, and even if I did end up finding better versions I wouldn't have known about them otherwise. And one is in Russian and no english subtitles can be found anywhere in the world except for by that youtuber's translation so far as I can tell and I have LOOKED so they particularly should be nominated for sainthood.

In that last one I was triply fortunate to find DVD quality by actually unearthing the DVD! Since for some anomale in his career Richard Chamberlain chose to narrate this version, people cared to have it for their complete collections so I finally found it through TCM! It was one of the happiest moments of my life, though it was insanely overpriced at $40 for a 30 minute feature but I guess they know just how rare it is. Plus it was totally worth it. I also strongly encourage you to click this image as it is a gorgeously good quality scan.

Also, click the left "Shop TCM" button to view the link to the buyable product itself on that site, and the right screencapture to view the information and credits the site provides, which is strangely more versed than the IMDB despite it's scant appearance. It is really that obscure. But it's so good. Can't WAIT to blog about all this!

- http://turnerclassic.moviesunlimited.com/Product.asp?sku=D49239
- http://turnerclassic.moviesunlimited.com//shop01.swf

Oh and I've also been generally obsessed with finding other versions so here are a few to give you an overall impression. The first couple are indeed adult Shirley Temple. It opens with Shirley Temple out of character stating "ever since I was a child I've wanted to play the little mermaid who falls for a land prince" - I find it funny that a normal person just means an unrealistic childhood dream, whereas in Shirley's case it was probably more of a case of a crammed schedule XD - Nota Bene: the rest of these Mermaid screencaptures are from more rediculous versions.

This next one I've only been able to obtain clips from. It is from the "Happily Ever After" series featuring multi-cultural versions of well-known tales. I am more reluctant to buy the sketchy and suspicious looking DVD for this one a) b/c the DVD doesn't look quite legit and b) I'm not as in love as in the others, but if I have to I have to. I'm that hard core of a fan of the story!!! And the clips I've found are amusing and stress parts of the story none of the others do, like the fashionable clams the little mermaid must wear in accordance with her coming of age that she doesn't appreciate b/c the pinch her tale, despite their being the highest fashion that her old Grandmother loves and wears with royal pride. If anyone can find a full version online please direct me to it I would love that soooo much!!!

#3) Tech stuff

With all this searching and blog research I have had to acquire a certain internet savvy which is turning into a full-blown education including signing up for legit online HTML and CSS courses which I ADORE. I've even considered making it a side career, I love this so much. I'd hoped to publish this entry before midnight to make the 4 anneverary deadline, so I'll make this section quick by just listing a few programs I've found and learned to love and overuse.

UnRarX

handbrake

submerge

screentoaster, which was completely closed down and said it would close by july 1st, thankfully lied so now it is back up

Ah, and I can't neglect to mention my more recent debut with subtitling. It begun when I found the DVD quality Russian and had to re-write the subtitles - which meant I had to learn how to make a .srt file, which I figured out myself without any help and I tell you it is TEDIOUS WORK. Here's a little excerpt to give you an idea. Ugh so tedious tedious tedious!!!!

.srt files; ex:

"0

00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:04,000

Direct from the youtuber yeliza0veta's english subtitles - Thank You.

1

00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:46,000

In front of you, ladies and gentlemen,

the famous mermaid

2

00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:51,893

the way she was written by the

great Hans Christian Andersen

3

00:01:53,699 --> 00:01:54,893

in a story of love.

4

00:01:56,299 --> 00:02:07,248

Ladies and gentlemen, in the time

of Andersen, love still existed.

5

00:02:08,459 --> 00:02:16,417

These stupid people! They think love exists,

and mermaids don't!

6

00:02:18,619 --> 00:02:22,000

But you and I know it's the exact opposite!"

Ah, and as a sort of corallary to this suff, I've taken to watching stuff in other languages - since I'm pretty monolingual despite my many years of lessons in Spanish and Latin - specifically, I have become obsessed with Russian.

Here are some clips that amuse me, especially as Anastasia would actually be talking in Russian, not English (not that this movie is in any way accurate, so I figure it is just one more thing that is widely off the mark ;) hehe.)

To hear the original soundtrack and read lyrics - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG0WdsytDGY

To watch with translated lyrics (from the dubbed Russian) but lesser sound quality - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygNOpeq0118

To hear the original soundtrack and read original english lyrics - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1zamKoUREI

Okay running out of time I only have nine minutes left!!!!!

#4) making videos for future blog entries!!!!!!!! My youtube account's activity has been the polar opposite of my blogger account... click this next image to get an idea!

