A letter to actors, actresses, writers, directors, composers, singers, authors, artists – to creators everywhere.

Allow me to share with you our gratitude.

There is the moment when we meet someone who is famous that is so hard to capture.  For each person who is famous, is famous to each of us differently.  We, each and every one of us, are affected in a different way by your art – your performance, your turn of phrase, your camera angle, your simple series of notes on a piano, your brush or pen stroke, your voice.  We are the spectrum and you  light the hearts of a piece of the whole audience.  

But, back to that moment where we are standing here and you are sitting/standing there and we have all of this excitement and emotion and have no idea what to do with it.  Because here is this person, who is just that, a fellow human being, someone who has hopes and desires and failings and pet peeves and favorite flavors of ice cream just like we do…but they are not like us, are they?

What is it?

What makes us fangirl or fanboy out when we see a particular actor or spend days sewing and dyeing and gluing together a costume in your character’s likeness or stand in line for hours at a convention we are throwing in your honor (side note, it is also thrown in our honor, we just tend to lose ourselves in it.) What makes us knit dolls of your character and paint and draw vivid artwork and create terrible/amusing you-tube videos?  Why do we scream and shower you with such affection…it was just a movie wasn’t it? Only two hours, a speck of dust in our long timelines, right?

You did your job, and you did it well, but it is just a job- even if you have far too much fun doing it.  You have lives and families and laundry to do and taxes to pay.  (Well, most do, I’m looking at you Wesley Snipes.) There again, you are just as human as anyone else…but when we are standing there, about to shake your hand, it doesn’t feel that way.  You seem something greater.

Why?


You made us FEEL.

Such a simple thing, we are so full of emotion all of the time. But you, You reached out to us - in darkened movie theaters, from the pages of a book (or comic book), through the radio while we drive to work, as we flip through the channels looking for…something.  You grabbed us by the collar of our souls and said “sit right there, stop, listen, come on an adventure with me, learn something unexpected about yourself.”

You offered a hand and pulled us out of our ordinary lives, even if just for a few moments. You waltzed us through the fantastical, and magical, the inconceivable and the utterly believable – imagination made real through you.  You made us laugh and cheer and dance because the joy we feel will not let us do anything less. You also made us cry and scream and rally and raise our fists to God asking “why did it have to be so?”  (I’m looking at you, Whedon, you glorious bastard.) You’ve made us hurt at our core and love with all that we are worth as we journey with your characters, your songs and your art.

We’ve walked out of movie theaters feeling like we could take on the world or completely torn asunder and then we come back next week to try and feel it all again.  We return to dance with you just one more time because what you’ve shown us gives us a little piece of what heaven is to each and every one of us.

And so we stand here, looking at you only a few feet away and at our very core we want to say – Thank You.

Thank you for making us feel. Thank you for giving us moments of clarity and joy. You’ve changed our lives in infinitesimal and yet profound ways.  You gave us hope or anger, you gave us peace or love, or even lust (that sly, twin sister of love.) You’ve inspired us to create in our own ways, be it costumes, or stories, or poetry, or movies or paintings or songs.

You stirred us to passion and we desperately want to repay you. We desperately want to say thank you in a way that is proportional to the gift you have given us. And as we stand there, awkwardly smiling…we realize that we can’t.  We shake your hand and shyly say “thank you” and maybe mention our favorite part of your creative career and it doesn’t seem enough.  We, at some level, realize that the vast majority of us have no hope of giving back to you what you have given us. We have no way of fully expressing to you how you’ve affected our lives.

So I write this letter to you so that you might understand. So that in the 30 seconds we meet you can look at us and know all that we want to tell you, all that we wish we could communicate in that brief moment of connection.

You made us feel. You inspired us to great art, to be better.  You changed our lives.  We will never forget you.

Thank you.

I competed a new painting today. This one is for the annual Bowling for Rhinos fundraiser for the American Association of Zoo Keepers, the local Tampa chapter.  It is for the silent auction.  I have contributed one of my paintings every year.  Check out tampabayaazk.com for more details on Bowling for Rhinos.

