I'm posting this in honor of International Women's Day Mar. 8.
Jan. 19, 2017 "Atwood's all- too- prescient tales": Today I found this article by Martin Knelman in the Globe and Mail:
Margaret Atwood has attended countless book-world events during her literary career, but last week she brought her star power to a fête for the film world – the annual gala of the Toronto Film Critics Association.
The reason: Two of her most acclaimed novels, The Handmaid’s Tale and Alias Grace, will soon appear as TV miniseries. Both will have their premieres this year after being filmed in Toronto. And each will include Atwood in a cameo role.
Atwood’s official job at the gala was to present the award for best first feature to director Robert Eggers, who won for The Witch. She was accompanied by writer Rebecca Mead, who had flown to Toronto from New York to spend time with Atwood for a profile to be published in the New Yorker in April.
Together, they had walked around the city, including a visit to the University of Toronto’s Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library to examine Atwood’s manuscript for The Handmaid’s Tale.
“Rebecca has been accompanying me to things that were on my schedule anyway – so I brought her to the dinner,” Atwood explained. That also gave Mead a chance to talk to Canadian actor-turned-filmmaker Sarah Polley, who wrote and produced the Alias Grace miniseries, which stars Sarah Gadon.
Atwood – who on Tuesday was the first Canadian to win the National Book Critics Circle’s Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award – drew the attention of just about everyone in the room, including Eggers and, from the podium, wisecracking co-host Mary Walsh and writer/actor Don McKellar.
When I visited her table, after dinner was served, the author happily gave me some details about the impending Atwood marathon on the small screen. And she described what it was like to do her cameo for Alias Grace, during a hot-weather spell last summer.
“I stewed like a prune in my layers of petticoats, chemise, corset, wool skirt, wool jacket, shawl and bonnet,” she said. “I was supposed to look disapproving, and in all that heat I had no difficulty doing that.”
But when I inquired about which characters she was playing in the two series, she became guarded. “I am not allowed to talk yet about what actually happens in the cameo roles,” she said.
Another mystery she mentioned concerns the screen rights to The Handmaid’s Tale, and whether Canadian viewers will get to see it.
For those Canadians who like to get their literary culture on TV, it would be an absurdity to be deprived of the chance to watch this series – produced in Canada and based on a key book by our most celebrated novelist – on our side of the border.
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The rights were bought by MGM Television and producer Daniel Wilson, who made the 10-part series in partnership with Hulu, a live-streaming company that operates only in the United States and Japan; production on Handmaid wraps in mid February, with a U.S. launch date of April 26. For it to be shown on this side of the border, Hulu must sell the rights to a Canadian broadcaster or distributor.
There is no such problem in the case of Alias Grace, because the CBC teamed up with Netflix to green-light the six-part series, likely to be telecast in September.
It is based on Atwood’s 1996 novel, which is set in Upper Canada of the 1840s. Atwood started with a true story about the notorious 1843 murder of Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper. Two domestic servants, James McDermott and Grace Marks, were convicted of murder.
He was hanged and she was jailed for 30 years but eventually pardoned. Atwood added to the mix a fictional doctor who researches the case. The novel won the Giller Prize at home and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in Britain.
As for The Handmaid’s Tale, published in 1985, it’s a work of speculative fiction set in Gilead, a totalitarian theocracy that has overthrown the U.S. government.
It’s about a nightmare future in a place where living conditions are horrible and where everyone fears the secret police, known as the Eyes. The book won the Governor-General’s Award in Canada; internationally, it was nominated for the Booker.
The Handmaid’s Tale has been on screen once before, in a 1990 film directed by Volker Schlondorff and starring Natasha Richardson in the title role of Kate/Offred, one of the white women brainwashed into bearing babies for a new, pure generation. The cast featured Robert Duvall as the Commander whom she fends off, as well as Faye Dunaway, Aidan Quinn and Elizabeth McGovern, and the script was by renowned playwright Harold Pinter. But despite all those starry names, most of the reviews were far from glowing.
(Two of Atwood’s other novels have also been filmed: Surfacing in 1981 and The Robber Bride in 2007.)
The advance buzz for the Handmaid TV series has been excellent. It stars Elisabeth Moss as Offred and Joseph Fiennes as the Commander.
