The Squeee

Today's Tag Teams: In freeform : Melanie on why Harry Kennedy is the perfect man • Rose Gisborne on which colors look best on Richard Armitage • Itsjsforme unveils Guy of Gisborne's latest public service announcements (not safe for work!) • In fandom , Fabo on Richard Armitage's statements about fans •  Gratiana Lovelace requests help captioning in "I'm Too Sexy for My T-Shirt!" • The Hobbit chain goes creative with The Queen on Hobbit quilts • Mrs. E.B. Darcy on Hobbit action figures! • For King Richard Armitage , IngeD3 reviews the Michael Hicks biography of the fifteenth-century king • In fanfic , John Thornton on why he loves Margaret Hale • Jo Ann introduces us to a new Armitage character she knows we'll love • Links to all FanstRA 3 posts appear here at the end of each day. This post is inspired, but not exactly based on, Richard Armitage's character in The Golden Hour . One of the most enduring romantic fantasies is that of t...

Today's Tag Teams: In the beginning, Richard Armitage made scores of fans -- and he keeps on making them! To kick off the fandom chain , Didion converts friends to Armitage love • Phylly3 reports on her fandom experiences • In t he Hobbit chain , Ana Cris writes on her recent film location visit • Mrs. E.B. Darcy speculates about what our hero will do in An Unexpected Journey (spoilers!) • King Richard Armitage chain begins with Maria Grazia on a film adaptation of Richard III • Beginning the fanfic chain , fedoralady explains fanfic's mainstream appeal • In the freeform chain , Fabo files an eyewitness report on Richard Armitage's visit to U.S. accent school • jazzbaby1 wonders "what were they thinking?" re: Lucas North's women • and ChrisB opens the Armitage Alphabet, with "A is for Action" • Links to all FanstRA 3 posts appear here at the end of each day. This post is inspired, but not exactly based on, Richard Armitage's ch...

In less than six hours, this year's Richard Armitage FanstRAvaganza kicks off! Welcome blog readers and Richard Armitage fans, old and new! :) The Squeee has been participating since the beginning, and is one of the "core blogs" in F3: this year, we've got a team of core bloggers and a few different tag teams, where several blogs are a chain posting about one topic, but only one person does so per day. All my F3 posts will include links to the tag teamers, and the core bloggers can be found in the sidebar on the right, over there somewhere. -----> For those of you who don't particularly care (gasp!) about Richard Armitage, every weekday will still contain a review, as normal, posted around the normal time - between 8 and 9 in the morning GMT/UK time. All five productions do include Richard Armitage in the cast list though ... :P

Sadly, the big man is no longer with us, but if he hadn't been snatched from us in May 2001, he would've celebrated his 60th birthday today. Alas, that shall never be. In honour of his birthday, however, here's the man himself, giving UCSB a talk not long before he passed away. Douglas Adams supported Save the Rhino . Do you have any spare Altairian dollars for these merry savannah tanks?

It's been just about a year since I wrote that post about IF Richard Armitage was gay, what's it got to do with us ? This has since become the most read and the most commented post on this blog, for better or for worse. Hotly debated issue, apparently. The thing that strikes me is how people look upon the subject. A lot of comments were very supportive, saying if he was gay, it might spoil the illusion somewhat, but all in all, if that's who he is, then that's who he is. Others claimed to have evidence of him being a homosexual, but from what I gather, it's really only based on hearsay, rumourmongering and/or "gut feelings". Personally, I'd be interested to hear a gay man's views on this. Why? Because everyone in the debate is female, and the vast majority, if not all, are straight. Ever heard the term "gaydar"? Whose gaydar is more likely to be accurate - a straight female's or a homosexual male's? I know who I'd vote for...

Got the message through that the third series of Horrible Histories will be released toward the end of May but that it is now available to pre-order from Amazon UK. That's where my alert came from, but other retailers are available. Especially HMV, they could do with the custom. Third series of course includes songs about Dick Turpin, the Suffragettes, Richard III, William Wallace, Victorian children working, Incan priests and all the kings and queens since William the Conqueror. Indeed. Speaking of singing, Engelbert Humperdinck will be representing the UK in this year's Eurovision. Bloke's 75, but in today's day and age, even pensioners are required to work. Ah. Ha. Ha. Seriously though, will be interesting to see how he does, especially compared to Ireland, who are unleashing Jedward once again. We have some great singers here. Why don't we send Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones next year? That would be EPIC.

