Thoughts Amongst Wanderers: Part 2

Misfit Musings on Wanderlust: KJ

I was going to respond point by point to B’s lovely and eloquent essay about the romanticism of road trips, and about what I think is Rob’s public (and quite clever) quest in declaring his affection for Kristen while also showing appreciation to fans. But quite honestly, Bouffant has an ability unlike my own to be succinct and still contemplative and impassioned. So I will leave it be. Originally, I planned to talk a little about some of my experiences traveling on the road, and tell you how my first road trip as an "adult" occurred when I was 18 years old. I had traveled many times with the family when I was younger, in the station wagon. Saw Yellowstone, bits of Colorado and Montana...But this was the first time it was my trip.

A girlfriend and I hopped into the car and made the infamous (and famous) drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco, split across a couple days. Clam chowder, breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean, Cheetos, cigarettes and Johnny Cash's heartbreak were our companions...Not only was I a thirsty, insatiable girl, eager for adventure, but I desired clarity, and first-hand experience of moving towards unfamiliar territory, outside my usual comforts. So I had hoped touch upon Jung's Archetypes and shed some light on that insatiable thirst I spoke about...to maybe apply to Rob's journey towards his girl..

That's me. Taking a picture. Along the Carmel Coast.

In her book, The Hero Within, author and scholar Carol Pearson takes the basic tenants of Jung’s archetypes and helps readrs see how our "collective unconscious" informs and frames our current stories/patterns of behaviors. Carl Jung, the famous psychoanalyst and thinker, postulated that we humans are framed by and follow deep and abiding patterns, called Archetypes. Archetypes are found everywhere, in dreams, art, literature, and mythology…

Have I lost you?

Are you wandering around in this French Maze?

Let me try to focus a bit. Pearson dubs folks like me..and probably Rob and probably you my rabble rousers, as Wanderers. We're not always one with our Wanderer Archetype, plus we may actually visit this Archetypal stage several times in and out of transitions with different archetypes. 

Wanderers choose to leave behind the unknown and standard, for the unknown and the extraordinary. In other words...Wanderers, (rebels) choose Other. They are compelled towards adventure and journeying for clarification and first hand experience, which I believe Mr Pattinson and his bandit Britpack are currently in the midst of. I, a fellow wanderer and Other am stationed along the road cheering them on, personally.

I'm gonna ride it, all night long...

As I was saying, I was going to go into detail about roadtripping, Archetypes, and Wanderers. But then my beloved grandmother went in for an unexpected quadruple bypass surgery on Tuesday morning. My adored brother Chew went into the ER for an assessment of unexpected blood clotting yesterday, and this all occurred while I was trying to organize a business plan, website and sole proprietorship of the Magical Little Practice. Suffice to say, I dropped everything this week so I could address these urgent matters of my heart..of Family Other. I did not get to develop my thoughts as wholly as I would have liked. Bouffant, the Goddess she is, stepped in and wrote some of her Musings down. *Please refer to the beautiful, articulate and sensical first half of this essay. * Quite honestly, when it comes down to it: What is the biggest source and motivator of all? Why drive across country? Why drop everything you've had planned to rush to hospital bed-sides?

At least I formulated a response to B's beautiful Musings... I agree. This is the loudest NONVERBAL CONFIRMATION we may ever receive regarding Rob and Kristen’s private relationship. They both have consistently expressed their wishes to keep their personal lives and their relationship off the table. They also have both publicly expressed their affection and gratitude to their fans (perhaps not the clingy ones who make threats and rip off arm hair), and their disdain of the paparazzi and media outlets who aim to make a profit off of their likenesses, and their personal lives. The solution? A road trip, through the U.S.’s southern towns, where there is little chance of Vultures awaiting their arrival at off-the-beaten-path watering holes. Instead, kind and welcoming locals, greet the boys with their warm smiles and BBQ platters and opportunities for karaoke wishes to come true. And jam sessions with fiddle players?? COME THE FUCK ON?! How could you turn down that kind of opportunity? That sounds like a riotously good time to me! I have a feeling our Featured Rebel Royals this week would be fantastic Road Trip mates. 

