Last Night I Dreamt I Went To Manderley Again....

I love hotels. Love the TCM station & ginormous flat screen TVs.

Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) & JJ Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) in Sweet Smell Of Success

Sidney Falco stopped by late last night and tonight I'm off to Manderley again.

Manderley from wednesdaywandered.etsy.com

If you love a classic tale & have not had the pleasure of settling in with a cup of earl grey and a copy of Daphne DuMaurier's novel Rebecca or the Selznick/Hitchcock film, I highly recommend doing so. Both are best on some cold & blustery night before a cozy fire.

nicked this photo from a great Manderley post on HookedOnHouses.net

I don't recall when I first watched Sir Laurence Olivier as Maxim DeWinter; I must have been 7 or 8, but it has been one of my favorite eerie tales since. You know, the kind of flick you catch while channel surfing (when you should already be in bed). You tell yourself "just a few minutes " & next thing you know 120 have passed and you're in some time-travelling half asleep trance like state.

Ghosts Of Manderely from StillettoHeights.etsy.com

My bleary-eyed  husband would peek into the living room to see if I was planning to sleep anytime soon, glanced at the tv & mumble "mmm...you're watching that again..." before going back to bed.

Several years ago the Tampa Theater, my favorite time machine/movie palace held a screening. I dragged him to the theater with promises of an extra large popcorn & beer. We settled into the balcony. I enjoyed a few tunes from the Mighty Wurlitzer while he grumbled something about chic flicks. The lights went out, the velvet curtains parted & Joan Fontaine spoke the famous first line....

 

I know I've ranted here before about how watching a classic film in its original setting is truly an experience. Even my skeptical spouse was sucked into the time machine long enough to say "Now I get it" as the lights came up.

Musical Monday - Bride & Prejudice

Bloggin with Amanda is looking for Movie music for today's meme. There are far too many fun pieces to choose from. I'm going with this one from Bride & Prejudice:

What are you listening to today? Pop on over to Amanda's & add a linky.

In case you haven't heard, Mixed Media Monday is changing to a Monthly format. The new prompt  is "shrines." Now this challenge is going monthly, I may actually finish a project or 2 - yay! To sound like a broken record, I'm still chasing my own tail it seems. One of these Saturdays this blog 's schedule will kick back in with Studio Tours - just haven't had the time despite my best intentions.

I've been trying some new stuff out this month.... more about that later though. I have to go supervise the little dude's "build something that floats" project & then we are supposed to magnetize some spoons. Fun times! Catch you tomorrow

muses & monsters

I first heard Josh Ritter a couple of weeks ago when he played his tune The Curse on Studio 360 . It has been rattling around in my head since. (& yes, I do live under a rock and had never heard of Ritter before). Sorry if the video is cropped - here's the link - just remember to come back, okay?

So when I heard a snippet again on NPR this morning, I cashed in some Amazon credits & picked up his new album, So Runs The World Away. (By the way, the band's drummer is also a puppeteer. He writes about the making of the video here).

S.R.T.W.A. is great background music. I know that doesn't sound like much of a compliment. But in the studio it is. Studio music adds to the ambiance without interrupting the thought process. Wow - that's not coming out right. Hopefully you know what I mean....

Do you play music when you are creating?
If so, what keeps your Muse happy?

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I Love Monsters!

I spent my formative years watching as many cheesy horror movies as I could get away with. I remember sneaking downstairs at 3 a.m. to catch Boris Karloff in the 1932 version of The Mummy (catch the trailer here.). I got totally busted & had nightmares for weeks.... but it was worth it!

I'd watch anything even remotely creepy, but my favorites starred Vincent Price.

Vincent Price by Lucas Soriano

I loved his velvet voice & dramatic flair. His flicks introduced me to Edgar Allen Poe. Plus he always seemed like he was having fun.

You can find Mr. Price all over YouTube. One of my favorites is his appearance as the mystery guest on What's My Line. If he were still around Vincent Price would have turned 99 yesterday - Happy Birthday Mr. Price!

May 27th was also the 88th birthday of Sir Christopher Lee. In the 70s & early 8os no weekend was complete without one of his monster flicks.

Christopher Lee by Lucas Soriano

Of course where would Dracula have been without Dr. Van Helsing?

Peter Cushing by Lucas Soriano

Another of my childhood favorites, Peter Cushing, would have celebrated his 97th birthday on May 26. Years ago you could watch him battling beasts on Saturday TV & then solving crimes as Sherlock Holmes on Sunday.

Happy Birthday, Gentlemen!

If you have few minutes give these guys a google. You might be surprised by what you find. You can watch many of their movies & interviews.

Peter Cushing is the subject of a fun song by the JellyBottys:

And Christopher Lee is into metal - who knew?? Ok, lots of people....but I live under a rock, remember? Find more about his foray into "symphonic metal" on the recently released album Charlemagne By The Sword And The Cross


Another thing you'll find all over the web is lots & lots of fan art. My favorite by far is the fantastic work of Lucas Soriano.You can view more of his art over at cowboy-lucas.deviantart.com/ as well as on his blog lucaselvaquero.blogspot.com. Please, check it out if you get a chance & tell him just how cool he really is!

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Final Note: If you haven't yet entered the random drawing for Tortuga Tile Works Ma & Pa Deathhead Mosaic, click here for photo & details. 1 winner will be selected on 6/3.

Random Tuesday Time Machine

Since it's Random Tuesday let's fire up the time machine - click on links for more info

On Oct 6 in :

105 BC - Battle of Arausio: The Cimbri defeat the Roman army of Gnaeus Mallius Maximus.

- Oops! Too far back, lets try again -

1783 - Benjamin Hanks patents self-winding clock

1849 George Westinghouse is born

1866 - first train robbery in USA

1887 Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris is born
"I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies." - Le Corbusier

1889 The Moulin Rouge opened

At the Moulin Rouge by Toulouse-Lautrec

1889 - Thomas Edison shows his 1st motion picture - starts at 2:25 on the video below

1927 - The Era of the talkies arrived via Al Jolson & "The Jazz Singer" - Check out this VitaPhone promo for the show - it has some great footage of people at the movie's opening & the announcer is classic

Eh, what? Dang, work beckons. Topic Change before I go

You have probably heard by now that yesterday the FTC ruled bloggers must disclose their freebies when promoting/reviewing items.

For the record, when I've hosted a random drawing for the .coms Uprinting, Digital Room & Online Poster Printing, I have received a gift of the same type of item that is prize.

I do NOT receive anything from others mentioned in this blog, including featured artists. I post Thursday Giveaways, artist features & Saturday Studio tours because (1) I love making some random winner's day, (2) I love learning about & promoting artists (3) and I'm nosy and really get a kick out of the behind the scenes tours.

By The Way:

If you want to enter the latest Uprinting sponsored giveaway (1 custom printed vinyl banner) CLICK HERE for details

To enter random drawing for Cara Walz's Gazelle print CLICK HERE

Well, I've gotta run. For more Random bits click the button above & see what The Un-Mom is up to this week. Ever wonder what Storm Troopers do with their down time? She's got the answer to that & more....