Recent Posts

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Xanthe's Blog / Re: Woot - another blog entry :-)

« Last post by Xanthe on May 05, 2013, 07:58:22 PM »

I love Mark Strong. I bet he's great in that new show - I'll have to see if I can catch it!

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Xanthe's Blog / Re: Woot - another blog entry :-)

« Last post by UprightIguana on May 05, 2013, 07:52:53 PM »

Mark Strong is in a new show, TV series on AMC called Low Winter Sun.  He's the star, and it's about a Detroit detective in a city where the cops and the criminals are not easily separated.  (A bunch of Fuscos).  It sounds like a police procedural with a dash of paranoia and revenge, but I'd watch it just for Mark Strong doing yet another American...

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Xanthe's Blog / Re: Woot - another blog entry :-)

« Last post by Xanthe on May 01, 2013, 10:01:53 AM »

D'oh! Missed this! Sorry - I think the forum's notify thing isn't working properly!

I gave up on Arrow because it seemed so one dimensional. Maybe I'll pick it up again if people rave about it in later seasons! I have 3 eps of Defiance that I haven't watched - I found the first few minutes so annoying that I turned it off but maybe I was in a bad mood and need to give it another try! LOL!

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Xanthe's Blog / Re: Woot - another blog entry :-)

« Last post by UprightIguana on April 24, 2013, 05:18:38 AM »

Hey there, saw Defiance.  Liked it so far, and mostly for the majority of strong women roles.  The political machinations reminds me of Game of Thrones, and they have their own breed of Cylon.  Expensively produced, although they'd have to go a LONG way to convince me that lush green mountains suddenly sprang up all around the Gateway Arch in St Louis, Missouri.  Yeah, and the Mojave Desert is filled with lush tropical palms!

Glad you've gotten into Supernatural.  S6 is prolly my least favourite season, tho - I mean, how can you top the Apocalypse?  I love that the show makes fun of its own self and fandoms, like the whole explanation of "slash" back in S4.  But no, I cannot slash the brothers.  Evah.  I can, however, slash Dean and Castiel.   

I love Mark Strong.  But he's so unrecognizable from role to role, and he does American pretty flawlessly, so he's in a variety of film types, from Green Lantern (which even he couldn't improve, I'm afraid) to Zero Dark Thirty to The Eagle (in the Scottish HIghlands, doing an American accent!) (The Eagle was incredibly slashy, was it not?), to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.  I'm so hoping he'll make it to Comic Con someday.  I mean, he's going to be the new Green Lantern bad guy, right, with the yellow ring?

Watching Arrow, and while my geek friends all love it, I'm more reserved, although I do seem to be watching it every week - it is the lead-in to Supernatural, and that's my excuse.  Stephen Arnell is getting better but I still cringe at the lines he delivers sometimes.  The other thing that annoys me is how every single female on the show has perfect lipstick and gloss.  EVERYone.  I find that annoying.  They have great guest stars, tho, although I have a hard time buying that John Barrowman has a son that old.  Seems to be a TV trend, Joanna Cassidy's played the mother of both Dana Delaney (Body of Proof) and David Boreanaz (Bones) and she just doesn't seem old enough to play their mothers!  Stockard Channing playing the mother of Julianna Margulies in The Good Wife is a bit of a stretch, but I think Stockard pulls it off a bit better.

Hugs and Toodles.

 

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Xanthe's Blog / Woot - another blog entry :-)

« Last post by Xanthe on April 14, 2013, 10:32:56 AM »

Writing
I've been working really hard on the new novel for the past couple of weeks. It's hard to get the writing time and energy at the moment, with work being so busy, but I've managed to do quite a bit of writing, especially in the last week, and it's now nearly 40,000 words long. I think you'll really like this one - it's got a great big murder/mystery at the centre, and it's set in London, in the future. There's also a big, complicated gay love story at its heart. I'm enjoying unravelling all the things in my head - it's challenging to write a murder/mystery and eke out all the little details, as well as covering the sci-fi aspects, AND throwing in the romance, but I love that about it. It's a darker, angstier book than Ricochet - as with my fanfic, I want to write in a range of different genres and this is a very different work to Ricochet.

