Tonight's FNatM is by chingchongchinaman.
For those of an Anglophile bent, one hobby around this time of year is to check out the New Years Honours lists (example here), to see who among the UK and Commonwealth great, good and otherwise receive such tribute. Most names on the most recent list will not be familiar, of course, to Americans. One name, however, is very familiar to people reading this blog. On the list of Knights Bachelor is this name:
"Patrick Stewart, OBE, Actor. For serv Drama."
Yup, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Professor Charles Xavier is now a Sir. More below the flip....
First, a sampling of Patrick Stewart's work c/o YouTube:
In the academic world, Stewart has held the Chancellorship of the University of Huddersfield since 2004, where he also has a professorship in performance studies. The University's announcement of his knighthood is here. In his charity work, he has a particular focus on helping victims of domestic violence, particularly with Refuge, a UK organization which works with domestic violence victims, and of which he is patron. He wrote this recent article in The Guardian where he recounts his childhood and how his father abused his mother, and how he dealt with the emotional scars in his own life (although he himself did not suffer at his father's hands):
"In my adult life I have struggled to overcome the bad lessons of my father's behaviour, this corrosive example of male irresponsibility..... managed to find my own refuge in acting. The stage was a far safer place for me than anything I had to live through at home – it offered escape. I could be someone else, in another place, in another time. However, whenever the role called for anger, fury, or the expression of murderous impulses, I was always afraid of what I might unleash if I surrendered myself to those feelings."
Related videos are these:
Stewart has also spoken out in support of the ban on fox hunting on Boxing Day in the UK, as reported here.
So, a modest salute to a great actor from Daily Kos. One could address him, in movie-character speak, as Captain Sir Jean-Luc Picard, or Professor Sir Charles Xavier. But let's end it with proper congratulations and the right greeting:
Arise, Sir Patrick Stewart!
With that, the FNatM forum below is yours, anything you want to share about movies you've recently seen, anything related to movies good, bad, indifferent, whatever. If you want to contribute to the series, we can always use new hands (e-mail: fnatm at live dot com). Have fun, kiddies.....