| Holmes vs. The Last Vampire |
[13 Oct 2008|11:01am] |
I've always been interested in the later parts of the canon, and so for Halloween this year I decided to combine a few clips from Granada's re-imagining of "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire" and set it to some pretty evil music. The result is simply a reflection on Holmes' view of the supernatural, I guess. I don't think people give Conan Doyle enough credit for Casebook, despite his odd obsession with the supernatural during his later years. The video may not be for everyone, but I hope you enjoy it! Make sure to turn up the volume and turn down the lights. Lyrics can be found in the description of the original video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_t-yKsqQ8w :)
|
|
|
|
[11 Oct 2008|09:08pm] |
just stumbled on this documentary about dartmoor and conan-doyle etc:
very recently added to youtube.
|
|
|
| moar movie news |
[06 Oct 2008|12:11am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
reserving judgement |
] |
From this article:
"Guy Ritchie and members of the cast of his upcoming film Sherlock Holmes were on hand in London today for a press conference to confirm casting and mark the start of principal photography on the film, which is set for release in 2010. On hand were Robert Downey Jr., who is playing Sherlock Holmes, Rachel McAdams, who is playing Irene Adler, Mark Strong, who is set to play Blackwood and Kelly Reilly, who was announced as Mary Morstan, the love interest of Dr. Watson.
The folks at Empire were at the press conference, and here is some key information that was revealed:
* The casting of Jude Law as Dr. Watson was confirmed. It was also said that Watson will be “no bumbler,” Downey Jr. emphasizing his background as a military surgeon and war veteran. (ok I do like this)
* Kelly Reilly was announced as being cast as Mary, Watson’s love interest that ultimately causes tension with Holmes, who resents her competition for Watson’s affections.
* Mark Strong’s character Blackwood was described as “a mysterious new adversary,” who along with Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), will be the primary “bad guys” in the film.
* The cast was mum about the possibility of another, much more menacing villain — and perhaps the appearance of Professor Moriarty — but Robert Downey Jr. did crack a smile when asked about it.
* Producer Joel Silver confirmed that the film will be targeting a PG-13 rating.
* The entire cast emphasized the fact that this will be a sexier*, more action-packed Holmes, but also made reference to the fact that his bare-knuckle boxing and martial arts skills are deeply rooted in the writing of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle."
*pffft what is sexier than a deerstalker hat.
Seen in an article elsewhere: we will not be seeing the deerstalker hat.
|
|
|
| Sunday Fun |
[05 Oct 2008|07:09pm] |
Hello! Is it also raining where you live? Here it's been raining night and day... a good occasion to stay at home and look for some kind of amusement...
Here are two board games dedicated to Sherlock Holmes, one called '221B Baker Street' (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/1275) and the other 'Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective' (http://boardgamegeek.com/game/2511), both are about - you've already guessed - solving mysteries.
221B Baker Street
Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective
Pictures above (and many more, including case descriptions) by www.boardgamegeek.com
|
|
|
| Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened (Remastered Edition) |
[03 Oct 2008|12:06am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 blank |
] |
IGN have reported that the PC game 'Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened' has been remastered with a new 3rd person mode and other little tweaks. I've personally only ever played the old 'Case Files of Sherlock Holmes' games (which were awesome) and generally I've stayed away from the newer games ('The Mystery of the Mummy' was just awful) so I've never actually played this one. The report from IGN is as follows:
Since its release in 2007, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened has attracted a huge worldwide audience, earning high marks from reviewers and consumers alike. Regarded by many as one of the best uses of a license (earning GameSpot's "Best Use of a License" award in 2007) - The Awakened is one of the key titles in the adventure genre is the past several years.
In the original game, players were immersed in the world of Sherlock Holmes through a first-person style of gameplay. While this was a seen by many as a fresh and new take on the genre, many fans felt the game could be improved by adding a more traditional and familiar third-person perspective. To better serve these fans of "classic" adventure games, Frogwares is now pleased to announce an updated version of The Awakened, offering a third-person gameplay mode.