I can throw out some snippets and hope to start doing some teasers soon. For now, I can reveal that there's a slave boy called Alex in it. And he looks very like Sebastian Stan ;-). Gratuitous SS pic below! I can totally see him in this role being all mixed up, and spoiled, and naughty, and in need of some firm loving! LOL!


After meeting with flyingnorth yesterday, we decided that Mark Strong would work very well opposite him. But I can also see Daniel Craig in the role, too, in the very likely event it got made into a movie - snorfle!

Nuke it out, boys!



Website
Me and Jacci have been working on a revamp of xanthe.org, although it's slowed down a lot in the past 6 weeks. Hopefully, we can get back into it soon and unveil it, as it's much easier to navigate, and we've put in some good gizmos to make it easier to read the stories in different e formats, and access the podfics.

TV
Dr Who -

(click to show/hide)

I thought the first couple of episodes were fun and typical DW fare, but I'm sad to say I was bored witless during last night's episode. That could just be me - I have an aversion to episodes set on mining ships and submarines are the same ilk to my mind. I love Mark Gatiss, and wanted to like this episode, but it seemed like something I'd seen a million times before and although DW's plea for understanding and tolerance towards all is laudable, sometimes the message can become laboured and repetitive, as happened here.

Defiance - lots of publicity about this and it's airing this week in the UK. I thought I'd watch it - is it any good?
Supernatural - am on S6 now and loving it! I have no particular urge to slash anyone or be involved in the fandom but I do appreciate good, imaginative storytelling, which this does so well.

BGT - first episode of the new series last night and it just ROCKED. Loved it. David Walliams makes the show, with his hilarious, one-sided crush on Simon. Some of the acts, like the shadow dancers, were genuinely new and interesting too - although I've noticed in the past that a lot of acts can do a good first audition but don't have any follow up material, so we'll see. When I was in Windsor yesterday, I mooched around in Smiths and saw that among Walliams's children's books is one called "The Boy in the Dress". I haven't read it, but I love how he's trying to challenge stereotypes, and make it okay for boys to enjoy exploring their feminine sides. I was also very impressed by the adaptation of his "Mr Stink" book which aired over Xmas and was a real treat.

Cats
Harley got out last week - I got a text from my elderly neighbour that he was in their garden, so came racing home from work. I asked her if she'd be able to grab him and put him in my house in the meantime, but when I got there, she said he kept hissing at them and they couldn't get close to him. So, I walk into their garden and call his name and he comes running up, straight into my arms, has a big cuddle and a purr, and then reaches out to my neighbour and wants HER to fuss him, despite the fact he was hissing at her 15 minutes earlier! After the recent experience at the vet, I've decided he's Dr Jekyll and Mr Harley - if he's in his own house, he's fine. If he's ANYWHERE else then I have to be there or he's a hissy growly thing. If I'm there, he's a heap of mushy 'pet me now!'. Daft banana boy! I haven't figured out where he's getting out yet, so today I'm on 'Harley-patrol', keeping an eye out to see if he tries it again. It's actually sunny and moderately warm here today, for the first time in what feels like forever.

He and Jemima are back to their old love-ins after their temporary hiatus over his recent illness. Proof below!





I think that's all! I hope you're all doing well!

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From Les Mis to Lloyd Webber... / Re: I saw Les Mis last night....! SPOILERS!

« Last post by Xanthe on February 10, 2013, 08:41:32 AM »

Finnally got to see it yesterday (late I know) and frankly adored it.
I've never seen the stage play and only vaguely knew the story.
I didn't like the start at all - Crowe's singing voice grated and Valjean seemed to bounce from emotion to emotion to quickly for me to engage and I was begining to dread sitting through two hours of it. Then the beggers in montreal (?) started up and Anne Hathaway hit the screen and I loved it. She played that part so well and sung so clearly; it was beautiful.
I also adored epony (eponnie?), the emotion in her voice, the unrequited love - I cried when she died (not for the last time).
The kid who played Gavroche also did brilliantly, as did the little Cosette.
I followed the narative fairly easily, cried quite a bit during 'Empty chairs at empty tables' (though I must confess I didn't realise they were actual chairs and tables until the end of the song - I thought they were metaphorical) as well as the one sung just before by the women cleaning up.
All in all, loved it, going to see it again - this time bringing tissues.

