A Brit a Day [#68]

As pretty as a wedding picture but with the innocence that reminds of of why we fell in love with these kids. The way Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe are lit here gives us a glimpse of what little angels they must have been as young children as well as a peek into their futures as stunning adults.

A Brit a Day [#67]

This week's posts--yesterday's included retroactively--are going to be pictures that have made my life happier every time I look at them. Real life happiness can use a little boost every now and then from the fantasy kind of happiness we think we are missing out on, but at the end of the day....

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.
– Philip K. Dick

Today: Christian Bale. I like this picture because he looks....well....comfy. I want to take a nap on him.

A Brit a Day [#66]

This post is for Sunday April 11.

Best. Alan. Rickman. Movie. Ever.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Jane Austen and Emma Thompson for 'Sense and Sensibility.'

A Brit a Day [#65]

James Joyce and Sylvia Beach, the publisher of Ulysses, here as Constance and Clifford Chatterley.

Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We've got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.

This was more or less Constance Chatterley's position. The war had brought the roof down over her head. And she had realised that one must live and learn.

The opening paragraph of Lady Chatterley's Lover (D. H. Lawrence)

A Brit a Day [#64]

This is for Friday.

Eddie Argos.

Leopold Bloom thinks he sees a map of Dublin in the residual foam of his pint.

Ulysses [James Joyce]

A Brit a Day [#63]

Henry Ian Cusick.

Oliver Mellors, gamekeeper to the Chatterley estate, returns from his rounds to find Constance Chatterley at the door of his cottage.

Lady Chatterley's Lover (D. H. Lawrence)

A Brit a Day [#62]

Jason Isaacs.

Jake Barnes awakes to his last morning in San Sebastian before Brett's telegram calls him to Madrid.

The Sun Also Rises [Ernest Hemingway]

free advice, and spoilers applied as liberally as sunscreen

If you watch 'Lost' and you haven't seen last nights' episode yet, please go away for a little while, okay?

When I started 10th grade English I was so stoked to be assigned my first Hemingway novel to read, 'A Farewell to Arms,' I think it was. Ernest Hemingway seemed to me to be the most famous author in the English language. "I'm going to learn something cosmic, adult, and shattering from reading this," I remember thinking. And you know what I learned? Everything comes down to....love. Just love, the way we understand it from the day we are born. That's all, the most important thing in the world is love.

It's such an affirmation to have this history-making series come down to the same thing. Last night's episode 'Happily Ever After,' hit it out of the park.

And eerily, I had this beautiful Nick Cave song stuck in my head all day yesterday before I saw 'Happily Ever After.' I must have listened to it 3 times--

I've felt you coming girl, as you drew near
I knew you'd find me, cause I longed you here
Are you my destiny? Is this how you'll appear?
Wrapped in a coat with tears in your eyes?
Well take that coat babe, and throw it on the floor
Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

As you've been moving surely toward me
My soul has comforted and assured me
That in time my heart it will reward me
And that all will be revealed
So I've sat and I've watched an ice-age thaw
Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

Out of sorrow entire worlds have been built
Out of longing great wonders have been willed
They're only little tears, darling, let them spill
And lay your head upon my shoulder
Outside my window the world has gone to war
Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

O we will know, won't we?
The stars will explode in the sky
O but they don't, do they?
Stars have their moment and then they die

There's a man who spoke wonders though I've never met him
He said, "He who seeks finds and who knocks will be let in"
I think of you in motion and just how close you are getting
And how every little thing anticipates you
All down my veins my heart-strings call
Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

A Brit a Day [#61]

This is for Tuesday, and it's dedicated to India L.

Years later, Scout Finch (Emma Watson), Dill Harris (Rupert Grint), and Scout’s brother Jem (Daniel Radcliffe) still remember the treasures they received from Boo Radley.

To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

A Brit a Day [#60]

For Monday.

Young Vicomte Raoul de Chagny contemplates his next move to save his beloved Christine from the clutches of the monster he knows only as Erik.

Christian Bale, The Phantom of the Opera (Gaston Leroux)

A Brit a Day [#59]

This week our virile British cast will be featured as great characters from literature.

Arthur Dimmesdale prepares to give his Easter sermon. He is momentarily disarmed by the sight of Hester Prynne with little Pearl in her arms.

Alan Rickman, The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne).

A Brit a Day [#58]

Like I said, I could have done a whole week of hands just using pictures of Eddie Argos. Here are a few more of my favorites.

A Brit a Day [#57]

Trying to find the best picture of Eddie's hands is like trying to find the loveliest coal in Newcastle--there are just so many of them. The man has gorgeous hands, and he knows how to use them to tell a story, one of them usually wrapped generously around a microphone. His long, slender fingers mimic his overall height. One of his songs, "Rusted Guns of Milan," is a bit of an ode to his own hands, though I'm not sure it started out that way.

A Brit a Day [#56]

Henry Ian Cusick played the part of Jesus Christ in 'The Gospel of John.'

As I tell my friends and my kids--other family would not want to hear this--Christianity is my culture, but a lifetime of experiences has not shown me that Christianity celebrates/reflects/informs my spirituality. However, I do take Easter very seriously, not in the sense that I take it literally, but in the sense that if you are going to acknowledge that there are Christians in your midst, then you also have to acknowledge that Easter is their holiest of days. Without Easter, simply, there is no reason for any other holy day in Christianity.

Tomorrow is the day we celebrate the death of a man named Jesus. Celebrate?? Hold on here. My mom volunteered as church secretary when I was a kid, and she was at the desk in the church office when I asked her to explain what on earth was good about Good Friday. I think I was eight. Without hesitating she stood up and said, 'Let's go talk to Katherine.' Katherine was a lay-minister and an ex-missionary and a wonderful dinner guest with tales of Africa in her repertoire and a woman with a teacher's nurturing soul. I don't remember her worlds, but I do remember she made me feel pretty okay about the whole thing. I don't think I said it out loud, but I at least thought as I left her office, 'But I can call it Black Friday if I want, right?'

I have always kept, then, that human connection to the Friday before Easter. It is a day to wallow in 'what if's' for me. It is a day to wonder if We The Mortal Population of The Universe killed someone who was somehow better than us. It is a day to wonder if a really, really good normal person was humiliated and killed unjustly. It is a day to wonder what would have happened if he had not been.

Enjoy this beautiful hand. And happy Easter.