Cleolinda everywhere

Legendary sword master Bob Anderson dies.

It is reported that the sword-fighting trainer and choreographer passed away today, at the age of 89. Bob Anderson was a behind-the-scenes name little known to many fans but who had a tremendous impact not only on the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, but on cinema itself. Anderson’s many credits include: Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Princess Bride, Highlander and much more. From thelordoftherings.net: “Bob Anderson, the world’s top sword master who has consulted on such films as Star Wars and trained the legendary Errol Flynn, was also brought in to train the actors in different fencing techniques. An expert in medieval arms, Anderson read the novel and then developed sparring methods based on Tolkien’s descriptions of each culture.”

For my money, his two greatest contributions as sword master and/or choreographer are in The Princess Bride and the first Pirates of the Caribbean. Maybe the massive three-act Battle of Amon Hen in Fellowship of the Ring as the third greatest, but for pure fencing swordsmanship and iconic fun, the first two. However, he actually was Darth Vader in a couple of the Star Wars movies:

Anderson also owns a claim to fame for being a swordfighting trainer for several films, as well as a stunt double for Darth Vader in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. He is one of seven people to have played that character. [...] Anderson did not receive much recognition for his role in the Star Wars films for years after their initial release, in part because David Prowse was so lauded for his portrayal that director George Lucas did not want to detract from the boost it gave the actor's career. In a 1983 interview, however, Mark Hamill paid homage to Anderson's contribution, saying, "Bob Anderson was the man who actually did Vader’s fighting. It was always supposed to be a secret, but I finally told George I didn’t think it was fair any more. Bob worked so bloody hard that he deserves some recognition. It’s ridiculous to preserve the myth that it’s all done by one man."

There is very little I love in movies--perhaps in life--more than a good sword fight. If anyone deserves an Oscar montage this year, it's Bob Anderson, and it would be the most entertaining thing in the whole show.

( Clips )

As of yesterday, The Lovely Emily now has a Baby Em, yay! She has a very pretty, classic name with a very cute nickname that I am not going to tell you because I love y'all, but this is the internet.

So... it's been an interesting week.


@cleolinda: My aunt just found a girl wandering around my grandmother's yard. Called the cops. Turns out girl is a known scout for a burglary ring.

( Fringe Boots then offered to dogwalk for cash )

Previously on The Secret Life of Dolls: I just went ahead and told Tonner Bella that Tonner Edward is a vampire, because life is too short. And then she and her sheep-herding yipyip dogs went to work at the Sparklerosa, and Clarice's frustrated little brain nearly exploded in a puff of woolly rage.

( And then, we all heard a low rumbling that was not fireworks )

Previously on The Secret Life of Dolls: Tonner Bella arrived, God help us all.

It looked like a Tonner Bella, anyway.

( Hi, yeah, I'm calling about a doll I ordered? )

From Saturday: New Secret Life of Dolls, in which a sparklepire finds out exactly for whom the bell tolls. Looking at my calendar, I'm thinking we'll have the next installment on Saturday (as usual), and then we'll skip the next week, because that's Harry Potter and I have a podcast to do on Saturday and I don't think anyone will be paying attention to anything else anyway. Unless there are unexpectedly high number of Potter non-fans here who want counter-programming?

Meanwhile, I fell into a gigantic plot hole over the weekend and realized that the central premise of the first half of the novel (the first Black Ribbon novel) doesn't make any sense. I won't get into specifics, but it came down to an anguished writer-wail of "Wait--but--why wouldn't he tell her? OH, FFFFFFFFF--"

The thing is, I'd been sitting there trying to jam together puzzle pieces that didn't fit for--I don't know, months, probably. I just kept telling myself that I had all these nice, shiny scenes I had created--some of them independent of the others--and that if I just thought about it hard enough, my Powers of Logic would force them into place. And then I finally ran into the one failure of logic that made the whole thing collapse. So I'm opening a fresh Word document (I save every variation of everything, so it's not like I lose anything by experimenting) and just talking it out. So far, it's... actually going really well. I got something like 4000 words done today, and about 2000 on Saturday. It's kind of liberating, in fact, to just be like, "Fuck it, I'll just start over." I mean, there are older bits that will get absorbed into the new as I go. But at least I'm not trying to pound the same square pegs into round plot holes anymore. So... I've got that going for me, I guess.

