Nikki Finke posted this on her blog under the title "Actors Will Do Anything To Land A Role." Since my immediate response is more "Oh, cool! I wanna try!" I'm thinking that "Because They Are, As A Rule, Insane" would probably be an accurate subtitle.

( T.J. Miller Auditions for Yogi the Bear )

Saw the movie last night on the Disney Studios lot at the D23 event. To be honest, low expectations led to glee. The movie isn't UP!, but it's charming, with a strong heroine, supporting characters that are wonderful, some laugh-out-loud moments and at least one sequence that led to sniffles and tears. The villain - the Shadow Man - is menacing and creepy, with a lovely, impressive voice . . . he's a great return to the serious villain. The prince is flawed and has as much of a character arc as Tiana. And Tiana's wealthy friend - Charlotte - is amazing . . . she could have been the caricature of the spoiled rich girl and that's not to say she isn't, but she has a heart and a soul and believes in love and friendship. Tiana has a mother who is sensible and worldly, but wants her daughter to find the love she found with Tiana's father, so I feel a little better about the absence of Disney mom's lately. And she gets to share in her daughter's success at the end.

There are passing nods to the divide between the lives of the rich and the poor - sufficient for an animated feature that is not about social change, but about tempering being good and working hard with letting some love and friendship into your life.

The music is New Orleans jazz, with a gospel number and bit of Zydeco thrown in . . . and the Zydeco tune just keeps slamming through my brain. It ranges from soft and delicious to our-right toe-tappin and there were points where the audience just clapped right along.

There are odds and ends of Disney in the movie - Charlotte's shelf of princess dolls has some familiar toys, the carpet being beaten over the side of a balcony at the movie's beginning is the carpet from Aladdin, and Mama Odie throwns Aladdin's lamp, an animation disk, and some other little Disney treats out of her magic box.

On the way in, we following the frog prints from the parking garage to the gathering spot - there were some large props there including Pirates of the Caribbean ship figures, cages, logos, a life-size battle centaur macquette from Caspian, the gold Aztec logo from Beverly Hill Chihuahua - where we got our movie popcorn tubs and drinks and Mardi Gras bead necklace. We followed the frog prints across the lot to a pot where Mickey was waiting to meet and greet, then we handed in our cellphone and camera and scrambled to find seats. The organist from the El Capitan was there!!! However, at the end of the performance, he didn't disappear beneath the floor with the organ (as happens at the El Capitan), but quickly slipped through the emergency doors directly beside him, so he still vanished quite neatly.

After the event, we had the Experience, which meant a big warehouse that had Cinderella, Jasmine, Mulan, Belle, Ariel, Aurora, Pocahontas, Snow White, and Tiana on small stages where you could meet and greet and take photos. The directors of the film were on hand to sign a gift lithograph, there was an animation school set up in the corner where one of the movies animator would walk you through drawing one of the characters from the film, a display of costumes and props from other films, a craft table where you could color and create mardi gras masks or origami frogs or coloring pictures from the film, a store where you could buy toys and costumes and pins and books (including a recipe book for kids!), a photo center where you could have a photo taken that would place you in the film, a bayou playground, a game where you threw voodoo dolls to stick them to a target, the frog flip game (of course), the yummy cupcakes booth where you could get princess or frog cupcakes, and you could go on a guided tour of the Disney studios lot.

All-in-all, a tremendous time, a good movie, and lots of fun.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm tired. And I'm swamped in projects at the moment. We've been cooking on and off all week, so with the turkey in the oven, there's not much to do at the moment. We decided to do a homemade Christmas this year, so I've been very busy. My list of projects includes: three clown dolls, two basic rag dolls, three quilts, a pair of pants, a purse, a wallet, a checkbook cover, two men's vests, and an outfit for Evie. I need to put buttons and buttonholes in the vests, and then they're done. The clown dolls are finished. One rag doll is done, and the other needs hair. One quilt is done completely, and the other two have been glued. I still need to quilt them and bind them off. The pants pattern is new to me, so it'll be interesting, plus installing zippers isn't my favorite thing.

