Tudor-riffic!

Today I saw a few great things. One was a a film called Pan's Labyrinth. I read a good review of it yesterday and it sounded intriguing enough to check out. I really liked it. It's being called a fairy tale for adults and now I know why. This is not one for the kiddies people. I won't tell you anything except go see it. (Holy cow! I just did a search for an image to place here and found this. 99% approval?! Shandon, do you think this makes up for the fact that I liked The Holiday?)

Before I left, I saw a trailer for a new Showtime series called The Tudors. Yippee! My favorite family!! It looks great. It better be. It would be a tragedy to ruin that story. Such great material... I can't wait!!

Anyone who knows me, knows that a year ago I hauled my butt overseas primarily to see where Anne Boleyn got her head lopped off. Strange? Yes. Fascinating? Absolutely. Now, if you don't know who Anne Boleyn is then we can't be friends anymore. Well, not until you look into her, her daughter's, especially, her husband's stories. As her final resting place, The Tower of London is an amazing spot that everyone should make an effort to check out. I'd been to London once before but, at the time, I knew little of England's history and, to be honest, didn't really grasp what I was seeing. I'm still amazingly weak in history but I'm slightly more knowledgeable now. The more I learn about it the more obsessed I become. It's not that I'm a great admirer of that, or any, era of English monarchy, it's more like a car wreck. You don't want to look but you just can't help yourself. I can't help but learn more and more about Henry and his clan. Also, I just plain love the fact that he about went nuts trying to have a male heir and it was ultimately his daughter who became, arguably, England's greatest ruler. Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor? I feel bad for the women who got in the way of Henry's ambitions but, come on, the irony is fantastic.

In that same vein, I'm now watching a netflix'd PBS special called The Monarchy. It's good but, as usual, I'm multi-tasking (like writing this post) while "watching" it. I find myself looking up and thinking "wait, where did the Vikings go? How did we already get to Edward the Confessor? (How's that for an unfortunate name? I believe it refers to his chaste ways not an undiagnosed case of Tourette's as I like to think.) He was, however, responsible for getting Westminster Abbey going but nobody mentions that detail. His dad was called Ehelred the Unready... oh, I could go on and on those kings with unfortunate names but I'll spare you.

So here I sit, once again geeking out on English history. It's shaping up to be a great day.