Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Weds. Apr. 21, 2010 5:30 am

Have you been watching the Showtime® series “The Tudors” at all? Our son, Robby, got us hooked on it, so every night Hubby and I flip on the “On Demand” channel and watch another episode right after dinner. We’re both history buffs but had never really concentrated on this period at all (early to mid-1500’s). I had actually stayed away from it intentionally, convinced that it was just too gruesome and barbaric for me to handle, wimp that I am when it comes to violence. (or more politely put, “pacifist” that I am…). Well, as you all may already know, the reign of King Henry VIII was indeed both gruesome and barbaric. At the same time, the writers, actors, director, producers, etc. that put together this series have succeeded in so fully developing each of the characters in such depth that it transcends the initial revulsion and in turn becomes an incredibly character study of these historic figures.

The Tudor’s television series has stirred up my pre-existing fascination with people who on one hand can give the appearance of great tenderness and caring and passionate beliefs and loyalties yet are in fact, completely self-centered, manipulative, amoral shells who will stop at nothing to get their way no matter how petty the basis for their desires may be and no matter who may be harmed or destroyed as a result. It is bad enough having to deal with one who is a Malignant Narcissist when that person is just a so-called “ordinary” person in your life – but to have such people in charge of your country and your church where they are free to exert such complete, unrestrained power over everyone’s life without any clear earthly consequence (for them), is terrifying. I have a hard time imagining what it feels like inside to be such a person. I could not live with myself if I were to do such cruel and arbitrary things to another human being no matter how much I may dislike a person, but my psychologist tells me that people such as Henry VIII, generally sleep just fine at night because they are convinced that they have done nothing wrong. I’ll take his word for it but it’s just so difficult to truly fathom.

Well, despite all of horrors of King Henry VIII’s reign, which this series portrays just as much of the gore as is necessary without glorifying it or making it a focal point, I do highly recommend watching “The Tudor’s”. On top of the depth of the production, the actors are all well cast and excellent, the costumes are incredible, the lighting and set-design very authentic, and I just love the theme music.

As for this early morning’s offering of images for use as icons or clip art, there is no Tudor tie-in (sorry, maybe I'll do that sometime in the future). What I do have for you though is an updated version of one of my older icon series (created in 2004), that was entitled “Melamine”. The original is still available through a link on my Scrapblog. This updated version, “Neue Melamine” is not only larger (512×512 px vs 128×128) but has a few other enhancements to the images as well. For those who think that anything with the look of plastic or 3D-gloss is out-dated and undesirable – you probably won’t be happy with this set. Personally, I still like the look as it is very easy for my old chemo-ravaged eyes to decipher at a quick glance. So for those of you who appreciate this aspect, Enjoy!

Free Icons of the Day

The following images are either full or reduced size previews. Simply right-click (or control-click) on the preview to save the image(s) of your choice to your desktop. (Unless otherwise noted, downloads are 512px X 512px in .png format). As always, usage of any of the images offered on this blog are free for your personal use while subject to the limitations of my Creative Commons Non-Commercial – Attribution – No Derivatives – Share Alike- 3.0 license. (See sidebar for details)

“NEUE MELAMINE” —- TO BE CONTINUED… —-