You, Me, and Charlie

A few months ago, I wrote about how much I adore the lovely Dianna Agron's blog, Fell Down the Rabbit Hole.


Well, a few short weeks ago my little magick-unicorn-loving heart was overjoyed when Dianna launched her new website You, Me, and Charlie:

"You might wonder, what is www.YOUME&CHARLIE.com?

Well. There is that little blog of mine, which started out as an artistic retreat while traveling in Australia to promote the show. Any of you that followed [felldowntherabbithole] were privy to pictures I was taking, music I was listening to, books I was reading. Due to your enjoyment, and your want to be involved, over the past couple of years I have received the most amazing mixtapes, books, photos…all from you! You were sharing the things that drove you artistically, because I was doing the same. It touched me and still does to this day, every time.

Because of this, I wanted to turn the little blog into something slightly larger. This is a space for YOU and ME. Our space is….CHARLIE. Again, if you followed the blog, you know that the header reads, [Dianna Agron, but you can call me Charlie.] I guess I have never really felt like a Dianna. I suppose that is because my friends and family all call me Di, babe, kitty, lamb, all those special nicknames that only your loved ones could possibly coin. I didn’t realize it at first, but it seems as if I had taken a liking to the name Charlie for longer than I can remember!

Upon looking back at old school papers, stories I wrote, screenplays, you name it, I have always used the name Charlie as one of the main or ancillary characters. About five years ago, a psychic came up to me as I was walking down the street and said a few things to me, one of them being, “You have someone named Charlie that looks out for you.” I didn’t know what she was talking about, I don’t know anyone by the name of Charlie. Much later, I starting looking at old papers, found the name here and there, and thought of that psychic. I joked to myself that perhaps, I was a man named Charlie in a past life?? Then, in Scotland last year for the holidays, another psychic told me that, “Someone by the name of Charlie holds a very special place in my life.” How could I ignore all of this?

All of you lovely, magick, wonders of this world, the ones that correspond with me in such unbelievable ways…this is for you. Without the arts I would not wake up each morning with the joie de vivre that encompasses my entire being. I would feel flat as a pancake. Because of the work I do, I get to hear some of the most moving stories, moments of your life…things I am grateful to hear from you, share with you. It blows my mind, each and every time. To know that the show I’m on helps so many people get through hard moments in their life? To hear that people like seeing what I’m going to post and often discover new artists? I never could have dreamed how lucky I would be, as I am, today. I want you to join me now. Let’s share this space as an art collective. There’s enough negativity in this world to smother all of us into a state of infinite sadness. Why not counter that? That’s what this site is for. I hope it just does that.

Thank you all for your constant love and support. Thank you for embracing the moments where you can simply LET LOVE IN and BE LOVE.

xx Dianna, although sometimes I’d like to say, Charlie."

(No, thank YOU Dianna, sometimes Charlie!)

You, Me, and Charlie is divided up in to different sections, and I admit it can be a bit confusing or overwhelming at first. A friend even said it was kind of like visiting Wonderland, so it's strangely fitting, but once you become well-acquainted with Charlie, you will be the best of friends. There is something for everyone.

There are spaces for the "Ladies" and the "Fellas" with fun advice and thoughts.

"Put Your Best Sock Forward"

 If you are looking for a laugh, you can look in "For Grins" for cute and silly pictures and video clips.

"Yo DJ" introduces new musicians, puts together playlists, and sparks conversation about music or lyrics; and "Mona Liza" showcases the work of new artists.

"Page Turners" offers wonderful book recommendations and poems (or story-time with Di!), while "Just Reeling" suggests top-notch films, both of the past and present, as well as inspiring and fun short films. 

  

"Point and Shoot" displays lovely photographs from both professionals and contributors.

 "In Motion" consists of lots of "motion" content: little kids dancing, ballet photographs, musical clips, and more.

 You can find daily sources of inspiration from, believe it or not, "Daily Inspiration". 

If you have ever wondered how the opposite sex thinks and what they may secretly want you to know, just take a gander at "She Says" or "He Says". 

Looking for some fun facts? "Did You Know" is the place to go.

Interested in making a difference? Check out "For Good", yes you should.

But the best thing about You, Me, and Charlie, is that anyone and everyone can contribute to the site. Most of these contributions are presented in "We Say" (fitting, yes?) and mainly consist of others wanting to share moments of beauty and happiness with everyone else, but readers can also share their interpretation of "who" Charlie is and what it means to them in "Charlie", as well as contribute to each and every category.

