An entry with almost nothing but cheerful things in it

[cleolinda]

For fun, I pulled out a couple of old tarot-reading books--I collect tarot decks for the artwork--and played a little game I've done with another project once before: try to fit all the characters in a story, and some events if you have to, into the Major Arcana. If you have a lot of characters and/or want to get really fancy, you can start in on the Minor Arcana as well (which are actually more suited to events than the Major).

The fun part is trying to go by the meanings of the cards, not just the imagery, although I immediately went to "The Empress" on my list and wrote in Queen Victoria. The World is the British empire; the Chariot is the steam locomotive (with two tracks instead of two horses, because I are smart), and so on. I was overly excited to realize that I had an actual magician character who fit the Magician, who is traditionally pictured with roses and lilies, and who in my series actually is friends with... a Rose and a Lilly. Hand to God, I'm not making this up. I am struggling with the High Priestess a bit, although I think I know who it might be, and I have way too many possibilities for the Moon. The really exciting thing, though, was figuring out the Star, because it helped me clarify the role of a certain character (one you haven't met yet) in the two series. Which, ideally, is the purpose of the tarot-for-writers game in the first place.

Interestingly, Rose Hannah turned out to fit Strength the best--in part for a reason I can't reveal yet, but will turn up in the second volume, the one with a side trip to the Paris catacombs. And West was so completely Justice that it was almost funny: “When this card appears it ask us to identify what we did wrong and to claim our own mistakes - and perhaps to apologize for something we have done.”

Headlines you don't see every day: Pa. farm discovers a 4-legged chicken; court says $32,000 is too much to fondle bosom. To be fair, they did charge for ten separate fondling occasions.

anoneknewmoose: "A site called Bitacle.org is reposting LJ posts from the RSS feeds including, in my case, f-locked posts, and there have been cases of other LJ uses reposting peoples' writing found on Bitacle." Uh. That's not good. Does Livejournal know about this? Maybe there's some kind of crawler they can block.

Oprah: My lawyers overreacted.

Dolphin may get prosthetic tail. Awwww.

Acrobat Panda.

New images from Order of the Phoenix. Okay, now Harry's hair isn't shaggy enough.

Find 50 Dark Movies on the M&Ms site. AHHHHHHHH. This is deeply embarrassing if you fancy yourself a movie buff. Apparently in my universe, there are movies called The Juggler, Death in a Fence, Killer Butterflies, Crazy Apes, A Bunch of Losers Fighting Over Who Gets to Be Zero, The Child Snatcher, Tied-Up Guy in a Bear Hat, When Planets Collide, Dancing in Blood, I Told You to Stop for Directions, and Bastard Fish. Clues: if there are a number of things, count them; it might help. Try to think of "dark" movie titles and then go look for those--there were a couple of movies I knew automatically would be in the picture, because they're 1) well-known and 2) easy to draw. Burton, Shyamalan, Lynch, Hitchcock and Gilliam are all represented at least once. Some recent Japanese horror remakes are in there as well as some classics from the '70s. Sling Blade and Big Fish are not correct answers. They're not all horror movies; some of them I would term thrillers, and loosely at that. (Here's a wallpaper version of the full painting, if you'd like to study it. You have to open the flash site to get the fill-in blanks.) I managed to solve it in about nineteen minutes, but only with Google-fu cheating on three answers ("OH, WHATEVER, MOVIE GAME").


ETA: Okay, I was bored. I made icons.

Comments

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Easy Gif Animator; you can get it at download.com. I made the trial period last a really long time, and then I broke down and paid the $15 fee for it, I liked it so much. Because, really, $15 is like a movie, popcorn and a drink; even *I* could afford that.

[katels.livejournal.com]

Awesome, thanks for that! Yeah, I reckon $15's within my budget... : )

[ebonymoon.livejournal.com]

Argh, screw you movie game. I spent like 5 minutes trying to figure out what movie it could be from a peach with spades stuck in it...Yes. I'm very intelligent.

[ironclad1609.livejournal.com]

I didn't like Harry's hair in Goblet, it looked too much as if they wanted to make him look cool and grunge. When will they understand that Harry is not supposed to be cool?
The new haircut is too short though, I agree.

Umbridge doesn't look chubby enough for me, somehow. Not enough Frog.
But I guess they'll do fine, just like they did with the 3rd and 4th movie.

Thanks to keever for the pics, because your link didn't work for me either.

Headlines you DO see everyday...with a twist

[stardustshine.livejournal.com]

Orioles player hits wife (http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060924&content_id=1679677&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb)

No really, you have to click, because it's totally not what you're thinking. ^_^

I love the dark movie name icons - especially the stopping for directions one!!

