Suzan Longo -- November 11, 2006
Suzan Longo -- Post Meeting Write-up
Suzan began her presentation by holding Excalibur aloft and giving what was, in legend, the rally
before battle of King Arthur. Pretty cool touch. She then moved into the various works out there..As
mentioned, a wonderful job was done blending historical facts with the legends. Was Arthur
Roman, Celtic? Guinevere & Lancelot - did they or didn't they? Legends from both the U.K. and
France were covered to show how each culture affected the story. Suzan's personal thoughts
were interjected, and has us laughing. DO NOT use flaming arrows in any Arthur/Camelot film you
may ever make and show it to Suzan - she will retaliate by shooting you with one!! At this point,
Steve S, very deadpan, says "blame Kirk Douglas"..we lost it! Another pet-peeve of Suzan's was
the scale of the artwork of the time - she showed us a painting, simply said "arm" and passed the
book around. Holy smokes - the arm of the figure was about 8 feet long!! Yikes! Fascinating fact
we learned - members of the royal family, even in this day and age, all use the name Arthur
somewhere in their long string of names. Why? So if they usher in a new age, they are Arthur
reborn! No kidding. Those wacky royals! Suzan ended her presentation by discussing the
dreaded condition acute, excessive Arthurania. Warning signs - if you excessively compare
versions, match history to legend, name your dog Cabel (Arthur's white wolfhound), you are clearly
suffering from Arthurania. As she's giving us the signs, she's looking at her mountain of books,
movies, artwork scattered all around her (literally, the pile got so big it toppled over during the
meeting). The cure? Suzan picks up two coconut halves, claps them together as we all cried
"RUN AWAY!" Yep, get thee over to Monty Python's Holy Grail for some fun. After a lot of clapping,
we let Suzan pack up her things ( I think our grabbing her gown had her frightened..lol)..
The night continued at the diner complete with our guest speaker. She thought we were fun and
had good questions. Conversation flowed non-stop until well after 1:00 am and covered
everything from Camelot/Arthur/Merlin, recent movies seen, Aurelia's dinner selection and Bill W
turning into a troubador to tell Remy a tale of yore (who knew). Nancy Denker saving the night by
giving troubador Bill her Tide Stain Stick. The Simpson's..and the funniest of all, Aurelia "opening
her eyes" at both Remy & me (we were too behaving!!)..this, of course, from Denzel Washington in
Man on Fire..I'm opening my eyes at you!! Good, good fun. Join us in December for
folklorist/author S.E. Schlosser. Her works include the Spooky Series of books that cover local
lore/legend: Spooky NJ, Spooky NY, Spooky PA, Spooky New England, Spooky South, and more.
Presentation begins at 7:00pm. Following her presentation, we will invade a nearby restaurant for
some holiday fun with friends. Be there or receive a flaming arrow!! You know me, I mean it!!!
Our guest speaker arrived shortly after your humble correspondent (Steve Spinosa) did to act as
pinch-hit moderator for the evening. After roughly an hour of meet-and-greet chat, I introduced
Suzan Longo, our "in-house" Arthurian expert who gave a wonderfully well-prepared talk on the
subject, discussing first the novels, then the scholarly works and lastly the films related to King
Arthur. Suzan was dressed in the appropriate royal garb for the occasion (as were Mistress Ana &
Sir Wilhelm of Keveney -aka Brian). Among the books discussed were The Once And Future King,
The Mists of Avalon, Le Morte De Arthur, etc, as well as the films Excalibur,Tristan and
Isolde(which was roundly panned), Merlin and, of course, the one and only MONTY PYTHON AND
THE HOLY GRAIL. A great evening for all who attended!!!
I forgot to add that we also discussed the films PRINCE VALIANT (1954) & KNIGHTS OF THE
ROUND TABLE (1953) which featured Robert Wagner (Bill's relative!?!} and Robert Taylor
respectively. During the pre-meeting discussion it was mentioned that an episode of the TV Show
THE TIME TUNNEL entitled "Merlin The Magician" had Merlin appearing in the tunnel
itself,suspending everything, then yanking Doug and Tony back to the Middle (Dark?) ages to help
Arthur drive the Vikings (er Norsemen) out of England & retain his throne. This episode had battle
footage from PRINCE VALIANT. Also: * We discussed CAMELOT, the Broadway & later Movie
Musical by Lerner & Loewe. Suzan preferred the Broadway cast recording to the actual movie on
the grounds that Julie Andrews is a better singer than Vanessa Redgrave. It should also be
mentioned that The Living Strings recorded an instrumental version of the Broadway score in
1961/62 and released an album LIVING STRINGS PLAY ALL THE MUSIC FROM CAMELOT
(which was reissued in 1999 on the Collectors Choice Music as a CD twofer).
