Happiness is Out There

 Hello lovelies! This is the year I am learning to do so many things. After my amazing Doctor Wholiday in Weston-super-Mare where I took my first independent trip since Spiderman died (read about it HERE) I was ready to be brave again and do another thing that we loved, namely to go see our favourite comedy band Jonny & the Baptists in Bristol. This involved expanding my repertoire of new skills that I have had to acquire after the untimely death of the Amazing Spiderman, but I was ready.

Spiderman and I have been fans of Jonny & the Baptists since their earliest days. We were buying merch from them before they set up a dedicated PayPal account and were a bit shambolic posting us something with slightly less postage than it needed and then apologising profusely because they were not very organised. Their hearts were always in the right place and their music funny but with a message.

Every tour they did of the UK, we went.  Every time they did a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for another album, we were backers. When they started a Patreon account we were one of the first sponsors. 

When people ask me about them I like to say that their music is like if satirical political Private Eye magazine was set to music. Their music has looked at serious issues within the conservative government poking fun but also raising awareness. They had a whole album and subsequent tour called Stop UKIP. They are unashamedly left wing socialists but also decent human beings. 

 In later years their albums begin to touch on mental health, dealing with quite serious issues in a light-hearted way but with an underpinning on how serious depression has been for both Jonny and Paddy. Particularly Paddy who had a full-on breakdown in  2020 and is still recovering and the fact that they were both marked emotionally by losing a parent before the age of ten. 

 On his death bed Spiderman made me promise I would always support them on Patreon. I am so glad that i have been able to keep that promise. Their music, their podcasts with frank talks about depression and anxiety have really helped with my grief. They are worth supporting.

 When I saw that they were touring again I knew I had to go. My life is sharply divided into Before and After the death of my Best Beloved. But I am trying so hard to carry on the things that we loved so that a bit of Spiderman comes with me wherever I go since we are separated on two planes of existence until I die and we can be reunited. 

 I checked the tour itinerary and found that they were playing in Bristol which is about 3.5 hours away by train. I used my new found Google Maps skills to locate really nice Hotel with a kitchenette right around the corner from the oddly named arts centre the Tobacco Factory Theatre where they would be playing. I used my new found confidence to navigate the train, a taxi, and then unfamiliar set of keys (for someone who loves Locke and Key so much I can be rubbish at opening doors). I learned the new skill of phoning and booking a taxi. This sounds like the sort of things that normal people do all the time but for me with sometimes crippling anxiety, they were a huge milestone. More on this in my next post. 

I brought a framed photo of my Best Beloved  like I did when I went on Wholiday which I think I will do at every new experience that he would have loved so that I can bring him with me because I don't want him to miss out on things. Also I need his loving spirit with me to help me be brave as I navigate doing things on my own.

 Now on to the show. The first half was made even funnier by these ridiculously ill-fitting boiler suits.

 

I could not have asked for a better show at this particular time in my life. The first half of the show was less music and more talk, with some planned but also some clearly improvised skits about tracing Paddy's decline in mental health as it paralleled the state of the nation with each different prime minister. They are so good at capturing the reality of how ridiculous it is that we are so hard on ourselves. Songs like Never Too Late really illustrate all the ways we sabotage ourselves with the opening lines:

Happiness is out there, but out there is very big. 

You've never been good at finding things, you once got lost in a Boots. 

(for my American peeps, that is like getting lost in a Walgreens)

 Which really resonates with me if you remember THIS POST about my extreme lack of a sense of direction. The song also contains phrases like It's never too late to give up (I have this on a fridge magnet) and so many other negative self talk phrases that run through my head. They manage to deal with this sense of self loathing and sabotage so well, in a humorous way. Spiderman was always very good at gently poking fun when i was in an anxiety spiral which made me laugh and showed me how ridiculously flawed my perception of reality was. Their songs and hilarious banter had me laughing until I cried.

 At the end of the first half Jonny was wearing a dress and standing on a chair pretending to be Paddy's dead Scottish mother to help give him some closure from the trauma of being six years old and losing your mother to ovarian cancer. There was lots of of bad "Och, aye Paddy!" which were hilarious and then it made a sharp turn in Jonny telling Paddy in the guise of his mother this message:

 I am so proud of you. I have watched you grow up and you are so kind and so gentle in a world that does not give that back to you. I am so proud of who you have become and i love you very much.

 And suddenly it wasn't Jonny pretending to be Paddy's mother but the Amazing Spiderman talking to me and I cried for real. Because I really needed to hear that. 

 The second half of the show was more like a regular gig, with Paddy on guitar. They sang so many of my favourite songs that I was squealing with joy. To be honest, they are all my favourites from the silly Cocaine Gran which includes my favourite line You used to love your church choir til you punched Ethel in the tits and Isaac from the perspective of a nine year old boy talking about what he did on his summer holidays in which the chorus is I was sitting on the top of a mountain all tied up and waiting for my father to kill me as a sacrifice. There are a lot of songs about the nature of God and Biblical themes with Jonny & the Baptists. 

 All too soon the gig was over. One of my favourite songs Capitalism which is a scathing look at the audience as capitalists which begins You're either against capitalism or you're for the end of the world and the tickets tonight were £14. So we know what side you're on and ends with At the end of the show we have merch.

