Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Fun fairy tale finds

• Crankbunny's Paper Puppets, Pop Up Cards and Other Paper Novelties (Etsy find: Including flying Monkey Lady, A very weird Humpty Dumpty, Key To One's Heart, Girl Pops Out of a Fish, Lady Fish Paper Puppet [mermaid] and much more)

• ADOPTABOT - The World's first robot orphanage! (Very cute characters created from found objects and looking for new homes... Just like a modern fairy tale, complete with Gepetto-type character, a,k,a, Brian Marshall, who makes unique creations, each with their own distinct personality. Also see more characters at Mr. Marshall's Flickr account HERE.)

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Sports

• Sedan Chair Race for Charity with Fairy Tale Characters - I missed this announcement back in August (the event was in November) but as you can see from the poster, it looks like a lot of exhausting fun. Apparently this organization has raised over 52 million $HK via sedan chair races for charity to date!

• The Emperor (of Clubs) Isn't Wearing Any Clothes! Kate Wolford, university lecturer and mastermind behind both the Diamonds & Toads blog and the new blogazine Enchanted Conversation, made reference to a notorious (and very sad) recent news headline involving a certain sports celebrity with some interesting observations. Make sure to read both the post and the many comments.

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Home & garden style

• Toon Town-ish style furniture by Dust Furniture - via Super Punch

• Alice in Wonderland style furniture by Coolkids - also via Super Punch

• Animated Furniture by Jake Cress - also via Super Punch

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Fashion

• Wild at Heart (Fall fashion slideshow feature by ZoomZoom) In this fall fashion feature, Erik Almas takes 1930s paintings, taxidermy animals, and the modern woman to create diorama-like images of fashion in the wild. The result is an amalgam of the fairy tale and the mythological muse. The images conjure narratives of the heroine who can talk to animals, live amongst the brown bears, and rule nature itself.

• Ko Ara's Fairy Tale Shoot in Korean Singles Magazine 2008 (Thumbelina, Red Riding Hood, Princess and the Pea, Bremen Town Musicians, Peter Pan, Hansel & Gretel)

• Cinderella's Closet, which provides dresses to under privileged teens for their proms, is calling for gently used prom dresses.

• Fairy tale themed jewelry by LunarraStar (Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Wizard of Oz and more) Etsy find.

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Newly discovered online retellings

• "Elegance" by CMShaw - a modern retelling of Beauty & the Beast. This story has also been tagged 'steampunk'.

• "Cages" (my steampunk retelling of Grimm's Jorinde & Joringel) got a review & recommendation. :)

• Enchanted Conversation's Sleeping Beauties. The princess gets a whole lot of different perspectives and tales in Enchanted Conversation. The new online blogazine, had Sleeping Beauty as their theme for the first issue and has published some awesome new retellings. Eg, The 13th Fairy Confesses (yep - it was HER fault Sleeping Beauty slept for 100 years, not the bad fairy at all), The First Queen's Maid (Hint: remember how Sleeping beauty's mother-in-law was part Ogre?), The Dilemma of the Spindle looks at the decision this household object had to make and many, many more.

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Books (and reviews)

• "Four Generous Fairies" by Diana Liiv, Illustrated by Reti Saks (2005) - Tchaikovsky's "The Seasons" told as a fairy tale with illustrations, which also educates about music and instruments - an Estonian book-with-CD, also available in English translation.

• "A Fair Maiden" by Joyce Carol Oates - (review) plays with the conventional Cinderella story in a modern setting - not a retelling. You'll find this on of the 'literature' shelves.

• "The Girl With Glass Feet" debut novel by Ali Shaw - soon to be released in the US (if it isn't out already) using European fairy tales. Very promising reviews from the UK, including The Guardian. I'm currently reading this and will review it for Once Upon A Blog soon too.

• "Tempest Rising" by Nicole Peeler - fairly new urban fantasy using the Selkie myths and fairy tales as well as other European tales. Very promising first novel in a trilogy.

