Brush Up Your Pre-Shakespeare - The Tudors Are Back

YIPPPPEEEE!!!!!!!!! Showtime's series "The Tudors" is back for season three.

I know I talk about "Psych" and "Chuck" and "Medium" and even other premium cable shows like "Diary of a Call Girl" and "United States of Tara". But...but...nothing BUT nothing gets me like Showtime's "The Tudors".

I mean nothing. Not the "West Wing", not "General Hospital", not BBC miniseries broadcast as part of PBS Masterpiece Theatre, not even by beloved "Sex and the City" -- not one of those shows just captures me like "The Tudors".

Politics? Drama? History? Anglophilia? The arts? Love? Sex? Romance? Literature? Religion? Rebellion? Yep yep yep yep yep yep yep yep yep yep and yep.

And now, to a min-review of season 3, peisode. Hello Jane Seymour...can't wait to watch you wither away like the nonsense figure you are. (Can you tell I'm impartial to the head strong ---err, figuratively speaking -- maybe I should pick a better adjective for this woman...willful? ---, independent, maybe some would say C U Next Tuesdays Anne Bolelyn...?) Nice pink dress, though. Quite pretty.

Even though she's a menaie to Elizabeth (my fav), I feel bad for Mary. Poor Bloody Mary. Talk about Daddy Abandonment Issues. Imagine if she were alive today? She'd be on Springer every week.

Anyway, can't wait for more. Very fun.

Now, where is my Alison Weir book?

My Angophile Fix - Monarchy on PBS

Uh, for some reason there was no Skins episode on BBC last night. I was heartbroken...until I turned to PBS and found that they were airing a series on the British monarchy called -- what else? -- "Monarchy". After reading The Uncommon Reader it was the perfect antidote to my withdrawal symptoms from my Anglophile fix due to the absent "Skins" (though not nearly as epicurean).

This woman named Pearl who was invited to a garden party, with hundreds of other guests, at Buckingham Palace to honor her charity work was one of the chosen guests that got to actually meet and speak to the Queen. Afterward, she remarked to the camera that Her Majesty had the most beautiful porcelain skin. I remarked aloud, "That is exactly what Ozzie Osborne mumbled after meeting the Queen at her birthday concert!" I can't believe I knew that off the top of my head.

The series was fun to watch. I liked when Camilla and Charles went to the organic cattle farm and interacted with the lay people so adorably. They looked like old hippies, actually. And also, I loved the part when Harry went to a meeting at his favorite charity, Sentebale. Harry is my favorite of all the Windsors. He's fun and valiant and my inappropriate crush. Plus, I like that he's a ginger head.

The whole thing was fun, especially if you're a nerd like me and wild about the Windsors and all things British. The series will be running on PBS for a while so check your local listings.

Book Recommendation - Elizabeth the Queen

Elizabeth the Queen by Alison Weir

A while back, just because she's a good friend, Kara sent me a bunch of Alison Weir history-of-the-Tudors books. I was watching the BBC 70s miniseries on Elizabeth I incessantly - I had borrowed it from the beautiful Old Town Public Library. (Thanks again, Steven and Tabitha King Foundation, for such giving something the Orono people could be jealous of, which is my favorite thing about Old Town. That and the significantly cheaper rent from Orono (for those who can deal with the smell of cabbage...)

Well, I have been reading Elizabeth the Queen on and off for about a year now, and just finished it. I thought it would help me get to bed. Yeah right. (Like, 15 people I know are insomniacs right now. Do you suppose that we're all a little messed up from the DLST? Or is it just life?)

Elizabeth is quite the historical figure. She was complicated. I can't say I was happy when, at the end of the book, the last "success" of her reign was defeating the Irish. But, Ireland is currently kicking everyone's ass, economically speaking, in Europe and the world at large, so karma and stuff.

Despite all the complications, the decidedly non-democratic ruling, and the oppression of the Irish - to name a few tyrannical ickies about QEI- I still think she was one of the best world rulers ever. I mean, it's been over 400 years and they're still writing books and movies about her and her family. That in itself is something.

As to Alison Weir, I think she does a fantastic job of weaving story, time, facts and details. I marvel at the daunting task of putting a compelling, cohesive book like that together. Good times. Good times.

Now, on to some other book to read 4 pages of before going to bed every night...But which one?

night night

I'm such a trendsetter

Honestly, I am such a trendsetter. No sooner did I write my blogs about my love for all things Tudor, than Time magazine does a three page spread on their growing reprisal.

Apparently, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johannson (not my fave) are playing the Bolelyn sisters in an upcoming movie.

My cousin, Cate Blanchett, will be playing the Queen again as a sequel to "Elizabeth."

And Time wrote about the Tudor series on Showtime that I blogged about a smidge ago.

MAJOR TANGENT: Ooo, watching "Countdown" with Keith Oberman right now. A Portland, ME guy named Eric Taylor is the "worst person in the world."

He divorced his wife but never paid alimony. He owes 700,000+. His ex-wife is dying of cancer. He said, "The only reason why I agreed to the terms of the divorce is because the lawyers said she wouldn't live that long." Awesome.

No seriously. Awesome.

Anyway, Tudor fever is in the air, which is nice. I'm thinking cake and ale on Shakespeare's Birthday, April 23.

Elizabeth I

I think I mentioned that I'm reading Alison Weir's "The Life of Elizabeth I." (In addition to a zillion other books, as ever.) Kara got it for me from some Amazon seller last year because in our group emails I had mentioned that I had spent a weekend watching the BBC "Elizabeth R" series from the 70s. This isn't to be confused with the recent BBC "Elizabeth I" starring Helen Mirren, which I'm sure is fantastic. It's on my movie list.


Anyway, Kara loves the Tudors, too, especially as told by Alison Weir. After this, I'm going to finally read my "Mary, Queen of Scots" by Antonia Fraser. I bought it at Lippincott Books in Bangor. Open the door carefully, as the cat may get out.


Once I'm done with that, I will move on to "A Man on a Donkey." This is a book that Sadie bought me for Christmas two years ago, after she read it. It is also an Elizabethan era book, but this one is fiction. It is, however, just like "Elizabeth" and "Mary" in that it is gargantuan in size.


As I read "Elizabeth", I keep thinking that it would be so much fun to write a sort of "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" only have some Maine or Mass high schooler in Elizabethan Court.

I also wonder what I would be like if I were born then. What would I be? I'd want the freedom of a "barmaid" without the work obligations (wink, wink). How about being someone like Emma Thompson's character in "Howard's End," even though that was the beginning of the 20th century...that head maid position was around back then, wasn't it? Because I doubt I'd have been born into the upper class, simply because that population was so small. I like kids, so maybe I'd have been a wet nurse? Or a nanny? Without a middle class and without women's rights, I have no idea.

Unless I were born a dude, in which case I would clearly be from Stratford on Avon, born on April 23...

Did I just compare myself to Shakespeare?