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Emma on Sunday

Last Sunday, saw the trailer for Emma on BBC. It's airing this Sunday at 9pm / 21:00 on BBC One. Starring Angel/Mary Bryant, Eli Stone, Dumbledore, Fran from Black Books and David from Cold Feet . :D More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n7pk1

They Like to Boogie

Amazing video! How can you not just LOVE that man?

What Kind of Reader Are You?

Well, apparently... What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm   You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical mistakes make you insane. Dedicated Reader   Literate Good Citizen   Book Snob   Fad Reader   Non-Reader   What Kind of Reader Are You? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz Yup, sounds about right. ;)

R.I.P. Patrick Swayze

Please consider a donation to your national cancer research society today. Here is a selection of them around the world: American Association for Cancer Research Australian Cancer Research Foundation Canadian Cancer Society Cancer Association of South Africa Cancer Research UK Cancer Society of New Zealand Cancerfonden Sverige Deutsche Krebsforschungszentrum

A bottle of Boxleitner, please!

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When I was growing up and TV was showing re-runs of How the West Was Won , my sisters would swoon over Luke Macahan. I'm not sure I quite agreed with them, because by the time I was about 9, I already preferred MacGyver over Brendan Walsh, and besides, the only Western thing I ever really got into was the Lucky Luke comic books. Some years later, I happened upon Babylon 5 . To my surprise, handsome starship captain John Sheridan was in fact Luke Macahan, 15 years later! Now what is it they say about fine wine? They get better with age. If so, is he a red, a white or a rosé? Save me a crate of each just to make sure! IMDb tells me he was about 29 when he played Luke and mid- to late 40s as Sheridan. The whole uniform thing probably played a part as well, because handsome men in uniforms... squee! Last thing I saw him in was probably Heroes , and I really don't object to seeing him there again, because even though he'll be 60 next year, he's still one heck of a handsome ...

Jason Priestley - 20 years later

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Had Sci-Fi Channel on during the weekend. Saw parts of a film about some sort of rip in time and space that threatened to end the whole universe. Termination Point (2007) . It took me quite some time before I suddenly realised I had seen one of the guys before. Turning to my Squeeze (the husband), I said, flabbergasted, "is that Jason Priestley?!" Indeed it was. The guy turned 40 less than a fortnight ago, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. Didn't care much for him in Beverly Hills 90210 , which I never saw that much of anyway back in the day, or even Teen Angel , which I DID see, so I must say, he's looking decidedly more appealing to me at 40 than he did at 20. Verdict: Time has been kind indeed! But that's just me. Or is it?

Waiting for Wuthering Heights '09

Looked through the cast list for Wuthering Heights '09 and the only names/faces I recognised were Andrew Lincoln as Edgar Linton - who used to be in Afterlife - and Caribbean pirate Kevin McNally. The rest I'm completely in the dark as to who they are. The script writer did Desperate Romantics , which I didn't get around to seeing (any good?), and some medical dramas and other more modern-day shows. I dunno, I'm just not really taken with it. Maybe watching it will change my mind... on the other hand, there's still the problem of it being Wuthering Heights and not, oh, Pride & Prejudice , Jane Eyre or North & South ... so we'll see. Put the timer on, but the freeview signal on ITV normally isn't too great, unfortunately, but right now we're not at home, so it will have to do. ITV's catchup service on the website might work otherwise. Can't miss a classic story turned into a TV costume drama, after all!

Jane Eyre audiobook

Might I suggest you have a listen below, where you'll find Chapter 1 of Jane Eyre as a downloadable podcast. It's just something I'm trying out. Please give me feedback on what you think of it and how I can improve it. It's just a beta test, so depending on the comments I get, I might re-record the whole thing. No point in recording all 39 (?) chapters if I'm doing the first one completely wrong! ;) Powered by Podbean.com EDIT 30/8: Thank you to everyone who has given me feedback on the above. Much appreciated! Will be re-recording it as per the feedback I've received. :)

Emma in October

"BBC has already announced that they're cutting back on costume drama and this will be the last 19th century project for a long time" someone wrote on the IMDb boards, and I think that's a great shame. We all love a good costume drama! But at least we have this one, the upcoming adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma to keep us keen! The script has been done by the great Sandy Welch. Don't know who she is? She wrote the scripts for North &; South (BBC 2004) and Jane Eyre (2006)... and they were absolutely marvellous, so I've high hopes for this one as well. Sandy Welch is like the new Andrew Davies. :)