These next few weeks will be really busy to get all of that done, plus I really should make pants out of the fabric my sister gave me for Christmas last year. :D It had a note attached that said, "Pants. Some assembly required." I should wear them when she comes over for Christmas this year.

And even though I did my best to get out of it, I still have the Relief Society quilt to get through. This year, the stake Relief Society presidency asked sisters to make quilt patches and donate them to make quilts with. I did it. I made a rail fence patch and handed it over. I helped my friend Ruth Ann make one and she'd never sewn a stitch before. (Patchwork isn't a great project for beginning sewers. It's too fiddly. You need straight, even seams and they all have to be 1/4 in wide. No more, no less. Sewing clothing is less exact and gives you more leeway for mistakes.)

Then I went to the Enrichment Meeting. AKA. Homemaking Meeting. It was supposed to be a fun time to socialize and make silly crafts. Instead, I was volunteered to quilt the RS quilt. I said I didn't have time. I said I didn't want to do it. Guess what? The quilt is folded in my sewing corner. I was told that it has to be done before Christmas. And, predictably, they didn't have the materials to sandwich the quilt, either. So... Mom and I had to go to Joanns and buy the stuff, and then all they way back to my house and grab my quilting tools, including my sewing machine. Now, we'd shown up twenty minutes early. By the time we got back, we were an hour late. And rather than spend the rest of the time having fun, I had to cut and sew together the quilt backing. And then after it was over, I had to sandwich the quilt. Without any of the promised help, too. And sandwiching a quilt is at least a two person job.

I almost have all the blocks themselves quilted, but I think I hate whoever sewed the quilt top. They did a not-so-good job, because there are rather large holes in seams caused by sewing seams that are too narrow. And they did fancy borders and stuff that don't match up. The blocks they made 'bigger' aren't straight, either. And some of the blocks themselves are absolute crap. One is what I call crappy appliqué. It's a postage stamp nine patch with multiple nine patches. That by itself would be fine, but rather than sewing it together normally, the sewer appliquéd them, layering one over another. There's not a straight line in it. And it was prequilted! ARRRGGGGHHHHH! I don't know who did it. Probably, they didn't know what they were doing, and didn't bother to do any kind of research. I just feel like kevetching, because quilting this monstrosity absoultely sucks!

I have other things to be doing, and to make matters worse, my quilt marathon won't be over after Christmas. My cousin, Steve, wants me to make him a quilt. Full is as big as I go. And that's a pain, because I don't own a fancy quilting machine. I own a Pfaff 1222 and a Pfaff 1222E. While they're great machines, and they do handle quilting very nicely, they're not a long arm quilting machine. It's hard to stuff a twin size or bigger quilt through my little machine. My sister is pregnant again, which means I need to make her new baby a quilt. And one of my cousins is expecting a little boy, so I need to make a quilt for him, too. (I was volunteered for it by Mom. Heck, I don't even know this cousin's name!)

I like sewing and making things, don't get me wrong, but I want to write again. I just don't have the time.

Oh, and on the Halloween costume front---I figured it out. Evie was Foofa--

Happy Thanksgiving from the land of very little internet! Or, if that's not your holiday, have a spankin' awesome Thursday!

*loves*

DW post: http://celli.dreamwidth.org/1016347.html ( comments)

For NaNo, I have failed. I tried to revive my NaNo novel and get into it several times, but the desire isn't there. I have, at best, completed a handful of paragraphs for my NaNo.

However, there's also a victory in this. In losing interest in the NaNo, I turned my vision back to another writing project. This particular writing project I've been involved in with my writing partner, and it has been in the planning/organizational/drafting stage for over two years. However, we have completed the first novel (yes, an actual novel!) and are editing it. In a few more weeks, we will be shopping it around to various publishing houses, in the hopes that someone will appreciate our work enough to distribute it through their imprint.

And no, I'm not talking about getting published by vanity and self publishing presses like Xlibris and Lulu. I'm talking about the real deal: Random House, Del Rey, Ace and Tor... just to name a few.

