Day 399: Everyday Fairy Tales

I'm working my way backwards to catch up on my blog posts, so that means that although it's still February 4th for me, it's February 3rd on this blog post! So that's your FYI on what day I'm actually writing this.

But that doesn't mean that I'm not writing about something that DID happen to be on February 3rd, because I am. I've been talking about my Classic and Contemporary Fairy Tales Class a lot, and you had better get used to it, because I'm pretty sure it's only going to continue. I mean, it's kind of awesome to be able to talk about the fairy tales that Disney bases so much of its media off of!

Speaking of Disney though, and cultural references to Fairy Tales, my class just started a semester long contest to see who could find the most references to fairy tales in media such as television (there were quite a few commercials during the superbowl that had references!), movies, music and so on and so forth.

Of course, he briefly mentioned this last week, so I took it upon myself as a challenge before he even issued the actual challenge to find different references. I mean, that's basically what I'm doing with this blog, right? Just a bit more narrowed down. Here I look for Disney in general, any reference to a park or attraction or movie works. But now I'm looking only for Fairy tales. Doesn't sound too hard...and honestly, it's not!

Here's a list of some of the stuff that I found this weekend already:

1. Psych

Megan's roommate, Katie, has us watch Psych sometimes, and I genuinely enjoy the show. It's funny and everything, and since I only catch an episode here and there I'm pretty sure I'll eventually pull it up on Netflix and watch it there. But we were watching an episode the other day from the end of Season 2 called Black and Tan: A Crime of Fashion. In the episode, Shawn and Gus go to this Fashion party (sneak in) cause it's their night off and then there's a murder but Gus is like "No! I'm not working tonight!" and then there's this whole big deal about Cinderella, and how until Midnight it's their night off and they're not investigating the murder until the clock strikes twelve. I laughed and wrote it down as a Fairy Tale reference.

2. The Monster

I'm sure a lot of people have heard this one, especially if you listen to the radio as much as I do (ok, I really don't listen to it very often...only when I'm in my car and don't feel like singing Frozen). The song The Monster by Eminem featuring Rihanna comes on all the time, and honestly I only remember it because it mentions a fairy tale: Rumpelstiltskin! FYI, Rumpelstiltskin is really difficult to spell I've discovered.

It's near the end of the song, when he's like "Make that, straw into gold chump, I will spin, Rumpelstiltskin in a haystack." Made me laugh honestly, the first time I heard it. And then I think Megan was with me a later time and I was like "LISTEN!"

Yeah...I find Once references EVERYWHERE.

3. FBLA

The other day when I went to the FBLA competition, we spent the day at Kewaunee High School, and of course I was able to find some Fairytale references there too. The first one isn't totally a huge thing, but they do say "Magical Kingdom" and "Once Upon A Time." I figured that counted. I'm sure if you look closer at some of the little people the kids made you would find some fairy tale references too.

And then walking through the hallways I found this poster for this show they're doing: Sleeping Beauty and The Beast. Again, I'm not too sure how much this really counts, but I figure that it must count for something, right? I took a picture of it either way!

4. King Midas

This plays more into Greek Mythology, but there is a character on Once Upon A Time called King Midas, and Yes, he DOES turn stuff into Gold. Again, I figure this reference counted. My roommate facetimes her boyfriend who goes to a different college just about every night, and while I generally don't listen to what they're talking about, my ears generally automatically pick up on any Once or Disney reference that there may be. It just happens.

Well, I honestly don't know where the conversation started, but somewhere along the line they go to talking about King Midas and I think Prince Charming was mentioned in there too if I remember correctly. I just am positive they said King Midas.

And so, since I searched King Midas on Google to find the actual original story, I found this. Figured I would share it:

I just love the Muppets. Huh...I should rewatch some of those. I'm positive there are plenty of Fairy Tale references stuck in there. I mean, aside from the King Midas part of that video, Goldilocks was also mentioned! Either way, I AM GOING TO WIN THIS CONTEST! I WILL BE THE ULTIMATE FAIRY TALE SPOTTER! 

I'm excited. 

Have a magical day!

Day 393: No Class

Here in Wisconsin, it's so cold that our college actually CANCELED classes and closed campus. I'm not kidding..they did, and that alone should be amazing enough in itself, considering the fact that we like NEVER close here. Most of us live on campus, so it has to be cold enough for it to be dangerous for us to walk simply from one building to another...which is normally no more than a 5 minute walk.

So what did I do on my day off, you ask? Honestly, I really just did homework. I slept in and watched some HIMYM, and then got up, took a shower, ate some brunch I suppose, and then sat down to do my work. I did end up watching an episode of Once with my friend Jessica in the middle of the afternoon, but other than that I really just worked for about four hours straight.

