Allerleirauh

SurLaLunaFairyTales.com

Allerleirauh is German for All-Fur, or All-Kinds-Of-Fur, and is the name for a Grimm's fairy tale. There are many variations of the tale (The She-Bear, Bearskin, Catskin, Donkeyskin, etc.) and all of them involve a girl wearing some sort of fur disguise or coat, and passing herself off as a wild animal. A prince/king/lord captures her and she works in his palace until at some point he discovers her secret and marries her.

In the version recorded by The Brothers Grimm, It starts with the girls father being a king who is trying to marry her because she is as beautiful as her mother. In an attempt to waylay him, she asks for three impossible gowns and a cloak made from skin of every animal in the kingdom. Unfortunately he manages to complete each task and announces their marriage. That night she packs her three gowns in a nutshell, grabs three small gold objects and runs away wearing her all-fur cloak, with her face and hands blackened with soot.

Comic adaption by Gina Biggs and Elle Skinner

This is one of those rare tales that seems to have been made MORE gruesome by modern retellings. This is as opposed to Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, and many others which have been thoroughly subdued over the years to be more "child friendly."


I was recently going through my book shelves and stumbled across a variation of the Allerleirauh story, Deerskin, by Robin McKinley. This is a book that I have been at war with since high school, but just haven't been able to shake. I read it some time during sophomore year and did not like it. It bothered me and itched under my skin.


Four years later, I was reading another book by McKinley, The Hero And The Crown, which is part of a two book set that I have enjoyed enough to read multiple times. Stupidly, I got to thinking, about Deerskin again. Had I judged it too harshly the first time? Yes the subject was rough, but she's a good writer so it couldn't have been so terrible. So off I toddled to Half-Price Books and managed to find a very cheap copy in their online store. It arrived. I read it. It sucked.
And now again, another year has passed, and I find myself face to face with this gruesome tale.

So now I suppose I should explain why I dislike it so much (WARNING: SPOILERS, seriously). Firstly, the writing bothers me. I don't even know half of why, but even if I start reading much later in the book and skip the nasty part, I still feel like I'm chewing a handfull of cherry pips. Also, the choices made with the story make me twitch. This is the meat and bones of my face off with this book. In McKinley's version of the tale, the princess does not get away from her father unscathed. Before their wedding, the King breaks into his daughter's room and rapes her, causing her to flee, with her dog. She runs into the woods where she pretty much loses it, and prematurely gives birth to a still born child. To save her from herself, the goddess of the moon comes to her and blesses her with memory loss, a silver dye job, and a deerskin dress that never wears or dirties. So yeah, she goes off and finds her prince, going under the name Deerskin, eventually regains her memory, and saves the prince's sister from marrying he father (Deerskin's father, not the prince's). In the end the prince proposes, but Deerskin is skittish and feels unclean, so he promises to wait as long as it takes.


It's a very disturbing and brutal story. I also feels that it kinda kills one of my favorite things about the original story, which is the independently strong and clever female protagonist. Deerskin's reaction to her trauma is very realistic, but in real life, we don't have a goddess to mold us in her image and erases our memories until we're ready to deal with them. Not only that, but why Deerskin? Why not all the other abused girls in the country? Why does this princess get special treatment? And why of all things, does her "time of the month" only last a single day each month? I know this is a fantastical land, and that means that we're supposed to let it stretch our imagination, but no female reader's imagination is going to stretch that much.


So here I am, looking at this book and trying to figure out weather I should keep it, as a sign of respect for the author, or just give it away and let it gnaw on somebody else's bones for a while.

Hello Batty

Isn't she cute?!

So I was searching "underbust apron" and the first link google throws at me takes me to this super easy tutorial in the How To/Maid Cafe sections of this overall blog.

Out of curiosity I start to take a look around. The Maid Cafe section is actually quite informative. I really with the kids who tried to make one at my own school had read this blog first.

In any case, if you are interested in Lolita fashion, cosplay, or maid cafe's you should definitely check out her Hello Batty blog. 

(all images belong to Hello Batty, not me)

Summerfest!

Who else is going to Summerfest?
What's Summerfest, you ask? It's a music festival up in Milwaukee, WI. 11 stages playing straight from 12pm to 12am for 11 days: June 27-July 1 and then continued July 3-July 8.

Does that interest you? If your answer is, "HELLZ YEAH!" Then you should also know that until June 8th Summerfest is offering an 11-Day-Pass for $45!! 

