To the brotherhood!

Magnet #1258 - Degas signature

This Degas signature is the first in a set of about 33 artists signature magnets. I know. Wait til you see tomorrow's 63 magnets set.

Anyway, I picked this for today because I finally finished watching the BBC's Desperate Romantics, all about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of Millais, Hunt and Rossetti, and a few others, artists who banded together back in 1840s England. I could bore you with all the details of what they painted, and what they stood for, but that would defeat the purpose of watching this six-part miniseries.

The six-part miniseries that I thought DCSis had watched and liked, and therefore I felt like I had to sit through all six hours. Only to find out she barely made it through the first episode. Sigh. By the time I realized I didn't want to watch the rest of it...I was about five hours in. Goodness.

I definitely had to watch it, because I thought it'd be like the other BBC miniseries, The Impressionists, explaining the stories behind their famous works of art. Instead, I got Entourage, for artists...which is how they billed it. I don't mind Entourage at all, but honestly, I couldn't get into the backstabiness of these artists - true or not.

The best part of the movie was the one painting backstory that I really loved, that of Millais' Ophelia. In a magnificently cast role, the woman who posed for Ophelia, basically their Yoko (or Sloan) inadvertently causing strife between the boys, was superb and eerily a carbon copy for the real painting. If the series is to be believed, then while she was posing in a cold bathtub of water, she nearly drowned because of hypothermia and passing out in the water. Crazy.

The saddest part of the movie? Is watching how hard (or not hard) this band of brothers worked to make themselves known to the art world.

And in the end? Not a one was included in my magnet set of 35 artists.

Pillars of London

Magnet #1225 - Royal Mail Red Pillar Box

So, apparently, there are 100,000 of these red royal mail boxes scattered throughout the UK, and even more throughout other British territories.

I bought this magnet for myself as a reminder of all the Royal Mail post offices we went to while in London a couple of weeks ago.

Now, if you know me and my tendency to overbuy on vacations, you know I'm usually in random post offices to mail stuff back to myself, to avoid having to hand-carry it home.

But this time around, we were ducking into every post office we could to ask if they had the Royal Shakespeare Company 50th anniversary commemorative stamps - specifically, the David Tennant as Hamlet ones.

And in every place we stopped, I'd get the same "Bless her cotton socks" look from them as they opened their books to the RSC page and showed me that they didn't have any David Tennant ones left.

Of course, they didn't. Here it was June, and the stamps had come out in April. Sigh. Oh well.

Oh! And the other reason for using a mailbox today, is because my dad wrote possibly the funniest, most macabre thing ever on a letter today:

RETURN TO SENDER. HE'S DEAD.

Hmph. Take that, Harris Interactive!

#Muchado

Magnet #1210 - Much Ado About Nothing

Confession time. I follow a lot of folks on Twitter surrounding the David Tennant/Catherine Tate production of Much Ado About Nothing. A couple of the actors, a couple of the bloggers, a couple of the fansite folks, etc.

But that's not my confession.

My confession is that, despite following all those Twitterfeeds, I seriously had an OMG moment in London that #muchado was really for Much Ado.

Now, in my defense, I must have known at some point. But for some reason, in my head, #muchado had become a word, pronounced like the Spanish muchacha or muchacho.

It was one of those OMG moments of extreme stupidity, that has perhaps replaced all the other moments of extreme stupidity. And, I keep repeating it with a giggle now, Mooochadoh.

Which is why I can't really judge the two little teenyboppers who sat next to me at #Muchado. The ones who asked us was the play done, and where we were going at the interval.

No, really. They couldn't tell that the play had been left mid-story at the...interval?

But anyway, yay for David Tennant still reeling the young ones into Shakespeare.

And yay for not being ill for today's performance!!! Thank you SO much, David Tennant!

Ya'll have no idea how happy I was not to see the little sheet, or the hear the announcement saying, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the role of Benedick will be played by [insert understudy here]." I would have seriously gone down to the box office, and left a really not-nice note demanding a public apology from the man himself if I'd flown all the way over from the US twice and not seen him perform.

And, it was a great performance, too. There's a reason they're getting accolades, and it's not just cuz they're Doctor Who alum. They have fantastic chemistry (right up to the kissing, anyway, but I have trouble seeing David kiss anyone - weird, I know), and David and Catherine really made this Shakespeare dramedy fun to watch. They were surrounded by an excellent cast, which made it so much better.

