This Thanksgiving, your faithful MPL bloggers had a lot of fun coming up with a list of the pop culture properties that we are most thankful for. But as the holiday season progressed, and we began looking towards 2015, it got us thinking: what other books, films, shows, and music are out there waiting for us to discover?
So we've decided to make a few resolutions. That book we always meant to read? The films we never got around to watching? The song Ms. B has always meant to learn to play on the piano? (More about that in a bit.) This year, we've decided, is the year we tackle such projects.
We now present our official list of New Year's Pop Culture Resolutions for 2015. Wish us luck!
(We'll be back, as the year progresses, to let you know how we do ...)
TRACY'S RESOLUTIONS:
- Continue watching Classic Doctor Who
Doctor Who is one of the most popular shows in the world. Its very first episode broadcast over 50 years ago. After a brief hiatus in the 90s, the show returned to television in 2005, and became even stronger and more popular than it had ever been. I have only been watching the rebooted Doctor Who for a few years, but I am a genuine Whovian!
Although I am all caught up on the current show, I have much to catch up on with the classic Doctor Who. If you are not familiar with Doctor Who, it is a show about a time-traveling alien who uses an old English police phone box, known as the TARDIS, as his space ship. Oh, and he's really, really old -- but doesn't always look like it! He regenerates into a different body when his current one is too damaged. So there have been 12 Doctors (or 13, depending on how you count them), each played by a different actor.
Classic Doctor Who covers the adventures of the Doctor through his first eight incarnations. I have watched as many as possible of the first two Doctors, but I've been stuck on the Third Doctor for awhile now. I resolve to continue watching Classic Doctor Who episodes until I am caught up!
Request Doctor Who titles from the Catalog.
- Read a gothic novel
One of my favorite Jane Austen novels is Northanger Abbey. It is a story of Catherine, a young woman who is fascinated by the gothic novels that were so popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This fascination gets her in a bit of a misunderstanding with her new friends.
Jane Austen was a reader of these gothic novels herself and, in Northanger Abbey, she parodies them. Now I want to be able to understand that type of novel better. Several novels were mentioned in Northanger Abbey (known as the "horrid novels"), most notably The Mysteries of Udolpho by Anne Radcliffe. The others are The Italian, also by Radcliffe, and The Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parson.
I resolve to read at least one, if not all, of these novels!
Request The Mysteries of Udolpho from the Catalog.
Request The Italian from the Catalog.
- Make more geek-related crafts
I love to make crafts for myself and as gifts for my friends and family. Unfortunately, I have not been making as many as I would like. My crafting ability lies mostly in counted cross-stitch, but I am also a decent crocheter.
Last year I discovered the book Star Trek Cross-Stitch: Explore Strange New Worlds of Crafting. I've already made a few things from it, but I want to make more! And the internet is full of patterns for all kinds of geek-related shows, movies and books. What I really want to make is this Death Star pillow that you see above. It would look great sitting on my couch! So, I resolve to crochet the Death Star pillow in 2015!
Online craft sites to check out:
Geekcrafts and Pinterest are great places to look for geeky craft ideas too.
MS. B'S RESOLUTIONS:
- Read Victor Hugo's Les Miserables
I was a junior in high school when our English Lit class studied the much-beloved musical Les Miserables. Based on the book by Victor Hugo, the musical tells the story of Jean Valjean, a convict imprisoned for nearly twenty years after stealing a loaf of bread for his starving sister and her family. Pursued by the unrelenting police inspector Javert (after Valjean breaks the conditions of his parole), Valjean is soon swept into the events of France's June Rebellion of 1832 (more on that historical event here and here).
I've been a fan of the musical ever since 11th grade, but I've never read the original Victor Hugo novel. Coming in at between 1,200 to 1,400 pages (depending on the edition), and chock-full of historical and political detail, it always seemed like a daunting task -- perhaps too daunting.
But this year, that changes! I resolve to read Victor Hugo's Les Miserables -- from cover to cover.
Request Victor Hugo's Les Miserables from the Catalog
- See the '80s Classics
Though I am, technically, a child of the '80s, I was young enough that I missed out almost entirely on the pop culture of the era. And that means I've never watched a number of classic films that came out in that decade.
What films, specifically? I've had a number of classics on my list for quite some time, including The Goonies, Gremlins, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Labyrinth, Footloose, Ghostbusters, Superman II, The Untouchables, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Fly, and Beverly Hills Cop.
A list that long seems just a little bit intimidating, though (especially since I've got twelve hundred pages of Les Miserables waiting for me). So I hereby resolve to watch at least five '80s films throughout 2015.
Request The Goonies from the Catalog
Request Pretty in Pink from the Catalog
Request Ghostbusters from the Catalog
- Watch Star Trek: Voyager
I've been a Trekkie since before I can remember. And, happily for me, there's been plenty of different flavors of Star Trek for me to enjoy. As a kid, I loved Star Trek: The Next Generation; while in grad school, I became a huge fan of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Over the past few years, director J.J. Abrams's rebooted Star Trek movies have earned a place among my all-time favorite films. I've even started watching the original '60s series.
But for all that, there's one particular Trek that I have no experience with -- and that is Star Trek: Voyager. I've been interested in watching Voyager for years, especially since it remains the only Trek show to have a woman (Captain Kathryn Janeway) in the command chair. But despite hearing about its intriguing premise and great characters, I've never quite gotten around to giving the show a try.
The time has come to remedy this, and so I resolve to watch all seven seasons of Star Trek: Voyager by the end of the year.
(There's still Star Trek: Enterprise to get through, but we'll worry about that in 2016.)
Request Season One of Star Trek: Voyager from the Catalog
- Play the music of Hans Zimmer
Maybe not in quite this fashion.
As I've mentioned, I'm a huge fan of film scores and soundtracks. I'm also a particular fan of the scores of Hans Zimmer, the composer behind such film soundtracks as Interstellar, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Dark Knight trilogy, and Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes. Considering that list more or less comprises my favorite films, it's been a delight to have Zimmer's fantastic and memorable music show up in these movies to help tell their stories.
It also just so happens that I've been playing the piano (to varying degrees of success) nearly all my life. While I haven't been playing much in recent years, I've decided that this is the time to change that.
So, inspired by the works of Hans Zimmer, I resolve to learn to play at least two Zimmer-penned songs on the piano by this time next year. And if I'm successful, I'll upload a video of my performance.
Fingers (and tentacles) crossed!
Request the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest soundtrack from the Catalog
Request the Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows soundtrack from the Catalog
-- Post by Tracy and Ms. B
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