Aparently, Chris Eccleston is playing John Lennon in some BBC drama with Torchwood-Tosh as Yoko Ono.
Fact is, he's a good actor and he should be more than capable of doing the job, I don't doubt that ... but I probably won't be able to watch this without imagening other members of the Who/Torchwood cast in other roles. Ianto, Owen and the 10th Doctor are unemployed ... there we go, Beatles cast!

Also, spoiler warning for the ending of Hamlet (yes, THE Hamlet. The play that's been around since the 17th century)???!!! Seriously people! That's like putting a spoiler warning with the information that halfway through "Titanic" the ship hits an iceberg and as a consequence sinks. These things are not spoilers, they are common knowledge ... almost everyone dies, btw. In Hamlet and Titanic. There. Spoiler!

Talking about spoilers. I love how they German press reports on New Moon by telling almost the whole story of the film, till the clocktower scene. And then go all "will she be able to safe him?!" ... as if that was really up for debate in a film like that.

I'm not too happy with the lack of Damon in Vampire Diaries recently. There's way too much relationship stuff for my taste.

How about, Damon gets his spin off show with Eric? So Vampire Diaries can be all about cheesy romance in high schools and True Blood can be all about fucking, subplots-that-everyone-fast-forwards, and fucking-in-subplots (that probably not everyone fast forwards) and "The Damon and Eric spin off show" (title subject to change) can be all about awesome bad ass vampires being awesome and bad ass?

(This just arrived in my mailbox, apparently from the Christmas special ... ehhh ... right ... no idea if this is true or if this picture is photoshopped or if it's something silly that took place between takes and is not part of the actual episodes at all. I find it quite funny though)

There ARE reasons to dislike Science Fiction (like, a serious lense flare allergy or an IQ that is too low to handle techno babble ...), however "it's so unrealistic" is not one of them. Especially not when you are planning to watch New Moon on the opening night. Because sparkling vampires, werewolves and whiny Bella are not exactly the height of realism either. Especially not whiny Bella.

Doctor Who: Best fucking quarry in Who history (that's only my thoughts on the first minute, btw.) ... other than that I just feel very "wow!" about it. It won't replace Midnight, Blink and The Empty Child as my favourite episode but it comes close. And yes, I totally fail at making lists of favourites. Always have, always will. I'm not very good at "this or that" either.

- Mc Donalds has Clone Wars toys with the kids menu. Yeah!
But how much less embarassing would an adult menu with toys be? Not that it's embarassing to be a Star Wars fan of course ... but ... you know ... you do get the occasional odd look when you don't have an alibi kid with you, order a kids menu and argue over the toy that comes with it. Of course, it's also embarassing when you go "he wants an Obi-wan" and the kid's like "I thought the Obi-wan is for you".

- I have decided to not start watching any of the new shows that everyone seems to recommend these days (V, Flashforward ...). I'm fully booked out with the ones I DO watch at the moment and can hardly keep up with them and never get to the older stuff on my "to watch" pile. Like, Life on Mars sans John Simm (I know it's got another title, something else Bowie, but I can't remember it at the moment). Why do days only have 24 hours?

- Also ... while talking David Bowie ... look at this image from "Waters of Mars". Jep, "BOWIE base one". I'm probably the last one to find out about that, but it's pretty cool. Makes total sense to name a Mars base after David Bowie too. It's probably unpopulare to say I love RTD for little details like that, because bashing him is so cool and hip and popular and all that, but I really do.



ETA: Forgot to mention that "Waters of Mars" is the title of the new Doctor Who episode, airing tomorrow night. Sometimes I forget that not everyone is watching the same things as me.

Any Rammstein fans left on my f-list?

If so, does anyone know anything about their new album being put on the index or something? Because they just said on the radio that they can't play these songs, which is especially strange since this is not a mainstream radio station. They usually aren't bothered by any "bad" words in songs, they'll play bands like Combichrist (I've yet to find a CC song that doesn't contain "shit" or "fuck" or variations of both) or Die Form (I've yet to find a song that isn't about sex and or violence) in the middle of the day ... so I suspect it must be something official rather than a decission of the station itself


I did some Christmas shopping today with my grandma. Well, just candle market really, because she's low on candles and I wanted some really big ones, which I couldn't find at IKEA. But it was all so christmasy with the music and the candles and the food and drinks (first mulled wine of the season!) and now I feel like I really should put up a tree and some decoration and start thinking about presents ...


Also, the wall came down 20 years ago. Yeah, I know that. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, especially for us in Berlin. Yeah, yeah, yeah ... but do we have to watch and read stuff about it every bloody year? It's boring and it's history. Nothing wrong with history, but the very nature of history is, that it's about stuff in the past, so there's nothing new to report. So, if you live in Germany and don't suffer from Alzheimer or something else with a similar effect to your memory you KNOW that stuff already.

50 minutes before I'm due to leave the house I'm done with the costume. The person who invented the hot glue gun should get a Nobel Prize. Best thing ever.

Oh, and I managed to use a sewing machine without accidents, how awesome is this? I've been afraid of accidential piercings ever since I started to learn how to sew.

