By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 1/19/2016
DC debuted a new trailer for August’s Suicide Squad film on their Promo special tonight and set it to “Bohemian Rhapsody” because everything goes better with Queen. This looks dark and a little wacky. What say you, fans?
By: ARIS,
on 5/11/2015
By: Tara Chang,
on 9/29/2014
Here is one of my favorites from P is for Pirate, the notorious Grace O’Malley—Irish queen & pirate captain. She was a contemporary of Queen Elizabeth I and reportedly had an interview with Gloriana (who, after all, had a soft spot for buccaneers).
Queen Grace has been the subject of songs, at least one play and even a musical. So far as I know the swashbuckling Maureen O’Hara never played her in a movie, but what perfect casting that would have been!
I show Queen Grace in an Errol Flynn pose with her ruffians behind her. In the sketch I thoughtlessly drew a baroque-looking ship like we’re used to seeing from piracy’s golden age. In the final painting I used the Mayflower—much closer in style to a ship from Queen Grace’s time—as reference. Same deal with the costumes: they’re Elizabethan. I first drew her in men’s clothes but thought she looks much cuter in a dress.
By: Maggie Belnap,
on 5/19/2014
Monday, 19 May is Victoria Day in Canada, which celebrates the 195th birthday of Queen Victoria on 24 May 1819. In June 1837, at the age of 18, Victoria became Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, as the Empire was called then.
Queen Victoria would reign for more than 63 years, longer than any other British Monarch to date. The Victorian Era, as it came to be known, was a time of expansion of the British Empire, as well as modernization and innovation following the Industrial Revolution of the early 19th century.
To celebrate Victoria Day, we’ve chosen a few of her most famous quotations to illustrate her life and legacy.
On being shown a chart of the line of succession, 11 March 1830
Theodore Martin The Prince Consort (1875) vol. 1, ch. 2
On the Boer War during ‘Black Week’, December 1899
Lady Gwendolen Cecil Life of Robert, Marquis of Salisbury (1931) vol. 3, ch. 6
“The Queen is most anxious to enlist every one who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of ‘Women’s Rights,’ with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feeling and propriety.”
–Queen Victoria, letter to Theodore Martin, 29 May 1870. From Oxford Essential Quotations.
“What you say of the pride of giving life to an immortal soul is very fine, dear, but I own I can not enter into that; I think much more of our being like a cow or a dog at such moments; when our poor nature becomes so very animal and unecstatic.”
–Queen Victoria, letter to the Princess Royal, 15 June 1858. From Oxford Essential Quotations.
The Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (5th ed), edited by Susan Ratcliffe, was published in October 2012. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (7th ed), edited by Elizabeth Knowles, was published in 2009 to celebrate its 70th year.
Oxford Reference is the home of reference publishing at Oxford. With over 16,000 photographs, maps, tables, diagrams and a quick and speedy search, Oxford Reference saves you time while enhancing and complementing your work.
Images: 1. Queen Victoria in her Coronation Robes by George Hayter. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. 2. Portrait of Queen Victoria, 1843 by Sir Francis Grant. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. 3. Wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert engraved by S Reynolds after F Lock. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
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By: Cathy Hookey,
on 6/9/2012
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By: Miriam Halahmy,
on 6/7/2012
"It's our diamond birthday," my oldest friend Jean announced to me earlier this year. So me and the Queen - we arrived at the same point together somehow. There was no escaping it. On May 31st 2012 I would join the ranks of old codgers, senior citizens, OAPs, and the worse thing? I won't even get my freedom pass until July 2014.
The only way to cope was to plan a zillion celebrations - just like the Queen. I invited some of my writer friends over for what I called, 'A writer's brunch' in the garden. They loved it! We drank Prosecco and talked about books and I even thought of making a speech. Fortunately I abandoned that idea quickly and read a poem instead. No, I didn't take photos and plaster them all over Facebook. We just relaxed and enjoyed each other's company.
Although I didn't get any diamonds ( because I became one??) I got some great presents. This one could have been from the Queen I suppose. Actually it was from another friend, Liz, who went diamond the month before me. "Its got your dates on it," she quipped.
By: Ronni A. Hall,
on 1/24/2012
Q is for Fairy Queen. The card of power.