The show was funny in the appropriate parts, a bit teary in others - in fact, a lot more teary than I expected. And, with it being set in 80s Malta, that just added a bit more fun to it. It's always fantastic seeing how different companies stage Shakespeare, the decisions they make with setting and costumes, the line deliveries, the add-ons, etc. I love it.

Mind you, no matter who is playing her, no matter what the production, I still regard Hero as the worst, most niminy-piminy heroine ever in the history of heroines, for taking Claudio back after the way he devastated her at the altar. I hate her for it.

I mean, really, you can totally tell a man wrote that story!

*eta:
I forgot! At the interval (actually, after a quick trip to the loo, where all the older ladies were wittering on about how versatile David was), I ran downstairs and found that they were selling magnets. (I dunno why I didn't check earlier, most of the Broadway shows have them, why wouldn't someone be savvy enough to make magnets for me.)

So I bought five. For my sisters and friends. And me. I mean, damn, it's a helluva magnet!

Frailty, thy name is woman!*

Magnet #796 - Victoria / Waterloo & City

I'm late! Blame Hamlet from last night. After 3 hours of David, I was pretty listless to do much more than fall asleep to Happy Town.

I picked this magnet in honor of dcsis, who's off on a weekend jaunt to Londontown and will be seeing Matthew Macfadyen in Private Lives along the way.

Yes. Because Matthew's perfectly fine and didn't hurt his back. David.

What? Yes, I'm still bitter. What. Of. It.


*Hamlet Act 1, scene 2, 142–146

The glass of fashion*

Magnet #756 - John Everett Millais' Ophelia

I know. I can't help it. She kinda looks how I feel right now, a little bedraggled and run over.

Part has to do with this crazy rain today. The other part, well, whatever, it's a magnetblog, dudes.

So, I bought this magnet at the Yale Center for British Art - such a great museum, for the art, for the architecture. Still, I squealed a little dance of joy because this was my best find of the day. I was so happy to find this as a magnet, because I saw this painting at the Tate in London, and they didn't have the magnet for it!

I absolutely love this painting of poor drowned Ophelia, Hamlet's sister. I'll concede it's a more than a little dark, and I know when I saw it in person, it irked crap out of me, because I was in London and not able to see David Tennant's Hamlet and I was still ticked over that and will likely not get over it for a while, but whatever, because you know he's totally coming to Broadway at some point in his life, and it'll probably be in a play that I'll never want to go see, but will go see more than a couple times, and probably stalk the theatre door, just because he'll finally be on my home turf. Anyway, moving on.

I'll leave the background learning up to you and the Tate description, mostly because I'm refusing to use the word Pre-Raphaelite in a magnetpost and not really know (or honestly care) what it means. Of course, now I know having read that description what it means, but I'm still not using it.

The very word just seems too, too lofty here on joy magnetism. So, lay on, Macjoy.

What? Oh, like I wasn't going to pun it. Or include David Tennant in reference to this particular magnet. Hahaha. Nope. I'm not bitter at all.


*Hamlet, Act 3, scene 1, 150–154

eta:
Why? Why do I always think that Ophelia is Hamlet's sister? Kudos to Jenny for pointing it out. But I shan't fix it above. Because I'm kinda wondering what my mental block is about it!

eta2:
She's Laertes' sister. And yet, in my head, Ophelia/Hamlet, sibyay. You'd think I didn't go see Hamlet.

I did, though. I have the notice about David Tennant's absence to prove it. Grrr.

Coat of many colors

Magnet #537 - Elderly Couple, Uzbekistan, purchased by my sister Julie

Save the World Sister keeps bugging me to start giving people magnet bylines for magnets that are given to me. As much as I appreciate every single magnet ya'll have given me, I'm not going to start doing that.

The second I do, I have to go back through the last 535 magnets and figuring out from whence they came. What if I make a mistake? What if you're offended? No, I can't always give credit where credit is due - just know that I'm much appreciative if you've given me a magnet or 30. I love them all.

That said, Save the World Sister is the one who brought me this magnet from the far reaches of Uzbekistan, having spent time there with the Peace Corps. Thank you. Julie. Who purchased this magnet. Magnet #537. From Uzbekistan. Hee.

