Adventures in Fangirling

The great thing about Europe is that travelling from one country to another is not the arduous, logistical nightmare it is back home. So it was entirely possible for Kat, a friend from Spiders Group (for those not in the know, that’s my writing group back home that I shamefully under-attend), to come over from Germany for the weekend. I forget how it all came about – we were talking on twitter one minute and planning the next. And I admit there was potential for it to be weird cause we didn’t really know each other that well (due to my aforementioned under-attendance) but turns out that was just my social awkwardness manifesting – it was totally not an issue. To use the descriptive prowess of Arthur Shappey, the weekend was, in one word, brilliant!

Things didn’t start ideally with her flight being delayed, but we were not to be put off and met up Friday evening all the same for dinner and a wander around town. We walked a lot. No, really. I cannot stress this enough. With the weather playing along, delivering blissful sunshine all weekend, it was really nice to soak up the vibe in the centre of town – everyone is just so happy and life spills onto sidewalks, it’s really just a whole different buzz around here when things heat up. Kat exercised some magnificent self-restraint in not purchasing bags, tea pots and other awesome things. She is to be commended, really. The day ended with us being foot-weary and sleepy, but I thought it was a really good effort on our parts.

Alas, I was working on Saturday and while I was slaving away (read: staring into space), Kat was off enjoying Camden markets (I warned her about the corsets, let it not be said I didn’t) and we eventually met up at Euston Square. Why, you might ask? Well, when the opportunity presents itself to indulge in your beloved fandoms, it is the duty of every self-respecting fangirl to make the most of it. As we’re both avid Sherlock fans, we were honour bound to put our fangirl game faces on and see all the things! So naturally we went to Speedy’s Café.

You don’t need to be a consulting detective to see where this weekend was heading. Our wanderings around town took us to Baker Street, New Scotland Yard, St Barts, The British Academy (aka the Diogenes Club) and Eaton Square (aka Irene Adler’s house and, as Kat astutely observed, the location for the house in Upstairs, Downstairs.)

Pavement of angst, anyone?

Of course we also fitted in other things such as visiting awesome bookshops like Daunt on Marylebone High Street, stumbling onto street markets, cooing over amazing things in obscure little shops and rummaging around vintage shops (where we may or may not both have exclaimed “It’s a John sweater!” at the same time. We are cool like that.) Obviously, I also had to take her to Forbidden Planet – what sort of fangirl would I be if I didn’t? There was also much indulging in Starbucks frappuccinos and some pretty hilarious people watching.

During our shenanigans, we realised that along with sharing a passion for Sherlock, Who, Black Books and all things British, we also both really, really like cars. Cue two hours wandering around Chelsea and Kensington sports car spotting, also known by the game title of ‘How many Aston Martins can you find on one street?’ This wasn’t really the aim, but it turns out there are an obscene amount of Astons around so it sort of just happened.

Did I mention the weather was glorious? Because it was.

We decided to take it easy on Sunday and had a late start at St Pauls, before wandering across the Millennium Bridge and along the south bank. Here then we came to the crowning glory of this weekend of fandom as the BAFTA Television Awards were on and they were still handing out wristbands for people to watch the red carpet. Like we’d miss such an opportunity!

We actually found a really lovely beer garden to chill in for a bit before it was time to stake our claim in the fenced off area next to the “red” carpet. This was the most painful part but thanks to my handy umbrella, word games we’re equally terrible at and Starbuck’s frappuccino happy hour, we managed to survive with minimal discomfort. There were some moments of barely suppressed rage when other people got pushy and annoying, but such is the way of the line-up. In retrospect, I choose not to waste my energy on that because we actually did really well for ourselves…

If I can only have one caption, let it be said that Andrew Scott is just too adorable for words.

Yup. Surely you can imagine how absolutely epic this was. Kat was blessed by Mark Gatiss, her writing idol. The only way the day could have gone better is if Benedict actually came to our little section – but the poor guy was obviously melting and so desperate to run away, you can’t fault him for doing just that. And now, hilariously, we can be found in the back corner of a lot of BAFTA footage, craning our necks and bouncing around, since we were right across from the cameras.

After cooling down with the help of pear cider, we giddily skipped off across Waterloo Bridge in a happy blur of adrenaline and eventually collapsed in St James’ Park, just as the last echoes of daylight faded from the sky. We didn’t want to call it a night but it was 10pm on a Sunday, there wasn’t much else to do. It was really quite sad to farewell Kat and wish her well on her merry way back to Heidelberg. Sigh.

So! Overall verdict: the weekend was quite the successful adventure and definitely one to remember.

PS: Let the record show that Joe Gilgun is frowning in that pic cause he is confused by the copy of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Kat has given him to sign - "What am I signing?"

Music: Qikitarjuaq - Cabin Pressure

Top 10: Suit Fetish Enablers

I didn't have a Top 10 planned for this week - I've been far too busy to get anything organised (deadline was moved up a week and no one told me! Aaaaagh!) Instead I was going to post a pic and marvel at how dapper Mr Fassbender is. That's when I realised hey, that in itself is top 10 fodder. I do have a bit of a suit fetish after all. Quite frankly, I think life would be infinitely better if men wore waistcoats all the time. So, here are my top 10 favourite suit-wearers.

