A Thousand Things To Write About
*blows off dust*
Ahem. So... yeah. It's been a month since I've updated. My poor lj... all neglected. :(
Because so much has happened, this is going to require dot points and lj cuts and everything.
Adelaide Fringe
- Sound & Fury's other two shows, Dirty Fairy Tales and Hamlet & Juliet were also quite good. We ended up seeing Dirty Fairy Tales twice, and both times I got involved in the show. (The first time was by accident, the second time, I was requested to do it again and Nick got involved too!) One of the stories they tell is "The Emperor's New Clothes" with the added twist that the clothes have a fake 'taste' to them as well and the Emperor is impotent until someone licks him to taste the clothes and he gets an erection. They get an audience member from the front row to lick the back of his hand, and I don't think they're actually meant to lick him, just sort of the air close to him. Anyways... Ryan (the young, ginger, cute one...) is the emperor in this tale. He gave he his hand to "taste the fabric" and I licked his knuckle by accident. The look on his face... and the fake boner... it was really too funny and I KNOW I blushed. The second time, he told me before the show to make sure I sat in the front row because "you know what's coming." I did, and Nick and I did sit in the front row and this time we both licked his knuckle. His reaction to us BOTH doing it really was funny.
Hamlet & Juliet was, I feel, their weakest of three awesome shows. That said, it was still really funny and fantastic. I saw it with Gwen and Glyn and there were a class of drama students there as well, including some bad kids who sat up the back and some very giggly girls down the front who I don't think were used to the performers on stage talking to them during the show. They explained later that that's what vaudeville is - the actors are encouraged to interact with the audience. I love them for it, really.
We ended up seeing Testaclease again as well, on a whim, because we ran into Matt, Liz, Simon and many other friends who were going to see it and we got dragged along. They had posters there, and signed them for us. On mine and Nick's you can see a very clear progression as to who was the most to least drunk during the signings.
"K&N - You two are so hot."
"You need a dip in the pool."
"Poo dip."
... thanks, Ryan. See if I ever lick your knuckle again for a cheap laugh!
Next year, Sound & Fury are doing a Hitchcock parody. I can't wait!
- On a whim, we also went to go see "Late Night Letters and Numbers" which was a game show and fun. Liz won a prize. It's fun going to stuff like that with science/arts majors. It makes me wish we had more quiz nights to go to.
- One of the guys who ran "Late Night Letters and Numbers" was also doing another show called "Dungeon Crawl" and when he found out we're all RPG gamers, he invited us along. It was a D&D game on stage with the audience "helping" with suggestions. It had Patrick in it from Sound & Fury. It was so much fun and it made me think more about LARPing. It was just your basic fetch quest, go through the scary swamp to the scary tower, avoid the scary traps to find the thing and bring it back. In this case, they had to defeat an evil wizard and raid his wardrobe for pants. (Ryan's character had an obsession with pants.) I think one of the funniest things for me was they had a healer who got carried away and started healing the bad guys as well as the good guys.
- Our big name act this year was Wil Anderson - "Goodwil". He had a lot of excellent things to say about many things. He told us about his trip to America, having his i.d. and car stolen, but still finding humour in it - as well as a mysterious lump on his neck he was getting checked by a doctor. He made the mistake of googling the symptoms first, and this is what he found:
(Paraphrased, because I can't remember exact wording.)
"Two things I found when googling 'mysterious lump in my neck.' Number one: cancer, which is of course very scary, but for me, not as scary as the other thing I found - Number two: spiders! That's seriously all I could find on the internet! According to the internet, the only two possible things a mysterious lump on your neck can be are cancer or a nest of baby spiders. I hope for me, the spiders are eating the cancer."
He flirted with two girls in the front row, but things got very funny and very awkward when he discovered that they were Uni students who were almost half his age. Oh, poor Wil.
- Nick and I spent some time in The Garden of Unearthy Delights. Nick's favourite part was when we found a BBQ pit that was roasting giant slabs of pork. He aptly compared the Gardens to a Goblin Market and I can't help but agree.
Ross Noble - Mindbender
Ross came back to Adelaide for one show. It was on during the Fringe, but it wasn't a part of the Fringe. Nick and I had some drama before the show started when I lost my ticket in the lobby and had to get it replaced, but otherwise we had an excellent evening.