I don't expect it to be easy. But, on the other hand, I don't believe it's an overstatement to say that if Stephenie Meyer can get published then, by God, so can I. I've been writing stories roughly since I was old enough to know how to write my own name. Ms. Meyer hadn't written a story until she first wrote Twilight.

As fickle as my muse may be at times, I do love to write, and I can't imagine doing anything else other than being creative. If this area of creativity is eventually barred to me, I will always seek other paths. The freedom of self-expression is what frees my soul. It's as natural as breathing.

With all that said, I do sincerely and deeply believe we have a great concept going that will yank readers into the world my co-writer and I have created together. We just need somebody to share our passion for the work as much as we do. We need somebody to be our patron, who will believe in the strength of our skills and of our work, and spread that passion like wildfire. We need -- for lack of a better term -- someone to be our publicist, of sorts.

Two years, and my belief in the project has not waned -- only grown like the finest of romances, and the creative connection I share with my co-writer is nearly psychic in intensity. I love my/our work, and to have it come to naught would be the cruelest injustice of life. If everything you work for, believe in and are passionate about crumbles to dust, then what is there left worth living for?

What is your passion?

$9 Sale this Friday! (You're among the first to know!)

All tees will be $9 for 24 hours only (Starts 11/27 12:01 am CT, ends 11/27 11:59 pm CT)*! So make sure you've got all your holiday gift choices all lined up and ready to go, fire up the Internet early in the mornin', and let the deals begin!


http://www.threadless.com/?utm_medium=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=November-25-2009_112509+Teaser+Black+Friday&utm_source=112509+Teaser+Black+Friday

They truly do have amazing shirts.

My website PJ's Forever Knight FanFiction Archive is now presentable again. I cleaned up the mess left by the move from googles pages to google sites. You don't need to update your bookmarks as you will be forwarded to the new URL, which is http://sites.google.com/site/knightcrawler1228/.

The archive contains all of my Forever Knight FanFiction and some artwork.

Granted the book isn't finished; I think it will finish around 60,000 words if nothing special comes up. That makes it the shortest Aristotle novel, but to be honest, not a lot happens in it. I accomplished more than I thought I was going to accomplish, but book 5 is more meditative. I put off the upcoming action plotlines in favor of a minor existential crisis following Aristotle's life-changing surgery in book 4. If the first book gets published and it gets made into a series, book 5 might not appear, or might simply be spread over other books. I think I should have time to finish it; the Greek people are still fighting over what the plot of book 2 should be and Katie still hasn't gotten back to me about Aristotle Vampire, which will need another revision, probably the last before it's submitted to publishers in 2010. I'm juggling these three writing projects at the moment. Fortunately Pride and Prejudice book 3 isn't out until February 2010, which means they won't make an offer on book 4 of that series until they see sales of that, so that's shelved for now.

And I don't just label books "1" or "2" to confuse you guys when talking about different series; I do it because I usually hate their titles.

Title: Blind Love
Rating: R
Summary: What if James had possessed Angelus' body, leaving Buffy the one vulnerable to the gun's destructive blast? Would he try to save her, and, if so, who would he turn to for help, and how would that effect not only Buffy's future but his own as well?
Disclaimer: I can claim no ownership to the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the characters used in this story. Unfortunately.
A/N: Just to set the scene, this is an alternative rendition of the episode "I Only Have Eyes for You," showing how one small alteration could have completely shifted the rest of the show during that season.

I don't suppose anyone knows of any long (novel-length, even?) fanfic for Leverage that's any good? I've poked around the internets a bit, but haven't found much.

I'm sure you can all figure out who my favorite two characters are. :)

This entry has been cross-posted. Comments are welcome on either post.

Before everyone begins getting offline for Thanksgiving, I wanted to say that I believe that cards, calls and emails to Donna and Mike at this end of the month are as appropriate and important as those at the other end.  As you remember as well as I do, Abby went into the hospital right after Thanksgiving last year, and died on November 30.

I still don't know what to say, except that I'm thinking of her, and of all of us who miss her, so I'll say that.

