Welcome to Holidays All Around

Today is the last day of LGBTQ+ month. I hope everyone had a wonderful Pride Month. I only manged to get into New York City once this month, but I saw tons of rainbow flags and welcoming signs. I even managed to locate a nice cafe with a Pride Flag right on the corner of Gay St.

June wasn't just LGBTQ+ Pride Month. There were a few other whole month celebrations going on. Some are internationally recognized, but others are country specific:

• African-American Music Appreciation Month
• ALS Awareness Month (Canada)
• Alzheimer's & Brain Awareness Month (USA)
• LGBT Pride Month
• National Safety Month
• National Smile Month (United Kingdom, May and June)

Tomorrow begins every child's favorite month long celebration (if they know about it) National Ice Cream Month. I probably won't be celebrating - mostly because I can't eat ice cream - but it sounds like a great month for children on summer holiday.

However, don't just have month long celebrations. There are a few days set aside to celebrate any number of reasons. 

Most of us in the United States are familiar with the bank holidays (days where people with 9-5 jobs get a day off and schools and banks are closed). Days such as Memorial Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Labor Day, and Veterans Day. The next big one is coming up this week: Independence Day!

Then there are the religious and/or cultural holidays we learn through society, such as Christmas, Eid al-Fitr, Hanukkah, Halloween (Samhain), and Easter. We might not get a day off of school (with the exception of Christmas) or celebrate all of them, but most people in the United States at least know about them. 

By the way National Grinch Day (Grinch-mass) is December 1st

And of course there are the religious / memorial days which have been absorbed and slightly altered by our culture. These would be the Valentine's Days (a saint's day that's turned into a day all about love), St. Patrick's Days (another saint's day that's become a reason to celebrate the Irish heritage in America), and Cinco De Mayo (this isn't Mexican Independence Day, but it has been embraced as a day to celebrate Mexican heritage in America - when not stereotyped by drunk white people).

The Wiccan / Witch holiday of the Autumn Equinox

Then there are the just plain holidays for the sake of celebration. 

For example, while I was celebrating the summer solstice last weekend, my friend wished me a Happy National Onion Ring Day and Global Smurfs Day (I refuse to open the can of worms as to how people celebrate that one). Today happens to be International Asteroid Day and World Social Media Day (why? just why?). Again I don't plan on celebrating either of these events, but it is interesting and occasionally fun to know.

My personal favorites of these types of celebratory days are Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sep 19th), Star Wars Day (also known as May the 4th), Star Trek Day (Sep 8th), and Pi Day (March 14th). Pi Day in particular holds a special place in my heart because my math classes used to have huge parties with lots of different pie to eat. 

Pretty much if you can think of something to celebrate, there's likely already a day or month dedicated to it. When I was a kid, I was jealous that there was a Mother's Day and a Father's Day, but no Kids Day. There actually is. It's June 19th. The holiday just hasn't been embraced yet by those of us in the United States. 

More recently International Women's Day has been making waves. However, according to my European friends, it's actually celebrated in Europe rather than just acknowledged as a day. Women are often given flowers (or flower crowns...I'm not actually clear) in her home country of Hungry.

This, of course, prompted people to start asking why there wasn't an International Men's Day. Except that there is. If these people had done a quick Google search instead of griping about it on social media, they would know that it's November 19th. 

But let's be real, they didn't care about International Men's Day until International Women's Day became "a thing". 

So the next time you want a reason to celebrate something, check out what holidays are going on that day. There are several websites dedicating keeping up with this information including: nationaltoday.com/ and checkiday.com.

And if you run into someone complaining about how someone has an entire month to celebrate something, but the veterans only have one day. Feel free to let them know that if they actually cared about veterans, they'd know that May is National Military Appreciation Month - which includes celebrating veterans. 

Happy End of Pride Month my friends!

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

See you guys in two weeks.

Welcome to the Remake

I somehow got talked into seeing the new Child's Play today with a couple of my friends. Was it good? Yes. Was it scary? Not really. Did I scream like a small child because I can't handle gore and jump scares? Of course.

If my friends are to be believed I helped to enhance the movie going experience.

Also I don't mean that this movie isn't scary in that it won't make you jump in your seat. I mean that it's not scary because it's just not still creeping me out after seeing the movie. That's how I judge whether or not a movie is scary, if I'm still freaking out about it after the credits roll.

It's honestly been a while since I was left feeling like my skin was crawling after a horror movie or TV show. Much as I like The Haunting of Hill House, Jaws, or The VVICH, I don't often find them all that scary.