An impromptu jam session in a Houston bar have never looked so pretty

Featured Rebel Royal: Carey Mulligan

The lovely Ms Mulligan is a 25 year old actress from London, England. A self admitted "Shy tomboy", Carey debuted her acting career in the beautiful film adaption of a favorite Austen Classic, Pride and Prejudice as Kitty when she was just eighteen years old. She confesses to having little interest in acting before she was 15 years old instead more compelled by academics and reporting being quite content to serve as audience to Broadway shows in New York, as her mother would encourage Carey and her siblings to appreciate art in all its incarnations. She saw her older brother Owain performing in a school play, a version of The King & I, and realized in that moment acting "is all I've ever wanted to do", her realization dawning when she felt devastation at not sharing the stage with her brother. In 2007, Carey garnered massive critical acclaim in portrayal of Nina in the play The Seagull, in which theater critics proclaimed her performance as "extraordinarily radiating" and "almost unbearably affecting". Pretty impressive accolades for a young Royal-in-Training sharing the stage with well known and prestigious actors such as Kristen Scott Thomas and Chiwetel Ejiofor. 

When Carey traveled with The Seagull to Broadway to reprise her role, she received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Best Actress. Looks like our shy tomboy caused a stir among her peers in 2007, but she had already filmed the seminal role as Jenny in The Education over a year earlier. 

In this movie Carey portrayed a precocious and impressionable 16-yr-old schoolgirl falling for the charms of a con man. With this role, Ms. Mulligan snagged the attention of the film world. This role also bestowed upon her critical acclaim and nominations from The Academy Awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press and the Screen Actors' Guild. She received the Best Actress BAFTA award on the same night that our Reigning Other Queen Kristen Stewart received her Orange Rising Star Award. 

Much like her fellow Rebel Queen Kristen, Carey exudes a refreshing vivacity that allows her to stand apart from her contemporaries, and even measure up to her predecessors. She emanates an effortless poise and grace (she has been likened to the incomparable Audrey Hepburn) while simultaneously remaining unaffected by the fame game and the burgeoning interest in her by the Hollywood Media Machine.

Again, like her peer and friend Queen Kristen, Carey prefers to keep her private life to herself, rarely if ever speaking about her relationship with actor Shia LeBeouf, whom she met when working with him in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, telling Vogue for their October issue on which Carey is the CoverGirl:

"Posing on the red carpet feels like you're selling something that has nothing to do with you. It's like we're saying 'Oh! We come as a pair! Would you like to buy both of us? We're available for weddings and Bar Mitzvahs!'"

Carey is devastatingly gifted in her craft, abundantly charming, but she carries herself in a way that is unassuming and humble. She defies all the antiquated standards prescribed to her by a surreal Hollywood. She has a great fondness for the show Glee (as do I), though when she wanted to do a cameo for the musical show, she was told she was "not famous enough". (And now Glee has slipped a little in my eyes). Undeterred, she continues to march to the Rebel beat in a variety of ways: preferring supportive film roles over lead roles; refusing participation in competition; denouncing adherence to the industry's perspective on body image. "I don't want to look like an actress; I want to look like a person!" She tells Vogue. Darling, you do. You look like a Royal Rebel kinda person, but a person all the same. And she has a new independent movie with Ryan Gosling and Christina Hendricks--two previously Featured Royal Rebels!!-- in the works. I say girlfriend is coasting brilliantly on her journey.

