The Squeee

[ Source ] Happy St Patrick's Day! :) And "Happy FanstRA!", for the last time this year. I hope the week has been good both for readers and participants - it's certainly kept me busy! There have been so many great posts out there over the past week, I admit I haven't had a chance to go through them all yet. There are a few hours yet for those of you in the Americas, but FanstRA week officially ends in about half an hour from me writing this.

Episode 1 Here it is, the first edition of Ask Thorin , 3" Thorin's very own advice column. Without further ado, here's the man himself, answering your questions: Dear Thorin, I would like to ask Thorin if I can shampoo and condition his hair. /Collar City Brownstone

How would you react if you suddenly got a phone call from Peter Jackson's people, asking you to come out to New Zealand for a potential job offer? I was flown all the way to the other side of the world in order to play the part of Balin in The Hobbit . Despite the fact that they've already finished filming, aside from a few pick-up shots. And, crucially, despite me being a woman without acting experience . I was sitting in a theatre, or I suppose it was a studio set really, where Peter Jackson was going through things, and then he said "this is what I want you to do, Traxy". If I wanted the job, of course. He assured me accepting the job could lead to great things. I could become a kids editor!! My response to this was "kids? Meh", but if it was kids TV, why not?

FRIDAY After seeing both Wollaton Hall and central Nottingham, 3" Thorin went off to the local beer festival, despite it not being on until October. When I picked him up again to take the bus home, he was completely plastered and ended up vomiting on the pavement. Cheers for that, mate. For today, I thought I'd get him into nature, and where better to finish off our sightseeing trip than by visiting the renowned Sherwood Forest? Everyone who comes to visit us always end up getting carted up to Edwinstowe to see the Major Oak, and Thorin is certainly not going to be the exception!

Have to interrupt the FanstRAvaganza to spread the word that Scottish band Texas are back after a six-year hiatus. The new album is called The Conversation and will be released 20 May 2013. This is their eighth album since they started 25 years ago, and they'll be doing live shows in Glasgow, London and Paris when it's released. I. Can't. Wait. :D The Conversation Dry Your Eyes If This Isn't Real Detroit City I Will Always Talk About Love Hid From The Light Be True Maybe I Hearts Are Made To Stray Big World I Need Time We went to see Texas in Nottingham on their tour for the Red Book (2005) album. Great night, everyone was standing up and singing along with the familiar tracks. :) Red Book has some very good songs on it, and I have high hopes for The Conversation . Let's hope they do another tour!

THURSDAY On my mission to show 3" Thorin the sights of Nottingham, home of Guy of Gisborne, we have been to see Wollaton Hall, where Thorin suggested having some of the resident deer for lunch, and today, we've set the sights on the town itself. As my apparently too seldom used car decided to have very a flat battery, we had to take the bus in, something which 3" Thorin found very intriguing ... He thought it was a big, yellow dragon (is EVERYTHING a dragon to him?!) and we were transported in its oddly transparent belly. Just how do you explain the concept of modern public transport to a dwarf king from a fantasy world far, far away a long, long time ago?

WEDNESDAY So yesterday, 3" Thorin and I got talking about the lack of lonely mountains and dragons to slay around here, so I decided to take him on a tour of Nottingham, and letting him see the sights. Perhaps he would find something around here worth sticking around for, even if there's no treasure or glorious battles involved ... Here's how we got on!

TUESDAY Hello Thorin. Are you awake? I am always awake. Except when I'm sleeping, of course, but then I am still vigilant. One never knows when orcs might be on the prowl. If it's not orcs, then trolls, wolves and all manner of beasts that roam this land. What, like cats? Admittedly ... yes, fair enough, this version of Middle Earth is a little different than the one I'm usually accustomed to. Do you like it here? I was on my way to fulfil my destiny, slaying the dragon and reclaiming the Lonely Mountain for my people. Now I'm here , wherever "here" is, and I don't see any mountains, nor any dragons to slay. As far as I'm concerned, I have been taken hostage by powers far sillier than anticipated.