By: Kirsty,
on 11/17/2011
The twenty-five-year-old princess was seated beneath an oak tree on the lawn of her home, Hatfield House. Suddenly, several courtiers hurried across the lawn until they reached her location, stopped, and bowed. The queen has died, they told her. You are now queen of England. Young Elizabeth, it is said, fell to her knees and quoted a line from Psalm 118: “It is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”
Elizabeth I, daughter of King Henry VIII by his second wife, Anne Boleyn, had reached the throne by a more circuitous path than most monarchs. Her father’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, had born a daughter, Mary, but no son. Frustrated, Henry had broken with the Catholic Church and formed the Church of England so he could divorce Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn. After she bore Elizabeth and a stillborn son, Boleyn was beheaded for adultery—a trumped-up charge—when Elizabeth was but three. Henry then married Jane Seymour, who finally produced a male heir, the prince Edward.
Much of Elizabeth’s childhood and youth were difficult and spent away from court because her father rejected her. When he died and Edward came to the throne, she soon fell under suspicion of complicity in a plot to overthrow him. Her careful response to questions saved her. When Edward died, Mary came to the throne. She tried to restore the Catholic Church, leading to several Protestant rebellions, which led the queen to throw her half-sister into the Tower of London for a few months and eventually send her to Hatfield under house arrest.
Everything changed on that November day, however. Two months later, on January 15—a day chosen in part for its astrological promise—she had her official coronation at Westminster Abbey. Elizabeth I, called Gloriana—and Good Queen Bess—ruled for nearly 45 years and gave her name to an age.
“This Day in World History” is brought to you by USA Higher Education.
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By: Cathy Hookey,
on 8/8/2011
I think probably the Queen's fave biccy would be custard creams, dipped in gin or tea or possibly both. Earl Gin. Mmm.
By: admin,
on 7/6/2011
Gammons, Karen. (2011). Prince Andy and the Misfits: Shadow Man. Mustang, OK: Tate Publishing. ISBN 10-9781616636197. Litland.com recommends 14+, appropriate for younger advanced readers.
Publisher’s description: Andy thought he was just an average sixteen-year-old kid… But one day his world is completely turned upside down as he learns the unbelievable truth of his identity: he is the prince of a faraway kingdom called Filligrim in the Valley of the Misfits a magical place where pixies, elves, wizards, and dragons are just as likely to be inhabitants as humans. He was brought to this world following his birth the only way to keep him from being murdered by his evil malicious grandfather. Sounding more like a fairytale than reality, Andy at first thinks he must be dreaming. But then his aunt Gladdy reveals even more astonishing news: his mother, the Queen of the Misfits, is in trouble; she’s been captured by goblins, and it’s up to Andy to rescue her. Still in shock, he makes a decision that will forever alter life as he’s known it. He will return to Filligrim and, with the help of six heroic Misfits, will embark on a mission to save the kingdom from the clutches of evil. In Prince Andy and the Misfits: Shadow Man, Andy encounters one adventure after another as he works to uncover a traitor, rescue the queen from goblins, retrieve a stone of immense power, and solve the mystery surrounding the Shadow Man the sinister mastermind behind it all. And perhaps most importantly, he must ultimately discover if he has the heart to become a true prince.
Land of the free, home of the brave. Now nearly forgotten, these words from our national anthem once were as commonly used as any slang today. And thanks to our free market economy, we aren’t compelled to only read shallow tales mass-produced by a few publishing moguls. We now have many independent authors who are quite good. Which brings us to Prince Andy and the Misfits, another “good ol’ fashioned” story of chivalry, honor, and a dash of romance.
The story’s main character is a popular 16-year old, so this makes the book likeable and of interest to older readers, especially reluctant ones. However, the story line isn’t about high school and so its content is appropriate for all ages.
This doesn’t mean the action scenes are lame by any means. Early on, Elsfur beheads three knockers with his sword! However, in the style of the best of classic literature, our author goes beyond gore, distinguishing for readers a “just” battle. Authority and hierarchy are realistically portrayed, as is clear leadership. The characters experience life lessons that are easily applicable to our own real lives too. And after all, traditionally that was a purpose to good children’s literature :>)
As we fol
Publishers are vying to be the champions as they bring out titles to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the death of Queen star Freddie Mercury in November 2011.
