All posts tagged: Earl

The Earl Meets His Match by T.J. Alexander

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] In “The Earl Meets His Match,” T.J. Alexander delivers a refreshing and heartwarming queer historical romance that challenges conventions while honoring the beloved tropes of Regency fiction. Set in the early 1800s, this novel introduces us to Christopher Winterthrope, the reclusive Earl of Eden, who faces an impossible ultimatum: marry before his twenty-fifth birthday or lose his inheritance. When James Harding arrives as his new valet—mysterious, handsome, and frustratingly proper—neither man anticipates how deeply their lives will intertwine as they navigate society’s expectations and their own identities. Alexander, known for contemporary queer romances like “Chef’s Kiss” and “Triple Sec,” makes a graceful transition to historical fiction while maintaining their talent for crafting authentic, emotionally resonant characters who leap off the page. What sets this novel apart is its exploration of gender identity in a historical setting, offering representation rarely seen in Regency romance while maintaining the witty banter and slow-burn romance readers adore from the genre. Plot: A Dance of Identity and Love The story begins at Eden Abbey, where Christopher, our reclusive protagonist, …

Hear Edgar Allan Poe’s Horror Stories Read by Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, James Earl Jones, William S. Burroughs & Others

Published by José

[ad_1] Here on Hal­loween of 2024, we have a greater vari­ety of scary sto­ries — and arguably, a much scari­er vari­ety of scari­er sto­ries — to choose from than ever before. But what­ev­er their rel­e­vance to the spe­cif­ic lives we may live and the spe­cif­ic dreads we may feel today, how many such cur­rent works stand a chance of being read a cou­ple of cen­turies from now, with not just his­tor­i­cal inter­est but gen­uine chills? With each Hal­loween that brings us near­er to the 200th anniver­sary of Edgar Allan Poe’s lit­er­ary debut, the works of that Amer­i­can pio­neer of the grotesque and the macabre grow only more deeply trou­bling. “The word that recurs most cru­cial­ly in Poe’s fictions is hor­ror,” writes Mar­i­lynne Robin­son in the New York Review of Books. “His sto­ries are often shaped to bring the nar­ra­tor and the read­er to a place where the use of the word is justified, where the word and the expe­ri­ence it evokes are explored or by impli­ca­tion defined. So crypts and entomb­ments and phys­i­cal mor­bid­i­ty figure …

Watch James Earl Jones Read Kurt Vonnegut’s Letter Urging High-School Students to Create Art & “Make Your Soul Grow”

Published by José

[ad_1] As cul­tur­al fig­ures, the late James Earl Jones and Kurt Von­negut would seem to have had lit­tle in com­mon, but each could eas­i­ly be rec­og­nized by his voice. Jones’ will come to mind as soon as you think of Darth Vad­er, Sim­ba’s father, or “This is CNN.” Von­negut’s dis­tinc­tion was the voice evi­dent on any giv­en page of nov­els like Cat’s Cra­dle, Break­fast of Cham­pi­ons, and of course Slaugh­ter­house-Five — a voice many of us have known since ado­les­cence. They come togeth­er in the Let­ters Live video above with Jones read­ing a Von­negut let­ter to the stu­dents of Ms. Lock­wood’s Eng­lish class at New York’s Xavier High School in 2006. Von­negut was writ­ing in response to five such stu­dents, who’d cho­sen him when assigned to write to their favorite author. We’ve pre­vi­ous­ly fea­tured his let­ter here on Open Cul­ture as read aloud by Sir Ian McK­ellen, but its mes­sage bears repeat­ing by any­one who will speak it, beloved actor or oth­er­wise. “Prac­tice any art, music, singing, danc­ing, act­ing, draw­ing, paint­ing, sculpt­ing, poet­ry, fic­tion, essays, …

James Earl Jones (RIP) Reads Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”

Published by José

[ad_1] Note: With the sad pass­ing of James Earl Jones, at age 93, we’re bring­ing back a post from our archive–one fea­tur­ing Jones read­ing two great Amer­i­can poets, Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whit­man. These read­ings first appeared on our site in 2014. For all its many flaws the orig­i­nal Star Wars tril­o­gy nev­er strayed too far afield because of the deep well of grav­i­tas in James Earl Jones’ voice. The omi­nous breath­ing, the echo effect, and that arrest­ing baritone—no amount of danc­ing Ewoks could take away from his vocal per­for­mance. And though Jones’ expres­sive face has also car­ried many a film, his unmis­tak­able voice can give even the sil­li­est of mate­r­i­al the weight of an oil tanker’s anchor. So then imag­ine the effect when Jones reads from already weighty lit­er­a­ture by Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whit­man? “Chills” only begins to describe it. Just above, hear him read Poe’s “The Raven,” a poem whose rhymes and sing-song cadences con­jure up the mad obses­sion that mate­ri­al­izes as that most por­ten­tous and intel­li­gent of all the …