Video editing/ making - LOTS and LOTS of HOUR upon HOURSSSSSSS of video editing/making. Nonstop. No joke!!!! And, ironically, every single one has been made with future blog posts in mind - honest to God.

I've been very into multi-media analysis and presentation lately; what better way to jazz up re-asessing an often-used if endlessly intriguing topic, than through a visually and auditorily engaging art form - that also conveniently gets around the legal issues of sharing clips from films I wish to discuss. For it does indeed help bring legitimacy to this site; if it were up to me, I'd upload entire films to discuss and I'd love it b/c I could discuss every detail without having to expend any effort in stipulating what scene is which or considering which my audience is more or less likely to recognize. However, I can't, so I've been studying the minute details if the Fair Use Copyright Act up the wazoo as well as in general studying what has been banned or deleted or whatever do to copyright grounds, taken a hard look at my own personal ethics with regard to imagination/information property, and emerged - well, I'd like to say enlightened, but um, no. I'm kind of still flabergasted but less so! I hope.

Anyhow music videos that include my input in a more subtle and artistic way (and therefore including my own intellectual property, or whatever it's called) - meant to also eventually go with analysis in this blog, well, hot dog (as I picture Jimmy Stewart saying) that's perfect for my personality type and my personal hopes for what this blog is going to continue being.

Next in my list of hopes and dreams - write more coherent sentences. I'll get back to you on that one.

Since they were and are all meant to be for future blog entries, I am hesitant to include any in this second (and I fear, not final) "comeback" entry, I cannot stop myself from sharing SOMETHING to show the effort that has been going into this blog every day for the past two months - though "behind closed doors" or "behind the curtain" or "backstage" or w/e. It's my most recent one, my magnum opus, perhaps the hardest one yet. I'd been solidly working on it for two weeks, though technically I worked on it more like three weeks. I loved the idea and I almost gave up on it several times but I think I nailed it. It will in fact be featured in a (hopefully near) future epic series on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid," so think of this as a taste of what's to come. And proof that I still care. XD

Youtube Description:

I worked really hard at this - b/c I really felt this song held potential in honoring Hans Chirstian Andersen's vivid yet gentle tale.

Clips From:

Soyuzmultfilm's 1968 Rusalochka

http://vimeo.com/17829187

Reader's Digest 1974 Little Mermaid http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7D0A78167AE33CA2

Disney's 1989 Little Mermaid

Song from the Rodgers and Hammersein Classic, "Carousel" - specifically, the 1956 movie.

FYI, I played in the pit orchestra for "Carousel" for several performances one summer, so I made this also with my more intimate knowledge of the score in my mind. (Remember, I play the cello. The epic and lovely and gorgeous the love of my life cello.)

I've also have several featured. Check out these screencaptures as undesputable proof! (Okay maybe not undesputable but I am telling the truth so it doesn't matter). I first descovered this when I saw one of my videos as a related video in the top right featured section.

... and just now I've discovered another one. SO cool!

And Also a sillier one -

#5) Literature - Sparse, but I have been reading...

• Aesop's Fables

• Rapunzel and Other Maiden in Tower Tales from Around the World by Heidi Anne Heiner

• Rapunzel's Revenge by Shanon and Dean Hale Illustrated by Nathan Hale

<

• Judith Sexual Warrior: Women and Power in Western Culture by Margarita Stocker

• Folklore and the Sea by Horace Beck

#7) Barbie movies!

I'll tell the story of how that started later. five minutes before self-imposed publishing deadline!!!!!!!

15 Barbie movies. Will blog about them (whether you like it or not)!!!!

#8) Movie Discoveries/ Recently Watched/ Obsessed With

#9) concept art and process (making-of stuff, I eat it up!!!)

Also this non-embeddable video:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5uKeOolfTc

#10) Tangled, my obsession with this knows no bounds. Seriously, it's true.

According to wiki, this next image is - "A concept rendering of Rapunzel, demonstrating the "luscious hair" Keane wanted." - Keane being behind the legendary Ariel arising from the rock "Some Day I'll be Part of Your World."

I've made 3 fan music videos of my own on this from all the trailers, one of which, featuring The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" has reached over one THOUSAND views, thank you very much.

Alrighty, one minute eeek!

I'll Close with stuff I did for mother's day - oops, I keep forgetting. My Mother's day, but not Mother's Day, b/c it was her birthday.

A Poem I wrote for my mom on her birthday; the picture (which I chose) is from one of my all-time favorite illustrated fairy books, "The Girl, the Fish, and the Crown."

- and the cute and ingenious -

Okay, here's Jo Bingo, back from the hiatus/ sabbatical, saying

Goodbye for now, I'm going to bed, sorry if it seems too soon (that's sarcasm as this was a long entry ;D )