Puzzle me this...

I am not usually a fan of jigsaw puzzles.  There are so many things I should be doing but this is what interests me right now.  Why?  If I could answer that, I probably wouldn't need this blog!  It is a puzzle, I do admit.  But, I'm still smiling!

This collage was done at Pizap.com, a fun, free online photo editing site.

Then I decided I wanted to make a photo into a puzzle.  Well here is a website jigsawsite.com where you can upload a photo and actually do the puzzle online!  It's a terrific time waster heap of fun, let me tell you!

I don't have Adobe Photoshop, which I am sure makes much better puzzle photos.  Are there any other free online photo editors you like to use?

Have a super weekend!

If RA was in the Olympics...

Are you enjoying watching the London Olympic games?  I've been too busy having fun away from my television to see many events.  But here is something I would be glued to the TV to watch.

Here are some events Richard Armitage could compete in...

Archery

GoG in Robin Hood (series 2 Lardner's Ring episode) from RA Central

He's right on target for me!

Boxing

As John Porter in Strike Back from RA Net

Watching him makes me punch-drunk!

Equestrian

Series 2 Robin Hood from RA Central

Don't we all love how he sits a horse!

Fencing

series 3 Robin Hood from RA Central

Well, he could use some help at this sport, unfortunately.
But I'm more than willing to let him practice on me!

Rugby Sevens (to be introduced in 2016)

as Ian Macalwain in Ultimate Force courtesy of RAnet gallery

Ladies do enjoy him in shorts.

Shooting

As John Porter in Strike Back courtesy of RA Net

He's not just "shooting the breeze", but he could "shoot the moon"!

Swimming

as Lee Preston in Cold Feet courtesy of RA Net

He doesn't really have to swim or dive.  

We'd just be grateful to see him walk around in his Speedo.

Water Polo

As Lee Preston in Cold Feet screencap from RA Central

Just what exactly are they fishing around for here?

Weight lifting

Guy of Gisborne in Robin Hood courtesy of RA Central gallery

I'm not sure if this should be considered weight lifting or shot put.  

If only he could trust Robin Hood as far as he could throw him!

Never mind all the hoopla about The Hobbit. -- To me RA is really

the Lord of the Rings

What are some events that you think should be added to the RA Olympics?

It's your move

My Dad taught me how to play chess.  I'm not sure how or when he learned how to play, but we did have a copy of Bobby Fischer's book which he referred to quite often.  So I am thinking that the chess craze begun by Fischer's popularity as a chess god in the 1970s probably led to his renewed interest.

Not long ago I noticed this documentary on Netflix and I was immediately interested.

It didn't disappoint.  I was riveted from beginning to end, watching how this genius of logic and strategy became the most celebrated chess player on the globe for a brief shining moment and then self-destructed like a time bomb.  This biopic is a personality study of Fischer's mind over the matter of his behavior.  It not only answers the question I had - whatever happened to Bobby Fischer?, but it puts his story directly in the context of the historical times and what real impact that had on his life.



Not long after viewing that documentary I came across this subtitled French film on Netfix called Queen to Play, and it was completely charming!  It's about a quiet, unassuming woman (beautifully played by Sandrine Bonnaire) working as a maid in a picturesque village who witnesses a sensual couple enjoying a chess game and decides she wants to learn to play.  When her husband shows no interest in playing, she finds a tutor (played by Kevin Kline) and soon develops into a very skillful player.  Her talent for chess gives her the confidence to improve herself in other ways which has repercussions for her whole family.

Queen to Play (2009)

This next screencap is from the movie Cairo Time which I just watched the other day on Netflix.  It is such a beautiful film, I am going to have to give it some more blog love soon.  It doesn't really have anything to do with chess, other than the male lead, played by the excellent Alexander Siddig likes to play the game in his coffeehouse.

It would be difficult to concentrate while playing such a romantically handsome man.

The movie Two Weeks Notice features an amusing conversation about women between Hugh Grant's character and his chauffeur while playing chess. As I was unable to embed it, you can watch the clip Here.