I'm picking this one for today because it totally reminds of the only two reality shows that I've totally gotten sucked into - BBC's Any Dream Will Do and How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria? where they allowed the British public to cast Joseph from Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Maria from Sound of Music for the West End productions.

I couldn't help it. I know they both aired more than a couple of years ago in the UK, but just now got to us here in the States this year. I know they both had winners that I totally Googled, so that I was completely and totally spoiled for the endings. I know it was superduper cheesy and I got way too involved in the shows and the contestants. I know that my search engines have begun saving the phrase, "josephs/marias, what are they doing now?"

But, dudes. C'mon. It was Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was John Barrowman. It was Graham Norton. And there were pretty boys! Singing! With accents! Hells, yeah I was there. Every Sunday night. No lie. Even when the pretty boys from Joseph turned into the pretty girls from Maria. Odd how you get attached to your favorites, though. (And scary, too. Now I see how ya'll American Idol folks get sucked in.)

Oh, I know it's silly - but in high school, I had a thing for Andrew Lloyd Webber's music. Ok, really, it was a thing for my hot band director, who had a thing for Andrew Lloyd Webber's music, but still, I'm very grateful he introduced me to ALW's work. So of course I loved watching their musical performances from all of ALW's shows (Loved it all, except for when they made the silly Marias fight - that was downright degrading and seriously ticked me off).

I am still mad that BBC-A took so long in airing the two shows - I mean, two years? If they'd aired Joseph last year, I would have totally bought a ticket during my December Is there a Doctor in the House trip! Then I wouldn't have been so sad to miss out on David Tennant's Hamlet! I could have seen my beloved Lee Mead's Joseph, instead of anxiously waiting for him to get a Broadway role this season. And I totally would have gone to see Connie Fisher's Maria!

Oh, silly BBC-A. Don't even get me started about how annoyed I am that everyone's oh-so-excited that they picked up Doctor Who Series 5 to air closer to their UK transmission dates, and are even committing to airing them unedited. Right. That should have been by rote, ya'll. Hmph. I refuse to thank Garth Ancier for a decision that should have been made as a matter of course. (Of course, I refuse to forgive Garth Ancier for not hiring me in the first place. No, he didn't close any doors for me [see what I did there?], he should have just known I wanted to work for him.)

Moooooving along...so why this magnet for realz? C'mon. Lookit at the old guy's coat! It's totally a coat of many colors, there's yellow and green and purple and...

What?

NOW you tell me? NOW? Really?

Magnet #481 - Angry Little Asian Girl

So, here's my thing...I'm so very sad that Angry Little Girls doesn't produce magnets, especially because they have such darn cool stuff in their little shop.

That's why I made this one, along with several others from a postcard that they put out at the Licensing Show last year. I love these guys. But I would totally give up my homemade magnets for officially licensed products in a heartbeat. I'm just sayin'.

Anyway, you've seen most of the magnets by now, but I saved this one for something that's just made me an angry little Asian girl!!!! And, it's totally irrational, I know. It is. I admit it.

Apparently, the breaking news in the entertainment world today (through Twitter and BBC-A...even though I always rely on blogger critic Televisionary for my hard news), BBC America has announced their official line-up for ComicCon in July. Freakin' Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Euros Lyn, John Barrowman and Ten, himself, David Tennant, will be there. In San Diego. In California. In the United States. In July.

Mind you...I've already seen Euros at New York's CC. I've even seen John Barrowman, albeit almost 20 years ago during his turn at Sunset Boulevard. And, I don't really need to see the affable RTD in person...and Julie's delightful enough on the DWCs.

But let's be honest, folks. I'm the girl who joined the RSC to get a Hamlet ticket, and then planned a whole unplanned London trip to see David Tennant. And then didn't get to see him.

And now I'm missing him at ComicCon. In San Diego. In California. In the United States. In July.

The show's been sold out for ages, which is probably why they waited until now to announce it. I'm sure it's not some conspiracy that BBC has to block me from ever seeing David. (Kinda like what the bears have?)