• Michael Fassbender

Let's face it, this man can do no wrong. None. None of it. Think about it. He sings with little provocation. He laughs like a lunatic. And he steals golf carts with James McAvoy. Wrong? Doesn't exist.

• James McAvoy

Speaking of my would-be-best-friend-if-life-was-fair, he fills out a suit quite nicely too - whether scruffy like in Penelope (also, major hat love there. Oh, so major) or just rocking really awesome jackets (yeah, technically not suit related but come on.) Just so by the by, Keira Knightley, who was in Atonement with James (a film I refuse to watch because I don't do war/angst), stars in an upcoming film with the fantastic Mr Fassbender. Why, Keira? Why am I not you? *dalek voice* EXPLAIN.

• Ben Barnes

Dorian Gray proved that putting someone in a suit immediately makes everything even better (which ironically is rather the opposite of what it tries to convey. Oh well.) Ben, the boy we all seem to lay claim to through various degrees of separation ("my friend's friend's aunt's uncle knows his parents" etc etc), looks good in anything, but it's like he was made to wear suits. Just look at him.

• Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)

We can all thank Inception for bringing suit fetishes to the mainstream. That is, in a large part, due to the lovely Joseph here. See, waistcoats. You can't go wrong.

• Eduardo (Andrew Garfield)

Okay, The Social Network is a great film, but I can't be the only one who thought it was extra memorable because of Eduardo. Let me also take this opportunity to point out (again) that Andrew is just so nerdtastically adorable. Is it possible to watch his surprise comic con appearance and not want to hug him? I don't think so.

• Neal Caffrey (Matthew Bomer)

Oh, you are one smooth guy Mr Caffrey. You and Mr Fassbender are also helping to improve my hat appreciation. Hmmm hats. 

• Ianto Jones (Gareth David Lloyd)

Obviously. The Whoniverse is arguably responsible for my suit appreciation. Also, I said it before but I'll say it again, life is better with waistcoats.

• The Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)

Whoniverse! All your doing! All of it. Anyway, bow ties and fezes may be cool but pinstriped and (controversial) blue suits, and converse, are brilliant.

• Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch)

Has there ever been such a well-dressed consulting detective? Of course not. Don't ask such silly questions, you lower the IQ of the entire street.

• James Bond

It doesn't really matter what incarnation, suits are to Bond what air is to breathing. I have a particular penchant for Daniel Craig though - I once read an excellent article on the subtleties of his suit designs and it just had me hooked. Yes, I am lame enough to read an article on suit design.

And because I can't just end it there, honourable mentions go to...

• The Winchesters (and my dearest Castiel)

Just because they’re so adorable. Especially when they first start out and their suits are horrifically bad and they look super uncomfortable. Never did two men seem less suited to…um…suits. But A for effort boys. Cas, on the other hand, is the best holy tax accountant everrrr. End of.

• Oh, and The Master (John Simm)
  

My favourite lunatic ♥

• And Jim Sturgess

Hmmm. Suits.

Music: She's a rebel - Green Day

Not sure which colours belong

It’s Monday. I am unbelievably tired. I have a truck-load of things to do, and no will to do it. And I have no hope of reuniting with my bed any time before 11 tonight. So rather than listen to me whinge about it, have these two pics that have cheered my morning.



Oh, and this one actually. Lookit, brilliant people.



In other news, I can’t go anywhere on the internet. It’s full of Supernatural Season 6 finale spoilers. Sigh.

Music: What light - Wilco

In Other News

1. Can’t wait for the UK to go off daylight savings.

2. We will be getting the Doctor Who Christmas Special on Boxing Day, and not weeks/months later as before. Big cheer for the ABC!

3. Sherlock* finally premiered here on Sunday. Despite being on Nine and subject to a ginormous amount of ad breaks, I think it did quite well. People on Twitter seemed to like it at any rate (and somewhere it was given 45 out of 5 stars.) But that’s not the point. The best thing about it being on air is that they’re doing tons of advertising for it, including radio ads. This is brilliant because it means I can be confronted with unexpected Cumberbatch at any time. And because it’s snippets of dialogue, I have the added fangirl thrill of then picturing the complete scenes. It brightens up being stuck in traffic, ok? Don’t give me that look.

* My love for this show has of course been detailed previously – I think it’s insanely clever, well-written, well-acted and the production is mesmerizing…and I’m writing an essay on it, so never mind that.

4. Here are three things I have gone off completely – Glee (granted I wasn’t a big fan but I can’t stand it now), Vampire Weekend, Donna (and I don’t mean my phone).

5. After I got home from my riding lesson on Sunday, I got hooked watching the Phillip Island MotoGP. While I have been known to watch Formula 1 and I absolutely love the Dakar rally, I’ve never gotten into bike racing. The only reason this held my interest was the fact that Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi were having an epic battle for third and the intensity of it roped me in almost straight away. I was backing Hayden so much because I think Rossi is an arrogant prat, but even thinking that I can acknowledge that he is so damn good at what he does. Just…wow.

