Good Morning!
On this day in 1521 Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1524 New York Harbor was discovered by Giovanni Verrazano.
In 1629 horses were first imported into the colonies by the American Massachusetts Bay Colony.
In 1865 Mary Surratt was arrested as a conspirator in the Lincoln assassination.
In 1961 about 1,400 U.S.-supported Cuban exiles invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. It was an unsuccessful attack.
In 1964 Jerrie Mock became first woman to fly an airplane solo around the world.
And in 1969 , in Los Angeles, Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of assassinating U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
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Quote of the Day
“When someone saves your life and gives you life, there’s gratitude, humility; there’s a time you’ve been so blessed you realize you’ve been given another chance at life that maybe you did or didn’t deserve.”
Pat Summerall
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Two of the best……
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Who has a QoD for us today?
Wandering Views 
Well, now. I’ve nothing to say, but I may as well say it and be first.
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🙂
Can I quote you on that?
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I always thought Mrs. Suratt was innocent. I enjoyed the way she was portrayed in The Conspirator.
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Actually, I do have something to say. This has been bugging me since yesterday morning. I heard on the radio that Morgan Freeman, while discussing his new movie “Oblivion,” said something to the effect of “you’ll experience so much more watching this movie than you ever could on the page of a book.” He is so wrong! A movie is very one-dimensional and FINAL. When I read a book I can envision everything the way I want to and build, rebuild, and embellish images in my mind and they belong to ME. When I watch a movie (which I rarely do, BTW), I am forced into the images that Hollywood wants me to have. I don’t want my mind stuck on seeing Heathcliff with someone like Tom Cruise’s face. This is also why I will never watch a movie of a book I’ve read.
And, it made me think of our own Michelle.
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AJ, yes, absolutely.
RW, funny that our posts crossed in the night (I assume “The Conspirator” is a movie?)
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Linda, You are right about books and movies. For example, the casting of Robert Taylor and Elizabeth Taylor in Ivanhoe was perfect, but the movie was but a shadow of the book.
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I was lucky enough to see Ray Charles perform live. It was at the High Museum in Atlanta in 1996.
Today will probably be a long one.
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I think movies can add to the book. There is nothing like seeing a fictional character that you’ve loved for years come to life in a perfect casting decision. Kind of like meeting one of you guys in person. 🙂
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QoD, what would you consider the best casting decision of a fictional character? What actor really nailed one of your favorite characters?
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Good Morning, Y’all!
QOD: Robert Urich did a credible job as Spenser in “Spenser for Hire”…but Avery Brooks was a PERFECT Hawk.
And then there are the surprises…I always thought that Donald Sutherland or Bruce Dern would be perfect for The Shining, but Jack Nicholson owned that role.
Side QOD: Who is your favorite Scrooge? I kind of liked George C. Scott, but that may be the overall casting in that film.
-inbutnotof
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Alternate QoD: Or, do you agree with me that you don’t ever like to see fictional characters from a book you’ve read portrayed by an actor(ess)?
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Second lesson on how to be happy.
2. Use a strategy for happiness. The average unhappy person spends more than twice as much time thinking about unpleasant events in their lives while happy people rely on a bright personal outlook.
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I’m always a little disappointed in seeing a movie about a book I’ve read.
I’ve given up on seeing Biblical epics.
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Chas, Or, put another way, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.” (Phil 4:8)
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Linda, Paul said it better, didn’t he?
You may have heard this. I got it from the Times-News
“The reason the services can’t operate jointly is that they don’t speak the same language. For example, if you told Navy personnel to ‘secure a building’ they would turn off the lights and lock the doors. The Army would occupy the building so no one could enter. Marines would assault the building, capture it and defend it with suppressive fire and close combat. The Air Force, on the other hand, would take out a three year lease with an option to buy.”
Funny, but it makes sense.
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George Beverly Shea dead at 104. AJ, could we have something of his this week?
http://theaquilareport.com/george-beverly-shea-long-time-billy-graham-associate-dies-at-104/
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Seeing Misten’s picture reminded me that Lassie was well portrayed in movies 🙂
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My, my, a chord was struck in the movie vs book character. I agree that most movie versions (especially Shirley Temple and Disney) change too much. Movies are a translation, and every translator puts a personal spin on whatever work of fiction. I have watched movies based on books I have read, and for the most part, except for the above versions, there has not been too much different. Only a few times has the movie improved on the book.
Now, my opinion on the best casting is Eustace in the Narnia series. The young actor they picked does a great job of portraying the spoiled brat from the books.
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My favorite Scrooge? Why, Mr. Magoo, of course! 😉
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I don’t really keep up with the actor’s names, but the actor who was Lincoln in the recent movie did an excellent job—it was well cast.
