Random thoughts

So I actually booked for a Convention this year. Problem is, I left it too late following a big announcement which I failed to notice on twitter and had to go with regular ticket as all the Golds had gone.

I was enticed by Starfury's Ultimates in June.  Hayley Atwell and Enver Gjokaj were announced and I thought what the hell.  May be a bit of a punt to get Hayley's auto & photoshoot as she is only there two days but it will be a good opportunity for the new camera to show me what that zoom can do, and in low light as the lighting at those events isn't the kindest to photographers. Plus  I'll be a way back from the stage as a normal punter.  Brett Dalton, B J Britt, Bridget Regan  and Dichen Lachman from Agents of SHIELD/Carter are all booked to appear too. I've had the pleasure of meeting Enver & Dichen before but not the others. Starfury sometimes have surprise guests too so it would be cool if they were more Marvel ones.  Should be fun.

Oh and it's at the Norbreck in Blackpool. I went to my very first Convention (Which happened to be Starfury's End of Days for Angel the Series) there in 2003. Ah happy memories.

Now I need to break out the art materials to do some portraits for autographs.

Title: Mister Booze
Fandom : Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, Dollhouse, Firefly
Music :'Mister Booze' performed by the cast of Family Guy
Length: 4mins 01 secs
Lyrics
Description: Don't mess with Mister Booze.
Downloads Tiny WMV 14.8mB       MP4 63mB       Med AVI 81mB     HQ AVI 157mB
 Stream & vague notes  under the cut( Here )            

So all my photos and also a brief report about the weekend are now posted on my site. It was a lovely time (less party and more relaxing but that's down to me, rather than the event)  and so nice to get to chat to some of my very favourite Whedonverse people (Jane Espenson and Alexis Denisof) in a Convention environment.

Alexis was very chatty and charming at the autograph session which was probably why his line took forever - we were given the chance to have a decent conversation which was a pleasant change. I spoke to him mainly about Much Ado and my cunning plan to convert the rest of the family to Shakespeare lovers- he was delighted and seemed genuinely pleased about the 'part' he played in that.  From the Q&A's you really get a sense that he loves not straying too far from his family, especially at their young age and I can only admire him for wanting to do that over perhaps pursuing more career opportunities. He also told us he hates cancelling events which is why he hardly commits to any. Fair do. Funny story about shooting Avengers and praise for Tom H - struggle with  He and all the guests (with the exception of Tom Lenk who told us at the meet and greet that he was coming down with a cold) attended the parties - they really 'got into it' but I did watch Alexis go round the whole room virtually unnoticed by most of the attendees, until he said hello - he once photobombed  a group cosplay photo and then they noticed him. Then he got on the floor and did the Wesley dance and later encouraged some ladies to get up from the table and led the conga around the entire ballroom for ages. 

I spoke to Jane about how difficult it was to pick a favourite episode of hers - John and I had discussed the night before I went and came up with 'A New Man' which never fails to lighten our moods when we've had a shitty day. Giles always has a worse time of it :)  She told me that one of my favourite lines from the episode ("picked up a tail") was nearly cut by Joss, but he left it in after all which makes me glad. The event organisers have promised to try and bring other writers over to future events.  She ran two writer room sessions with herself and Brad Bell and they were the most popular extra event of the entire conventions. I don't write but would have loved to have gone.

Anyhoo more photos and links to the rest are here :



( more photos )


This is the first time in 10 years that I have not been to a Starfury Convention.  I just was not inspired by the guest lists to be honest.  I love the shows he covers but not enough to attend a con.  With Joss making a surprise appearance at Serenity Forever I sure did pick the right year :-(    Now if someone were to add Agents of SHIELD guests (Massive Events said they would try to get some...) then I am so there!

It always takes me a while to get the photos together but they're up on my site now.



Julie Lee ( Chanterelle/Lilly / Anne)    Ksenia Solo (kenzi Lost Girl)
 

Allan Hyde (Godric) and Mariana Klaveno (Lorena) True Blood,  Neil Roberts and Brody Hutzler (Landok )

 

James Marsters and Juliet Landau
 
 
Me and Dru, we're moving in.

A good weekend although I did miss Georges Jeanty and Jonathan Woodward, they are great for livening the place up. Nice to see James and Juliet on stage together although I don't know if what James made of us all. He did say he wanted to come back so we'll see. 