The mini-trailer had almost three million views in its first six days on YouTube, Atwood says.
For those Canadians who like to get their literary culture on TV, it would be an absurdity to be deprived of the chance to watch this series – produced in Canada and based on a key book by our most celebrated novelist – on our side of the border.
“Never fear,” Atwood told me. “It will appear in Canada.”
Hulu and MGM have assured her of that, she says.
“That was as of last week. They will tell me as soon as it’s finalized, but nobody likes to release such news until it is final.”
Apr. 26, 2017 "A cautionary tale": Today I found this article by David Barber in the Edmonton Journal:
In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood creates a disturbing, dysfunctional world run as a strict patriarchy. Rigidly stratified by class and function, this society has rich, powerful men as Commanders, with their Wives (lesser men are workers or servants, some are soldiers, called Guardians). Serving women are Marthas and child-bearing women are Handmaids.
Keeping the Handmaids in line are instructor Aunts, meting out guilt, condescension and corporal punishment. Everywhere secretly there are spying Eyes watching, ready to enforce and punish.
Atwood’s story — first a novel, then a 1990 feature film, even a 2000 opera — is now a 10-part episodic series for TV, created by the American subscription video on demand service Hulu and airing in Canada on Bravo and later CraveTV. Like the novel, and in even richer detail than the feature film would allow, this TV series is resonant, chilling and darkly cautionary.
In an undefined but almost familiar nearfuture, religious zealots have overthrown the U.S. government and established the Republic of Gilead, a quasi-biblical martial theocracy somewhere in the northeastern New England states and warring with holdouts in other parts of the country.
Oranges in the grocery store are a sign the fighting in Florida goes well.
We’re told pollution, sexual disease and assumed divine intervention have combined to render most women barren. “So God whipped up a special plague,” Aunt Lydia instructs her charges. “The plague of infertility.” (Of course a patriarchy would blame only the women.)
The fertile few Handmaids are kept as breeding stock. The reference is to an Old Testament story in Genesis, where Jacob’s wife, Rachel, unable to conceive, “gives” him her handmaid to bear him a child instead. As one might expect, Gilead mines the usual jumble of Judeo-Christian Old and New Testament stories and strictures to justify its actions.
Atwood wrote her novel — Orwell would smile — in 1984 and it was published in 1985. This was the United States of Ronald Reagan, where televangelist Jerry Falwell’s self-proclaimed “Moral Majority” had the president’s ear and the Meese Commission was doing its best to root out what it considered the evil of pornography. Women’s and minority rights, hard-won in the ’70s, seemed to be slipping back under small-c and large-C conservative oppression.
In that sense, Atwood’s futuristic novel was very much a product of its own time, the writer as seer warning us of possible impending doom.
Sadly fitting that it should be made newly relevant and newly prophetic once again today, in the divided states of that genital-grabbing U.S. president, Donald Trump. Jerry Falwell Jr. is a Trump supporter and everywhere conservatives and evangelicals are still proclaiming the sort of “family values” Gilead would welcome. Those who haven’t learned from history can watch it repeated here.
Created by showrunner Bruce Miller with Atwood’s input — watch for her in the briefest of cameos in the first episode — this new TV adaptation builds on its well-written foundation with strong acting and striking visuals.
Status is colour-coded: Men wear black, Wives wear turquoise. Marthas dress in dull brown, Aunts in olive drab, Handmaids in scarlet robes with white wimple-like wings.
The music, by Adam Taylor, can evoke tension or seeming calm, but also makes careful use of silence and tends to be sardonically playful over the credits. The use of Onward, Christian Soldiers over the ritual impregnation scene is a subtle, perfectly ironic jab.
At the centre is Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss as the Handmaid Offred (literally “of Fred,” her Commander, since she is a mere possession).
Her performance is solid but understated, mixing confusion, fear and resolve without histrionics, as she narrates her tale, combining flashbacks with current events.
Others — Joseph Fiennes as the Commander, Yvonne Strahovski as his Wife, Samira Wiley as Moira, Ann Dowd as the dour Aunt Lydia — play their parts admirably.