Offenses of Otherness:

*Refuses to sell herself or relationships as product

*Admittedly fears the idea of being "known"

*Prefers supporting roles to lead roles

Reigning Other Queen: Kristen Stewart

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...While Rob makes his way across the south toward his Other Queen, her majesty has maintained a rather low profile, which is exactly how she prefers it. She is in New Orleans, preparing for her scenes with the incomparably talented actors Viggo Mortensen, Amy Adams and Elizabeth Moss (from Mad Men). The last documented pictures of her boast my favorite Kristen candid that I’ve seen in a long while:

While our Queen is off being professional, dedicated and effortlessly sexy, a previously well-enough liked actor and former co-star of Ms Stewart did some apologizing. In an interview with director/writer Diablo Cody,  

Adam Brody implied that our humble, though often misunderstood Other Queen should quit acting ("here's the door") if she "moans all the time" about being a "celebrity" [which she doesn't, we all know this]. Of course, his less than flattering remarks triggered the Anti-Brody campaign and I can only imagine the badgering and backlash he received from Kristen fans (we tend to be locquacious and passionate in defense of our Stewie, legit), Adam issued an honest statement in response. "I sounded like an idiot...I sounded like a jackass...I sounded ungentlemanly." All the while, our girl is happily unaffected by her former co-star's unfavorable verbal vomit, because she is busy. Working. She is  an integral part of an already legendary film production, produced by the great Francis For Coppola, folks.  She is gathering an impressive bevy of colleagues and legends in her craft expressing admiration and praise for the "unique", "insanely gifted actress". Industry giants such as Sean Penn, Bruce Dern, Melissa Leo, Jody Foster and Sandra Bullock proclaim their fascination and compliments of  our Royal Rebel Kristen. And she has a fellow Wanderer, a Nomadic Trailblazer publicly driving across the country to spend some time with her. It's why she is Queen, everyone. Just so you know.

Offenses of Otherness:

*Refuses to sell herself or relationships as product

*Declines the label of being "celebrity"

*Chooses roles of broken, imperfect, flawed Wanderers

Because he and his boys hopped in a car to seek clarity, experience and perhaps give the most public verbalization of his devotion to Queen Kristen, Rob is in a suit and donning a crown on the Royal Float.

Because she doesn't let Glee determine whether she is truly famous enough, Carey is Rebel Royalty personified.

Because she is effortless, calm, poised and unaffected by a former colleague's misinformed verbiage, immersed in work she finds valuable and unique, Kristen is our Reigning Other Queen.

Carey is Other.

Kristen is Other.

Others are compelled towards adventures

of the Unknown and Extraordinary.

Embrace your Other.

Question: Tell me about your extraordinary compulsions. How have you "pulled a Rebel Rob" and hit the road seeking Adventure and Love?

A/N: Short one, for I'm exhausted. At the time of writing this, there was a house explosion and fire in my old neighborhood. Tweets, calls, texts came pouring in checking on me. It would have been a shitty shitty week if I had an exploding house too, but thank you so much for checking, my friends. THANK YOU. Family Other is ok. No more ICU stays or ER visits this week. I'm just home with yet another painful head cold. But I am blessed. 

**Sisters/Readers, Kathryn, ProRobsten, bouffant, Bellasmummy86, JolieJessa, Julie, Buff and CC: You Sustained me this week.**

MUSICAL A/N: Music is such an essential part of my life, as it is for Musings. I know each week I change the playlist, so we don't get a chance to revel in some of the fantastic songs placed on here for more than a week at a time. I'm compiling a MusingsOnOther Soundtrack and may include my own contribution, if I can get my hands on the proper permissions (the engineer/recorder is the only one who has an accessible copy). I'd like to give away copies of the Soundtrack once finalized, to readers/commenters. Should be available very soon. Keep checking back, mmmkay? 

HOUSEKEEPING A/N: Because I've had an increasingly difficult time with this current host: BLOGGER, I will most likely be moving. Stay tuned, as Team Other packs up and makes way to a new, easier, prettier web domain. Again, I'll keep you posted. 

As Always, you all are pretty freakin fantastic. I love hearing from you. Your emails, tweets, and comments make my life. Truly this is an incredible community. See you next week. Yours, KJ