And anyway (sourgrapes, anyone?) I've never really wanted to go to SD for CC, because I can barely take the crowds over at Javits. But really, I should have known that that this would be the year to go, I mean, it's the 40th ComicCon, and goodness knows, the BBC's been trying to get every last drop of work from David Tennant's soul before he leaves Ten for what's theoretically good. And, after so many years as the Doctor, I'm thinking he kinda owes U.S. fans a CC appearance...before he starts doing them at the end of his career. (Was that mean?)

Gah. Oh well. Yet another missed opportunity for my Doctor and me. I'll wave at his plane as he flies over me.

No worries. He'll eventually do Broadway. He must. Maybe he and my Lee Mead will do a show together. But he's another magnet entirely.

Welcome, Little Man Tate

Magnet #424 - Tate Gallery

So, some friends of mine just had a baby! Congratulations! And his name? Tate! How cool is it that I have a magnet just for him!

I bought this pin magnet over at the Tate Britain, surprisingly my favorite over the Tate Modern. Really, because of two paintings:

Ophelia by John Everett Millais - a Pre-Raphaelite painting that's just gorgeous viewed up close. And, The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon, the last painting of Edward Burne-Jones that's just gorgeous viewed from afar, as seen in this Telegraph pic.

Oddly, Hamlet's sister, the drowned Ophelia, is the most popular postcard that the Tate sells - and of course, I totally bought one. Even though I can't stand Hamlet, there's just something about this painting that's oddly haunting. Even more odd, since December when I saw the painting, I was convinced that we used it as cover art back in my publishing days a dozen years ago. It's not, but the cover of this Patricia A. McKillip novel is very close. Hello, false memory.

For Arthur, the Tate had the chance to purchase the painting for a steal 40 years ago, but let it go, and now, it's owned by a museum in the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico, and it's worth millions now. And, because the Museo is undergoing renovations, they've loaned it to the Tate and now the Prado, having signed, sealed and delivered it, in a hugely complex and kinda supercool process. I mean, the thing's like 9 feet x 21 feet big, and took Burne-Jones something like 17 years to paint...he was supposedly working on it right up to his death!

Ooof, such somber works for such a happy occasion! Eh, it's all very circle of life-y, I guess.

So, these two paintings were definitely worth the museum drop-by. Also, definitely worth the magnet!

Especially now - welcome, little man Tate!

Poor unfortunate souls

Magnet #320 - The Little Mermaid

Every once in a while, I remember that I live in New York City, home of Broadway, Off Broadway and all things in between. And then I run out and buy random show tickets with random Playbill discounts.

I saw The Little Mermaid in previews last year.

So. Much. Fun. And here's why.

In their defense, my performance was a couple of weeks after that stagehands strike that shut down Broadway in late 07. (You know, the one that cost the city and the industry tens of millions, shuttered houses, closed productions, and ultimately lost jobs. Ok, maybe that's another magnet.)

TLM was in previews just before the strike, which meant that they were all rusty when they came back. Which made the performance I saw one to remember.

First - in what was possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen on stage - Ariel and the little boy playing Flounder were skating in their heeleys (No, don't get me started on that), and Ariel whips around to face him. The problem was, Ariel's costume had a floppy fishtail in the back. So when she whipped around, she smacked poor Flounder across the face. The kid was ok, but c'mon, in the halls of slapstick, that was truly hysterical.

Then - Ursula has this giant number near the end, where the focus is on her and her tentacles gyrating and pulsing behind her. At just about the end of the number, the tentacle machine was supposed to retract, and as it was halfway there, all of a sudden, over the music, you hear this terrible grinding noise, and the tentacles got stuck, with its arms all akimbo. They had to leave the apparatus on stage for the last couple of numbers. And truth be told, I really didn't think anything of it, until Ursula came out for her bows, and she smacked the machine like it was a misbehaving child. Hahahaah.

Still, I enjoyed the performance and loved the spectacle, and certainly, the kids in the audience were completely entranced (including the little 4-year-old dressed in a full Ariel costume). That's all you can really ask for in a Disney production.

It was the funnest performance ever - almost...magical.

eta:
In other, non-magical news. Tonight's the night of the second ticket of Hamlet that I bought, back when I couldn't figure out when I was going to London. I sold that ticket to a colleague of mine.

Sigh. It's a good thing that David Tennant went back in last Saturday night, huh. Thanks, hon!