Out on the wiley, windy moors

It's that time again - a remake of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights , about a raving psychopath Heathcliff and his confused love affair with his foster sister Cathy. I honestly don't get the appeal of Heathcliff just because he's a proper psycho. I've not yet read the book (I have it, though) and I've only seen one adaptation so far ( 1998 TV version with Robert Cavanah and Orla Brady - and Matthew Macfadyen!) but I wasn't impressed. Still, have the harddrive recorder set for Sunday and Monday to see if this does a better job or if it's still just... dark and weird. Well, if it's not good, I've also set the timer for " Frozen " on BBC2 night to Monday. :D

Fangirls Anonymous

Did I create this blog in order to go nuts with what I do best, i.e. fangirling? Kind of. I didn't want to clog up my usual blog too much by just rambling on and on and on and on and on about whatever it is that is my squee of the month, so I thought, hey, I'd have a special place for that. This is it. If what makes me squee makes you squee, let's squee together. I'd love to see links to pictures, video clips, music and such that will help alleviate the boredom of rainy days or when you feel a bit down. If we do not share squee:s, maybe you can win me over. It takes very little to get me going when I find something I like. First thing's first. What the hell is squee anyway? (Yes, it should be with two and not three E:s but "thesquee" was taken as a domain, 'k?) The Urban Dictionary defines the word as "A noise primarily made by an over-excited fangirl, however it has spread rapidly and is now widely spread among the web community." I wil...

Fangirling is good for you

This is a response to a discussion about a celebrity worship scale which was discussed at the C19 forum, which I happened to sign up to today. They've got all sorts of goodies there, like book and history discussions and Jane Eyre fanfic - squee! I was thinking... there is a condition called "erotomania", which is essentially, crazy stalker syndrome. They're the ones who are infatuated with someone (celebrity or not), and truly believes their love is reciprocated. Saw a documentary about it, it was rather unsettling. But that's a specific thing, and everyone's a fan of something to a certain degree, and most of us can tell the difference between fantasy and reality, and most of us (I hope) know how to behave toward the person we are a fan of. I mean, while we might think that we would get along pretty darn well as a couple with certain celebs, as we seem quite similar in many ways, we know it's never going to be, and we would never do anything stupid ...

BBC's Robin Hood - season 3 - my take

Like I mentioned earlier, season 3 of BBC's Robin Hood seemed watchable - and it was! Some new characters, and as it turned out, series 3 was the last of the show. It was a relief to hear they'd cancelled it because with the season finale the way it was... it would make no sense to continue with a series 4. Anyhoo, here's a quick run-down of what I thought of the third and final series - spoilers ahead : Kate: Crikey, how annoying was she? Didn't mind the actress, but the character just got on my nerves a wee bit. If she didn't get captured, she tried winning Robin's heart (who, of course, had only just missed his beloved Marian end of season 2, so c'mon) and being a bitch. Kh! Archer: Only just came in at the end and could probably be a fun character if he was allowed some space to develop, but as he only made a short visit, he was mainly just annoying as well. Shouldn't he feel some sort of loyalty toward his half brothers? Eh, didn't get hi...

BBC's Robin Hood, season 3

We saw season one when it came out. Had to see if it was any good. It wasn't all that great, but at least it's a heck of a lot better than the atrociousness known as Merlin (the BBC series, not the awesome American miniseries with Sam Neill from 1998, which I love dearly). Didn't see much of season two, but saw bits of it. Season three... wouldn't have been very interested in it if it wasn't for the fact that I found out that not only would Prince John make appearances, he would (more importantly) be played by Toby Stephens. Two sides to this coin. Or actually, I list about five, so that's a well freaky coin as it happens, but I've had some Sheridan's liqueur so I'm excused.

Spotlight Squee: Robert Jordan

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Today, it's a year since the funeral service, so here's my hommage to the Creator. The only downside of writing this entry is that it has made cry, as I do think the world has lost a most magnificent storyteller. A toast to his memory! May he live forever in our hearts! Who is this person? Robert Jordan, pen name of James Oliver Rigney Jr., wrote The Wheel of Time fantasy series. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina on 17 October 1948, served in Vietnam in the late 60s and later took up writing. He's written some Conan books as well, but is most famous for tWoT. He was diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis in 2006, and died on 16 September 2007. How did I find this person? A classmate suggested I should read "The Eye of the World", as it was a very good book... and so I borrowed it from the library and started reading. She was not wrong! How long ago was this? Must have been in 1996 or 1997, I think. So what's the deal? It's a world that l...

