The Squeee

April 30th is a day steeped in tradition in Sweden. We call it Valborgsmässoafton (Valborg's Mass Eve) and it's tradition to light big bonfires and students put their graduation caps on and sing songs welcoming spring. Something about scaring witches away as well, I believe, but we're not that easily scared. There's Walpurgisnacht in Germany as well, but not exactly what the traditions are there, but I'm guessing it probably has the same Pagan roots as Valborg does. On Beltane, the Wiccan tradition is that the God is a young man who meets and falls in love with the Goddess. They unite, and she becomes pregnant. In nature, animal babies are starting to take their first gentle steps into the new, green world. Bonfires are traditional, especially leaping across them, to ensure fertility during the year.

As in, what would be a dealbreaker for you? What would turn you off? There are a number of things that make us love this poor lad so much, so that every time he says something, we keel over, swooning uncontrollably and declaring how much we love him and what a wonderful man he is. Every new (or old) interview I read, there's always something that makes me sigh like a little infatuated fangirl and just making it one step closer to writing "Richard" on a piece of paper and encircling it "Richard" with a heart. So, the question inevitably comes: What could he possibly say or do to make the infatuation end, the admiration fizzle out? From what I've been able to figure out about myself, it would have to be something pretty darn drastic. ( More bearded goodness here !) Getting a beard totally failed. It just made him even more smouldering. Oh so manly, oh so gorgeous, be still our hearts! So no, facial hair is not a dealbreaker. More like a Beard of M...

Spotted this on a few blogs at the end of last week and said "I'll have to watch that when I get home!" and ... still haven't, as I've been either knackered or away or both. (Thank you so much for the reminder, Tara!) Maybe if I post it here, I'll remember to watch it and not just browse through it quickly and wish I could see it with the sound on? :) (Also, I have told myself I'm going to post about Richard Armitage every Wednesday, and I haven't written anything for today. So this is me writing about him today! :D I might just update this post when I've seen the clip and can comment on it properly.)

Here are a few remarks I made in response to a post on Me + Richard Armitage last December, when the topic was about his fame, his friendship with an actress and the fandom that goes with it. Saved them because I thought they could be used as basis for posts here, which hasn't really happened. But anyway, here goes: Picture from Me + Richard Armitage , found through Google I too have a sort of reluctant interest in Ms. Capper, which is really difficult to explain, because … well, would I be interested at all if she HADN’T been seen together with Richard Armitage? No. She sounds like a nice person, and we get the impression that Richard Armitage is a nice person too, so sounds like they’re well-matched as friends. If there’s more to it than friendship, who knows? Does it really matter to any of us either way? I suppose that from a sense of being an ordinary woman, that he’s seen with a woman who looks REAL is the sort of self-satisfied “see? He’s a decent bloke, he wouldn’...

I saw this trailer and couldn't help saying: "What. The. F**k?" at the screen. I then showed it to the Squeeze, whose reaction was eerily similar. Behold: Oy vey! "What's wrong with it?" you may ask. "It has Neil Patrick Harris in it! And that girl from Heroes and Glee ! And Hank Azaria as Gargamel! And it's in 3D!" Okay, first of all: I don't care if it's in 3D, because I don't froth at the mouth at the prospect of having to wear special glasses when I go to the cinema. Two dimensions are good enough for me, and for a lot of other people. I don't watch Glee (and yes, I have heard it's brilliant and awesome and everything - I just haven't watched much of it) and apparently, they cancelled Heroes . Neil Patrick Harris and Hank Azaria, okay yeah, but I didn't even recognise Gargamel and was surprised to see who plays him in the IMDb info. No. It's the whole "they came from outer space!!" fee...

Okay, apparently it was uploaded nearly a month ago, but I haven't seen it until now. Can't wait for the final film to come out! Not to mention how much I'm dreading it. They're going to wreck Hogwarts! *tries to stop hyperventilating*

First things first: They're making Good Omens into something for the telly. A miniseries, hopefully, as opposed to a TV movie. It's due in 2013, according to IMDb . If you don't know what Good Omens is, you've missed a terribly great novel, written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. It's about a young Antichrist, an angel and a demon who have decided humanity isn't all that bad actually, and Armageddon. Or prevention thereof. And it's hysterically funny. One of my favourite books. Secondly, news are that BBC have commissioned four new episodes of Dirk Gently . Hopefully this time, they'll make it completely standalone from the novels, so we won't have the problems that the pilot had . Fingers crossed! If you follow me on Twitter , you may have already noticed I changed my username slightly the other day. It used to be the_squeee , it's now TheSqueee (case optional). I thought back when I got the account, the version without the underscore...