Yup, that's mine! It already arrived in the mail and I've been loath to let it out of my sight since!!

Des+Nate

Haha, I just watched my first DesandNate video, which was preeeeeetty random, but vaguely adorable.

So I guess thanks goes the MattG for linking them in a video!

(Not the one bellow, but I like it anyway)

By the way, I totally haven't slept yet...

Starting a Youtube.

So I've been saying for a while that I've been wanting to start up my own youtube channel. I've pretty much been running my mouth about it, but in case I didn't happen to run my mouth around you, I'll explain the "real quick":


You, the viewers, tell me what kind of people you want me to interview (actors, teachers, costumers, architects, you know, whatever) and let me know what you want me to ask them. I want equal amounts silly questions and serious questions. In the mean time, I will be interviewing whoever I can get ahold of. So, every video I will tell you who I will be interviewing next and when I will stop accepting questions by. Then you send me questions that you want me to ask my next interviewee! This is a chance for viewers to get their questions to people who are, or have been, places that the viewer might be interested in going, or are curious about.


Or, thats how I want it to go at least.
I'm pretty pleased with the idea. It's interactive and fun for both myself and the viewers. It would get me out talking to people, which is something that I desperately need experience with. Thing is, I need people to interview to get the show up and running! People like students of different mediums, and maybe a grad student who is teaching Writing & Rhetoric I... or something. Ahem. Anyway, not only that, but I need questions and ideas of who to interview. One of my friends has already agreed to let me grill her about how she found her significant-other through a dating website. Does anybody have any questions for her? Now, if ever, would be the time to leave a comment, folks!

Wrestling Mania

So I'm not sure if anybody noticed that in my entry No Such Thing As Superman I used three wrestlers as examples. Since the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) pay-per-view WrestleMania was this Sunday, the first of April, I thought that now might be a good time to talk about it a bit.

First let me get the fangirling out of the way and say that The Undertaker won his Hell In A Cell match against The Game (AKA: HHH, Triple H) which makes his WrestleMania streak 20-0. One of the best matches by far. Absolutely grueling.

Also CM Punk won his match against the Chris Jericho which means that the straight edge Chicagoan still holds the WWE championship. 

The other matches were good, but really these plots take ages to play out. It's kinda ridiculous leading up to the pay-per-view events, and even more ridiculous during the fallout after. The 'TakerxH match was really tailored to be the event of the evening. 

Sorry, this picture is a year old now.

Another moment that I appreciated, which was actually quite sweet, was the induction of Edge into the WWE hall of fame.

While most wrestlers aren't given that chance until they are much older, Edge was forced to stop wrestling due to a very serious injury. He had actually broken his neck, but still managed to wrestle for several more years before the doctors finally told him that if he continued, he would either suffer neck down paralysis or die.

The Diva's Championship match was shameful. Beth Phoenix, one of the few Divas who actually wrestled before coming to the WWE was "beaten" in a tag-team match by special guest Extra journalist, Maria Menounos.

Beth Phoenix

Maria M.

          Vs.

Really? You think that is at all likely?

Okay, where was I, again? Wrestling.

A lot of people snort derisively at the mention of WWE, TNA (Total Nonstop Action Wrestling), ROH (Ring Of Honor), and that sort of wrestling. "It's not even real." They say. That is my first clue that these people are checked out. Okay so most of the fights are scripted, or at least the winner is always decided ahead of time. The stunts, however, are real. They do hurt. One small "botch" (mistake/mess-up) can end a wrestlers career or worse. Owen Hart actually died from a botched stunt in front of a live audience. The home viewers were watching a promo that was on the Titantron at the moment and only saw the aftermath. Edge and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin had to end their careers early due to injuries gained from botched moves. What I am saying is that these people put their bodies on the line to entertain people because it is something that they are extremely passionate about. So please, don't scorn them. You couldn't do a quarter of what they put themselves through on a regular basis.

As to the drug problem, the WWE, though not so much TNA, has be seriously cracking down on their wrestlers. Drug tests are conducted regularly, and they have a very strict three-strike policy which is null if the wrestler in question refuses rehab. In that case the wrestler is out. No good-bye to the fans, no finishing a story-line or just one more match. OUT.

