Category: Favorites Friday

Favorites Friday: Cheer-Up Songs

On By cherylmahoneyIn Favorites Friday4 Comments

I was musing on topics for this Friday, and thought I’d do another song round-up.  I’ve posted on my favorite songs about following your dreams (twice, in fact) but today’s not quite that.  These songs are for days when, never mind following dreams, you don’t even want to get out of bed.  Maybe it’s raining, maybe it’s Monday (in which case you could listen to “Rainy Days and Mondays” but it’s not very uplifting) and you just need something to battle the blues.

I have a playlist for those days, and here are a few of my favorites…  Links go to YouTube videos if you’d like to listen too.

“Talking Optimist Blues” by Neil Diamond is a slightly odd one, because it’s all about how lousy the singer’s life is.  It starts with “I’ve got worries by the ton” then lists them all–but “despite it all, I’d like to say, I’m gonna have a good day, today.  Gonna have a good time anyway.”  A lot of cheer-up songs focus on life getting better.  I like the reminder in this song that happiness isn’t out there somewhere, after everything changes.  We can’t always change our circumstances, but we can change our attitude.  And have a good day–today.  (Listen here)

“Daybreak” by Barry Manilow is more conventional, with an uplifting melody and enthusiastic singing–though it is present tense and there’s a little of the same message: “Hey, it’s daybreak, if you only believe, it can be daybreak.” (Listen here)

“Smile” was sung by many people but I have Josh Groban’s version.  It’s not a cheery, upbeat melody.  It’s almost a little melancholy, in fact, but it’s an encouraging, uplifting song in another way: “Smile, what’s the use of crying?  You’ll find that life is still worthwhile if you just smile.”  It’s sounds better when he’s singing it than when you just read it flat-out… (so listen here)

“Get Rhythm” by Johnny Cash is perhaps the most direct of all, with it’s repeated refrain, “when you get the blues, c’mon, get rhythm.”  It does what it promises, as it’s a good toe-tapper. (Listen here)

“Put on Your Sunday Clothes” from Hello, Dolly is another exhuberantly cheerful one, from it’s opening “Out there, there’s a world outside of Yonkers…full of shine and full of sparkle.”  All about seizing the wonderful things in the world, you can hardly help but feel enthusiastic…and to wonder how Michael Crawford ever transitioned from Hello, Dolly to The Phantom of the Opera.  But that’s a different story! (Listen here)

I have to say this post has put me in a good mood…since I listened to everything while writing it!  What do you listen to when you’ve got worries by the ton, get the blues, or feel down-and-out? 🙂

Favorites Friday: Cary Grant

On By cherylmahoneyIn Favorites Friday8 Comments

Most people who know me have probably gathered that I’m just a bit fond of Johnny Depp.  But today I thought I’d do a post on another favorite actor who doesn’t seem to get mentioned as often around here: Cary Grant, the dashing star of old Hollywood.  Unlike Johnny, Cary played the same role in most movies…but he’s always a pleasure to watch!  Here are a few favorites…

Arsenic and Old LaceArsenic and Old Lace is one of my all-time favorite movies.  Cary plays Mortimer Brewster, who’s just found out that his two beloved aunts–who are the kindest, sweetest women you could ever want to meet–poison lonely old men as a charity.  They bury the bodies in the basement with the help of Mortimer’s brother Teddy, who believes he’s Theodore Roosevelt.  The stairs are always San Juan Hill (so he yells “Charge!” every time he goes up them) and he thinks he’s digging the lock in Panama in the cellar.  Even more chaos ensues in the second half of the movie, when long-lost brother Jonathan shows up with a mad scientist and another body in tow.  This is a wonderful black comedy, full of completely mad characters.  Everyone’s funny, but it’s all worth it for Cary Grant’s double-takes alone.

Bringing Up Baby pairs Cary Grant with Katherine Hepburn.  He’s a book-bound paleontologist and she’s a madcap socialite whose adventurer brother sent her a leopard named Baby.  Cary gets pulled into her whirlwind, the leopard gets loose, and there’s a fantastic scene involving a dinosaur skeleton.  If this suffers from anything, it’s a slightly contrived romance, but…when it’s Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, you don’t have to work very hard to contrive something.  This movie gives us the textbook example of one of Cary’s two usual roles–the perpetually baffled man who’s trying keep his head up as life sweeps him to crazy places.

The Philadelphia Story gives us Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn again, but we get Cary’s other persona–the suave sophisticate who’s always charming and always in control.  This was the person everyone (including Cary Grant) always wanted to be.  In this movie he’s C. K. Dexter Haven, ex-husband to Katherine Hepburn’s Tracy Lord.  Tracy is getting remarried, but of course complications ensue, and when you have Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart both on screen, the poor fiance becomes a relatively minor point in the story.