 They did indeed have merch for sale but i literally own every single thing they sell: the t-shirt, the set of badges, a fridge magnet, the terrible calendar (by their own omission), the Jonny & the Baptists Detective Agency tote bag and every album on both CD and Bandcamp so i just gave them a donation. 

 I had a chance to speak briefly with Jonny afterwards and give them a card i had made telling them how much they meant to us and how they continue to help me deal with my grief. I showed him my photo of Spiderman and he remembered when i wrote to them via Patreon after he died. He was very touched that I brought his photo so he could still be a part of something we loved and he hugged me. This meant so much that he remembered me writing to them. This is why I support them. They make me laugh, they make me cry (in a good way) and they feel like friends because I have followed their journey since they began. 

The one thing that also makes their shows different is the obvious affection between Jonny and Paddy. it is so clear by their interactions and the way that they make each other laugh that they love each other. This has been an ongoing thing in the podcast Making Paddy Happy (now called Happiness is Out There) that was set up to talk about things men don't talk about like mental health particularly "Man up" and all that ridiculous, harmful nonsense or how much you can love a friend of the same gender and it is not "gay" to tell them. 

It was an amazing mini break and I moved throughout the world negotiating things like delayed trains and change of platform like a champ. Spiderman would indeed be proud. 

 And if you would like to support them on Patreon you can do it here: 

 https://www.patreon.com/jonnyandthebaptists

My favourite number is SIX

Hello Lovelies!

If you want to read all about my difficulties navigating and how I overcame them, you can read about it HERE but if you want to know what I did on the first part of my winter holiday then read on. 

 This holiday was split into two events--SIX on Sunday and the Wholiday on Tuesday to Thursday, so here is part one of the brilliant week I had. 

About four months ago, I saw an advert on Facebook that the musical SIX all about the wives of Henry VIII was coming to the Swansea Arena in January. I impulsively bought a ticket and decided that 2024 was the year that I would just figure out how get places.  I imagined that this would be my one brave act of the year because I really wanted to go see this musical as I have been hyper focused on the songs and obsessed (obsessed I tell you!) with the costume design. Then suddenly the Amazing Spiderman appeared to me in a dream and told me that I also needed to go to Weston-Super-Mare and the only time I could get time off work was the very same week as SIX. So, this was really happening.

 

If you are not familiar with SIX, then this is what you need to know. All six wives of Henry VIII are upset because all anyone ever knows about them are the words: DIVORCED, BEHEADED, DIED, DIVORCED, BEHEADED, SURVIVED.  At first, they are in competition with each other to try to be the one who had it the worst, but then they realise their lives were so much more than just their relationship to one terrible and powerful man. Themes relating to the idea of female beauty as well as the grooming of young girls and then slut shaming them make this a powerful feminist show.

 Each queen sings in the style of famous pop stars. Wikipedia says:

Catherine of Aragon: is modelled after a mixture of Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, and Jennifer Hudson

Anne Boleyn: includes elements of Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavigne, and Lily Allen

Jane Seymour: is reminiscent of Adele, Sia, and Celine Dion.

Anna of Cleves: includes elements of Nicki Minaj and Rihanna.

Katherine Howard: is a blend of young, sexualized pop stars and includes elements of Britney Spears and Ariana Grande.

Catherine Parr: inspired by Alicia Keys and Emeli Sandé.

 

And have I mentioned the spectacular costumes? These costumes combine elements of Tudor fashion (and architecture in the case of Jane Seymour) with a modern glittery disco aesthetic and I am here for it.

If you want to hear the first song Ex Wives just to give you a flavour, watch the video below:

I learned many things about navigation that day, arriving in Swansea 3 hours and 49 minutes before the show, but this practice made Weston-Super-Mare so much easier.  

I broke the journey down into two parts as it was a longer, more complicated walk from the station to the arena. I stopped half way there to eat lunch at the Slug and Lettuce. Isn't this the most perfect looking exterior for a trip to see a Tudor musical? 

I had allowed so much time I actually got to walk it all the way there, turn around and walk all the way back (very good practice as i do not reverse very well at all and things never look the same going the other way) and then walk back to the arena with more confidence and I still had an hour and a half before the show. 

I treated myself to not one but two programmes

and I bought a sparkly pin badge for my backpack of the Anne Boleyn costumes shown here under a spider, sandwiched between Oz and Cthulhu and above Locke and Key because that's how I roll, baby.

But how was the show, I hear you ask. BRILLIANT. I thought my heart might explode in a shower of gold glitter during the first song and it only got better from there. 

And me being me, I helped my elderly seatmate who had some vertigo (we were on the dead centre of Row X) and we became friends and she has come by the bookshop to say hello and let me help her pick out some Horrible Histories books for her grandkids. 

I have listened to the soundtrack nonstop since I went to see it and there are so many bits that I didn't get before but now have a deeper appreciation for. 

Would I see it again? You betcha. 

And this day of navigating in a bigger city with more complicated streets really set me up for success in Weston-Super-Mare. Also, i realised that the VUE Cinema was right near the arena so if ever something really good is coming to Swansea and not to Carmarthen then I will be able to find my way there and back so that opens the door for future adventures. 

Hoorah and lashings of ginger beer! 

Stay tuned for part three of the WHOLIDAY! 

Fairy Tale Friday--Honest Fairy Tales--Snow White (song by Kristin Key)

 Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I'll begin.

