Thursday Thirteen - 217 - 13 Eye Candy T13s

Here's a look back at some of the rather distracting Eye Candy Series that appears from time to time at A Piece of My Mind.


1 - 13 Ways to Admire Jensen Ackles










2 - 13 More Ways to Admire Richard Armitage











3 - 13 Ways to Say Happy 40th Birthday to Gerard Butler







4 - 13 Ways to Admire Michael Fassbender











5 - 13 Ways to Admire Tom Hardy









6 - 13 Ways to Admire Djimon Hounsou











7 - 13 Ways to Admire Konstantin Khabensky







8 - 13 Ways to Admire Lenny Kravitz









9 - 13 Ways to Admire Jared Padalecki













10 - 13 Ways to Admire Alexander Skarsgård











11 - 13 Ways to Admire Kevin Smith









12 - 13 Ways to Admire Kevin Sorbo









13 - A double holiday round-up!

Since I'm a dual citizen of Canada and the US, and since I'll be celebrating Canada Day in New York, and the 4th of July in Nova Scotia, here are two tributes to the hotties of my two nations. Enjoy.


13 of my Favourite Canadian Hotties in Honour of Canada Day








13 of my Favorite American Hotties in Honor of the 4th of July

5 on Friday - Set 68

Travis at Trav's Thoughts invites everyone to lay down a short set of music that takes their fancies for his 5 on Friday meme.

Which takes us to my Supernatural obsession, which knows no bounds.

Season 6 just finished airing, and I'm still trying to process what happened.

*insert Luke Skywalker "No!"*

Since it's on my mind, here are five of my favorite Supernatural fan videos from my You Tube playlist.

Can you tell I'm a Dean Girl?

WARNING: violent images / screams / series spoilers if you haven't watched it yet

1 - Somewhere a Clock is Ticking - Snow Patrol



2 - Don't Let the Darkness Eat You Up - Jose Gonzalez



3 - Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad? - Moby



4 - Imagine - A Perfect Circle



5 - New Divide - Linkin Park

Through the Opera Glasses - 69 - A Very Supernatural Christmas

Happy New Year!

My husband and I have just returned from a wonderful Christmas and New Year's holiday with his family in Toronto. More on that later in the week. I'll be putting my Eye Candy Thursday Thirteen series on hold for a few weeks in order to share our trip and other goodies with you, so do drop by on Thursday if you'd like to see what we got up to in the Big City.

Christmas money sent us dashing off to our favorite haunts, and because we're currently in the midst of a Supernatural obsession, we ended up with what you see here in our luggage:

















Gift cards for Chapters brought Supernatural companions for seasons 3, 4 and 5.

The Boxing Day blowout sale at Wal Mart got us the DVD box sets for seasons 1, 2 and 3.

And a last hurrah at HMV found the missing season 4 that was nowhere to be found at Wal Mart.










Now I can get my daily dose of Dean and Sam any time I want. My muse is currently very insistent on daily Dean and Sam.


















Did you indulge in any book/movie/TV/music obsessions this Christmas?

Announcing:

This year A Piece of My Mind will be changing up a few features. One of them is posting every second week for Poetry Train Monday, alternating with Through the Opera Glasses, which used to appear on Tuesday's.

Thursday Thirteen - 185 - 13 Ways to Admire Jensen Ackles

1 - A chiseled face with a beautiful mouth, eyes that don't miss a thing and reveal so much, and an attitude that can't be harnessed - Jensen Ackles was obviously born to share his many attributes with far more than the hometown crowd.


















2 - Jensen Ackles - currently appearing as Dean Winchester on Supernatural

6' 1"

Eyes - Hazel/green

Hair - Dark blonde

Type - Athletic / Early 30's

He works as an actor / Director / Producer

Works in television / Film / Stage


















3 - Jensen grew up in Richardson, Texas, the son of actor Alan Ackles. He modelled as a young boy and moved into acting for television after graduating from school.

