On an Atlas Poster Found in a Book: A Photo Post

Today's discovery was a very nice poster for a Hammond's World Atlas found folded inside a 1937 copy of  Boswell's Journal of A Tour to the Hebrides.

There was also a card for the Literary Guild tucked in between the pages. 

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On a 1950's take on...Shakespeare?

This spring I choose to take a Shakespeare course and as our final we had to choose a passage from one of his plays to recite complete with costume. For my presentation, I ended up choosing part of Helena's closing passage of act 1, scene 1 of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

We were given the option to interpret what we chose to recite in any way we wanted and while originally I was going to wear a dress with a much more traditional Grecian look to it, I decided I would go for a 1950's interpretation.

Because my passage was about love and Cupid was mentioned, I thought my Valentine's heart skirt and blouse from last year would be the perfect choice of costume. It was quite nippy and knowing it'd be even more so by the time I left, I dug out some red tights I'd had for ages. I'd had them so long that it turned out they didn't fit any more (how a pair of bright red tights stayed in the back of the drawer for so long without me noticing, I don't know), so I ended up cutting the top part off and wearing them as stockings. This was a really good reminder that I should buy some colored tights because I love the way they look!  

To add to this, and as a way to incorporate the original Athenian aspect of the play, I also made myself a flower garland wreath for my hair.

I didn't remember to grab it for these photos, but in order to hide the paper with my lines on it (which was allowed) I ended up bringing a flat silver clutch and it worked just perfectly! 

By the time I presented I was quite nervous and while I can't say I recited without a hitch, when I had to explain my choice of costume afterward I felt like I had made the perfect choice!

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On “Fred Astaire”: A Book Review

Title: Fred Astaire
Author: Joseph Epstein
Genre: Non-Fiction, Biography

About the book...
A short biography covering Fred Astaire’s life.

What I think… 
I’m a big Fred Astaire fan, so have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand it started out with an interesting look at his early life, which is something I always enjoy looking at. Furthermore, there were bit and pieces of trivia throughout that I liked learning about in regards to Astaire himself and some of the movies he made. 

However…there were a number of aspects I found really irritating. Epstein spends a lot of time criticizing appearance both of Astaire, and others he worked with, such as Betty Hutton. While I’d find this annoying at any given time, certain parts had me wondering what exactly he was trying to get at with these criticisms. His facts were also off at times, which does make me question how accurate the book is as a whole. At one point he even makes the claim Astaire and Gene Kelly never danced together, which is untrue as they do a segment in Ziegfeld Follies (1945) called “The Babbitt and the Bromide” (which happens to be one of my favorites from that movie and I song I thoroughly enjoy).

To sum it all up… 
Not the best and if you plan to read this one, you’ll have to be willing to put up with the author’s opinions and inaccuracies. ♥

On The Profoundly Loved Blog Party!

Back in February, I was tagged by the wonderful Seanna from Seanna Approved for the Profoundly Loved Blog Party Q&A and without further ado I present to you my responses.

1} Tell me about something you love and why?

I love having such great co-workers. They’re lovely, hardworking, fantastic, fun, sometimes wacky, and are perfectly willing to put up with my mad decorating tendencies and the quirky things I sometimes say.

 

Sometimes chickens just show up on your computer...

2} What is one thing you do that makes you feel like ‘I could do this forever,’ when you do it?

Reading! I’ve loved reading and books from a very early age and it’s a love that only grows as time passes!

3} What do you love about yourself?

That I’m creative, imaginative, and can be incredibly detail oriented.

 

Where else would you hang old spoons but from the ceiling?

4} What advice would you give to someone who doesn’t believe he/she is beautiful?

 It would really depend on the person and how well I knew them. For someone I knew I would point out the things that made them special.

5} What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received about confidence?

Nothing in particular really stands out. I once had someone tell me something along the lines of ‘if you’re a star you can’t help shinning’, which, while I think the conversation was about me being good at something I didn’t enjoy doing, could fit this since I tend to be rather hard on myself.

6} If you were your own daughter/son, what advice would you give yourself?

I have no idea!

7} A verse, poem, sonnet, ancient-old proverb that inspires you to love yourself and others?

When thinking about this one I came to the appalling conclusion that the majority of the quotes and poetry I like have absolutely nothing to do with love (unless it ends badly like “The Highwayman”) or things relating to it. 

However, I do like the quote “Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better” from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, which happens to be on a poster in my bedroom.

Since I have so few followers, I’m tagging anyone who wants to participate! 

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