Blah, blah, blah Deletecakes

Magnet #310 - Doctor Who Cyberman

I mentioned a while ago that I'm not a big Dalek fan. Which is tantamount to sacrilege in the Doctor Who universe. But, I'm also not a huge Cybermen fan, either.

So, I haven't really been looking all that forward to the Christmas episode of Doctor Who. We've all been seeing the same snowy graveyard pictures since earlier this year, and when I found out it was a Cybermen episode *and* that David Morrissey was in it, I was kinda nonplussed about The Next Doctor.

But, that didn't stop me from watching it just as soon as we could, and my sister and I were able to watch it on Christmas night, only a few hours behind the UK.

My blogger pal Cameron at Stuff on TV did a good review of the whole eppy here, so I'm not trying to review The Next Doctor episode here. Suffice to say that:

- I'm so glad that David Morrissey isn't the real next Doctor, because I don't think I could handle a wimpy, crying Doctor.
- Dudes, the ho-yay between the two Davids was a tad over the top.
- Mercy's gorgeous red dress provided some really beautimous shots at the graveyard and in the giant robot ship. (Which admittedly was way cooler than I thought it was going to be.)
- I winced at every stunt David Tennant did that potentially killed his back, right down to having that really-not-so-great child actor hop on his back. Sigh.

Other than that, it was a Cybermen episode, so it won't go down as a favorite of mine. And, it could have been much better. Though, it did pull in 11.7 million viewers, second only to last year's Voyage of the Damned, which I loved infinitely more.

And, I finally uploaded my "Is there a Doctor in the house?" album on FB. It's DW and Hamlet and DT related, and I totally didn't need captions, I know. I'm also missing a pic of my little stuffed Adipose, but these are up. I visited the DW Exhibition in Cardiff, and was seriously underwhelmed by stuff that I could buy...and shockingly, I owned the magnet set they had for sale. Oh well.

eta:
Having watched the first half of the DW Confidential on the Christmas Special, I have to say that the Cybermen retrospective has made me quite grateful that these current Cybermen are what we've been given. The Cybermen of yore were kinda cheesetastic.

Home again, home again

Magnet #303 - Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice

Well, this Shakespearean insult was what I was gonna use if Hamlet was bad earlier this week.

But, now, I'm using it as today's magnet, because it's very much how I feel after a day of traveling.

So, even though I've bought more than a dozen magnets this trip, this is me right now, as dull as night.

Oh, incidentally, how funny that I came home to the RSC's PR letter apologizing for David Tennant dropping out of the London run. Not anything different from the email, on message, properly apologetic - even though, honestly, it's not like it's their fault David's back went wonky. (Personally, I blame Georgia Moffat. Just because I can.)

But, I say, RSC, since you have my address, I'll be waiting for my signed program. IJS.

The readiness is all

Magnet #301 - BBC

So, yesterday, we did the BBC Tour, where I’ve pictures with a TARDIS (yay!) and a Dalek (boo!) and I bought tons of swag (yay, again!).

I also learned a ton. Or rather, a tonne:

Apparently, the BBC World News that we get in the States on BBC-A or on PBS has never been seen by the folks on UK soil. It's not permitted to transmit here, which makes me wonder all sorts of conspiracy theories. What are they showing us, that they can't show their people here at home? Hmmmm.

When asked why in the heck Auntie Beeb schedules their programming in such odd increments and times – like 39 minutes at 7:28 or 58 minutes at like 6:40, or whatever – there was no standard answer aside from “Who says that on the hour/half-hour programming has to be the standard? Why does that make it right? C’mon, we’re a kooky little island, haven’t you learned that by now?”

The BBC hires real-live certified meteorologists (which means my Dave Price, the Early Show weatherman who “only synthesizes the weather for us” couldn’t get a job there) who aren’t on state wages (whoa, does that mean David Tennant’s a civil servant?), but who get a clothing allowance (which explains the weathergirl in the silly capris with kitten heels I saw yesterday morning – who knows what the weather report was, it was freezing, and the weathergirl was in capris! Capris!). Also, there was a look of sheer bewilderment from our guide when asked if they have a dedicated weather channel, followed by a slightly disdainful, “Uh, no? Because we don’t like our weather as much?”