Now I am back at the story, having had a rough week work wise (only because there were a few doubles worked.) I had a fine time actually doing the work itself and singing duets to the radio with co-workers, horribly I might add. 

Currently I am combating a headache with a beer.  My first wave of attack was broken by the headache's patented spartan defense.  Usually Excedrin proves an excellent commander of my forward troops, but he was off his game today. He was all like "this is madness" and my headache was all like "This IS SPARTA!!!" and kicked him into a pit.  So backing him up now is Hefeweizen UFO, a wheat beer brewed by Harpoon Brewery in Boston, MA.  Picture it* like the "Sucker Punch" girls just infiltrated, oh, and one last thing...  The beer is quite good and is succeeding in pushing back the headache's evil forces. This is allowing me to write a sad scene for my Dragonfly Lord. I am into chapter 9 and making another forward push this weekend.

*using the phrase "picture it" reminded me of Golden Girls- Sophia: "Picture it, Sicily, 1922..."

p.s. X-Men: First Class was quite an enjoyable movie.  There is a scene when the x-men are training when Erik (Magneto) is asked to move a satellite dish, and the moment is simply wonderful. I might have teared up a little. But I'm a sucker for the "becoming" moments.

So, I have been caught by the story that will not let me go until it is told.  I have been writing in all of my free time, my butt going numb occasionally as I sit for hours and type.

The story came from, in it barest parts, the previous blog, the one right down there, sitting beneath this one.  My brain was giving me some fun conversation time with Loki, cause hey, what's daydreaming for anyway, right? And I was also trying to figure out another story I've been wanting to tell for years and all of this kind of mashed up together and a new character walked out of it.  The man is called the Raven Lord and while his starting point may have been Loki, he quickly became his own person in his own amazing, and at times almost tragic, world.  He opened the doors and this story poured out. And now I am just trying to keep up.  

The character doesn't know any of this, of course.  He's busy going about his day, and I'm really just following along, writing down what he does. Hmm...that sounds kind of creepy. 

There's a woman in the story, she started out kind of like me, but then I found out she really isn't that much like me. I kind of envy her, a little, but then she hasn't had to make the hard choices yet. I'll reevaluate my fondness when, for her, the poop hits the spinning turbine.

There's a bad guy too, and a mad one and they're the same thing, sometimes.

I can't stay here too much longer. The story is calling me back.  If I'm not at work, this is where I will be.  The idea started around last Wednesday or Thursday, I'm not exactly sure when, but since then I've written 12,000 words of it, 6 chapters and there are many more to write.  I don't know how long it will be though, just long enough to tell all of the story I guess.  I'll stop writing when it is the proper time to, when the characters have accomplished what is needed.

I've posted the first chapter in my Novel section of this website just to give a taste.

It is such a joy to dance with these characters.

Ah, I think I hear the music starting, I must away.

...in fact, if they preferred, I'd invite them into my bed to eat cookies instead, hmm...that sounded a little dirty. Good. Then the tone of this blog is properly set.
So, some villains are just sexy and, sadly, don't even seem to know it! Well, I am here to give them some love...no really...call me, text me, teleport to my lowly mortal plane of existence...walk through inter-dimensional portals, you know, whatever you gotta do, and I'll be all sweet and "let's dominate this world" up in here.

This list was spurred by my recent viewing of the Avengers - it is Amazing. I recommend EVERYONE see it. I mean it, step away from the computer and go see it. I'll wait right here. And ladies, you'll thank me. Oh, and make sure you stay all the way until the end; I mean completely to the end. After the 1st clip hidden in the credits there is another one, at the end. So keep your butt in the seat.  Ready?  OK, go, I'll be right here......

....It was Awesome wasn't it, yeah, I know. You are welcome.  So, there are some handsome lads in this film, but the one that warms my lady garden the most is, without a doubt, Loki.  (p.s. I stole the phrase "Lady Garden" from the Bloggess, she's awesome.)