Dorian Missick as Tony the chauffeur explains his theory

While it had never occurred to me to play this next particular variation of the game, I will admit it could make things very interesting with the right partner. This just might qualify as one of the most awkwardly uncomfortable scenes ever (for good reason).

Two Weeks Notice (2002)

This next scene has got to be the sexiest chess game on film!

Scene from original movie The Thomas Crowne Affair (1968)
with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway

The scene following this one is even hotter. You can click on it at the end of this video if you dare!

I am pretty sure this next scene is why so many young students at our elementary school became interested in this ancient game.

The Harry Potter gang plays chess.

I love the '70s Rock group Kansas but I wasn't aware of this song until Cassia deWarren posted it on Facebook:

Play the Game Tonight / Kansas

Well, I had no idea that this next song was from a concept album which lead to the 1986 musical by Tim Rice and the male members of ABBA aptly entitled Chess . I kind of lost touch with the music scene sometime after Boy George and The Culture Club appeared on the scene. I remember hearing this song but as this was the year my first child was born I was much more immersed in baby culture than anything else!

One Night in Bangkok / Murray Head (1986)

The Arbiter is another song from this musical.  How nice that potomusicfan4ever made a fanvid which highlights the Sheriff of Nottingham from the BBC's Robin Hood.  Of course you will also see Robin Hood, Marian and my personal favourite - Guy of Gisborne!

Yes, that wicked Sheriff of Nottingham played poor Guy of Gisborne like a pawn.

But what a wonderful pawn he was!

Awhile ago, when I was still researching this post, Judiang's blog, Confessions of a Watcher had a "Surreal Saturday" post on chess with an interesting video by a fun vidder she got me hooked on, by the name of DeStorm.  If you haven't already read it, her post is definitely worth checking out.  We bloggers definitely have a lot more in common than just a certain actor with the initials RA.

There is no end to styles of chess pieces and boards, but this is one I would love to own!

Chess pieces modeled after the Robin Hood legend

When I began writing this post this next item was news.  Although I may be repeating some information previously published in others' blog posts, I would be remiss in not mentioning this exciting book!

This debut historical fiction is by Australian fantasy author Prue Batten.

Prue Batten of Mesmered's Blog has a new book about GoG which has been released in Ebook format and is almost ready for paperback publication. The title is Gisborne: Book of Pawns. It is a total departure from canon as there is no Sheriff of Nottingham, Robin Hood or Maid Marian!  I enjoyed this portrayal of Guy of Gisborne which follows closely what fans of Richard Armitage have come to believe as his true character.

It's been available as an e-book since the first week of March 2012 when I downloaded it from Chapters/Indigo for my Kobo Ereader, it is also available as a Kindle Ebook from Amazon.com.  I can't wait until it is released in book format.

Here is a review by Maria Grazia of Fly High!

I also am eagerly awaiting a sequel! Have you seen any of these movies?  Do you play chess?   Have you read Prue's book yet?

What floats your boat?

Several of my friends are now the proud owners of a pontoon boat, and I have luckily been invited to spend a lovely day of fishing on one for Canada Day.  The forecast is for sunny skies and 28 degrees Celsius (or about 82 degrees Fahrenheit for the non metric types), which is just about perfect!  I am not very good at fishing, but I will enjoy being out on the lake in the company of very enjoyable friends!

I must admit to a small case of boat envy!  Even though we have lived so close to so many lakes forever, we only finally bought a small skiff a couple of years ago.  It's good enough to take a couple of people fishing but the motor is not powerful enough for waterskiing.  Plus we bought it second hand from a fishing camp so it is really nothing to look at! 

Oh well, maybe some day we'll be able to keep up with the Jones's and buy a party boat!  But if I'm going to dream, I hope it comes with a captain who just might look something like this....

Graphic art by my dear anonymous friend!

Time to 'Fess up Phylly!

Of course Phylly3 isn't my real name, but it's close.  I haven't really come clean about my real life personality, but what I'm talking about here is my online personality.  I'm Phylly3 everywhere, except Youtube and Twitter where I had to add a "The" in front.  So if I am confessing something as an online personality, it doesn't really have the same intensity as I were doing it as my real self.

