Immortalized in stitches...

I just discovered that the place I lived as a student in England, Crosby Hall, is available as a cross-stitch pattern. That is so cool!

Ian McKellen at an anti-Pope rally...

Ian McKellen is wearing the best t-shirt ever. And no one else could.

The course of true love...

30 Day Book Meme: – Day 21 – Favorite romantic/sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)

I'm not clear what an asexual romantic relationship is. Platonic love, or unrequited, or unconsummated? Could someone explain?

Anyway... favourite romantic relationships:

Lymond and Philippa, in the Lymond novels. At first I'd wanted Lymond's romance to be with Kate. I still love Kate more than Philippa. But his romance with Philippa is magnificent.

Eugenides' romance in the Megan Whalen Turner novels is wonderful, too. I'm avoiding names so as to avoid spoilers.

Jane and Mr. Rochester, in Jane Eyre

Emma Frost and Scott Summers, in X-Men

Kitty Pryde and Pete Wisdom, in Excalibur

Lost Girl...

This evening I watched Lost Girl with explodedteabag. Before watching, I knew nothing about it except that I'd seen a poster advertising it at fanexpo, and liked the poster. Liked the look of the hero, especially, who turns out to be Kristen Holden-Ried, whom I'd liked long ago as the boyfriend in Touch of Pink.

Now, I've been complaining about how I don't find urban fantasy that I like, and this is urban fantasy. But I liked the first episode a lot, for numerous reasons:

1. Lots of nice femslash.
   
2. A great teen girl thief sidekick who reminds me of Jubilee, if not Stephanie Brown.
   
3. No compromising with the material, or whitewashing the characters.
   
4. The right kind of comic book flavour: good sets and costumes, nice sense of place - urban decay and stylishness. Very interesting visuals on the characters. I like ther Canadian style, which isn't quite like the British or the American.
   
5. Did I mention the femslash? And a nice hot het vibe between Bo and Dyson. The best of both worlds.
   
6. I have been fascinated lately by the Daken at Marvel comics, whose attributes include independence, powers of seduction, omnisexuality, and often, the killing of those he seduces. Bo has these same characteristics. A new theme for a new sort of protagonist?
   
7. And, I might guess, just a bit of a polyamorous vibe coming up between Bo, Dyson, and Lauren. Fine with me.
   
8. Beautiful people in black leather.
   
   

Dirty fandom secrets...

Picked this up from mississippienne:

❀ everyone has dirty fandom secrets or guilty pleasures or unpopular opinions.
❀ list five of yours.
❀ get cries of OMG YOU TOO or WTF ARE YOU SMOKING

You all know, if you read this lj at all, that I don't really have fannish secrets, and usually state my opinions (popular or not) pretty clearly. Still.

My dirty fandom secrets:

1. I love Torchwood and I love it that the male protagonist had a male lover for the duration of the show, but the pairing of Jack and Ianto never did anything for me, and I kept hoping Captain Jack would find someone I liked more. I preferred Jack/Captain Jack Harkness, Jack/Doctor, Jack/Captain John Hart, even Jack/Gwen. So it goes. ...Okay, that was never much of a secret, but there's an even more terrible corollary to this: I really liked the death of Ianto. I was much more upset (then and now) by the death of Tosh.
   
2. Gambit is one of my favourite Marvel characters, and I like Rogue, too, but I don't like Gambit's romance with Rogue and wish it would come to an end.
   
3. I never got excited over Matt Smith as the Doctor and it's affected my reactions to Doctor Who. I'm now looking forward to the Twelfth Doctor, but who knows how many years from now that will be? ...And it's possible that my reaction is not to the Eleventh Doctor or Amy Pond, but to Steven Moffat's writing. I liked his work better on Sherlock.
   
4. I kinda love Rob Liefeld's art. Even when, or especially when, he was anatomically absurd. I love his sense of motion, and I often fall in love with his characters. Conversely, there are popular comic book artists whose work I dislike: Alan Davis, Steve Ditko, Mike Mignola.
   
5. I have't liked any of Orlando Bloom's roles since The Lord of the Rings.