All Hallow's Eve

All Hallow's Eve, my friends...I have this sweet black cat to burn tonight



I also will be joined my own dreamy Superman who looks
suspiciously like Jacob for trick n treat adventures.


Tonight, I will be dressed as a Princess. Well my version of
Princess. Here is a preview of me with my tiara on now. Jake
insisted he wanted me to a Princess tonight.



I love the costumes,the candy and the magic of this night.
The deeper meaning of this time that All Hallow's Eve fills
my soul. It is a time to remember those who have passed.
Those we are for a while separated from we will see again.
There all kinds of way to honor this time.




When Jake is asleep. I will do this ritual which I have done on many
All Hallow's Eves. I light a candle and close my eyes. Pray for
protection. I say thank you to all my ancestors known and unknown.
I stay in that feeling. It is amazing the amount of my ancestors
I feel show up. It can feel overwhelming. It is also love.
Love in a pure form. When my ritual is done. I will do what I
have done for more years than I can count. I will watch my favorite
Halloween episode of all time: Masques from Beauty and The Beast series.




I am wishing you all a blessed All Hallow's Eve. May you enjoy
all the magic, mystery and love that swirls during this time.
Here's a card I pulled for all of us from The Everyday
Witch Oracle. The message is simple. As we go into the last
60 days of the year and this decade, take inspired action
to make your dreams manifest.

Magical Television: Twilight Zone

Happy Monday, my friends. I had originally meant to review the Uninvited (1944) starring Ray Milland. The only copy I could find online had a weird watermark on it that I couldn't get past. Instead, I am choosing a Magical Televison show for you: Twilight Zone. I have a slew of favorites from the original series. For today, I am going to share a really creepy episode from the updated Twilight Zone show from the 85-86. It is called the Shadow man.

13 year old Danny (Jonathan Ward) has a fear of the dark. He is also agonizing over his crush. One night, while going to sleep, a tall think Shadow man comes out from underneath his bed. Danny is frightened. The Shadow Man says "I am the Shadow Man,I will never harm the person whose bed I live under." The Shadow Man leaves for the night and returns in the morning. Danny tells his disbelieving friend. After a rash of kids getting attacked, Danny figures out a way to use the Shadow Man to get close to girl of his dreams. What about the kids getting hurt? Shouldn't Danny tell someone else to stop him? Well, watch the rest of the episode for these answers. Please, watch this episode with the lights on. Enjoy.

Masques

Happy Friday, my friends.

I'm feeling more like myself today. Just in time for Magical Movie Friday
at Swan of Dreamers. This time I'm not going to share a movie, but one
of my favorite Halloween inspired episodes of all time from one
of my fave shows Beauty and The Beast. I am sure I have talked about
this episode before on my blog, it bears repeating.



The episode Masques comes from the original Beauty and The Beast tv show
that aired from 1987 - 1990 starring Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman. I tried to watch the updated version on CW, but couldn't get into it. If anyone has watched the new one, please share your thoughts in the comments.

I remember when I first saw the episode. I was a sophomore in college.
My bf at the time has went home for the weekend. It was a Friday night,
I was excited about watching Beauty and The Beast. I had fell in love
with it from the beginning.

What stuck out for me the most was when Vincent meets his favorite
author and she explains the old history of Halloween to him. To me this
is one of the best descriptions of what Halloween is all about. It is
a beautiful episode full of magic, love, longing and dreams.

Here is a commercial for the Masques episode.




P.S. Still in fundraising for the show Urban Aura I'm directing. We only need $435 dollars to reach our goal. Any amount you wish to donate would be awesome. Help to get this great show to have wings.Thanks everyone.

Beyond Reality

In between taking care of Jacob, I have been carving out
mommy time. What do I do? Still watching tv and movies.
For my birthday, I treated myself to buy an old favorite
of mine: the TV show Beyond Reality (1991 - 1993)

Beyond Reality starred Shari Belafonte and Carl Marotte
as Dr. Laura Wingate and Professor J.J. Stillman. They
teach Parapsychology at a local university while
investigating paranormal cases that came their way.

They had some really stand out episodes which revolved
around personality reality, possession, reincarnation
and past life. I enjoyed the friendship between
Laura and J.J. that gave the show a warmth to it.
It is one of the few shows of a paranormal/fantasy
theme to have a African American woman as the main female lead.
Which is one of the reasons I loved the show as much as I did.