Welcome to FanstRAvaganza 4 here at The Squeee ! This week, I've invited a very special little friend - he's not 5 foot tall, in fact, he only measures about 3.5 inches. He calls himself Thorin Oakenshield. I call him 3" Thorin (Three Inch Thorin). For this week, there will be two kinds of posts: There is a lot of things you wish to get off your chest when you are the King Under the Mountain, and there are so many things you have seen over the years that you can offer simple yet profound advice to everyone else. This is what 3" Thorin is offering in Conversations with 3" Thorin .* This week will also see the introduction of Ask 3" Thorin feature, which is 3" Thorin's advice column that is meant to be a regular feature here even after the end of FanstRA4. Ask him a question, and he'll give you personal advice on whatever it is you want to know. It's 3" Thorin the agony aunt on Thursdays. To ask for 3" Thorin's advice ...

Actually, there is nothing unexpected here whatsoever. Orson Welles back in the 1940s was a DISH, which I have mentioned on several occasions previously on this blog. I just felt like doing another one of these posts and, well, any excuse to google images of good-looking fellas from way back when, right? ;) I've come to realise he reminds me a little of Dale Midkiff . And reminding me of Dale Midkiff is always welcome, for that is another incredibly good-lookin' fella. OMG I still haven't watched my Time Trax DVDs! Nor have I ever seen Citizen Kane , which I really think I ought to.

The song for today is by Gene Pitney and is called 24 Hours From Tulsa , about a douchebag who is driving back to his sweetheart, makes a pit stop when he's not that far from home ... and decides he's not going to come back to his sweetheart after all. Why? Because he's suddenly fallen head over heels in love with someone else. Like I said, a complete douchebag. But oh, I love the emotion in his voice, and it's a song I love to sing.

Heard the name James Stewart mentioned on TV recently and thought I'd look him up. And indeed, they had eyecandy back in the day too! REALLY! This guy could give quite a few modern heartthrobs a run for their money. and

Here's for picking more Swedish classics! :D In the 1960s and 1970s, many old houses were demolished to give room for new (and, let's face it, ugly) housing developments. This 1967 song by Anna-Lena Löfgren is called Lyckliga gatan ("The Happy Street") and is about how the street where she grew up has been destroyed in order to become a part of the concrete jungle. It's a very emotional song, and I love the song for its message about wanting to preserve the environment. The video features old postcards from around Sweden, according to the person who put it together, and he also says that much of what is depicted no longer exists. :( Swedish lyrics first, followed by an English translation.

It's a bit early in the year to decide on the weirdest celebrity crushes of 2013, isn't it? Every year, Heat magazine makes a list of unconventional-looking men and ask women to vote for who they think is the "weirdest crush". I came across the longlist earlier this year, and was absolutely puzzled as to why many of those men were on the list. I mean, Hugh Bonneville?! Lord Grantham is a dish! What's weird about him?! Anyway. I voted for a few, although I don't remember exactly who they were, but now, the top ten have been revealed. I snaffled the list from Virgin Media .

Want to read Jane Eyre -related books? Why not join in the 2013 Books of Eyre Challenge , hosted by Amber at The Musings of ALMYBNENR ? :) I think it sounds like a splendid idea. The challenge runs all year long, and you can set your own level of participation: Orphan: 5 books Student: 10 books Teacher/Governess: 15 books Mr./Mrs. Rochester: 20 books Last year, I reviewed five of these kind of books, and I have at least two that needs reviewing at the moment. As I have made it a life mission of sorts to read as many Jane Eyre spin-offs as possible (the whole thing about needing to have ISBN number is brilliant - I might just have to borrow that description), I was going to say I won't be taking part, but maybe I actually should. I mean, why not? I'm doing it already, but under the banner of Everything Eyre . Maybe then I'll get around to finish reading the ones I'm reading at the moment, not to mention actually reviewing those that are waiting to be reviewe...