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But Lincoln is not a fictional character. Sorry I went outside the parameters of the question.
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The Muppet Christmas Carol was great casting, too! 🙂
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I showing my geekiness by answering my own QoD with a comic book character. Robert Downy Jr. as Tony Stark.
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“To Kill a Mockingbird” was very well done as a film — I saw the movie before I read the book, but I have to say the filmmakers got it right, and the casting was near perfect.
The cat is all better. She was pouncing all over me in bed this morning to get me up. I’m glad she’s OK. But she can be so annoying sometimes.
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Peter,
How ’bout them boys from the Bronx? 🙂
Cheryl,
Yes Ma’am. I’ll pick out a couple for tomorrow. Any requests?
KBells,
Robert Downey Jr. IS Tony Stark. He nailed the character perfectly. And in 3 weeks, IM3. 🙂
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How kind of you to think of me, Linda!
One of the questions writers get asked in interviews is who do you imagine playing your characters in a movie? I was stumped, I had no idea and had to go online looking for photos of actors!
When I write, I like to sketch a general idea of what a character looks like using details that are pertinent to what that individual will do in the story, but are not too finely drawn. I’ll mention how tall they are, generally what color hair they have and their eyes. If they’re fat that will come out, but otherwise I agree, a reader needs to imprint their concept of their character into the story.
That’s why you’re reading and not watching, right? 🙂
I agree with one of the above comments, you bring to a book your experience in life. That’s why reading a scary story to a small child is better than having them watch a movie. When you read something frightening, the child applies their life experience to define what is scary.
(What would be scary to a three year old? Getting lost? No mom? Big dog?)
But if a child watches an adult’s take on something frightening, the mental image can be ratcheted up to such a high pitch as to terrify.
So, while a three year old might be afraid of losing his parent, if he’s shown an enormous T-rex chewing up an adult–well, the horror would forever be imprinted on the child’s mind–whether the child was mature enough to recognize that or not.
That’s why after 9-11, child psychologists asked TV news to stop replaying the airplanes flying into the buildings. Children couldn’t grasp it was a replay–they thought it was happening over and over again. Think how terrifying that must have been.
So, I’ve digressed quite a bit but for the most part, I don’t like to see movies of books I’ve loved. I agree To Kill a Mockingbird was extraordinary as a movie–but I saw it before I read the book. 🙂
My latest little story comes out May 1 in The Texas Brides’ Collection. It’s another 9-book grouping centered around Texas in the 19th century. My story, An Inconvenient Gamble is about a reformed gambler who spent a couple years in a Union POW camp during the Civil War. While there he took a bad bet and a young man died–which is what caused him to reform.
Two years later, he’s trying to start a new life with my great-great grandfather in Texas when he meets a young widow forced to run a horse ranch after the death of her parents and husband in a yellow fever epidemic. She’s got the ranch, two brothers to raise and a cranky mother-in-law. Then she finds out she’s pregnant.
The story escalates when we learn the young man who died in the POW camp, was her brother. And the man who bet against him became her husband.
How will this couple work out their differences? And how will the desire to overcome the gambling urge threaten their relationship?
All in 20K words. 🙂
You can decide for yourself what Jenny and Charles look like. (And Charles does NOT resemble Burt Lancaster in this story . . . .)
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Good snowy morning…I am stuck at DIA….it is snowing…the drive here was icy…hoping to leave in an hour….
My favorite movie adaptation of my favorite book…BBC Pride and Prejudice..with Colin Firth…I thought the casting captured the very essence of who Jane Austen had in mind when she wrote her story…iPad typing is sooooo much harder than on my Mac…..
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I am anonymous…but, to you all….I am nancyjill.
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“To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Maltese Falcon” are the only two movies I’ve seen so far that are as good as the book. “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” was the most disappointing failure–there’s an awful lot that one got wrong. They’re getting better, though, and I do hope they end up doing the whole Narnia series. (Any word on that?)
I just edited a novel that would work really well as a movie, and I told the author that and she was pleased. Very evocative scenes, including a young woman who plays the flute every evening beside a river in Australia. And a love story and two families reunified.
The book I’m working on now is not quite as fun. 😦 Really bad theology, really bad writing. (It isn’t on its way to being published, and isn’t likely to be anytime soon.) Oh well. I’m going to take a break this afternoon to start on a different one, which sounds like a good book.
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Charles has to be sexy, manly and good looking. It goes with the territory. 🙂
I’d like to edit the theology on Cheryl’s book. I’ll bet it is a pre-trib rapture book.
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Bad theology AND bad writing? Yikes.
