Land of the mildly insane

It's been a good past seven days. Kicked off last weekend when I sauntered up to London for birthday drinks with princess_s and friends. The weather was glorious and the wine flowed freely. Good times.

The next day and it was up to Moseley Folk Festival with friends and family to imbibe cider and listen to the likes of Waterson: Carthy and Seth Lakeman. ( In which there were giraffes, tea, and more fawning over Mr Lakeman from all quarters... )

Then it was back to work, but I found myself cheered by the various reports and pictures coming out from Dragon*Con - like this one. Anthony Lewis, Gareth David-Lloyd and James Marsters on the Torchwood panel. *happy sigh* Sounds like a hell of a good weekend, suitably filthy yet amusing anecdotes, plus of course the eye candy :)

There was also Gladiators. It was the last ep with the 'Legends' (Wolf, Hunter and others) returning to put the new generation in their place, in some cases very emphatically. It was hard to feel sorry for the new glads when they were trounced purely because they were all so obviously fangirling/fanboying over actually getting to go up against the guys they adored as children. Hearing 'Wild Thing' beat out as Wolf entered the stadium was pure nostalgic joy :) It also proves that if you take good care of yourself, there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to physically outperform some young whippersnapper a good 20 years younger than you - I draw hope from this!

Finally, today, there were more pics from the lastest scenes being shot for Torchwood series 3. All I can say is... damn. Wales certainly does produce some very very fine men and women *happy sigh*

This weekend I returned to the lair of the patriarch of the LB clan. I love my family. They're completely nuts and the day one of them writes their life story it'll sell instantly to Heat, but I do love them. I'm missing the turtles who have returned to the parents, I keep expecting to hear their little claws scratching on the glass *sniffle* I also read and watched a few things.

Book rec: Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale. Like an exhibition, there are notes explaining (unseen) paintings introducing chapters with the stories around these pieces. It reveals the lovely story of a family. No obvious storyline other than the aftershocks and reflections caused when the mother dies. There's gen, het, slash, love, death, general life. Some of it is revealed obviously in the chapters themselves, other parts implied in the actual notes of the paintings or just in a throwaway comment in another chapter with someone else's POV. All of it made more poignant when the author reveals who he wrote the tale for. Highly recommended.

Films: I cried last night over Pierrepoint. I have no idea how much was genuine fact, and I suspect the emotional crux of the protagonist's storyline was fictionalised, but it was beautifully acted nevertheless and the buggers got me *sniffle*

TV:-
x. Gladiators. It was the final. A highlight included an exasperated John Anderson telling a gladiator to just 'DO YOUR JOB!' ( Cut for SPOILERS just in case... )
x. Maestro. If you're not watching this on the Beeb, it's well worth joining in. UK celebrities are taught how to conduct, the prize being the chance to conduct Prom in the Park on the Last Night of the Proms. What's nice is that the deciding vote isn't with the audience, it's with the orchestra. Goldie and Sue Perkins are obvious leaders at this point, but Alex James (used to be part of Blur) does have this kicked-puppy appeal in that he's obviously trying so hard and you can almost hear the orchestra going 'Awww, bless' as he attempts to come to grips with 'cosmic monumental doom' AKA Verdi.

You know, that was actually incredibly good, completely bonkers, fun. If they had just done a one-off 'drama' comprising of this finale plus a few odds and ends thrown in from the previous eps, they'd have done okay. As a one-off, the Bonelickers concept works.

God that was hysterically funny and utterly shite in way only true crack can be.