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By: Kirsty,
on 4/28/2011
The purpose of British royalty is for people to look at them. Successful monarchs throughout history have understood this basic necessity and exploited it. Elizabeth I failed to marry, and thus denied her subjects the greatest of all opportunities for royal spectacle. However, she made up for it with a queenly progress around England. As the house guest of the local gentry and nobility, she cleverly deferred upon her hosts the expense of providing bed, breakfast and lavish entertainment for her vast entourage, in return for getting up close and personal with her royal personage. It was not enough to be queen: she had to be seen to be queen. Not many monarchs pursued such an energetic itinerary or bothered to visit the farther-flung corners of their realm again (unless they proved fractious and started a rebellion). But then, most of Elizabeth’s successors over the next two hundred years were men, who could demonstrate their iconic status and personal authority, if need be, upon the battlefield (which was no mere theory: as every schoolboy or girl ought to know, George II was the last monarch to British lead troops in battle).
Towards the end of the seventeenth century, improvements in print technology and increasing freedom of the press provided a new way for British people to look at their king or queen. The rise of a mass media in Britain was made possible by the lapse of the Press Act in 1695 (the last concerted attempt by the government to censor newspapers). The Constitutional Settlement of 1689 had determined that Divine Right was not the source of the king’s authority, rather, the consent of the people through parliament. So, during the next century, from the very moment that the monarchy had started to become divested of actual power, royal-watching through the press increasingly became a spectator sport. Essentially harmless, the diverting obsession with celebrity royals proved the proverbial wisdom inherited from ancient Rome that ‘beer and circuses’ were a great way to keep people happy, and thus avoid the need to engage them with the complex and unpleasant realpolitik of the day.
It was during the long reign of George III (1760-1820) that newspapers truly started to become agents of mass propaganda for the monarchy as figureheads of that elusive concept: British national identity. The reporting of royal births, marriages and deaths became a staple of journalistic interest. Royal households had always been subject to the gaze of courtiers, politicians and visiting dignitaries, but via the press, this lack of privacy now became magnified, with public curiosity extending to the details of what royal brides wore on their wedding days. George III made the somewhat unromantic declaration to his Council in July 1761: ‘I am come to Resolution to demand in Marriage Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg Strelitz’. She was a woman ‘distinguished by every eminent Virtue and amiable Endowment’, a Protestant princess from an aristocratic German house who spoke no English before her wedding, but no matter: she was of royal blood and from ‘an illustrious Line’.
The first blow-by-blow media account of the making of a royal bride ensued, starting with the employment of 300 men to fit up the king’s yacht in Deptford to fetch Charlotte from across the Channel. Over the course of the summer in an atmosphere of anticipation at seeing their future Queen, London printsellers began cashing in, with pin-up portraits of the Princess ‘done from a Miniature’ at two shillings a time. Negotiations towards the contract of marriage were followed closely by the newsreading public during August and were concluded mid-month to general satisfaction. Finally, after two weeks of wearisome travel, on September 7th, the Princess arrived at Harwich. The St. Jam
By: Maryann Yin,
on 4/8/2011
In a pre-London Book Fair auction, publisher Hodder and Stoughton has acquired the world rights to an updated and revised version of Freddie Mercury: The Definitive Biography authored by Lesley-Ann Jones. Although an exact number was not revealed, the deal is reportedly worth “high five-figures.”
According to The Bookseller, nonfiction editor Hannah Black negotiated the deal, securing world rights, with Mulcahy Conway Associates literary agent Ivan Mulcahy. A publication date has been set for 2012 to synchronize with the release of the Freddie Mercury biopic starring Sacha Baron-Cohen as Queen’s lead singer.
Jones (pictured, via) released the original version of her Freddie Mercury biography with Hodder and Stoughton in 1997. In the past, she has also written titles profiling pop star Kylie Minogue and supermodel Naomi Campbell.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
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The alphabet marches on and we have arrived at “B” week. Naturally, there are many words needing our attention this week--bugs, butterflies, babies, bananas--but one is a can’t miss: bees. It’s particularly handy for teaching the letter, being exactly the same and all, but I have a complicated relationship with bees. I really love honey, but have done the whole honey-retrieval process, including suiting up and puffing out eye-stinging smoke, and would never eat honey if that was the only way I could get it. I am a hard-core pacifist, but experience an almost delirious joy at the idea that a bee I’ve just been stung by has ripped its own guts out and will soon die. I can get on board with the queen con
cept--giving proper credit to those who actually do the work of procreating is an idea humans could learn from--but feel a little uncomfortable with the drone situation for personal reasons (even though I know they are all boys). What to do? Of course, I may be overthinking things in light of the fact that we’re talking about stories for toddlers, but any two year-old who knows the words to both Queen’s “We Will Rock You” and Elvis’ “Fools Rush In” is obviously picking up messages we don’t even know we’re sending. Regardless of my relationship status with the bee folk, they are fascinating. In Elizabeth Winchester’s Bees!, we learned that one beehive houses 70,000 bees. That’s how many people go to the Superbowl. Who knew?