Linkspam! ( Read more... )

Before we begin: I am auctioning off a year of postcards from me, and... a year of postcards from The Littlest Edward at foresthouseeyes.


Previously on The Secret Life of Dolls: someone did a bad, bad thing.

( Read more... )

So. As far as I know, both of my grandmothers are stable.

Marie Claire is a bunch of jackasses who apparently set their "provocative blogger" up to fail for the page views.

And lo, the internet rose up as one and smote them thus.

Pallas cats playing in jack-o'-lanterns make me feel better. (Thanks, @giishu.)

I was able to put up the third signed copy of Movies in Fifteen Minutes for auction, and I am considering doing 1) a Year of Postcards from me, 2) a year from The Littlest Edward, because (as we all know), he is craftsy, and 3) a year from Galadriel, who would be able to drop dark hints about future Secret Life developments.

New Made of Fail episode: It Gets Better. I've just started listening to it, but it seems to be partly about this month's national bullying dialogue, if you will, and the horror genre for Halloween. Note: their January episode just went for $500 at the foresthouseeyes auction. I don't even know.

Also, you need a plush Wizard of Oz monkey in your life.


HEY LET'S HAVE SOME ACTUAL LINKSPAM.

( Read more... )



 

Previously on The Secret Life of Dolls: The Littlest Bella discovered the Sparklerosa and nearly succumbed to mob justice, but eventually took the whole thing in stride, and now The Littlest Edward can ranch his ponies in the open. However, this did nothing for Tonner Edward's heartache, although he did reclaim the living room downstairs for himself, wallowing so listlessly in his own malaise that he could barely bestir himself to tell me, 

 “By the way, I think that dog is eating one of the Faramirs.”

"WHAT?"

 "Out back," he said, shrugging.

( NOOO! YOU GOTTA LET ME SEE THE WAR!! )

Previously on The Secret Life of Dolls: The Shelf prepared for the Crimbo season and the coming of Santa Eorl.

I keep making mysterious allusions to things that have already happened--which have gotten even more tangled up now that Christmas is a thing of the past as well--so bear with me. When we last left the actual goings-on, it was last fall; Betsy 2.0 died, I went through a couple of Camilles, and now I have Lizzie, my beloved laptop. And then MORE CRAP HAPPENED. There were no updates for many moons. It happens. So yes, I was hinting at a great number of things that had happened in the interim, involving Faramir and Serafina, and Anna being shifty, and the intrigues of squirrels, and Tonner Edward's migraines, but no, you hadn't actually found out what they were. You didn't miss anything. But back in the fall, they were preparing for The Coming Squirrelmageddon. (Don't worry, it hasn't happened yet. Winter led to a cessation of hostilities; as Helm's Deep Aragorn informed me, campaign season was over until the spring.)

However, I don't want us to miss Christmas--it just won't be as fun however many months from now it takes me to catch up--so I'll try to go ahead and tell you what I can.

*facepalm*

So.

( Lyra and The Littlest Bella had finally discovered a common cause )

Internets, I am not feeling so good. Just sinus blarg and a low fever, but I have been sleeping a lot. So that's where I've been.

Two bits of writerly advice:

@victoriastrauss: Agent Andrew Lownie on how to blow your chances in the first line of your email.

@MaryRobinette: Debut Author Lessons: 10 things about signing books.

Linkspam: movie news and your chance to be a werewolf, for really real. ( HOW CAN YOU BEAT THAT VALUE )