• "Red" by Jordan Summers - Not new or faultless but I've been wanting to mention this one for a while because it's quite different. It's a 'futuristic' (not quite sci-fi) retelling of Red Riding Hood. Premise: what if Little Red Riding Hood and the bad wolf turn out to be the same person? I'm not sure if it belongs under the an urban fantasy label or a very-edgy-paranormal-romance label but it's a unique and interesting retelling. Please note - contains very graphic descriptions of violence as well as explicit sex.

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Films & movies

• The Snow Queen Russian animated movie 1957 - three entries of stills/screen captures posted (Lovely layout and animation, though personally I'm not wild about the character designs. This movie is well loved for nostalgic reasons and by animators for the techniques used. I have yet to see this myself...) 1st post, 2nd post, 3rd post.

• Hansel & Gretel - The True Story - A very dark, traditionally animated, short film currently in development & production in Macedonia. Trailer available for viewing at the link.

• Behind-the-scenes of "How To Train Your Dragon" (in theaters March 26, 2010) - not a fairy tale but will be of interest to many of you anyway - see some of the desings, a little of the story and some concepts behind the film (footage from network).

• Debbie Allen's 'dansical' "Alex in Wonderland" coming to DVD in February. "Written, directed and choreographed by Debbie Allen, with an original score by Debbie Allen, Diane Louie and three-time GRAMMY Award winner James Ingram, Debbie Allen's ALEX IN WONDERLAND is a re-imagined fairytale that has been contemporized, funkified and stylized for a new generation."

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Fairy tale journals/magazines/online 'zines

• ** NEWLY ADDED AT 2:30PM ** Cabinet Des Fées Issue 9 is live! (Cabinet Des Fées in an online magazine offering new fairy tale fiction and poetry three times a year. The 'zine is known for it's excellence and scholarship and provides many wonderful fairy tale resources. You can see the wonderful range of tales and treatments just by glancing at their main page, which has enticing 'snapshots' [mini previews] of the contents.)

• Goblin Fruit's Winter 2010 Issue is live! (Goblin Fruit is a fairy tale/mythic poetry 'zine that now includes an audio component. This issue features an 'Editor exchange' with Mythic Delirium so 'diabolical guest Editor' Mike Allen is in charge of the offerings at Goblin Fruit while our talented GF Editors are reeking havoc - I mean, taking the reins - at Mythic Delirium. The topics for the Issue are darkly delicious...)

• Enchanted Conversation continues to draw readers and interesting comments on the subject of Sleeping Beauty, and don't forget a thoughtful comment of a couple of paragraphs enters you into a contest too!

• Fairy Tale Review 2009 Aquamarine Issue is available for purchase. (Fiction, non-fiction and poetry on fairy tales and their continuing influence today, helmed by the amazing Kate Bernheimer who has edited some of the best essay collections on fairy tales to date.)

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Artists & illustrators (past & present)

• Coco Miles, a props and sculpture artist, has fairy tale pieces in her portfolio, including Baba Yaga and Rumpelstiltskin.

• "Jack and Jill Return to the Hill" A too-late entry to the Sci-Fi Fairy Tales contest held by Super Punch during December 2009. This entry came with a complete story about Jack and Jill in a sci-fi context too. See link for a summary.

• Little Red vs Wolves - LOTS of wolves! by woohyun Nam. see more of his work at the link.

• Belarus beautiful fairy tale coins - Fairy tale designs include The Stone Flower, The Twelve Months, The Nutcracker, Turandot, Alice in Wonderland, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Thousand and One Nights, Symon the Musician. Simply gorgeous!

