IN WHICH The Girl Learns the Killer

Finished Broadchurch last night. Brilliant. Watch it. BBC Night lasted until nearly midnight because we had to finish it. Exhausted. That's all for today.

P.S. Because of the David Tennant connection, I will also provide you with this funny video. I feel the teacher's pain. Can I shrink my own students into action figures using a sonic screwdriver?

IN WHICH The Girl Makes Cucumber Sandwiches

Last week, I discussed my Jane Austen love and how I wanted to watch the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice over the weekend. Well, I followed though, and it even became a party! Cucumber sandwiches, Colin Firth, and alcohol, oh my! Surprisingly, when I mentioned wanting to watch the movie, a bunch of others wanted to join in the fun. So six of us got together yesterday evening for the viewing and a drinking game. My version of a Pride and Prejudice party includes the following:

Food and Drinks

I considered actually cooking and baking, but alas decided that would be entirely too much work. Therefore, it wasn't the most authentic experience. I did manage, however, to obtain and produce some semi-Regency era tidbits. I did make (I mean there was lots of cutting and spreading of ingredients if that counts as making) cucumber sandwiches. I love me some cucumber sandwiches, and these were a hit. I even produced a second batch several hours later after much drinking. One friend also brought over salami and cheese and another came with mini-toasts with a pork and cheese topping that were quite delicious.

For drinks, I mixed up some punch. I had looked up the recipe for the Regent's (Edward IV's) Punch, and while not too hard, it still had too many steps for me. I have no idea what Arrack is. I chose the simpler route, a strawberry champagne punch that only involved mixing champagne, ginger ale, and triple sec together and throwing in a bag of frozen strawberries. Yummy. I think I seriously drank half of the punch. Not going to lie, I sort of want some right now. It's brunch time, right? We also had an assortment of beer for long-term drinking. I discovered a lack of English beer options at the store, so it really just came down to Newcastle.

I also bought a number of sweets that seemed British. I had blueberry scones, milk chocolate and toffee dipped butter wafers, vanilla meringues, and a variety pack of shortbread cookies with chocolate toppings. The chocolate and toffee wafers, from Whole Foods, stole the show. Half the time people were asking for the yellow bowl of them and the other half they were asking someone to take the bowl away from them.

Decorations and Clothing

For decorations, I simply placed all my copies of Jane Austen novels around the room and freshened it up with some flowers. I really wanted to have doilies, but unfortunately Walgreen's doesn't carry them (imagine that) and time was running out.

However, I did make some attempt to wear appropriate clothing. Now, I don't have any full skirted empire waist dresses, but I wore a long skirt that covered my ankles. Polite ladies do not show their ankles. I put on my dancing slippers - my ballet shoes - in preparation for dancing at the ball. I also donned a shawl and floppy hat for a minute to complete the outfit. A bonnet would have been perfect. I wonder where one gets a bonnet today?

The Drinking Game

Now the most important part of the night was the Pride and Prejudice drinking game. You can see our rules, which I mixed and matched from a number of games posted on the internet. Some rules worked better than others. We are a fairly loud group who talked through a lot of the movie; therefore, we missed a lot of the subtler mentions of things like money, esteeming or regarding someone, or Mrs. Bennet calling for Hill. We did manage to pick up on many mentions of Lady Catherine de Bourgh though.

The most popular rules contained visual cues. We loved horses, and there are lots and lots of horses. While I had meant men bending over in greeting by bows, we quickly added fabric bows on dresses and hats to the list as well. Crying, playing the piano (and I learned that a pianoforte is a specific type of piano), and womanly arts all went over quite well.

Our most enthusiastic responses regarded Lydia being slutty and Colin Firth being sexy. We spent a lot of time yelling, "Slut," at the television whenever Lydia came onscreen - I mean she's pretty much always doing something scandalous. We also waterfalled at the lake scene with Colin Firth. We decided that if you really wanted to get drunk, you should drink every time someone goes walking. That may be a new rule in the future. I'm not sure how much those experiencing the story for the first time actually followed it, but we had a lot of fun.

To leave you in a good mood, here's a skit of some guys playing a Jane Austen Drinking Game. The small dogs moments are hilarious. Sadly, Pride and Prejudice doesn't contain as many small dogs.

IN WHICH The Girl Succumbs to Austen Mania

The title is a little misleading as I succumbed to Austen mania a dozen years ago or so. But I'm fully indulging in the craziness this week. I like that both Jane Austen and her novels never seem to lose their popularity. Consider the sheer number of books and movies that involve adapting the novels (dozens but most recently famous, Pride and Prejudice), reinterpreting them (Bridget Jones' Diary and Clueless), following characters obsessed with them (Austenland, Lost in Austen, The Jane Austen Book Club), prequels and sequels (Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife), changes in genre (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Death Comes to Pemberley), and Jane Austen herself (Becoming Jane). Check out this Wikipedia page listing all the literary adaptations of Pride and Prejudice alone. Amazing.