Oh. Ohhhhh. Maybe you’re looking to know how Edward Bennett’s Hamlet was. Well, during the fairly entertaining Q&A session afterward with some of the cast (including a very energized, but slightly frustrated Patrick Stewart), Edward Bennett said, “Look, you’re either ready to play Hamlet, or you’re not.” And, as my post title says, the readiness is all. Yeah, he was ready.

I agree with many critics that you can see where the production was slightly tailored to David Tennant, and you could almost see how Tennant would have interpreted certain lines and gestures. But, Edward was fabulous, if a little understated. Patrick Stewart was amazing. The rest of the cast were pretty darn great, too.

The whole production, with its Spartan, but well-executed against sets was fabulous. I can see why David would be devastated at having to drop out of the show. There’s a tiny part of me that’s glad he did, though. I hate seeing physical altercations, and this production (I imagine with all of them, actually), has several pivotal ones. But it’s the two superintense scenes with Hamlet, where he pretty much assaults Ophelia, and later, Gertrude, that were disturbing for me. I don’t think I would have liked to see David be so ruthless and borderline misogynistic.

Oh! But dudes – Patrick Stewart would like to add “coughing” to the list of things you turn off at shows, along with cell phones, etc. I dunno how you do that, but it seriously screws up a play when people are coughing throughout the whole thing. He was livid, and almost distraught, at how bad last night was – and I quote: “it almost made me want to give up.”

So, if you have a cold, don’t go see a show. Or you darn well better bring some Halls (other cough drops are available).

So yeah, no, there's no Doctor in the house

Magnet #300 - Shakespeare's Henry VI

What, you thought I'd do another breakdown of today's day? Eh, I might edit this post later tonight, but we all know that big ticket item today is tonight's performance of David Tennant's Hamlet.

No. Wait. I mean, it was the big ticket. Now, I'm going to see Edward Bennett's Hamlet. I'm sure it'll be fine, I keep telling myself. One thing I'm glad for is that at least I'm seeing it a week into his run - they've had time to tuck into their new roles and what not. Plus, there's the whole Q&A session after the show. I'm looking forward to hearing someone ask Patrick Stewart how he was able to cram both Macbeth and Hamlet into one year. (I'm sure the answer will be properly self-deprecating, but come on, folks, it's Patrick Stewart - who else could make it so.)

Sigh. Anyway.

I do think it's a bit ironical that I haven't any Shakespearean insults from Hamlet. Thwarted again. Hah. I was gonna use another one - "As dull as night" from Merchant of Venice, but who knows, maybe Edward will convince me to actually like Hamlet.

I do hope David Tennant's recuperating well, really, I do. Or, as one of my friends said last night, maybe he'll be over at the BBC during our tour this morning.

What? Maybe they don't have direct deposit!

Oh! Speaking of celeb sightings. Last night, in the tube, I saw a business suit-wearing guy go by me who was a carbon copy of Prince William. I don't suppose Prince William's doing a stint as a businessman right now, is he?

Yep. In my version of the story, he totally is. Cuz that was totally him. No, really. I swear.

Toddling off for tea

Magnet #298 - Queen Elizabeth II (r. 1952-Present)

Elizabeth II is the reigning Head of State of the UK and like 15 other commonwealths. She's related to like every major royal family in Europe, descended from some of the greatest names in English history.

Think Madge'll have me over for tea?

Today's the start of my "Is there a Doctor in the House?" London trip. Since David's already made sure that no, there won't be a Doctor in the house, tea at Buckingham Palace would be a great back-up plan.

Wonder if they serve Sweet Iced Tea?

Is there a Doctor in the house?

Magnet #293 - David Tennant's Hamlet

Alas, 'twas not to be.

Surely by now, wherever you are across the globe, you've heard my whimpering over the news that David Tennant's in hospital, going in for back surgery today. I wish him all the glitter in the world, and hope they give him the good drugs upon his recovery. Truly, I do.

If we've learned anything about him in the last few years, we know he's probably in lots of pain superupset with himself that he's having to miss half of the RSC's Hamlet run in London. And, he's probably superduperupset over disappointing all the superduperupset ticketholders and travellers from afar.

It's kinda crazy because the hubbub is all about him missing performances and "gutting" all those ticketholders. Where are the fangurls worried about the man himself? The guy's going into surgery, for goodness sake! He can't help it!

Jeepers.