I do think they are all really good movies and TV shows. Just like I think Child's Play (the original and this remake) are good movies, just not very scary ones.

In fact, and this might be an unpopular opinion, I think this new version of Child's Play is slightly better than the original.

I'm not sure if it's the updates that were made to the story, the changes that were made, or if I just need to go back and review the original again to compare the dialogue, but the remake was a lot more engaging for me. Also Mark Hamill is amazing. Like I could tell it was him, but it wasn't his Joker or his Luke Skywalker voice. Spot on casting right there. (And he liked my tweet!)

Reasons I liked the movie aside (because I swear this isn't a review), it's very rare for me to enjoy a remade movie. It's an extremely fine art that Child's Play did well and most other remakes do not.

Much as I love Disney and enjoyed the remake of Beauty and the Beast, I still felt the original animated 1991 version was better. I even went how right after seeing it in theaters and rewatched the original. Carrie? 1976 film all the way. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory versus Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Willy Wonka wins hands down. There's just something a little more heart warming to that movie.

And the less said about the Psycho remake the better.

That isn't to say that remakes can't work. I freaking loved It: Chapter 1. Again, did I find it scary...no. It was entertaining as all get out though (especially that random dancing scene, I was hysterically laughing). I also like the 1953 version of House of  Wax, which is in fact a remake of an earlier version from 1933 and was also remade (terribly) in 2005.

I  even occasionally like gender-bent remakes (where they switch a main character or characters' gender) such as His Girl Friday which is a remake and adaptation of The Front Page. These types of remakes are even rarer to work and designate with audiences or just be good in general.

Also a remake is different from a reboot. Batman  and Superman are rebooted fairly often, each with varying degrees of success. I like both the Dark Knight and the 1989 Batman, however there is very little connecting the two. Reboots are giving a franchise a face lift without actually being the original. A remake is just trying to be the original.

(I know that reboots and remakes are very similar in concept, but I think of them as two different types of movies.)

So why do so few remakes work?

Honestly - it's because most of the time the studios are hoping you'll see the movie on name recognition alone. They hardly ever try to do anything new or refreshing in the story. Often times, the remake is just the old movie with modern tropes thrown in for fun.

A good remake pays homage to the original and makes itself something new.

The original Suspiria is a technicolor trip. It's entertaining and at times scary (though not much), but the story isn't really there. The new Suspiria that came out last autumn is also a trip, but it's much more focused on the story (maybe a little too much) and political climate of 1970s Berlin. One is a fairy tail and one is a beautiful, yet twisted period piece. I like both movies for very different reasons and because they are so different, I couldn't even begin to tell you which is better.

For the record there are movies I am not opposed being remade. There are some stories I feel can be expanded upon in visual media (*cough* Harry Potter *cough*). I do have a select few movies that are so very much part of the time that they came out, I would hate it if they were remade (rebooting is not impossible - Star Trek was fine, but definitely not remade). Movies like:

• Indiana Jones (all three originals)
• The Crow
• Star Wars
• Labyrinth - with the possible exception of Tom Hiddleston as Jareth 
• Back to the Future
• Lord of the Rings 
• Princess Mononoke
• Akira (no live action remakes Hollywood please)
• Jaws
• Metropolis 

This isn't a comprehensive list, just the movies I can think of off the top of my head. The reasons I don't want them remade have more to do with how well I think the story works. There isn't as much I want to see explored anymore from the above listed. Now, inspired by movies and spin-offs are okay...if done well (only the first Hobbit movie was to my liking), but those stories are done. If I want a new Indiana Jones, I want a new character, not a new actor playing a beloved character.

And some animated movies really don't need live action remakes. Occasionally they work. I was very happy with Detective Pikachu (that's not a remake, but it was a medium transfer from animated to live). I was not impressed with Death Note and I'm still pretending Ghost in the Shell never happened. Beauty and the Beast wasn't bad, but the new things didn't work and the ones they tried to "fix" didn't really need fixing to begin with.

Okay maybe that whole cursing an 11 year old kid nonsense needed to be explained, but that's neither here nor there.

Do you guys have any movies you would never want to see remade? Let me know.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Welcome to the Jersey Shore

Happy Father's Day!

When I think of my dad and his dad, I often think about the Jersey Shore. As a kid, I'd spend at least a week or two with my family at the shore, just as my dad spent his childhood at there.

It was awesome.

