Pullman movies? and whimsical weddings

[Tabouli]

Ahaaa, just got the following Ananova announcement:

http://www.ananova.com/yournews/story/sm_589978.html

...announcing the upcoming conversion of the Pullman books (which I still haven't read) into films... by Tom Stoppard!  Well, well.

In other news, collected my probable wedding witness outfit today (what exactly does a witness *do* at a wedding besides watch them sign the papers?), and was amused when it turned out to be very Potterpropriate... a deep blue cheongsam emblazoned with gold phoenixes!

I'm deciding to read it as an impending Book 5 omen.  (I also plan to employ its impeccable Chineseness during future attacks of Oriental mystique, though my hair always lets the side down by being *impossible* to put up using chopsticks).

To muse briefly once more on interracial marriages, one thing I've noticed is that in all the Eurasian weddings I've been to (and I've been to lots) the Asian representative has gone completely gung-ho on the ol' traditional wedding front.  Yes, marry 'em to a white Westerner, and they're falling over themselves to wear saris and cheongsams, incorporate traditional ceremonies and customs, etc.etc.etc.  My Swiss-Chinese friend is marrying a Frenchman and going the whole Chinese hog: wearing a red cheongsam and dressing me in one as well, tea ceremony, red packet, the tests of fidelity and fertility, the Chinese drinking chants, Chinese food at the reception, double happiness symbols, the lot.

OTOH, the Asian-Asian weddings I've attended or heard about seem to shy away from such stuff.  White wedding dress, Western food, Western vows: the only concession seems to be simultaneously translating the service into the appropriate language for non-English speaking relatives.

Most interesting.  Myself, I'm all for a bit of spicing up the wedding ceremony.  The last one I went to was more like a concert, with singing performances and all manner of things.

How about the rest of you merry OT types?  Any weird and wonderful weddings you've been to, either your own or other people's?  Surely you SCA types must have a few interesting medieval wedding tales to tell, for example, and we must have some people here from places with wedding customs little known to most of us.

A nice bridal thread, that's what we need...

Tabouli.


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