Multi-GIP with rather a lot of nattering

[ealgylden]

I actually typed this last night- late, late last night, or actually very early this morning. Yay, insomnia fun (again, still, yet). I thought it might be wise to read it over when I was awake before posting, just in case. But that's why it's a bit... rambly and disjoined, even by my standards. I was too lazy to translate 4am writing into 4pm writing. And aren't GIPs traditionally wee posts? Heh. Tangents are my friends.


: My only non-aithine-made new icon is this snazzy Mulan one from miggy. Mulan and Kida are my favorite Disney heroines by a wide margin, so naturally I couldn't resist. Somewhere on the table behind me there's a stack of notecards arranging all the Disney heroines on this-or-that spectrum (age/maturity, centrality of romance to plotline, that sort of thing), and Mulan and Kida keep ending up in nearly the same place every time, so obviously I have a type. I should do something with my Disney thoughts. Eh, not tonight.


: There's no deep meaning to the new Sean Maher icon, really (from aithine). "Sean Maher is oh, so very beautiful" pretty much sums it up. My birthday is in June, so please feel free to get me him. Interesting that he looks a bit like a particularly attractive rentboy in that shot. Hm.


Oh well, on to Joan and Beowulf! I had intended to post these yesterday, since Joan of Arc was born on Epiphany, but instead the blank update page and I had a stare-off for many, many hours. And it doesn't need to blink, the big cheater. So in honor of the day after Joan's birthday, my new (and old) Joan icons. After all, I already have several Joan icons, for obvious reasons, but one can never have too many, says I. If we could have more than 50 slots, I'd have a whole herd of Joan icons! Oh well, 6+ is enough for now.


So the three older ones first, just for completeness. I have five Joan of Arcadia icons currently in rotation, but for the purposes of this "Joan" set, the only one I'm counting is this one from alethialia: . Nice, simple, pretty shot of the Maid of Arcadia. You know, it's funny. People often tend to favor certain colors in their icons as much as they favor certain fandoms, fonts, design layouts, etc. And my icons, for whatever reason, tend not to have a lot of red. In fact, the only three that do make heavy use of red are the two of Shelly from Scary Go Round that I use as personal avatars (after all, why mock-up an avatar when there's already a cartoon character that looks like you?), and this one, another Joan and something of an avatar itself. Maybe somewhere in my brain "red = me"? Hm. That would be odd.


: one of my cutest Joan icons, because she's easily one of the cutest Joans ever, is this one from castalianspring, of Jane Wiedlin's Joan a la Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. It's nice to have a light-hearted Joan icon. Makes a pleasant change. And she just looks so happy and cute. Aw. "Maxine," of course, from the scene where the boys introduce the persons of historical significance to Bill's stepmother: "Dave Beethoven, Maxine of Arc, Herman the Kid, Bob Genghis Khan, Socrates Johnson, Dennis Freud, and ah... uh... Abraham Lincoln." Man, I love that movie.


: Last of the older ones is the one I think of as daegaer-Joan, though the icon itself was generously made by sparrow_wings. The quote on it comes from one of daegaer's excellent Joan stories (Joan and St. Michael stories, really, which is unfortunate for Joan), and she was kind enough to share the icon as well.


So on to the new ones. All by aithine, as I said, as are the two Beowulf ones. Huzzah for generous friends!


: this image is from an advertising card that I don't have in my Joan ephemera collection, thanks to some jerk eBay sniper. I hate snipers with a blazing passion. They'll rue the day when I'm Empress of Everything... Anyway. It's too bad I don't have a way to show you the lovely full image as well, but the design works even more prettily as an icon than I'd expected. Most excellent.


: Also not in my collection is the original of this image, again thanks to a sniper. You snipe auctions on eBay, you burn in the flaming pits of Hell for all eternity, okay? I wouldn't lie to you. Anyway, when I nicked the pic (which again, I wish I could show you), I stupidly forgot to jot down the name of the actress portraying Joan. So this icon is from a photo of an unknown British actress in the role of Joan of Arc, and that's all I've got. Pity. It's a great photo.


: This image is from Cecil B. DeMille's 1917 film, Joan the Woman. The rather intense, pale Joan is the opera singer Geraldine Farrar. I love Gerry. She was one of the biggest stars at the Met in the first two decades of the 20th century, a diva in the truest style. Beautiful, glamorous, temperamental, strong-willed and always, always dramatic. She had a lovely voice, but there were far greater soprano voices at the Met in her generation. She was in the first rank of stars and achieved world-wide fame arguably second only to Caruso's through her acting skills, the likes of which had not been seen before on the operatic stage, and the force of her media personality. Her tumultuous marriage to actor Lou Tellegen, her affairs with men like Arturo Toscanini and Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany, her glamorous personal style, her fiery personality, and especially her 200+ recordings and fifteen silent films helped keep her in the minds of people who'd never get to see her on stage. She was one of the first modern media divas. No wonder she had such a noisy, enthusiastic following (called Gerryflappers, cutely enough). As for her Joan, well, my thoughts on that are for another post. Heh. No, really, come back in May. For now I'll just say I love this icon, and leave it at that.


And another huzzah, I have two Beowulf icons! At last! Actually, I already had one, sort of. My Théoden icon, , has a very fitting Beowulf quote on it. When the Beowulf poet says, "Þaet waes god cyning," about Hroðgar, it's more than just some gnomic artifact from an earlier oral source; it has true meaningful weight. Hroðgar is a good king, however dire his current situation may be, and it's only through the strength and actions of good kings and bold heroes that the looming, chaotic and inevitable end of all things can be staved off (the Anglo-Saxon worldview is a rollicking good time *g*). Théoden makes a great Hroðgar; the quote and all of its resonances fit him beautifully.

My two new Beowulf icons are of Gerard Butler in his Beowulf and Grendel rig (another post on the film is at the top of my to-do list, as soon as I get myself in gear). He certainly looks the part, so my fingers are crossed and my heart is hopeful. About Gerard, anyway, but there are other things... another post.


: apparently the setting of this shot is inside Heorot. Pretty lighting. I thought I'd be clever and see if a quote containing "ealgylden" could be made to fit our nicely gilded hero, but neither of the two appearance of the word would cooperate. Neither use is technically even in the Grendel section of the poem- it's used once in the Fight at Finnsburg section and once when Wiglaf enters the dragon's barrow. Oh well. Anyway, "Wordhord onleac" works even better for LJ, I think. The full quote is, "Him se yldesta andswarode,/ werodes wisa, wordhord onleac:", which means (very literally, 'cause I'm lazy and it's 4am) "the chief (among them) answered him,/ the leader of the company, unlocked his word-hoard. Considering the way I can turn a simple GIP into a huge blather post, "word-hoard" is rather fitting, no?


: And lastly, this fair and fierce picture gets part of my favorite quote from Beowulf: "Wyrd oft nereð / unfaegne eorl, þonne his ellen deah!"- (again, point blank literally) "Wyrd often spares the undoomed man, when his courage suffices!" A neat summation of the thematic heart of the poem, and a catchy slogan to boot. Goodness knows I've posted it on enough computer monitors and office doors and message boards over the years. So I had to have it on an icon, at last. Or at least part of it, because the whole phrase is a mouthful. *g* Ooh, this movie makes me so nervous and excited! Please, please, please be good!

And they all lived happily ever after. Thank you and good night!