They're making a film adaption of A Game of Thrones!! My favourite fantasy series of recent years- it keep surprising you, and never really gets predictable (at least not yet)!
And...
They're casting Sean Bean as the totally adorable Ned Stark!!
This had better happen now- I'm far too excited at the prospect and can't wait to see who else they cast. I'd also better finally buy my copy of A Feast for Crows... I've only had it reserved for months.
Two different people have recommended them, but neither have seen both to say which they prefer. Anyone seen them? I'm thinking of getting the 2003 BG miniseries for a start (I presume that's where to begin)... but then BG turns into a regular many-season series, whereas if I went for Firefly there's only the one series and the film Serenity. At least- that's the impression I got from Amazon and co.
And yes, this sudden desire for new science fiction may well be the Doctor's fault (not to mention the Master's... I'd just about convinced myself that we wouldn't be seeing him for at least a couple of series, and now this. My brain tells me not to hope 'it's a trap!' it says, especially as many people on DWF seem to have come to the same conclusion... often as not that's the sign of a cunning RTD trap. But who else knocks four times? And he might just bring Gallifrey with him. That would be an interesting start for the new boy).
Blimey... I'll have one of those thanks! I suspect it would cost quite a few t-shirts, if indeed it's ever sold.
Also, does anyone know what Twitter actually is? As far as I can make out it's a glorified 'my status is...' application, like that irritating thing at the top of profiles in facebook. I signed up with the vague idea of using it to post quick updates on things made, whether they're t-shirts, sewings, models or masks, as dedicating a whole lj entry to 'yep... still adding layers of gloop to the whatsit' seems more than a tad silly... and therefore a perfect match for the trivial world of Twitter.
Of course, I could be completely wrong. I'll take plenty of supplies and some good hacking and slashing devices, and report back if I make it out alive.
Recently I keep thinking about getting hair falls. I like the look of them on other (more impressively made-up) people, and I'd love to just try some on to see what they look like. I'm a bit undecided about colours though. I'm going to re-henna my hair... what would go with ginger-ish? It's not something I've ever really considered. Possibly green, or red/black? In the hope of finding out, I tracked down one of the very few alternative clothing shops in Ipswich yesterday to see what they'd got. It turned out that all they had was 5 pieces of plastic and net sewn onto a hairband- no sign of the nice bulky wooly ones.
I've obviously been looking at pretties online too much. I'm rather taken with steampunk at the moment... With goodies like this, this, and these, who wouldn't be?
Thanks, Neil, for pointing out more things I need to spend my money on. Who Killed Amanda Palmer looks very jolly indeed:
He always seems to know/meet the most interesting people... I have a theory that there's some kind of secret society for all the people in my fandoms where they get together and plot ways to kill us all with obsessive joy.
On an even more positive note, at 2am last night I had a vision of a very nice mask, and worked out how I might construct it- all I need is a blender and some more glass paint.
I also decided that what I really need to do this week is set up an Evil Genius Appreciation Society online (I'm sure it's not just me who loves Erik, Jareth, Hannibal, the Master, Steerpike, Darth Vader, etc), and thought of a great many ways to do so.
An (almost) complete short film also played through my head, involving masked wild things creeping around the edges of shots, set in a series of abandoned buildings. It was all about the slow, creeping, destructive side of nature claiming places back: trees breaking up old runways, grass growing over disused military bunkers, moss covering a decaying petrol station, all with these disconcerting masked things blending in, then moving suddenly in animal-like ways.
I was pleasantly surprised when I woke up this morning to find that some of the above still seem like good ideas (though I do wish I'd managed a few more hours sleep).
We have foxies living in the garden! Three of 'em (I think it's one adult and two little ones), just before I move out too! Hopefully that means they'll have a nice undisturbed summer here 'til the next tennants move in. Unfortunately I suspect that the landlord will want to clear the garden before then.
There's one lying in the sun looking at me right now.
I've also been on a rabbit-photography mission around campus before I leave, but I won't bore you with all those.
Silence in the Library, Here if you haven't seen it.
I have one big complaint about this story: I have to wait a whole week to see the next part. That's a whole week of bursting at the seams with uncontrollable grins, yet desperately trying to avoid spoilers (the Star & Sun are at it already: not 10 minutes after finishing watching the episode I stumbled across one biggie on the forum [serves me right, really]. Normally they're very good at keeping spoilers elsewhere).
I'd like to restate the obvious: Steven Moffat is fantastic.
I'm sure he purposefully sets out to scare children, and suceeds so well that he scares everyone else as well. The things that scare us when we're little never really go away, especially if you've got a good imagination, and there've always been monsters in the shadows for me.