Needless to say, should you want to spend hours, days, weeks, or years reading and watching things related to Jane Austen, you could. Yesterday was a travel nightmare and I ended up listening to the entire audiobook of Austenland. It was decent, not awesome, but I nonetheless tried to find the movie version upon returning home. I didn't find a free version, so I ended up with the Lost in Austen miniseries, which I have continued watching this evening.

Here's where I imagine this journey taking me. Since Lost in Austen revolves around Pride and Prejudice, it makes me want to watch the best movie version of the actual novel - the 1995 BBC miniseries with Colin Firth. I mean how can you not love the famous scene where Colin Firth, as Mr. Darcy, walks out of the lake soaking wet in his white shirt? I think Saturday or Sunday of this weekend will be devoted to watching the whole miniseries.

Watching this version will invariably inspire me to watch Colin Firth reprise his role as Darcy in the modern reinterpretation of the novel, Bridget Jones' Diary.

I could go several different directions at this point. If I'm still in a Pride and Prejudice mood, I may watch the BBC miniseries of Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, which is essentially Pride and Prejudice with industrialism.

I may be tired of the P&P storyline, however, so I may switch to Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility. This movie actually started my interest in Jane Austen when we watched it in a high school English course.

On the other hand, I may want to stick with more modern versions and watch Clueless, an updated version of Emma. I do love Clueless.

And so on and so forth until the end of time. This might even devolve into book reading. I'll be back when I emerge from my cocoon of refined manners, bonnets, and endless cups of tea.

IN WHICH The Girl Tries to Solve a British Murder

Once a month, I get together with a couple friends from grad school for BBC Night. To clarify, BBC here stands for British Broadcasting Network, as I've been informed it has dirtier implications as well. Our BBC nights generally involve thai food, a decent amount of wine, and the viewing of a British television show.

You should know that I adore British television. I love the accents, the underhanded sarcasm, the wit (Sherlock), the focus on the past (Downton Abbey and every mini-series of a classic novel), the ridiculous of some (Doctor Who), the darkness of others (Luther), or the overall quality of the shows. I love British literature for many of the same reasons. As a teacher, we are observed in the classroom by our higher ups every once in awhile. Last fall, the person who observed me informed me that I had a very subtle but snarky wit when I lectured (I wasn't really sure if this was a good thing or not, but he seemed to think it was entertaining). He asked me where that snark came from, and I responded that I read a lot of British literature. He just nodded like that was a perfectly acceptable response.

So during the course of our BBC nights, which have now been going on for several years, we have watched a large variety of shows: every episode of Sherlock, Downton Abbey, and Luther, plus some Doctor Who, Coupling, Top of the Lake, and at least two versions of Jane Eyre. Last night we started watching Broadchurch, which I had heard was good but knew very little about. So far, it's excellent. The show starts with the murder of an eleven year old boy in a small close-knit community. Yes, not the happiest of topics, but intriguing. The season follows the investigation of this one murder. We have watched three out of the eight episodes in the first season, and I quite literally have no idea who committed this murder. Like all small town dramas, everyone knows each other, but they all have secrets. Every character is suspicious in one way or another, even the kids. I appreciate the fact that the killer is not instantly recognizable. See the trailer below:

The show has a good balance of suspense, drama, and emotion with some wonderful actors. I'm especially happy to see David Tennant, my favorite doctor for you Whovians. You will probably start to notice a pattern here, but I have two main British loves: Benedict Cumberbatch and David Tennant (Idris Elba ranks pretty high as well). While Tennant doesn't have the effervescence and hyperactivity here that he portrays in Doctor Who, he taps into his darker (and more haggard) side to represent the lead detective on the case. He's clearly struggling with both his own conscience, clues point to a past case gone bad, and some sort of drug or medical issue that hasn't been revealed yet. However, I did question why every lead detective in this type of murder mystery has to be both physically and mentally damaged. Granted, dealing with murder on a regular basis would probably take its toll. Tennant stars in the American remake of the show as well, but listening to him with an American accent seriously disturbs me. I think I'll just stick to the British version.

Overall, I'm totally hooked on Broadchurch at this point. Sadly, I need to wait three more weeks for our next BBC night to watch the rest. It's truly considered a betrayal to sneak ahead (though we've all been known to do it at one point or another).