Land of the mildly insane

Am just gutted to learn that Elisabeth Sladen has died. She was amazing as Sarah Jane, definitely the passing of an era. What a lady.

Life has been rather full recently. Though I did make time to watch the eps so far of Zen. Which admittedly is only 2 but still, I am proud of myself. (Incidentally I think I do like the show, if nothing else the two leads are insanely pretty). I've also enjoyed seeing the return of Lark Rise To Candleford, hopefully I'll be able to keep up as the series progresses. And Minnie continues to be a gem *pets her*

Anyway! This meme has been floating round all over so I thought 'What the heck' and gave it a go:

1. Go to Wikipedia.org. Select 'Random Article'. Whatever comes up is the name of your band.
2. Go to quotationspage.com. Select 'Random Quote'. Choose any quote you like on the page, the last few words of the quote are your album title.
3. Go to flickr.com. Select 'Explore'. Select 'Interesting photos from the last 7 days'. The third image is your album cover.
4. Go to any photo editing site or use Photoshop/Gimp/..., and put your mad editing skillz to work.

And as so many have also decided to do, I stuck together a tiny mini-mix to go with the cover.


Photo copyright to magisstra

1. Stepping Over You - Seth Lakeman
2. Bitch - Meredith Brooks
3. You're the Voice - John Farnham (because no fanmix is completely without this one)
4. No Hopers, Jokers and Rogues - Port Isaac's Fisherman's Friends
5. Coming Back Around - John Powell (from How To Train Your Dragon, one of my favourites from 2010).
Songs

Apparently Ichiro Mihara is some anime character. And the quote was: 'In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.' courtesy of Ralph Waldo Emerson. You learn something everyday.

Hmm, how on earth did we get to December already, seems like October was only a week or so ago. Ah well.

So. Merlin. In all honestly I can't really talk about it yet. During the finale I found some strange transcendental state that exists beyond pure squee. Yes it wasn't all perfect, but the bits that were were epic and wonderful. Bring on series 4, I am so ready. Until then, I will survive on fanvids such as this one (SPOILERS for all of S3 Merlin). Hilarious and very very pretty, I would swear fealty to this version of Camelot.

( Also embedding so I can rewatch at leisure... )

I'm also once more investigating other shows to keep me going during the hiatus. SPN is intriguing but not enough that I'm feeling moved yet to watch the eps I've missed. We'll see.

Conversely, I've just fallen in love with Misfits. What a show, what a grand set of characters ♥ I inhaled all of series 1 and what's aired of S2 over the past few days. I don't really want to say what happens because finding out as you watch is part of the fun, but it's got character growth/change, bitingly dark humour, original storylines and plenty of twists. Unfortunately we're already coming up for the finale so I get one week of going 'Oooh new show!' before it's another hiatus. Rats. Still. Definitely worth giving a go if you're so inclined.

And, finally, I finally get the Tom Ellis thing. He did nothing for me in Doctor Who. I could appreciate the appeal with his Cendred in Merlin in much the same way I appreciate a nice painting. But make him slightly bumbling and really rather sweet and all of a sudden the proverbial light-bulb goes on. So if you haven't watched Miranda, that's another show worth catching-up on. It's painful really, watching her fumble her way through life but some of the situations she finds herself in did leave me curled-up crying with laughter. Plus Gary (Tom Ellis) really is charming as her mate who, like her, is utterly oblivious to the fact that they really are quite in love.

Right, a few more minutes and it's officially the end of the weekend. Bah bloody humbug. I suppose I better ascend the wooden stair. It's only 5 more days after all.

Today has been a good day, if I was grading I'd give it a gold star. Keeping with the sunshine and kittens theme then:

x. The BBC confirms Merlin will return for fourth series - ♥♥♥ OK yes it's only 10 eps this time round rather than the previous 13, but it's better than none at all and frankly it may do the writers some good to have to keep a tighter grip on the arc. And most importantly it means Bradley can continue do to his dance of joy over Colin on a regular basis :)
x. FIC REC: Till the End of Today (rated R) - modern AU, the morning news announces that the world will end at 5.30 that afternoon. Cue Arthur, who's wound up having to face this on his own, meeting and asking some stranger called Merlin if he'd mind spending what's left of the rest of their lives together. Short, lovely ficlet that left me feeling all warm and sunshiny over all concerned.
x. FAN ART: Life After Life (rated G) - fun snapshot of Merlin/Arthur through the ages. The choice of expressions is priceless (of course Arthur would look rather bashful at being caught in ruffles).
x. POEM: Warning (Rewritten for Slash Fans) - brilliant rewrite of the famous 'When I am old I shall wear purple...' poem. Because who says you're ever too old to write slash.

And with that, I think it's time I tried to debounce and head for the wooden hill. Goodnight one and all!