Ocean City New Jersey  - 2019

Though to be fair, I did spend a good three years terrified of the ocean because my grandfather had convinced me that seaweed was mermaid hair. My parents couldn't convince me for the world to get into the water and spent a lot of time at the playground with me instead.

Ocean City New Jersey (same location as above) - 2017

I want all of you to forget about what you've seen, heard, and witnessed regarding the MTV show "The Jersey Shore". First off, they're from New York, not New Jersey. Second, though I'm sure there are areas that resemble the show, I have rarely seen the actual Jersey shore look like it.

Probably because I more often than not go to the southern most tip of America's Armpit (I swear I'm not the one who came up with that, but I do think it's funny) to go to the beach. I'm hoping to change that. Driving all the way down the parkway is neither convenient or cheap, especially if I want to go with friends. There are nice beaches a lot closer to my current home that I'm hoping to go to.

However, the barrier islands along the Cape May county coast all hold a special place in my heart. Atlantic City, though, is to be avoided like the plague.

So here are a few fun facts about one of the oldest beach resort areas in the country.

1) Cape May is not only the southern most tip of New Jersey it is also the oldest beach resort community in the United States

2) The Jersey Shore was part of the inspiration for the 3 of the Walt Disney World Resort Hotels in Florida: The Boardwalk Resort, The Beach Club Resort, and The Yacht Club Resort. I've stayed at the Beach Club Resort and though I like the theme and recommend the resort, the Jersey Shore it ain't. They even have the Cape May Cafe, based off of the resort town.

3) Apparently Atlantic City has the longest boardwalk in the world. I still think Ocean City and Wildwood have better boardwalks (at least as far as my inner child is concerned), but kudos Atlantic City.

4) Speaking of Atlantic City, it is also the city the board game Monopoly takes place in. No wonder boardwalk costs so much.

5) Bruce Springsteen got his start in Asbury Park. Not only did he play in local establishments, but he also recorded his first album there.

6) Though not the true inspiration, the book Jaws references a series of shark attacks that occurred off the Jersey shore in 1916. A huge man eating shark did apparently prowl the Jersey Shore waters over a century ago, but shark attacks are fairly rare overall in the Garden State.

7) The last fatal shark attack in New Jersey was in 1926. Though there have been a few non-fatal shark attacks (the last being in 2013) and the Jersey shore is home to plenty of sharks (I've seen dogfish and small sand sharks), people and sharks rarely interact.

8) Wildwood beaches get longer and longer every year. They're not the longest beaches in the world or even in the United States, but walking out to the ocean in Wildwood is a hike unto itself.

9) The oldest still standing Light House in the United States is in Sandy Hook - which is also where New Jersey's only nude beach is located.

10) Ocean City New Jersey - not to be confused with Ocean City Maryland - is dry. If you want alcohol you gotta either island hope to Atlantic City or head to the mainland.

I hope I've given you guys some insight into the true beauty that is the Jersey Shore. I swear there's no where else on Earth like it.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome to a Different Kind of Strength

Last night, I had the pleasure of having dinner with and seeing speak at one of my writer's groups, the fantasy novelist Sarah Beth Durst. Though I haven't read her novels (or seen the Hallmark TV movie based on one of them), they sound amazing and I'll probably pick a few up once my "to read" pile decreases a little bit. The majority of her writing centers around female protagonists, which naturally led to the question: how do you write a strong female character?

Sarah Beth Durst isn't the first author I've seen speak be asked this question and I doubt she'll be the last. A lot of authors who write lady protagonists seem to get this question all the time.

Which makes me wonder: is it really that hard to write a "strong female character"?

Interestingly enough, TV Tropes doesn't have a page dedicated to this topic, so it doesn't seem to have a defined set of characteristics. They do, however, have several links to other pages with titles like "awesome strong female protagonist", "funny strong female protagonists", and "Action Girl"  to name a few examples.

Guess I'll have to base this off of anecdotal observations on what characterizes a lady character as "strong".

If I were to name a few strong lady characters that I grew up with, I'd probably list out Buffy Summers, Princess Leia, Wonder Woman, Hermione Granger, and The Power Puff Girls. I'm sure there are others, but these were the ones who came first to my mind.

What do these ladies have in common?

They're smart, determined, and are able to kick major butt when they need to. In fact all, but maybe Hermione (I mean she does punch Draco in the third book) are able to handle themselves in an action sequence. They're also leaders of their respected social groups (in the Power Puff Girls case it would be their elementary school class). They certainly don't need a man to save them, but they find that guys are still nice to have around, even if they are very frustrating.

