Peter Pan & Capital Nook!

Here it is, finally!

My new "set-up" for my Peter Pan stuff.

As you may have read in a previous post, I'd a major snafu when the shelf I'd designated to hold it all collapsed just as I finished.  Needless to say I had to find another spot for it.  Shortly after, my Labyrinth poster fell down.  Hmmm, thought I.  No other such mishaps occurred so I took it as a sign.  I moved the Peter Pan pile to that spot.  And you know what?  I'm much happier with this configuration.  It creates a little nook.  I wouldn't have been able to achieve such an aesthetic if I'd put the posters up on a single wall.  I like the whole effect.

And yes, I am aware that's Pips from Fern Gully and has nothing to do with Barrie's universe.  Except, well, he is a fairy - a 'rare' male fairy to boot - and rather cool one if I remember correctly.  Always liked him.  That's him flying up there by the top two posters, too!

I had a scare-turned-miracle putting it up.  The figure of Peter Pan (as seen in Fox's Peter Pan & the Pirates) lost his cape.  It frustrated me, for I'd been so diligent during the whole move.  I even made sure that I had it after the shelf crashed.  So I hunted.  Throughout crates of paper file folders, under the refrigerator - the whole bloomin' area.  Finally I accepted the fact that I'd have to make one and hoped that any of the fabric scraps I had available would fit the bill.  Then, when I went to get something else, there, conspicuously and tauntingly, in the middle of the space around where I'd been searching like a fiend... the cape.  Well, thank goodness.

The three books to the left of mine are the, in my current opinion, three best sources for the published Barrie universe - the Dover Publications edition of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, the script/play and The Annotated Peter Pan (The Centennial Edition) - I like having them readily accessible. 

If anyone has any questions about the stuff on display, I'll be happy to answer them.

In the meantime, keep that window open...  ;)

LINK to the HOOK

So I've been spending the majority of my time lately in the world(s) of The Legend of ZELDA: Skyward Sword.  I'll probably give a 'report' on it in the future, but I must present this material now.

If you're not already aware, there are quite a few parallels between The Legend of ZELDA and Peter Pan.

1) Both are of the Puer Mythology. (boy hero)
2) Both characters most commonly are depicted in green outfits.
3) Fairies exist (and often abound) in the ZELDA games/worlds... and in the most renowned game (Ocarina of Time) Link (hero) even has a fairy accompanying him everywhere he goes.
4) Both characters fight with swords on a regular basis
5) Also in Ocarina, Link lives among a people who look/have a stature like children and don't physically age beyond this appearance.

I bet there are other similarities I'm not thinking of, too.

But we can add one more to the list for sure.  Guess who showed up in the Zelda-verse?
None other than the infamous Captain Hook!
Okay, no, not really... but it's as much true as the rest of the parallels.
Have a look for yourself... Link does indeed battle a pirate captain with a hook!



I'm almost done with Skyward Sword... a bittersweet concept, one might even say a double edged sword:  To play through it, but alas, to have played through it.

Watch Once More Than Once...

Once upon a time...

creators Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis came up with a simple but elegant premise for a new TV show, Once Upon a Time.

I had hopes for this show.  Not necessarily high ones, but lofty enough that I wondered if it would be able to reach them.  As with most things, I waited patiently for it to arrive.

After viewing the pilot, I decided it to be worthy of another gander.  It didn’t blow me away, no.  But it didn’t smack of utterly lousy either.   In other words, it had potential.  So I gave it the chance it deserved.

Now many episodes in, I’m glad that I did.  It’s shaped up quite nicely.   I had wondered if such a simple plot could be sustained to a satisfactory level without being just a gimmick, and it turns out it can be.  Quite well.  What is this seemingly gimmick plot?

All the fairy tales are real (but of course) and the Evil Queen  has decided to take away all the happy endings.  She puts the most evil of curses on the land and the people - sending them to a horrible place: our world.  The characters are all now renamed and have forgotten their true identities and lives, living in a little town called Storybrook.  Just before the curse ‘hit’ however, Snow White and her Prince Charming sent their infant daughter Emma away via a magic portal.  Yep, Emma wound up here...ahead of everyone else.  Turns out she grew up and gave a child up for adoption.  Well, this child, a little boy named Henry, seeks her out as she is the only one who can restore the stories in his “magical” book of fairy tales.