To showcase this new version of Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, Focus and Frogwares have today released a new video walkthrough of the game's features. Narrated by Wael Amr, Director of Frogwares, this new video focuses on the game's updates and changes, along with discussing the reasoning behind the gameplay changes.
(http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/915/915597p1.html?RSSwhen2008-10-02_102000&RSSid=915597)
|
|
|
| "Robert Downey Jr. at Sherlock Holmes launch" |
[01 Oct 2008|09:15pm] |
Here's a video about the upcoming movie, with the main actors and Guy Ritchie speaking.
Rachel McAdams, is, as we know, Holmes' 'love interest' Irene Adler (gag me), and Kelly Reilly is apparently "Watson's girl." Ritchie is saying that this will be something of a departure from his typical work.
|
|
|
| Holmes Parody Video |
[30 Sep 2008|09:04pm] |
While perusing my flist tonight, I discovered this video rec from the wonderful ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cs_whitewolf, who found it on the jamesmoranblog.
As James notes:
"Now, I am of the opinion that the Jeremy Brett version of Sherlock Holmes is the definitive portrayal. The Granada series is superb, I have the box set of the entire series, including the feature length ones, and it's just fantastic. However, you can always improve on a classic, with the simple addition of pasty white blokes rapping. This just makes me fall about in hysterics, and for several days this has been the funniest thing in the world for me. Sorry, but I'm very childish."
I couldn't have said it better myself.
|
|
|
| A Gem |
[30 Sep 2008|11:58pm] |
Good night!
I've just discovered a wonderful website, a real gem!
No doubt, many of you already know it, and for those who don't - here's a link:
http://sherlockholmes.stanford.edu/index.html
The facsimiles of the Strand magazine!
And the design!
Mmmmmmm...
|
|
|
| The Second Newberry Library Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Symposium (Chicago, IL) |
[29 Sep 2008|09:59am] |
FYI - In case anyone else is interested. I'll see you there!
http://www.newberry.org/programs/LiteratureF08.html#Sherlock
Saturday, October 4, 9:00 am - Noon
Moderator: Jill Gage, Reference Librarian, The Newberry Library
This symposium encourages use of the remarkable collection of Arthur Conan Doyle's written works and memorabilia in the Newberry Library's C. Frederick Kittle Collection of Doyleana by demonstrating the collection's utility in the study of Doyle and his contributions to Victorian Literature. Join well-known Doyle and Holmes collectors and experts as they discuss Doyle's favorite book and most well-known literary creation.
9:10 am - Julia McKuras, I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere . . .
9:40 am - Donald J. Terras, The Sign of Four and Development of Sherlockian Chicago
10:45 am - Roy Pilot, The White Company: Why an Annotated Version?
The program is co-sponsored by the Hounds of the Baskerville, the oldest Midwestern group dedicated to the study and promotion of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes writings.
About the Presenters:
Julie McKuras is editor for newsletters published by The Baker Street Irregulars Trust and The Friends of The Sherlock Holmes Collection at the University of Minnesota Library where she is also a member of the Collections Board.
Don Terras was contributing editor of Hugos Companions: The First Fifty Years of a Sherlockian Scion Society (Windy City Press, 1999) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes: Essays and Art on The Doctor and The Detective (Northeastern Illinois University Press, 2003).
Roy Pilot has been associated with the world of Dr. Doyle and Mr. Holmes for over 40 years and has published articles in The Baker Street Journal, The Baker Street Irregulars Manuscript Series, The Arthur Conan Doyle Society Journal, and was co-editor of the fifth book in the BSJ Manuscript Series, Mandate for Murder.
Admission is free. No reservation is required.
|
|
|
| Essay response to Barbara Roden |
[25 Sep 2008|10:19pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 restless |
] |
Due to the recent news about Irene Adler being Holmes's love interest, I thought I'd pimp and essay response I wrote to Barbara Roden's article entitled "Canonical Misconceptions: Holmes and Ladies" which was basically all about Holmes not really being asexual but being a little bit more like Watson in his appreciation of women. I can't reproduce Roden's original article for you to read as I don't think it would be right to distribute her work without her permission, but hopefully you can get the idea with my response.