Like other great dystopian stories, The Handmaid’s Tale works best partly because it’s not so far from the truth of our own world.
The mirror it holds up may distort, but still reflects the problems we may see (or ignore) around us.
“Now I am awake to their world,” Offred says. “I was asleep before. That’s how we let it happen.”
Dec. 26, 2019 My opinion: I first learned of Margaret Atwood when I was in Professional Writing in MacEwan. (It's now called Professional Communications). It was for Eng. 101 and we had to read her book Orxy and Crake and write an essay. You could read it here:
I did watch the show Robber Bride when it came out. I also saw her speak at MacEwan in 2006. I watched the pilots to her TV shows Alias Grace and The Handmaid's Tale in 2017. However, I then stopped after the pilot because I found both shows well-written, but too depressing to watch.
Does anyone remember in Sept. -Dec. 2014 I posted all these news articles of book reviews and author interviews onto my blog? I was trying to beat writer's block by reading these articles. I wasn't able to beat writer's block.
Right now I'm rereading news articles about filmmaking and specifically Canadian filmmaking to beat writer's block.
I posted a couple of articles and my pilot reviews of The Handmaid's Tale and Alias Grace:
My week:
Mar. 3, 2020 Free newspapers: I was thinking about how I was giving away my magazine clippings to my friends. They were so happy and excited when they get them. I'm kind of like that when I find a free newspaper.
Last Mon. I was at my 2nd restaurant job. There was a free Edmonton Sun newspaper of that day that was on the food court and I got to read it for free and bring it home.
Last Fri. I was at my 2nd restaurant job and someone threw out a Edmonton Sun newspaper in the trash and I fished it out.
On Mon. I was at my 2nd restaurant job and someone recycled the Edmonton Journal Fri. newspaper in the recycle bin so I fished it out.
http://badcb.blogspot.com/2020/03/quickbooks-how-to-make-decisions-tracy.html
Coronavirus: This actually affected me in a way. I signed up for some work-from- home jobs, and this project had a client in China. The place is closed right now for self-quarantine and I predict that by April, it's not going to open. I am looking for another work- from-home job.
The Edmonton Druid and Pagan Monthly Meetup: I attended this Meetup tonight. It turns out the organizer Logan holds 3 Meetups at different parts of town. I wanted to go to one last week, but it was cold, and the location was like a 30 min bus ride.
Today it was warm (above 0 degrees) and it was in downtown and easy to get to. I was there for 1hr and 10min. I met 7 new people. Nearly all the people who RSVP'd came. One woman said she had anxiety and said she was going to come, and then said she wasn't. That's fine.
I attended the event because when I was a teenager I was interested in witchcraft and the supernatural. I did watch a lot of Buffy and Angel.
I asked lots of questions to Logan about being a Druid and a Pagan, New Age stores like Ascendant Books and Where Faeries Live, and the people who come to these Meetups.
The people there are nice. I learned that one of them wanted to be a hairstylist and needs a license to be one because of those chemicals they use and being mixed together. I said this to her, but I decided to post it on the Meetup page so she won't forget my tip:
Mar. 3, 2020 Free newspapers: I was thinking about how I was giving away my magazine clippings to my friends. They were so happy and excited when they get them. I'm kind of like that when I find a free newspaper.
Last Mon. I was at my 2nd restaurant job. There was a free Edmonton Sun newspaper of that day that was on the food court and I got to read it for free and bring it home.
Last Fri. I was at my 2nd restaurant job and someone threw out a Edmonton Sun newspaper in the trash and I fished it out.
On Mon. I was at my 2nd restaurant job and someone recycled the Edmonton Journal Fri. newspaper in the recycle bin so I fished it out.
http://badcb.blogspot.com/2020/03/quickbooks-how-to-make-decisions-tracy.html
Coronavirus: This actually affected me in a way. I signed up for some work-from- home jobs, and this project had a client in China. The place is closed right now for self-quarantine and I predict that by April, it's not going to open. I am looking for another work- from-home job.
The Edmonton Druid and Pagan Monthly Meetup: I attended this Meetup tonight. It turns out the organizer Logan holds 3 Meetups at different parts of town. I wanted to go to one last week, but it was cold, and the location was like a 30 min bus ride.