Though I probably shouldn't admit it, my first opera was the Abduction of Figaro (on PBS)

OK, so I shouldn't even be on the Internet. I'm on boss sanctioned hooky time to finish a video/photo presentation for tomorrow's work Thanksgiving luncheon.

But while checking my email to confirm that there's nothing time sensitive in there for work, I came across this New York Times blurb in my Google Alerts:

From today's "The Diane Rehm Show" on NPR

Robert Darnton: "The Case for Books" (PublicAffairs)
The future of books in a digital age. How the digital revolution and electronic books will affect the marketplace of ideas.

Guests
Robert Darnton, Author, Librarian at Harvard and founder of the Gutenberg-e program. A former professor of European History at Princeton University, Darnton is also a regular contributor to the "New York Review of Books."

Robert Darnton: The Case for Books (PublicAffairs)

You can listen via Real Audio or Windows media via the website. Informative show, excellent topic, and just going all geeky about books.

The Chiller Blog has a nice and extensive interview with Ger.

There's lots of good stuff in it like Ger's introduction to directing, the Geminis, and how Ger originally got the role of Nick. I love this quote on the awful looking flying from the first season: "We had to develop our own goofy way of flying. In the first episodes, they hung me from a crane on a wire 80 feet above the ground and I'd be like a guppy trying to flap. It was really embarrassing."


And a there's also this little extra.




I'm not sure how the school photograph of the young boy in the upper left hand corner is related to Forever Knight but there it is. I thought it was pretty neat. The cover to susanmgarrett's Forever Knight book is included as well one of the other official FK novelizations. Nigel's collaborations with P.N. Elrod are here too. See it here.

As reported over at melancholydanes, someone in Brazil did a virtually shot-for-shot remake of Slings & Arrows, complete with the same incidental music!

The whole thing is on YouTube; the post linked above includes its version of a few of the original's most memorable moments. (If you know the show, you really don't need to know Portuguese.) I agree with the OP that the Ophelia coaching scene isn't quite up there (though the Claire cracks me up), but the "thunder and lightning" opening is pretty shiver-worthy. I am curious to watch more of it, and see if maybe this guy shines brightest in different moments from Paul Gross. There's also the fact that the latter has about a 19 Charisma, of course, but still.

A site called Sci-Fi TV Zone has a 12 minute audio interview with Geraint Wyn Davies.

In it he briefly discusses:

• the format for his role in the Chiller Forever Knight marathon "it's casual and very tongue in cheek",
• memories of the show "I remember laughing a lot" and "it was a joyful experience but it screwed up my sleep patterns for a couple of years",
• his thoughts on Nick Knight "we invested a lot of humor in it as well as the hyper drama",
• the shift in the show's tone in the 3rd season and how it affected the natural progression of Nick' character and the loss of John Kapelos and the Schanke character.
• Classically trained actors and their ability to pull of vampires.
• Recent but gone shows "one Canadian [Blood Ties] and one down here [Moonlight]" that took a page from the Forever Knight playbook,
• The current vampire craze "That's what Forever Knight was, someone tossing a rock into the middle of the pond and now we're hitting the shore", and
• his current Dylan Thomas one man play in NYC.

It was nice interview. I can't wait till Tuesday!

And lookey! The Smallville trailer for "Rabid" is the site's featured video. Yes the episode aired weeks ago but I really like it. Lois and Clark battle zombies!

Conference call tomorrow with the various companies behind the Greek books to sort out the mess that is book 2. If I knew I was going to have to write the plot myself, I might not have taken the job. Still, $$$.

In an email to the Greek people explaining why their plot doesn't work:
"Having Ashleigh have a backhanded comment that amounts to, "You're contradicting your essential character background for some reason" is not going to fix it, just band-aid it. To my knowledge, Casey's motivations haven't changed from stupid-good to stupid-evil."

Dialogue from Aristotle Book 5:
Alex: "You used to be cool. Don’t you know you used to be cool?”
Aristotle: “Don’t be ridiculous. I was never cool."

...to wyomingnot!

*hugs* You're a lovely person. Never forget that, and may the upcoming year treat you as wonderfully as you deserve!