Chyna before

My pet peeve- female "wrestling" in the WWE:

Chyna after

The Divas. Oh the Divas. Where to even start? At some point the WWE decided that all of it's female wrestlers were going to be called "Divas" and that they all had to have super bosoms. This was probably not the smartest thought, especially when they, after much hemming and hawing, got one of the few remaining female wrestlers at the time to get breast implants. It may not come as a surprise, but putting an implant in a very muscular woman who engages in a high-impact sport was maybe not the best of ideas. Sure enough, during a match one of poor Chyna's implants broke. Lesson learned? Not quite. She was not the last to have a boob job rupture in the ring. The good news is that this forced the creation of a sturdier implant in the hope of minimizing repeats.

Kharma

 It's not that I don't think that these women work hard to do their jobs. I just notice that they are chosen and trained for the purpose of being eye-candy, not fighters. I feel like it's their job not to be taken as seriously or given as much credit. Chyna was the first woman to participate in a Royal Rumble match. Not only that, but she did so two years in a row. While these were truly momentous occasions, she was only permitted to stay in the ring for neigh 35-37 seconds each time. Ten years later Beth Phoenix was allowed in and she still holds the female record at one minute and thirty-seven seconds in the Royal Rumble. Last year's tolken female, Kharma stayed in for one minute flat. On a positive note, none of the women made the "shortest time spent in the Royal Rumble" list...

Mikhail West

My uncle has gone to Russia to direct an operetta! It is called The Duchess Of Chicago and I have no clue what it is about. I admit some trepidation in regards to how exactly this will work out. I mean he is a fantastic director, and I posses the utmost respect for him, but he doesn't speak a word or Russian! I shall await updates on the blog he has made to record this new and exciting experience: Michael Unger Goes to Russia to Direct an Operetta! A bit of a long unwieldy name, but it certainly gets the point across!

What Am I Even Doing?

Spring break is almost at a close and I couldn't actually tell you what I accomplished. I slept. I drew. I cuddled. I spent time with friends. Tonight I hope to be instrumental in getting a troupe back on it's proverbial feet. I suppose that I will not be able to judge just how productive my break was until it is well and truly over.

"We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school."

When I was younger I was severely against Shakespeare. It wasn't that I disliked his writing, it was that I disliked Romeo & Juliet. A play written about two hormonal teenagers, who commit suicide due to a comedy of errors and their own teenage impulse to be completely idiotic. 

Of course, people didn't live so long back then anyway, so I suppose that following impulses did not leave you with as long lasting consequences. Eventually, I was forced to read yet another work by this most odious author. Okay, I thought, Macbeth wasn't so bad, but one decent work does not make a great author... Oh fuck me, I'm in love with Hamlet. Not the character. He's an emo, whiny little prick. The play, however, is one of my absolute favorites. I know that everybody is all up in the "to be or not to be" business, but my personal favorite of the Hamlet soliloquies is this one.


O that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d
His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on’t! O fie! ’tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead!—nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother,
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month,—
Let me not think on’t,—Frailty, thy name is woman!—
A little month; or ere those shoes were old
With which she followed my poor father’s body
Like Niobe, all tears;—why she, even she,—
O God! a beast that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn’d longer,—married with mine uncle,
My father’s brother; but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules: within a month;
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married:— O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not, nor it cannot come to good;
But break my heart,—for I must hold my tongue.

-Hamlet (act I, scene II) by William Shakespeare

(5 points for Ravenclaw if you recognized the title quote from play/movie Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard)

3

Okay I have three things to announce and they are all really short so I am lumping them together.


1- A new Doctor Who companion has been chosen! Her name is Jenna Louise Coleman, and she is apparently just as fast a talker as The Doctor himself. Warning: this links to an article that has a spoiler near the bottom.


2- Milwaukee's Summerfest, which bills itself as the world's largest music festival, is now on it's 45th year. To celebrate the occasion, they are selling the 11-Day Power Pass for only $45, saving the buyer $131!! The sale only goes through June 8th so be sure to place your order in advance! Link to the gift card purchase page.


3- Terrance Zdunich and Darren Bousman have released a scene of their newest movie project The Devil's Carnival.  This is our first look at the front of The Devil make up that Terrance wears for the entire project.

Also, just to reminder y'all, the tour comes to Chicago's own Music Box Theater on May 3rd.


BONUS: On set interview with Director Darren Lynn Bousman!

Art Extremism

The shirt that I wore today is an oldie, but it's just so much fun. It's a hand-me-down, I think, but I don't remember from whom or where.

[Will post picture, but just know that it reads ART TERRORIST on the chest]

"Terrorism: the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims."

