Too bad re: the dates! But I suppose that week is when everyone has some sort of getaway planned. Be prepared for heat and crowded trains, though :/ And yes, if you do manage to plan a trip to Rome, or elsewhere in Italy, for next year it would be great to catch up. I am usually away the week around August 15th and for about 10 days around Christmas and New Year, usually up to Jan 6, but other than that, save for long weekends and short trips, I am here and should not be going anywhere in the foreseeable future. And if you should need or want to get any tips regarding the Italian places I mentioned (Verona, Venice, and Milan), by all means let me know; I've been to Verona once but remember it quite well, have been to Venice a few times, and lived in Milan for a year and a half.
Rupert Penry Jones is considered a heartthrob for reasons that, frankly, escape me; I find him too smooth, almost effeminate, and as you know, I tend to love long-nosed, sharp-eyed, thin-lipped creatures with nice broad shoulders and narrow hips :P The role I know to be one of his better-known ones is that of an MI5 operative in a couple of Spooks seasons; if you saw Richard Armitage in Spooks from the start of season 7, he gets blown up in a car explosion in 7x01. His character in Black Sails season 2 is, in fact, quite appealing, and the plot arc is interesting, but I kind of wish the character were played by someone with more overt sex appeal... BTW let me know when you are done with season 2 as I have a couple of burning questions to ask in that regard that would be spoilery at this stage ;)
I am curious about your post-Endgame RH fics! (I realise that they likely take place before the Endgame timeline, but cannot think of a proper term) I think I remember reading the one-shots back when they were one-shots, and am intrigued to see how you developed them. I have a pretty contained list of Black Sails Vane/Eleanor fics to read in the next few days (it is a small fandom nowhere near as prolific as RHBBC; but at least there are four or five good writers in it) - and after that I will definitely read your post-Endgame stories. I think my "new" love for Vane has made me remember my "old" love for Gisborne ;)
On a totally unrelated subject... are you watching Game of Thrones by chance? It seems as if everyone is crazy for it, and I have neither read the books nor seen a single episode. I did get curious enough at one point to have found and read plot summaries online but was not sufficiently drawn to it. A big part of it is that I have a mental block on magic; the moment I stumble on dragons and witches my brain shuts off. But also it seemed too violent and kind of too shades-of-grey, both in terms of the characters' pervasive moral ambiguity and in the EL James gratuitous smut sense. Not sure if I am missing out on something good... what is your take on it?
And continuing the unrelated subject theme... have you ever tried making sense of Tumblr? If yes, any success? or any wiki-type place you might know of that could explain to a newbie how the thing is organised? I tried looking it up about 5 years ago while in my UK politics craze phase, was totally confused, and now I heard that the most active Black Sails community is based there and am curious to check it out but unsure if I will end up as baffled as I was back then...
Sorry for dropping off; I picked up a rather nasty case of flu in early May, and had to deal with the consequences for two weeks more or less until this past weekend.
You have intrigued me with Game of Thrones; it is one thing observing what seems to be a mass-infatuation fan following from a distance and another having a first-hand stamp of approval that is as sound and thoughtful as yours. It was obvious that it is a cut above the likes of Harry Potter or Twilight or Hunger Games, where the following is largely teenage-driven, but I continued obstinately avoiding it: first it was the fantasy element that put me off, then the fact that the characters keep getting killed off - I am ridiculously tenacious / cautious in that respect and do not feel like falling for characters that may kick the bucket at any moment. But between your thumbs-up and my increasing awareness of the injustice of judging something without having either read or watched it, I suppose I will, at some point, at least watch some of season 1 (that, apart from being a logical starting point, has an added incentive in the shape of Sean Bean) for a more informed impression… not sure when, but I’ll get to it eventually. At the very least, I ought to see if any of the characters catch my fancy; with the show in its sixth season I should then at least have a good idea of how long a character I may like (other than Bean who, I know, buys it at the end of s1) has managed to hang around ;)
