Shameless Plugs

So I caved and got a tumblr.com account. You can follow it here: http://theartsywriter.tumblr.com/
I'm hoping it will be a good place for quick and easy updates. But you can still follow me here at Starlight and Flickerfeet for my more in-depth posts which I am hoping to get back into doing more regularly. I have a serious of posts coming up regarding my opinion on some of the new Fall tv shows. Or potentially this whole Brony craze that is sweeping the internet. Suggestions for what you all want to see more of are great though!

Nerdy Unicorn pony protagonist? Check.

New Looney Tunes: Yay or Nay?

Bugs Bunny is one of my childhood heroes. He's who I strive to be in life. No not really, but really I'm sure we'd all like to be as clever, confident and sarcastic as he is. So when I heard that he was coming back in an all new show re-vamped for modern audiences on Cartoon Network I was both skeptical and ecstatic. There are some who believe this is taking the show on a very bad left turn at Albuquerque. However, the new designs alone looked new and quirky and yet retro at the same time. The plot intrigues me as well, Bugs and Daffy as roommates in suburbia. I know this is more like a sitcom than the slapstick cartoon style, but honestly I think if you really want that you can go watch the old cartoons. And as my youngest brother says, if kids these days want slapstick they can watch Spongebob. The new premise seems a bit more along the lines of past cartoon network revamps of old cartoons like the Brak Show. It's funny precisely because you are putting these characters into a different scenario and basically seeing how they will work/act in that situation. I think it can still be in the vein of old Looney Tunes. Even the Animaniacs showed the Warner sibs going about their daily lives or in different situations and that worked brilliantly.

That is still true to the old cartoons which would place the characters in bank heists, Arabia, and the antarctic, granted that was mainly because of wrong turns at Albuquerque. But that is the beauty of having such solid well-developed characters. You can put them into different situations and see how they behave. As a writer I can see how this would be very enjoyable to write and think about. Having characters you know so well, you can figure out how they will act and behave in different scenarios is golden. Just one of the many reasons Looney Tunes is such a brilliant show. I can't say much since the show hasn't aired yet, except that the few clips I have seen so far seem great. It's taking the characters in a new direction, but from what I can see is without total re-writes or flanderization. (Unlike some other unmentionable re-imaginings of the toons in the 90's and 00's). We'll just have to wait and see how it turns out when it airs May 3 at 8pm. I'm hoping for the best. Even though I don't really need another cartoon to be addicted to watching all the time. So until it premieres: That's all folks!

Yeah. I love this rabbit a lot.

Ireland Inspired Poem.

Hello folks!
Well I feel I should update. I did go to Ireland. Over Spring Break. Which is definitely update worthy, but this, my last semester is getting crazy so that post will have to wait. For now, enjoy this poem!

Icon of Sorrow

Woman.

Your hands outstretched

to the world

to salt-sea-water

to men, to women,

to those who leave.

Your head tilted in sorrow,

in utmost melancholy.

Your hands reach out

in anguish.You know 

your people must leave

the green, green, shores

of home.

But perhaps a day may come

in the far off dying years

you will be gone.

But your image shall

remain. A reminder

of sorrows past.

Mournful enough

to touch the spirit

of a young colleen,

a descendant

returned

on the Long Journey Home. 

Sibling Revelry and Christmas 2k10: Reflections on Break

Crazy siblings on Christmas Eve

Well, it’s a new year, and the new semester has been underway for four weeks now. Which is crazy because it’s my last semester of undergrad. But besides that, I’ve been reflecting on the past year and on this past break which has been the best Christmas/holiday/between semesters break ever! I’m not even kidding. I say that a lot about various breaks, but this one has been exceptionally good. It’s been pretty crazy busy and it’s made me realize how wonderful my family, siblings, and friends are.

Rudolph!

First off, I have the best brothers ever and I love all our crazy weird sibling traditions. We decorated the tree together as per usual, listening to our amazing Christmas music mix of obscure and popular 90’s bands, Elvis Costello, the Chieftains, Relient K, Ben Gibbard and other Indie stuff. (On a side note, this song I discovered by Slow Club is probably my new favorite version of that Christmas song. Their regular non-Christmas stuff is pretty good too). Nothing like some good old 90’s pop renditions of your favorite songs mixed with rowdy Christmas Irish music while you’re decorating the tree with all those beloved ornaments you made in 1^st grade, the old wooden ones, and to the prettier nicer ones. I had my ceremonial placing of my favorite wooden Rudolph ornament on the tree first, front, and center. And for some reason, sibling decorating is still fun as an adult, albeit much different than when we were kids; for one thing it doesn’t take as long.

