erised.org

Reverence

Alan Lee

Category: Arts and Design
Members: 24 (0 pending)
Opened: 13th May 2007
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.02 members/day

If I were maternally inclined, I would have Alan Lee's babies. Seriously, the man has been my hero since I was 8 years old - he is the reason that I paint, the reason I want to battle with watercolours and a genuine and consistent inspiration to me always. I have way too many (ie. all) of his books, most of which are now signed by him (thanks to numerous Weta book signings). Also, he's so nice and was polite enough to endure my shaky ramblings when I encountered him in a bookstore.

Hit the Ground Running

Calexico

Category: Muscians: Bands/Groups
Members: 3 (0 pending)
Opened: 07th February 2010
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.01 members/day

My favourite band of all time (well actually they share this coveted title with Iron & Wine -- equally!) I love the trumpets, I love the soundscapes, I love the energy, I love the sexy drummer, I love the variation and the dedication and the beauty and the consideration *continues for all eternity* ... I met and fell in love with Calexico in 2005 and haven't looked back. Well, I looked back at their older stuff, but that's the only way I've looked back. I definitely didn't change my mind. I even liked Garden Ruin.

Safe in my own skin

Dido

Category: Muscians: Female
Members: 2338 (0 pending)
Opened: 27th March 2009
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 1.6 members/day

Dido is one of those musicians that I've loved from the moment I heard her. She's honest and talented and sets poetry to music. She doesn't over-do it and yet her work is so powerful. I can't get enough.
Adopted from Nikie

Shifting

His Dark Materials (Philip Pullman)

Category: Literature
Members: 177 (0 pending)
Opened: 23rd May 2007
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.15 members/day

I read and loved this series many times in my childhood (and again a couple of times since reluctantly agreeing that I'm an adult). The sheer scope of imagination and the organisation of it all still wows me.
Adopted from Holly

Macicalore

Hogwarts Staff (Harry Potter)

Category: Characters: Book/Movie
Members: 150 (0 pending)
Opened: 16th June 2007
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.09 members/day

As with all Harry Potter characters, the staff of Hogwarts are a bunch of wonderfully developed and varied personalities that, despite their quirkyness are utterly believable. Beautifully written, I adore every single one of them from Snape to Grubbly Plank. They're not simply there because our hero attends a school, they add to the story and the wonderful HP universe as a whole.
Adopted from Leia.

Raw Viking-ness

How to Train Your Dragon

Category: Animation
Members: 31 (0 pending)
Opened: 19th April 2010
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.21 members/day

When I sat down to watch this movie there were MANY children around and I was in a VERY bad mood. But once it started I was transfixed and stayed that way until the very last monologue. It's pretty much the movie of my childhood fantasies and it rocks. For srs. It's also well written, hilarious and gorgeous. I love it from head to hairy toes.

Innocent Poetry

Iron & Wine Calexico: In the Reins

Category: Albums
Members: 7 (0 pending)
Opened: 26th July 2007
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.01 members/day

The beautiful EP that is the result of a collaboration of two of my most treasured artists. This is a subtle and simply gorgeous album that I just can't get enough of.

Boy With A Coin

Iron and Wine

Category: Musicians: Male
Members: 23 (0 pending)
Opened: 29th June 2010
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.02 members/day

Where do I even start with this? I've had a long standing love affair with Mr Beam's music. As soon as I discovered his work I hunted down everything he had ever released. I adore every single song. I'm not kidding. I've tried to sit down and pick a favourite, but I genuinely can't. That's probably because each song is a unique work of art that has clearly been written from an intelligence and lucidity that I could only ever dream of achieving. I cherish every moment that I spend listening to his beautiful, subtle, bittersweet, touching and moving poetry set to music. I am simply never going to be able to express in words how much his music means to me but I am still compelled to. It's like a first kiss or a moment of perfect clarity, it's an experience that's completely outside of language.

Battle and Balance

John Howe

Category: Arts and Design
Members: 31 (0 pending)
Opened: 01st October 2008
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.02 members/day

I've admired John Howe as long as I've been aware of his work. I love him separately and equally to Alan Lee (who I coincidently found first) because they both have such different approaches to visualising written words. When I met him, he was patient and enthused by my questions and I gained a new appreciation for how much he lives and breathes his work.
Adopted from Mervi

Damaged

Kara Thrace (Starbuck)

Category: Characters: TV
Members: 56 (0 pending)
Opened: 15th April 2010
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.05 members/day

Starbuck was always my favourite character, the depth and detail they go into with her is always a joy to watch, even when it's painful and heart-wrenching. I have so much respect for her, because she's got the guts to stand up against everyone she cares about and stick by what she believes in, she's a kickass pilot and she really works hard for what she wants. On the surface she's so tough and crass, but underneath she feels so deeply and the tragedy she's experienced shines through her character, enhancing rather than detracting. Basically I worship her even when she's being exceedingly stupid.
Adopted from Jackie

Fascinating

Leonard Nimoy

Category: Actors, Directors/Producers
Members: 13 (0 pending)
Opened: 07th February 2010
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.06 members/day

Having grown up on a strict diet of Sci Fi, it would have been impossible for me not to end up with a very healthy appreciation of Mr Nimoy. My favourite of the ST movies are directed by him, my favourite of the Vulcans are played by him, and, well, he's just awesome, y/y?

