Once upon a time, there was a Winter Break

For some odd reason, bizarre fairy tales have taken over my entertainment activities for the past couple of weeks. Maybe it's due in part to the cosmic interference of Santa around the world.

First, I re-watched Into the Woods, which I hadn't seen in about ten years. I'd forgotten I loved Act One but was irritated by Act Two, which got too preachy and disproportionately killed off the generally faultless women in the story but not the selfish and very faultless men. "Agony" is still the best and most hilarious song in the production, sung by two Prince Charmings who happen to be brothers and go on to cheat on their wives (Cinderella and Rapunzel, respectively) with Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. Little Red Riding Hood and Jack (as in, The Beanstalk) also figure into the storyline, so you get the picture of a bizarre but very fun setup. With songs. (And Bernadette Peters personifies brilliance in her role as the witch.)

Then The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse showed up from the Library. It was another suggestion from the personalized book list, during the week or so last summer when SPL was doing that. It was also very bizarre. A boy named Jack heads to Toy City to seek his fame and fortune, and ends up teaming up with a stuffed animal, Eddie Bear, to solve the murders of characters from nursery rhymes (Humpty Dumpty, Jack Spratt, Wee Willie Winkie, Little Boy Blue, Mother Goose, etc). The writing style reflected a dry humor, and Rankin incorporated a lot of creative alliterative phrases. I can't say I loved it (in fact I think the ending was a complete cop-out), but it was just so ... weird... that I couldn't not finish it.

And then they got "Fairy Tale of New York" at karaoke, and a friend sang it with the host on Christmas Eve's eve. Okay, that doesn't really count as truly fairy tale-related, but still. It's in the title.

And then The Big Over Easy showed up from PaperbackSwap. I've been meaning to read Jasper Fforde's "Nursery Crime" series, wherein nursery rhyme characters are also murdered off, but I haven't had the time to read it. Maybe on the plane. Or instead of goofing off online at work at the library, once I get back to Boston....