Today marks the last of the Fairy Tale Friday explorations of Snow White. I have been writing about versions of this tale since the 3rd of April 2020 and now the time has come to wind it down. Thank you for coming with me on this journey (as well as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Murder Ballads before this.) 

I will leave you with a funny video in the Key of Kristin. Here is Kristin Key who summarises everything that is wrong with Snow White set to a jaunty tune. 

Thank you again for coming with me as we explore fairy tales. My life has gotten really busy with some other writing I am doing (I am working on some short story bundles to sell as well as my next novel) and so I am going to let Fairy Tale Friday rest for a bit to catch up on other creative endeavours. But I am sure in 2021 I will come back to explore another fairy tale--possibly Sleeping Beauty. 

Thanks! 

Heather

Fairy Tale Friday--Ash Girl (Emily Portman)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.

We have been looking at musical versions of Cinderella (meaning versions from a musical) but this week I would like to look at a musical version (meaning music from a song).

This version is by one of my favourite folk singers Emily Portman from her award winning second album Hatchling.

According to her Bandcamp page:

Emily Portman is a singer, writer and concertina player from Glastonbury and hailed as ‘one of the new British folk scene’s most beguiling presences’ (Uncut). Emily is the 2013 holder of the BBC Radio Two Folk Award for Best Original Song; an accolade which reflects her power to conjure darkly surreal netherworlds where folklore and myth collide with urban landscapes. 

If you want to hear more about her, please go here:MY NEW OBSESSION EMILY PORTMAN

This song includes many elements from the oldest versions of our tale—the helpful animal to give her food or milk when she is being starved by her stepmother, the blood and pain and sacrifice that it takes to get to the ball and the grave of her mother being a helpful place. This is no wonder as Emily Portman has a master’s degree in folk music. But being Emily Portman she has made it dark and surreal. Almost grotesque in its beauty.

I find it interesting that the song mentions the little red calf whose milk will wash the soot and the scars away. It reminds me of The Rough Face Girl whose skin was scarred from the popping of the fire but was made as soft as silk after bathing in the lake.

In many tales the hazel tree was planted on her mother’s grave and she watered it with her tears. It is the tree imbued with the spirit of her mother that grants her wises for a dress and shoes. In this version, the white dove in the hazel tree  pecks at her own breast covering our heroine with a torrent of blood that changes to a crimson gown. It’s  like a fairy tale form of Stephen King’s Carrie but with a happy ending not the death of everyone at the prom.  It also puts me in mind of the Louisiana flag where the pelican slashes her breast open feed her babies with her own blood. Everything we do involves sacrifice.

The last part reminds me of the test that our heroine often has to go through. Here she must be brave enough to actually step into the open grave of her mother. She must face the worms and her worst fears—she must see her true self. Then the grave will turn into a carriage and horses and take her away from this life that is no life. But in order to escape, she must face her own demons. Powerful stuff.

Here are the lyrics, that read like a poem. If you have read my book Wounds: New Openings Into Old Stories then you will definitely see the influence of this song on my writing. 

Ash girl, ash girl with your coal black eyes
Coal black eyes that have given up burning
Go down, go down to your father's yard
Help will be at hand

For the little red calf will give you milk
To wash the soot and the scars away
'Til your skin is soft as silk
Changed from its colour of ashen grey

Ash girl, ash girl with your mouth that's forgotten
Your mouth that's forgotten about upturning
Go down, go down to your hazel tree
Help will be at hand

For the little white dove will peck at her breast
'Til the ruby blood in torrents runs down
Down onto your waiting skin
Then it will change to a crimson gown

Ash girl, ash girl with your feet that are tethered
Your feet that are tethered with no hope of leaving
Go down, go down to your mother's grave
Help will be at hand

For the grave will open, inviting you in
To feel the worms against your skin
Don't let the fears pull you down
For brave ones there's treasure to be found

Step into her grave and cut all your losses
The worms will turn to rubies rare
The grave will change to a carriage and horses
Ready to take you the devil knows where.

Ash girl, ash girl with your coal black eyes
Coal black eyes so brightly they're burning
Remember the name your mother gave
Before she let go of your hand

Remember your name and pull at the reins
Your hour is calling, there's no time for stalling
Remember your name and pull at the reins
They'll follow the turn of your hand

Now the little red calf can sleep in the hay
The little white dove can sleep in her nest
The fire will sleep, they can tend it themselves
And under the earth your mother can rest

If you would like to hear her singing, please go to the link below on her Bandcamp page:

ASH GIRL BANDCAMP

That’s all for this week. Stay tuned next week as we begin to look at silent film versions of our classic tale.

Fairy tale Friday--Cinder Fella-A Love Story (Todrick Hall)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I'll begin.

This week we look at a Cinderella version with a twist by the talented Todrick Hall. Hall is a jack-of-all-trades. He is a Broadway performer, American Idol finalist, songwriter, actor, director and choreographer for RuPaul's Drag Race. He is excellent at putting together mash-ups of popular songs into a cohesive narrative. He does an amazing retelling of the Wizard of Oz (entitled The Wizard of Ahhhs) with Pentatonix. He also had a concept album called Straight Outta Oz that uses my favourite magic land as a metaphor for his childhood and rise to fame. The fact that he is a "friend of Dorothy" makes me admire him quite a lot.