  

To me, Charlie means a place where we, the lovers of beauty, the magick believers, the laughers, the creators, the singers, the grateful and appreciative, the ones who fell down the rabbit hole, the dreamers, and everyone in between, can come together to share our happy smiles and moments of beauty with each other. A place where we can share with all of the other Charlie's of the world. 

I promise you that everyone will find something to smile about at You, Me, and Charlie.

I know that the corners of my mouth start to twitch every time I even type the words.

I may sound a bit ridiculous for talking about just a website, but I like being ridiculous every now and then. Plus this website is everything that I love, and it would and will do many many people a world of good just by visiting. Just a visit with you, me, and Charlie.

All images from youmeandcharlie.com

Glee-ful Websites

As my coffee mug can gleefully (pun intended) attest to, I am a Gleek, and proud to be so. So, I am super stoked for the season premiere tonight and wanted to celebrate with a slightly Glee-esque post.

 

One of the things I enjoy the most about Glee is that everyone in the cast seems like such genuine, humble, kind, down-to-earth people. And in today’s world of Jersey Shore casts and Disney stars gone wrong, I think that is a rare thing to see.

A few cast members have blogs (tumblrs actually…but that whole concept intimidates me a bit still for some reason) that I like to peruse occasionally mainly because they tend to feature great songs, videos, photos, drawings, and quotes. They are positively gleeful. Literally.

Fell Down the Rabbit Hole

 

Dianna Agron is an Alice in Wonderland-Tim Burton-Audrey Hepburn-travel-enthusiast who also has an extensive and killer taste in music…and movies, and art, and dance, and so much much much more. Which is why I love her blog so very very much. She shares YouTube videos of artists I’ve never heard of before but instantly love, fun photos that she has found or taken herself, and playlists of songs she listened to throughout the day.

She just posted this yesterday:

Muppets and a great song? Do you really need any more convincing than that?

Paintyhands

 

I actually discovered the Paintyhands blog as a result of Dianna Agron’s since, while not an actual Glee cast member, Ms. Paintyhands was a dancer on the Glee tour and has danced on several episodes. She also appears to be a frequent contributor for hitRECord, even working with Joseph Gordon-Levitt himself on some of his projects.

She frequently posts (usually at 11:11!) beautiful artwork and photos, and great quotes. It seems as if she has undertaken the simple mission of contributing a bit of beauty in a place (the internet) that is often riddled with ugly and hateful words and images. But a visit here never fails to make me smile.

In addition to these smile-inducing websites, I recommend checking out a lot of the cast’s side projects, including bands, albums, a certain theater company, and so much more. Actually,  I don’t think any of them sleep.

Website: Pottermore = More Potter (Who'd have thunk it!)

I’ll try to keep this short and sweet in order to prevent myself from turning this into a giant Harry Potter love-fest. Although, I make no promises. You have been warned.

When I read the announcement about the new website, Pottermore, from J.K. Rowling, I was little confused. An interactive reading experience? What exactly does that mean? But the part about how Ms. Rowling herself would be providing never-before released background snippets on characters, the wizarding-world, and the book plots? That aspect of it I got loud and clear. Oh, and the part where the whole thing would be free…I understood that pretty well too.

I was positively giddy with excitement, since this announcement could not have come at a more perfect time. With the movie franchise coming to an end, and having read the books more times than I should probably admit to, I was worried I may go into Potter-Withdrawal (a very serious condition), but no…J.K. Rowling to the rescue! And at a time in my life when I have the TIME to explore and enjoy the site without feeling guilty about it (although no one should ever feel guilty about indulging in some Harry Potter action)!

Registration for the new site is not open to the public until October. But through August and September, the administrators have been staggering the entrance of one million individuals who gained the privilege of early admittance through the Magical Quill Promotion that was held the first week of August.

Guess who one of those lucky ducks just happens to be?

If you said this guy, you're wrong...at least as far I know

Me!

I’m not exaggerating when I say that it was solely pure, dumb luck that got me one of those spots (and it was indeed lucky, since about 150,000 spots would be zapped up in about 15 minutes…this was no joke). But nevertheless, I received an email a few days ago saying that I could finally enter!

To be quite honest, the best way to describe Pottermore is exactly how the announcement did: “an interactive reading experience”. But a pretty darn cool one!

