on bad food, Alec Newman, beauty, and Sindy dolls
Note to self: If you have to ask yourself, "Hm, is this too old to eat?" don't eat it. Puking all night is no fun.
***
Because of yesterday's stupidity, I've been far too beat today to do anything useful. Instead I've rewatched The Rag Nymph, which took my heart when I was 19 and which I finally found again yesterday.
In theory, it's a romantic tale about about a beautiful young woman raised in the 19th century slums. In practice, it's two and a half hour of me lusting after Alec Newman. :-) To the rest of you, he might be Paul Atreides, or Drogyn, or Malik, but to me he'll always be Ben, with that gorgeous accent and the bitter sense of humour. Yum.
Honeysuckle Weeks (my God, what a name), who plays the lead, might have been perfectly lovely if the story hadn't adored her so much. Oh, the beautiful, virtuous romance heroines! *barfs* I think it's to the credit of the actress that I don't hate Millie. She still doesn't register on the hot scale for me, and that's because she is, most definitely, a Maria.
***
Knowing that my previous sentence doesn't mean anything to anyone but me, allow me to explain:
C. and I had a conversation where I mentioned that I wouldn't date a teenager no matter how attractive they were, and brought up Yasmin Paige as an example. To my surprise, C. didn't find YP attractive - on the contrary, she found her decidedly unattractive. I explained how too much prettiness makes me iffy and that a lot of Hollywood beauties just come off as too Barbie to me.
It took me a while after that to realize - no, not Barbie. New Face Sindy. Specifically, mine.
When I was a kid, all of my toys that could have a personality did, and this was especially true for my medium-sized dolls, whether Sindy, Waldorf or otherwise, who all lived together in an orphanage.
Leaving the smaller ”children” aside, to start with there were three traditional Sindy dolls and a cowboy. My own Sindy doll, Christine, had lots of blonde, curly hair. (Though less curly after I washed it.) She was sporty, cheerful, and just a tad shallow. The one that used to belong to my sister I named Sonja. Her hair was dark and almost straight, and she had two little sisters among the ”children” dolls. She was intelligent, mature, and serious-minded. My brother's old doll, which I named Päivikki, was blonde, with nearly no hair left and miscoloured skin that in places looked bruised. She was shy and sensitive, with bad self-esteem. And finally Charlie, the cowboy, was head and shoulders shorter than the Sindy doll, had a moustache, a scowl, and only one hand. He was in charge of the orphanage and never cuddling, but always fair and sympathetic. (I've often thought that kids who had Ken dolls missed out. Charlie was awesome.) Sonja was my favourite, and she remained my favourite even when the newer dolls arrived.
Jane and Lippa were both cheap dolls from the grocery store. Jane was redheaded, and since I sucked on her hair when I tried to stop sucking my own, very soon the only short-haired one. She was wiry, aggressive, and a bit of a bitch. Lippa had straight dark hair and was incredibly thin - she always gave a very brittle impression. She was soft-spoken, not particularly imaginative, and even shyer than Päivikki.
And then there was Maria. Maria was the New Face Sindy, and she made me intensely uncomfortable. Where the old Sindy dolls had removable heads and round faces, Maria had a Barbie-like, thinner face with violet eyes and a smile. (For reference, compare the 1984 and 1987 dolls.) Her ears were pierced and had pink ”jewel” earrings. She had a mass of white-blonde hair. Even though her waist wasn't as thin as the cheap dolls', you could see her lower ribs under the skin. She was gorgeous, and I didn't know what to do with her.
All the other dolls - children and teens - I could easily imagine as real people, even the Waldorf dolls. But Maria as a real person would still have shiny hair and violet eyes. I tried to dress her down in bad clothes and Harry Potter glasses, but she only ever looked like a beauty in bad clothes. I would have loved to turn her evil, but couldn't. Her personality was always kind and patient. I started making Cinderella theatre plays with the dolls just so I could cast Maria as Cinderella and have Jane be mean to her. (Jane loved playing the wicked stepmother.)
My feelings for Maria were my first introduction to Uncanny Valley, though I didn't have the words for it at the time. She was the image of a perfect human, and as a human would come off as doll-like, not somebody you could imagine with a zit, or bags under her eyes. And the feeling I get from a lot of Hollywood beauties is still that of Maria - they may play the most wonderful people in the world, but that will only serve to freak me out more.
