I saw The Dark Knight Thursday night with axa, but didn't really "land" enough to be able to make a post until today. :-)

( Spoilers, reactions and thinky thoughts for The Dark Knight )

Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes an "intellectual action man"? I don't know what Guy Ritchie is drinking. He speaks at Comic-Com about the movie Sherlock Holmes he's working on, which will star Robert Downey Jr. as the famous fictional detective, who will get to wield a sword and his fists. Empire and SpoutBlog have the details. The film is adapted from a forthcoming comic book series by Lionel Wigram. [imdb]

My favourite character from a Ritchie film was never any of the tough guys, or even Brad Pitt's hilarious Irish gypsy from Snatch; it was Steven Mackintosh's clueless drug dealer Winston from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Actually, any Steven Mackintosh character is usually pretty loveable, in a sleezy, don't-touch-me kind of way. His vampire historian, hedonistic and full of false bravado, was the best part of the Underworld sequel. As neither a hero nor a real villain, he was so incredibly alive with throwaway quirks and mannerisms. If there's one reason to give Underworld: Rise of the Lycans a chance, apart from watching stars like Bill Nighy and Michael Sheen playing dress up, it will be to see Andreas Tanis again. Pictures from the Underworld prequel, Rise of the Lycans revealed at Comic-Con are up at Worst Previews. Rhona Mitra plays Sonja, the rebellious daughter of Viktor (Nighy), who falls in love with a werewolf, Lucian (Sheen). [imdb]

Video of the panel (hosted by Greg Grunberg) for NBC's new drama Kings, which is a modern reinterpretation of the David and Goliath tale, starring Ian McShane, Christopher Egan, Sebastian Stan, Susanna Thompson and Allison Miller. [imdb]

The True Blood panel at Comic-Con, report by Jace. Produced/directed by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under), the series stars Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Rutina Wesley, Ryan Kwanten, Sam Trammell and Lois Smith. [imdb]

Jess Whedon confirms that there will be more Dr. Horrible.

Watchman at Comic-Con, here and here at io9. SproutBlog has a (pretty snarky) transcript of the event. The official site is now live. [imdb]

Promo for season three of Dexter.

This must be a crime against humanity... I blame this interview...




 

Oh dear. I really shouldn't like this.

Maybe it was the music. Very swinging music. And when we're swinging man we're bringing... damn, now I have that Justice League song going through my head again.

scans_daily has a preview clip for the new Brave & Bold cartoon. We're really mixing our eras here with the designs.

Also an article on Comics Continuum on the show. I'm a little worried about the "It's a buddy show, not a team show" aspect because we're seeing the same issue as the Justice League episodes of The Batman. Where are the girls? But Tucker claims we'll get a few. I doubt a certain Amazon will be even considered. *sighs*

Poll #1229577 Batman Slash
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Do people think there will be:

Just a quick one:

( Batman: The Dark Knight )

And now I'm going to see it again. Look, there were scheduling and ticket booking issues. Don't judge me. See you in a bit!

Odd "Iron Man" observations: A Pepper Potts Barbie wouldn't be that hard to make. She already runs around in 4 inch heels. (Looking at online comic-Con previews of Barbies/action figures do weird things to my brain, okay?)

The Air Force's involvement in movieverse Stark Industries would be an easy entrance for Carol Danvers. How did she and Tony meet in the comics?

Gaaah, that interview killed me! :D "Kiss the chef"??? "Bunny slippers"? "Kiss the guy with glasses"?????AHAHHAHHAHAHHAAH!

I stole that pic from

iluvbsbkevin and I'm not sorry!!!

 
OK, I ship Adrian and Jack now...

...And it's official, Cristine Rose is FUNNY!! :D

 

-People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs & replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

-Tag 8 people to do this quiz & those who are tagged cannot refuse can refuse if they're not as damn not-busy as I am, and also if they just plain can't be bothered. These people must state who they were tagged by & cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people. You can just do it if you want.