Barbara Roden’s 1996 essay ‘Canonical Misconceptions III: Holmes and the Ladies‘ gives those of us who struggling to write a coherent essay much hope. She successfully manages to argue that Holmes does indeed like and trust women whilst not only discarding the material that tells us otherwise but gleeful missing out two very important alternatives.
1. Irene Alder Watson tells us in no certain manner that Holmes was not attracted or interested in a sexual relationship with Irene Adler. In fact Holmes only meets Miss Adler twice in the story and both times very much disguised, his time spent alone with her was short and he was pretending to be an unconscious/concussed clergyman. Whilst I don’t dispute that his brain could have been thinking “Wow, she’s attractive.”, I do dispute that he fell madly in love with her and spent the rest of his life pinning after her.
We do a lot of disservice to poor Irene. We paint her as a woman only to keen to leave her new husband to embark upon a frantic love affair with a man who was paid to essentially retrieve a photograph by any means necessary. Holmes first did a reconnaissance to find out more about the enigmatic opera singer that so troubles the King of Bohemia, he hears from his sources that Irene Adler is a ‘lovely woman’ (note he does not say she is a lovely woman) and that there is a man in her life (which Holmes describes in detail to the listening Watson). Practically knocking him for six, Irene marries her solicitor and to remember the occasion Holmes decides to keep the sovereign she gave him. He does this because it was completely unexpected, he hadn’t factored in the possibility of marriage. Realising that time is short he devises an elaborate distraction to find out where she keeps the photograph (essentially, he deceives her), unfortunately during the deception Irene (who is a very clever woman) cottons onto the whole game and realises that she has been duped. At the end of the case, Holmes asks to keep her photograph - not for a keepsake to remind him of the lovely woman who captured his heart, but as a reminder not to underestimate anyone, let alone a woman, again. Watson is not “protesting too much” , nor “trying to make things easier for his friend by warning off potentially amorous clients” with his famous opening. No, he is simply telling us not to look at Irene Adler as a love interest because the tale is not about that, the story is about how Sherlock Holmes underestimated a case and did not factor in all the elements essentially reminding us of that Sherlock Holmes is a human being and is not all powerful or all seeing. 2. Holmes’s manners You can both dislike and distrust someone but still act with remarkable gentleness and courtesy towards them. We are forgetting that Victorian manners and decorum would mean that Holmes would be the perfect gentleman around women, after all one thing we all agree on is that he wasn’t born in a barn and did have at least some manners. I take issue that Mary Sutherland is “the most infuriatingly dense woman in the canon” - she is a young woman who is a state over her missing fiancé. The case has some very interesting elements, seemingly random elements that would certainly capture Holmes’s imagination, he realises very quickly the solution and is disgusted, again you don’t have to like or trust someone to be angered by what has been done to them. It was a cruel trick that James Windibank played, and Holmes has a strong sense of justice, since no actual crime had been committed he could not haul the loathsome Mr Windibank down to Scotland Yard but instead quickly showed his temper. Ms Roden states: “I doubt that a man who disliked women would have felt so deeply for her that he was prepared to take a hunting crop to the man who had treated her in a manner so ‘cruel, and selfish,and heartless’ ” I don’t think I need to refer anyone to Ms Roden’s own quotation of Holmes’s reaction. Holmes has a deep sense of justice and his justice is blind to gender and even criminal acts. “We are instead presented with a man who conversed easily, pleasantly, and naturally to women; made them feel comfortable and at home; was considered and solicitous when the occasion demanded it…” Yes, in essence a Victorian gentleman. Holmes knows he can be charming towards women, he is a natural actor and he knows that women find him attractive, thus he makes uses of these ’skills’ to ensure that the women coming to him who might just have an interesting problem to tantalise his brain are relaxed and feel comfortable enough to tell him the full facts. I refer you to the situation of ‘The Cooper Beeches‘, Holmes is uncomfortable about the situation, his comments drawing speculation that something could have happened to his sister who was in such a vulnerable position, it bothers him. During the case he is courteous, pleasant and gentle with Violet Hunter, to the point it seems where Watson sees a possible relationship for Holmes but alas… once the case is over, Holmes is no longer interested. 