Suzan began her presentation by holding Excalibur aloft and giving what was, in legend, the rally
before battle of King Arthur. Pretty cool touch. She then moved into the various works out there..As
mentioned, a wonderful job was done blending historical facts with the legends. Was Arthur
Roman, Celtic? Guinevere & Lancelot - did they or didn't they? Legends from both the U.K. and
France were covered to show how each culture affected the story. Suzan's personal thoughts
were interjected, and has us laughing. DO NOT use flaming arrows in any Arthur/Camelot film you
may ever make and show it to Suzan - she will retaliate by shooting you with one!! At this point,
Steve S, very deadpan, says "blame Kirk Douglas"..we lost it! Another pet-peeve of Suzan's was
the scale of the artwork of the time - she showed us a painting, simply said "arm" and passed the
book around. Holy smokes - the arm of the figure was about 8 feet long!! Yikes! Fascinating fact
we learned - members of the royal family, even in this day and age, all use the name Arthur
somewhere in their long string of names. Why? So if they usher in a new age, they are Arthur
reborn! No kidding. Those wacky royals! Suzan ended her presentation by discussing the
dreaded condition acute, excessive Arthurania. Warning signs - if you excessively compare
versions, match history to legend, name your dog Cabel (Arthur's white wolfhound), you are clearly
suffering from Arthurania. As she's giving us the signs, she's looking at her mountain of books,
movies, artwork scattered all around her (literally, the pile got so big it toppled over during the
meeting). The cure? Suzan picks up two coconut halves, claps them together as we all cried
"RUN AWAY!" Yep, get thee over to Monty Python's Holy Grail for some fun. After a lot of clapping,
we let Suzan pack up her things ( I think our grabbing her gown had her frightened..lol)..
The night continued at the diner complete with our guest speaker. She thought we were fun and
had good questions. Conversation flowed non-stop until well after 1:00 am and covered
everything from Camelot/Arthur/Merlin, recent movies seen, Aurelia's dinner selection and Bill W
turning into a troubador to tell Remy a tale of yore (who knew). Nancy Denker saving the night by
giving troubador Bill her Tide Stain Stick. The Simpson's..and the funniest of all, Aurelia "opening
her eyes" at both Remy & me (we were too behaving!!)..this, of course, from Denzel Washington in
Man on Fire..I'm opening my eyes at you!! Good, good fun. Join us in December for
folklorist/author S.E. Schlosser. Her works include the Spooky Series of books that cover local
lore/legend: Spooky NJ, Spooky NY, Spooky PA, Spooky New England, Spooky South, and more.
Presentation begins at 7:00pm. Following her presentation, we will invade a nearby restaurant for
some holiday fun with friends. Be there or receive a flaming arrow!! You know me, I mean it!!!
Our guest speaker arrived shortly after your humble correspondent (Steve Spinosa) did to act as
pinch-hit moderator for the evening. After roughly an hour of meet-and-greet chat, I introduced
Suzan Longo, our "in-house" Arthurian expert who gave a wonderfully well-prepared talk on the
subject, discussing first the novels, then the scholarly works and lastly the films related to King
Arthur. Suzan was dressed in the appropriate royal garb for the occasion (as were Mistress Ana &
Sir Wilhelm of Keveney -aka Brian). Among the books discussed were The Once And Future King,
The Mists of Avalon, Le Morte De Arthur, etc, as well as the films Excalibur,Tristan and
Isolde(which was roundly panned), Merlin and, of course, the one and only MONTY PYTHON AND
THE HOLY GRAIL. A great evening for all who attended!!!
I forgot to add that we also discussed the films PRINCE VALIANT (1954) & KNIGHTS OF THE
ROUND TABLE (1953) which featured Robert Wagner (Bill's relative!?!} and Robert Taylor
respectively. During the pre-meeting discussion it was mentioned that an episode of the TV Show
THE TIME TUNNEL entitled "Merlin The Magician" had Merlin appearing in the tunnel
itself,suspending everything, then yanking Doug and Tony back to the Middle (Dark?) ages to help
Arthur drive the Vikings (er Norsemen) out of England & retain his throne. This episode had battle
footage from PRINCE VALIANT. Also: * We discussed CAMELOT, the Broadway & later Movie
Musical by Lerner & Loewe. Suzan preferred the Broadway cast recording to the actual movie on
the grounds that Julie Andrews is a better singer than Vanessa Redgrave. It should also be
mentioned that The Living Strings recorded an instrumental version of the Broadway score in
1961/62 and released an album LIVING STRINGS PLAY ALL THE MUSIC FROM CAMELOT
(which was reissued in 1999 on the Collectors Choice Music as a CD twofer).
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