His version is Cinder Fella which reverses our expectation by having the protagonist be male. Cinder Fella (played by Hall)  wants to go to the ball to meet the prince. And why shouldn't he? This is a very pro-gay take on the Disney classic.

Huffington Post says:

Hall brings "Cinderella" up to date, mixing iconic Disney tunes with pop songs like Katy Perry's "Firework" and Chris Brown's "Turn Up The Music," and features celebrities, such as Janice Dickinson, Shangela and Willam from "Rupaul's Drag Race," Lance Bass  and Daniel Franzese, in classic fairy tale roles.

Best of all, the pro-gay music video breaks the unshakably straight Disney tradition: Jasmine hits the dance floor with Alice, and Prince Charming has a happily-ever-after with Cinder Fella. As Hall writes, "This story speaks volumes and I think that love is as classic as this fairy tale. It's time for us to legalize love in all shapes and colors."

I love that Lance Bass--that gay heartthrob from the boy band NSYNC--is the prince. It is very well performed and choreographed. There are funny moments. The fairy godmother's response of "Then you nasty!" makes me laugh out loud every time. There is also a very funny throwaway reference to the film Mean Girls.

It is an interesting subversion of our classic story. However we still have our downtrodden protagonist who longs for a better life, a magical helper, a fancy ball to attend and most importantly, we still have our happy ending.

Stay tuned next week as we look at a folk song about an Ash Girl.

Fairy Tale Friday--Into the Woods

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. then I'll begin.

For the last few weeks we have been looking at musical versions of the classic tale of Cinderella. Today I want to look at the award winning musical Into the Woods with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. This musical intertwines the plot of several fairy tales by both the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault.

 One of the reasons I like this musical so much is that it harkens back to the darker versions of these tales and is sort of the anti-Disney. Which is why it is a shame that Disney produced a live action version because they chopped and changed it and made it just another musical rather than the dark and often quite creepy production that it really is.

I am biased though having loved this musical for a very long time. The original show premiered in 1986 and transferred to Broadway in 1987. I have the "filmed live" version with the Broadway cast on DVD and the performances are top notch. The Broadway run was nominated for ten Tony awards and won three--Best Score, Best Book and Best Actress in a Musical for Joanna Gleason.  When it premiered in the West End it was nominated for seven Olivier Awards and won two--Best Actress in a Musical for Imelda Staunton and Best Director. These last awards are so well deserved. Staunton injects a range of feelings into the role of the Baker's Wife and Gleason really brings out the humour in Lapine's words unlike the po-faced Emily Blunt in the live action film.

But I digress. We are here to talk about Cinderella.

This musical uses many of the elements found in the oldest versions of our classic tale:

1. The King is giving a festival--not just a one night ball--that last for three days.
2.  She is forced to sort lentils from the ashes as an impossible task.
3. Cinderella can talk to birds and they help her in her impossible tasks.(see above)
4. Her mother's grave has a hazel tree on it that was watered with her tears and serves as the magical helper.
5. The slippers are golden and not glass (the glass slipper was an invention of Perrault)
6. Pitch or tar was spread on the steps to keep her from running away.
7. The stepsisters cut off their toes and their heels to try to fit into the shoe.
8. At the wedding, birds fly down and peck out the eyes of the stepsisters.

I have seen this as an outdoor show in Regent's Park and it was delightful. That show was adapted and brought to the US and played in Central Park in New York. The Broadway version is top notch and even the West End version with it's strange stark whiteness of set and costume was better than the Disney film, in my opinion. I had hoped to show you songs from different versions, but I can find no video clips from the West End version.

The first song is from the opening of the show. It is everyone that we will meet in the show and tells of the dreams and wishes of all of fairy tale characters.

Here we have Cinderella at the grave of her mother.

Here we are with Cinderella meeting the Baker's Wife in the woods and talking about her feelings about being at the ball. I would have loved to have found a clip from the Broadway version for this one as Joanna Gleason's performance adds so much warmth and humour to the scene that I feel Emily Blunt is lacking.

Lastly, we have Cinderella stuck on the steps of the palace. I like this version because it's a time freeze where her split second thinking is broken up by a song as time momentarily stops everything around her. You also get to see what it would be like to be stuck in real pitch.

Here we have the Stepmother mutilating the feet of her daughters to fit into the shoe. The Disney film was the only clip I could find which is a shame as they don't show the cutting. The Broadway version does this masterfully with the spirit of Cinderella's mother warning the Prince to "look for the blood within the shoe" as he passes the hazel tree on his horse. 

If you have only seen the Disney adaptation and you want to watch the Broadway production, you can watch it here in its entirety.

That's all for this week. Stay tuned next week as we explore the very British tradition of Pantomime.

Fairy Tale Friday--Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.

 

For the next few weeks we will be looking at musical versions of Cinderella. I want to start with Cinderella by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein were the leading contributors to the golden age of musicals. With Rodgers on music and Hammerstein on book and lyrics they are responsible for such musicals as Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music. According to Wikipedia, their shows (and film versions) have won thirty-four Tony Awards, fifteen Academy Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes, and two Grammy Awards.

Their version of Cinderella was actually written for television as a vehicle for Julie Andrews and was broadcast live on CBS on March 31, 1957. It was based very closely on the most familiar version we know-- the French version Cendrillon, ou la Petite Pantoufle de Verre, by Charles Perrault. It was later performed on stage to critical acclaim. 