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Fairy tales in performance arts

• Do the tales of the Arabian Nights have resonance for audiences today? (Article by Marina Warner on the Royal Shakespeare's Company production of Arabian Nights and the resonance of the tales with people today [via The Fairy Tale Cupboard] )

• Beauty & the Beast theatrical production with audience participation. (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA)

• Korea National Ballet's Cinderella (Jan 29 to 31, 2010, Seoul Arts Center) is more dynamic than the traditional presentation and offers unique touches, twists and theater craft (eg Cinderella's mother and father are both shown in a touching relationship at the start before the mother dies and returns as a fairy-in-a-corset to look after Cindy the rest of the story; Cinderella is barefoot for most of the performance - including for the ball, in which her feet are dipped in a sparkling sequin dust; etc)

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Friends and other fairy tale people

• The Magic Nutshell - new-to-me blog by fellow folklore nut, 'Genie of the Shell'! She also writes fairy tale related articles (see HERE for an interesting entry to get you started) and posts excerpts from her fairy tale retellings for you to read and comment on.

• Golden Apples With Silver Leaves - new translation of a Swedish fairy tale by Tea Doom. From the writer: "... I decided to do this little thing where I translate one myth or legend from each of Sweden's 25 provinces; some of them are very general, other special for the area they hearken from, and some I just found really nifty. I've posted a link to a map of all the provinces in each post, so you'll have a clue of where they are from". (Via an LJ Community Told This Time post HERE, where there are links to more translated tales.)

Delicate Splendour by Sarah Goodnough

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Blog posts and/or articles discussing/using fairy tales

• Fairy Tale Survival Guide plus tips for self-rescuing princesses blogged by author Danyelle Leafty at Myth-takes

Rapunzel by Steering for North

• Which fairy tale will spawn a new princess next? Article from the LA Weekly which discusses four fairy tales not yet touched by Disney and how they would be 'Disneyfied' (i.e. what the Disney version might end up like) if they were chosen for a new 'princess film'. Article could have used a spell check (or just a read through) for mistakes but otherwise is interesting and quite amusing. Fairy tales discussed are: The Rose Elf (Andersen), Godfather Death (Grimm), The Red Shoes (Andersen). The Maiden Without Hands (Grimm).
  

Godfather Death by Lefler & Urban

• Hidden Personality - Bluebeard. One of many excellent student guest posts at the Diamonds & Toads blog (the post was an assignment). I particularly love this one on Bluebeard. Well researched with interesting thinking, clear writing and a great read. Perfect companion to the Bluebeard photoshoot I've also pointed you toward today under General Headlines.

Bluebeard by Gustav Dore

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper: General (& latest) fairy tale news headlines (that I haven't seen posted elsewhere)

• Hunt for 'giant Cinderella' by a shoe store to fill size 15 Wellingtons/rain boots - free to anyone they fit.

Athena by Carlos Dunn

• Neil Gaiman introduces Neverwhere - article in which Neil Gaiman tells how Neverwhere (his novel about London-below, the parallel fairy land universe) came to be and was developed. Comments and 'conversation' on the subject and with Mr. Gaiman are encouraged during January 2010.

• A modern Brother's Grimm hunting down (and recording) Emirati fairy tales. Fascinating article with excerpts from wonderful tales included, as well as their roots in history - awesome! If anyone can figure out how to get a copy of his collection, "Kharareef", I'd be very interested in getting a copy.

• Bluebeard costumes and photoshoot by Sidhe Etain - beautiful costumes and shoot! Photography by Frank Tuttle. One of the best fairy tale photoshoots I've seen in a while - highly recommend clicking the link and seeing all the photos and story in sequence, along with the text by Walter Crane. (Via Told This Time LJ Community)

• Bryan Singer now in negotiations to make Jack the Giant Killer as a 3D movie (thanks to the success of Avatar).

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Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition!

"I believe in the truth of fairy-tales more than I believe in the truth in the newspaper."

- Lotte Reiniger
(Silhouette AND quote)

Hello and welcome to 2010 - a year that promises to be exciting for fairy tale enthusiasts everywhere. (Yay!)

