Firebird, Not a Book

I. A Good Bad Movie

First, a mini movie review. bink and I went to see the new, final Star Wars (Rise of Skywalker) on Christmas-Eve day. I loved it!

It is not a good movie.
The first 100 of its 140 minutes follow a planet-hopping scavenger hunt. No ideas– or character development. The opposite, in fact:
Despite having shown us that the ranks of the white-armored storm troopers are made up of children and civilians forced into service, Our Heroes continue to slaughter them with glee.

Some of it is even execrable. Violence appears to be the only solution the Good Guys have, because, you see, the Bad Guys are Pure Evil.
A dead-ended and self-perpetuating pov.

So why did I love it?
The last twenty minutes wrapping up the whole nine yards were great and the conclusion was just what I would want.

VAGUE SPOILER:

***

In the resolution, the white-garbed hero, Rey, and the black-garbed villain, Kylo Ren, curl together into a yin/yang shape.

Let's see...
Yep, fan art is all over it (from way back):

But the union of male & female (etc.) is not the point--in the end, Rey has found/chosen her family, but she stands alone.

Rey reminds me of Red Hair Girl:
She is never secondary, never a sidekick, and she never melts into a puddle of need. She shows her emotions––she's afraid, confused, sad––but she's always dignified too, never the perky-quirky comic relief––no Hermione that way, or even Princess Leia.

(This reminds me of how I felt about Black Panther (2018):
surprised at how grateful I was for a story, even a not-very-good one, about a black hero--a black world--that is not a shadow, even an admirable one, of the white world. Big Boss had told me he'd cried watching that movie, and I can see why.)

II. Fly High Like a Fire Bird up in the Sky

Yesterday at the thrift store I bought a painted Russian box showing a red-hair girl being lifted up by (or turning into) a firebird. *
(The box is as tall as my hand, from wrist to extended fingers.)

I say "a" red-hair girl, but to me this is my Red Hair Girl, the one who left in September. 
A while ago, Low, who is in some psychic connection with RHG, let me know that RHG is in the Yukon (!). She traveled the Alaska Highway with the companionship of stoats and minks.

There was no mention of firebirds, but I wonder now if she has met one... Perhaps she will travel on as a bird across the Bering Strait to Russia.
Who knows? She is the most surprising of the girlettes.

III. Girlettes: NOT a Book 

bink got me the best Christmas present: a printed photo album of the girlettes!

bink was so smart to know the girlettes do NOT want to be characters in a storybook, as some well-meaning people have suggested.
"We are not characters," they say. "We are real."

Here's one of the interior spreads--from last Christmas, SweePo, Penny Cooper, and Red Hair Girl dressed as the Three Wise Men by bink, my sister, and me):

(Mz was wearing a Kirk T-shirt--that's where his face comes from.)
______________

* I found a reference for the scene on the box--the girlette is the prince from the tale "Prince Ivan and the Firebird" that inspired Stravinsky's Firebird.
From Wikipedia: 

"Ivan chases and captures the Firebird and is about to kill her; she begs for her life and he spares her.
As a token of thanks, she offers him an enchanted feather that he can use to summon her should he be in dire need."

Leon Bakst designed the costumes for Stravinsky. 
 Hm. Maybe bink, sister, & I could create a Firebird tableaux next...

Bakst's Firebird, prince, and princess, 1910:

These Russian boxes are expensive--this one has more complexity than the photo shows. The housewares dept. priced it $4.99. Usually when they've priced something way too low, I reprice it.
In this case, I bought it.