That said, yes, there was an issue raised at the end of the last ep that I am, boringly, unable to take too lightly. And actually they did alright on that front, they even made me briefly take the side of their main female lead. ( Cut for SPOILERS, in the unlikely event that anyone actually cares about this... )

My argument for Dolly being in fact a mortal Captain Jack has not yet been disproved. The cracked AU in my brain is a lovely place, believe you me :) I cannot begin to go into the insane brilliance of these uber!villains who pop up out of nowhere and vanish in the same way, yet again the utter destruction of centuries worth of mythology, the 'lady of the lake' shot, that poor bloke from Hotel Babylon who is yet another example of some poor brilliant actor who was duped into appearing in this circus, seeing everyone trying so hard to make their utterly unbelievable speeches at least sound vaguely profound, and, oh I can't go on.

Though, yes I can. Untold slashy love in the flashbacks. With bad wigs. Plus Magwilde's boss finally getting to shine *pets him*

Cracktastic. But, please Mr BBC, do not bring this back again.

The weekend got off to a shaky start in that it began with everyone at work heading out to celebrate a birthday. I remember wine, one or two mojitos, and unfortunately a tequila slammer. I fully blame the latter for the fact that I was feeling distinctly 'fragile' the following day. Remind me never to try one of those again *shudders*. On the plus side, some friends came down to keep me company for the day, which considering the weather was miserable wound up with us slumming it at the cinema.

And what did we see? The X-Files: I Want To Believe. We'd gone in purely for childhood nostalgia, aware that the reviews had been scathing. I came out actually having enjoyed myself. It's been a long time but it is good to see Mulder and Scully onscreen once more, plus there was the unexpected bonus of Callum Keith Rennie. And there was a very nicely done poke at George Bush which had the entire cinema going 'hehe...'

Back to tonight. Has anyone heard anything about this Spooks spin-off starting? Is it meant to be any good.

I'm also debating whether or not to bother catching up with Bonelickers. I caught the last half hour, but is it worth me trying to see the first half-hour? One the one hand it means I get to see a little more of Burn Gorman and James D'arcy, but on the other... can I really subject my brain for more of this tripe. Does Burn outweigh the bad?

Okay, so I've watched three things recently. I am going to attempt to take my own advice and only talk about the positive - more easy for some shows than others. Ahem.

House of Saddam - brilliant. Sublime. Superb. Bring out what you will, I loved the first ep. The writing, the acting. 10/10.

Gladiators - a really fun ep actually. Forget about the contenders, it's the Gladiators who are being whittled down, and I think it's pretty clear now who is the star of them all. *waves foam hand in the air* Atlas continues to be the endearingly slightly-useless blonde braincell of the men, Oblivion is oddly starting to grow on me, Spartan, er, ( cutting in case anyone hasn't seen how those rounds panned out... )

Bonelickers - *bites tongue* I must remember my own rule. And to be fair, it probably did suffer from my watching it after House of Saddam. Er, the good:
x. It ended.
x. To some extent Matt Rippy. He was pretty, and his opening scene was brilliant in its sheer absurdity as the 'plot' kicked off with the usual mindblowing coincidences/strokes of good luck barely 3 minutes in.
x. The fact that, for once, they managed to make it to the credits without destroying vast swathes of priceless archaeology as they've done the previous eps.
x. Gillian's boss dude and his prancing around in the Roman gear. That was amusing.

So this weekend I made my way to Clapham Common for Ben & Jerry's Sundae on the Common for a day of music, free ice-cream and hugging giant eight-foot chickens who were nobly braving heat exhaustion on behalf of the RSCPA. A general, fun, family day out. Good times.

Musical summing up: ( The bands were generally less memorable than last year, but still - The Troubadours, The Brightlights, Florence and the Machine, Charlotte Hatherley, Delays, Guillemots, and The Charlatans... )

Still, even if the music was a bit too serious for a day of ice-cream and Pimms, it was still a good day. We got free pancakes from the RSPCA, we marvelled at the air guitarists, and then two of the mates took out general frustration on each other on the FairTrade banana jousting (think 'Duel' in Gladiators, except over a bouncy castle and with inflatable bananas rather than pugel sticks).

