sophie's fair

Peter Pan (c) The Walt Disney Co

On the sixth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Six Geese a Laying
Five Golden Rings

i was passing by an upscale shop when i caught a glimpse of a large poster of peter pan and it read, "Peter Pan showing at the so-and-so Theater on March so-and-so". naturally, it piqued my interest. if there was ever a girl version of peter, that would be me.

Peter Pan is hardly the stereotypical hero. He’s an almost ambivalent character. In early drafts of the play he started as the villain before Captain Hook came in. I also think Barrie came up with a wonderful idea - a boy who decides not to grow up as he doesn’t like what he sees in adults. That speaks to us all.
-- Andrew Birkin, author of JM Barrie and the Lost Boys

"there's our little girl, but she isnt a little girl, anymore," a group of older ladies exclaimed, pointing at me. i was in church today getting fidgety, my ass half-off the seat silently praying that this guy at church wouldnt ask me out -- my stomach's twisted up in jumbles. what was i supposed to say?? i hate it when i have to say no to anyone, but i cant lie, either. after church, the guy was already waiting to have "a word with me"... i held my breath, "here goes nothing, oh dear God, whatever happens, i'm going to be a good friend, i promise, just pls spare us both"... then, he asked, "hey sophie, can i get your contact number and email addy so we could reach you if you would like to volunteer at church?" that's it??? that's it??? that IS it??? prayer answered, i hopped away...

... ICE sparkled under the feet of London theatre-goers as they arrived outside the Duke of York on the bitterly cold evening of 27 December, 1904. If any slip-up was expected, however, it was to be on the stage. JM Barrie, born in Kirriemuir, Angus, was nervous about the debut of his play. Originally titled The Great White Father, one of the most celebrated playwrights of the Edwardian age had settled on a new name: Peter Pan Or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. What we now know as a winning formula of children, pirates and the magic of Neverland had been dismissed by its author, only weeks before its stage debut, as a "dream-child" with little prospect of commercial success. During rehearsals Barrie was informed by a stage-hand, unimpressed by the children flying out of the window, that "the boys in the gallery'll never stand for it", while Herbert Beerbohm Tree, the London stage's most successful actor and manager, predicted a catastrophic flop. Tomorrow evening, the same London theatre will echo once more to the sound of Peter Pan, Wendy and Captain Hook as Simon Callow, Denise Van Outen and Juliet Stevenson join a charity reading for Great Ormond Street Hospital to mark the 100th anniversary. Eight years before his death, Barrie made a gift of the Peter Pan copyright to the hospital, which has since earned millions of pounds...

This film [Finding Neverland] is a love story, but it isn't a conventional love story because there's no kiss, no clinch, no love scene; there are none of those obvious moments, and it's a love story between a whole family and one man. I always really liked that. The reality is that there was a romantic attachment between Sylvia and Barrie. But as it is in the movie, I think you know that they love each other.
If there had been a kiss or one of those moments between Johnny Depp and myself, the movie would have immediately become about something else entirely. It would have taken away from the important parts of the story, which are how inspired J.M. Barrie was by Sylvia's boys and by Sylvia.
-- Kate Winslet, Finding Neverland

i can definitely relate to peter pan. in many respects, i know i still cant let go of girlhood. and i think that all of us feel the same, it's just that not everyone is brave enough to admit it.

Happy 100th Birthday to the boy who refused to grow up.

Think of the presents you've brought
Any merry little thought
Think of Christmas, think of snow
Think of sleigh bells
Here we go!
Like a reindeer in the sky

You can fly! You can fly!
You can fly! You can fly!
-- Sammy Fain & Sammy Cahn