Bard Friday the First: The Hollow Crown on PBS

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bard friday, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, jeremy irons, pbs, shakespeare, the hollow crown, tom hiddleston

We interrupt this week’s regularly scheduled Wilde Friday to make you aware of something awesome that’s being shown on PBS tonight and the next several Fridays.  The Hollow Crown collects several of Shakespeare’s history plays, Richard II, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V into one continuous miniseries.  Ben Whishaw (Skyfall‘s Q) plays Richard II (which was shown last Friday; it was perfection, as demonstrated by the fact that he won the 2013 Best Leading Actor BAFTA for the role), and Jeremy Irons and Tom Hiddleston play Henry IV and the eventual Henry V, respectively.  I have been excited for this since I heard about it and the supporting cast is equally amazing (e.g., David Suchet, Sir Patrick Stewart, Julie Walters, Michelle Dockery, etc. etc.).  See Hiddles giving a preview of the series below:

No, seriously, check out this party animal. Oh, Hal.

You can also buy the DVDs of the complete series on Amazon here (US version linked; I imagine other regions are also available). I’d also advise following Great Performances and Hollow Crown Fans on Twitter. Today’s Hollow Crown Twitter fun has included tweeting Henry IV, Part 1 quotes with the hashtag #HollowCrownPBS because of all the reasons.

Hal totes thinks it’s a gas! Will you be joining me for tea and intrigue of the realm tonight (because that’s how we roll on Fridays here at the Vicky A’s: hot tea, hot actors, and PBS. Awwww yisssssssssss.)? Happy Friday, lovelies!

Victorian Hottie of the Week: William Butler Yeats

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victorian hotties, w.b. yeats

We know Yeats was a passionate man – see Heather’s lovely post on one of his love affairs here and one of his beautiful poems here.  We’ve also already established that I’m a sucker for a good pince nez.  Put these things together, and Yeats makes an excellent Victorian hottie of the week.

Yeats always closely associated love affairs with creativity and inspiration.  Throughout his life, he had many affairs, even after marrying the young Georgie Hyde Lees when he was 51 and she 25.

Even in his old age, Yeats still got around.  He underwent a surgery called the “Steinach procedure” at 69 and possibly as a result, experienced what he called “a second puberty.”  The operation was a half vasectomy which the inventor, Eugen Steinach, claimed would increase hormone production and male sexual potency.  Whether or not it actually worked as advertised, Yeats experienced a rejuventating effect that led to a period of prolific writing.  It also led to affairs with significantly younger women including a 27 year-old named Margot Ruddock.  Boston College magazine has a great account of Yeats’s later life including an excerpt from a letter he wrote to Margot suggesting she squint when she looks at his aging body.

O how can I that interest hold?
What offer to attentive eyes?
Mind grows young and body old;
When half closed her eye-lid lies
A sort of hidden glory shall
About these stooping shoulders fall.

I don’t know, I think he’s a pretty good looking old dude.  What do you think?

Victorian Pick-Up Lines

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Victorian pick up lines

Ever wonder how the Victorian gentleman picked up a classy Victorian lady while at the local pub?  Here are a few pick-up lines a charming young man might try when meeting a young woman he fancies.

Man to Woman:

That dress is very becoming on you. But then, if I were on you, I would also be highly aroused to the point of paroxysm.

Are you on your way to a fancy dress ball? Because you look like an angel.

Your skin is like alabaster….your leeches must work overtime!

Do I have scarlet fever, or is it you who is making me so delirious?

Have you read Madame Bovary?  Wanna go for a carriage ride?

Your eyes are shining!  Brain fever?

Do you have a sextant?  Because I’m lost in your eyes.

Are you from Andover?  Would you ‘andover your address?

And what if an adventurous Victorian woman happens to see a gentleman she likes?  Perhaps she might use one of these winning lines.

Woman to Man:

If you were a carriage, you’d be a hansom.

I’ve got five thousand pounds a year.

I’m looking for someone to sweep my chimney, and I like the look of your brush.

 

Victorian Science and Lady Scientists, as told by xkcd (and zombies)

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Emmy Noether, lady scientists, Lise Meitner, Victorian science, victorian scientists, xkcd

On this Thursday, a webcomic about science, zombies, and women scientists:

Although not permanently.

(For those of you who do not know xkcd, go here and then take some time to enjoy the genius. My personal favorites include this one about Angular Momentum and romance and this one, which has the best combination of Picasso, Cervantes, and alternative energy that you’ll ever see. He also uses alt-text as we like to occasionally with our images, so don’t forget to mouse over his comics for more!)

But first, go here and learn about Lise Meitner (born 1878 in Vienna, Meitnerium, Element 109, is named in her honor) and here for Emmy Noether (born in 1882 in Bavaria, and “described by Pavel Alexandrov, Albert Einstein, Jean Dieudonné, Hermann Weyl, Norbert Wiener and others as the most important woman in the history of mathematics”).

And don’t forget to avoid the radium.

Poetry Post: The Stolen Child, by W. B. Yeats

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Loreena McKennitt, poetry post, Stolen Child, w.b. yeats

It’s been another difficult week for this world, and our hearts are heavy for those lost in the Navy Yard Shootings.  This morning I woke up with poetry in my head, ringing over and over like a ghostly refrain:

“Come away, O human child… to the waters and the wild…With a faery, hand in hand…for the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand….