"How can this possibly be unexpected?!" you cry. Well, all right, calm down. I've not seen him in anything until not that long ago, when I watched Rebecca , so you know, chill. No wonder he got to be Mr Darcy, Maxim de Winter and Heathcliff! And just because the same page where I found the image above also had a picture of him with a cat: Mrreow.

I've mentioned on occasion being an ABBA fan. I'm also a fan of Agnetha Fältskog's songs before and during the ABBA years. There are so many great songs I could share, but if I was to settle for just the one, it would be Är du som han? ("Are you like him?") from 1975. It's oddly relevant to all fellow fangirls out there, because surely everyone has wondered, at some point or other, how the object of our admiration (say, Richard Armitage), the unknown, measures up to the known, i.e. our respecive significant others ... Original Swedish lyrics first, but scroll down for an English translation!

The problem with these posts is that it's not always very easy to come up with ideas for them. However, sometimes you get inspired by any number of the "LOOKS LIKE" posts on the IMDb message boards. I'll fully admit this is what sparked this particular post, so thanks to whoever suggested it! If Liam Neeson and Eric Bana had a love child, this is what he'd look like:

Seeing as how it's Holocaust Memorial Day, I thought it would be fitting to write about our visit to KZ-Dedenkstätte Dachau outside Munich in Germany. Seeing as how we were driving around Germany, for the most part, and happened to be close to a former concentration camp, it felt as if we owed history to visit and pay our respects. To actually read the post, please click on to Visiting Dachau Concentration Camp . I posed it on Notepad Narnia , which is my [utterly sporadic and often far too] personal blog, because it didn't feel quite right to post the full story here. This blog is meant to be cheerful and lighthearted, but I still wanted to post something about it, because it's important, especially in these troubled times. Just having watched a TV programme about a holocaust survivor has something to do with it as well. It meant I wanted to post about it straight away, rather than some other day.

Apparently, I haven't done a Musical Interlude since August 2010 ?! That can't be right. I'm sure I've posted music videos since then. o.O Anyway, I just wanted to share an awesome old song again. This time, it's Cat Stevens: Can't Keep It In from 1972. It just makes me happy, in much the same way that bricks don't. Also: SO MUCH GREAT MUSIC CAME OUT OF THE SEVENTIES!!!

For three years, a bunch of bloggers have set aside a week in March to blog about Richard Armitage in an event we call FanstRAvaganza . For me, it normally works out as having an idea and then getting in completely over my head. So this year, true to form, I've gone in off the deep end and I haven't even brought a swimming cozzie. Because I said I'd organise it. Waaaahhh! If you're interested in taking part, feel free to fill out this form to let me know. Don't worry, it's not an RSVP or anything, it's just a way of expressing an interest, even if it might not appear that way. If you change your mind later and don't want to do it, it's fine, honest. It's just to give me a general idea of what people want of “F4“ and if it's going to attract 5, 50 or 500 people. 500 is a bit pie-in-the-sky, admittedly, but just in case. Better to be aware of that now than in mid-March.

I decided to have a look through my old files, as I knew I had put together some silly Wheel of Time-related things years and years ago. It was last updated in 2005 according to the old HTML file, but probably pre-dates that. So, to celebrate the release of the final book TODAY, let's have a Randland giggle. Slightly updated to reflect Robert Jordan's passing and that the series will actually finish with the release of A Memory of Light . You know you're a Wheel of Time addict when ... "How come you aren't giving over all your creative energies to wotmania! I'm shocked!" - Mike Mackert, founder of wotmania (which apparently closed down in 2009 - I'm great at keeping up ...)

I decided to have a look through my old files, as I knew I had put together some silly Wheel of Time-related things years and years ago. It was last updated in 2005, but probably pre-dates that. So, to celebrate the release of the final book, and counting down to it, let's have a Randland giggle. A whole bunch of reasons why being an Aes Sedai in real life would rock "How come you aren't giving over all your creative energies to wotmania! I'm shocked!" - Mike Mackert, founder of wotmania (which apparently closed down in 2009 - I'm great at keeping up ...)