As for me, I'll admit that my ticket for next Thursday's performance was a big part of my reason for going to London again. Otherwise, I probably would have held off on another visit until say, the 2012 Olympics. But, it's London, so this trip is still gonna be superduperawesome without David Tennant signing this magnet. And look, I don't have to fight any crowds or wait huddled in the cold!

Of course, I was sort of counting on he and Patrick Stewart to make me love Hamlet, instead of hating it. But, no matter. It's the RSC - the production will still blow me away. And judging by the reviews so far, Edward Bennett has acquitted himself pretty well, so I'm still very much looking forward to seeing the show anyway.

In the meantime, best wishes for a speedy recovery, David.

A Natural-Born Alien

Magnet #247 - Doctor Who's Slitheen

So, we established yesterday that we moved from Chicago and its snowy, snowy environs down to sunshiny Salisbury/Granite Quarry, North Carolina, when I was in Kindergarten. And, though I was fairly young, I remember feeling very much like an alien on the playground.

First, the alien name: Supposedly, that's when I started going by Joy in school. I swear, I was told it was because no one could pronounce "Linille" as my first name, though now I'm rethinking that train of thought, given the kidnap thing. So already, I was kinda getting used to the name - apparently that took, given my penchant for, well, my name.

Second, the alien language: I remember the first day of school. Because my last name begins with Ab...I was first in the lunch line. The teacher told me to lead the line from the classroom, and "stop down yonder."

I got in trouble. Because I kept going. Because I didn't know what the hell "down yonder" meant. C'mon, I mean, even now, can anyone tell me what "down yonder" actually means?

Third, the alien accent: I was lucky to understand the words "down yonder," cuz on top of not understanding the Southernisms (which we ended up buying a book about later on, which explained so much), I couldn't understand the thick accents. Seriously. Northern versus Southern accents are hard to get used to. Still are, sometimes.

Fourth, the alien environment: No snow. There was NO snow in North Carolina. At least not smackdab in the middle of the state. And how was Santa going to find us without snow? So what'd my very sweet parents do? They packed me up in the car and drove me up to the mountains of North Carolina to prove that it did snow there. I swear, I remember being let out of the car to touch the snow and being very happy.

Finally, the alien communications: So small was Salisbury, that our moving to town made the front page of the local news section of the local newspaper. A whole article about the new family in town, and the kid they had to tote up to the mountains to prove the existence of snow in the South.

Anyway, there were many other things over the years that made me feel like a alien in NC, and the ensuing culture shock from it...but, I probably have magnets for those, too.

(Mind you, they probably wouldn't be a Doctor Who Slitheen from Raxacoricofallapatorious, but this was apropos to the subject, and also, pinkish for NBCAM!)

eta:
Today's DW shout-out is also because I had a dream last night that I was pals with David Tennant. And went to watch his new show: Hamlet.

The musical.

David Tennant wasn't that great of a singer in it. Also, mysteriously short.

I'm just sayin'.

Cheating on George Clooney...with David Tennant

Magnet #149 - Doctor Who (again)

As I mentioned yesterday, my current fling is David Tennant. Again, George Clooney doesn't mind. After all, he's been clearly enjoying his summer post-that Vegas cocktail waitress. George is also safe in the knowledge that David seems to prefer BBC employees anyway. *snerk*

Since Josh got his time yesterday, David gets equal play today. Well, that's not quite true - I keep blogging DW/DT since I was silly and bought not one, but two, different Doctor Who magnet sets and now have a disproportionate amount of DW magnets lying about my fridge.

I will give David his props - after I finished Christopher Eccleston's turn as the Ninth Doctor, I was absolutely sure that I wasn't going to like the Tenth Doctor. I derided the Wee Doctor at first, but it didn't take long before David's mad but passionate Ten quickly overwrote Nine. Sorry, Chris.

As I've managed to watch more of the David Tennant oeuvre, he's proven himself in role after role - whether as the mad but passionate mental patient in Takin' Over the Asylum, or as the mad but passionate psycho in Secret Smile, or even the mad but passionate lover in Casanova.

But, he keeps saying that being on the telly's more like a sabbatical from his real job - stage actor. So, I can't wait to see him in his natural environs. I finally got my Hamlet tickets - looks like I'm spending a few days in London during the holidays. Supposedly, that performance will have a talkback/Q&A with the cast, so I'm equally (if not more, actually) excited at the prospect of hearing Patrick Stewart speak as well.