So, I'm off to Victorian Torchwood. Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!!

It's this time of the year again. The leaves are turning red, when you take a walk in the woods you get hit by chestnuts, pumpkins are showing up at front doors and windows, Tim Burton movies and Poe's poems have been moved to the top of the to-do piles, my mood theme has changed to Nightmare Before Christmas ... and I'm wondering what to wear.

The biggest surprise is, that I'm not aware of a vampire party, not a single one. In the last few years it was a given that there was a vampire's ball, something Fangtasia themed, old school Dracula ... this year, nada. I have "Malice in Wonderland" and "Golden Age of Torchwood" (not based on my idea or anything ... noooooooo ...) on my list so far. Bless Halloween for being on the weekend.

Since the last one is not based on my idea or anything the costume for that one is kind of obvious. Something Torchwood goes Steampunk with alien-victorian gadgets. I briefly considered going as a really crappy Doctor Who monster from the 70s, all dressed in bubble wrap, but as funny as the idea is - I would most likely end up hiding in a corner to avoid the people who can't resist the urge to poke the bubble wrap.

For the first one I have no idea though. It's obviously Alice in Wonderland with a little twist and I can see girls going as Alice with a really short skirt or really huge breasts or something, but other than that I have no idea. It should be bright and colourfull and totally over the top, but ... mmh ... I just don't know ... and I don't want to be in full make-up for a party. So everything that only works with having the whole face painted isn't an option.



On to some TV stuff:

- I enjoy Vampire Diaries more than I thought I would. It's totally to blame on Damon. I don't care one bit for the 90210 crowd, but a vampire who behaves like a vampire ... seducing virgins, drinking human blood (well, scratch the virgin part, this is the 21th century) and all that ... is rare these days.

- I enjoy the new season of Heroes more than I thought I would. In the last season, I was just staying for Sylar ... but somehow it's gotten really good again. I totally blame it on the boys from the carnival. I don't see an overall theme yet though. I mean, in the previous season there was a very obvious threat, but maybe it does the show good to have no "OMG, the world's going to end!" theme for a change.

So, I'm having this weekend planned that includes watching some plays and stuff and I will take my grandma to some.

So, she writes me a mail. Flight arrival, food wishes, the usual. And of course she has to add "pack some appropriate clothes, will you?" (I haven't been wearing jeans with holes around her for ages - she still picks on me for that ... *sigh*)

So, one thing we're going to see features a man in a sparkling dress

So, I'm kind of scared of "appropriate" in this context ...

I was just about to rant about German TV (because, showing the same political debate on 4 (four!) channels?! WTF?!!!) but then I heard something familiar from the living room TV and it was an ad for all 6 Star Wars movies that will be showing on one channel. Yeah, I've seen them all. Multiple times. Yeah, I own the DVDs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But. Star Wars!

I did not watched said "debate", btw, because the election campaign that's been going on in Germany is even more boring than usual. The party that provides the chancellor was leading the polls by a good deal, so they decided to not bore us with an actual program but settle for a "you voted for us before, now vote for us again. KTHXBYE." message. Because, with an actual program some people might disagree and vote for someone else and this logic is supported by the other parties too and yeah, it's all very boring and unenthusiastic. It's like watching a game of chess where both players are afraid to make a move.

Oh, and on the gloves topic from last entry ... how about a little Nightmare before Christmas design that features Zero with his red glowing nose?


*I actually got this on Twitter and since the topic is German politics fail, double error is a very fitting topic.

Help!
I need some quick suggestions for self knitted gloves.

I'll get some gloves knitted (in exchange for a book-bookshelf) and since they are handmade they can totally look like I want them to look and like something you'd never find in a shop and ... I don't really have any good ideas :-/

The girl who'll do mine showed me examples of her designs, including Twilight gloves (black with the red ribbon from the Eclipse cover in 3D) and Dalek gloves (golden and black with knobs and all ...), which looks totally awesome, so I know that she'll be capable of doing whatever I might come up with. 

Bored? Take an IKEA catalogue, pick a product, read the name to your friends and let them guess what kind of product it is. Of course, nothing comes close to the old classic - bed "Rektal" (yes, that is the German word for "rectal") - but I'm sure you'll find enough amusement in it. Unless you're Swedish I guess.

Stupid "Hermes Versand" is too stupid to find our entrance and therefor declared our adress to be non existant. Yes, there is a bush there, but if you walk around that bush you'll see a big house number and a door and a bell with our names right next to it and you can ring that bell and ... and you shouldn't have to explain these things to a professional ...

Do we really need random "VIP" people to take trips to Antarctica every couple of weeks to "get informed about the climate change"? It always looks like a big wank to me when someone gets a headline for taking such a trip "look, I care about the environment!" ... no, you don't or if you do you are not capable of logical thinking. You know what would be good for the environment? Staying at home, reading a book or watching a movie on the topic and saving the gas that is used for your trip!


Also, I'm going to see John Barrowman in drag with my grandma. Yiha! My reputation as being the expert for stage stuff in the family probably won't survive, but anyway ... Yiha!