There were two remakes for television—the first one in 1965 starred Lesley Ann Warren and Stuart Damon (I remember seeing this version on television) and in 1997 a version with a more ethnically diverse cast was made starring Brandy Norwood as Cinderella, Paolo Montalbán as the Prince and Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother.  

Interesting fact:  In the summer after my sophomore year of college I did an internship at City Park Players (our local community theatre) and was stage manager for this show.

The first song I would like to share is In My Own Little Corner from the 1997 version starring Brandy. This is a song about how Cinderella copes with her stress through escaping into her imagination. I found it interesting that they changed the lyrics “I’m a slave in Calcutta” to “I’m a thief in Calcutta.”

The next video I want to share is the Leslie Ann Warren version of the Fairy Godmother song Impossible/It's Possible.

The last clip I want to share is the scene at the ball where the Prince and Cinderella fall in love. The song is called Ten Minutes Ago and I am using the Julie Andrews version.

That's all for this week. Stay tuned next week for a slipper and a rose.

Fairy Tale Friday--Red Riding Hood (2011 film)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I'll begin.

This week is the penultimate week of looking at Little Red Riding Hood. It's also a bonus week and this post will have two interconnected Red Riding Hood versions to explore. We start with a 2011 film starring Amanda Seyfried. It features many allusions to classic versions of our story such as the underlying sexuality of the tale (Valerie and Peter have many sexy romps in the soft hay or on the white snow, all with her blood red cape spilling around her as they make the "beast with two backs." In earlier tales, red symbolised menstrual blood which was to show that the female protagonist was ripe and ready for marriage, but was warned not to stray from the path of virginity. Clearly, this doesn't apply to Amanda Seyfried's character.

It also features filling the wolf's belly with stones to prevent it from escaping which sometimes appears in the versions of our tale for children as well as the musical Into the Woods where Granny suggests they cut the wolf open and fill him with stones and then laugh as they "watch him try to run away!" 

 You can watch the trailer here:

According to Wikipedia:

Valerie is a young woman who lives in the village of Daggerhorn with her parents and older sister Lucie. They live on the edge of the forest which is plagued by a werewolf which has so far been appeased by livestock offerings.  She is in love with the town woodcutter Peter, but her parents have arranged for her to marry the son of the wealthy blacksmith. Valerie and Peter plan to run away together, only to learn that the Wolf has broken its truce not to prey on the townspeople and has murdered her sister Lucie.

The townspeople send out a search party to kill the wolf consisting of Peter, the blacksmith and his son Henry. Peter separates from them moments before the Wolf attacks and murders the blacksmith. They corner the wolf and slaughter it, but as it doesn’t return to its human form after death then it was just a common grey wolf.

The priest reveals that they've entered the Blood Moon Week, an event that happens every thirteen years, in which whoever is bitten by the Wolf is cursed to become one as well. Father Solomon's men isolate the town and begin to investigate its people in search of the Wolf. That night, the Wolf attacks and, while the townspeople rush to the Church (as the Wolf is unable to step onto holy ground), Valerie and her friend Roxanne venture into the village to search for Roxanne's autistic brother, Claude. They are cornered by the creature and Valerie discovers that she is able to understand the Wolf's sounds. It threatens to kill Roxanne and destroy the village if Valerie doesn't leave with it. The Wolf then escapes, vowing to return to learn Valerie's decision.

Watch Valerie's startled response here:

Following the wolf attack, the village descends into a witch hunt with Claude captured and accused of witchcraft because he can do a card trick which is considered magic.Clause is locked up in a Brazen bull ( a box made of metal that has a fire burning under it to roast the accused to death.)  In exchange for her brother's release, Roxanne reveals that Valerie is able to communicate with the Wolf but Claude is already dead by the time the Captain opens the box.  Believing Valerie to be a witch, Father Solomon has her captured and displayed at the town's square in order to lure the Wolf out so he can kill it. Henry and Peter join forces and help Valerie to escape.

Henry takes Valerie to the church, but they are attacked by the Wolf, who bites off Father Solomon's hand, which contains silver-coated fingernails. The townspeople shield Valerie from the Wolf, who is once again forced to flee, but not before burning a paw by touching holy land. The now cursed Father Solomon is subsequently killed by the Captain.

Valerie dreams that the Wolf is her grandmother, who lives in a cabin in the nearby woods, so she goes to check on her. After retrieving Father Solomon's hand on the way, Valerie rushes to her grandmother's cabin, but is confronted on the way by Peter. She then notices that he is wearing a glove on his right hand, the same paw that the Wolf burned trying to enter the church, Valerie assumes Peter is the Wolf and stabs him.

Watch this scene here:

 Arriving at Grandmother's house, Valerie is horrified to find her dead, and learns that the Wolf is her father. . He reveals that the curse was passed to him by his own father, and he intended to leave the village but wanted to take his children with him. He sent a note to Lucie  to meet him at night so he could ask her to accept her "gift". However, when he confronted her, she couldn't understand him. Realising Lucie was not his daughter, he murdered her in a fit of rage. He then took revenge against the blacksmith, his wife's lover, and now wants Valerie to accept the curse.