[inner-critic.livejournal.com]

Very true.
Also, Fred and George look very like David Bowie, and Harry looks...what? 30 years older? 40?

[angelene.livejournal.com]

I just found this post on foto_decadent (http://community.livejournal.com/foto_decadent/1408421.html) (actual source = Kirsten Candy (http://www.kirstenimages.com/kirstenimages/)) and thought of you. Maybe you're already aware of it, but they're scans of the 'Marie Antoinette' Vogue article/photoshoot in nearly-heart-attack-inducing hi-res. Text also included.

[jjrogueangel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Umbridge looks far too proper and not nearly froggy enough. But the kitten plates do freak me out, so good job there.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Can it also feature the O RLY camels?
http://www.photure.demon.nl/Animals/camels.jpg

[ellaafleck.livejournal.com]

Oh thank you so much, because I totally have the time to waste tonight on this game.

And apparently the answer isn't "Giant Ass Knife" either, you movies and you stupid titles.

Tarot collector

[comixfan.livejournal.com]

My mother in law used to collect tarot decks for the artwork as well. She has some very cool decks that go back to before my wife and I were born.

Weird movie game.

[elbales]

So is there an actual answer key somewhere?

re: Bitacle

[katels.livejournal.com]

I was taking a break just now and decided to do some searches for my LJ user name on Bitacle. I was feeling fairly safe because my journal has been friends only for months now. Well, yes and no. It found f-list entries that refer to me by my handle, as well as entries of mine. While no one would be able to see the whole text because the link would be friends only, the text was searchable, and gives a paragraph containing the searched-for word.

And this right after having a discussion with my Mum about being careful what I put on my LJ cos who knows who can read it!

I did a search for my thesis supervisor's name. And HOLY CRAP BUT AN ENTRY I WROTE IN A COMMUNITY CALLING HIM EVIL CAME UP. Farkin'. So I quickly baleted it, but what if it stays on bitacle ohnoes?!

[katels.livejournal.com]

Dude, that is totally what I saw, too!

Re: Weird movie game.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

http://digg.com/playable_web_games/Find_the_50_dark_movies_in_the_M_M_painting#c3171232

Re: Weird movie game.

[jjrogueangel.livejournal.com]

I just looked at the answers. I felt really stupid. Most of them are common sense, and I guess it's not common with me *facepalm*

[zrath.livejournal.com]

Wow, that dark movie quiz is hard!
I got 27 in 20 minutes, and had to save my game because my lunch break was over.
The answer to the one with the bunch of guys arguing to be zero is awful-awful-awful!
Bad pun!

Maybe I'll continue playing later...

Facebook Group in your Honor

[silvergleam.livejournal.com]

Hey Cleolinda,

I really enjoy your posts/ writing and wanted to get the word out (and hopefully encourage others to buy the book.) So I've created a Facebook group which is available here for view (assuming you have Facebook)

http://yu.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2211140169

It's called Movies in 15 Minutes=Pure Elysium

I just wanted to make you aware of it, and, if you want, you can post on your blog for the m15m community so that people will know it exists and (all those of us who are college-age...actually...now it's everybody who wants a Facebook) can come join and we can all talk about our love for your parodies!

Thanks so much,
Olivia

[stefficus.livejournal.com]

yeah, i cheated on that one because 1) reaching and 2) really? it was THAT color? um. i even tried "legally blonde" because of the pose and the purse. disappointingly, that's not it. heh.

(oh, come on. i didn't see it, but it was pretty dark, wasn't it?)

[bardintraining.livejournal.com]

I swear I read this entry a day or two ago, and then lo and behold in Vampire Studies class the prof pauses midway through the powerpoint to show us how each main character in Dracula matches up to a tarot card. Van Helsing, the wizard; Lucy & Arthur, the Lovers; Mina, the Empress; Harker, the Fool; Dracula, the Devil; Dr. Seward, the Hermit--etc.
O_o

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow.

(But can he think of someone for all 22 cards?)

[bardintraining.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure...we only went through 9 cards as it was, I think. Then we had to move on to the lexicon of Victorian sexual taboos and how every single one manages to make its way into the narrative.
*shrugs*
Would be tough for all 22, I think, since a good portion of the minor characters seem to be killed before we get much of a chance to know them.

[bellavaruka.livejournal.com]

I'm way behind on my flist... But I guessed Phantom of the Opera on that one as well. Glad I'm not alone on that.