So it's not that I go around bombing places or harming people "for the sake of art," that seems like a poor life choice, to me.

When I was younger I saw a truly horrifying exhibit. It was a video projected onto a wall of a dog that was curling and whimpering in pain. I started freaking out. How could this woman just sit there and watch this dog suffer as she filmed it, and do nothing to help? My grandmother quickly calmed me by reading out of the brochure that the afflicted dog was actually completely CG (computer generated).

Sometimes to get a point across the artist must shock the audience. That's how I think of art terrorism, bombing peoples brains. Shaking them up. Making them think.

School Pride

I am so in love with my school. I have a lot of issues with the idea of "love" and all that, but if I could feel it for any sort of establishment it would be for this school.

I have found, as of yesterday, that, upon entering my sophomore year, I can declare myself an interdisciplinary student. This means that I would work with my advisor and put together my own curriculum that would cover all of my bases. Theater and Fashion harmoniously combined and rolled up into one neat little package. I can't wait! Next semester I will be completing my freshman year, at the ripe old age of 23. Therefore I will be taking classes that "count" for Fashion, but would work towards Costuming as well, leaving room for Writing & Rhetoric II, and, hopefully, Psychology. Oh, but I didn't leave room for a "fun course"! What? Who needs one? I am just so super excited about my classes, I can't wait! Plus with all the sewing I have to do over the break, this summer is going to just fly by!

Oh! A raven just landed next to the train. Totally random. I am just so excitable after finding this out! Goodness, is this a stream-of-consciousness? Everybody run for the hills! Or I could just stop writing, but it's not like I have too much else to do on the train and I'm not in the habit of censoring my writing too much so I'll probably post this part as well, although that is exceedingly ill-advised. I don't know why. I just don't like to be seen as mentally messy, although I totally am. I am the queen of scatterbrainia.

MEET DEVCARN

HOLY CRAP, YOU GUYS!!

Comes to Chicago on tour the Thursday night of Finals week.... SCREW IT! I already bought my ticket!!

*Does a little dance*

My Little Pony

So I keep hearing all these things about the new My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. I gotta admit it's been a while since I watched My Little Pony. I only remember about about two episodes/movies/whatever. One had to do with weird bee creatures making things overheat and the other had to do with some crazy cat lady who wanted to be young forever. I only ever got to watch these when I was sick and my options were either My Little Pony, Care Bears, or Mr. Nanny. Playing Donkey Kong was also an option, but the boys tended to take over the console and, quiet little thing that I was, I didn't want to take up a game that I was absolutely dreadful at.
In any case, I was more than slightly apprehensive about this new version, seeing as in the old version the males (the "big brother boy ponies"), well, I just remember them as childish, and every coupling wound up with twins and that spawned more ridiculousness. Okay not every couple, but still...

Ow, my ears! And the "adults" aren't any better.

At some point artists started making some more drastically different My Little Pony toys that were generally sold at comic conventions and the like, for fairly obvious reasons:

[Image credit]

The new MLP:FiM is a lot more crazy animated, character wise. Several extreme personalities working together to prove that with the power of friendship, anything is possible. There are also some other morals in there. As with most children's shows, the idea is to teach kids positive lessons and such. There are references to modern day memes (I.E. Derpy Hooves), and it is somehow attractive to the generation who remembers the original MLP. The show has even generated it's own set of fanboys, the Bronies. To each their own, we suppose.
I'll have to actually sit down and attempt to watch it as some point.


I suppose I didn't really have anything to say, I just find the whole thing amusing, in a mostly good way.

How to "Follow" on Blogger

So I've noticed that the page format that I (used to) use for this site does not have a "follow" button. You have to do it from your own home page. It occurs to me that a lot of people just don't know how to do this. So I thought I'd help out.


First you need to be on the site of the person who you want to follow, and you need to copy their URL

Next go to your home screen and click the "Add" button which is located under "Reading List"

Paste the URL that you copied for step one into the space next to "Add from URL" and click "Follow."

IF don't want people to know that you are following this person, you can do that. Before you click follow, you can change the "Following option" to "Follow anonymously"

TA DA! You are now a master follower!

I really do hope that this post will actually be useful to somebody.

"The game's afoot..."

So apparently, this phrase, or a version of it, is used in just about every Sherlock Holms related anything and I never realized that there was more to it. The whole line was actually included when used in the first of the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holms films. The entire quote is:


"The game's afoot: follow you spirit, and upon this charge cry 'God for Harry, England, and St. George!'"