Watch the above scene: 

Valerie refuses, just as Peter appears and confronts her father, who bites Peter (thus giving him the curse) and tosses him aside. Peter is able to throw an axe into the fathers back, distracting him. Valerie stabs her father to death with Father Solomon's hand. Valerie and Peter fill the father's body with rocks so he can never be found and dumps the body in the lake. Peter departs in order to learn how to control his curse, vowing to return only when he's able to ensure Valerie's safety. Valerie narrates that Henry found his courage and joins the ranks of the Captain's monster hunters. Valerie's mother finally accepts that her husband will never come home, and the village continues to live in fear even though the wolf never returned. Valerie then moves to her grandmother's house, leaving her old life behind as she can't go back to the village because she is married to the wolf (Peter) and wants to keep that a secret.

Watch the scene above: 

The last scene shows Valerie outside the cabin on a full moon. She hears a slight growl, turns around and sees Peter in wolf form as she begins to smile. In an alternate ending, Valerie is seen holding a baby, which is her baby with Peter.

This film captures much of the sensuality of the earlier tales, but also with the warnings that come with sexuality. 

As a bonus, I would like to share Amanda Seyfried playing the guitar and singing the song  Li'l Red Riding Hood that we explored earlier. There are many versions of this song, but by far the best that captures the complete animal nature and sexiness of the song is the one by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs which you can listen to HERE. Of all the other versions, this comes the closest.

This was released on YouTube as a tie-in to the film. Enjoy.

That's it for this week. Stay tuned next week for our last version of Little Red Riding Hood.

Fairy Tale Friday--Little Red Riding Hood (The Big Bopper, 1958)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I'll begin.

Last week we looked at a rather sensual version of Little Red Riding Hood, this week a slightly sillier version that upon close examination has some darker overtones. .

Jiles Perry (JP) Richardson is the real name of The Big Bopper. In case you don't know, he was part of "the day the music died" plane crash that killed him, Buddy Holly and Richie Valens. His most famous song was probably Chantilly Lace. We had that song on an album when I was a child and I spent many hours lip-syncing it in front of a mirror due to its conversational lyrics. If I had known this song as a child, I am sure I would have been lip-syncing it too.

This song is a weird hybrid of Red Riding Hood and the Three Pigs. Clearly, they are the same wolf in both tales. The Big Bopper Wolf knows the Three Pigs who "flipped their wigs" when they saw Little Red because she's the "swingin'ist and that's no lie." The wolf is hammering on her door trying to get her to let him come in before Granma comes back. In the absence of a parental figure they can "have a ball" and "shake the shack." And if she won't let him in, he'll blow the house down.

To be honest, he comes across as quite the sex pest.

In 1958 the slight double entendres would have been seen as funny, but these days perhaps not so much. The implied threats of violence, the coercion to let him in while her (grand) parent is out, the not taking no for an answer and the description of how "hot" he finds her don't sit well with me these days.

And yet, as a child i would have loved it.

The lyrics that really struck me were these:

Hah-hah-hah

Now let me in now, honey

I just wanna talk to ya

Hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-haaaah

You know you're lonesome in there by yourself

So, put the key in the door

And go tick-a-locka, tick-a-lock

And let me in now, honey

It reminds me very much of the eerie short story WHERE ARE YOU GOING, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? by Joyce Carol Oates which was made into a film starring Laura Dern called Smooth Talk. Basically, the young woman Connie is just exploring her sexuality and her effect on the opposite sex. She chafes under the strict rules of her house and the comparisons to her good girl older sister. One weekend she is left alone in her house while her family goes to a BBQ and an older man named Arnold Friend comes round and speaks to her through the screen door. Connie is alternately frightened and intrigued by him.Arnold Friend relentlessly pursues her with this same sort of persuasive smooth talk, pressure and threats of violence until he convinces her to leave with him where she will undoubtedly be raped and possibly murdered. (It is said that the character of Arnold Friend is based on serial killer Charles Schmid.)

In the song it it hilarious, but if it happened in real life it would not be so funny. 

Interestingly, I find last week's song more acceptable than this one. I am not sure why. Both feature a predator, clearly hiding his true nature, with only one thing in mind. Last week's version has a real sensual feel (as I said before, it sounds like music you could do a strip tease to.) This week's version has a fun feel that makes you want to dance and join in with the nonsense scat sort refrain of A-bing-bang-biddle-dee-bang, baby let me in. 

Listen to it here:

Stay tuned next week where explore Little Red Riding Hood in animated form.

Fairy Tale Friday--Li'l Red Riding Hood (Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, 1966)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I'll begin.

Last week we looked at a version of this tale from the award winning musical Into the Woods, but this week i want to look at the song in popular culture.

In 1996, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs (best known perhaps for their song Woolly Bully) had a hit with Li'l Red Riding Hood. It went to number two on the both the US and Canadian charts.

It is based on the version by Charles Perrault, blurring the line between the wolf as carnivore and the wolf as male sexual predator. In a reversal to the traditional tale, the wolf remarks on "what big eyes" and "what full lips" Red has. He declares "what a big heart he has" to her, but as an aside to the audience freely admits he is disguised in a "sheep suit" to lull her into a dropping her guard. The song begins with a howl and ends with him Baaaing like a sheep to conceal his true nature.