Today I also caught the last episode of Top Gear. It was entertaining, and I'm sad to see this series over so quickly, a little because it just hasn't had the spark of some of the previous series. Not enough Stig, not enough of the three of them just cocking about and accidentally setting fire to things... it's like they think we're honestly watching this for the cars. Pffft.

I also caught some of the reports filtering out about John Barrowman, Gareth David-Lloyd and Naoko Mori at the San Diego Comic-Con. Highlights have been JB and NM singing a duet from Miss Saigon, and pictures of JB and GDL in green fairy wings that were apparently being handed out free from a Disney stall. Ah fandom :)

Oh dear god...

Bonelickers - sorry - Bonekickers.

Dude. What crack. Never have I laughed so hard.

Yes, I have just caught up via BBC iPlayer. And actually I really enjoyed this ep, mainly because I was drinking wine at the same time, and also because after the crashlanding of last week I had adjusted my sights so I was just waiting for the next moment of sheer redefining awfulness. And it was astonishing how this series continues to come up trumps in those stakes.

Though the autograph scene was entertaining.

I predict that although it gets savaged, this series will actually do okay in ratings due it being a trainwreck that people cannot turn off because they simply cannot believe the Beeb would persevere with something so abysmal. What are we thinking, three series maybe?

I am officially terrapin-sitting for the next few weeks. The little dears are settling into their tank and getting spoilt by the mother who thinks they're looking traumatised after the long trip in the car. I think they're looking slightly fat, but each to their own :)

Today we went to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - it quickly veered widely from the book for the majority of the film but was otherwise a fun easy-on-the-brain yarn. It's a long film (over 2hrs) and it was impressive that considering the cinema was packed to the gills with young 'uns, the entire audience remained silent and gripped throughout. One thing I do like about these recent Narnian adaptations is that the writers pick up on things that are normally brushed over and bring the full impact home. In the last film, I liked how they genuinely got across the horror of seeing your brother hurt. ( Cut for SPOILERS for Prince Caspian... )

My other achievement of the day was watching the latest ep of Gladiators, the one where they get 'celebrities' to come on and compete for charity. Yes I've never heard of any of these guys before, but it was still fun watching them getting trounced (and in some cases tickled) by the gladiators. ( Cut for results SPOILERS... )

I'm still gently geeking out over the latest ep of Doctor Who. Today I finally got around to watching the Confidential, which included shots of the first script read-through with all the cast wherein they hear the lines of the Big Bad for the first time.

( SPOILERS for 'Stolen Earth' in terms of guest-stars and the villains of this series... )

Back to the ep itself and, rather like before, there were various aspects which left a bit to be desired. Not least the frequent waving of magic wand and easy plot devices. BUT the reason these were used was so we could get down to the action, or rather get down to seeing all the guest-stars and regulars this series start to converge. ( Cutting for SPOILERS as to a couple of specific guest-stars... )

Finally, because I didn't realise these were out there but found them highly entertaining...

One of the presenters from Blue Peter (kid's TV show) got a chance to film a small part in the actual DW finale. These clips do contain SPOILERS as to who are the villains and guest-stars next week.
x. Full clip here - very entertaining behind-the-scenes footage, giving confirmation as to the fate of at least one character after the credits rolled yesterday.
x. The actual, final clip.

Firstly, if you're so inclined, do toddle over and show support for Burn Gorman - he's nominated for Best Supporting Actor in SkyFy Portal's 2008 Genre Awards. There's more info on other nominees and other catagories here.

Secondly - I spotted this in the Daily Mail and it's re-iterated here, here and here. It seems Heinz had another tacky, cheesy, badly acted ad - this time for mayo. The only difference between this and hundreds of other tedious ads was that it featured two guys briefly kissing. Cue 202 complaints that it was 'offensive' and not suitable for children etc etc, and Heinz pulled the ad. Stonewall and others, obviously, were/are not impressed. There's an online petition here, and/or derryderrydown reckons we could produce more than 202 emails easily :)