Yesterday's Evil Cough and generally oogyness continue today. Did the responsible thing and took my temp, which was just over 100. Ergo, I shall not be bringing the plague to Villa Verone tonight.

We're skipping a couple weeks due to other events at the restaurant, so I'll hope to see people on December 13 instead.

In the meantime, I'm settling in with all manner of hot fluids, warm blankets, fun TV, and hopefully a sliver of focus to work on some web updates.

So what's the best news a Forever Knight fan could get these days?

Aside from an announcement that the series DVDs were being re-released with the Canadian cuts of the first season and be jam packed with commentaries and bloopers of course.

Well how's this: Geraint Wyn Davies will be hosting a two day marathon on Chiller of his favorite episodes next week.

Dear Festvidder:

You are awesome. No really, you are awesome. Thank you for signing up to do this. I love my fandoms and to think that there's someone out there who enjoys one, two or all of them and is capable of vidding them fills me with so much joy. I'm very easy to please and simple things make me happy.. I don't need a lot of bells and whistles so please don't stress out on my account. Have fun. Heck, if you wanted to slap together some clips over some music and call it a day I'd be happy with that too. My suggestions are not set in stone. They are merely guidelines. Go where ever the muse takes you, even if it's the complete opposite of what I suggest. Again, I don't want you to stress out.


( Here be fandoms )

Yesterday, cereta posted Lucky me, and monanotlisa (re)posted Feminism Is Not A Solved Problem. Both of which had me thinking about why I fight this slogging, uphill (in the snow, both ways, barefoot) battle for feminism, and why it gets me so damn rageful.

Of course, then in the comments on cereta's post, it crystallized, and I related an anecdote there which I really want to share here.

My dad, who thinks he's funnier than he is, thinks it's awesome beyond the telling to make chauvinist jokes, like how it's "women's work" to clear the dishes off the table (or do any housework), or how "women aren't supposed to read" magazines like The Economist or newspapers like The Wall Street Journal (both of which I've read on a regular to semi-regular basis for a while, the latter of which since I was a child). *eyeroll* Whatever. Dad and I have gone our rounds over this many, many times.

Dad has many health and mental problems, so I don't often call him on these things. Because, really, I don't want my mom subjected to a two week anxiety and depression fueled crisis from my dad about "Why is Havoc mad at me?" Blargh. (Please. Do not bitch about my dad. I love him. I call him on his flaws often enough. I really, really don't want to hear someone who doesn't know the complexities of the situation insulting him inadvertently.)

The thing is, about a month ago, my dad started making these comments in front of the kidlet. Now, Mr. Havoc and I have put hours and hours into making sure the kidlet knows that he has household chores to do, and those are whatever mommy and daddy say they are.

Anyway, the kidlet marched up to my dad, stomped his little five year old foot, and said, "That's not women's work, Grandpa, that's family work." Because he already knows we don't gender-divide the housework.

*beams*

This entry has been cross-posted. Comments are welcome on either post.

I have not sent out holiday cards in the last couple years, but I have a bit more time on my hands this holiday season, so I'm going to make a stab at it.

Comments are screened; please leave your mailing address if you'd like a nondenominational (*checks spelling*) card. (Don't forget, if you have a question for me, put it in a separate comment--when I reply to a comment, it gets automatically unscreened, at least on lj.)

Also, if you haven't heard of my Conversations with Fictional People, you'll be very confused when you get your card. :)

( my mailing address, if you need it )

DW post: http://celli.dreamwidth.org/1015804.html ( comments)

Monday: Writer's block and nothing to do in the office; lots of boredom-induced headaches.

Over the weekend, I finished a 30-page story for The Unmentionables, the gaslight-gallows series of short fiction that I've been working on (I'll be doing an explanatory post on the series soon, I promise). It's the 3rd story in the series, and this one was not only the longest and most complex, it also took the least amount of time (about three weeks from start to finish, compared with 11 months for the second story and roughly five years for the first one). IT DRAINED ME OF ALL WILL TO LIVE. However, in spite of my body and my brain telling me to take a week off and recharge the energy banks, I still tried to write something during my biweekly Nothing Monday. And failed. EPICALLY.