It's rare that you get folks bonding over good news but at work (and from the looks on LJ too) everyone was talking and smiling about the miners being rescued from the mine in Chile. Yes I did tear up just a little *sniff* Here's to them all being safely above ground and reunited with their friends and families by this time tomorrow.

Keeping with the love vibe and of course the next topic is Merlin and the latest ep. Suffice to say it was a 'serious' one and in terms of plot/character there is plenty to mull over and chew on. However, since this is me I will simply go over 2 scenes from the opening 10 minutes. As a primer for this I would recommend you read 'The Week The Sassy Pose Came to Camelot' by magog_83. Hilarious and snarky future AU wherein Merlin and Morgana are happily magical in King Arthur's court, serving and mocking the once and future King. I mention this fic as there's a scene in it that came to mind very strongly during the ep...

( SPOILERS for latest ep 'The Crystal Cave'... )

And thus, having imparted great thoughts of profound shallowness to you, my work today is done :)

Oh oh oh! *clutches latest episode to chest*

Oh please tell me I am not the only person who absolutely adored this week's episode of Merlin!

What an unexpected treat that was :) After the trailers I was expecting a mere comedy, filler ep, and yes it was supremely ridiculous but oh my how it also touched on a whole lot of other things I was delighted by.

All the actors were brilliant with their comic timing, so many classic moments there. But in conclusion: Bradley James ♥ Of course I'm talking about that scene, I can't imagine many other people pulling it off like he did. Hats off to you, sir.

I'm off in a few minutes to go and be a big kid again down death slides and over scramble nets, whee!

BUT! Just spotted this: First Ultimate Fandom 'There Can Be Only One' Tournament.

Into its latest round with a few hours left and somehow Merlin and Arthur have made it thus far, but possibly not for much longer. To be fair I can see how Arthur vs. Spock is a little bit of a stretch but Merlin vs. Snape?! Come on, fandom, there would not be any of the HP crew without these souls like Merlin/Morgana/and co. Snape, I'm sorry, I love you truly but I will be most disappointed if Merlin does not hand you your proverbial on a plate ;P

Go vote!

ETA: Tsk tsk, seems like fandom has no respect for its elders *shakes head* Ah well, I'm sure Merlin and Arthur will enjoy chilling by the pool in Avalon while the remaining characters battle it out :)

Yes I have seen the Merlin première and by the time the credits rolled my eyes were like this: ♥♥♥

I was also fondly reminded of Bradley's quote regarding his lust muffin status, namely the moment a nameless individual would appear just before he's about to shoot a scene with the phrase: "We've had a message from production: Bradley's going to do this scene with his top off." Yes there may be no rhyme or reason to the request, but I ain't complaining :)

Although I will freely admit I'm a Bradley girl, I do actually adore both leading lads equally (actually I think the entire cast is lovely beyond words but don't get me started or I'll never stop). One of Colin's movies is Parked and if you've not already seen the trailer now up on the 'Parked' website you can also catch it on YouTube courtesy of buddug_92. I'm popping it here so I can peruse at leisure; ah, Colin, I can tell you're going to break my heart with this role. I agree with ASH, you are destined for great things and I shall enjoy watching you gradually and steadily take the world by storm:

( 'Parked' trailer, oh be still my breaking heart... )

Fic rec like whoa.

The Colour of Cartoon Sunshine by junkshop_disco - Bradley/Colin RPS - NC-17.

Oh my heart *clutches* Utterly charming tale from Colin's POV as he realises and tries to deal with the nasty truth that he's sort-of fallen for his co-star. The banter between these boys is just darling, imagine the video diaries but distilled. The fic has the laughs and the heartbreak just where you need them. I also like how it it doesn't just end with a final longed-for kiss but takes you some time beyond so you can continue to enjoy watching how they work out how to make it, well, work.

Suffice to say I thought I'd just cast a quick look at the first few paragraphs before going to make supper. 2 hours later and I've mainlined the whole thing and I regret nothing :)

*happy sigh*

So just been to see The A-Team with friends from work and unexpectedly had a rather fabulous time. Yes the film is cheesy and OTT and shreds the laws of physics but it is also ridiculously good fun and, to quote my friend, rather "awesome".

I also seem to have reached the stage of pining for Merlin whereby I am seeing signs everywhere. In this instance being made happy by the fact that Face is played by a chap called Bradley, who has very blue eyes, and also seems to spend the first half of the film chronically unable to keep a shirt on (he even has the same 3 scratches). I like to see my Merlin tributes wherever I can find them :)

BUT! The most amazing cherry on the cake was returning home to find that the BBC have released another official S3 Merlin trailer. "The hatred to your love." ♥♥♥ Yes Merlin, pray, do tell us more about this love of yours. Roll on S3!