There is something deeply sensual about Sam the Sham's voice that makes this song sound raunchy and arousing, like you could do a strip tease to it. There have been many cover versions, but for me none capture that animalistic tone better than this one. If you are interested WIKIPEDIA has a list of other artists that have covered the song and many are available to listen on Youtube. There are punk covers (Bowling for Soup) and an a capella Doo-Wop cover (The Bobs), but for my money, this version beats them all (even the Rolling Stone's version.) There is only one version that comes close and we will look at it in a few weeks as it is tied to a film.

Listen to the Sam the Sham version here:

Stay tuned next week for a musical  version that also includes the Three Little Pigs.

Fairy Tale Friday--Hello Little Girl (Into the Woods)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I'll begin.

For the last few weeks we have been looking at more modern versions of Little Red Riding Hood. Many of these versions hark back to the sexual nature of the original. The musical Into The Woods written by James Lapine with music by Stephen Sondheim draws its source material from the darker tones of the original Grimm's fairy tales. In the musical, the stepsisters slice off their toes and heel to fit into the glass slipper. The prince only notices when the shoe fills up with blood. Later, Cinderella's friends the birds swoop down and peck out their eyes.

notice the enormous phallus

Lapine and Sondheim really did their research about the origins of Little Red Riding Hood. The wolf's song Hello Little Girl is part hunger, part sexual---all appetite. In the original Broadway stage production the wolf wears a huge erect phallus as he sings. It is also interesting to note, that in the stage production the part of the wolf is played by the same man who enacts the role of Prince Charming. This also harks back to the idea that men are bestial in nature and "some wolves are hairy on the inside."

In 2014, there was a Disney remake of Into the Woods. I despise this version because it seems to mute all the darker themes of the source material and cut out the sexual undertones as well as the black comedy that is so clearly evident in the stage version. Not to mention how much I dislike po-faced Emily Blunt as the Baker's Wife. But that's a story for another time.

I have clips to share from  the Broadway production, the London production and the Disney film. I am biased towards the Broadway show. I find the wolf in the London production with his enormous mechanical head with motorised rolling eyes and moving ears too cartoon like (especially when steam comes out of his ears on the line "when you're talking to your meal.")  It seems to miss that deep sexual connection between man and beast and slide over into the ridiculous.  I find Johnny Depp in his "hat with tufty ears" unsatisfying, although I suppose it is an attempt to reflect the connection between man and beast. I just don't like his delivery of the song because he doesn't sing the line "when you're talking to your meal.". Give me a wolf with a big phallus any day.  And by that I mean   I vastly prefer the Robert Westenberg version.

You can watch all three and make your mind up for yourself.

The Broadway version with Robert Westenberg:

The London cast with Clive Carter:

The Disney version with Johnny Depp:

Stay tuned next week where we look at other musical retellings of our tale.

My new obsession--Emily Portman

I am so enamoured with Emily Portman. 

She has a master's degree in folk music  She has a voice like an angel under water. A strange and haunting voice, sometimes harsh and discordant, sometimes melodic and ethereal. She sings about the darkest fairy tales, murder ballads and mythology.

Like me, many of her ideas come to her in the Dreamtime.

I want to BE her.

I love her the way that I love Kate Bush and Loreena McKennitt for their unusual voices and storytelling. She is like the musical version of a Pre-Raphaelite painting. Literary subject matter, exquisite attention to detail.

I first discovered her when I was writing my Murder Ballad Monday series where I was researching every different version I could find of Child Ballad 10 (The Twa Sisters.) She does a haunting version of this song which you can read about or listen to {HERE}

I do not know why I never investigated her other songs until now. But once I heard them, there was no going back. I found her BANDCAMP PAGE where you could digitally download her albums, but i was hoping for a proper CD with beautiful artwork on the cover and liner notes to answer my questions.

Luckily I found her HOME PAGE and she was having a sale on her CDs. You could get three of them

The Glamoury
Hatchling
Coracle

all for £20 plus postage. Plus she said she would autograph them! I realise that CDs are dinosaurs...digital is in and artwork and liner notes are out. So i was extremely thankful that she was selling them off so i could get a piece of beauty as well as the music.

If you like these songs, please do go to one of her pages and buy them.

I just want to share with you my favourite songs from The Glamoury. I have not had the chance to listen to the other CDs yet. However, liner notes tell me that the first song on Hatchling is a lullaby from Leda (who was raped by Zeus in the form of a swan) to her hatchlings. The poem LEDA AND THE SWAN by Yeats has long been a favourite. I can't wait to listen to it properly.  

Song one:
Tongue Tied. This a version of the fairy tale The Seven Ravens (similar version-- The Seven Swans) Basically, a mother wishes for a daughter and curses her seven sons who who are turned into ravens. The only way for them to be freed from their enchantment is for the sister to be silent for seven years as she weaves and stitches them seven shirts made from sharp thistles (some versions say stinging nettles). In most versions she marries and has children and her mother in law, fearing she is a witch, steals the babies and accuses her of cannibalism.  She cannot speak to defend herself or else her brothers will be ravens forever. At the moment of her execution, the seven years are up and she cries out and gives the shirts to the ravens who are transformed and plead her case. Sadly, she wasn't able to finish the shirts as she was about to be burned at the stake and so her youngest brother retains one raven's wing.

Listen to it here (helpful lyrics included.)