Meanwhile, the Sonjas remain my favourites. Sure, some of my fannish loves are Christines or Janes or Charlies (or one of the ”children”), but the vast majority of them, especially the female ones, will always be Sonjas. And so, of course, is Yasmin Paige. :-)
***
Because of yesterday's stupidity, I've been far too beat today to do anything useful. Instead I've rewatched The Rag Nymph, which took my heart when I was 19 and which I finally found again yesterday.
In theory, it's a romantic tale about about a beautiful young woman raised in the 19th century slums. In practice, it's two and a half hour of me lusting after Alec Newman. :-) To the rest of you, he might be Paul Atreides, or Drogyn, or Malik, but to me he'll always be Ben, with that gorgeous accent and the bitter sense of humour. Yum.
Honeysuckle Weeks (my God, what a name), who plays the lead, might have been perfectly lovely if the story hadn't adored her so much. Oh, the beautiful, virtuous romance heroines! *barfs* I think it's to the credit of the actress that I don't hate Millie. She still doesn't register on the hot scale for me, and that's because she is, most definitely, a Maria.
***
Knowing that my previous sentence doesn't mean anything to anyone but me, allow me to explain:
C. and I had a conversation where I mentioned that I wouldn't date a teenager no matter how attractive they were, and brought up Yasmin Paige as an example. To my surprise, C. didn't find YP attractive - on the contrary, she found her decidedly unattractive. I explained how too much prettiness makes me iffy and that a lot of Hollywood beauties just come off as too Barbie to me.
It took me a while after that to realize - no, not Barbie. New Face Sindy. Specifically, mine.
When I was a kid, all of my toys that could have a personality did, and this was especially true for my medium-sized dolls, whether Sindy, Waldorf or otherwise, who all lived together in an orphanage.
Leaving the smaller ”children” aside, to start with there were three traditional Sindy dolls and a cowboy. My own Sindy doll, Christine, had lots of blonde, curly hair. (Though less curly after I washed it.) She was sporty, cheerful, and just a tad shallow. The one that used to belong to my sister I named Sonja. Her hair was dark and almost straight, and she had two little sisters among the ”children” dolls. She was intelligent, mature, and serious-minded. My brother's old doll, which I named Päivikki, was blonde, with nearly no hair left and miscoloured skin that in places looked bruised. She was shy and sensitive, with bad self-esteem. And finally Charlie, the cowboy, was head and shoulders shorter than the Sindy doll, had a moustache, a scowl, and only one hand. He was in charge of the orphanage and never cuddling, but always fair and sympathetic. (I've often thought that kids who had Ken dolls missed out. Charlie was awesome.) Sonja was my favourite, and she remained my favourite even when the newer dolls arrived.
Jane and Lippa were both cheap dolls from the grocery store. Jane was redheaded, and since I sucked on her hair when I tried to stop sucking my own, very soon the only short-haired one. She was wiry, aggressive, and a bit of a bitch. Lippa had straight dark hair and was incredibly thin - she always gave a very brittle impression. She was soft-spoken, not particularly imaginative, and even shyer than Päivikki.
And then there was Maria. Maria was the New Face Sindy, and she made me intensely uncomfortable. Where the old Sindy dolls had removable heads and round faces, Maria had a Barbie-like, thinner face with violet eyes and a smile. (For reference, compare the 1984 and 1987 dolls.) Her ears were pierced and had pink ”jewel” earrings. She had a mass of white-blonde hair. Even though her waist wasn't as thin as the cheap dolls', you could see her lower ribs under the skin. She was gorgeous, and I didn't know what to do with her.
All the other dolls - children and teens - I could easily imagine as real people, even the Waldorf dolls. But Maria as a real person would still have shiny hair and violet eyes. I tried to dress her down in bad clothes and Harry Potter glasses, but she only ever looked like a beauty in bad clothes. I would have loved to turn her evil, but couldn't. Her personality was always kind and patient. I started making Cinderella theatre plays with the dolls just so I could cast Maria as Cinderella and have Jane be mean to her. (Jane loved playing the wicked stepmother.)
My feelings for Maria were my first introduction to Uncanny Valley, though I didn't have the words for it at the time. She was the image of a perfect human, and as a human would come off as doll-like, not somebody you could imagine with a zit, or bags under her eyes. And the feeling I get from a lot of Hollywood beauties is still that of Maria - they may play the most wonderful people in the world, but that will only serve to freak me out more.
Meanwhile, the Sonjas remain my favourites. Sure, some of my fannish loves are Christines or Janes or Charlies (or one of the ”children”), but the vast majority of them, especially the female ones, will always be Sonjas. And so, of course, is Yasmin Paige. :-)