Theme Thursday - Collections




I know. I know. The photo on the left isn't what you would expect from a post about collections. But as it happens, I had forgotten that it was Thursday. My dear friend Angel May reminded me by sending me an e-mail that said something like "So. Are you going to do a Theme Thursday post today?"

Originally, I was going to post something called "Serendipity." That will have to wait. It's Theme Thursday! Meanwhile, I've been invited to Willow's Manor Ball, and I'm very, very excited about that. Not only do I get to go to the ball, I also get to show off my collection. (You thought I'd never get to the point, didn't you?)

What do I collect? Actors.

Yes, actors. I haven't been collecting actors for a long time -- just since I started working on my preparations for NaNoWriMo. I am trying to remember who first suggested that one way to get a handle on your characters was to cast a well-known actor to play each of them. Perhaps it was Willow herself. (Whoever it was, if you read this, please please let me know in the comments section, so that I can properly credit you!) So. I will choose an actor from my collection (I think I know already who my date will be!) to accompany me to the Manor. The rest of my collection of actors will ride in our wake, singing loudly, poking their heads out through the roofs of their limousines, disturbing the peace -- except for the ones that do their celebrating at my own super-hip satellite location, waiting to meet the revelers when they arrive for the after-ball.

Would you like to see a few of the actors in my collection? I'd be delighted to show you.


This lovely lady is Nicole Kidman. (By the way, who is that man that's ogling her?) She will be playing Bridget Connelly, my MC. Nicole would be shocked to know how much de-glamourizing she will have to do for this part. Bridget is not a movie star.

Nicole was actually the first actor I collected. Long before I considered casting her in Fly Away Home, I snagged this photo of Nicole so that I would have something to show to hairdressers. Beth, who cuts my hair when I'm at home, can't be expected to accompany me on all my travels, so I needed a cheat sheet to show the substitute hairdressers just what I wanted to look like. "A foot taller, forty pounds lighter, thirty years younger -- and oh yeah, with hair like this." So Nicole takes up residence on my laptop -- as my wallpaper, in fact -- whenever I travel.

Then came NaNoWriMo and that marvelous suggestion. The first character I thought up was Billy Mitchell. I had no idea who he was. I knew only his name. As I thought about him, though, he began to take shape. This is the shape he took. Not bad, eh?


Yep. The delightful Matthew McConaughey. Shimmering in the sunlight. Oh, dear. I must say, he was wearing clothes when I collected him. Won't he make a beautiful Billy Mitchell, though? Once I had a face for Billy, his character was a lot easier to map out. I think I thought of Matthew right away because my baby sister actually knows him. What's that? Two degrees of separation?



The only actor (so far) who has failed to fit right into the collection is John Cusack, who will play Hugh Beachley. This is not to say that John isn't a lovely man. He is. That's the problem. He's a little lovelier than Hugh -- or a little lovelier than Hugh started out to be. The upshot of that is that Hugh is changing. In fact, a lot of things about the story are changing. Half of me wanted to put John back on the shelf and find another actor, but the other half just adores John Cusack. If he wants a script change, who am I to argue?

I just went to check. There are thirteen actors in my collection, and I have bids in on a couple more. Wouldn't it be great to have shelves full of actors (I think that's called a stable, actually) to call on when you need faces for your characters? I'll save the rest of my collection for the night of the ball, and I won't tell you which one will be escorting me. All I'll say is Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooh.

Meanwhile, you can find more Theme Thursday posts here. This week's theme is hosted by Alan. Thank you, Alan.

In memory of Mercedes Sosa, 1935-2009


Mercedes Sosa, the Argentine folk singer also known as "La Negra", has died at the age of 74. She was born July 9, 1935 in the province of Tucuman in northern Chile. She died in Buenos Aires on October 4. Her career spanned nearly sixty years. Sosa performed in Chile, the United States, and Europe. She lived in Paris and Madrid from 1976 to 1982, while she was banned in Chile due to her leftist views.

Thanks to Wiki for these few details. The entire article is here. It quotes Sosa's son Fabian Matus, who said of his mother, "She lived her 74 years to the fullest. She had done practically everything she wanted, she didn't have any type of barrier or any type of fear that limited her."

Is that not splendid? I could not wish for a better epitaph

I've embedded a recording of "Gracias a la Vida", Mercedes Sosa's most famous song. The lyrics were written by Chilean poet Violeta Parra.

TFE's Monday Poetry Challenge


in which we write poems based on photographs that Totalfeckineejit has posted here.

I chose Photograph #2 from The Poetry Bus part deux. It reminded me of two things: my love of the ocean -- no, my love of being near the ocean -- and the photograph of a field in Saskatchewan that I took not long ago. Oh, and it also reminded me of a song. I'll put the song at the end of the post, though, so as to end on a beautiful note.

Meanwhile, the poem. I've called it

grasshopper

How do they do it, the ones whose lives
plod like yoked oxen from cradle to grave?
An earthy furrow holds no charm;
its walls hide the sky and drown the sun.
Its way is straight, its end ordained.

I prefer to follow a winding path,
a way that forgets its beginning
but knows that all the possible paths,
whether arrow straight or serpentine,
come to the same inglorious end.

"Of course," exemplary ox reminds me,
"You'll never get a crop that way,"
and he has a point, there. Yes, he does.
There are no bulging barns
along my road, no winter stores --

But my path - my winding path
might take me anywhere, before it ends,
even on wings to the fiery sun,
or to the salt water's edge
and the deep comfort of the sea.