If I did personal greetings on this blog, I'd wish my sister a very happy birthday. If I was Welsh, I'd wish everyone a Happy St. David's Day. But I don't really do personal greetings (as such) and I'm not Welsh. I am, however, a big fan of German singer Thomas Anders, and it's his birthday today. Happy 49th birthday, Herr Anders! May all your days be merry and bright, just like ... well, like you , as it happens. :) With lots of love from your fans around the world ... but especially me ... because this is my haunt ... *cough* It's been 14 years now, and that smile still makes my heart flutter. Or whatever. *happysigh* [ Photo source ]

Shrove Tuesday, you say? Fat Tuesday (fettisdagen) we say! Instead of pancakes, we eat something called a semla. The semla is a cardamom spiced bun (try finding a sweet bun in Sweden that isn't, I dare you) hollowed out and filled with an almond paste, topped with whipped cream, the lid left from the hollowing out and finished with a dusting of icing sugar. The buns I baked yesterday turned out rather small ... so I'm going to pretend it's deliberate and call them "calorie controlled". Today is the "correct day" of eating them, but nowadays, bakeries start making them shortly after Christmas. A little wrong, I think.

This week's weekend video is brought to you by Albino Blacksheep and a chorus of Lord Voldemort, Draco Malfoy and Wormtail, putting on a spectacular Lion King parody for your amusement. :D

Epic tea time with Alan Rickman. (Thanks Leffe! :D)

Came across a site where you can watch a trailer for a film the Hellboy fandom thinks should be made. I'm not exactly in the Hellboy fandom, but the best thing about Hellboy II: The Golden Army was Prince Nuada (Luke Goss). I agree with the site's creators slash makers of the impressive trailer that there is a lot more that can be said about that character. Like his (and his twin sister's) entire backstory, squeee! That would be MADE. OF. AWESOME! :D So go check out the trailer and sign the petition and cross fingers that this film will be made. Director Guillermo del Toro is aware of the petition, and sounds like he'd want to make it, if the studio funds it. According to the site, Luke Goss is also positive to play the guy again. (Fans, feel free to squee as appropriate.)

Thought I'd wish the man a happy birthday, basically because I woke up this morning, saw it was 7 February and my first thought was not "in 2005, I started working in a callcentre - in 2007, I had a breakdown because I was still working there, and handed in my resignation two days later". My first thought was "7 February? That means something. OHH, I remember now! It's Dieter Bohlen's birthday!" So here ya go, big guy. Happy 58th birthday, Dieter! Biggest composer "since ever" in Germany. :) [ Source: Weidungs Welt! and what a blast from the past that is. ♥]

Back in 2010, there was an idea for a fanblogging event, where the current Richard Armitage fanblogs would participate, highlighting Richard Armitage's work and/or his fans for a whole week, and this venture was named FanstRAvaganza. You might recall this: Then, in 2011, it was decided that the FanstRAvaganza, having been a big success and plenty of fun for everyone involved, should return, and return it did. With more participants than the year before.

The Winter It Is Past The winter it is past, and the summer comes at last And the small birds, they sing on ev'ry tree; Now ev'ry thing is glad, while I am very sad, Since my true love is parted from me. The rose upon the breer, by the waters running clear, May have charms for the linnet or the bee; Their little loves are blest, and their little hearts at rest, But my true love is parted from me. [ Source: Robert Burns Country ] (Not seasonally accurate just yet, but the poem was short enough to keep my attention and easily enough read and understood to get a modicum of my affection. Robert Burns was a Scottish poet, from the times when cravats were all the rage. His birthday is celebrated in the UK, and in Scotland in particular. Thought I'd mention it for once, even if I can't stand poetry myself. :P)

... Also known as "stuff I do when I really should be doing a lot of other stuff". *cough* To start off with, let's look at when books were released and the ratings I gave them. That shows that even though we're talking three different centuries, they're fairly consistent in average quality/enjoyability: The 21st Century (2000s): 3.78 (based on 45 items) The 19th Century (1800s): 3.59 (based on 8 items) The 20th Century (1900s): 3.21 (based on 20 items) Note that unrated and/or "date unknown" have not been included here, for obvious reasons. As most of the written items are from the 2000s, I've whittled it down to a per year thing: 2000: 3.8 (1 item) 2001: 5 (1) 2002: 4 (4) 2003: 4 (1) 2004: 4.75 (4) 2005: 3.35 (2) 2006: 3 (2) 2007: 3.6 (3) 2008: 3 (4) 2009: 4 (4) 2010: 3.62 (10) 2011: 3.82 (9) There's a similar story for films as well. The 21st Century scores 3.45 on average, with the 20th Century coming in at the lower 3...