"What works for Doctor Who is you take things from the real world and twist them a bit. It's like a fairytale in that sense. I don't mean a fairytale in that sense of something light and fluffy, I mean a fairytale in the sense of something twisted and dark". So sayeth The Moff, as if I needed more confirmation that the series is going to be in good hands.
And the best bit is: much of next week is going to be spent in a library... and I doubt many other people will be there, as most have finished their exams by now. Hoorah!
Maybe starting internet rumours isn't as hard as I supposed. After Neil answered my question about him possibly writing an episode for Doctor Who, I went and mentioned it on DWF, pointing out that he didn't really answer the question, but wouldn't it be cool if.
A few days later, and it's being reported at Lying In The Gutters, the forum news page, (and, according to Neil, on 'Aint It Cool News' though I'm darned if I can find a mention of it), and transforming along the way from "well, he didn't say no", to "Neil Gaiman has been hired to write for DW in 2010", and him subsequently bombarded with many an e-mail asking why he doesn't announce it propely on his blog.
Apparently it's got to the point where he's had to post a response in the form of "if it ever gets to the point where I know that I'm actually, definitely, for certain, writing an episode of Doctor Who, I'll post it here. In big red letters. Or green. You'll know when it happens, trust me. I may even get Maddy to write the entry for me, and include photographs of cats doing amusing things in it. It'll be a proper blog post. Promise."
(of course, I would point out that this doesn't mean he & the Moff haven't discussed or thought about it... just that it's not confirmed)
Some other fan would have asked exactly the same question if I hadn't. It just shows how amazing the internet is at warping what people say, trying to make a story out of nothing, or to get an exclusive first report on something that hasn't even started existing yet.
I half feel like drafting up a rumour about the three DW specials coming up next year, and seeing what happens. I'm afraid I'm far too nice to do that though!
Can I take the fact that Neil Gaiman responded to my question, yet sneakily completely avoided answering it, as a good sign? If there were no such plans... might he not just have said 'unfortunately no' outright?
I'm trying my hardest not to squee myself to bits.
Steven Moffat is one of my favourite television writers. He's written the episodes that I consider to be the best of the new Doctor Who series, and has come up with some truly wonderful creations: creepy children with gas mask faces, clockwork robots at a masquerade in 18th century France, and weeping angels that had me nervous walking through the local cemetary for months.
He's also written the next two episodes for the current series: creepy happenings in a library, with shadows that move. Just from the trailer I suspect I'm going to have trouble sitting in the UEA library at night after seeing it...
Anyway, the news is: he's about to take over the entire series. Chief writer and executive producer from series 5 onwards- hopefully for a long time!
Moffat said: "My entire career has been a secret plan to get this job. I applied before but I got knocked back because the BBC wanted someone else. Also I was seven."
Jane Tranter has said "Steven has a wonderful mix of being a committed Doctor Who fan and a true artist, and his plans for the next series are totally thrilling." I suspect this particular obsession isn't going away for a while!
This is disturbing news indeed... Richard Dawkins is to be appearing on Doctor Who. I can but hope they'll not turn it into a Dawkins-Worshipping episode (RTD, the head writer is an atheist and great fan of Dawkins). I have nightmarish visions of the Doctor and Dawkins 'understanding each other' and getting on like old mates, exchanging a knowing wink at the end of the episode, and a few "keep up the good work"s thrown in for good measure...
*worries*
On the whole I'm quite content to trust the writers not to do something so silly- but we all know what fandom can do to a person.
The strangest thing is that I threw this together months ago:
Despite the fact that "[Russell T Davies] didn't have the nerve to ask the professor to slip on a latex mask, it seems: Dawkins will appear as himself" I still hold out hope that the above will turn out to be true. He doesn't exactly need a mask to play Davros- he's got the frown spot on.
Anyway, this just serves me right for sneaking away from the essay and checking OutpostGallifrey.
Where possible, avoid taking your pocketwatch out in a blizzard. Especially when you forget that it is in the pocket which is gradually being covered by snow (Also- do not wait for 15 minutes at the bus stop in the midst of gale-force horizontal snow). It may cease to function properly, and cause you all kinds of trouble when you get to the library and turn off your mobile phone, then periodically check your watch for the time (it did work for a few minutes each hour, and yes, I was very tired).
That said, the library is really rather pleasant after 9pm. There's nobody else around, and I managed to spend four hours reading while thinking I'd only been there one hour.
Also, this knocks socks off Dave Prowse (at least in terms of utter abstruseness). I really really can't watch the ending with a straight face:
Also, happy birthday me. *cue small celebratory alarum*
You know that feeling when you're on the last pages of a really good book, and just don't want it to end? And once you've read that last paragraph, you wonder how on earth you're going to find anything in the same league?