It’s rather clever in its writing.  The counterparts (such as Queen/Mayor) work very nicely.  And the names are terrific.  Miss Blanchard, the schoolteacher... she’s Snow White.  Blanca/White.  A recent episode featured a maid named Ashley (sp?) and it’s learned she has two stepsisters and a stepmother.  Ah!  Cinderella.  Cinder/Ash.  Well played.  There are plenty of other allusions as such and it’s a joy to hear/see them come to light.

Since it’s on Disney-owned ABC, they’ve been using the Disney names.  Maleficent is mentioned, for instance, and the dwarves have the monikers made familiar by the animated feature Snow White.

It has enough questions that arise - such as who each character “is” or the mysteries surrounding the great tome of stories that the boy Henry carries around.  Where did HE get it?   Who would he be in the fairy tale land/s?  Would he be anyone since he’d been born outside of them?  What needs to be done for Emma to restore the fairy tales?

It's also interesting to see well-known characters behave differently.  Not just as their real-world counterparts but, for instance, Snow White as an outlaw thief (in the fairy tale land.)  For you see, part of what makes this show work is it doesn't singularize the focus.  We're treated to backstory in the fairy tale realm... which can also directly parallel events in the 'real' world.  Such as Rumpelstiltskin demanding a child for his services... but now he would have to go through adoption proceedings.  It's fun to see how the two worlds mirror (ha!) or collide with each other, as well as the welcome oddity of seeing White with a sword.  Thus, in both realms we're given new ways of looking at old stories.  And the "look" of the storybook lands is "just right."  

Maybe I’m just a sucker for fairy tales... no, that’s not it.  For it’s very easy to rework them poorly.  But this one seems to be doing something right.  A goodly amount of magic has been peppered into this show.  It doesn’t exactly sparkle with it, but it shines through nevertheless.

Always on Target with Peter Pan

Need a copy of Hogan's Peter Pan?

TARGET stores seem to be selling them for cheap.

Of course, the Blu-Ray is also now available.  If you're wondering, no, I don't have it in this form.  I've wondered just how much difference it would really make... and also the original DVD is the one with all the added material.

Just goes to show you, though, I can't ever escape Peter Pan... even when running errands!

Another Knock at the Window

Well, it's happened yet again, folks.

Someone else has decided to write another novel about Peter Pan.

This time it's Always Neverland by Zoe Barton.
I haven't read it (yet?) but apparently (if one is to be absolutely technical about it) it doesn't hold water or air, in that it includes Tinker Bell and Captain Hook.  Maybe there's something in the book that 'magically' resurrects these two characters, I don't know.  If not, then we can add it to the pile that just ignores what Sir J.M. Barrie wrote.  Sad, no?

Here's the "blurb" for it:

School has only been out for one whole day, and Ashley can already tell her vacation is going to bore her to tears. With her friends out of town and her parents working nonstop, she finds herself alone and with nothing to do—until one night she wakes up and discovers Peter Pan in her bedroom, wrestling with his shadow.


Since his original adventure with the Darlings, Peter Pan has been bringing new “Wendy girls” to Neverland to take care of the Lost Boys. But Ashley’s made of much tougher stuff than the Wendy girls before her—she’d rather befriend the mermaids or fight Captain Hook and his pirate crew. Creating new adventures for her friends, Ashley is bringing change to Neverland . . . and not everyone is happy about it. 

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Not that the idea isn't something ANYONE could think of... but doesn't this Ashley sound like one Amy Alexis Richards?  And "wrestling with his shadow" seems to imply that it's doing that 'move on its own' trick that doesn't really exist.  [Link to more misconceptions about Peter Pan in the left sidebar.] 

Anyone else want to take a stab at the contents of this one before I get to it?

I have to say, though, that I kind of like the depiction of Peter Pan on the cover.  The triangular shape of the leaves isn't as appealing to me, but the rest of him is great.  And isn't that Disney's version of the Neverland shown?  I do really enjoy how the whole design of the cover leads you toward opening the book.