Hollywood's done it again, announcing a re-make of a film that is perfectly fine as it is: The Princess Bride . We've heard rumours of a Dirty Dancing re-make, and I think Top Gun was another one. And now, they want to bastardise yet another 1980s favourite that DOESN'T NEED A RE-MAKE, putting Paul Rudd in Cary Elwes's shoes. IT'S NOT ON. Just because you can't think of anything new to do, you have to go back and butcher innocent, unsuspecting cult classics? "A re-make?" "Inconcievable!" Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya), BLESS HIM, is not amused. I'm expecting Inigo to appear, sword in hand, saying words to the effect of "My name is Inigo Montoya. You're killing an awesome film. Prepare to die!" [ EDIT: Apparently, THANK GOODNESS, this was a false alarm. They were just gathering a cast to do a script reading in a library or something.] So what other classic 1980s films could Hollywood's greed decide to fuc...

Richard, Richard, Richard ... Every time you enter my dreamscape, you leave confusion in your wake. Okay, last time it wasn't very confusing, just surprising. This , however, takes the proverbial biscuit. I'm not quite sure how it started, but I can definitely tell that watching Sherlock and planning for this year's FanstRAvaganza (stay tuned!) just before bed-time definitely took their toll ... To start off with, Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage, in a hallway or something like that. I think Richard Armitage was inside the apartment (as was I and a group of other female fans) and Martin Freeman was out in the stairwell. They both expressed surprise at seeing one another here, in England, because both had been texting earlier in the day, when both had been in New York City or something like that. Just a quick "oh hello, fancy seeing you here, I thought you were abroad!" followed by "I thought the same about you!" and there's me thinking gosh, I...

Admittedly, I could have gone for the obvious one - Friday the 13th - but seeing as how there's about three of them this year, I thought I'd save it for the next one. Today, there are other things to talk about! On Tjugondedag Knut (twentieth day Knut), it's been twenty days after Christmas, today's name is Knut, and the day means that Christmas is officially over, so it's time to take the festive decorations down and get on with the new year. My parents' tree, Christmas 2010 (haven't transferred the photos of our tree this year from my camera yet)

This is only about a week overdue as the day in question was last Thursday! Trettondagsafton and Trettondagen (last Friday), indeed all of Trettonhelgen (Thursday to Sunday), is what's called Twelfth Night in English. I think it's from when the three kings came to visit Jesus in the stables in Bethlehem, but most Swedes would likely just shrug at that and say "yeah, whatever". We have several holidays based on religion, but as Sweden today is very secular, the days only mean "we don't have to go to work/school today because it's a red day in the calendar". It's common for TV to show a musical farce during this weekend. It runs in the summer, at Fredriksdalsteatern, an open air theatre in Helsingborg in the south of Sweden, and is recorded for TV. When I was growing up, the star of these used to be Nils Poppe, but since he retired, comedienne Eva Rydberg has taken over. She's definitely living up to the expectations he left! Other th...

How a Swede spent last night sort of dictates how Nyårsdagen (New Year's Day) is spent. If you were full up on drink and didn't get to bed until the early hours of the morning, you probably spend most of the day in bed, then take it very easy due to the inevitable hangover you're likely to have. Not so much if you took it easy. There is of course time to start working on those new year's resolutions ... Did you make any? I normally don't, because I don't see the point. Losing weight? Yeah, well, I need to do that regardless of if it's a new year or not. Quit smoking? Never smoked. Exercise more? See the bit about losing weight ... In Britain, if a red letter day falls on a weekend, the holiday is pushed to the next available Monday, so you get it back, meaning tomorrow is a Bank Holiday here. In Sweden, if a red letter day falls on a weekend, tough luck, you don't get it back, meaning today is a Sunday, tomorrow is a normal Monday. I much pref...