Song two:
Stick Stock. A favourite childhood tale of mine full of murder, cannibalism, reincarnation and revenge. The Juniper Tree has a stepmother murdering her stepchild (in this case a daughter in a sort of "jealous of her beauty in Snow White sort of way", but i have also seen it where the brother is murdered.)  The mother cooks the child and feeds it to the unwitting father, but the brother who knows what happened will not eat. He gathers her bones (sometimes tying them in a silk handkerchief) and buries them under the juniper tree. The spirit of the murdered child is reborn into a songbird who sings a refrain that says:

 My Stepmother slew me 

My dear Father ate me 

Little brother whom I love 

Sits below, I sing above

In many versions the bird sings the song around town exchanging the tune for gifts for the family, such as a pair of boots for the father, a toy from the brother and a millstone for the stepmother. As a child i spent hours trying to picture how a tiny songbird carried any of these things but particularly a millstone. The gifts are given and the stepmother is crushed under the weight of the millstone and dies. In a few versions (though not this one) the death of the stepmother reverses the death of the child and they are transmogrified from bird form back to human.

This is one of her discordant and angular songs, but i love it.

Listen to it here (helpful lyrics included):

Song 3:
Hide. I was just struck in the solar plexus by this song. I had no idea what it was based on. Since it involves the killing of a horse and using it's skin as well of themes of an abusive spouse my first thought was it was a version of Donkeyskin. But no. This is based on an old  ballad The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin. The ballad is about a man who marries above him and his wife refused to do her duty (either in the bedroom or with cooking and cleaning). He cannot beat her because of her high status, but he can beat his animals and so he kills his mare (or sheep or other farmed animal) and covers his wife with the skin and gives her a good hiding. In the traditional ballads, the beating "fixes" her attitude and she behaves. It is a comedy ballad about how to get your wife to stay in line. Emily Portman has turned this into both a feminist and animal right's anthem. The refrain of
Hide Woman Hide/ She won't lay down her pride is extremely powerful and the double meaning of the word hide a really good choice.

Listen to it here:

Song 4:
Grey Stone. A song about a Selkie. In traditional folklore a Selkie is a seal who can take off her skin and become a woman. If her skin is stolen, she will have to remain a human and marry the man who stole the skin and bear his children, though she will forever long for the sea. In this song a daughter reunites her mother with her seal skin .

Listen to it here:

The harmonies in this are exquisite. They vibrate like a harmonium.

I cannot wait to explore these albums further. I suspect they will give me many dreams that will turn into short stories.

Fairy Tale Friday--Black Forest (Sweden)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.

This week is a very short summary of a popular Swedish song entitled Jungfrun i Blaskagen (Black Forest). It supposedly appears in Folkeviser, 3. 68, 69, but I can not find this source or any lyrics for the song.

I almost didn’t include it as it is just a wisp of a fragment, but something about the summary compelled me. To me, it harked back to the moralistic “don’t stray from the path” original versions of Little Red Riding Hood, but with a darker, sexual element such as the one by French writer Charles Perrault. His version is just a metaphor for chastity (much like the Twilight series of today. Seriously, what did you think all that "he can't drink her blood until after they are married" was all about?) 

This tale somehow feels like it has been ripped from the headlines.

The song calls her a “girl” (Can I digress and say how much I hate that term. She is clearly a woman because she has a sweetheart. And before you say, Spidergrrl you call yourself girl, let me say that GRRL is a whole different pot of flowers than GIRL. It’s like Riotgrrrl.)

Anyway, this could just be a straightforward “Don’t talk to strangers” sort of message, but something in me sees it more of a description of sexual violence.

Let me let you read the fragment and then I will give you my view on it.

Black Forest

A girl is to go across the country to a wake. Her way leads through a dark forest, where the grey wolf meets her. “Ah dear wolf,” says she, “do not bite me, and I will give thee my shift sewn with silk.” “Thy shift sewn with silk is not what I want, I will have thy young life and blood!” So, she offers her silver shoes, and then her golden crown, but all was in vain. In her trouble she climbs up a high oak tree, but the wolf undermines the root. In her terrible anguish the girl utters a piercing cry. Her lover hears it, saddles his horse, and rides with the swiftness of a bird, but when he arrives at the spot, the oak is lying uprooted, and all that remains of the girl is one bleeding arm.

It's pretty gruesome. All he finds of his true love is her severed arm. That’s really why I  decided it should be part of my research—because of the severed arm. I just loved that creepy detail.

I know it says she was walking through the forest to attend a wake…but the forest is dark. She is walking alone in beautiful, enticing clothes. She attracts a predator. She bargains to try to save her body, but he corners her. She can’t escape and tries to cry out, but it is too late. He has taken what he wants and leaves her broken and bloody. If he were to be caught, it would be her word against his. What was she doing walking alone in the dark forest? She deserved whatever she got. She was wearing a sexy silk shift and high heeled silver shoes. And what's with the golden crown? Who does she think she is, anyway? Stuck up, bitch. She was asking for it. Good girls don’t stray from the path. Bad girls get what’s coming to them. And that sweetheart—he’s never going to look at her the same way again. He’ll always see the bleeding arm and hear her cry and she’ll never be his “princess” again. She’s dirty. Contaminated. It was All. Her. Fault.

Or maybe it is just a sad song about a man who lost his lover to a wolf in a terrible accident.

Next week, we’ll get away from all this seriousness and begin to look at variations on the Red Riding Hood theme from various children’s books from around the world.