I'm just here to bemoan the fact that I've just reached the end of the second, and final, series of Life on Mars. I started watching it simply because it had John Simm in it, and I wondered what his other work was like, but ended up really enjoying it, and now I don't know what to do.
*pushes piles of paper around on the floor*
I suppose I'll have to wait and hope for the new series of Doctor Who, or series 3 of Heroes. Or vaguely hope for Ashes to Ashes... but Simm has moved on, and there's some comatose replacement lady whisked off to the 80s instead.
If they have the same writers, and they're still inspired, I'm sure it'll be well worth watching. I suppose I'm just a bit annoyed about change. No, not even the change *attempts not to sound too fogeyish* rather, them trying to draw out the idea to another series, while losing and replacing key members of the cast, and swapping a few details. I liked the characters as they were, and doing this... well, it feels like a potential Star-Wars-Prequels job.
On the plus side, Philip Glenister is in it, and I've decided I like him. Mum couldn't understand why I leapt off the sofa and burst out laughing when I recognised him in Cranford last weekend. I suspect Tuesday will be one to watch for two reasons, and you don't have to be a detective to work out who they are.
In the meantime, if anyone has some terribly gripping and well written dramas they'd like to notify me about... *sigh* I suppose I really should finish these two essays before watching another entire series over a few days.
So, hoorah, I'm back temporarily on procrastination leave, and am vaguely considering making this whole scrapheap friends-only. Because all the cool kids are doing it.
There's an interesting article in the G2 this morning about an upcoming production at the Battersea Arts Centre: "The Masque of the Red Death", a combination of 10 Poes most twisted tales.
As if that wasn't enough to catch my eye, they went on to report:
"We need more taxidermy," says somebody rushing around holding a stuffed fox. A scribbled note says: "Check air quality in the crypt." More than 100 people are involved in frantically transforming this entire listed building in south London into a labyrinth of dark Parisian streets, mental asylums, charnel houses and opium dens, not forgetting the petrified forest.
It's running from the 17th September 'til the 12th Jan, so plenty of time to think about it, look in the piggy bank, wonder a little more, find something even more interesting to save for, then go at the last minute in January.
Right! Who is coming with me to see some Shakespeare? Everything looks set for David Tennant to be playing Hamlet next year... my favourite play, and need I even mention my thoughts on the actor? I know nothing about Love's Labour's Lost, but I may just go attempt to read it now.
"From July 24th until November 15th 2008, Tennant will be starring in the title role in Hamlet, alongside Patrick Stewart playing Claudius. Fans of the new series will also be excited to note that from October 2nd until November 15th 2008, Tennant will be playing Berowne in Love's Labour's Lost. Love's Labour's Lost was a major plot point in Series 3 episode The Shakespeare Code." -GallifreyOne, August 30th
I was worried about it, because chances were that if he was playing Hamlet this time next year, he wouldn't be filming series 5 of Doctor Who. The most likely explaination would have been that he was leaving after series four. HOWEVER, the BBC have announced an alternative which has made me mightily happy (aside from 2009 only having three specials, of course. They'd better be really special), because I may be able to see Hamlet with DT, have Doctor Who in 2009 with DT (and besides, I'll need about a year to catch up on the classic series), and a definite series 5 to follow, hopefully also with DT.
Curse The Sun for waking me up early today, making me jittery for a few minutes while I ran to the computer, and finally for being utterly useless, in every way, all the time.
And yes, I do mean the newspaper. Once again it has proved itself utterly annoying to someone who normally wouldn't touch it with a jousting lance. Dad zoomed into my room this morning having heard certain rumours on the radio. I have yet to find out which radio station, but sufficed to say they'll be loosing brownie points over this. The Sun wasn't mentioned, so I had no idea of the source for this story.
Need I say any more? For a few minutes my obsessiveness went into overdrive. Wouldn't that just have been amazing? But of course, it's The Sun, toying with me most cruelly by wearing cunning disguises.
Are all the tracks on Muse's Black Holes and Revelations as good as 'Map Of The Problematique'? I'm really rather taken with it, just wonder what kind of priority to put on the CD...
I fear I've slipped into the great big squeedom of the current Doctor Who story arc... It has a bit of background: I saw the Master in a couple of old episodes when I was little, and then in the film (though he was rather awful for most of it). I've been saying since series 2 that the Master was *bound* to turn up again, and he'd better be pretty. And voila! Following on from one of the better stories: Blink, here he is!
I managed to stay completely spoiler-free for the Utopia episode. It wasn't a hugely captivating story with the futurekind, but as soon as the very pretty pocketwatch appeared again (I want one!), I was hooked. And grinning like a maniac. These next two episodes could be absolutely fantastic... or they could be a huge letdown. We'll see. There are so many things I want to know!
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