Loki - aside from a desire for vengeance and a need for utter world domination so that he can finally get some respect, I bet he is an excellent kisser. The dark intensity surely carries over to other aspects of his life.  This particular demi-god could use with a little stress relief.  I mean, Point Break over here gets Natalie Portman and Loki gets diddly, nada, nothing?  I'd be off put too. Don't worry...I'll have shawarma with you.

Now, I want to be clear, this is about the villain themselves, not the actor playing them. I give due credit - Tom Hiddleston is the man who shapes that intensity and attractiveness, and who makes his interpretation of Loki scrumptious, but the actor is only playing the part, giving us a glimpse of who that villain could be. He is not, himself, the villain.  I do not mean to knock him, by any means, I am sure he is a stand up bloke, but I haven't met him in person to be able to say so with surety.  This is an infatuation with a fictional character (which is much healthier than crushing on an actor, cause, come on, my chances at getting a date with him, or any of the wonderful men in Avengers, sits somewhere between none to no-'effing-way, slim doesn't even enter into it. That and Loki is way more powerful, maybe he has a few issues...but he's a frakkin' demi-god! 
And to reiterate, I'm sure Mr. Hiddleston is a decent fellow. Thank you, good sir, for an excellent and immersive movie experience and also for the inspiration of this post.  You've made me smile.)

Now, son of Jor-El, kneel before- wait, wait, right...mmm, Loki, we could make such wonderful mischief together. 

And, in regard to the clip below... me, over here, I want to be shown what real power is.

Hans Gruber - Die Hard - Alan Rickman.  He had class. He had style. He was cool and calm in the face of adversity. Yeah, definitely not kicking him out of bed...cause I bet he has 1000 thread count sheets.
-to keep with the same actor, Snape would get an honorable mention; he's not really a villain, but he could use some love.

Dr. Jonathan Crane - Batman Begins - Cillian Murphy. This one's a little crazy, but unpredictability is the spice of life. Dark hair, clear blue eyes, cute glasses, wonderful depth and intensity...add in a little hallucinogenic, madness inducing chemicals and what more can a girl ask for?

Spike - Buffy the Vampire Slayer - James Marsters.  I don't care if the British accent is real...talk dirty to me. He definitely knew how to have a good time.  It would be a blast to roll with him...right up until he drank you dry.

Sylar - Heroes - Zachary Quinto. Tall, dark and I'll eat your brain.  He kind of found love...then, maybe, he cut her skull open.  But up until that point this sexy villain was learning how to enjoy life with a lady friend. 

Jareth - Labyrinth - David Bowie.  Making androgyny sexy since 1986.  You do have power over me.
You remind me of the babe
What babe
The babe with the power
What power
The power of voodoo
Who do?
You do
Do what
Remind me of the babe

Sabretooth (Victor Creed)- Wolverine - Liev Schreiber. Let's dip back into the Marvel universe and if you can look past the hero-esque Aussie sporting the Adamantium,  you'll see another guy who really knows how to enjoy life.  He's not the nicest, maybe some anger issues, but a wild ride to be sure.  Say what you will about the movie, Liev Schreiber gave far more depth to that character than was expected. It was quite enjoyable. This is a sabretooth I could meet for a cup of coffee, fine conversation then a hunt in the woods...and hopefully I wouldn't be the prey.

OK, a note: the likes of Han Solo and Malcolm Reynolds did not make the list because they are anti-heroes and not truly villainous.  They would most certainly be welcome to eat crackers on my coverlet.

I went to the Rally to Restore Sanity on 10/30/10 and it was incredible - a message of understanding, common sense and rationality that was uniting rather than divisive gave me a little more hope for this country of ours.  There will be several presidential debates...why not make one a little more open to what the majority of us want to hear? And yeah, I kind of think that Jon Stewart has a decent finger on the pulse of at least the common man's disillusionment with the current political climate.