Runester

Lisa’s Candle Corner

Here’s a word or two on Lisa’s candle corner, as promised in yesterday’s entry. So, Lisa is unemployed, ever since her company moved operations to Atlanta, GA. While she is looking for a new job, she decided to make a little money on the side by selling custom “folk art” type candles. She started by locating suppliers online and buying some stock. She is working on her website, and we looked at selling through a couple of weekend “Flea-Market’s” … but, the best deal yet is Cape Cod Crafters.

Cape Cod Crafters is a group of independently managed stores selling a wide variety of items (mostly craft related) on consignment. What that means is, you pay them a very small monthly rental fee for some shelf space. You provide the product and you price it whatever you what. They sell the good for you, take a small cut of the sale, and pay you by check once a month. There are fifteen (15) [soon to be sixteen (16)] stores throughout New England, and if your products sell well in one then it becomes possible to be carried in other locations.

The primary advantages have to do with having someone else make the long term investment of renting a retail store and paying help to stock and run the store during business hours. You only have the job of finding and shipping the goods you’d like to sell. It becomes very easy to do this in your spare time. Because of the multiple locations, it’s also possible to make quite a nice living off of this business … in time.

So, Lisa is selling fragrant and fancy candles. The link to the pictures of her first ever display are over to the left, check them out. If you find yourself in a Cape Cod Crafters, buy some fancy candles – they make great gifts!

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Lisa & I just saw this movie, tonight. WOW! I was totally blown away, this movie is fantastic and is definitely worth seeing more then once. At first I was concerned, there were rumors that Sean Connery (who stars in) had to take over final editing because he was having disagreements with the director. I feared that there would be too much dialog and an inconsistent plot … the hallmarks of a poorly realized fantasy story.

Well, I was totally wrong. This movie was almost non-stop action, incredible special effects, and many fascinating characters, to boot!

In case you don’t know, the story takes place in England, 1899. The genre is roughly “Steam Punk” and envisions a world in which many of our gothic novels have actually happened. One character is a thief, Mr. Skins, who purchased an invisibility potion from the now infamous Invisible Man. Mr. Hyde (Dr. Jeckel’s alter ego) is traipsing through Paris committing terrible crimes. Mena Harker, the tragic widow of Jonathan Harker, Esquire, also accompanies the group … now a vampire after having been turned by one Count Vladimir Dracula. Thrown in the mix is a Thomas Sawyer, now grown up and working as a spy for the secret service of America; Capt. Nemo who wages war on war itself at the helm of the Nautilus; and finally the perverse immortal, Dorian Gray, who’s portrait ages in his stead. The entire crew of “singular individuals” is lead by the adventurer of the African continent, Alan Quartermain (played by Sean Connery).

These are characters from novel, play, and movies that have been part of western literature for 100+ years. I, literally, grew up reading their stories or watching film adaptations. Imagine the enormous pleasure watching them, all together, in an incredible story of adventure, travel, danger, and larger then life evil. The action scenes were so fast and furious, that it was actually hard to keep track of who was where, doing what. The characters were not two dimensional characters, but fascinating and very flawed. The story was brilliant, and the locations were stunning.

Oh, and the Nautilus just took our breath away!

This is a movie that you must see! If you love literature, action, and story … you must see it! If you love great acting, fantastic special effects, and exotic locales … you must see it! If you are a fan of the Alan Moore comic books that the movie is based on … must see it!