I've tried to find footage of it but with no luck. A snippet is here from the 0.58min mark but it doesn't do it justice.

6. Ok so - Na Na Na. Hmm. I am reserving judgement on the latest incarnation of MCR mainly because I find their singles often have greater power in context to the whole (I heard the whole of The Black Parade before I knew what the first single would be). At the moment, I’m sadly of the opinion that this is about three years too late. I mean it’s catchy and fun and, you know, My Chem…but it just Muse and The Killers have already been there, done that.

7. I have been watching a lot of Fringe. I am really enjoying it. It reminds me a lot of Torchwood, but only the way I keep going ‘they tried this in TW, but they’re doing it better here.’ It doesn’t matter because they have completely different tones – except for COE. The exchange between Olivia and Walter in the first ep of season 1 greatly mirrors that of Gwen and Clem, except Fringe predates COE. I strongly suspect Fringe is what the next season of TW will be. But seeing as Fringe already exists, and exists brilliantly, I don’t know why they’re bothering. Overall, Olivia > Gwen. To infinity and beyond.

8. I am outraged by how incredibly convoluted getting a motorbike licence in this state is. You have to go for pre-courses before you sit the tests before you get the various licences. Six things before you get your full licence. And you have to pay for all of it. I might as well just save that money and buy a bike. See I don’t actually want to be licenced, cause I’m not going to drive it on the road, but as we no longer have a motorcycle, I have nothing to learn on. I could go for lessons, but then I need a learners licence (1 seven hour training course, 1 test). I can’t rent a bike and get dad to teach me because again, I need a licence and I’m fairly confident I’m going to fall over so I don’t think renting is really the way to go. So it’s back to the original plan of just buying a cheap second hand (dirt) bike. But I don’t have spare cash to throw around so it won’t happen. Le sigh.

9. Life on Mars. Omg I completely forgot about this. I finally, finally, finally, finally got round to watching the final ep of this the other day. Hmfgh. Love. Just love! It’s such a clever concept this show, I adore it.

10. The other day in class I had another moment where Torchwood made me look more knowledgeable than I actually am. My lecturer is a Chris Isherwood fan and the first time he mentioned him, he asked if anyone knew who he was clearly expecting to be met with blank stares. Not I! I know all about Chris Isherwood, even read some Chris Isherwood and went to see A Single Man precisely because of Chris Isherwood (ok and Colin Firth and Matthew Good). And why? Simply because he happened to be mentioned in ‘Reset’, TW season 2.

Martha: Oh, I'm a camera!
Jack: As Chris Isherwood once said to me when we were cruising the Kurfurstendamm.

In Jen world that translates into ‘oooh I wonder what that’s about, let’s research!’ The first time TW came in useful at uni was in cultural studies when no one knew who Philoctetes was (‘Greeks Bearing Gifts’, season 1).

And then people say watching lots of television doesn’t teach you anything. Ha.

Music: Knights of Cydonia - Muse
Mood: Confused

The game is on

This won’t be anything new to those in the UK, but just recently I got my hands on the first two episodes of television show Sherlock. Created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, it is a contemporary update of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Martin Freeman as Watson.



It is a three part series produced by Hartwood Films for BBC Wales, co-produced with WGBH Boston for its Masterpiece anthology series (America’s longest running primetime drama series). It aired across three weeks in July and August, and was a critical smash. Happily, the BBC has commissioned a second series.

This show is the greatest thing to enter my life in the last year. It is brilliant. Fantastic. Wonderful. I don’t have enough adjectives! Everything about it is made of absolutely epic WIN. The stories are brilliantly adapted to a modern context –I loved, for example, how in A Study in Pink Holmes makes the call that an alcoholic person’s phone always has scratches around the charger connection, the same way he made the call with the scratches around a pocket watch in the original. It is subtle and masterfully executed, and the relationship between Holmes and Watson is nothing short of brilliant. It is funny, charming and just captivating television that had me jumping out of my skin with glee while I watched. I am enthralled.



I admit I was sceptical to start, if only because I just love the Jude Law/Robert Downey Jr Sherlock Holmes film so much (and there are things like that Asylum Holmes tale out there), but this is such an entirely different breed of Holmes story and it didn’t matter at all. I think it’s fair to say that I am a bit of an ACD fangirl, and that fangirl is so very, very pleased with Sherlock. The adaptation to modern context is done so cleverly and, while I am not a film student, I think it’s just shot so well. I particularly love what they’ve done with the wider shots of London, there’s something in them that just gives a subtle sense of dissonance.

The acting is so wonderful as well – I know I’m overusing adjectives, but it really is! Benedict Cumberbatch is pitch perfect as Holmes, completely captivating and beautifully aloof. I also love Martin Freeman’s Watson, perfectly capturing the sense of the character. They are so perfect and inhabit the characters so well, it’s really no wonder that the relationship comes across so brilliantly.


I’m not a psychopath, I’m a high functioning sociopath; do your research!

So yeah, I’m a fan. A big fan. I deeply thank the creators for putting this spark of brilliance into my life. Now if only there were more episodes...

Music: I've just seen a face - The Beatles
Mood: Content