Had a great lunch at Zora Grill (this Sat) — a Persian restaurant—this grill is on 436 not far from 17-92 (on South side of road) and offers wonderful food—it’s similar to Greek but with a noted difference in spices and seasonings. The Presentation is great as well. We talked with the owner and she is a lovely lady and I for one will be back to try more dishes–If you’re in Altamonte give them a try—if you’re not but want something different for dinner try here for a great meal. http://www.zoragrille.com/
“Magic mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” – The Evil Queen, Snow White
Birds on Pillow Case Hand Embroidered
DragonLaire
$14.80
Some thoughts from Sam and Cait on last day of shooting: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-02-27/sam-heughan-and-caitriona-balfe-celebrate-last-day-filming-outlander-season-2
and Watch the video where they talk big hair, boy bands, dance moves, and best of all, which planet Jamie would want to visit. http://www.ew.com/article/2016/02/27/outlander-sam-heughan-caitriona-balfe-quiz
“You poor simple fools. Thinking you could defeat ME?! Me, the Mistress of all evil!” – Maleficent, Sleeping Beauty
$4.99
For my last days of dealing with Queens I thought I’d look at fictional ones….as we have seen all the queens we’ve been viewing have their good and bad points and their champions for why they did what they did and so on and so on—but fictional queens can just be good or evil with out an excuse…Take the
Snow White evil component–with
Charlize Theron as Ravenna (which added hot huntsman
Chris Hemsworth)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1735898/ —she is the great baddie, the femme fatal who seduces and ensnares the King and then tries to destroy her stepdaughter the rightful heir to the throne. No ugly witch this, well not as long as she can maintain her magic but a charming, beautiful woman….and a switch on the color palette with the witch being blonde and light while the good princess is dark and while pretty much over shadowed by the
Evil Queen’s Glam.
What is it about step mothers?
Lizzie Border took an ax to hers while
Sleeping Beauty’s turned out to be
Brad Pitt’s main squeeze
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587310/.
Cinderalla was burdened not only with a bad step-mum but 2 evil step-sisters at well—better to beat you with my dear and don’t forget the children forced into the forest where they digest evil gingerbread thus trespassing on the witches property (don’t get me started on evil witches please). It might be noted here that: “The
Brothers Grimm, having put in their first editions versions of Snow White and Hansel and Gretel where the villain was the mother, altered it to a stepmother in later editions, perhaps to mitigate the story’s violence. Another reason for the change from a villainous mother to a villainous stepmother may have been the belief that mothers were sacred, as well as the belief that people would not believe that a mother could harbor such ill-will and animosity toward a child.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepfamily
But just as I have shown you that queens are evil and unredeemable in fiction…we come to Guinevere, that woman who while married to the Once and Future and most famous king of all time Arthur has the love and sex on the side with the Knight of all nights Lancelot…. I mean how can you not but feel for this woman. She is married (in most stories an arranged marriage) to a man who is kind to her and a great leader of his people…She is a good woman who in most stories has no intention of being anything but a good wife and then she meets temptation—not just some guy off the street but a knight who in many stories has been so devoted to his causes that he has remained a virgin and who from what I can see just might be the poor woman’s soul mate. The fact is that is that she is torn by her sins as obviously as she can not resist that sin all wrapped up in shinning armour.
I picked
Vanessa Redgrave who played in the movie
Camelot as the queen–she also played
Mary Queen of Scotts http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067402/ another woman (though real this time) who’s life and loves were greatly scrambled and who may or may not have been a bad person or mayhaps like the majority of us a little of both. Vanessa to me is the strong woman and not a weak victim of circumstances…as I feel the Queen of the legendary king should have been.
Stories vary as to the queen’s end but my take on the story is that once she is separated from Lancelot and Arthur dies in battle she takes herself to a nunnery where she lives out her life and the knight may or may not have become a holy man who wanders in the wilderness a wild man half driven mad when he finds that he is not in fact the saint he thought himself, but all too human….if you want my take on all this check out quotes and character studies as well as my assorted research on the novel I am working on….no shinning knights,, but lots of Celtic Legends, beautiful mages and lots more.
https://www.pinterest.com/lindachase56829/dragon-lair-divas-novels-of-arthur/Guinevere: This is heaven for me.
Lancelot: I don’t believe in Heaven, I’ve been living in this Hell. But if you represent what Heaven is, then take me there.
Camelot
And just when I’d decided I’d been wrong about fictional queens having only one side to them good or evil…..I stumble on Shakespeare—and the nastiest corporate climbing wife of all—Lady Macbeth, who encourages her ladder climbing husband that nothing is sacred if it gets in his way on his corporate (read instead Kingdom) climb for CEU (Sometimes referred to as Scottish King) of one and all. This is a woman that would make New Yorkers proud—who will stop at nothing or at least encouraging her husband to do just that on her way to that penthouse (or castle on the rock) apartment in the sky.
Analysts see in the character of
Lady Macbeth the conflict between femininity and masculinity, as they are impressed in cultural norms. Lady Macbeth suppresses her instincts toward compassion, motherhood, and fragility — associated with femininity — in favour of ambition, ruthlessness, and the singleminded pursuit of power. This conflict colours the entire drama, and sheds light on gender-based preconceptions from
Shakespearean England to the present.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Macbeth
…Producing forth the cruel ministers
Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,
Who, as ’tis thought, by self and violent hands
Took off her life; Malcolm here appears to be confirming a rumor that Lady Macbeth killed herself. It is well established in other scenes that she has been slowly losing her mind. http://www.shakespeareanswers.com/lady-macbeth-die/
The final act of irredeemable sin for this character–for in the days of Elizabeth I–the person who ended their self with suicide had no redemption–and could not even be buried on sacred ground—so there you are my dears finally a totally evil queen….with a stolen throne and a husband lead astray—thanks Will for creating the ultimate bad girl/woman ah….queen.
