As 2011 draws to a close, I thought it would be fun to look back on Waitin' on a Sunny Day's 2011. Or, perhaps more fittingly, my 2011. I watched a grand total of 369 films this year, watched 43 seasons of tv series (it seems a lot, but most of them where British shows which means the seasons are a lot shorter ;D), made some amazing friends through classic film, met one of my best classic film buddies in real life, and had a ridiculous amount of fun posting on here about all things classic! So, without further ado, I give you my 2011 in review!
I watched so many incredible TV series this year including Matador (1978-1982), The Golden Girls (1985-1992), and House (2004-), but when it came down to it, however much I love those three shows, none of them could surpass the emotional roller coaster that is Band of Brothers. Do yourself a favour and watch it!
I could go on forever listing favourites, but these are the three most important categories pertaining to this blog so I'll stop there. I honestly can't believe the year is almost over; it only seems like yesterday that I was posting my 2011 film-related New Year's resolutions on here (make sure you check back in a day or two to see how many of those I kept ;D). I can't think of anything profound to say so I'm just going to wish you all a very wonderful New Year and I'll see you at the other side!
I had planned on writing an awesome Christmas post but you're going to be stuck with this rubbish one because time is running out and I need to eat and get ready for the Vigil Mass which is at 6:30 (a ridiculous time if you ask me. We usually go to Midnight Mass but my Mum is feeling rather tired and didn't feel like traipsing around in the freezing cold dead of night.). I hope each and everyone of you has the most wonderful Christmas imaginable! Before I go, I'll leave you one of the most magical Christmas scenes from any films. We all know it but it never gets old. Enjoy!
That I haven't fallen off the face of the earth or become trapped in a parallel universe a lá Doomsday. I'm participating in the self-afflicted torture known as NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). In case you're not familiar with it, the general idea is to write a 50,000+ words novel in 30 days. This means that you need to be writing about 1667 words per day if you want to finish my November 30. I'm currently lagging 4500 words behind with only 5564 words. Still, it's only 6 days since it started and I haven't had the time to write on two of those days so I'm not doing too badly. I suppose...
Because my novel actually has something to do with classic film, I thought I'd give share with you a (very) vague synopsis. No, really, it is the vaguest synopsis you will ever read. HOLD ONTO YOUR HATS, PEOPLE.
Eve Lynne, an actress who came to fame during the heyday of Hollywood's studio system, looks back on her life after the filming of her final picture has finished. From her beginnings as the daughter of an upper middle class English couple to her international stardom, it's hard to believe how far she's come.
I know, right? It just screams best seller. No, but in all seriousness, I'm pretty much winging it. And my quest to be as historically accurate as possible (how does one find out who supervised the casting process in Gold Diggers of 1933? Craziness.) is driving me insane. I am, however, determined to finish the novel - although it's doubtful that it will ever see the light of day again and November 30.
Anyway, the whole point of this post was to let you all know that there may be a significant lack of posts throughout November. I do have several ideas for posts though, so perhaps I'll find some time to write them. Who am I kidding, I probably won't survive NaNoWriMo. If you don't hear from me again, it's been lovely folks! And now, I'll leave you with a song that I've been playing on repeat since I watched Walk the Line the other week. Enjoy!
After reading Clara's post this morning about how she hasn't seen a classic film since last month, I was inspired to write about what I'm watching when I'm not watching something made between 1910-1960. It's something I've wanted to write about for a while because there are so many tv series and films that I love to pieces but that definitely don't fall under the "classics" category. So, I hope you enjoy this slightly different post!
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This year I've watched a lot of tv series but my two biggest tv watching endeavours have definitely been watching House and The Golden Girls. They boast 14 series between them and I'd never really seen any of the episodes before so it did take me a while to wade through the series. Well, it took me just over 2 weeks to watch all 180 episodes of TGG, but it took me at least a couple of months to get through House. I highly recommend both series. House is really fascinating and humorous and The Golden Girls is just plain wonderful!