http://www.amazon.com/Time-Kids-Bees-Editors/dp/0060576421
http://www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Winchester/e/B001IR1C6K
Regal, but no picture of her majesty! So I broadened the search and had some fun.
by Robert Munsch, illus. by Michael Martchenko
By: Ginger Nielson,
on 7/5/2010
By: Paula Pertile,
on 6/9/2010
Well let's see. Last night I watched the season finale of Glee, and have had Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" stuck in my head ALL DAY. I've had Freddie Mercury on my mind, too, in a big way. That gorgeous voice, and a life that ended way too soon. Makes you think, and wonder.
The cool weather and wind came back today, which is very unseasonable, and a gift to people like me who thrive on 'cool' and cannot function when its hot. I spent some time out on the terrace with my sketch pad and thoughts for some new art. I'm going back to concentrating on my children's book work. I've been off on a 'fine art' tangent lately. And its been a nice tangent. But enough. For now.
I also thumbed through my Bas Bleu catalog - do you know this place? They call themselves a "bookseller by post", and have a nice selection of books and bookish things you don't see everywhere. I've marked "The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England" as one I think I need. Definitely.
Oh, and I did end up going to that art fair last weekend, and am glad I did. A fellow artiste, Laurie Vanina, was there showing her beautiful decoupaged pieces (she and I both have art in a local shop here). I came home with one of her magnetic boards, and some other trinkets.
The coin, "s" blocks, domino dice, key and white game piece are all magnets. She does beautiful boxes and chairs and tables and switchplates and cards and other things too. I'm happy to finally have one of her pieces to call my own!
*Scaramouch, Scaramouch, will you do the Fandango* is from the lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody. In case you didn't know.
By: Tara Chang,
on 11/25/2009
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I wish to share this with you:
(for some reason, chickens, monsters, the Swedish Chef and Miss Piggy all jamming to this Queen classic makes me very very happy...)
By: Laurel Gaylord,
on 5/31/2009
By: Ginger Nielson,
on 2/3/2009
Upon entering the castle the cook took Winston and Roxxanne directly to the huge kitchen...the scene of the crime.
Pieces of golden china and fragile crystal were strewn across the marbled floor.
"Oh how terrible," Roxxanne was shaken by the horrible destruction.
"Yes," added Winston, "terrible indeed!"
"TERRIBLE YOU SAY!!!!! TERRIBLE INDEED~" a shrill yet booming voice echoed through the great expanse of the kitchen.
There in front of the tragic trio stood the Queen. Queen Mellameen, to be exact, and she was not in a good mood.
"What in the BIG WIDE WORLD of my PERSONAL QUEENDOM happened here?" she demanded.
"Oh, your majesty, " stammered the cook, " I am so sorry about all this mess." She took a deep breath and began to explain to the queen how the huge beast (dragon) had burst into the kitchen while she was preparing the Queen's birthday dinner, and had gobbled up all the fine china and crystal.
"And, your Majesty, I am sorry to say he has also eaten your beautiful soup tureen, ladle and all."
"What???? YOU'VE LOST MY ROYAL GOLDEN BOWL? Surely for this your head will roll!"
As you can see the queen did not take the news lightly and as Winston and Roxxanne and the cook stood shuddering at this last exclamation from the angry monarch, another more terrifying noise was heard.
©Ginger Nielson- all rights reserved
(Stay tuned kiddies,...... and if you want to see previous chapters, just scroll down in the blog for any Wednesday. OR check the Wowzio panel to the right of this post and see the other chapters as a thumbnail.)
That trailer pretty much owns, other than the “ehh” tag line.
“Jared Leto, who will make his cinematic debut…”
I’m really hoping that’s just confusingly worded. Because there’s not doing your research, and then there’s not knowing that Leto won a goddamned Oscar 2 years ago.