Fools Gold
Despite my fears, my hand is slowly getting better. I managed a bit of knitting yesterday before settling down to watch Worried About the Boy, a BBC2 drama about Boy George's pre-fame life (warmly recommended, particularly if you liked Velvet Goldmine. WATB is not as heady nor anywhere as clever as VG, but it explores similar ground).
Completely unrelated, I have decided that this track is going to be the soundtrack to my summer..
The rest of my day is going to be spent doing chores, seeing some friends and hopefully my hand will keep on getting better. Thanks for all the well-wishes!
“Are You Sure It Isn’t Just Some Fanboy Thing..?”
I saw this* and then I started missing academia once more and also really, really wanted to move to London. But, you know, life isn't so bad. Thursday I'll be baby-sitting the Old Maiden Aunt studio as Lilith's away, so do pop by West Kilbride if you fancy buying some lovely handpainted yarn and a chat over some tea and knitting.
Via John (and presumably everybody else on the interwebs): Buffy Summers meets Edward Cullen.
"It's an example of transformative storytelling serving as a visual critique of Edward's character and generally creepy behavior. Seen through Buffy's eyes some of the more patriarchal gender roles and sexist Hollywood tropes embedded in the Twilight saga are exposed in hilarious ways."
As John says, "..I have a sneaking feeling that a Spike meets Edward Cullen remix would [also] be a thing of beauty and a joy forever."
* I nearly fainted when I saw Jewel Spears Brooker was speaking on “The Fire and the Rose: Eliot and Julian of Norwich”. Phoawr!
Random Is the New Black
We have found more clay pipes by the Forth and Clyde Canal - here is one of the nicest pipes, if not exactly the most intact..
Notice also the rather interesting shards of china in the background. We've identified one piece with the Willow Pattern but the rest remain elusive. Interestingly we've found tiny bits with lettering (be still my beating heart!) and other bits with what looks like fishing huts.
Swine flu has been confirmed around 12 miles from us. I'm expecting an outbreak of panic here which will involve people looting tissue paper, tinned soup, hand soap and cans of lager from our local supermarket. In other words, I'm not worried, although my mother might be once she realises how close I live to Monklands Hospital (i.e. not very close but in the same country). As a Dane I feel obliged to inform you that pork products are perfectly safe to eat. Mmmm, bacon.
Only one random link today: Vidders Talk Back to their Pop-Culture Muses.
"For decades, Americans sat in front of their televisions and watched — just watched — their favorite shows. (..) But one group of fans has interacted with their favorite television shows for more than three decades. Vidders, as they're called, make unauthorized underground videos using clips from the shows. Each vid compiles dozens of clips from various episodes, all set to a song."
To be perfectly honest, I've seen a handful of these fanmade vids and most of them are .. not very good. The formula goes something like this: one plaintative love song - say, Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love". Then take the lyrics and pair with with your fandom of choice - so, when Leona bleats "Time starts to pass.." you insert pictures of Captain Kirk/the Doctor/Six looking at a watch. Lather, rinse, repeat .. But unsurprisingly there are some mindblowingly good vids out there. This is the best I've seen.
PS. Happy birthday to regular commentator and offline compadre, Darth Ken. I love you, man.