And then, of course, since it warmed up enough by 5, we ended up having Wind Ensemble. I'm cool with that, except for I was really looking forward to spending an entire day inside the warmth of my dorm room, and that just did not happen, but that's alright. Heading to the music building for wind ensemble and then the caf for dinner meant that I got to watch another episode of Once with Jessica (we're catching her up so she can watch with us when it returns on March 9...she just watched Good Form). And then I headed back to my dorm for more homework: philosophy to be specific.

Luckily I finished my Fairytales reading on Monday, so I didn't have to worry about that. I have to say though, Sleeping Beauty HAS to be one of the most disturbing stories I think I've ever read. I mean, it's awful. In one version we read there were instances of rape, birth of twins while asleep, cannibalism, attempted murder, stripping, adultery and burning at the stake (twice). Yeah...not the best story if you ask me.

In other words, it has finally 100% occurred to me WHY the Disney versions are often so different from the original fairytales, and in many cases, I think it's ridiculous for critics to get on Disney's case about it. These are stories that have been passed down for generations, and there are multiple versions of each because they all end DIFFERENTLY. Therefore, the Disney version is just another version of the story. Either Walt's or the Company's take on the classic story that's written in print.

But if you think about it, it's basically impossible for Disney to accurately represent the story in it's original form. Go back a couple paragraphs to what was included in the one version (the earliest we have) of Sleeping Beauty. In no way could a film, live action OR animated, present all of that and not get some sort of terrible criticism. You can't just have all of that in one movie and have it be ok...especially when Walt's original goal was for his films to be viewed by adults and children alike (when he began it was really for adults...and now society has made it into "only for children." Although I'm pretty sure at least half of college students would argue otherwise. We love Disney here).

Tomorrow I'll read Cinderella...and if you know anything about THAT story you'll know that it's not exactly the cleanest story either. The whole chopping off the foot to fit it in the shoe thing might turn a few people off. But surprisingly, I'm really enjoying reading these fairytales. Let's just hope *knock on wood* that my "contract" to not watch Once Upon a Time unless I read everything for this class actually isn't all that hard.

I mean...with everything I know is coming, I really want to be sitting in front of my TV at 7 PM on March 9.

Have a magical day!

Day 392: A New Beginning

It's Monday...and since apparently it's still warm enough out for us to have school, that means that classes start today. I'm going to split this blog post into two parts, mostly because I have a few minutes to spare right now and am not really feeling in the mood to go and practice my alto quite yet (I'll have plenty of time for that later today), I figured I would sit down and go do some work on my laptop...and there's plenty of work for me to do.

But you see, I can't accurately describe all my classes when I haven't had them all yet. In fact, as of right now I've only had two: Philosophy and Music Theory. Theory is pretty close to the same as last semester, but I have to say that it was really awesome finally getting to see everyone again. It's been a long six weeks without my music theory people. I can, on the other hand, talk about Philosophy, because I'm pretty certain already that I'm going to like that class.

First off, it's an 8 A.M. class, one that I didn't really want to take (we avoid 8 A.M. like the plague around here), but when I looked through the philosophy professors on Rate My Professor, I found that one stood out from the rest, the one that I now have. Since I have theory at 9, and he only taught an 8 or 9 A.M. class, I didn't have much of a choice unless I wanted to take an afternoon class with a different professor. So I sucked it up and decided on the 8 A.M.

I guess that was a good decision. Backstory time: I don't swear a lot. I mean, hardly at all. Sometimes I'll throw in a few of what I call "Star Wars Swears," which is basically a bunch of words that mean the same thing as a swear word but that no one knows or recognizes as a swear word. I also really like to add food in instead of swear words, snickerdoodle being one of my favorites. But since watching Once Upon a Time, I've found that I tend to add in "Bloody" before things a lot. Thanks to Hook and Will (Wonderland) for that I guess.

Well, my philosophy professor seriously was talking today and said "Bloody well" and I totally had this floored look on my face. I mean, really, not a TON of people say that these days...at least that I hear. MY PROFESSOR SAID BLOODY. Honestly that sentence kind of seems weird, but it was AWESOME.

Also, there was this point when we were talking about opinions and he was saying something and I had what I now have termed Disney Deja Vu. It occurred to me right away what it was reminding me of: The Carousel of Progress. He was using this example of people in Iowa or something, and the words themselves didn't really remind me of it, but the tone of his voice and how he was saying it really reminded me of the Father in the Carousel of Progress. I'm not kidding, it's was awesome.

And now it is the second half of the day (meaning that everything previous to this paragraph I wrote at 10 this morning, and everything from now onwards I am writing at 3).

First I had sociology, which I think I'll enjoy well enough. I mean, it is a class that's basically about social things in our culture, and I do seem to study on screen love triangles and relationships as a hobby, so parts of the class should be interesting for sure. Plus I want to work for Disney, so maybe I'll learn something interesting that will help me with that as time goes on.