3. Holmes’s attraction to women “Holmes shows that he is able to appreciate an attractive woman as much as his friend does.” Of course, anyone can appreciate a beautiful painting without having to actually trust or like it. It is a myth amongst heterosexuals that homosexuals do not find the opposite gender attractive, we do and there are many men out there I find pleasing to look at, I appreciate them but that is all. It is an unpopular theory that Sherlock Holmes may have been a homosexual but it is a theory one cannot dismiss when writing an essay about Holmes and the ladies. You cannot use the theory that Holmes was attracted to women to the point where he was willing to play the lover without speculating that it was all an act. Holmes is a good actor, a ‘rare actor’, and to suggest that he may have gone too far by proposing marriage to Agatha (Milverton’s housemaid) is by no means a stretch of the imagination to see that he was willing to break a young woman’s heart to get at his means. Surely if he trusted her and liked her it would have pained him more to do this to her? Yet he doesn’t seem to care when Watson is understandably angry, and rejoices to tell him that there is a rival. If he truly cared for her feelings would the enigmatic Escott have disappeared from her life in such a way? He of course acknowledges Violet Smith’s ’spirituality’, but I cannot agree with those who say his line: ‘It is part of the settled order of Nature that such a girl should have followers.’ is concerning her looks. I don’t think he is talking about her physical appearance, from what we see of Miss Smith she is a level headed girl with an even temperament - someone Holmes can admire for being strong and quite able to take care of herself. The same could be said for the young woman in ‘The Lion’s Mane‘ who so interests Holmes, but as there is a even bigger debate concerning who the narrator actually is I think anything to do with ‘The Lion’s Mane‘ could have it’s very own essay. After the incident of Irene Adler he had to rethink his attitude towards women, he still disliked and distrusted them but he learned to respect them and to respect them for who they are. To give Holmes romantic thoughts or actions would be to go against the very character that has been established, to see Holmes in a romantic entanglement of his own design would mean that he has been willing to trust someone other than himself or Watson. I don’t think that his lack of trust is confined solely to women, things have happened in Holmes’s life that taught him not to trust or open himself up. The ultimate fact is, Holmes is a Victorian gentleman who has been raised to view women a certain way. Women were long from acceptance and equality in society and for centuries men humoured their wives and you could argue with success that all Holmes does with the women who consult him is humour them and if such a woman is able to bring him an interesting case then that is a bonus.
|
|
|
| Rachel McAdams to play Sherlock Holmes's love interest |
[25 Sep 2008|09:42pm] |
From the Hollywood Reporter - http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i7d59466b16c8ffd1e12f8a3cde2c90a3
Rachel McAdams will star opposite Robert Downey Jr. in "Sherlock Holmes," a reimagining of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's supersleuth that Guy Ritchie is directing for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow.
The movie, which will begin shooting next month, takes its cue from a forthcoming comic book that producer Lionel Wigram wrote as a selling tool for a new take on the classic character. The concept sees Holmes as more adventurous and less stuffy than previous screen incarnations and mines more obscure character traits.
Downey will play Holmes while Mark Strong ("RocknRolla") plays the main villain, Blackwood. Jude Law is portraying Holmes' colleague Watson.
McAdams plays Holmes' enigmatic love interest, Irene Adler, a character who appeared in Doyle's 1891 "A Scandal in Bohemia." While the character only appeared in that one story, McAdams' personage would return for any possible sequel.
Producing the film are Joel Silver, Wigram, Susan Downey and Dan Lin.
|
|
|
| 'The Man who was Sherlock Holmes' Radio Play |
[25 Sep 2008|05:50am] |
|
Radio Archive has two versions of 'The Man who was Sherlock Holmes' the BBC radio play about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The 1963 one staring Alan Wheatley and James McKechnie, and the 1980 version released on the 50th anniversary of Doyle's death stars Denys Hawthorne, Gordon Reid, and Frank Finley. Torrent link here - http://radioarchive.cc/torrents-details.php?id=3525
|
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
221b_bakerst
crappy
busy