Woot! I love hearing from people who've  never seen the stage show - every single one loves the movie, and I think that coming to the music and story fresh it's impossible NOT to love it as both the music and the story are fantastic, and if you've never seen the stage show you've got nothing to compare it with. And the movie IS good, in its own way. I've seen it quite a few times now and do really enjoy it each time. LOL re the Empty Chairs at Empty Tables - I had a big problem with how Hooper filmed that, and it's a shame because Redmayne's performance is excellent. I had a problem with a few of the directorial decisions, but overall, it's a great movie. The song as the women are cleaning up is called "Turning" and it's one of my favourites but for some reason they cut it to only one verse! I hate that because it's a beautiful song and you've have cried even more during the whole thing *g*. I'm hoping they actually FILMED full length versions of ALL the songs and that they'll release a full length version one day! LOL! There are a few songs cut down to almost nothing, particularly in the revolutionary sequence. The characters of the students were fleshed out far more as individuals in those songs, especially Grantaire, the cynic, who doesn't seem to be cynical at all in the movie, giving no real meaning to his grand decision to stand beside Enjolras in death.

And Eponine! She's amazing - one of my favourite characters ever. "On my own" is the best song about unrequited love I've ever heard and I thought Samantha Barks was terrific in the role. Anne Hathaway was wonderful too. Hathaway and Redmayne gave the best performances to my mind. Crowe's performance has grown on me but I'm afraid Jackman's hasn't.

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From Les Mis to Lloyd Webber... / Re: I saw Les Mis last night....! SPOILERS!

« Last post by Altyerre on February 09, 2013, 11:38:48 AM »

Finnally got to see it yesterday (late I know) and frankly adored it.
I've never seen the stage play and only vaguely knew the story.
I didn't like the start at all - Crowe's singing voice grated and Valjean seemed to bounce from emotion to emotion to quickly for me to engage and I was begining to dread sitting through two hours of it. Then the beggers in montreal (?) started up and Anne Hathaway hit the screen and I loved it. She played that part so well and sung so clearly; it was beautiful.
I also adored epony (eponnie?), the emotion in her voice, the unrequited love - I cried when she died (not for the last time).
The kid who played Gavroche also did brilliantly, as did the little Cosette.
I followed the narative fairly easily, cried quite a bit during 'Empty chairs at empty tables' (though I must confess I didn't realise they were actual chairs and tables until the end of the song - I thought they were metaphorical) as well as the one sung just before by the women cleaning up.
All in all, loved it, going to see it again - this time bringing tissues.

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Forum Rules - Please Read! / Re: Podfic Updates

« Last post by jacci on February 03, 2013, 05:43:29 AM »

Damage Section 5 part 1 podfic has just been uploaded and is available here.
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Forum Rules - Please Read! / Re: Podfic Updates

« Last post by jacci on February 02, 2013, 06:29:32 AM »

Damage Section 4 part 2 podfic has just been uploaded and is available here.


Sorry for the delay, i forgot to do this as i was so busy slaving away with other Important Work for our slavedriving lovely Xanthe!

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Xanthe's Blog / Re: Anyone for slavefic? (and cats!)

« Last post by Xanthe on February 01, 2013, 02:43:21 PM »

Hi! And in answer to your question... yes, slavefic and yes cats! We are going to start our search for that special certain someone to fill the cat-shaped hole in our lives... We'll go to Wood Greeen Animal Shelter (which we can almost see from our house) and see if our kitten is there on 14th Feb... the anniversary of Fenny joining our family 15 years ago. We thought that we would never be able to face another black cat living with us, but apparently black cats are always harder to rehome than any other colour, so black it is! Our little (human) girl is now three years old, so hopefully she won't pull the cat's tail and make life hideous for him/her. As for the slavefic... well duh! Interesting that you have chosen the guy I only know as the Mad Hatter in Once Upon a Time. He does a very good line in 'obsessive' and 'frustrated'! Can't wait to read it!

Woot - Valentine's Day! That's very auspicious! I wish you luck - I hope you find exactly the right kitty to share your lives with!!! Please let me know what happens!

Funnily enough, I've been writing a cat fic and intend to post it soon - probably tomorrow :-).

And yay re slave fic! LOL! I agree re Sebastian Stan - I first noticed him in OUaT and have seen him in a few things since then and find him perfect for the role of the slave in my story!