Cheesy tree decorating poses

The goal is to look like you're on a JCPenney Commercial

Then there’s our Christmas Eve tradition of me working like a Donna Reed fiend in the kitchen, doing woman work in an apron like I should. (And that was meant in good taste). Followed by watching it’s a Wonderful Life on TV before going to Midnight Mass. The Aged P’s had opted for the early morning Shepherd’s Mass, so we snapped some pics of us in our Christmas duds to surprise them in the morning. I guess what sums up sibling revelry the most was while watching Elf until 4am and those deep discussions we tend to have late at night, my brother Conor said: “When we’re all married with kids and stuff, we’ll still all get together like this and it’ll be like Parenthood!” And we all agreed, although I hope with certainly much less drama. It has been a lot of change over the past few years with all of us getting older, and now I’m getting ready to finish college, and my brothers are in their third year of college and high school respectively. But I think we’ve all grown to appreciate each other even more as we’re all nearly grown up. In a way, we’ve grown closer, and even though I’m excited about being back at school for my last semester, I will miss our sibling revelry.

Doing his best Kenny from South Park impersonation

Jamming around the Christmas Tree

Sometimes this holiday season is jokingly known among my family as the season of hard feelings and blame, which ironically is a Kelly Rippa quote. Because you know, everyone always seems to dread having to deal with family and :shudder: people you knew from high school! Really, I’ve learned that it’s not so bad. There are only so many times a year you get to catch up with all these people. Over break I was able to spend some time hanging out with old friends from high school again, which is always fun. Because break would not be complete without chilling at B-dubs, a thrifting trip to the Salvation Army, or gallivanting through downtown Royal Oak. Similar to how sibling relationships continue to grow as you do, it’s the same with my best friends from back then. You picked your best friends in high school for a reason, and it is often for those same reasons that they remain solid friends even after that. They were the friends you picked not based on popularity or the status it gave you, but because they were the people you could relate to on a more complex level than that, based more on common interests, ideas, and beliefs. And even now that we’ve all moved on with our lives and gone on to do awesome stuff, there is still a part of us that’s essentially the same and that’s why the friendship still remains intact. I guess I’m being all nostalgic and gooshy, but I am graduating soon, so I’m allowed. That's another thing I came to terms with over break, I am 22 now. My birthday was this month (January). At first I was like eek I'm getting old, but really life goes on, and I enjoy being an adult and making adult decisions, like watching Phineas and Ferb at 10:30pm while drinking a beer!


So while this was late in coming, (hey so were the Wise men), I'm hoping I can be a tad more timely with my next few posts. Wishing all of you a Merry and Happy new year in 2011!

November! And Star Wars Shortened.

It's November! After we've all recovered from the Halloween induced sugar coma, it's time to start thinking about Turkeys, pumpkin pies, finishing up those final term papers, finishing up those grad school apps, studying for the GRE, and maybe squeezing in some time in-between to work on my Nanowrimo novel (National novel writing month). But most importantly November means: Star Wars!
What? You're not following that logic you say? Well, if you'll recall, I did post about this November/Thanksgiving connection with Star Wars a couple years ago. It is an unwritten tradition in my family to watch at least one Star Wars movie at Thanksgiving. (The other holiday where this tends to happen is Memorial Day, near the anniversary of when the original trilogy came out).
So to get into the Star Wars-y mood, I stumbled across these brilliant videos: Star Wars Shortened. Three guys act out in abridged form all six movies within 20 minutes. And the results are very clever and hilarious. I especially like how they express Episode II: Attack of the Clones, through song. It being possibly the worst of the Star Wars prequels, that is all it needed. The lightheartedness mixed with the solemn with which they handle their version of these films is phenomenal and a must watch.

Poetry Workshop

 Ok, to tide everyone over until the next more in-depth post, here's one of the more famous/well liked poems I've written for my poetry workshop this semester. The subject matter should not really come as a surprise. ;)
 

Saturday Morning

Blue hedgehog morning

warm with sugary milk,

silky clad skin in princess pajamas

wild tumbled mane of curls.

Tendrils of sleep about my eyes

Opened wider as I beheld

the fastest thing alive

Fighting robots like Yoshimi

in a land beyond

I am as fast as the hedgehog

Feel the freedom pour through my lungs

the grass of my yard is tossed beneath me

My new sneakers are fast

like his red ones

hedgehogs do not belong

with squirrel girls in boots

he belongs with me, a hedgehog girl

whose spikes are a cushion of curls.

Coming Soon to a blog in a galaxy near you!

Ok so I've kind of been slacking off on posting. College is pretty crazy right now, being a Senior and all.
But, look out for a couple of new posts coming soon.
1) An Overview of my Summer, basically the top ten-ish things that were awesome/essential/stuff I did over summer this year.

2) Scott Pilgrim! Yes, yes I am a nerd and proud of it! I love these comics. I recently became acquainted with the awesomeness incarnate that is Scott Pilgrim via a Graphic Novel class I'm taking. So I'll post about that, and my thoughts on the movie.