I picked this up for $3 from one of those pop-up bookshops in my local mall yesterday. You know the ones I mean... three display stands stacked high with nothing over $5.
Little Obelia is an adaptation from the classic Australian illustrated book for children by May Gibbs – Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. The imprint page credits the "coloured reproductions and adaptations of original illustrations by May Gibbs" but that the words are by N Georgeson. The publisher is Murray David Publishing. There are seven separate copyrights on the imprint page.
The story and rhyme is a little bit all over the place but the images are quite charming for an underwaterphile. There are leafy sea dragon drawn shell carriages, Ragged Blossom slumbering on a shell bed, and Little Obelia, the Princess of the Sea, standing amongst her pearls like a baby Botticelli Venus.
The book is currently out of stock at Amazon and at the publisher but we've included the links just in case the situation changes. It's not strictly a mermaid story because we don't see any tailed humans or gumnut characters, but it will find a loving place in my mermaid / fairy book collection probably near Peg's Fairy Book.
MerPalooza the International Mermaid Convention, Party and Trade Show, is less than a week away. It is being held in Tampa, Florida, and is a rallying point (er pool) for US and international mermaids.
This year MerPalooza is offering exclusive excursions to many of the local Tampa Bay area marine research facilities and the world famous Weeki Wachee Springs State Park featuring the mermaid Underwater Theater which has featured in numerous movies and television shows. Just read here if you want to know "What happens at a mermaid convention?"
We wish we were going but alas it's not to be this year. Have fun, mers! We're going to be thinking about you next weekend.
Dates: Friday 9 to Sunday 11 August 2013
Venue: Bay Harbor Hotel and Hogan's Beach, 7700 W Courtney Campbell Causeway, Tampa. Florida 33607 USA
Tickets: $30 for three days including the Saturday night "Mermaid and Pirate Party"!
$10 for trade show only. You will need to prebuy your tickets as none will be sold at the door.
Website: www.mer-palooza.com
Jozef has just designed a new surfer girl... oops "Surfer Mer" for our Black Mermaid® logo collection. She'll be up on our Black Mermaid® Boutique real soon!
SMASH! (Sydney Manga and Anime Show) is coming up next weekend! SMASH! is a Japanese pop culture convention that is devoted to artists, creators and fans alike. Its primary focus is to allow fans to meet and interact with other like-minded people, show off their creative talents, buy anime and manga related goods, and celebrate their fandom in a social environment. SMASH! encourages all forms of anime fandom through a variety of activities such as cosplay, panels, games, and other special popular culture events.
This year's guests include: Haruko Momoi (voice artist on My Bride is a Mermaid, Tales of the Abyss), Masakazu Morita (motion-capture actor and voice artist Bleach, Final Fantasy), and Japanese band Loverin Tamburin, and Matsubara Hidenori (character designer, illustrator and animation / art director All My Goddess, Sakura Wars).
Date: Saturday 10 August 2013
Time: 9.30am to 6pm
Venue: Sydney Convention Centre, Darling Harbour
Tickets: $29 online; $35 at door
Schedule: http://www.smash.org.au/sites/default/files/2013-schedule.jpg
Website: http://www.smash.org.au
US novelist Carolyn Turgeon who specialises in reinventing classical fairytales into beautiful works of literature has recently launched a new story – The Fairest of Them All.
Carolyn is best known in mer circles for her adaptation of Hans Christen Andersen's The Little Mermaid into the little treasure Mermaid, which we covered in a previous blog post. She also writes the I Am a Mermaid blog.
The Fairest of Them All fuses the stories of Rapunzel and Snow White... but with a fierce twist emanating from themes of abandonment, betrayal and revenge. Here is a summary taken from the Powell's Books website, which also lists some glowing reviews from the likes of Publishers' Weekly, Library Journal and multiple best selling authors:
What if Rapunzel was Snow White's evil stepmother?
From the author of Godmother and Mermaid, The Fairest of Them All explores what happens when fairy tale heroines grow up and don’t live happily ever after.
Living in an enchanted forest, Rapunzel spends her days tending a mystical garden with her adoptive mother, Mathena. A witch, Mathena was banished from court because of her magic powers, though the women from the kingdom still seek her advice and herbal remedies. She waits, biding her time to exact revenge against those who betrayed her.
One day Rapunzel’s beautiful voice and long golden locks captivate a young prince hunting in the forest nearby. Overcome, he climbs her hair up to her chamber and they fall into each other’s arms. But their afternoon of passion is fleeting, and the prince must return to his kingdom, as he is betrothed to another.
Now king, he marries his intended to bring peace to his kingdom. They have a stunning daughter named Snow White. Yet the king is haunted by his memories of Rapunzel, and after the mysterious death of his wife, realizes he is free to marry the woman he never stopped longing for. In hopes of also replacing the mother of his beloved daughter, the king makes Rapunzel his queen.
But when Mathena’s wedding gift of an ancient mirror begins speaking to her, Rapunzel falls under its evil spell, and the king begins to realize that Rapunzel is not the beautiful, kind woman he dreamed of.
Intriguing – yes. Rich realised characters – yes. Passion and betrayal – yes. Carolyn's books have it all and this one is no exception.
