My fellow geeks, there is wonderful news for all of those like me who lamented not being able to travel to the UK to see Arthur Darvill as Mephistopheles in the Globe's production of Dr Faustus last year.

Much as the National Theatre has its NT Live cinema productions, The Globe has announced a season of filmed stage productions to be shown in cinemas around the world. The productions include Dr Faustus and the cinemas include several in Australia, including The Palace in Leichhart (a stone's throw from where one of my sisters lives) as well as several others in Sydney, and Hoyts Belconnen in Canberra (hint hint starrylizard!).

I personally, am planning to see it at The Palace in Leichhart with my sisters on Sunday 4 November. And I also plan to go and see the production of Much Ado About Nothing on either Friday 19 or Sunday 21 October.

I am so SERIOUSLY stoked about this! You don't know (well, some of you do) how much I whinged and whined about not being able to see this stage production!

YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!

Hi. Yes, I'm not dead. Merely... well, run off my feet by Real Life and what not.

I have just watched and utterly loved the new season premiere and my shortish, mildly spoilerish and only vaguely coherent response is...

( ...if you really want to know...Collapse )

And that is all for now.

I really do! I really love hearing and seeing and reading something I'm familiar with re-delivered in a different style. It's a large part of why I love really well done AU and crossover fics.

And via doctorwho I just found this wonderful "cover version". It's basically the 7th Doctor's cover of the 11th's speech at Stonehenge from The Pandorica Opens



And now I really want this to start a trend of people getting the various ex-Doctors to cover each other's speeches. That would be so cool.

Edit: Same video, but longer and better quality. And features some great comments and answers by Sylvester McCoy.



Comments disabled on this entry coz I've got a ridulous amount of spam here recently

They've released new clips from the upcoming episode Let's kill Hitler and both are intriguing and kind of cool.

But it's the second one, which features Rory and Amy facing what seems to be a new monster from the show, that has me wanting to squee out loud like the fangirl I am despite being at work right now (yes, random work avoidance - it is Monday morning after all).

Yes, it is a clip from the episode, but the spoilers are very minor. New "alien menace". The usual husband-and-wife banter from the Ponds. And Rory being just flat out adorable.

Well worth any minor spoilage. Trust me.



Oh, way to build the anticipation! The other clip has the Doctor being his usual adorkable self too. So, everyone seems to be in fine form.

God, it's only Monday! I've got to wait all week for the rest of this.

Again the travelogue doesn't get posted until I've been back home for a week. Ha! Promptness is never going to be strong point with me.

To be completely honest, this trip was more about spending time with family than seeing sights and I don't post photos of family and friends (other than Cuddles the Spider, of course) here on LJ. So, although Thailand is undeniably beautiful, perhaps not so many pics to see this time.

( Still not entirely dial-up friendly thoughCollapse )

And now back home again and back into the work routine (which wasted no time at all in getting back to insane levels).

Still got things to look forward to on the horizon. Friends visiting from overseas soon. And it looks like I will score another conference in North America in November.

Life ain't too bad, all in all.

So, last night, I spent about an hour or so chatting to mcalex22 about what's been happening to us lately, the travelling we've both got planned for next month, why the last season of Supernatural rekindled her interest in the show but lost mine and, towards the end, some of the reasons why we are both approaching the second half of this year's Doctor Who with a combination of fierce anticipation and intense worry about one of our favourite characters. And at the end of the conversation (with the connection getting a bit dodgy), I wasn't sure if I had made what I was trying to say clear and I kind of decided that I really wanted to make it clear in my own mind at least. So, here I am about to embark on one of those "talky" analytical fannish posts that I haven't succumbed to for a while.

I don't tend to mix with mainstream fandom for any show much these days, but I'm aware of quite a few of the theories and rumours that are flitting about in Doctor Who fandom. I do read reviews and articles. I'm not interested in genuine spoilers, but like many others, I take information from what's depicted on screen and what I know the actors and writers to be doing in Real Life and use that information to deduce future twists and turns. Therefore what follows is NOT genuinely spoilerly (since I don't actually know any hard concrete "facts" about what's to come), unless you haven't seen the latest episodes of the show, up to and including A Good Man Goes To War. It's just my theories combined with my fervent wishes for a happy (or at least bittersweet) future for one of my all time favourite TARDIS travellers.

(And BTW, I have spent far too much time hanging around TV Tropes & Idioms recently. So, if I lapse into jargon that you aren't familiar with, it probably comes from there.)

( Steven Moffat is a Magnificent Bastard but a logical one - I hopeCollapse )

So, yeah. That's what I think, hope and want. And if the Moff doesn't give it to me, I just might retcon it in my head.

But I remain cautiously optimistic, at this stage.

I have no idea who made this since I found it on one of those random internet searches that one does when one wants to avoid working.

But it's beyond awesome. Not only is it a hysterically funny variation on that Chuck Norris thingy, but also, in Whoniverse context, many of the statements it makes about Rory are actually true!

( GIF is under a cut because it contains some spoilers for the current (and previous) series of Doctor WhoCollapse )

Bonus points if you identify the quote in the title! Hint: *points at icon*

Okay, not that the points are worth anything anyway. And unlike DWX, I am talking about the city, and not some planet where the dogs may or may not have noses. But yeah, Barcelona. I'd heard that it was a cool city, but never really had the burning desire to go there. But on my last visit to the UK, Jane, an old friend (from my uni days) whom I was visiting said "Next time you're over here, we are going to Barcelona!" and I agreed.

Now, of course, I'm wondering why on Earth I didn't go sooner coz the 5 days we spent there weren't nearly enough.