( Question meme thing under cut )

Title: 5 Joker Wallpapers
Artist: slanted_edges
Fandom: The Dark Knight
Rating: PG
Warnings: Stylized blood
Disclaimer: I'm trying to wean myself back into being productive. So I'm starting off easy -- with just a few wallpapers. These were really fun to create, though, so hopefully at least one of you guys will like one enough to use it on your computer for a little while.

( I thought my jokes were bad . . . )

Oh and some guy named Martin Sheen...

Trailer for Rian Johnson's follow-up to Brick, The Brothers Bloom, starring Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz, Mark Ruffalo, Robbie Coltrane and Rinko Kikuchi. [official site] [imdb]

The US remake of Life on Mars has recast their Gene Hunt, with the role originated by Philip Glenister going to Harvey Keitel. (THR) [imdb]

Joining Ian McKellan and James Caviezel in the remake of The Prisoner will be Hayley Atwell (Brideshead Revisited), Ruth Wilson (Jane Eyre), Lennie James (Jericho) and Jamie Campbell-Bower (Sweeney Todd). (AMC) [imdb]

Comic-con interviews with Stephenie Meyer and the cast/crew of Twilight at ShockTillYouDrop.

Patricia Marx (The New Yorker) on Shanghai (my birth city) and its markets:

'Shanghai is the largest city in China, and I thinkI may have interviewed all 18.15 million residents to find out how their city stacks up against the capital, Beijing (pop. 17 million). Someof the responses: “Women in Shanghai are flashier, more dolled up.”“Beijing looks down on Shanghai for wanting only money.” “In Shanghai, they say, ‘I’ll find it cheaper,’ whereas in Beijing it’s ‘I want it inevery color.’ ” “There are more foreigners here. We have an Italian restaurant next to a Moroccan restaurant.” “A Shanghaier would rather buy a new pair of shoes than a ticket to the ballet.” “Beijing style is edgier, more avant-garde.” “Beijing’s short and wide. Shanghai’s tall and compact.” “Shanghai is more refined. More attention to detail.”“Shanghai’s female, Beijing’s male.” “Shanghai is New York. Beijing is Washington, D.C.” “Shanghai is New York. Beijing is L.A.” “Shanghai is Tel Aviv. Beijing is Jerusalem.” “Beijing is China. Shanghai is Shanghai.”

So, there's this thing. That I've been doing.

See there's this website where you can pick up dragon eggs. And you have to get people to click on them or they die. (I may have possibly killed my first two by forgetting to put them up anywhere...) It's a little addictive, in that you know when they're going to put out new eggs for adoption, and you sit there, trying to get the eggs you want-- of course you can't have more than a handful of eggs at a time anyway.

I don't really like spamming my flist, so I haven't posted about them at all, but my first three have hatched, so I though you all might like to see!

Also, I have a fourth egg that hasn't quite hatched and three new ones I just picked up.






Now that they're hatched, I can name the hatchling dragons, so... POLL!

Poll #1229056 McShep will never happen, you delusional freaks
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

What should I name the white one?

What should I name the grey one?

What should I name the mint one?

Edit: In case anyone's wondering why you can't see the last three eggs-- if they get too many views in too short a time-span they get sick, so I'm hiding them until they're feeling up to company again.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080724/ap_on_re_au_an/new_zealand_bizarre_names

I know it's quite ridiculous to name your kid those names, but I'm sorry there is no way in hell ANYONE is EVER going to tell ME what I can and can't name MY kid. Sorry, but if I wanna name my kid (don't worry, I definitely won't be naming my kid this) Llamallamadingdong, I will do it and you can go fuck yourself if you think you're gonna stop me.

Heh,

widestance75  reports from Comic Con:

GLAAAAASSSSSSSEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! GAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Is it wrong for me to want to steal those HRGs and lick them?

Haha! Jack's dad looks creepy and evil because:

 

....aaaaandd more pictures from the NBC Press Tour because they look fine:



 

I'm done with the Doctor Who story. Whew! It ended up at a bit more than 20,000 words. I still have to read it through and make changes, not to mention have it off to a beta reader, but at least there's an ending.

