The Awesome Redheads Blog

As I type, I'm in the process of regingerification (which is now officially a word in the Land of Me), something I periodically do, because technically I'm a strawberry blonde and I enjoy the darker shades of gingerdom. So, I thought, what better time to give all you fine people a list of my very favorite redheads from film and book.

1. Lucy

There's a reason everyone still loves Lucy (no pun intended), she's cute, she's funny, and let's be honest a little dirty given the era of her show. What's not to love about that?

2. Poison Ivy

By far the best female in the entire Batman universe (excluding the awful big screen film version portrayed by Uma Thurman). In true ginger fashion, she is never afraid to use her sexuality to get what she wants. Also, she's an evil hippie, so what's not to love about that?

3. Daniel "Oz" Osbourne

Another favorite from a universe that I unhealthily adore. Always cool to Xander's always trying too hard, more straight faced in the face of everything than Angel, he was the snarky, sarcastic sliver of what deep down every girl/guy really wants. Also what every man secretly wants to be. Plus, werewolf always equals winning.

4. Joan Holloway

So, here's the thing with the working girls of Mad Men: Peggy Olson represents the girl who is blessed and can do whatever she puts her mind to. Sure, she runs into sexist attitudes, but she climbs relatively quickly in the business. Joan, on the other hand, is forever the glorified "coffee girl". I think there's something we all identify with in this. The world has made her bitter and her general attitude reflects this, but at heart she's just frustrated with where she's continually peg holed despite her obvious intelligence (higher than Peggy's) and ability to do whatever she's given.

5. Anne Shirley

My obsession with all things literary really started with Anne Shirley (aka Anne of Green Gables). She was spunky, she was smart and she had things to say. So many things, as a matter of fact that she almost literally never shut up, much to the initial annoyance of her adoptive family.

6. Grace Adler

Will and Grace is one of the most brilliant shows in the history of sitcoms. Grace is every woman. We all want to be Karen. Anyone who says differently is probably lying. But at heart chances are you're Grace. You're awkward, you're sometimes desperate, you just want your happily ever after g'dammit. For all of that we all hope that we're also as loyal and lovable as Grace.

7. Ron Weasley

Oh, Ron, poor Ron. In the universe of Harry Potter is there a character that is more unappreciated? I know someone is going to say Neville, but he has fan clubs for days and ends up being kind of a bad ass. Ron spends a lot of time just kind of being there, being supportive of Harry and waiting for the girl he loves to notice him while fumbling horribly with it. Confession: I spend more of my life feeling like Ron than I do anyone else, always kind of waiting to be the star. And that's why I love him so much.

There are so many more wonderful gingers out there, but these are my favorites. Will possibly always be my favorites. They represent to me all the struggles and virtues that I personally deal with and feel. If I missed any of your favorites, let me know in the comments who they are and why you love them.

Zombies, Zombies, Zombies

So, I would like to weigh in on this whole zombie obsession that's been going on in pop culture for the last several years. Let me start off by saying that I love zombies. I do. My favorite romance movie from the ages of 11 to whatever year that was I saw Across the Universe was Return of the Living Dead 3. True story. I could list all the reasons that I love zombies, but I don't really need to. All I need to say is that they eat faces and there's nothing more endearing than a creature that eats faces.


That being said, I'm more than a little over them. I still love them, I'm just a little tired of seeing them every time I turn on my computer/tv/open a book/walk outside my house. Seriously, just last year there were 12 major zombie movie releases. I don't take credit for this statistic being right, but that's the statistic that zombiezonenews.com has and by their name I'm just going to assume they know what their talking about. You can probably quintuplet that for books and I won't even get into comics.
Well, maybe I'll get into comics a little bit. Once upon a time, Marvel did a short run of something called Marvel Zombies. Like 5 issues run. Fan boys and girls rejoiced and that was the end of it. Now, I think I see more Marvel Zombie books than I do regular ones. I'm not blaming them for wanting to make a buck, but it's symptomatic.

The CDC, in an effort to get kids who don't care about anything that could actually help them, to pay attention to a public service announcement made an infectious disease meme that substituted zombie infection for infectious disease.
I'm pretty sure it's against some law to make a video game with no zombies in it.
Hell, even Once Upon a Time (set in fairy tale land for those who don't know) incorporated zombies. Of course. Because EVERYTHING EVER NEEDS MORE ZOMBIES.

Here's the thing, no, everything really doesn't. Nothing would make me happier than if somehow the world started treating zombies like an expensive, tasty spice. You don't use too much, but you throw a dash in to something from time to time to make it more interesting.
Which really is the problem, zombies were once upon a time interesting. There are still interesting ones out there. Some amazing books and movies are still made. Unfortunately it's hard to find them in the sea of crap that floods out of your eBook and tv screen, but they're there. I still dig for them, because I do still love me some zombie fun.

It's time for entertainment to move on to something else. Something new and interesting to the non horror obsessed masses. Like werewolves. Well, not werewolves, because I love werewolves more than any other horror fantasy creature, and g'damn look how I feel about this zombie thing. You really want to read that rant?

(P.S. If you are genuinely excited for a potential zombie apocalypse to happen, keep in mind, that you will probably die. I know I will. There are too many people I love for me to not die if one of them gets infected. Mostly the mini people.)

What Nevermind Means Now

[Originally written and posted 7/28/11]
So, Nevermind is 20 years old in September. If this makes you feel old, then we're in the same boat. SPIN magazine did a retrospective article with various artists and musicians stating what Nevermind meant to them. I am not nearly interesting or famous enough for a corporate music magazine to care what I have to say, but here it is for anyone else to see.

Nevermind came out when I was in the 5th grade. My parents weren't divorced yet, but all the signs were pointing that way, no matter how they tried to cover it up. My mom's alcoholism was just in it's budding stages, but being only 11 years old, I was starting to feel confused and betrayed by her choices. My dad just wasn't around, "working" all the time. I was a definitive outcast at school. I'd fallen to the elementary version of Mean Girls and quite literally had exactly one friend and a whole gang of girls who hated me for no other reason than one girl turned on me one day. All stories for other blogs, I'm sure.

I was pretty much the picture of disaffected youth that was a mainstream in the early 90s. A very young, preteen version of it, but definitely in it. I still remember the first time I heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit" I was at a 5th grade dance. I was sitting in a corner completely ignored, because Ashley was sick that day. Immediately I felt a sense of comfort. There was always something about Kurt's voice that just implied he understood how you felt.

I know that it's a very narcissistic point of view that a lot of teenagers and preteens felt, but that's the one joy of being a teenager: It's joyfully, unabashedly all about you and you feel no need to apologize about it. As the years went on, Nirvana released better music and rereleased a first album with more raw emotion than anything else they ever did. There's always a special spot though for that first listening, that first time you felt like someone else maybe got it. Throughout all the gawkiness and bad decisions that shaped my teenage years, that was always there. I wouldn't say that it saved my life, because that honor is reserved for other forms of music, but it got me through. It gave me enough comfort to get to the point where I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

That's one of the reason I think Nirvana is still relevant today, while being played on classic rock stations. (Sorry, for that making you feel old again thing...) Some part of us will always feel like we don't quite fit, but someone like Kurt crosses generations and speaks to new ones. There are moments where I feel lost inside myself and the only soundtrack that really fits is early 90s rock, with all it's wallowing and sense of disaffection.

I leave this with the best quote I found in the magazine about the album (that has little to do with anything I've written): "...Nevermind felt like the first entire album of my generation that didn't feel like it was on loan from the generation just before us."