Newer versions of the strong female lead include Kitness Everdeen from The Hunger Games, Rey from the new Star Wars movies, and Black Widow from the Avengers team.

These women embody what I was taught was meant to be a strong woman. You had to be loud, unafraid, able to handle yourself in a fight, and not be the warmest cuddliest person on the team.

But does a strong female character have to be an a$$ kicking, outspoken, extrovert?

Short answer: No.

However, we as a society seem to gravitate towards the idea that a lady needs to be a black belt in karate or at least be a natural fighter to be the ideal lead in an epic story. Women who stay home and focus on love or loyalty typically aren't given the strong female character status. Strong women characters don't need to be saved, they do the saving. And they only cry on rare occasions.

There are a few story tellers who write lady strong lady characters who don't fall into this societal norm. Studio Ghibli has tons of strong female leads from Sofie in Howl's Moving CastleI to Kiki in Kiki's Delivery Service. Then the are pretty much ever lady character in Princess Mononoke, who all kick butt, have leadership positions, and authority in their own stories.

One strong young female character I constantly return to from my childhood is Sheeta from Castle in the Sky. When we first meet her, she's fairly passive and definitely seems like the typical damsel in distress. However, that spark of courage is shown early on when she climbs out of an airship window to get away from her kidnappers (and another set of would-be kidnappers who eventually turn into allies...and I'm off topic sorry). She takes great pains to keep her new friends safe, even at the detriment to her safety.

Sheeta seeing Laputa for the first time

It isn't until she's taken in by the Dola Gang that her strength really begins to shine. Her determination to work is balanced by her ability to be flexible. Her kindness endears her to all the other pirates, including their leader (and for some of the pirates their mother) Dola. She becomes defiant and confident while staying with them, which gives her the strength to give the movie the ending we deserve (sorry no spoilers).

However, Sheeta isn't an action star and her main character traits are her unending kindness and loyalty. On the surface she seems to be a "weaker" character, but most of her actions are based on the fact that she's about 12 and in multiple situations that could kill people she cares about. Dola is another unexpected strong lady character. She's an older woman with a ton of kids, doesn't have the most "ideal" body type (at least not as far as society is concerned), but she does kick butt and has a position of authority in the gang.

You might notice that I haven't meantioned Disney, yet. They, too, have a lot of stories with female leads. However, society seems to find these leads too passive or "weak" to be considered strong characters - at least if we're looking at female characters from movies before the 2000s.

I don't want to discount the Disney princesses, but they don't really match the expectations I grew up with for the strong female character archetype. Which doesn't entirely make sense to me because Belle, Cinderella, and Snow White all have an inner strength that should be admired. Yes, people harp on how a man still saves Cinderella and Snow White (who was 13 by the way) and it's become popular to claim that Beauty and the Beast is an example of Stockholm Syndrome (it's not, watch this explanation by Lindsay Ellis for details).

These characters are all strong, but there stories leave something to be desired for some modern audiences. Though I still think the original animated Beauty and the Beast is a masterpiece and no one will change my mind.

What I think is holding back the "strong female character" type is that we've placed too much emphasis on shedding them of their female traits. Compassion, loyalty, love, and emotional intelligence are thrown to the wayside in favor of more traditional masculine traits. On the surface, there isn't anything necessarily wrong with that. Some women are more masculine than traditionally feminine.

However, traditional feminine traits aren't passive. It's just that the stories they are written in, make them seem passive.

A great example of strong female lead who embodies everything that it means to be feminine is Sarah from Labyrinth. She's compassionate, friendly, kind, resourceful, and almost completely non-violent. I think the one time she resorts to violence is when she throws a chair to shatter an alternate reality she gets trapped in. There is a battle of sorts in the movie, but you never see her actually hurt any of her opponents (at least I think she doesn't the goblins are a pretty incompetent bunch).

Sarah in the labyrinth

It's through her ability to embrace her strengths as a woman that allow her to navigate the labyrinth. She's kind to the monster Ludo and Ludo basically becomes her body guard. She slowly but surely befriends the goblin Hoggle. Though their relationship is rocky at first, she cements their friendship by forgiving him for helping trap her in that earlier mentioned alternate reality.

So the next time someone asks me what qualities you think a strong female character should have, I'm going to respond that they just need a good story to show off their best qualities. Strong female characters, like any good character, needs to be put in a situation where their strengths best shine. Molly Weasley might have been the smothering mother archetype throughout the Harry Potter series, but when push came to shove, she still killed Bellatrix when her daughter was threatened.

