| 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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