One small peeve was that James did not do the meet and greet which  made me wonder why, he's done them before and Starfury M &G's are generally more well behaved, controlled and less in your face than others.   In fact he wasn't at the Fancy dress the following night either. Early to bed perhaps?

The True Blood guests were chipper - as they were last year, and Ksenia Solo must be the tiniest actress I have ever  seen but with excellent taste in footwear.

So  more photos and HQ versions start  here including opening and closing ceremonies.

So I currently have two more ways to suck huge chunks of time out of my day.

Mark the reviewer  'Mark Watches' (currently reviewing BtVS S4 & just starting on AtS S1) and now  'Mark Reads' - A Song of Ice and Fire(I'll probably go onto his other book reviews for those I have read myself)

I love Mark's capslock enthusiam for the show  and general flailing, he'd not seen any of it before now,  so it is wonderful reading the predictions and his reactions to those 'huge' moments. Sometimes he has great love for overlooked episodes and it makes me reassess my own opinion of them. It's a little like discovering the slayerverse  all over again and I never fail to want to rewatch the episode he has just reviewed.   Can't  wait to see what he makes of AtS.  Then I spotted he also wrote book reviews, I am now reading those. 

The other time -suck is Tumblr.  There are some insanely pretty Avengers art/gifs being posted I find totally irresistable, plus a few hilarious banners. One this morning had us both rolling around the office in hysterics almost forgetting to breathe. Plus cat gifs.  I don't feel very creative on tumblr though, just part of a huge machine that clicks and reblogs everyone else's pretty.  I have put up select pieces of original art and the odd con photo every now and then.

I guess it's something to do while I rip source and wait for Book Five of ASOIAF to turn up.

 Attempt  to post #2

Starks all around at the moment. Starks of Winterfell and Tony Stark.   Up to book 4 of A Song of Fire and Ice, this one is a bit slower than the others but still good. Easy to read too.

Rewatching GoT season 1 - along with BtVS Season 4 and AtS S1 alongside each other. Can't wait for GoT to start in April.

Totally underwhelmed by the new shows I started watching and hanging onto SPN by the skin of my teeth - has it been renewed for Season 8 yet? Gah the last two eps have been really bleugh.

There, that's about it for now.  Attempt to post #1 was longer - perhaps I'll come back later and expand.

Weee! Just won 1st place with this episode poster over at whedonland in a Challenge.  :D

Surprised and really pleased sums it up



Click the thumbnail to see the full size

I have some icons to post for the next challenge - most probably Thursday. 

On the vidding front I've felt a bit out of sorts - I know I was going to do a season overview but I can't face all that source at the moment so I have decided to do a film overview just to get me back into the swing of things. It may not be a full on comedy but I'm hoping there'll be a little humour in it.

I can't believe I forgot to post this.  Anyway - drawn for the Vampire Ball Convention last year but Julie had to cancel so I did not take it for signing. But I thought I'd share.



Medium sized here . I'll link the HQ one once I've loaded to the website.  HQ version here

When this episode - The Girl In Question -  first aired I wa so full of woe at the impending canelleation/series finale that I didn't enjoy it at all. In fact I was quite annoyed that Mutant Enemy were daring to make me laugh when I all I wanted to do was mourn Angel The Series.  Now it ranks amongst my favourites, it gives us some of the very best Spike/ Angel moments of the slayerverse and this wonderful scene with ravished Drusilla and Darla.

I miss my show.

Title : Now Three
Source :Angel The Series
Length: 3:00 Mins
Music: Now Three by Vienna Teng
Pairings: Angel/Cordelia
Description: Angel appeared to have it all...just for the briefest of moments.
Download   Tiny WMV 11mB Zipped     or Medium AVI 88mB  or   HQ AVI 155mB

Vidders Notes and Embedded stream under the cut ( here )

I've been trying to tidy up my tags and I noticed that there are a few wallpapers that I may have put on my site or posted over at still_grrr  but not in my own journal *doh*   So here they are.  Where there are various resolutions links are next to the thumbnail.  If just in one resolution click the thumbnail.



1024   1280

 



1280  1680  or 1920



1024   1280  1680



1024   1280   1680



1280 1680



1280 1680



 1280    1680



1024  1680

Phew that ended up being a lot more  than I originally thought.... I may have some 1920 x 1080 resolution versions of some of these if anyone wants one in particular.  Hope you like them, comments are loved.