He worked steadily, receiving Daytime Emmy nominations for his work on Days of Our Lives. Aside from appearances on Dawson's Creek, most of Jensen's work has been in the science fiction / paranormal genre:

Dark Angel
Smallville
Supernatural
My Bloody Valentine remake

Next photo is straying into Not Safe For Work territory...























4 - Jensen keeps in tiptop shape for the grueling stunt schedule required of his role on Supernatural. A strong sports background almost led to a career in sports medicine.

Luckily for us, the acting genes won out.



























5 - No matter how delicious Mr. Ackles may be, he's strictly eye candy, ladies - he belongs to Mrs. Ackles, Louisiana-born actress Danneel Harris.

Also a former model and gymnast, Danneel met Jensen on the set of Ten Inch Hero, an independent film they made in 2007.














6 - Jensen has appeared for the past six seasons as older Winchester brother Dean. Along with his younger brother Sam, he follows in the footsteps of his father, a hunter of the paranormal. When vengeful spirits, ghouls, angry pagan gods and all manner of gruesome beasts start taking down humans, the Winchesters step in and start taking down monsters.














7 - I have to admit I love Dean's stare-down-authority expression, whether he's challenging his own father (above) or a scary angel (below.)














8 - I also love Dean's serious relationship with his car, a black four-door hardtop 1967 Chevy Impala. I think it's the longest and most intimate relationship he's ever had, other than his relationship with Sam.













9 - Remember my soft spot for a man in chains?

...well...

Supernatural gives us a tied-up Dean with wonderful regularity.





















10 - I'm also quite fond of Dean's taking-the-shot expression.











11 - But it's his tormented hero expressions that really do the trick for me.

Since most of my own fictional characters wear this expression at some point in my stories, I adore discovering an actor who captures it so well.

CLICK HERE to watch clip











12 - And Jensen is an awesome crier.

CLICK HERE to watch clip



















13 - Sharing a laugh with Supernatural co-star Jared Padalecki


Here's a bit of levity from the Supernatural set:

During the shoot for the Yellow Fever episode in Season 4, one of the producers encouraged Jared to miss his cue on purpose. The producer let the cameras roll while the audio playback of Eye of the Tiger, needed for the scene, blared over the location. Jensen lay out of sight on the front seat of the Impala, waiting for Jared, assuming the scene was in progress.

Keep in mind that in the world of television and film production, the actors - once embarked on a scene - must continue until they hear the word 'cut', and only from the director. Because time is money - a lot of money - on a set, when a scene is somewhat bumpy, the director will often leave the cameras rolling and tell the actors to regroup into a second or even third take in a row without stopping, as it's less expensive than calling 'cut' and doing a new set-up for a new take.

TV actors in particular get used to this shake-it-off-and-keep-going mentality. It requires the quick thinking of improv skills and is highly-valued by the studios.

In the case of the Yellow Fever shoot, the producer made the call to spend money on preventing Jared from picking up his cue in order to see if Jensen would give them something for the gag reel.

Here is what happened:

CLICK HERE to watch the clip

5 on Friday - Set 35

Travis at Trav's Thoughts invites everyone to lay down a short set of music that takes their fancies for his 5 on Friday meme.

As I mentioned on last week's Popculturedivas post, I'm currently and very happily under the spell of Supernatural. One of the strongest elements of the show is its use of classic rock tunes in the soundtrack.

And not covers. No, these are the original tunes by the original artists. Right away I wondered how they ever managed to pull off something so expensive. But when I realized that one of the executive producers, McG, is a former record producer, it all made marvelous sense.

So to continue my spooky October theme, here are five signature tunes used on Supernatural - often more than once - along with some rockin' fan fids that give a good sense of the show.

Keep in mind there are numerous frightening scenes included in these vids.

1 - Oh, Death - Jen Titus

Oh, Death
Won't you spare me over another year?

When God is gone and the Devil takes hold
Who'll have mercy on your soul?