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Nope, Chas. It’s “charismatic.” I have no idea what is mainstream Pentecostal teaching and what isn’t, but I know it’s bad theology to look for a verse that uses the words you’d like to say and then say that you got your theology from Scripture. Context matters, not just the words in the verse or the phrase from a verse.
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So, Chas, whom do you want to play you in the movie about your life?
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I like seeing movies of books I’ve read. Sometimes they delight, sometimes they disappoint, and sometimes I just think, well, that was a different take on the story. I usually like to read the book first, and if I haven’t read it before I will often make a point of reading it before the movie comes out.
Peter L, great minds think alike. I immediately thought of Eustace Scrubb in the Dawn Treader movie. William Poulter really nailed the character.
Cheryl, it seems there was some sort of disagreement between Lewis’s stepson Douglas Gresham and Walden Media, and any effort to make any more Narnia movies is on hold, possibly until 2018. That’s really too bad because William Poulter will be way to old to play Eustace by then.
I’ve read bits and pieces of this on Wikipedia and other news articles.
http://www.narniaweb.com/2011/10/douglas-gresham-on-future-narnia-films/
http://www.narniaweb.com/2012/05/gresham-shares-plans-for-next-narnia-film/
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Linda, I would choose Burt Lancaster, but the one they will likely choose is Andy Griffin’s sidekick on his Mayberry show.
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Chas, that would be Don Knotts – who was hilarious with every character he ever acted. I can remember our whole family (extended) killing ourselves laughing over his chase of the skunk in Disney’s ‘No Deposit, No Return’.
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Kbells/Inbutnotof/Linda’s QoD: I have complex views about making movies from books. Generally, if I love the book, the movie never quite measures up. However, if I only liked the book, the movie has a lot of potential of enhancing my enjoyment of the book. I found that with the recent Narnia movies. I liked the first production as the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe> was just one of the series to me; hated the second one as Prince Caspian was my second favorite book of the series (my favorite was The Horse and His Boy), and loved the third production since The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was my least favorite book of the series. I think To Kill a Mockingbird was the single best production of a book ever made. I had read the book long before I knew there was a movie of it – but I didn’t love the book. I recognized its powerful message, but it never became an old friend. The movie kept the powerful elements, but removed the superfluous coarse language and crude references which I had found disturbing in the book.
The best producers, overall, of literary productions isn’t Hollywood, but the BBC with their mini-series’ of classic works. There is something about how British actors’ methods which enables them to embody nearly any character and keeps them from being typecast. It is always interesting to see who so-and-so plays this time. Still, I don’t enjoy the Dickens productions (who is a favorite author of mine) as much as I do with lesser known authors, like Dickens’ contemporary Elizabeth Gaskell. I had read her works North and South and Wives and Daughters well before I watched the mini-series, and had only liked them. The BBC series’ showed the stories in a new and brilliant light. The production of Wives and Daughters is probably the best literary mini-series ever made. So, a movie of my favorite book isn’t something I seek out, but if a movie is going to be made, it should be by British producers with British actors 🙂
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Oh, and the best Scrooge was Alistair Sim – a great British comic actor who regarded acting as simply another profession and thus refused to give interviews and be treated as a celebrity.
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QOD: Hattie McDaiel as Mammy in Gone With the Wind. Ms. McDaniel was a great actress. Mammy was a great heroine in a movie with only two heroes or heroines (Melanie and Mammy).
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I liked Lord of the Rings as a book. Although it was obviously made up, it was fantastic enough that I did not think a movie could do it justice. The movie wasn’t bad, but it didn’t compete with the fantasy in my imagination.
The fantasy in the Bible is so fantastic, that no movie can do it justice. So I guess it comes down to:
Either this is so fantastic, it has to be true.
Or, it is so fantastic . . . well, you probably don’t want to go there. I mean suppose somebody told you that you are going to live forever.
I would say:
1. Too fantastic to believe.
2. Too boring to stand.
Two many toos dancing in a tutu.
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I hired my Virtual Assistant today. I am excited. I think this will be good.
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For those of you who know me on facebook you can see my handsome boy with his new haircut. His “daddy” discovered that women will talk to him when he is out with a “foo-foo” dog. 😉
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Ricky, I never thought of a hero in GWTW. But you are correct Melanie and Mammy fit.
Kim, I noticed that too, when we kept Bilbo for Chuck. The dogs attract the ladies. Babies too. I wish I had learned that before I got grandkids.
😉
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You have to be really dumb to try to send a poison letter to the president and some congressman. They will never see it and you’re in deep trouble.
That’s the only possible outcome.
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LOL…Now Mr P has a wife, a dog, and a grandchild.
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A wife, a dog, and a grandchild beats computer solitaire and TV any time. Even with the hassel, it’s no contest.