Tickets go on sale today for the latest GRAPHIC Festival at the Sydney Opera House, which has now been expanded to a three day event on 4 - 7 October 2013. We're most excited about Art Spiegelman's "Wordless" presentation, which is accompanied by jazz virtuouso Phllip Johnston who we met several years ago at our entertainment lawyer's Xmas party. The perpetually youthful and multi talented Seth Green is coming too – we loved him in Buffy, as well as lots of other television comedy – he's participating in the "Robot Chicken Live" session. Comikers need to check out Neil Gaiman's artist bestie Dave McKean, as well as Grant Morrison and Gerard Way. There will be lots of Aussie talent in the "Radio with Pictures" session. For more information and just go to the Sydney Opera House website.
NOTE: Julie has her tickets. She's going to the Dave McKean and Art Spiegelman sessions, as well as the "The Creative Truth" panel and "Radio and Pictures". She's also bough a ticket for "The Art of Publishing and Editing" session, although it clashes with one of the others. One of the tickets may find a good home.
In October 2012 we wrote a post called "Mermaids Trending"... Well a lot has happened since then so here is a quick look at the next wave of mermaid trends.
Firstly, Netflix has just released a new children's TV series called Mako Mermaids, which is a sequel to the Australian produced H2O. The show is not only being promoted through news and entertainment media such as the LA Times "'Mako Mermaids': when does it start pulling teens to Netflix" but also the investment community. Venture Capital Post gives the show a write up in "Netflix new show 'Mako Mermaids', premiers Friday". This may be less about the mermaid content and more about watching how well Netflix builds its subscriber base, as well as checking out how well it performs when releasing an entirely new TV series in one go rather than serialising it once a week like conventional TV.
Similarly, the Wall Street Journal's Market Watch did a story on it "Netflix hopes to make a splash with 'Mako Mermaids'". The rather non-imaginative and stern Business Insider's Australia give Netflix a little wrap over the knuckles in "Netflix Newest Original Series is Beyond Weird". Weird perhaps for a money-man (we like the alliteration but the more politically correct term is "money-person"!) but completely okay with pop culture audiences and mermaids lovers. BGR gets it right in "Crazy like a fox – Netflix now bets on teen mermaids" when it identifies that audiences want niche projects and offerings (just have a look at the scope of romance subgenres in bookshops and you'll understand what we're talking about).
Just so you know what it's about, Mako Mermaids centres around three teenage mermaids who are the guardians of Mako Island. Their names are Lyla, Nixie and Sirena. They fail to stop a 16-year old hunky boy named Zac from falling into the sacred Moon Pool, Zac turns into a merman with special powers. The guardians must grow legs, walk on land and attempt to get this power back. The trailer looks as if it has more action and humour than its forerunner and the underwater sequences look pretty good from where we are sitting. The first 13 episodes are out now and there will be more to come in September.
Mermaids are also featuring in the beauty industry. Mermaid Minerals has been around for a few years and is a favourite with mers. Some mainstream brands are now putting together special lines. For example, The Daily Varnish covers a new sparkly mermaid nail polish "Under the Sea" range in "Sally Hansen Mermaid's Tale". Lots of pretty pics over on that blog post.
We explored the fashion fusion of mermaid and futuristic punk in our previous post "Seapunk Fashion" and we've seen the Black Milk mermaid leggings on some of our fans but fashion bloggers are now doing stories on fashion trends inspired by the aquatic world. Check out "60 Mermaid Fashion Statements" on Trendhunter.com. Here we see Gothic Mermaids, Golden Disco Mermaids, Fish Scale Fashion, Sci Fi Mermaids, Knitted Barnacle Bling, Deep Sea Hair Decorations, and so much more.
There's even a faux Vogue cover featuring "Couture Disney Princesses" including Ariel from The Little Mermaid swinging her tail-less hips down a runway with dangling fish skeleton jewellery and a cover story called "The Gills of Glamour".
Even the airlines are getting into the mermaid spirit – American Airlines' magazine American Way recently featured Hannah Fraser (AKA Hannah Mermaid) in a lovely two page article "A Modern Mermaid Tale". Hannah is the pioneer of all things mermaid – her photo shoots and fashion sensibility is legendary. What's more, Hannah represents the true essence and spirit of a protector of the sea – she swims with extraordinary marine creatures and is an aquatic eco warrior who puts herself on the frontline to save our sea life. There may be lots of faux Animal Planet documentaries but Hannah is the real deal and we've included the trailer from her upcoming documentary series which also features Philippe Cousteau Jr as something to watch out for in 2014. The Huffington Post who is at the forefront of covering mermaid trends also did a great interview with Hannah on her mermaiding activities – you can read it here "Dolphins, Sharks and Mermaids, Oh, My! Interview with a Real-life Mermaid and Ocean Activist".
Finally, we cannot explore mermaid trends without the latest lot of hoaxes. We covered the news style interview Mermaid: The New Evidence on our "New Mermaid Footage" blog post a few months ago, but we have a new and very "blurry" doozy for you right here too. It's called "Amazing Mermaid on the Rock". The Animal Planet name is attached once again... fancy that!
Tears of a Mermaid Movie Trailer from
NINETEEN87 on
Vimeo.