To be a strong character simply means that that they need to be determined to get their objective done. Don't tell stories that put a character in a passive situation, put them in a plot that requires them to be an agent in their own destiny.

And ladies don't need a black-belt to do that.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope ya'l like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome to Roses without Thorns

Is a rose still a rose without her thorns?

Granted it's been a little while since I was philosophical, but this question has been bothering me for nonsensical reasons.

Roses are known for their beautiful flowers, delicate fragrance, and nasty thorns. Giving a bouquet of roses is often done between lovers - especially if the color of the roses is dark or deep red. In magic, roses are used to attract love (of many different varieties) and occasionally lust.

They are the flowers of Aphrodite and Venus, goddesses of love, and can convey messages without words (if one were to learn the language of flowers - yes this is a real thing, no I don't feel like getting into it now). They are the preferred flowers for weddings and represent the month of June (which is the month for weddings).

I happen to love the  smell of roses and often have some rose oil around for my hands. I'm also fond of it's fragrance in candles and delicate dried petals in tea blends.

I grew up with roses growing all around me. My grandfather had a rose bush which grew over the front porch of this house. Occasionally the roses would grow too low and it was scary ducking under them to reach the front door. My hair got caught a couple of times in the vines and thorns and had to be carefully removed.

I remember my other grandparents had a huge rose bush in the back yard. If I remember right, it had lovely light pink blossoms that took up a small area of the fence near the back door. I remember once or twice reaching my hand in to pick one of the blossoms and accidentally hitting one of the thorns. I learned quickly not to try to pick the roses without a adult around to help.

Because despite the delicate beauty of the rose blooms, the stems are strong and the thorns sharp. All are meant to defend the plant from animals that might otherwise harm it, like us humans.

Roses may be fragile, but they can defend themselves. Which brings me back to my previous question: is a rose still a rose without her thorns?

Many times when I go to the flower shop, the roses have had their thorns filed down to the point of nonexistence. It makes a bouquet easier to handle and there's no damage to the blossoms or fragrance. The loss of the thorns shouldn't bother me, but it does.

We focus so much on the beauty of the rose, that I feel a loss when it's thorns have been removed.

Most pop culture references are in regards to the beauty and attractiveness of the rose. The famous words uttered by Juliet, "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet", might be talking about who Romeo is, but the love symbolism isn't lost on the audience. Then there's the visual symbolism found in American Beauty, with deep red rose petals symbolizing the sexual fantasies of a middle aged man towards an under-aged teenager. Honestly I found that comparison incredibly creepy.

And I can't talk about roses without mentioning Beauty and the Beast, where the rose is meant to symbolize both inner and outer beauty. I think in the Disney version, the rose does indeed have thorns, but the blossom itself is the focus of the story. Because the Beast will remain a beast forever once all of the beautiful petals are gone and only the prickly thorns remain (okay I added that last part, but I think it's implied symbolism).

The references to a rose's thorns, though, aren't as frequent, but when they do pop up, they show another side to that beauty. There is the famous Poison song "Every Rose has It's Thorn" and I will forever love Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon throwing a rose with thorns as an awesome weapon. Speaking of anime, in Yu Yu Hakusho the character Kurama has a rose whip that slices and dices people with the rose's thorns built into the wipe. The character even compares himself to Tuxedo Mask at one point in the manga (fun fact: the manga writer of Sailor Moon and the manga writer of Yu Yu Hakusho were married).

One particular instance of roses and their thorns being important to a story's symbolism is in the book Like Water for Chocolate. The main character, Tita, is given a bouquet of white roses by her sweetheart (who also happens to be married to her older sister for a variety of reasons I won't go into here). Tita clutches the roses so tight to her chest that the thorns pierce her skin and her blood turns the roses deep red. She then uses the roses in a chicken recipe (I found this to be a little *cough* lot *cough* on the gross side), which then causes her oldest sister - the one not married to the sweetheart - to burst into pink flames, run naked across a field, and hop on to a horse with a guy to ride off into the night (how I wish this book were about the oldest sister, but I digress).

My favorite part of that book would not have happened if roses didn't have their thorns.

We want our roses to be pretty delicate blooms, easy to handle with a lovely fragrance. We don't want the thorns.

But a rose's thorns are a part of the rose. Taking away the thorns leaves the rose defenseless and sometimes not treated with the same careful respect a rose with thorns might receive.

So I leave you readers with my first question: is a rose still a rose without her thorns?

Until next week!

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or, leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.