Who knows, maybe it will take David and Patrick to make me like Hamlet, the play, the production, the Prince. (Not that Richard Burton was able to sway me, but I'll give it a shot.)

And, they'll have at least six months to practice - they open this week in Stratford. Break a leg, boys!

To be eyesore, or not to be

Magnet #105 - London Eye

I still haven't any tickets for David Tennant's Hamlet. Yes, I know we've discussed it before. Be prepared, it'll be popping up again, I feel sure.

The funny thing is that I don't even like Hamlet. I don't like the story, I don't like the character. Yes, yes, I know, I can't exactly talk smack about Shakespeare, since it's a trillion years later and we're still performing his work. I see the merit in the play, I swear. I just think - no matter if it's Olivier, Burton, Branagh, or Tennant - the prince of Denmark's a bit of a whiner. Drives me nuts. But, Hamlet's a definitive Shakespearean role, and one that obvi, DT will knock out of the park.

I do wish the papers and bloggers would stop reporting that tickets are still available, or going fast. I've called the RSC three times, and each time they've been sold out - and rehearsals just started Monday. There's to be a decision taken in the next couple of weeks or so, whether or not they're extending the run to London in December. So, I guess we'll wait and see.

Anyway. Moving on. The London Eye. While I'd seen the pictures and footage, I still wasn't prepared to see a big damn ferris wheel slam in the middle of the city nestled on the banks of the Thames, just down the street from Big Ben.

Don't get me wrong - I think it's an amazing structure. I just find myself questioning what it does to the London landscape. And, it's an amazing ride as well. Takes a while to do a rotation, but it really does give you a fabulous aerial view of the area. And, Londoners seem to have adopted it into its hearts and skyline, so I guess it's not quite the eyesore that I thought it was at first site.

The one thing that I would encourage is to buy your timed tickets before you land on UK soil - that'll save you buckets full of time. Oh! And, mind the darn pigeons hanging out by the McDonald's down the way from the Eye. Eww.

eta:
June 6. How fitting to use a UK magnet on this, the 64th anniversary of D-Day. No worries. I can do a D-day story next year for the 65th. Meetcha back here, then.

I don't wanna wait

Magnet #83 - Dawson's Creek Cast

Yes. I have Dawson's Creek magnets. If you know me at all, you know that this show, along with half of the original WB lineup, was one of my favorites. Sue me.

And yes, I have four more of these babies, and will eventually blog on all of our little Creekers individually.

And, no, you don't have to guess if I was a Pacey/Joey girl, or a Dawson/Joey girl. I mean seriously, were there any Dawson/Joey girls?

Anyway, I had hoped that my looooong-awaited (ok, since they shipped last Tuesday from Forbidden Planet UK) Doctor Who magnets would arrive today.

Why? Because I was just freakin' blown away by Patrick Stewart's Macbeth last night. I was soooo going to take today to use the David Tennant magnet to comment about how it's nearly unheard of that David Tennant's Hamlet is sold out for the entire freakin' run, and to bitch about how I don't have tickets! Sigh.

So, this will have to do for today. Maybe we'll see a Dalek or TARDIS or two, in June.

Why June, you ask? Because from tomorrow through June 2, would have been the Great American Roadtrip (GAR), the trip we were planning on taking across, well, America. We nixed the trip for various reasons, and what's done is done. But I'm planning on having joy magnetism take the trip for us.

Lay on, Macjoy.

As I would have liked it

Magnet #58 - Shakespeare's As You Like It

So, apparently David Tennant has the power to sell out Hamlet in Stratford-Upon-Avon for his entire run - from July through November. Impressive.

There I go again, thinking people wouldn't be interested in whatever interests me. I dunno why I thought it'd be easy to get tickets - I guess that makes me the fool in this play.

I picked up this packet of Shakespearean insults in Stratford a couple of years ago. Apparently, no insults in Hamlet were good enough to include in this set.

Oh, well, I do have this manga Hamlet excerpt to look at. (Yeah, you read right, Shakespeare's been manga'd.)

He's either rolling in his grave...or he's waiting for the anime feature film.