Oh, Death

No wealth, no ruin, no silver, no gold
Nothing satisfies me but your soul

Oh, Death

Well I am Death, none can excel
I'll open the door to Heaven or Hell

- Jen Titus



2 - Carry On, My Wayward Son - Kansas

Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more

- Kerry Livgren



3 - Highway to Hell - AC/DC

No stop signs, speed limit
Nobody's gonna slow me down
Like a wheel, gonna spin it
Nobody's gonna mess me round

Hey Satan, paid my dues
Playing in a rockin band
Hey Mama, look at me
I'm on my way to the promised land

I'm on the highway to Hell
Highway to Hell

- Bon Scott / Angus Young / Malcolm Young

CLICK HERE to watch the clip











4 - Back in Black - AC/DC

Back in black
I hit the sack
I've been too long, I'm glad to be back

Yes I'm let loose
From the noose
That's kept me hanging about

I keep looking at the sky
Cause it's gettin' me high
Forget the hearse, cause I'll never die

I got nine lives
Cat's eyes
Usin' every one of them and runnin' wild

Cause I'm back
Yes, I'm back
I'm back in black

- Brian Johnson / Angus Young / Malcolm Young



5 - Rock of Ages - Def Leppard

Alright
I got something to say

Yeah, it's better to burn out
Than fade away
Alright
Gonna start a fire
Come on

Rock of ages
Rock of ages
Still rollin'
Keep a-rollin'

- Allen / Clark / Elliott / Lange / Savage / Willis

Through the Opera Glasses - 13 - Actors' Sexualization Versus Talent, Part 2

Last week I looked at high profile, cerebral actors and actresses - and how easy it was to locate super-hot sexy shots of the actresses. But not the actors. I wondered whether the actresses felt the need to portray themselves as highly sexualized, even though five of the six women are Oscar winners, and the sixth (Julianne Moore) has been nominated for an Academy Award four times.

On the other hand, I also wondered if these women felt that they had every right to be sexy, especially since most of their film roles were not. A revenge-of-the-nerdy-girls kind of thing.

This week, I'm looking at a different group of actors and actresses. These are the acknowleged hotties.

I'll start with the actresses.


Jessica Alba
















Kate Beckinsale
















Jessica Biel












Angelina Jolie
















Eva Longoria
















Eva Mendes










Among this group of women, the only Oscar winner is Angelina Jolie. Other major award winners in this group are:

Kate Beckinsale - London Critics Circle Film Award

Jessica Biel - ShoWest Star of Tomorrow Award 2005

Eva Longoria - Screen Actors Guild Award

The obvious question arises: are these actresses not taken seriously because they showcase their beauty and sexuality? Every one of them have an edgy film in their CV's (the showbiz resume) - except for Eva Longoria, who has an edgy TV show instead.

Jessica Alba - Sin City - directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller

Kate Beckinsale - Winged Creatures - directed by Rowan Woods

Jessica Biel - The Illusionist - directed by Neil Burger

Angelina Jolie - A Mighty Heart - directed by Michael Winterbottom

Eva Longoria - Desperate Housewives - created by Marc Cherry

Eva Mendes - Once Upon a Time in Mexico - Robert Rodriguez

Now, let's have a look at the hottie men. Last week I could barely find a shirt-opened-to-expose-some-chest shots of the actors. This week...easy peasy!


Jensen Ackles










Jamie Bamber













Vin Diesel
















Josh Holloway
















Dwayne Johnson
















Jason Statham












What do we make of our men here? Are they merely brawny, not capable of being brainy?

Half of these actors are television actors. Half of them are action film stars. Believe it or not, the roughest-toughest of them - Vin Diesel - is also a writer, a director and a producer.

Do you suppose the hottie men will have their chance to give outstanding performances in cutting-edge films? In this group, surprisingly, the women hold the slight advantage over the men in the quality of roles they've been able to play. Will Josh Holloway be doomed to play good ole boys after Lost wraps? Will The Rock be forced to play Scorpion Kings, or will Dwayne Johnson find a challenging role he can truly inhabit?

Watermaid says Isn't it a question of age and the times in which we are living?

Thomma Lyn says there is an unfortunate tendency to typecast talented actors and/or actresses into "same old, same old" roles to showcase their Eye Candy Quotient instead of their acting talent.

Jeeves says these actors also become showcases.