Anyone interested in doing the beta? I haven't found roseveare online to ask her yet, or heard back from jadelennox, but more betas are always good. It's a drama story, PG rated or thereabout, lots of preachy stuff about alien/human politics, Donna/Lee, Jack/Ianto, Doctor/no one (poor Doctor).

***

So now that that's done, and I still try to maintain the 500 words a day thing, I'm writing original fic. Well, started yesterday with 934 words, we'll see how it turns out. Just the fact of it feels a bit rare. It's an urban fantasy - and for some reason, that phrase makes me think "gritty" and "dark", which this is not at all. It's a perfectly normal kind of adventure, with witches, set in a 30s/40s kind of environment, and if I'm a REALLY good girl I'll manage to make it novel-length. Considering I've never managed to write anything longer than 45,000 words, that'll be the day.

Of course, most of the time I'm consciously trying to be brief, not to mention that fanfic requires less exposition. Which you wouldn't believe, reading the DW story, it's covered in exposition. I was a bit troubled by this, until I realized that I quite like stories where many important bits are only told about. Oedipus Rex is all about that stuff. Twelve Angry Men too, and that's a film. Films are a tad more dramatic than my stories. (I often feel, and in this story in particular, that I'm writing plays - lots of focus on dialogue and what people do with their hands and faces, little on anything else.)

Anyway, let's see how it goes. It may turn out to be nothing, just like the good girl supervillain story. If nothing else, it's fun to write in Swedish for a change.

***

I also have another idea for a fanvid. ABBA, again. Somene really needs to wean me off Björn & Benny. *g* I want to vid the Doctor Who companions to When All Is Said And Done. At first I thought just the girls of New Who - three girls, three verses - but now I'm thinking old school companions as well. Especially since vidding any of the new school companions to "neither you nor I'm to blame" might prove a bit... controversial. *g* But also because I just saw Tegan's exit the other day, and I love it so much, and then we have emotional stuff like Earthshock and cheerful goodbyes like Dragonfire - which btw never fails to crack me up, thinking about it in relation to New Who. I'd love to see the day a New Who companion gets to leave with nothing more than a "Going off with the space pirates, kthnxbai. P.S. Here's my replacement."

***

In not so happy news, Spike's latest antibiotics treatment seems to work not at all, and the latest victim of cat pee is the modem. Ah well, at least it made me get off my ass and get a new Internet company. (There is, as of last winter, an Ethernet box in my wall, so I just switched the cable to that and signed up for Bahnhof. I also cancelled ComHem, and tried to contact Telia about the phone, but that didn't work. No hurries, though. My old number is still viable until the last of August, even if the phone now only works when it works.) I've had so much connection problems even BEFORE the cat pee incident, that having a new company feels great.

YouTube loads faster now, too. :-)

***

In yet another attempt to make my holidays about something more than just reading or sitting in front of the computer (I've made a vow to myself to do at least one active thing every day), I took a bicycle trip last evening, with a picnic bag and everything. I rode halfway to Dalby and then turned left three times, thinking it would take me on the road home. Noooo. It took me to a bunch of strange little paths that led exactly nowhere, except to various farm houses. Furthermore, everything that wasn't garden was farmland, so there was nowhere to sit down, except the ditch or little patches of green next to the crops. I know I'm entitled to sit anywhere I want as long as I don't damage the crops (or sit down in people's actual gardens), but I would feel utterly weird unfolding my blanket there, so finally I rode back home and had my picnic in the park by my house. So in a sense the bicycle trip was kind of pointless, except I petted a ginger cat, watched the view (July farmlands are very pretty) and of course had some nice exercise. I think I may gone on for almost ten miles, counting the road back.

Also, while the Anastasia books are fun on their own, they're even more fun when read while sitting on a blanket outside, eating sandwiches, cherries and pistachios. I am strongly tempted to use all my BookMooch points buying Anastasia books. :-)