I haven’t progressed that far yet, but I have made it far enough in the first book to have gotten a stellar wand (Unicorn Hair, Rowan, 11 inches, slightly yielding), sorted into my house (Hufflepuff, thank you very much, and proud to be so!), and make some advancement with brewing potions, casting spells, and winning points for my house.

But the best thing by far is all of the scrumptious Rowling “extras”. That wonderful woman certainly did not disappoint!

Don’t worry! October will be here soon and then anyone can join in! And if you are a Harry Potter fan, no matter your age, I recommend taking a peek, if only to expand your knowledge of that magical world that so many of us wish we could be a part of.

Heck, I’m STILL waiting for my Hogwarts letter. I think Prof. McGonagall has been slacking a bit…

Websites: The Celebrity Edition

The number of webpages on the internet is staggering, and while a lot of those websites are complete rubbish, I have also found some pretty amazing (and addicting) sites during my travels through the world-wide web. And as my friend Alex can attest, I enjoy sharing my finds with others in order to spread the addiction enjoyment, so expect several of these types of posts.

Here are three of my, recently-discovered, favorite sites, all of which happen to be founded, or co-founded, by celebrities.

I have already confessed to my love of Zooey Deschanel so you can imagine that I was pretty stoked when I encountered HelloGiggles.

“Founded by actress/musician Zooey Deschanel, producer Sophia Rossi and writer/Internet Sensation Molly McAleer, hellogiggles.com is the ultimate entertainment destination for smart, independent and creative females. Everything hosted on the site will be lady-friendly, so visitors need not worry about finding the standard Boys Club content that makes many entertainment sites unappealing to so many of us.”

A website filled to the brim with articles, reviews, etc. written by many talented, funny, and intelligent women? Yes, please! Visiting this site makes me feel like I’m reading stories from all of my long-lost friends as opposed to it being “just another entertainment website”. I think that everyone can find something on here that will bring a giggle to their lips, from video-chat karaoke, to reliving all the episodes of Saved by the Bell. Heck, these kickass women can put a smile on your face even while touching on more serious issues. It’s also where I happened to discover the previously blogged about Brother/Sister. Oh, and they are all for revisiting aspects from their childhoods, which is right up my alley. So head on over to say “hello” and share in a giggle or two.

hitRECord

If you are a fan of Zooey Deschanel, then it’s kind of an unspoken rule that you also like Joseph Gordon-Levitt. And if that is not the case, then you are not human in my opinion. Plus, how can you not love a guy that would come up with something like this:

“HITRECORD.ORG is a project I started almost five years ago now, and in 2010, we evolved into a professional open collaborative production company. We create and develop art and media collaboratively here on our site. So rather than just exhibiting and admiring each other's work as isolated individuals, we gather here to collectively work on projects together. Videos, writing, photography, music, anything -- we call them all RECords.”

Since I do not consider myself to be very talented, I have not officially joined this site and collaborated, but I enjoy going on and browsing through all the different RECords. So far, my favorite things to browse are the snippets of poetry, or “mini-stories”, and then seeing the illustrations that people have suggested to go along with the text. If you do not feel like going on the site and browsing through tons of RECords, then maybe try this instead:

Let me just say that the amount and caliber of talent that is out there in the world is truly incredible and hitRECord.org is one endless web of talent and collaboration, one that you have to experience for yourself.

Am I the only person who thinks that Gwyneth Paltrow is pretty much perfection personified? Is there anything that this gorgeous, multi-talented woman CAN’T do? Because of this, if someone were to say to me: “Would you like to receive weekly advice, recipes, and suggestions from Gwyneth Paltrow?”, I would say: “Where do I sign up?”

Oh…right here!

“Goop is a newsletter that will usually come once a week. I will be sharing recipes, my personal travel notes, the advice that I get and follow, and so much more. GOOP is constantly evolving- I'm excited to have you join us.”

The topics for each newsletter consist of suggestions and thoughts on what to Make, Get, Do, Be, See, or where to Go, from how to put together the perfect cheeseboard, to ways to relieve stress.

While all past newsletters are nicely cataloged on the website for easy reference, it is nice to know that you don’t have to go looking for new information since it just shows up in your inbox! I can’t wait to try out some of these recipes and read more of her travel notes!

Hopefully, if you are reading this, you will enjoy one, two or all three of these sites. Or maybe you think I’m behind, if so, let me know what websites you think I may be missing out on.

Cheers.