Tennant, Hamlet, Tall Ships, and assorted links...

[fajrdrako]

josanpq was over today for fun, frolic and goodies. She brought me two seasons of Black Books, which I never heard of before, but she thought I'd enjoy it. And a beautiful book from the National Geographic Society called Men, Ships and the Sea - the great selling point being the flyleaf diagram of a tall ship with all sails furled and labelled, and the lines, and the masts, and the knots. The book is full of beautiful pictures, as National Geographic Books are wont to be, and - being second hand - there's a note stuck between two pages, with a picture of a teddy bear holding a pen, and someone has written: Hold for John Walter. Ian - Jan 20/04". I love mysterious notes like that. Think it's in code?

josanpq told me about last week's episode of Grey's Anatomy, which had a subplot of a gay romance between two soldiers - she showed me the sequence on YouTube, but unfortunately that clip is now down. But there's another version here.

And she showed me a scrumptious publicity picture of David Tennant: one of my favourite actors in one of my favourite roles of all time.

I had fun browsing that site, with it's Doctor Who series 4 trailer and comments to which I could relate oh so easily:

...Every time Donna got to the "He looks like a man, but he’s a legend, and his name is the Doctor" bit, I would just be a screaming melting fangirl puddle of goo on the floor of that tiny Parisian hotel room. It was sad and pathetic. But this is who I am.

How is it that the Doctor does that so easily to us fangirls? I think I like this FlickFilosopher: she likes both Doctor Who and Slings and Arrows. Good taste.

And I love her eye-rolling conclusion after watching "Voyage of the Damned": They’re sick, these Brits. And I love 'em for it.

Then people posted cool links on the Bujold list today. Love it when they do that! james_nicoll posted the link to a fascinating look at our solar system at Solar System Visualizer, which doesn't look like so much at first, but when you start playing with it - wow! Check out the stuff orbiting around Jupiter. Or Saturn. (Love the name Ymir, well familiar to me from Thor comics.) Then Epsilon Eridani... that is just so - exotic. A name out of science fiction. Well, out of science too of course, out of astronomy, but I read more fiction than science.

And commorified posted the link to "Futility Closet", fun to browse.

Comments

[cionaudha.livejournal.com]

That is such a delicious picture! Love the outfit. There's only one thing that bothers me about it --and I've said this elsewhere.

There is not one bit of Denmark that I have not seen and known and loved.

Dudes. There are no mountains in Denmark.

There are barely any hills in Denmark.

:-p

I hope it's good, or even great. I've never seen him except as Ten, so I have no idea what his abilities might be. Any thoughts?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That is such a delicious picture! Love the outfit.

So do I. It reminds me of the costuming in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet. This is not a bad thing.

Re the mountains: Well, it's a play, not a movie. They are unlikely to have mountains onstage.

I've never seen him except as Ten, so I have no idea what his abilities might be. Any thoughts?

I wish I could see him as Hamlet and judge for myself. I think he'll be good: he's excellent with mercurial mood changes and he can do 'intensity' rather well. I've seen him in several roles other than Ten - I think his portrayal of the Doctor is his best work, but I don't think I've ever seen substandard acting from him. Though sometimes he was acting with substandard scripts! - which will not be a problem with Shakespeare.

[basingstoke.livejournal.com]

you will LOVE Black Books. It's mint.

Also, Tennant is hotnezz. Despite his skinninezz.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

you will LOVE Black Books. It's mint.

Oh, good!

Yes, Tennant is the only really skinny star I can think of who is still incredibly sexy. Even though he doesn't move in a fashion that is normally sexy.... I don't know how he manages it, but he does.

And it's mesmerizing sometimes.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Photo. Those eyes.

I love the solar system we're in. When I was young, I knew all the satellites (far fewer then than are known now) and fantasized many amazing adventures on them and among them. Helping me in this was a great series of books involving four buddies -- two English, one Russian, one American -- whose names I now forget except for the secondary English guy (Tony) and the Russian guy (Sergei Smyslov). The titles of a couple of them: Spaceship to Saturn, Mission to Mercury, Terror by Satellite (this one was on our own moon). They were in the one shelf of science fiction at the Somerset library. I treasured them, and wished I could own them. And, um, now I can -- it occurs to me! -- if I want to go search. Maybe I shall.

Somehow I had missed the fact that you love tall ships as much as I do. I'm usually much more observant....

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Why does it say 3:44 AM? It's 11:44 PM Sunday the tenth! Silly.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Where do you see 3:44 a.m.? My own time seems to be an hour off - perhaps the settings ignore daylight savings time?

Mostly I ignore the times because they don't make a lot of sense.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

I saw the time in your heading.