What I am referring to really is the Tumblr website Richard Armitage Confessions  which is based on the website Post Secret, where people send in a postcard with a secret on it they have never revealed to anyone before.  RA Confessions posted the one I sent in the other day and forgive me, but I have to share it with you.

 What prompted this thought?  RAFrenzy is having a contest to giveaway a Little Guy action figure!  I am really hoping to win!  The deadline is tonight so there isn't any time to waste.  Get over to her website and leave a comment.  Then email her some type of confession about that Guy of Gisborne character that we all know and most love.

I have been enjoying what ItsJSforMe has been doing with her collection of Little Guy figures on her new blog rather ironically titled:  Do I Have a Blog?  Luckily the subtitle sums up her purpose quite nicely "The Many Faces of Richard Armitage."   These action figure antics remind me fondly of Kiteflier's series of stories at Little Guy's Place.  I can't find the link to these right now, but here is a Little Guy gallery of pictures at Richard Armitage Net.  RA fans have even made some very entertaining videos starring Little Guy!

I have wanted one so badly that -- And here is my real confession  -- The first store (heck - the first anywhere) I went into when I landed bleary-eyed into England and couldn't get into my hotel room to sleep -- was a ToysRus store where I fruitlessly searched for a Little Guy of my own!


We all have some thoughts (or deeds) we might now feel comfortable revealing, or let's face it - that most people would rather not know about!  Some could be quite serious, and others a bit more light hearted.  But it is certainly interesting to see how creative some people can be about revealing (although anonymously) their innermost secrets.

Now I'd like to conclude with Guy's own confession, a wonderful fanvid with a song by Josh Groban.

Guy of Gisborne - Confession / OlerySt

End of Season

Baseball is one of the few team sports that I can relate to. I wonder if it has anything to do with my Dad?  He was so much older than me I don't remember him really playing with me much, but I'll bet he must have tossed a baseball at me now and then. Or maybe he did with my older sisters and they passed on the favour?  I know my Dad used to play ball, and he must have been a good player too.  I know he got a job once because the company needed a new player for their team.  Weren't those the days! 

I used to watch my oldest sister's husband play ball.  He was the pitcher -- a very important position.  Somehow I got the feeling he pitched better when I wasn't there. Was I so distracting or was it only my imagination?  All I know is that I missed seeing most of his best games!

Anyway, I always loved to play.  The neighbourhood kids would get together and play "Scrub". It was a type of baseball game with as many players as you could round up. From 3 players up to any number (the extras were just fielders).  The players rotated positions as soon as someone struck out so that everyone eventually had a turn at being the pitcher and the batter, well -- at every position, really.  It was a great way to learn how to play, and very fair too!

I wasn't very good at organized sports, baseball included.  I was a good batter, and a great runner.  I wasn't a good catcher! It took me until grade 6 to discover I needed glasses. By then I had learned to be afraid of the ball.  (I never knew where it was coming from!)  As for throwing a baseball... well that was just sad!  Because of my lack of skill in catching, I always got stuck in the outfield.  But there was no way I could throw that ball home.  Luckily I was a fast runner, so what I had to do was throw, and run and throw it again! (Pathetic really!)

But as poor a player as I may have been, I still enjoyed playing the game.Which reminds me of a baseball song by Kenny Rogers in which he captures the confident spirit of youth. I found this song in a great homemade video by Gino East.

  I Am the Greatest / Kenny Rogers

In the next video, Bruce Springsteen introduces John Fogerty (formerly of Creedence Clearwater Revival) who had a huge hit with this tribute to baseball in 1985 from his solo career.

Centerfield / John Fogerty

 Here are some very famous comedy routines about baseball by two different comedy duos.

Who's on First? / Abbott & Constello

Thanks to fitzg for reminding me of this next video!

Shakespearean Baseball / Wayne & Shuster

Don't you just love all the references to Richard III?

 There are quite a few baseball themed movies and several posts on the web about people's favourite Top 10.  So rather than list them myself, I thought I would show some stills from some of them. I don't think there's a baseball movie I didn't like, (unless it  was a sequel).