I've been away from the blog longer than planned due to unexpected commitments and am still unable to return to daily blogging this week BUT the Fairy Tale News Hound is bursting with news she simply must share!

So: to bring you up-to-date and give you lots of fairy tale news (despite the fact I really shouldn't be online) I thought we could do something a little different...

A Fairy Tale News 'New Year's Stories' Bumper Edition!

Check out the collection of posts today for lots of story summaries and links, newspaper style. You have the following 'sections' (i.e. posts) to browse through (or you can hop straight there from here):

General (& latest) fairy tale news headlines (that I haven't seen posted elsewhere)
Blog posts and/or articles discussing/using fairy tales
Friends and other fairy tale people online
Fairy tales in performance arts
Fairy tale artists & illustrators (past & present)
Fairy tale journals/magazines/online 'zines
Fairy tale films & movies
Fairy tale influenced books (and reviews)
Newly discovered online fairy tale retellings
Fairy tale fashion news
Home & garden fairy tale style
Fairy tale sports
Fun fairy tale finds
Fairy tale funnies
Fairy tale weather & the natural world
Fairy tale music/audio
Food and dining fairy tale news
Classifieds/ads for fairy tale people
Careers - fairy tale knowledge required!
From the archives: fairy tale articles to read again (or for the first time)
End notes & recap

Snow White On Flowers
by Marina B.

Enjoy the "issue".
I'll catch up with you soon and be back to daily blogging before long.
:)

Psst!

Red Keds Design Collective (from Russia) - 33 Fairy Tales project
(Individual artist of this piece unknown)

Giant
Fairy Tale News
Special New Year's
'Bumper Edition'

coming shortly!

Stay tuned...
:)

Happy New Year!

New Year's fireworks over Cinderella's castle in Disney World, Florida

Happy New Year!

I found an great blog post from Russophilia that explains the importance of the New Year in Russia. It's the most magical time of the year there because it not only celebrates the end of an old year and the beginning of the new but also comes complete "with all the same enchantments as our Christmas," with children waiting for presents to appear under a tree from the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus. (December 25th isn't celebrated. Instead the Orthodox Christ-mass is celebrated on Epiphany - January 6th.) As a result Russian New Years cards are of great significance. The blog shares a few lovely ones and I thought I'd post the one that comes straight from a Russian fairy tale, along with some excerpts to explain the significance.

I found this (New Year's) postcard which depicts a character from Russian fairy tales, Emelya, Емеля, the fool who snuggles up to the fireplace and never wants to have to leave to do anything. He gets lucky when we catches a magic pike (fish) in the river and the pike tells him a secret phrase to say to make everything obey his will:

I haven’t quite figured out what this has to do with the New Year, but I think it has to do with hopes of luck and success and a minimum of labor. A wish that in the New Year, may you, like Emelya, have every success and happiness, ability to get out of trouble and avoid punishment for your reckless behavior, may you have a princess fall madly in love with you, and most importantly, may you never have to leave the comforts of your warm fireplace to obtain these things. This is the Russian’s ideal year!

(You can read the whole article HERE.)

That's got to make you smile!

Let me rephrase, from me to you:

May your 2010 be wonderful:

full of magic, joy and plenty of good luck too!

Happy New Year!

New Years Eve fireworks over the Sydney Harbour bridge, Sydney Opera House & Sydney Harbour

Please note:

I'll be taking a brief blog break but then will be back with plenty of fairy tale news as usual. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy all the Stories of the Season posts (and more) I've put up over Christmas - there's plenty of reading there to catch up on and lots of links to follow.

All the best for the season and a magical New Year.

Gypsy

UPDATE 1/1/01 (12:36PM)

I have just posted my last two "Stories for the Season" posts at the date and time they were originally intended to appear - in the last hours of December 31st, 2009. Please scroll down to see a post on The Little Match Girl and a final 'story roundup' with lots of additional suggestions and links.

Enjoy!