Machaivellian

Lucius Malfoy (Harry Potter)

Category: Characters: Book/Movie
Members: 2702 (0 pending)
Opened: 09th September 2002
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 2.23 members/day

I'm a sucker for the bad guys, always have been more into villains than heroes - they're so much more interesting. Lucius, for me is the perfect balance of arrogant, sinister, proud and vain, while still being so engaging and attractive. Like all of JK's villains, he's believable and well-formed. My regard has definitely grown over the 10 years I've been aquainted with him and while I most certainly found his character interesting initially, it was absolutely not for the same reasons as now. So I've matured from loving to hate him, to fully appreciating his character with a (yes, slightly twisted) delight.
Adopted from Emma-Jane

Never Love By Halves

Marianne Dashwood

Category: Characters: Book/Movie
Members: 5 (0 pending)
Opened: 06th April 2010
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.03 members/day

Marianne Dashwood remains to this day one of my favourite characters. She's so forward and romantic and passionate and everything that I admire in a person. Of course she is all of these things to a flaw but ultimately she finds a balance.

Stones Taught Me to Fly

O (Damien Rice)

Category: Albums
Members: 3 (0 pending)
Opened: 14th August 2010
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.43 members/day

I've always loved this album but it took on a whole new level of meaning for me at the death of my cousin, who also loved it. I have beautiful and terrible memories associated with it and, much like the album itself, it's all very bittersweet but essentially life at its most raw.

Barefoot

Peter Jackson

Category: Directors/Producers
Members: 717 (0 pending)
Opened: 06th January 2004
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.29 members/day

I guess I grew up with Peter's films, not that my parents approved of such comedy. Heavenly Creatures was my favourite film for the longest time so when I heard that Peter was doing LotR I was thrilled. His vision and sensitivity are inspiring, and his humour much too close to my own.

Misjudgments

Pride and Prejudice

Category: Literature, TV Shows
Members: 2244 (1 pending)
Opened: 16th August 2010
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 204 members/day

Soaked!

Rain

Category: Nature
Members: 3832 (2 pending)
Opened: 12th September 2006
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 1.57 members/day

I'm quite a romantic person and I find something entirely magical about rain. I love every kind of rain, warm summer rain, freezing spring rain and even lashing, aggressive, hurts-exposed-skin rain. I love being in it, I love watching it, I love the feeling of the air just after it's rained and how all of the colours just seem that much more vibrant.
Adopted from Sasha

Hope & Memory

Return of the King OST

Category: Albums
Members: 15 (0 pending)
Opened: 24th January 2010
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.07 members/day

I have always been deeply affected by the music in The Lord of the Rings. I imagine that the numerous tears I have shed throughout the films were at least half because of the music. I love film scores in general, but, for me, The Return of the King takes the cake. Hell, it takes the whole bakery.

Euphonious

Scottish Accent

Category: Miscellaneous
Members: 823 (0 pending)
Opened: 12th September 2006
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.34 members/day

I am an absolute sucker for accents of any kind - potentially because my own is so awful and everyone else seems far beyond exotic in comparison. But my favourite is the Scottish. I don't even care if I can't understand them, I just adore the sound. Male, female, ambiguous, whatever, I'm happy to gaze blankly while listening blissfully.

An Unexpected Symmetry

Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen)

Category: Literature
Members: 15 (0 pending)
Opened: 22nd March 2010
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.09 members/day

I've adored this novel for years and been desirous of marrying Col. Brandon a little. For me, it's a wonderful exploration of life, love and folly. It's everything we've gained and then lost as a society and it's a book a never get tired of.

The Path Unwinding

The Lion King OST

Category: Albums, Animation
Members: 409 (0 pending)
Opened: 01st April 2007
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.34 members/day

The Lion King has been one of my favourite movies for such a long time and the soundtrack of course, is a central part of that. It's just one of those things that I've not grown out of and I can't help but get caught up in the emotion of it whenever I listen to the CD. Which is frequently. I love how the songs range from comic to heart-wrenching and the ease and flow between the two. Everything about it is genuis.
Adopted from Joey.

Loyalty

Trio and Hagrid (Harry Potter)

Category: Relationships: Book/Movie
Members: 40 (0 pending)
Opened: 22nd January 2008
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.06 members/day

When I think about it, this relationship is one of the most rewarding in the books. In true JK fashion, it's complex and interesting and goes well beyond your typical understanding of friendship. Their loyalty is tested, as is their patience but in the end, they are still willing to fight tooth and nail for each other. The warmth and strength of their friendship never fails to make me smile. They are simply a wonderful friendship to read about.
Adopted from Shifaa

Remember Us

Tristan and Isolde (film)

Category: Movies
Members: 525 (0 pending)
Opened: 06th April 2006
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 20.19 members/day

Husker

William (Bill) Adama

Category: Characters: TV
Members: 8 (0 pending)
Opened: 01st March 2010
Last Updated: 04th September 2010
Growth Rate: 0.04 members/day

Adama, who doesn't love and respect him? He is the fearless leader, the flawed father, the tortured soldier, and the grieving lover. He is all of these things and they make up an amazing man. He took the worst of situations and gave humanity hope. He made mistakes and let his emotions get in the way - essentially, he is human.