It is part of the speech that starts, "Once more unto the breach dear friends, once more; or close the wall up with our English dead." from Act III of Shakespeare's Henry V
It is an amazingly stirring speech goading the British troops into battle to conquer France. To be honest I have only watched one rendition of the play, and I remember not being overly fond of how distracting it was in that particular version. I shall have to look up another. Although, for all I know, I could simply dislike the play. Reading is always preferable, of course, but the sad statement is that I am so bad at time management that I probably won't do that until summer.


In any case, I am always tickled when authors of fiction make reference to actual works. Especially authors who I admire on either side of the equation.

To or Not To KONY2012

Watch the video FIRST.

Right! Now are you ready to kick some government ass? Are you ready to save those kids? Are you ready to show America what you are made of and paint your town with posters? ARE YOU READY TO SHOWER THIS MOVEMENT WITH MONEY?

STOP.

[Read this article]

Do some research on your own.

[Here is another article] with a bit less of an extreme bias by the author.

This is a tough situation. The truth is that all of the children deserve better, but it's not as easy as wiping out one man. I don't think that the people who have blindly devoted themselves to this project realize that what will happen next. After Kony is taken care of, whoever is running things for him will step up and keep going. The killing, raping, and destruction will continue. It's not just about Kony, or the LRA. Once they are gone, more thugs will move up in the world and take over. You would have to dismantle the entire system and somebody would have to install a new government. Who is that going to be exactly? What gives anyone the right to march into another country and say, "You're doing it wrong. Here, let me."

"That's a naive and sad world view," said Jesse Derris, a spokesman for Invisible Children. "The idea that you should do nothing unless you can do everything is exactly what we're trying to avoid."

Well, Jesse, I agree. How about we help out those kids?

(If you do decide to give money, please look into each organization thoroughly before giving money)

World Vision

Children International

Plan

Children of Uganda

Help For Children In Uganda

Save The Children

Also another article with some helpful links at the bottom Washington Post: How Can We Help

I hate to treat a symptom without finding a cure, but it's not like you can just take Uganda to a doctor and give it a CT Scan and prescribe some antibiotics. 

Something for me to think about for myself

I am at constant war with myself when it comes to school work. My inner (and dominate) perfectionist has very little respect for any time goal that I might set for myself.
This semester I have been trying my best to just turn in what I have. Even if it is utter rubbish. Even if I know that I could do better given more time. I am just trying to make sure that I have a some excuse for a finished product to turn in.
So far I have been doing relatively well at this.
Then I got assigned a group project for Art History.
In general, I am all for creative collaboration and I can do less creative projects if the people involved simply sit down together and hash it out as a group. Doing that may take some time, especially for a research paper, but it can be just, an few hours spread over a couple days, or all in one go and be done with it.
Due to seriously inconvenient timing and the fact that nobody wants to bother with that sort of big intense push, we only had one solid sit down. Tomorrow, Friday, the six of us will arrive at class, each with an essay on a subtopic that fits under the general theme of "Ancient Roman Theatre". We will slam all of out two-page summaries together with magic, glitter, and rainbows (and a staple). Tada! A completely disjointed work. Did I mention that we must give a presentation? We must give a presentation. I severely dislike giving presentations.


And right about NOW is the point when that persnickety little voice inside of my head would like to let me know, out of the kindness of it's wee little heart, that these people will not like me at all if I fail them. These THEATER people who are all farther along in school than I am, will think of me as slow and dim witted and if they remember me past friday, they will always remember how I let them down. How my segment cost them the full project points, and how it was me who fucked them over.
The result being that they will tell their peers that I am incompetent and I will never get a job in my field ever, ever again.
Commence freak out in typical lip-biting, hair-tugging fashion.
When I was in high school, I would generally just whip out some massive bullshit  completely last minute and stutter and blush my way through the presentation portions due to extreme stage fright and nerves.
When I was at UofA this would have been about the part where I run for the hills, call out sick, email in some crappy excuse, or just not show up and not say why at all. Yep, for one full school year, I was that partner. I'm not proud of it. It wasn't that I didn't give a monkey's arse at all, it was that I didn't care enough about where I was going to not fun away from the pressure.


-Minor note to add in: I accidentally extended the essay two more pages and, though hurried and freaking out, managed to give a vaguely informative presentation. Yay me.