Written in 1886 and published in in 1889 in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems, Yeats’ poem is full of longing for innocence and a desire for freedom from earthly fears and dissatisfaction, “[w]hile the world is full of troubles/And anxious in its sleep.” Yet, there’s a great sense of danger and of loss as well, for the child being lured away with promises of paradise. Will the playful games with the slumbering trout near the waterfall pictured above be enough to replace the sounds of cattle lowing near his home? Still, for me, in times like these, his words are comforting in their fantasy and their acknowledgement that the “world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.”

“The Stolen Child”

Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we’ve hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

Away with us he’s going,
The solemn-eyed:
He’ll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.
For he comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than he can understand.

A favorite Celtic singer of mine, Loreena McKennitt, did an incredible version of this poem in song on her album Elemental (highly recommended), a live version of which, just as good as the original, is shown below. Watch it: I dare you not to cry at the mere sound of her voice. It is truly unearthly.

Tea Tuesday: Rooibos, Bush Tea

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red tea, rooibos, tea tuesday

It’s Tuesday, and that means it’s time to talk about tea!  This week, I want to talk about red tea, or Rooibos.  Technically, rooibos is not a real tea.  It’s a tisane, which means it is a naturally decaffinated herbal blend or infusion.  Most “red” teas are likely rooibos or some herbal mix with rooibos.  The plant is grown in South Africa where it has been popular for many years, but it has only recently begun to make its way into Western teapots.  The tea is traditionally served with milk and sugar, but I like mine straight up because the tea itself has a slightly sweet taste.  I also love the warm, red color and slightly sweet aroma.  

I had a lovely cup at Christy Hill Lakeside Bistro in Tahoe City about a year ago (see photo at top), and I’ve been meaning to post about it ever since.  The restaurant carried “Tahoe Teas” brand teas, and I got the “Tahoe Red.”  

From tahoeteas.com

From tahoeteas.com

The website describes it as a chocolate raspberry rooibos blend.  How could you pass that up?  Clearly, I couldn’t.  The package above calls it, “Awe Inspiring.”  That may be taking it a bit too far, but sitting on the shore of Lake Tahoe, watching the sky turn the same warm orange as my tea as the sun set…that was pretty awe inspiring.

In the office, I have been drinking the cost-effective Twinings version which I also quite enjoy.  How about you all – anyone else enjoy a cup of red on occasion?

Wilde Friday #9: On Friendship

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wilde friday

True friends always stab you in the front.”

Ouch, this one feels personal.  In other news, has anyone ever seen this statue of Wilde in Dublin?  I can’t tell if I think it’s great or a little freaky.  The stonework and colors are lovely but that expression…it’s like the statue is judging itself.  “Really?  Is this the best you could do?”  It’s kind of too much.  What do you all think?

(EDIT from Heather: I saw this statue when I was in Dublin.  There are lots of statues there of important Irish political and literary figures and the Irish apparently all had cutesy, mildly offensive names for them all.  Molly Malone was the “Tart with the Cart/Heart” and dear Oscar here was called….wait for it….”The Fag on the Crag”. No, I cannot make this up.)

Jean-Jacques Henner Liked Pale Red Heads

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Jean-Jacques Henner

Jean-Jacques Henner was a French painter who lived from 1829 to 1905.  I saw a painting by him over the weekend in a museum, and I was struck by the beautiful and almost ghostly contrast between the subject’s skin and the dark background.  Looking at other works from his collection, this seems to be a common theme; he also might have had a thing for redheads.  I wanted to share a few of his works that I could find online because I think they are all so striking.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an image of the painting I saw in the museum.  Find out more about Monsieur Henner at the website for the Musee National.

Melancholie

La liseuse

Reclining Nude

Solitude, or “Me from 6th to 9th grade”

Puttin’ on the Ritz: The Transformative Power of the Top Hat

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top hat

Where would the dapper gentleman be without his top hat?  Made of wool, fur, or silk, the top hat is a symbol of sophistication, wealth, and power.  Famous top hat-wearers include Rich Uncle Pennybags the Monopoly guy, Uncle Sam, and Abe Lincoln.

The Vicky A’s believe that a top hat is more than just an accessory – it has a transformative power.  The top hat takes any ensemble, person, or unfortunate situation instantly from trashy to classy.  Any hapless schlub can become a gentleman with a top hat, and a tasteless woman morphs into a sophisticated burlesque dancer with the addition of this stylish chapeau.  If you doubt the magic of the top hat, let us provide a few examples.

Poor Amanda Bynes looks disheveled and tired in this courtroom photo, but add a top hat to complement the black ensemble and BAM, she’s one walking-cane (and hair brush) short of a sexy burlesque show!

An un-showered, likely smelly Robert Pattinson is instantly transformed into a dapper gent with a top hat!  He could also use an undershirt, but that’s another post.

Oh boy, how to assist during this train wreck?  Give the gentleman a matching, stripey top hat and his enthusiastic lady friend one as well and it becomes a Beetlejuice burlesque show, based on the popular movie!  Now that is class.

Finally, Charlie Sheen is a man who could use all the help he can get these days, and the addition of a beaver fur top hat makes all the difference here, turning him into a cultured, sophisticated, man about town.  Puttin’ on the ritz, indeed!

Still Life in Bacon, 1894

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bacon, daguerreotype, stop that that's silly

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