I am writing this at about 2:55 AM after spending twelve hours at work. The first eight paid me "straight time," but actually "Sunday premium time," which is time and a quarter. Then the ninth and tenth paid me time and a half, standard overtime. The last two paid me "penalty time," which is double time. It's too frickin' much to grasp. And my feet and back hurt and I am very tired and I miss my kitties!

And I still haven't gotten over ingesting the Sun Light dishwashing soap. Uck.

Mostly I ignore the times because they don't make a lot of sense.

I can't comment on that. It's too perfectly Time Lord.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I saw the time in your heading.

Interesting! I couldn't see that. Perhaps it was GMT or something.

It's too perfectly Time Lord.

And somewhat on the wibbly-wobbly side of things.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

by Lester del Rey, I think. I read a few of them as a kid, but I don't remember them as well as you.

I'm sure they're available somewhere but I wouldn't guarantee cheapness. Try ebay & alibris and abebooks. Bookfinder.com covers all of the above but ebay, but doesn't always find all hits.

If you liked those, did you also like Gordon Dickson's YA SF?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

All the young adult SF I never read! and now probably never will.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

I have found them. Walter Llewelyn Hughes, writing as Hugh Walters, did a series of 20 books, starring British astronaut Chris Godfrey. His three buddies were Tony (also British, the token young & brash one), Serge the Russian (this was 1967!), and the American was Morrey (which at the time I first read them, I had no clue about, but now, all I can think of is "young Jewish guy from the Bronx!"). I found 24 different volumes on abebooks, ranging from four dollars to over one thousand. I am pleased. I have a quest.

Lester del Rey did write a lot of the things I loved as a sci-fi-reading kid, but he didn't do this one. thanks!

[gillo]

I loved those books too - my first introduction to SF in Stone library (Stone, Staffordshire). Apparently the author was born in Bilston and was a Black Country businessman! (Had I but known - I lived twenty miles from there as a child.)

I see your timestamp as 4.44, BTW. I wonder if that's the time local to this LJ, that is, Canada time?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I didn't start reading SF till I was 18 or 19 - and oddly enough, I started reading it in England, when I picked up Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight and John Wyndham's The Chrysalids at a roadside show somewhere in Kent so I'd have something to read while travelling through England.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Highly cool. Twenty miles! If it'd been me, I'd have been much too shy even to try to go see the man.

The timestamp varies randomly. I think that message was posted at around midnight. Sometimes it registers as three hours earlier, sometimes as three hours after, and rarely as the exact time. No other variations have come to my attention yet. And which of those three variants actually appears... well, I have not noticed any pattern. Nifty to think of, tho'.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

Lovely picture of Tennant as Hamlet -- perhaps this is him meeting R & G in England?

I must admit, though, that I find Tennant's depiction of Doctor Who occasionally over-the-top (I'm a Nine fan, I have to say). But I'd love to see Tennant's Hamlet.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Lovely picture of Tennant as Hamlet -- perhaps this is him meeting R & G in England?

Could be! Hanging out around the Cheviots or something. Looks dramatic, anyway.

I find Tennant's depiction of Doctor Who occasionally over-the-top

Only occasionally? He's loopy as a budgie. But I like that.

I'm a Nine fan, I have to say

Nine is The Best and I didn't mean to draw comparisons there. Nine is perfect. Ten is just ... fun. And interesting. In his own different sort of way.

I'd love to see Tennant's Hamlet.

Me too. If only.

[fadryn.livejournal.com]

*melts*
I'm going to see Tennant in Hamlet in July. I treated myself to tickets and a night in a swanky hotel, just because...
I will tell you all about it when I get back.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

How wonderful! I can hardly wait to hear all about it - enjoying it vicariously. What a wonderful theatrical experience that will be.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Black Books! It's hilarious - one of my housemates hadn't seen it until I picked up the entire run on DVD recently and he laughed so hard in the first episode he was crying and couldn't breathe.

Also, nice pic. That is a good coat.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Black Books!

Thanks for the encouragement - I'm looking forward to it.

That is a good coat.

Wonderful, isn't it?

[gillo]

I adore

Black Books

, and I defy you not to! The three core characters are superb and utterly bananas.

If you like

BB

you should probably also seek out

Green Wing

, also with the wonderful Tamsin Greig. Think Scrubs, but funnier and less rational.

Pretty DT in a billowy coat. I am a sucker for men in that sort of coat I think.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I adore Black Books, and I defy you not to!

I love it that everyone who knows it seems to think it's hilarious. Good!

I am a sucker for men in that sort of coat I think.

Me too. How'd that happen?