Today it was warm (above 0 degrees) and it was in downtown and easy to get to. I was there for 1hr and 10min. I met 7 new people. Nearly all the people who RSVP'd came. One woman said she had anxiety and said she was going to come, and then said she wasn't. That's fine.
I attended the event because when I was a teenager I was interested in witchcraft and the supernatural. I did watch a lot of Buffy and Angel.
I asked lots of questions to Logan about being a Druid and a Pagan, New Age stores like Ascendant Books and Where Faeries Live, and the people who come to these Meetups.
The people there are nice. I learned that one of them wanted to be a hairstylist and needs a license to be one because of those chemicals they use and being mixed together. I said this to her, but I decided to post it on the Meetup page so she won't forget my tip:
Hi, it was nice to meet you all. Also to Firesoul: It's about taking pictures of the hair you braid and work on: You should put all those photos of your work on like Facebook. I have a blog www.badcb.blogspot.ca as a way to promote my writing.
It's like a portfolio. I wrote from 2008-Aug. 2014. Then I started posting news articles and making comments on them instead of actually writing.
The Meetup was average. I would be open to attending another one.
Auctioneer license: I was watching the TV show Starting Over, and Hannah wanted to be an auctioneer. I learned that you need a license to be one.It's like a portfolio. I wrote from 2008-Aug. 2014. Then I started posting news articles and making comments on them instead of actually writing.
The Meetup was average. I would be open to attending another one.
Mar. 4, 2020 Living an Intuitive Life Meetup: I attended this one tonight. I was only 3 who showed up. 6 people RSVP'd. I posted this on the page:
Hi, I and Fernande, and Andy came to this meetup. Where was everybody else? We did have a good time talking about some things related to psychics.
Mar. 5, 2020 Planet Organic closing down: I was working at my 2nd restaurant job today and someone left an Edmonton Journal. I then see that this store is closing down. I passed my resume there in 2018.
Mar. 5, 2020 Planet Organic closing down: I was working at my 2nd restaurant job today and someone left an Edmonton Journal. I then see that this store is closing down. I passed my resume there in 2018.
Weird Al won't do "My Corona":
“Weird Al” Yankovic on Tuesday rejected fans’ requests for a “My Corona” parody about the deadly coronavirus.
“Yeah, no, sorry. Not gonna do ’My Corona,’” the Grammy-winning song satirist tweeted.
Even if better judgment won out in Yankovic’s refusal to tweak The Knack’s 1979 hit “My Sharona” (he did it once with “My Bologna”), fans answered him with jokes and their own lyrics about the COVID-19 virus, which has now infected more than 93,000 people and killed more than 3,000 globally.
Yeah, maybe not the best material to mine for laughs.
But if you like your humor dark and insensitive, proceed.
My opinion: That's good that Weird Al isn't do this song parody, because people have died from it. However, I'm sure a lot of you guys are already listening to this song in your head now.
"Mark Hamill surprises girl with R2-D2 arm":
AceShowbiz - Mark Hamill has thrilled a "Star Wars" fan with a video chat after learning she had become the first girl in history to be fitted with an R2-D2-style prosthetic arm.
Brit Bella Tadlock, 11, posted video of herself receiving the bionic arm - designed in the style of the "Star Wars" droid R2-D2 - on Twitter, and when Luke Skywalker himself found the footage he set up a video chat surprise.
Mar. 6, 2020 Edmonton 20-30s Fun, Pints, and Wine: This event was held at the Table Top Café where we play board games. You can order food and drinks. I didn't know this until afterwards, but it costs $7 to play any game you want and be there for as long as you want. It's a cover charge.
I met 9 new people. I called my friend Cham a couple of hrs before it was to start to invite her. It was cold and I didn't want to wait for the bus at night, so she came with me with her car. I had fun playing these games like One Thing. I had played that at the Centre of Spiritual Living Family Potluck and Game night.
We all have to write words/ clues to this word like "Psycho" and the person has to guess what the word is.
I wrote "murderer." The others wrote:
-Bates
-sociopath
Good On You: I was reading an article by Craig Kielburger and he mentioned this website about buying clothes that are good for the environment and charities:
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