James Earl Jones’ Darth Vader Has Already Been Immortalized With AI

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] If anyone could make the Dark Side sound good, it was James Earl Jones. The actor, who died Monday at the age of 93, provided the voice for Darth Vader in more than a dozen Star Wars properties, from A New Hope to Star Tours. He made the Force sound ominous in a way that made it appealing. With his passing, it feels as though all the power and gravitas and respect he brought to the character is gone. It’s not. It’s in the hands of AI. A few years ago, when Jones provided a few lines of dialog as Vader for The Rise of Skywalker, he’d expressed interest in wrapping up his time as the Sith Lord, according to Vanity Fair. Lucasfilm, in need of a way to continue the character—and particular to continue having a version of the character’s voice as it sounded in those early Star Wars movies—turned to a Ukrainian company called Respeecher that used artificial intelligence to make a recreation of the Vader voice based on Jones’ past performances. …

James Earl Jones, voice of Star Wars villain Darth Vader and Mufasa in The Lion King, dies aged 93 | Ents & Arts News

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Acting great James Earl Jones, who voiced Star Wars villain Darth Vader and Mufasa in The Lion King, has died at the age of 93. Jones, a longtime sufferer of diabetes, died at his home surrounded by family members, his agent Barry McPherson said. No cause of death was provided. He appeared in Conan the Barbarian, played Eddie Murphy’s dad in Coming to America and starred in The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games. But it was his iconic voice as the villainous Darth Vader for which he was best known. Image: Jones with Star Wars creator George Lucas in 2007. Pic: AP Image: Jones poses with Darth Vader at the premiere of ‘Star Wars Episode II’ , 2002. Pic: Reuters Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, Vader’s son in Star Wars, tweeted: “RIP dad.” Jones was one of the few entertainers to have won the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards). Celebrities paid tribute to Jones, with Colman Domingo, who stars in the recently released Sing Sing, saying on X: “Thank …

James, Earl of Wessex is following in father Prince Edward’s footsteps in a new way

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] James, Earl of Wessex, and youngest son of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, was spotted wearing an unusual accessory at today’s Royal Windsor Horse Show – a signet ring.  Gentleman’s Gazette explains the history and significance of a signet ring: “For wealthy and important men, a signet ring was a powerful tool akin to a signature: the engravings on the ring were unique to the man who wore it, and if he used the face of the ring like a seal, he could stamp his symbol into ink, wax, clay, or similar surfaces, and in doing so leave a mark similar to the way that we sign documents today.”  James joins his father, Prince Edward, and his uncle, King Charles, in the royal tradition of wearing a signet ring.  © Getty ImagesThe then Prince of Wales wearing his signet ring and wedding ring to Princess Diana in 1993 Jewellery historian Helen Dimmick tells HELLO! about the history behind the ring King Charles is never seen without, even though he is no longer Prince of Wales. …

Charles Spencer’s children: everything you need to know about the Earl of Spencer family life

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Charles, the Ninth Earl Spencer, has been on a recent promotional tour in support of his memoir, A Very Private School, a publication described as an honest and open account of his childhood years at boarding school. The 59-year-old, who is the younger brother of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, has detailed some harrowing stories from his time as a schoolboy, including abuse he faced at the hands of staff.  This is not his first published book, however, as the Earl is an esteemed writer having published many titles before including Althorp: The Story of an English House and The Spencer Family, both of which centre around his heritage and family’s lineage. When the Earl isn’t busy writing books, he can be found at Althorp House, where the late Princess of Wales and his other two older sisters grew up. © GettyCharles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer and his wife, Karen Spencer arrive for the wedding ceremony of Britain’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and US actress Meghan Markle Charles lives there with his third wife, Karen …

‘I don’t think I developed emotionally’: Earl Spencer on the pain of boarding-school abuse | Private schools

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] It was one thing writing about the abuses of his childhood, Charles Spencer tells me, with half an ironic laugh; it’s quite another talking about them with strangers. When we meet in an office at his publisher, he is reeling a bit from this new fact of his life. The more sensational chapters of his memoir of a deeply traumatic five years at the Northamptonshire prep school Maidwell Hall had been splashed all over the previous week’s Mail on Sunday. The following morning, he had been a guest on Lorraine Kelly’s mid-morning TV sofa, raking over the painful detail of that long-buried past for the viewers. As a result, he says, apologising if he seems a bit strung out, he’s had two days of thumping headaches followed by vivid nightmares. The early responses to his book about being sent away from home to be brutalised at school at eight years old have been instructive. On the one hand he’s had a mailbox of emails from fellow survivors, praising his courage in speaking up for …

Princess Diana’s brother Earl Spencer: My son had nightmares about my school abuse ordeal | Royal | News

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Princess Diana’s younger brother has admitted his harrowing account of abuse at boarding school has given one of his own sons nightmares. In his memoir A Very Private School, Earl Spencer, 59, has detailed physical and sexual assaults he suffered at the exclusive Maidwell Hall prep school in Northamptonshire. Public reaction to his devastating book has been “incredibly generous”, he told the Express, but it has had a devastating effect on his son Louis, 30. The earl said: “I showed him an earlier draft of it and he had to stop reading it because he was having nightmares. “So he just stopped reading it – he just couldn’t bear it.” The father of seven, said two of his sons had decided to be weekly boarders in their mid-teens. “My second son, who’s 20 now, really wanted to do it because he had a half-brother from his mother’s side who had gone to that school and had done well. But he really struggled.” He added: “The school was incredibly kind and they let me and …