( Gaudi, but never gaudy (but also NOT dial-up friendly)Collapse )

Been back home in Oz for a month now and to any Catalan speakers who may stumble across this, I apologise for any butchery of the language on my part. I actually love the words and phrases that I encountered in Barcelona, but I don't pretend for a second that I'm any good at speaking and/or writing the language.

And tomorrow I'm helping to host a 6-year-old's birthday party. So, I'm going to grab an early night's sleep.

See ya!

Was very disappointed that there wasn't a "next week" trailer at the end of this week's episode (The Almost People).

But it looks like the BBC have put one up at YouTube and OMFG!!!!!



A Good Man Goes to War indeed!

I am simultaneously excited, scared, impressed, impatient and just a bit amused.

And if this is the cliffhanger for the ep BEFORE the mid-season finale, how much more "edge of your seat" is NEXT WEEK'S cliffhanger going to be?

Steven Moffat you are an evil, EVIL genius!

*wibble*

Oh, and apparently some people called Will and Kate got married.

It was actually a day or two after that wedding that I headed home, after having been in London (and Barcelona) for about 3 weeks. So yeah, now I've been back home for a while (not as long as I was gone, but getting close). Real Life swings back into gear and it's so hard to get the travel pics up and posted...

Officially, I was in London for two work conferences which were separated by just over a week which included Easter. So no point in heading all the way back to Australia in between, of course, but I did make a sidetrip to Barcelona for a few days just before Easter with an old friend from my uni days. Barcelona is a city that I've never been to before and quite amazing. 5 days is far too short a time to spend there and I'm going to post those pics in a separate entry (hopefully soon).

But I met up with friends in London too and the city of London itself has become sort of like an old friend to me: comfortable and familiar, making me feel welcome and at home. These days, when I visit, there's less rush and impatience to see everything and anything that I can. Instead, I can take the opportunity to revisit some old favourites, as well as finding a few new ones. And the theatre... There's always the theatre.

( London 2011 picspam - really not at all dial-up friendlyCollapse )

But yeah, after that, had to head back to Oz, but I did get upgraded to business class for the flight home. And not only that, but because I let them change my seat to accommodate a couple with a small child (and I really didn't mind coz I was still in business class!), the aircrew gave a free bottle of champagne. So, pretty cool, all in all.

And now I've actually been back almost as long as I was away for, before I manage to get any of the travel pics posted. Still some more from Barcelona to come. Hopefully soon coz I really adored Barcelona.

But for now, Adéu.

I just can't shake the feeling that Rory Williams is going to break my heart soon.

Again.

( Spoilers up to and including The Rebel Flesh with speculation on what may be comingCollapse )

But in the meantime, only 2 more weeks before Steven Moffat's much publicised mid-season cliffhanger episode. Excitement and dread in equal measure. ARRGHHH!!!

And now I really need to get those recent travel pics up, don't I?

Mostly, I'm loving the new series of Doctor Who. I even liked most of the last episode.

But there is one thing about it that I really need to get off my chest.

( Spoilers ahoy, shipmates!Collapse )

Other than that, I liked it.

I'm actually just recently back from some conferences in London (with a side trip to Barcelona) and so I do have a couple of travelogue entries to write up in the (hopefully) not too distant future.

But on the plane flight back, I got upgraded and had laptop power most of the way. So, I spent quite a bit of time putting the finishing touches on this vid. I'd been working on it for a while before the trip and it was slightly doing my head in, but then I talked to first starrylizard and then ash48 about it and they were fantastic. Really, can't thank them enough.

So, without further ado...

Song: These Days (Two Hands soundtrack version) by Powderfinger
Fandom: Sherlock (BBC/Hartswood Films)
Characters: Sherlock & John (with appearances by Lestrade, Mycroft, Sarah, various criminals and numerous victims of crimes)
Spoilers: All 3 epsiodes of the first series of Sherlock. And how! Seriously, if you are one of the people on my flist who is thinking about eventually watching the show and haven't got around to doing so yet, please do NOT watch this vid first to try and get a feel for the show is like. This vid will totally spoil just about every major plot twist in the first series for you. (And yes, I am particularly thinking of one person who has done some similar before.).
Rating: Essentially the same as the show itself gets which here, in Australia, is M (for mature audiences): violence and adult concepts.
Time/Length: 4:16
Acknowledgements: Much, many and more thanks to ash48 and starrylizard for vidding tech support and beta-fu. They have been truly invaluable.
Summary: "This life, well, it's slipping right through my hands. These days turned out nothing like I had planned."



Download links (megaupload): 65mb divx avi file, 127mb quicktime mov file and 31mb ipod/iphone file.

All forms of feedback are appreciated, including criticism (although preferably the constructive type).

In other news, I think I've still got a bit of residual jetlag. Middle of the night, I'm wide awake. During the day, not so much. Ah, well. The weekend is here. Sleep? Who needs it anyway?

... but in this case, I might have to make an exception.

According to Variety, there are plans to make a movie (franchise?) about a youthful version of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, starring Jennifer Garner.

I know. It's got to be a joke, right? I mean there's not enough boggle in the world to match what my mind produced upon reading that. Got to be a joke.

I'm not a Christie fan or anything. I read a few of her books before I even hit my teens and I'm not adverse to watching various screen dramatisations, especially if the cast is interesting. But I'm not hugely invested in the characters or outraged by people "taking liberties with Christie's genius" or anything like that.

It's just that the idea seems rather pointless. The whole point of Jane Marple seems to have been that she was an elderly spinster who allowed people to underestimate her by playing a dotty old bat who'd spent her whole life in a quiet English village. If she's more young and energetic (as one would assume if they cast Jennifer Garner), then there's not much of the recognisable character left except the name. And will they make her an American too? They might as well.

Just... weird.

I suspect it's a hoax or an unsubstantiated rumour, but if not, I'm going to need a lot of convincing before I'm sold on this one.