- LJ has just restored an invisible entry ... from draft! ... can you see it? No? Smell it perhaps? Because, I mean, there has to be SOMETHING that was restored, right?

- ordering a little handy copy of Twelfth Night and getting a recommendation for Breaking Dawn? Fail.

- my sucking (no pun intended) vampire book found a new home. Win. I couldn't be bothered to finish it after all, so I traded it in.

- they just said "I've got a bad feeling about this" in Doctor Who from 1964. See? Everything is connected by the force! < / star wars geek moment >

- I'm sure when a restaurant has an "all you can eat" buffet this is not meant to be some kind of challenge.

- I'm missing some LJ comments / replies to comments ... since there have been problems with hackers I won't list this under "fail" but it is a bit annoying. Sorry if I didn't reply to someone though.

- True Blood is awesome when it has vampire scenes, for everything else there's the >> button.

- Also, "Matt Parkmann to return to Lost?" is all kinds of wrong, because for one thing it shows that the "journalist" is too stupid to google the name of an actor when he doesn't know it and also because Matt Parkmann has never been in Lost in the first place, which makes a RETURN highly unlikely. Although, of course, we are talking about Lost. And the Lost writers are a bit on the mental side and the writers of Heroes have created more pointless plot twists than I care to remember ... so maybe, maybe the abilities in Heroes turn out to be the result of a Dharma experiment and Matt, eh, finds out and stuff and eh ends up on the Lost island because Hawaii is really kind of nice ...

- 2 people killed in a gay youth center in Tel Aviv ... now, THAT'S a real reason to scream "homophobia" ...

- I missed the finale of the "win a part in Twilight" casting show because I had to leave for a BBQ party. Now I will never find out what extra with 5 seconds of screen time the proud winner is ... but don't worry. I'll live. :p
Did anyone watch though or know how big her part will be? Because I don't think it can be a very big part since they will have to take whoever wins the casting show, as oposed to working with the actress they think fits the part best.

- I just ordered "Angel's Cut" (Elizabeth Knox) and "Madness of Angels" (Kate Griffin). What's with all the angel stuff when we're nowehere near Christmas? I also ordered the books I'm still missing from the Lost university reading list. Now, I'm not taking this too seriously, I just think that since the books I own from that list already are all pretty good and understandable the others might be of the same kind.

- Reading "House of night: Betrayed" ... or trying to read it. Not a bad concept for your every day vampire trash novel to read while riding the subway or waiting in line at the post office. But that writing style better stays in fanfiction land. This book will certainly find a new home when I'm done with it, if I'm ever done with it, that is.

That's Jessica on my True Blood icon. *points*

I didn't expect her to become one of my fav characters in True Blood, not after that annoying entrance she had at the end of last season. Let her move in with Eric and Pam and focus on them exclusively and I'll be happy. And how gorgeous is she on that pic from the Comic Con panel?



And why I smell a conspiracy? Because there's also Doctor Who and they managed to cast a Doctor I don't find exactly ... well, not really my type anyway ... and give him a pretty redhead companion. So I might end up watching just because of her ... Jep, big conspiracy right there, since my type of girl is usually dark haired.

Lost University!!! How awesome is this?
"Introductory physics of time travel" !!!! Sign me up for that, please! And there's a course run by Jeremy Davies/Daniel Faraday too!

I thought they might come up with another interactive web feature to keep fans interrested and ready for the very last season (*sniff*), like they had these Dharma websites between previous seasons.

But this looks like a much better idea, because it seems to connect the show with real knowledge. I own quite a few books from the reading lists of the physics and philosophy courses, so I know they are real books and actually good reads too. OMG, people might actually end up smarter!

He doesn't, right?

11th Doctor and companion (what's her name again? Amy something?) in costume:


I'm a bit in denial about these costumes. After David's great coat and Chris' more modern look this Doctor looks kind of blah ... I don't mind a retro look but this looks as if they ran out of retro ideas at the waist and added generic jeans and boots. Although, isn't it sweet that the new girl gets the Doctor's old shoes? She could wear the scarf in the Christmas episode and she could make kids feel better about having to wear stuff from older siblings!

Anyho, it looks like a random on set picture, certainly not an official "posing in front of the Tardis with sonic screwdriver while looking very important and about to save the universe" promo picture. Maybe I'll be convinced when these start to show up ...

- Is Lost very popular in Asia? Because I was wearing my Dharma shirt today (just a normal polo shirt with a Dharma orchid logo on the left side of the chest. Nothing big and flashy to say "Look at me, I'm a Lost fan!") and this asian looking couple was all excited and asked if they could take a picture ... they didn't speak any of my languages, which is why I have no idea what was going on and why I can only say they were "asian looking" ...

- And is Lost Science Fiction and if yes, why not? There's science and there is fiction, loads of it. Still, it's never labeled Science Fiction. Why is that? Is it only Science Fiction when there are spaceships or aliens or when it's set in space or the future? Unless we'll find out that Jacob and his kind are actually aliens none of these things apply to Lost. Discuss ;-)


Also, managed to turn my bad screencaps in a semi Ok Xas icon :D