JeoPANrdy, Yet Again

One of my catch-ups throughout the time I'd been away from here is, yes, pseudo-sadly, episodes of Jeopardy!  (Hey, at least it's educational TV, no?)

Well, turns out Buttercup is a big Jeopardy! fan as well... so she watched some with me.  [I now live literally across the hall from Buttercup.  No really, literally.  I can see see her door when I open mine.]

So there we were, watching... and me thinking... "It's not going to happen again so soon, is it?"

A category came up:

And Buttercup and I looked at each other thinking..."It's BOUND to be there."

YEP. 

 First clue in the list:

So tell me:  Who at Jeopardy! loves Peter Pan so much?  I sure hope it's Alex Trebek!

By the way, the question/answer asked for the creator of the lands mentioned.  The contestant said only "James Barrie" which had been deemed correct.  It's not INcorrect, no, but it seems the sticklers of Jeopardy! judges might insist on the other name in there... or that could just be me.

I Still Exist...

Yes, I am alive.

It's been a whirlwind, though.  So many trips to stores... it's amazing what and how much you need that you just don't think about when you're starting up a new place.  From measuring cups to papasan chairs, I've been hunting and gathering in the urban sense.

Throw in a weekend visit from my best friend Laughter and a few theatrical commitments (unrelated to the theartical Laughter, too!) as well as catching up on whatever fell by the wayside (besides this blog) and, well, Time flies like it just doesn't want to even pay attention to us.  And maybe it doesn't, probably doesn't, just ask Science.

Anyway, I can't stay away much longer.  And what with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword due in my hands this Sunday... jeepers, I'd better MAKE time.

My shelf o' Peter Pan has been on the backburner...again.  It seems the shelving unit I wanted to use won't accommodate ALL of my Pan books (by which I do not mean copies of the books I wrote but rather books on/of/about Peter Pan) and materials.  Had to reconfigure that one... and frankly, I'd been a little worn down in terms of putting stuff out and up.  Took a break from all that.

I'll post a picture when I have the stuff's new 'home' all set.

New posts will be up in the days to follow, I promise, despite Zelda.

Pan Pack

The move went as easily as flying to the window...
with the help of some professional movers.
Thanks guys!

Why, yes, yes I am enjoying the new place.  It's the little things, such as the "guesstimate" made about the DVD towers and corner-designed shelving unit fitting snugly in a certain spot.  They do.

I've gotten quite a bit done in terms of unpacking.
But something I haven't gotten around to unboxing yet (and this may shock you) is my Peter Pan related materials.  That picture on the left?  Yep, that's my pile of Pan.  The plastic container included.  There's some Peter Pan's NeverWorld paperbacks, 'obscure' hardcovers and postcards in there.

Why does it remain unopened?  I must find the perfect place for it, but of course.  It's really more of a display than just a shelving.  Oh, not seen in the photo are my posters: a framed original LIFE Magazine spread about Disney's at its premiere (given to me by Lemonie), small [but not too small!] prints of Arthur Rackham illustrations from Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, a similar sized Hogan film poster and a frame shot of Michael Llewelyn Davies as Peter Pan (the one I used to create the shadow on the cover of PPNW)

All right...better get back to unpacking...

P.S. - Andrea Jones playfully pointed out that her novel Hook & Jill is not seen as well.  'Tis in one of those boxes, milady!

Neil Patrick HOOK??? (& Setting Sail!)

So I've been busy the last few days.  Today is moving day for me.

Sorry I didn't produce a special HALLOWEEN post... I truly do feel bad about it.  But other obligations took precedence.

I hope these pictures make up for the lack...
Neil Patrick Harris came on Ellen's Halloween episode this year dressed as none other than Captain Hook!  He's got the hand wrong, but I think we can forgo the stickler-ness for a simple lark on a holiday.

Then, on Twitter, Neil Patrick Harris (@ActuallyNPH) tweeted out a picture of his family.  His partner and their kids certainly look great, don't they?  Love the leaves.  Bravo!

My next post will be from my new place...