Fairy Tale Fridays - Some Fun Stuff

Thanks to Rhapsody Jill for bringing the photography of Colon, Germany-based photographer Kilian Schönberger to my attention. Schönberger has produced a series of photographs called Brothers Grimm's Homeland that perfectly capture the dark, foggy atmosphere that no doubt inspired the stories that Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected. Looking at Schönberger's photos, you can easily see how people could imagine a wolf skulking around ready to eat up your grandmother or a cottage where seven little men will provide shelter for a girl on the run from a wicked stepmother and her enchanted mirror.

I've seen a lot of fairy tale-based products in the past few years - books, movies, toys, jewelry, stamps, and clothing. But I was surprised to recently find that there is a business in Loveland, Colorado called Grimm Brothers Brewhouse. The names of their beers are based on fairy tales and fairy tale characters and all of their marketing ties to the fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm and the region those tales were found in. Beer. Who woulda thunk it?

Speaking of fairy tale products, did you know that there's actually an eggplant called a Fairy Tale Eggplant? Burpees sells the seeds. I don't even like eggplant but I'm tempted to try growing some of these. Bon Appetit has a recipe for beer battering them. Perhaps I could try some Fairy Tale eggplant in a Snow Drop beer batter? I just might like that!

Blogger Tim Manley, of the tumblr blog "fairy tales for twenty-somethings," has written a book titled Alice in tumblr-Land and Other Fairy Tales for a New Generation. I am clearly not the target audience for this book (not, as you know, being of a "new generation"). On the other hand, I am fairly addicted to all things internet so I think I could appreciate a book where the Tortoise and the Hare Facebook stalk each other rather than actually race and Peter Pan finally has to grow up and get a job or at least start paying his parents rent. Y'all know how much I love satire! Here Manley writes about the book for The Huffington Post. "As a child, fairy tales were how I made sense of the world--a dream of becoming an apple salesman could only come from a kid who really believed anything was possible."