Into every generation a Slayer is born...

10 years. 10 years since the end of a beautiful relationship.

10 years since Buffy and the Scoobies left us.

If you're too cool to understand what I'm talking about, it's 10 years today since Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended.

You might think it was just a television show. You would be wrong.

To me (the girl nicknamed Slayer by a certain old work friend) Buffy was so much more. Friendship, love, strength, bravery, kick-ass women, the best one-liners in television - that show had it all. There's a reason you can study the series at university, you know.

To this day my sister Lou and I regularly reference those beloved characters in our lives. In fact, this was pretty much the conversation we had when my boyfriend and I got back together:

"Bill is totally your Angel. You have a love that will never die. And now, you are no longer cookie dough."
"Really? I thought First Love was my Angel?"
"No. He was definitely your Riley."
"Riley was quite hot. I never got the anti-Riley movement. What was so wrong with Riley?!"
"Nothing! But First Love, like Riley, was only appropriate for your wild university years."
"Five by Five".
"Does anyone actually know what that means?"

When I heard news that the show was ending I was devastated. I arranged to fly to Sydney just for the night, to be by Lou's side so that we could share our grief and the final episode together. We laughed, we wept, we reminisced, we sent her husband to bed BECAUSE HE TALKED TOO MUCH AND THERE IS NO TALKING IN BUFFY NOT EVEN IN THE COMMERCIAL BREAKS.

Here's just a few of our favourite memories:*

Becoming Part II. The love story to end all love stories. Oh Angel. 

The Gift. "The hardest thing in this world"...

The Body. Remember this one? It's probably my favourite. The episode had no soundtrack and was heart-wrenching. This is the moment that Anya cracked my little heart.

Hush. The entire episode was silent. Scariest episode of television ever. 

Once more with feeling. Best. Musical. Episode. Ever. 

   
Touched. My sister and I watched this speech on repeat. Over and over. The man that says this to me will be the man I marry. 

Chosen. The battle that ended it all. I'm really annoyed that I couldn't find a better edit of this but my sister and I both let out a little sob as girls all over the world became slayers. "Can't stand up? Will stand up". 

 

Grr. Argh. 

Thanks for the memories (and the genius writing, Joss).

Secretly I hope they never stop asking that question because we like the women you write very much.

What was your favourite episode? 

 

 b.

*I know that my sister will point out that I forgot the episode that I make her watch pretty much every time we are together. So I will take this opportunity to remind her that "Perfect Day" actually featured in Angel (as you should well know LOU!). "I'll never forget, I'll never forget."

Cannonball Read #12

The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce

A friend and I were discussing the books we loved as children the other day and she mentioned The Darkangel. Noting how much I'd loved Victor Kelleher's Del Del and the equally terrifying but mesmerising Red King, she suggested I give it a read.

Not surprisingly, I was completely drawn in and realised straight away that it was exactly the kind of story I would have adored as a young girl.

The Darkangel tells the story of Aeriel, a servant girl, who one days witnesses her mistress being abducted by a vampyre. This "Darkangel" has taken her mistress to be his bride. Enraged, Aeriel returns to the peak from where her friend was taken, determined to kill the vampyre. When he returns she is so overwhelmed by his power (and his beauty), that she is unable to kill him and is instead kidnapped by him to serve the thirteen brides he has already taken. When she arrives at his castle she is unable to identify her friend among the other twelve brides because he has taken their souls and reduced them to nothing but weeping, wailing wraiths who cannot remember their own names.

Aeriel learns that he only has to take one more bride before his transformation to a vampyre is complete. And so, to save her mistress and her world, she sets out on a dangerous journey across the desert to find a talisman which will kill him. However when she returns, she feels compelled to save the Darkangel (having seen his beauty) and, as she has been "transformed" by her journey to the desert, he wishes to make her his final bride.

Will she be able to kill him and save the world? Or will she too become one of his brides?

This story, first published in 1982, won the International Reading Association's annual Children's Book Award and is listed on the American Library Associations Best Book for Young Adults roster. And yes, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The young me would have obsessed over it. But there were a few things that didn't sit quite right with me.

For a start, I never truly identified with Aeriel. The story feels more like a fable and she is so nice, so serving of others, so willing to see the goodness in a man who has kidnapped 13 girls and literally sucked out their souls, that she is one dimensional. I wanted to know her, but there wasn't enough written of her to know.

Similarly, there was nothing in the Darkangel to love. Unlike other stories which have convinced you in some way to empathise with an "evil" character, he was too shallow to feel anything for.

But most of all? The Darkangel does what so many young adult books have done when it comes to heroines. You see, Aeriel is unattractive when the story starts. The Darkangel doesn't make her his fourteen bride because she is too ugly. But once she's crossed a desert and had her skin and hair literally bleached by the sun, she's suddenly beautiful. Beautiful enough for him to marry and beautiful enough to save him.

For the love of God.

Is anyone else a little tired of young adult books featuring heroines who are utterly unaware of how pretty they are until one (or more) boys show interest? Or, worse, heroines that start out awkward and unattractive but suddenly bloom just in time for the leading man to notice them? This book was written in 1982 and I don't want to lay the blame solely at it's feet but between the insufferable Bella, plain Tris, frizzy haired Hermoine, not-as-pretty-as-her-Mum Clary - and even my beloved Katniss - I've had enough.

With the exception of Bella, all of these characters are smart, brave, strong and kind but without exception are all blind to their own gorgeousness. And, in some cases, start out awkwardly and bloom suddenly towards the end of the book. Not one of them even acknowledges their beauty until a romantic interest steps in to tell them.