Stepping away from the comedies, Suspicion is one of my favorite Hitchcock movies.  Joan Fontaine was so good at playing the wide-eyed ingenue, threatened by sinister forces around her.  In this case, she’s afraid that her husband, played by Cary, is plotting to kill her.  I love the way Hitchcock used Cary Grant’s reputation.  As I said, he only really has two characters, and everyone knew that–so could he really be playing the villain this time?  Hitchcock builds up the tension until you reach the point where a scene of Cary Grant carrying a glass of (maybe poisoned) milk up a flight of stairs becomes terrifying.  Cary Grant!  With milk!  And it’s so sinister.

An Affair to RememberAn Affair to Remember gives us a more dramatic role.  Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr meet on a cruise ship and fall in love, but they’re both engaged to other people.  They vow to disentangle themselves and meet again in six months at the top of the Empire State Building…but tragedy strikes first.  This is a good movie, but I must admit it’s much better if you watch Sleepless in Seattle too!

So I can’t be the only Cary Grant fan in the house…anyone else with a favorite movie?  And do you prefer Suave-Cary or Baffled-Cary? 🙂

Favorites Friday: Short Story Collections

On By cherylmahoneyIn Favorites Friday6 Comments

I haven’t done a Favorites Friday for a while, what with NaNo and other features, so I thought I’d come back to that for this week.  Today, let’s look at a different-than-usual medium, and talk about short stories.  I don’t read a LOT of short stories, but there are a few collections near to my heart.

To start with an author I’m pretty sure I’ve never mentioned–I love O. Henry’s short stories.  I had a habit in high school: if I finished my book during school, I’d run to the library between classes and pick up an O. Henry book for the rest of the day.  Because I couldn’t be bookless for three hours!  I have no particular favorite collection, but O. Henry in general is excellent.  I always enjoy his twist endings–even when you’re expecting them, he still surprises.

MerlinDreams1Merlin Dreams by Peter Dickinson is a book I’ve reviewed before.  It was a beloved favorite at the library through my childhood, and I finally bought it myself last year.  He tells semi-Arthurian stories about love and loss and honor and falling prey to your own tricks, all in a frame story about Merlin sleeping through the centuries somewhere below the moor.  The stories are haunting, with characters and ideas that have woven themselves into my mind.  And I about fell off my chair when I realized that Robin McKinley was married to Peter Dickinson–the Dickinson of Merlin Dreams!  And that’s definitely how I thought of him… 🙂

An author I often talk about 🙂 is L. M. Montgomery, so you must have expected she’d be here too!  She’s best known now for her novels, but she also wrote hundreds of short stories.  I’ve read 199, all of the ones presently available.  My favorite collection is The Road to Yesterday, with three of my favorite Montgomery short stories.  “Fancy’s Fool” is about dreamy Esme, who long ago went into a secret part of a garden and met a ghost boy she can’t forget.  “The Cheated Child” is about Pat Brewster, who must choose which of an awful assortment of relatives he’s going to live with…until one day he breaks free and finds himself at beautiful Sometyme Farm.  “Fool’s Errand” is about Lincoln Brewster, who reckons he’d better get married but dreads the thought–and ends up going in search of a girl he met on a beach one long ago day in his childhood.  With the possible exception of Esme’s story, these aren’t fantasies–but they’re magical.

Book of EnchantmentsMore directly magical, I so enjoy Patricia C. Wrede’s Book of Enchantments (my review here), with fantasy stories that are funny or sad, traditional or modern, silly or profound.  And yet somehow, they all fit together too.  There are even two excellent short stories connected to her truly excellent Enchanted Forest quartet–which is such a treat for fans!

I’m open to reading more short stories, so…any recommendations?

Favorites Friday: Doctor Who Episodes

On By cherylmahoneyIn Favorites Friday6 Comments

I have noticed myself having frequent conversations which involve the sentence, “Oh, you have to watch Doctor Who!”  So I thought I’d do a blog post on that subject.  I already did one review of the first couple of seasons of the current incarnation.  For something a bit different, rather than giving you the sweeping commentary, I decided to zero in on some absolute favorite episodes–giving due attention to each Doctor and companion.

“The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances” – This two-parter is my favorite Christopher Eccleston (Ninth Doctor) episode, possibly my absolute favorite of the series.  Rose and the Doctor arrive in 1940s London during the Blitz, looking for a crashed alien spacecraft.  They find a strange little boy in a gas mask stalking London’s street children, plaintively asking for his mummy.  It sounds odd–it is SO creepy.  This episode also introduces the delightful Captain Jack Harkness.  The first time I saw this, I was absolutely riveted.  It’s scary and suspenseful, woven through with wonderful bits of humor, and the last ten minutes are so feel-good that they make me incredibly happy–even when I re-watched it on a nine-hour plane flight.

“The Girl in the Fireplace” – I think this is my favorite Rose and David Tennant (Tenth Doctor) episode.  They’re my favorite pairing so it’s hard to choose–but this one has the Doctor crashing through a mirror on the back of horse.  That was the moment I decided David Tennant was an awesome Doctor.  With regards to this pairing, due honorable mention given as well to the episode when Rose leaves.  So unbelievably heart-breaking.