Whilst I do greatly love the two series I mentioned above, the two tv series that really stole my heart this year were Matador (which actually has nothing at all to do with bull fighting. I wrote about it here) and Band of Brothers. I devour anything to do with WWII, so when my Dad bought the BoB box set I just had to watch it. Let me tell you, nothing will ever be the same again. You know something is going to be good when Spielberg and Hanks collaborate on it, but nothing can prepare you for the incredibleness of this mini series. After I watched the last episode (it's a ten part mini series), I cried and cried. I cried not so much because I'd just finished watching an incredible piece of television, but because the story is just so powerful and the ending really knocks the wind out of you. Even the most hard hearted person in the world would get emotional over it. As Orson Welles (I think) said about Make Way For Tomorrow, "It would make a stone cry.". What makes it all the more amazing is that fact that it actually happened. Obviously, there is going to be some tweaking here and there, but nevertheless, these men were real people who were unimaginably courageous and strong. At the beginning of each episode some of the surviving men from Easy Company are shown talking about the events that are being shown to us in the series, and it really makes the realities of the whole experience hit home. I honestly can't recommend Band of Brothers enough. If you don't mind quite a bit of swearing and a blood and guts, then you should go ahead and check it out! I recommend reading the book written by Stephen Ambrose as well. I'm currently reading it and it's really fascinating and gives you a lot more insight into the mini series.
I also watched The Pacificthis year, which is sort of (not really) the sister series to Band of Brothers except that, instead of being set mainly in Europe, it's set in, you guessed it, the Pacific. Again, it's a truly incredible piece of television, but it's not quite up there with BoB in my books.
A couple of weeks ago I discovered Downton Abbey. Let me tell you, Elizabeth McGovern is a life ruiner ;D But, in all seriousness, it's a wonderful tv series and, lucky for me, living in Britain I'm able to see the new episodes as they air! Eep! It makes a change from having to wait months for American tv series until they air over here. Something that makes the series all the more wonderful for me is the fact that it's set in the county I live so I know all of the names of the towns that they mention. And also, the actress who plays Anna comes from a little village just outside my home town! :D Oh, and did I mention that they totally rip off (or pay tribute to) the flower contest scene in Mrs. Miniver during one of the first series episodes. Cora Crawley even has a huge Greer Garson-esque hat!
The Countess of Grantham, is better than you. And so is her hat.
Something a little more "random" (omg, your bins are so random!) that I watched this year was the Australian mockumentary, Summer Heights High. If you got the quote above you are awesome. All of the episodes are on YouTube and it's so hilarious and brilliant.
Currently I'm plowing through The X-Filesbecause I finally decided it was time to bite the bullet and watch all the episodes that I haven't seen before (most of them). It's somewhat shocking that I haven't already seen all of the show because Gillian Anderson is my absolute favourite modern actress (she ranks just a teeny tiny bit behind Deborah for all time favourite) and, whilst I've seen a large amount of her films and other tv work (Bleak Houseis what introduced me to her 6 years ago. I've never looked back.) I've always been too much of a scaredy cat to take much interest in TX-F. My Dad and brother both love it, but I have never seen a true horror film (well, modern horror film at least) because I know I won't sleep for days (I even had a nightmares when I heard Spotify playing the Paranormal Activity 2 trailer in between songs once...). There is at least one episode of TX-F that I know I'll never watch, Die Hand die verletzt. It terrified my father and brother so much that they couldn't watch it, so I'm not even going to try. If there are any big fans of the show reading this, I'd appreciate it if you could let me know of any other episodes similar to the one I just mentioned so I can quietly skip past those too!
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Well, I think that's all for now! I really enjoyed writing this though, so perhaps, if people are interested, I'll make another post about my "old favourites". You know, things I can watch over and over and will most probably force upon any offspring I may have... Just let me know what you all think! Hope you enjoyed reading!
I've wanted to change my layout for quite a while now but, not being able to design a layout myself and having searched and searched but failed to find a layout to my liking, I'd almost given up. However, today I decided I'd give it another go and I finally found something I like. I thought I'd have a Christmassy/Wintery theme for the time being, and then change it to something more "neutral" after New Year. I'll probably keep the header though, I like seeing my dear Deborah there! Anyway, I hope you like it!
Aaaaand, here's a photo of Arlene being usual her lovely, beautiful self ;D