Spotlight Squee: Sam Neill

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The moment has finally arrived! A great big happy birthday to Sam Neill! Here's the story... Who is this person? Sam Neill is an actor and a director, who also has his own vinyard in central Otago in New Zealand. He was born 14 September 1947 in Omagh, Northern Ireland, but moved to New Zealand as a child. Eventually, he became an actor and is perhaps most known to people as Alan Grant in Jurassic Park (films 1 and 3)... but he's been in a myriad of other things. Some more memorable than others. How did I find this person? Well, there are a few different explanations here, because there are a few different occasions. The first one was watching the music video to Michael Nyman's "The Heart Asks Pleasure First" in school - the theme to the critically acclaimed film The Piano (it's actually rather good, even though it's critically acclaimed). I thought "oh hello" - and I can't have been more than 10 or 11 at the time... Second was watc...

Spotlight Squees: The X-Files

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Today is the UK opening of The X-Files: I Want To Believe , so it's quite fitting for today's topic to be that of Mulder and Scully. Also, it'll be the first installment of fictional characters. Who are these people? Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are two FBI agents on a TV show called "The X-Files" (1993-2002). Mulder's the person who believes in all kinds of paranormal things, Scully's the sceptic who is sent in to debunk his work. If you don't already know who they are, go watch the show. How did I find these people? I saw a trailer on TV4 once upon a time. I thought it sounded like a great show, and one of the episodes was on at 8pm instead of 9:10pm, so I was allowed to stay up and watch it. This would've been "Squeeze" (1X02). I wasn't allowed to be up and watch the other episodes, as I was supposed to be in bed, but my sister taped them for me, so that I could watch them the next day when I...

Spotlight Squee: JK Rowling

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And the second person to be praised in this series is JK Rowling, seeing as it's her birthday today. Happy birthday, Jo! :) Who is this person? She's the author of the Harry Potter books. If you don't know who Harry Potter is yet, you have probably lived as a hermit under ground the past decade or so. How did I find this person? We got to read a thing with some text excerpts in Swedish class in school, as we were having a big test and were to write something about one of the texts in that brochure or whatever you want to call it. I had heard of HP before, but never read any, and there was an excerpt from the first book, HP at King's Cross. I was instantly taken in by the story and wanted to read more, so I asked a school friend (who had the books) if I could borrow them... and I could, so I quickly devoured the first three and absolutely loved them. How long ago was this? Spring of 2001. So what's the deal? The stories are perfectly bubbly and full of ...

Spotlight Squee: Ken Olin

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The reason I'm starting with this guy, as opposed to someone that would perhaps make more sense (such as Sam Neill) to most people who know me, is because it happens to be his birthday today. Happy birthday, Ken! :) Loving this piccy btw! ---> Who is this person? He's a TV actor and producer/director. A fact that makes it a bit hard to try and track down stuff he's been in, because obscure TV movies don't always make it to DVD and people can't be arsed to torrent them. He's starred in stuff like Thirtysomething and is a producter on Brothers & Sisters , where he recently guest starred (season 2). He was also working on Alias and made a guest appearance there in season one. How did I find this person? I was channel hopping and came across a movie on the Scifi Channel, called Evolution's Child . The premise of the movie was a little intriguing, so I came to watch it. Interesting links with the Indigo phenomenon, I thought, and then I saw the guy...

Monty Python vs Harry Potter

Barty Crouch Jr. meets the Death Eaters at the Quidditch World Cup arena (I might have been a little bored when writing this. You might recognise it. ;)) [trumpets] [clap clap clap] ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen. The next contest is between... Serbia, the Balkan baby-crushers, and Mongolia. BARTY CROUCH JR: Want some... VOICE: Thank you, fellows. BARTY: Popcorn. Chocolate buttons. Snickers. Mars bars. Nachos with cheese. Get 'em while they're hot. They're lovely. Potato wedges, only half a sickle. Chilli poppers. ALECTO: I do feel, Lucius, that any anti-establishment group like ours must reflect such a divergence of interests within its power-base. LUCIUS: Agreed. Amycus? AMYCUS: Yeah. I think Alecto's point of view is very valid, Lucius, provided the Movement never forgets that it is the inalienable right of every man-- MCNAIR: Or woman. AMYCUS: Or woman... to rid himself-- MCNAIR: Or herself. AMYCUS: Or herself. LUCIUS: Ag...