 Charlie Sheen appeared in 2 very different baseball movies within a year of each other.

Eight Men Out (1988)

Major League (1989)

Yeah, I know. But this was before he went foul.

David Strathairn also had a role in the star-studded Eight Men Out, the true story about the White Sox scandal, where some members of an ill-used ball team throw their chance at the World Series title in a betting scheme.

A League of Their Own

Eight Men Out

He also played the good-hearted manager of a woman's baseball league during WWII in A League of Their Own.

Kevin Costner 

Both of these movies usually end up on people's Top 10 baseball movies with Bull Durham rating higher among afficionados.  But I was not fond of the characters in it and have never been able to watch it from start to finish.  I much prefer Field of Dreams, which is based on a book by Canadian author W.P. Kinsella. It is a blend of fantasy and realistic drama with some historical characters thrown into the mix. One of these characters is "Shoeless Joe" Jackson who, along with most of his team members (featured in Eight Men Out) were banned from playing the sport, in his case, mistakenly. They all get their chance to play ball again, their ghostly selves returned to their prime and hanging out in a corn field in Iowa. Other people must also prefer Field of Dreams, as it has a higher rating at IMDb.com (Internet Movie Database).

Field of Dreams (1989)

Bull Durham (1988)

Tom Selleck

Not the greatest movie here, but this one is interesting for the fact that it takes place in Japan so we get to see the clash of cultures and a different style of playing the game.  Fans of Tom Selleck will also enjoy his performance.  If you are not crazy about Tom S., Japanese culture or baseball you will definitely strike out with this movie.

Mr. Baseball  (1992)

Robert Redford

I have mentioned Mr. Redford before on this blog, so regular readers may know I have a soft spot for him.  Basically, all he has to do is show up in a movie and I'm happy!  I saw The Natural quite a long time ago and as it wasn't on my Netflix line-up I couldn't do a rewatch, but I do remember enjoying this movie.  It is a bit of a fantasy too, so those people who are not dreamers, but want "just the facts" might not be impressed by it.

The Natural (1984)




The baseball movie that I can easily drop everything to watch again repeatedly is A League of Their Own.  director Penny Marshall's look back at World War II on the home front, when women not only took over for men in the factories and businesses, but also on the baseball field!

Tom Hanks & Geena Davis

A League of Their Own (1992)

Geena Davis looks gorgeous in this movie playing the part of Dottie Hinson, the best player in the league. The character was a composite of several outstanding female ballplayers but mostly modeled after Dottie Kamenshek, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 84.
Also appearing in this movie are Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell who are hilarious together and I hear became close friends as a result of this movie. Tom Hanks, as a washed up player recruited to coach the team behaves like a useless drunk, until he finally  realizes these aren't just pretty girls in skirts pretending to play ball, but true athletes who play for the love of the game. Tom Hanks has no shortage of famous movie quotes and one of his best is in this movie.  Said to a distraught player after he berates her for fumbling a play, "There's no crying in baseball!" 

I would challenge anyone to a dry eye after watching Gary Cooper in  
Pride of the Yankees (1942)

Meet the real man behind the movie -- New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig.  That's right, he is the one with the disease named after him.  ALS or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He was the most famous person at the time to develop this illness and I guess you could say he also put a face to the name.  It is such a horrible disease that gradually but inevitably robs a person of all their abilities until it eventually causes death. 

Lou Gehrig (1903-1941)

Here is Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig in Pride of the Yankees shaking hands with baseball great Babe Ruth, who played himself in the movie.



Since we are now in a melancholic mood, I must share this Paul Simon song which I have loved ever since I first heard it on his Still Crazy After All These Years album from 1975.



Night Game / Paul Simon

Okay... so you know I like baseball movies and you might remember that I have this favourite actor ... So...pardon me while I fantasize about Richard Armitage in a baseball movie!!

No?  This doesn't work for you? He's just too British for the American League?

I don't give up that easily. Wasn't baseball a spin off from that grand old
British sport of Cricket?

 Oh dear! Maybe that's just not cricket!