“The Shakespeare Code” – Unquestionably my favorite Martha episode.  I mean–they visit Shakespeare!  At the Globe!  And there are witches, and a mystery involving Love’s Labor’s Won!  Probably my favorite destination the TARDIS ever went to.  It’s where I’d want to go (after Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, circa 1907.  Then Shakespeare’s Globe).

“Turn Left,” “The Stolen Earth” and “Journey’s End” – Lots to love about the Donna and David Tennant episodes, but this multi-part set is fairly mind-blowing.  I don’t feel like I really appreciated Donna until “Turn Left,” and then the last two episodes…there are Daleks, and everyone unites to fight them.  We get to have so many amazing characters in an incredibly epic confrontation.  Love it.

Honorable mention also to David Tennant’s last episode.  I really think the writers did everything they could to NOT help me deal with him leaving.  I’m still not over it.  But on we go to Matt Smith…

“Vincent and the Doctor” – I have more mixed feelings about the seasons with the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith (something for another post), but I do madly love this episode.  The Doctor and Amy visit Vincent Van Gogh.  I’m pretty familiar with his paintings, and it is SO MUCH FUN to see iconic paintings scattered all over Van Gogh’s living room (he apologizes for the mess).  There are little bits and pieces referencing his paintings all over the episode.  It’s also a beautiful, moving story about the pains and the joys of life.

If anything–anything at all–in here is catching your attention…you have to watch Doctor Who!  And if you already have, I’d love to hear about your favorite episodes.

Favorites Friday: Light-Hearted Musicals

On By cherylmahoneyIn Favorites Friday14 Comments

Two weeks ago I talked about dramatic, intense, soul-stirring musicals.  Today, let’s talk about the ones that are, well, just fun.  Because sometimes all you really want is a light-hearted story with good songs.

I went through a Singin’ in the Rain phase when I was six or seven.  I don’t remember anymore what I liked about it when I was a kid, just that I made my parents watch it again and again.  I can still quote off large swathes of it.  (Favorite line: “I’m a shimmering, glowing star in the cinema firmament.”  But you have to say it in a Lena-voice.)  It’s so fun, and Gene Kelly is so charming and Donald O’Connor is so funny (he might have been what I liked so much as a kid) and the songs are excellent.  And when Gene Kelly goes dancing through the rain…that’s a great moment.  And I can’t say that the light-hearted musicals don’t have deep emotions sometimes, because he does, right there–it’s just happy emotions.

I feel like I have to include Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers en masse.  It isn’t any one musical with them (though Top Hat is my favorite) and it’s more about the dancing than the singing, but nevertheless, en masse they’re simply wonderful.  Absurd, predictable, and escapism at its absolute best.  I had a Fred and Ginger phase as a kid too, and then when I got my wisdom teeth out, I rewatched all of their movies.  They’re like vanilla ice cream or a bubble bath or whatever you use when life gets tough and you need something to tide you over a bit.

Hello, Dolly is fantastically fun.  I mostly know it through the movie, and even though I know Streisand is too young for the part, I love the flair she brings to it.  I think Dolly could do much better than Horace, but I’ll overlook that.  They pretty much have me at “Put on Your Sunday Clothes,” and did long before WALL-E incorporated the song so brilliantly.  I would be remiss not to mention the presence of a very young Michael Crawford, utterly unrecognizable as the man who will eventually play the Phantom.  But he’s delightful here too, in a totally different role (though there is a bit where something blows up in a basement, and Cornelius Hackl’s big problem is his inability to get a girl…just commenting).  I would love to see a remake, with Streisand reprising the Dolly role (and now the right age) and Crawford as Horace.  I think it would be amazing.

My Fair Lady is another one with an absurd romance (what does she see in him?) but the music…so many good songs.  Even if I don’t see Professor Higgins as a romantic lead, he gets wonderful songs with clever lyrics.  And for a light musical, there are actually quite a few loud and angry songs.  Eliza and Higgins both get some near the end.  Marry Freddy–HAH!

Newsies is the one that’s giving me trouble in my division this time.  It’s also the reason I couldn’t just divide my categories by time.  But it’s tricky emotionally, since it is about dramatic emotions–the underdog fighting the world, the desperate dream for a better life, the working classes standing up, the fight against child labor…but at the same time, it’s so enthusiastic and cheeky and fun that I can’t really put it in the same category as Les Mis or Phantom.  So it’s over here in this list, with all due respect for Cowboy Jack’s yearnings for Santa Fe and the working boys’ fight against the oppressive powers.  I love this one because I just love rally-the-troops songs, and this one has lots.  And I love all that enthusiasm and cheekiness.

That’s funny, after I made the list I realized all of my favorite light-hearted musicals are movies, while the dramatic ones I think of first as plays.  But maybe that makes sense.  The dramatic ones are an event.  The light-hearted ones are a pleasant place to visit again and again, as you can with a movie.

This is a wildly incomplete list, by the way, but I’m trying to keep the length reasonable.  If I was going to make it complete, I’d have to add Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls, Mary Poppins, White Christmas, Brigadoon, Camelot, 1776, The Producers, most of Disney (if you’re going to be broad about your definitions of a musical) and…well, that’s a starter, anyway!