And then I had Classic and Contemporary Fairytales. This is probably the class I'm most excited for this semester, and it's all the fault of Once Upon a Time and the fact that I have friends in that class already (a bunch of us also took Science Fiction and Fantasy last semester). I wasn't actually originally going to take the class, but my friend talked me into it. I mean, Disney and Fairytales seem to go well together, but often enough critics get angry with Disney for what they do to the fairytales (I have FRIENDS who get angry and I'm like really?) But I'm going to look at the class with a different perspective. WHY did Disney change the fairytales in the way that they did? It goes right along with Philosophy and Sociology honestly, and I think it's going to help me in the long run.

My big goal for this semester: to actually read EVERYTHING I need to for Fairytales. I didn't read a lot of the stuff in Sci-Fi and Fantasy, so I am determined to get it all done. In fact, my friend Rachel and I signed an agreement today, a mission if you will, that says "I will read all the required books for Fairytales or else I will not watch Once Upon a Time." Pretty big consequence there if you ask me. That show is like my life right now. So it will be interesting to see exactly how Adam and Eddy adapted the fairytales for the show as well. I'm particularly excited about Peter Pan, for obvious reasons, but today we did talk about our favorite fairytales, which I'll talk about further in a previous blog post that I'm about to make up that I missed. Click here to go to that one.

I still have one class to go, although I don't really consider it a class, because it's Wind Ensemble and that's an hour of playing my alto and that's just awesome. Now to get a headstart on my homework so I can spend tomorrow watching HIMYM because I have no class!

Have a magical day!

Day 387: Classic & Contemporary Fairytales

As I'll talk about in a post down the road a few days (but really I'm writing it at the same time as that other one), I am just starting a new semester here at SNC. That means plenty of new classes, including one special topics course I'm taking titled Classic and Contemporary Fairytales.

I was hesitant to take the course because of the disconnection between Disney and the actual original Fairytales, as many critics despise Disney for how he (and now they) have adapted the stories into film. But my friend convinced me, and thanks to Once Upon a Time, I found that I really DO love Fairytales. And that's why, at 1:40 this afternoon, I found myself in a classroom talking about just that: Fairytales.

What I found was interesting though is just how much Disney HAS impacted how we, as a culture, see Fairytales. Personally, I don't think these stories would be as popular as they are today if Walt Disney hadn't began making the classic animated films such as Snow White in 1937. These stories have withstood the test of time, yes, but would we have things like Once Upon a Time today? No, I don't think we would. Disney has helped keep these stories alive, and that's obviously seen through the list of favorite fairytales my class had.

As we do in every class with that professor, we started out by a huge get to know you discussion. We said our names (Lizzie), our major (English & Music Performance Double Major), Unique Fact (My name is actually spelled incorrectly on my birth certificate: Eliazbeth instead of Elizabeth), Favorite Fairytale (Rapunzel & The Wizard of Oz...although I like pretty much all of them to be honest), Where we first heard that fairytale and why we like it (WoOz I watched a TON as a kid, so that's easy, and Rapunzel I read in my book "Once Upon a Time," the one with the forward by Adam & Eddy that I got because I watched OUAT...I have no clue why I like them so much), and then a definition of a fairytale (I said: a story that has been passed down through generations, such as a folk tale, can include fantastical elements, but doesn't HAVE to).

Our Prof listed the different "Favorite Fairytales" on the board, and I took a moment to jot them all down, 100% for the purpose of writing this blog post. I found it interesting how Disney seeps its way into these fairytales, as many of them were on the list because people loved the movie as a kid (myself included). So here's the list of different fairytales that we talked about briefly today:

Paul Bunyan, Sleeping Beauty, Princess & The Frog, Brave, Beauty (& The Beast), Goldilocks, Jack & The Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass, Peter Pan, Phantastes, Hansel & Gretel, Stardust, Irish Fairytales, Three Billy Goats Gruff, Twelve Dancing Princesses, Frozen, Rapunzel, Wizard of Oz, The Swan Princess, The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing and The Princess Bride.

Now if you just look through that list, there are bunch that are Disney films, and at the same time, a bunch that aren't. I know with OUAT, people are always asking "What are they going to do next?" It's a fair question, because on the show we already have everyone from Ariel to Pongo (and hopefully Cruella in the future!), so what's left? The truth is, there are a lot of fairytales that we HAVEN'T explored. Like hundreds of them. It's kind of crazy honestly.

Throughout the semester, you'll see plenty of posts comparing the different classic fairytales that I read to the actual Disney movies (Sleeping Beauty is coming up first...and quickly). I figured it might be interesting to see just how different things are (I know they are a lot in most cases), and HOW they are different. Either way, it should be an interesting semester...as long as I can keep my head out of arguing for Disney. ;)

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on January 27, 2014).