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Nice evening tonight doing dishes with my three helpful and cheerful daughters at home. Handel violin sonatas and oboe sonatas playing in the background. Good times.
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Kim, your pup looks sharp. 🙂 And congrats on the “virtual” assistant.
I remember giving a book report on GWTW in high school and arguing that Melanie was the most admirable character. But one of the smartest guys in our school — and student body president, I think — took strong issue with me, saying it clearly was Scarlett who had the most admirable traits. Melanie, he said, was a wishy-washy person.
Well, some interesting developments in Boston today — and much chaos. CNN reported someone had been arrested when that wasn’t the case (though it sounds like they’re close to getting a suspect into custody).
Anyway, another reminder of the many pitfalls of fast-breaking news in the era of Twitter. 😦
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Wow 6 arrows. Last time I “saw” you, you were frantically trying to corral the kids this morning. This is quite a change!
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We all mellowed out. 😉
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The new neighbors are moving in, while they were busy in the back of the property, their two dogs were left tied on the front porch — a small white cutie-pie type dog, fluffy; and an old short-haired medium-sized dog. They were very quiet when I got home and said ‘hi’ to them, just staring at me. They seem sweet.
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God is good. 🙂
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Mellowed out, is right, what did you do to them? Slip something into the lunchtime soup??
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shhh…
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🙂
Oy, now they’re reporting that there’s big a large explosion in Waco at a fertilizer plant, no info on cause or injuries. But this could be a natural cause, fertilizer plants apparently are volatile places & prone to going boom.
Hard to keep up with all the news these days.
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Oh my. And now there’s a live-on-TV car chase in L.A.
These are some of our favorite TV shows out here, watching police chasing a bad guy from an aerial helicopter camera. What an exciting night.
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The ricin suspect is an … Elvis impersonator?
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Mellowing out. My friend (who had 6 kids under 8) said: I had a headache the other day, so I gave the kids Tylenol and my headache went away. 🙂
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Kare — 🙂
Six kids under 8? Yikes! When my 6th Arrow was born, I had six kids under 18 — 1st Arrow was one day shy of 17 years, 5 months.
A little different gig than your friend. 😉
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Peter,
And that’s 2.
Have you seen my broom? I think there’s gonna be some sweepin’ done tomorrow. 🙂
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6 arrows yikes is right! They were a little unruly, but all have since turned into very nice young men and women.
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Glad to hear that, Kare. And you set me up for 62! 🙂
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🙂
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I am glad God is good. As God is imaginary, He might as well be good. Unfortunately, God (of all flavors) is responsible for all sorts of horrible crimes. Oh, that wasn’t the REAL God, who is imaginarily good as opposed to the false God is is really bad; so I guess he is Satan who is real? false?
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This Texas explosion is horrific — looks like it’s about 100 miles from rickyweaver. They’re saying dozens killed and it’s leveled everything for miles around. They’re evacuating the town, afraid another tank is going to explode.
They were fighting a fire when it occurred; this is amateur video (explosion happens about 30 seconds in)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROrpKx3aIjA&feature=youtu.be
What a horrible week.
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I decided that I am incompatible with Whidbey Island. My wife is completely compatible. Go figure. I was at the church today where I volunteer but don’t attend service. They said a special preacher will be coming in to offer a sermon about “Revelations.” [I refrained from correcting the Preacher, who has a doctorate in theology and is older than and stronger than I am], that the book is called Revelation. He said, “I have never understood that book.” I said, “I remember reading the Bible at the age of 10 and getting stuck at that book.”
The Preacher who was speaking (they have at least a dozen — strength in numbers? — said, “Perhaps you should come again.” Before I said anything, my neighbor and good friend who takes me to the volunteer work, said, “Perhaps you shouldn’t, Steve.” I took that as a great compliment. Especially as one of his ancestors was Crazy Horse, the great Sioux warrior. I can’t make any sense of why an aboriginal American would want to be a Christian. So I guess we fought to a draw. Go count coup.
I am just getting used to saying, “My daughter’s wife.” Well, no doubt Jesus wept.
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As I am a proud troll, hopefully everyone was strong enough not to read any of my comments. Jesus depends on you.
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My main computer was completely hacked today. This is a backup.If you are the hacking troll, just say no.
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The plant is in West, Texas. Blast took out an apartment building (and many other structures from the sounds of it) & caused severe damage to a nearby nursing home.
Lots to pray for tonight. 😦
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Mayor of West, Texas speaking at a briefing tonight: “There’s a lot of people who won’t be here tomorrow.”
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Have to say that Fox News sure dropped the ball on covering this story tonight — CNN has been on it live all evening while O’Reilly-Hannity reruns from the afternoon were all you could get on Fox.
Really Fox?
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