The only book I've read of late in which a girl isn't hot and doesn't become traditionally, suddenly, amazingly so, is Tris in Divergent. In fact, her love interest Four (sigh) acknowledges that she's not "pretty" but that he doesn't care. What he loves about her is that she's strong and brave and willing to put herself on the line for the people that she loves. And he finds her gorgeous. Great.

Except.

They've just cast the movie version of Divergent and Tris will be played by Shailene Woodley:

I really like her and I think she'll be awesome but guys. Come on. She is, in no way, "plain".

Enough already.

I love that we often see girl's who are smart and brave and kind. But just once, I would like one of those girls to know how pretty they are. To be confident in how they look. Or alternatively, be aware of the fact that they aren't pretty but not to give a shit about it.

I get that young adult books are trying to appeal to teenage girls and most teenage girls feel insecure about themselves. They're awkward or shy or going through that awful chubby acne phase. I know how that feels. But rather than always sympathising with that, I think we should be encouraging girls to own their bodies. To feel good about themselves, however they look.

The depressing thought is that maybe girls won't believe that kind of character. She'd just be too fake. Or worse, they'll hate her for being arrogant.

But our girls shouldn't need a brooding vampire/vampire hunter/archer/wizard/allroundniceguy to tell them that they're beautiful. They should be able to tell themselves that they're beautiful - however they look.

What do you think? Am I (literally) reading too much into this? Who is your favourite young female character?

b. 

This book review is part of the Cannonball Read. You can read my reviews and others at the official Cannonball Read blog. 

Monday. You've got a lot of nerve showing your face around here.

- John Green.

Welcome back to The Google Year (now Ebola-free!)

I hope your weekend was every bit as lovely as mine. I jetted to sunny Queensland to catch up with a couple of my best friends and their outrageously gorgeous families. Nothing makes a weekend more perfect than sparkling with old friends, cuddles with adorable little people and, of course, Eurovision.

As always, I was so sad to leave. We've all been best friends since primary school and now whenever any of us catch up I can't help but wish for those old days. Sitting together on the school bus, giggling in class and then, at the end of an entire day together, rushing home to get on the phone to gossip for another hour.

As cool as our lives are now, I wish we were still living close enough to catch the same bus.

So naturally I did what all sensible people do when they fell glum. I wallowed.

On the flight home, I re-read (for the millionth time) The Fault in Our Stars. We've spoken about this book before so I would just like to take this opportunity to formally apologise to the passengers of Jetstar flight 435. Nobody needs to see the Claire Danes cry-face at the end of their wonderful family trip to Sea World.

Thanks a bunch, John Green.

In cheerier news, it's less than two weeks until I leave for Canada! I'm just a little excited. And overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I have to do before I go. So to give me a little more time to focus on that (and continue rehearsals for a certain other challenge) this week will be Challenge Free. But never fear, there will still be plenty of other things happening around here! Stay tuned....

In the meantime, here's a little tune to start the day:



Have a wonderful day out there everyone.

b.

Friday (at last).

via

Hello friends.

First of all, let me apologise for the very quiet week around here. I contracted Ebola (ok, maybe not Ebola, but very close) and have spent the last few days alternatively weeping, moaning and staring with sudafed-induced deliria at The Bold and The Beautiful and Dr. Phil.

It sure has been a good time.

Thankfully it's now the weekend, I'm feeling a little better and am just about to leave to visit my beautiful friends (and their ridiculously adorable babies) in the sun. Just what the Doctor ordered.

Also ordered by the Doctor:

Friday Love!

Friday links:
I would love to get along to one of these workshops (cute idea for a baby shower present too!)
This photographer and her daughter celebrate groundbreaking women of history. So cool. 
I love rain and regularly get up in the middle of the night and throw open the windows just to watch it fall. I would go crazy in this exhibit.
Skateistan. Teaching children in Afghanistan and Cambodia (40% of them female) how to skate. Rockstars.
I haven't seen the movie yet, but sweet moses, are the Star Trek man heavenly. 
Culottes. Hot, or only wear if you are a 6 foot model?
Social media. The new face of disaster response?(thanks needbee!)
Made me laugh.
This waterproof planetarium would make for a very dreamy bath. 
Coolest costumed animals ever.
Don't call people (or yourself) fat in front of your children. Sing it sister. 
The people you meet at MacDonalds. Such a cool photo essay.
Pho looks amazing - and perfect for those winter sniffles!
My boyfriend is banned from fast-forwarding Game of Thrones because I love the theme song so much. So I found this selection of theme songs, sung  by a member of the cast, pretty entertaining.

Handsome men doing Handsome Things
Astronaut sings David Bowie. In space:

Johnny Cash writes a letter to June, three months after she'd passed away (this one made my heart hurt):

Harry plays baseball.

And here's our Friday tune:

 

Have a wonderful (and sniffle free!) weekend everyone. 

b.

In this together

via

Two videos for your afternoon to remind you of how cool the world is (when it wants to be).

1.

 

My boyfriend sent me this the other day and I loved it. Mainly for beautiful-shark related reasons, but also because I love Kimi's message. 

I'm now campaigning for us to live on a tiny island and spend our days swimming with sharks and raising babies by the sea. Bliss.

2.

The Boat for Singing Together from A'yen Tran on Vimeo.

The Boat for Singing Together is a handmade raft that brings people together to sing and float around Jamaica Bay, New York. Why?

"Because when we sing together on this boat it unlocks a feeling of strength and freedom we can't find anywhere else in the world". 

Find out more here.  

People are kind of awesome.

b.