Reading an article about Horrible Histories from The Guardian , there were some things that make me do little excited dances: 1. BBC One will broadcast a "repackaged version" presented by Stephen Fry instead of the rat, and they'll do it on prime time! 2. There might even be a Horrible Histories movie! 3. There might be a Horrible Histories stage show with the actors from the TV show ... and it could come this very autumn! (Tickets! My kingdom for some tickets!) And the third series is due out next month . Sweeeeeet!

This is ancient, so it doesn't contain Richard Armitage. :P (Skip to the comment below the video.) It was cut together when I was still in school, so it's from 1999 or 2000. We didn't even have digital editing on computers at the time, so this is made the good ol' way with a couple of VHS players/recorders, using source material which for the most part was maybe 5th generation copies, so quality isn't brilliant ... but I do think it's kinda cute. :) With Richard Armitage fanvids, I did start to make a Guy/Marian one (yes, OMG! I don't even like Marian!) to a Blackmore's Night song, but haven't come very far. And I only have Windows Movie Maker, because the Sony one that came with my laptop is about as useful as Windows Live Movie Maker or whatever it's called. Which is a piece of shite that has done away with the timeline altogether, not to mention editing clips. Bleargh. Maybe one day I'll finish it. Maybe.

Here’s another thing that originated from a creative writing course, but this one’s been translated from Swedish. The object was to try out different narration perspectives, or whatever you might call them. One scene, three perspectives: first person singular, third person singular, omnipotent/third person plural. I took it quite literally and did the exact same scene, but seen from three different angles, but others wrote three different stories altogether. Huh. We had a character constraint, which I’ve ignored because the texts have been translated, and had to include the basic story of Frank who dates George’s daughter (which George disapproves of), who waits for George in George’s house. They have an argument and Frank shoots George. We had to come up with the setting, the reasons for the argument and the shooting. I found it very difficult at first, because I could think of half a dozen reasons for George to shoot Frank, not the other way around. :) Here’s how it turned out: F...

Here are a few remarks I made in response to a post on RAFrenzy's blog a year or so ago, when the topic was about his fame and the fandom that goes with it. Saved them because I thought they could be used as basis for posts here, which hasn't really happened. Since I'm currently writing up a review of Between the Sheets , I thought this should be posted beforehand. So here goes: Picture from An RA viewer's perspective from 33°0'S of the equator , found through Google I've not actually seen Between the Sheets yet even though I have it (*waves toward the DVD shelf*) but I've seen the non-explicit scenes on YouTube and once, when I googled with SafeSearch switched off, came across a blog which offered not just pictures but a short clip. To which my reaction was an "Oh. My. GODS!" with several meanings. Fascination and appreciation mixed with embarrassment and partial disgust, sprinkled with fangirly squees over when he says "lie down...

Have you been fooled by anything today? Here's a joke from 1999, but I still love it. :) Courtesy of ZTV's news show ZTV Nytt : Transcribed with translation: Kajsa Nyström, ZTV presenter: [voiceover, trailer] In ZTV News Thursday: Modern Talking sings a classic in Swedish. Kajsa Nyström: ZTV News can reveal today that the legendary 80:es band Modern Talking will do yet another version of their old hit "Brother Louie". As an award to all their Swedish fans, this song will be released in Swedish in about a month. Thomas Anders: This is, you know, was very special, because it’s not so easy to sing in Swedish. Umm... but we were in the studio and we did a special version... for... Sweden. And... umm... Dieter Bohlen: For all the reindeers. [they laugh] Thomas Anders: They have people here living here! [laugh] So we are very... umm... you know, we’re looking forward, and hopefully you’ll like it, and we will be number one with the Swedish version. It...