Let the bridges I burn light the path of my life.
Remove in me any chance of retreat. Deny my soul the temptation to go back.
May the bridges I burn light the way.
Give me the strength to resist the allure of safety. Allow me the courage to holdfast my convictions.
Dear Lord, I can hold on for awhile... but please don't let this be forever.
As 2012 draws to a close, I share with you some of my favorite beginnings...
THE GRAVEYARD BOOK (2008), by Neil Gaiman
"There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife."
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE (1998), J.K. Rowling
"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
NEUROMANCER (1984), William Gibson
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES (1980), John Kennedy Toole
"A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head."
GRAVITY'S RAINBOW (1973), Thomas Pynchon
"A screaming comes across the sky."
FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS (1971), Hunter S. Thompson
"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold."
THE BELL JAR (1963), Sylvia Plath
"It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York."
FAHRENHEIT 451 (1953), Ray Bradbury
"It was a pleasure to burn."
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE (1951), J.D. Salinger
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."
ANNA KARENINA (1877), Leo Tolstoy
"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1859), Charles Dickens
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."
MOBY-DICK (1851), Herman Melville
"Call me Ishmael."
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1813), Jane Austen
"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
Where have I been? I’ve been busy trying to earn money for a living, planning my sister’s Bridal Shower, and running errands for her wedding. I’ve also been budgeting for all the expenses, making the decorations and props, and up worrying about everything. Oh, and I took up knitting.
Look at this handsome boy! Meet Angus, my sister’s 4 yr. old Beagle and the first model for Potter Puppies, a collection of scarves I am knitting for all the dogs in the fam (we have four).
The knitting has been therapeutic and good for my mental health, especially after all the strain it has been under. After weeks of not being satisfied with the work, just as I was nearly done, I unraveled it. I just couldn’t give Gus an ugly scarf. So knit I did once more and I am very happy with the final product! How posh and English, this one looks! So poised and preppy!
If any of you know me personally, you know that I’m a leftie. Scour the internet I did for tips and tutorials for beginners… and success! It looks like I finally got the garter stitch (and bi-color!) down pat.
Spent Halloween playing this super fun Escape from the House of Horrors with 2 of my siblings! For a full account of what happened, head on over to SHUTTERHOUND. I also made a Dinner Party Murder Mystery How-To at Going Martha.
"There’s Never Going To Be Another Audrey Hepburn Or Marilyn Monroe"
Nov. 01, 2012
By GABY DUNN
Anytime a new actress comes on the scene, she’s divided into one of two categories: the Audrey or the Marilyn. Is she a doll-like brunette with a winning, innocent smile, or is she a voluptuous blonde with a breathy whisper and red lips? Celeb headlines were quick to dub Zooey Deschanel or Carey Mulligan or Rooney Mara or whoever the latest brown-haired it girl was “the new Audrey Hepburn.” Lindsay Lohan is quick to insist over and over that she’s the reincarnation of Monroe. Magazines tout Kate Upton’s full figure and “dumb blonde” nature as Marilyn-esque. Who could forget Anna Nicole Smith?
It’s tempting to look at, let’s say, female celebrities in this narrow way. It’s familiar. It simplifies everything and it deifies the past, the classics, and the old generation without knowing the complexities of these women’s lives. There are the Audreys and there are the Marilyns and that’s it.
Can we just forget this idea already? It’s silly and restrictive and too simple. It’s like a new Madonna/Whore complex. It doesn’t account for the fact that Monroe was more than a bombshell sex symbol, she was actually a kind of brilliant comedic actress or that Hepburn was unlucky in love and only spent nine years with her soul mate before he died (after she had many other failed relationships).
And on another note, there never ever will be a “new” Audrey Hepburn no matter how many magazine articles title their puff pieces this way because there already was THE Audrey Hepburn. Every time I see someone touted as the new Hepburn or Monroe, I want to start a bonfire with Vanity Fairs. It’s like we need context for everything. Like, we’re so obsessed with labeling shit that we want to make things easy and compare new art to old art. It’s why Hollywood is full of sequels and prequels, like security blankets for our stupid brains. We don’t need a new Marilyn. We already had the old Marilyn and that ended tragically. Why are we romanticizing it?
But actresses do it to themselves too. It’s like they only know about two classic actresses: Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. Those, as far as anyone today is concerned, were the only two women acting in the 1950s and 60s: The sex pot and the quirky girl. You have to be one. You can not be a real, complex human being.
A celebrity wants to seem demure or cutesy, so why not dress them as Audrey Hepburn for a photo shoot? How many Marilyn-copying photo shoots is La Lohan gonna do? We get it, girl. You think you’re her ghost or something. And it shows no sign of stopping. Clint Eastwood called Beyonce “the next Ella Fitzgerald.” Jay-Z constantly refers to himself as the new Sinatra.
When Heath Ledger died, I was in college. My friends speculated that in twenty or so years, our children would be lining their walls with Ledger posters the way college kids today might put up a James Dean picture to seem hip. Our kids will romanticize Ledger’s death, quoting from his movies, playing cool by saying they’ve seen 10 Things I Hate About You fifteen times. He’ll be the “new” James Dean.
So maybe it’s inevitable. Maybe each generation has to have its own icons, born and extinguished in that generation, to be beloved and adored by the next. But let’s drop the labels of “the new” and appreciate the originals for what they were: the originals. There’s never going to be a new Marilyn Monroe or a new Audrey Hepburn or a new James Dean (sorry James Franco). These homage photo shoots are tired and cliche. These magazine narratives could never hope to expand on the complexities of the real people, both old and new.
If that aesthetic appeals to you, like really appeals to you, then go watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s or The Seven Year Itch and appreciate them and love them and stop looking for these women’s replacements. Because they’ll never be replaced.