As for Tumblr, now that I got into the habit of occasionally scrolling through a dozen or so satirical / political Twitter feeds (without subscribing to Twitter), taking a second look at Tumblr just now has been somewhat less confusing - but also explained and, unfortunately, confirmed my initial aversion: Tumblr is a sort of hybrid / halfway option between LJ-type platforms and Twitter, and it was the Twitterishness that I hated at first glance back then, with the content posted in lots of small, shallow, graphics-heavy, minimal-creativity tidbits that encourage an immediate reaction or reblogging but are not suited to more substantial posts and meaningful discussion, and worst of all, seem to push users towards constantly watching the feeds, making it harder for a lurker to occasionally poke in. I took a very quick look now and although I saw a few blog names that seemed interesting, I gave up within ten minutes: 99% of the content seems to consist of screengrabs and gifs, and discussion seems non-existent. Maybe if I subscribed and followed a few blogs, I’d come across interesting stuff; but it reminds me too much of the law of diminishing returns, having to dig though mountains of screencaps for a few lines of teenage roleplay ficlets. So I suspect I’ll stay out :(
Rupert Penry Jones is considered a heartthrob for reasons that, frankly, escape me; I find him too smooth, almost effeminate, and as you know, I tend to love long-nosed, sharp-eyed, thin-lipped creatures with nice broad shoulders and narrow hips :P The role I know to be one of his better-known ones is that of an MI5 operative in a couple of Spooks seasons; if you saw Richard Armitage in Spooks from the start of season 7, he gets blown up in a car explosion in 7x01. His character in Black Sails season 2 is, in fact, quite appealing, and the plot arc is interesting, but I kind of wish the character were played by someone with more overt sex appeal... BTW let me know when you are done with season 2 as I have a couple of burning questions to ask in that regard that would be spoilery at this stage ;)
I am curious about your post-Endgame RH fics! (I realise that they likely take place before the Endgame timeline, but cannot think of a proper term) I think I remember reading the one-shots back when they were one-shots, and am intrigued to see how you developed them. I have a pretty contained list of Black Sails Vane/Eleanor fics to read in the next few days (it is a small fandom nowhere near as prolific as RHBBC; but at least there are four or five good writers in it) - and after that I will definitely read your post-Endgame stories. I think my "new" love for Vane has made me remember my "old" love for Gisborne ;)
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And continuing the unrelated subject theme... have you ever tried making sense of Tumblr? If yes, any success? or any wiki-type place you might know of that could explain to a newbie how the thing is organised? I tried looking it up about 5 years ago while in my UK politics craze phase, was totally confused, and now I heard that the most active Black Sails community is based there and am curious to check it out but unsure if I will end up as baffled as I was back then...
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
You have intrigued me with Game of Thrones; it is one thing observing what seems to be a mass-infatuation fan following from a distance and another having a first-hand stamp of approval that is as sound and thoughtful as yours. It was obvious that it is a cut above the likes of Harry Potter or Twilight or Hunger Games, where the following is largely teenage-driven, but I continued obstinately avoiding it: first it was the fantasy element that put me off, then the fact that the characters keep getting killed off - I am ridiculously tenacious / cautious in that respect and do not feel like falling for characters that may kick the bucket at any moment. But between your thumbs-up and my increasing awareness of the injustice of judging something without having either read or watched it, I suppose I will, at some point, at least watch some of season 1 (that, apart from being a logical starting point, has an added incentive in the shape of Sean Bean) for a more informed impression… not sure when, but I’ll get to it eventually. At the very least, I ought to see if any of the characters catch my fancy; with the show in its sixth season I should then at least have a good idea of how long a character I may like (other than Bean who, I know, buys it at the end of s1) has managed to hang around ;)
As for Tumblr, now that I got into the habit of occasionally scrolling through a dozen or so satirical / political Twitter feeds (without subscribing to Twitter), taking a second look at Tumblr just now has been somewhat less confusing - but also explained and, unfortunately, confirmed my initial aversion: Tumblr is a sort of hybrid / halfway option between LJ-type platforms and Twitter, and it was the Twitterishness that I hated at first glance back then, with the content posted in lots of small, shallow, graphics-heavy, minimal-creativity tidbits that encourage an immediate reaction or reblogging but are not suited to more substantial posts and meaningful discussion, and worst of all, seem to push users towards constantly watching the feeds, making it harder for a lurker to occasionally poke in. I took a very quick look now and although I saw a few blog names that seemed interesting, I gave up within ten minutes: 99% of the content seems to consist of screengrabs and gifs, and discussion seems non-existent. Maybe if I subscribed and followed a few blogs, I’d come across interesting stuff; but it reminds me too much of the law of diminishing returns, having to dig though mountains of screencaps for a few lines of teenage roleplay ficlets. So I suspect I’ll stay out :(
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