![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Have spent the day being plagued by a headache brought on by accidental immersion in 1860's Spanish courtly maneuverings (centuries and nations away from my field, yes. It was a tangent that got out of control, and if I never read about Narvaez or Prim again, it'll be too soon). Am now trying to relax with too-sweet tea, Purcell, and Livejournal, only to find that LJ is the evilest evil that ever eviled. Am consumed by a longing to throw my computer into the sea, but alas, have been thwarted by an accident of geography that confines me to a landlocked county. Have also apparently run short of first person pronouns.
But! Sean Bean DVD news! No, not the Region One release of Lady Chatterley- yay!, but that's old news. No, I mean the shiny new news item from TVShowsOnDVD:
"The (News) Story You've Waited For! 6/16/2003
Henson fans, rejoice! On August 26th, Columbia/TriStar Home Entertainment presents the DVD debut of Jim Henson's The Storyteller - The Complete Collection. Directed by Anthony Minghella (The English Patient), Henson takes us through the fantasy of recognizable European folk/fairy tales with narration by the Storyteller, played wonderfully by John Hurt.
If you watched this series on HBO back in the late '80s, you'll be thrilled to know that each of the 9 episodes are included in this release...all 216 minutes of "The Soldier and Death," "Fearnot," "The Luck Child," "A Story Short," "Hans My Hedgehog," "The Three Ravens," "Sapsorrow," "The Heartless Giant," and "The True Bride". Priced at an SRP of $24.95, this will be a must-have for everyone who loves Henson's work.
These stories will certainly appeal to fans of J.R.R. Tolkien, too. The cover art was certainly designed with that in mind."
This is hugely exciting to me. Not just for the lovely Sean (he's in "The True Bride," which strangely I don't remember seeing, though I must have), but because this show is an amazing piece of work. John Hurt is ideal as the Storyteller (this may well be my favorite Hurt role, which seems a bit odd somehow), his Muppet dog companion is funny and clever and Muppet-y, and the stories themselves are touching, witty, creepy, and visually enticing, like fairy tales should be. If you've never watched the show but have seen any of the various tributes to Jim Henson over the years, you've undoubtedly seen a clip of "Hans My Hedgehog," the most often "quoted" episode. Jim Henson will have my devotion until I'm old and grey and have forced my great-grandchildren to learn the lyrics to "The Rainbow Connection" backwards and forwards, and this show is a large part of the reason why. You can be sure these DVDs will be going on my bookshelf next to The Girl Who Cried Flowers, The Serpent Slayer and the rest of my favorite fairy tale collections.
*~*~*~*
Have found a lovely companion for my Lady Grey and "Hail! Bright Caecilia"-![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
daegaer's new AU Good Omens fic, Ordinary People. Not much happens, in a grand motions-of-the-universe sense, and yet the story is busy with all the little dance steps of everyday life. It's a witty, romantic, wandering, quiet, charming tale. With pirates! Sort of. You'll have to read it to see where the pirates appear, but I choked on my tea laughing at that bit. To repeat my adjectives, it’s just charming.
*~*~*~*
I'm still reading The Sheik (Diana just tried to escape on Ahmed's prize stallion! But quel horreur! She failed! Whatever shall be her fate?) and rereading The Princess Bride, but I have a craving for that particular sort of pretentious-yet-pulpy European thriller where the world's fate is guided by a pack of Jesuits plotting away in the basement of the Vatican, or where a dissipated nobleman who's being blackmailed by his chambermaid's bastard drinks himself to death on his impeccable wine collection while reading Boccaccio. Something like the sort of thing Perez-Reverte writes, except I think I've run out of his readily gettable books. Something like Ecco for the beach. Any ideas?
*~*~*~*
If I suddenly went deaf, one of the things I'd most regret losing would be the middle section of Purcell's "Hail! Bright Caecilia," from "With that sublime Celestial Lay/ Shall any Earthly Sounds compare?" to "In vain the Am'rous Flute and soft Guitar" (I'd miss the whole work, of course, but especially that section). I've never heard it poorly performed, but an especially good recording is Harmonia Mundi's, by Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale. I highly recommend it.
But! Sean Bean DVD news! No, not the Region One release of Lady Chatterley- yay!, but that's old news. No, I mean the shiny new news item from TVShowsOnDVD:
"The (News) Story You've Waited For! 6/16/2003
Henson fans, rejoice! On August 26th, Columbia/TriStar Home Entertainment presents the DVD debut of Jim Henson's The Storyteller - The Complete Collection. Directed by Anthony Minghella (The English Patient), Henson takes us through the fantasy of recognizable European folk/fairy tales with narration by the Storyteller, played wonderfully by John Hurt.
If you watched this series on HBO back in the late '80s, you'll be thrilled to know that each of the 9 episodes are included in this release...all 216 minutes of "The Soldier and Death," "Fearnot," "The Luck Child," "A Story Short," "Hans My Hedgehog," "The Three Ravens," "Sapsorrow," "The Heartless Giant," and "The True Bride". Priced at an SRP of $24.95, this will be a must-have for everyone who loves Henson's work.
These stories will certainly appeal to fans of J.R.R. Tolkien, too. The cover art was certainly designed with that in mind."
This is hugely exciting to me. Not just for the lovely Sean (he's in "The True Bride," which strangely I don't remember seeing, though I must have), but because this show is an amazing piece of work. John Hurt is ideal as the Storyteller (this may well be my favorite Hurt role, which seems a bit odd somehow), his Muppet dog companion is funny and clever and Muppet-y, and the stories themselves are touching, witty, creepy, and visually enticing, like fairy tales should be. If you've never watched the show but have seen any of the various tributes to Jim Henson over the years, you've undoubtedly seen a clip of "Hans My Hedgehog," the most often "quoted" episode. Jim Henson will have my devotion until I'm old and grey and have forced my great-grandchildren to learn the lyrics to "The Rainbow Connection" backwards and forwards, and this show is a large part of the reason why. You can be sure these DVDs will be going on my bookshelf next to The Girl Who Cried Flowers, The Serpent Slayer and the rest of my favorite fairy tale collections.
*~*~*~*
Have found a lovely companion for my Lady Grey and "Hail! Bright Caecilia"-
daegaer's new AU Good Omens fic, Ordinary People. Not much happens, in a grand motions-of-the-universe sense, and yet the story is busy with all the little dance steps of everyday life. It's a witty, romantic, wandering, quiet, charming tale. With pirates! Sort of. You'll have to read it to see where the pirates appear, but I choked on my tea laughing at that bit. To repeat my adjectives, it’s just charming.*~*~*~*
I'm still reading The Sheik (Diana just tried to escape on Ahmed's prize stallion! But quel horreur! She failed! Whatever shall be her fate?) and rereading The Princess Bride, but I have a craving for that particular sort of pretentious-yet-pulpy European thriller where the world's fate is guided by a pack of Jesuits plotting away in the basement of the Vatican, or where a dissipated nobleman who's being blackmailed by his chambermaid's bastard drinks himself to death on his impeccable wine collection while reading Boccaccio. Something like the sort of thing Perez-Reverte writes, except I think I've run out of his readily gettable books. Something like Ecco for the beach. Any ideas?
*~*~*~*
If I suddenly went deaf, one of the things I'd most regret losing would be the middle section of Purcell's "Hail! Bright Caecilia," from "With that sublime Celestial Lay/ Shall any Earthly Sounds compare?" to "In vain the Am'rous Flute and soft Guitar" (I'd miss the whole work, of course, but especially that section). I've never heard it poorly performed, but an especially good recording is Harmonia Mundi's, by Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale. I highly recommend it.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif){kind=small}