Tuesday-Thursday
Personal misunderstandings (TOTALLY MY FAULT) and fallout; lots of crying-induced headaches.

No point in going into this. It's over, it's done with. Suffice to say I had three days of utter emoness, misery, and unexpectedly dissolving into floods of tears at random moments. Also, I think it was in this lump of days that Zen (my wee blue Acer) decided to mysteriously die. We suspect CPU fan issues that are totally, totally unrelated to me knocking it off a table. Totally.

Friday (the 13th, incidentally)
Phone coverage in the main Communications office and then got rear-ended on the highway on the way home; lots of moron-induced headaches.

The day itself? Wasn't that bad, actually. The phones were a lot quieter than I'd expected and I did actually get some writing done. I just hate being upstairs because the spare desk has no back and I have a neurosis about people walking up behind me or being in my blind spots.

And the car accident... wasn't, really. It was rush-hour, every else was slowing down, just that the dude behind me didn't slow down fast enough. He gave me a jolt and took the paint off the rear bumper. Then he drove off. Douche. But it could've been a helluva lot worse, as he was driving a mini-monster truck

So yeah, last week was entirely comprised of thirteenth-ness.

This week has been marginally better, I suppose. I had Monday off, and cooked and baked all day. Om nom apple pie/applesauce/potato soup/homemade rye bread nom. Tuesday, though...

I work in the graphic design unit as a professional gopher. My actual title is "Administrative Assistant," but I prefer 'Professional Gopher,' or perhaps 'Spare Set of Hands.' I proof-read and I run copies--occasionally tedious and boring, but at least I'm absolved of the clerical side of things. I do a lot of printing.

When I came in on Tuesday, I had a POUS (Print Order of Unusual Size), amounting to over 17,000 copies, many of them larger than 8"x11". And it had to be filled by Friday. And because Gov. Paterson has demanded that NYS offices make really stupid budget cuts that don't do a goddamn thing, I was running out of toner. And paper.

Well, I did it. Even with a dentist appointment that just skirted the edge of root canal and more Novocaine than any human should be able to withstand without losing all motor function, I did it. In the end, I went through 6 toner cartridges and a total of 20,000 sheets of paper (due to miscommunication about which publications were needed). I feel like I need to make a donation to Save the Rainforest or something.

So my jaw hurts, I haven't written anything in nearly two weeks, and I've helped contribute to the continuing deforestation of the planet. Smegging lovely.

Also, today is my husband l_loire's 24th birthday... HAPPY BIRFDAY! *glomps*

From seeing the answers to the poll (which is now closed), here are my decisions regarding Round Two:

It will be an exchange, same as Round One.

Members will post their own stories, same as Round One.

It will take place from February to March.
There was one more vote for Jan-Feb than Feb-Mar, but I wanted to give everyone who's doing a holiday ficathon a break (and many holiday exchanges have assignments due in January as well). This means signups will take place in late Jan/early Feb, and fics will be due at the end of March. Posting will be in April. A more specific timeline will go up soon after Jan. 1.

We will adapt the Official Fandoms list.
I'll ask y'all about adding a few new fandoms. However, because several of the Official Fandoms were neither offered nor requested (or only by one or two people), I'll put up a poll asking y'all to trim a few of the least popular. That will help a great deal with matching. This will happen sometime in early December, I think.


If you have any suggestions or comments, please let me know (in the comments, or you can PM me).

Via neadods, I am both delighted and abjectly stunned to learn that She-Wolf of London will be released on DVD in February. (Complete with the half-dozen eps of unmitigated WTF that was Love and Curses, which is cool solely because it means we get Randi And Ian Do Purple Rose of Cairo.)

The cover/menu art is nifty, even though it looks like it belongs to a slick remake with, y'know, a budget. Which, were it to exist, would probably lack the heart of the original, and would certainly lack Kate Hodge, which would make me sad. (Lack of Neil Dickson would also be a detriment, but Kate Hodge was the cream center of adorability and unexpected depth.)

I <3 my cheesy British werewolf show! :: happy dance ::