The first season is on DVD. I'm hoping season two will
be released soon, so I can complete the series. If there
are any other fan of the series, I love to hear from you.
I'm the only person I know who even watched the show. If
you never seen it, I say check it out. It's a good series.

Movie and TV list for Halloween weekend

Halloween is two days away. The t.v and movies is
filled with Halloween themed movies. A lot of it for me
is slash and gore which I get tired of. Maybe some
of you do too.

Here is my off the top of my head, very short movie
and tv list of things you may want to watch over
the weekend. It is filled with ghosts, vampires, magic
and fantasy. Some of these I have talked about before,
I feel they deserve repeating.

Sleepy Hollow (1999)- Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci
are lovely in this; It is full of beautiful and dark
fantasy.

Queen of The Damned (2002) - Aaliyah rocks as Akasha and
Stuart Townsend is a great Lestat.

Phantom of the Opera (2004) - Beautiful music, costumes,
Gothic fantasy and Gerard Butler.

Dracula 2000 (2000) - only if you really love Gerard Butler like me!

Beauty and The Beast (1987-1990)- The first two seasons are the best
which showcases the love of Catherine and Vincent in a magical and
modern take of the fairy tale.

Buffy, The Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)- love this show.
My favorite are the first three seasons. Especially the
love between Buffy and Angel.

Constantine (2005) - Keanu Reeves as a world weary
Supernatural Detective. It is dark and satisfying.

The Lake House (2006)- Keanu and Sandra Bullock reunited
with a romance separated by time.

Somewhere in Time (1980)- I have done two posts so far
dedicated to one of my favorite movies. Christopher Reeve
and Jane Seymour are pure magic in this film.

Portrait of Jennie (1948)- Jennifer Jones is Jennie and
Joseph Cotten is the artist who meets her on a snowy
winter night. There begins a romance that defy Time itself.

The Enchanted Cottage (1945) - A magical cottage gives a
lonely woman and a scarred veteran a chance for true love.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) - A widow moves into a house
haunted by the formidable Capt. Gregg (Rex Harrison).
A truly Haunting romance.

Supernatural (2005-Present) - This is one of my favorite
current t.v shows. Two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester on
the road as Hunters fighting every thing from Vampires to Angels
to save humanity. The highlight of the series is the relationship
of the brothers. Family above everything is their motto.


Halloween can encompass much more than blood and guts.
To me Halloween is a time "Where anything is possible and
nothing is quite what it seems". A favorite line
of mine from an episode of Beauty and The Beast.

I know there are movies and films I left off. Please share
in the comments more film and t.v. suggestions.

Have a great Halloween weekend. I'll be back on Halloween
for a truly magical inspired post.

Magical TV Series: Beauty and The Beast

To end my magical movie series, I decided on something different. Today's final offering is the one of the most magical television series ever: Beauty and The Beast (1987-1990).

The story is simple enough: Catherine Chandler (Linda Hamilton),is a rich pretty lawyer, in New York. She works for her father's law firm but doesn't take the job seriously. One night, in a case of mistaken identity she is attacked. Her attackers throw her in the Central Park. There she rescued by a man named Vincent (Ron Perlman)who lives in an underground world beneath the city. As her face heals, the two begin a friendship. When she is finally healed and given a mirror to see herself..she sees her new friend, Vincent. Vincent has the soul of a poet and the face of a lion. He is an extraordinary man.

Catherine is changed deeply from her attack. She accepts Vincent for who he is;
Vincent slowly begins to see the beauty in himself. Thus begins a love story which is filled with great stories and characters from Catherine and Vincent's world for three seasons.

If you have never seen the series, well you are in for a treat. I have to admit the third season is not my favorite. So just a heads up. The first two seasons are perfect to me. If your have been a devoted fan since 1987 like me. Well,
it's like dropping in on old friends and feeling like you never left.

The truth be told the wonderful writing is matched by the beautiful chemistry between Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman. We believe in Catherine and Vincent because these two actors make there them as real as people we know in our own lives.

Here is the opening sequence to the tv series.


In the first season, one of my favorite episodes is called Masques which is a lovely Halloween episode. You can find here

I hope you all enjoyed my magical movies and t.v. tribute for October. If I missed some of your favorites, I'm sure I will get to them next year.

I'll be back tomorrow for more magical treats for Halloween.