Ross is a father again. Two little girls, yay! His four-year-old is into My Little Pony and Ross is disturbed by the number of ponies with creepy eyes that seem to be all over his house.
There were two guys who were late to the show because they had been drinking at a strip club just before. They were engineering students and Ross wondered if they were trying to use their engineering skills to design a better bra.
During intermission, someone left their iPhone on stage so they could call Ross during the show. Turns out, he knows how to work an iPone and went through their entire list of contacts. The names "Mike Allnut" and "John Adcock" were in this guy's phone, as well as the number for the Chest Pain Clinic and the Australian Scouts. Ross decided to call the guy's parents, and recognised that it was a UK phone number. He got the answering machine... and left the phone on the call for the entire second half of the show. The lesson: don't give Ross Noble your phone, or you will end up with a huge bill.
Ross even managed to work in a time-travel joke. I was mightily impressed.
Easter
I had to work Easter Saturday, but I still managed to host a girls' movie night where we watched Chocolat and Jesus Christ Superstar. (As per my tradition!) It was a good Easter, as Easters go.
Also, Matt had his birthday over Easter and we played "Cards Against Humanity," which I LOVE and wish to play more of. We also played "Things" which is like "Balderdash," and confirmed that our friend Simon is very good at telling when other people are lying, and who is telling which lies when they're all jumbled together. Seriously, it's almost scary how good he is at games like that. (Or maybe we're all just bad fibbers?)
Doctor Who
11 is back with a new companion, Clara. Clara has mystery around her - which is a little annoying. However, I think I like her. She's a good companion. She reminds me of the parts of River Song that I actually like, and of Rory, whom I adore. This latest season, though cut in half over Christmas, is shaping up to be a good one with many impactful emotional hits. Neil Gaiman has written a Cybermen episode which I'm eager to see. This also, of course, the 50th anniversary in November and 10 in confirmed to be in it. (Though 9 will not be, which disappoints, but doesn't surprise me.) I'm getting excited about this fandom again. I've written a fic or two, but I can't bring myself to post them at this time.
Gifs of a good moment from the latest episode:
Other
- I have decided I'm going to get another fantail - a black moor. My birthday is coming up, and I'll probably get it with birthday money. Aziraphale had grown to be 15.5 Cm long, which is impressive. I still don't know what killed him. The other gold fish are fine, so far as I can tell. Their water is good, there were no injuries or obvious parasites or disease. *sigh*
- Hellsing OVA V to VIII is out in English and it is glorious. I've been waiting years, and I'm delighted that they've managed to maintain the same voice cast. Of course, I've watched it all in Japanese, and I'm familiar with the story, but I hove the Hellsing cast so, and Crispin Freeman in particular as you all will know. There doesn't seem to be any news about OVA IX or X in English yet. I'm sure they will do it though. Hellsing fandom is so big and expressive and this most recent release has gone over so well that I don't see how they can't.
Hellsing gifs below the cut. Warning for violence, blood and spoilers.
- Other interesting things I've bought recently include a Thor's Hammer necklace and American Gods by Neil Gaiman on audio book. Gaiman doesn't read the whole thing himself, which is a shame, but it's done a bit like a radio play instead. Still very, very much enjoyable.
I've been stitching, but I don't have a photo at the moment.
I think that's all for now. I will try to post more often about things that go on and whatnot.
Random Quote from Doctor Who:
"I walked away from the Last Great Time War. I marked the passing of the Time Lords. I saw the birth of the universe, and I watched as time ran out, moment by moment, until nothing remained. No time, no space - just me. I've walked in universes where the laws of physics were devised by the mind of a madman. I've watched universes freeze and creations burn. I have seen things you wouldn't believe. I have lost things you will never understand. And I know things - Secrets that must never be told, knowledge that must never be spoken..." The Doctor. The Rings of Akhaten
Ahem. So... yeah. It's been a month since I've updated. My poor lj... all neglected. :(
Because so much has happened, this is going to require dot points and lj cuts and everything.
Adelaide Fringe
- Sound & Fury's other two shows, Dirty Fairy Tales and Hamlet & Juliet were also quite good. We ended up seeing Dirty Fairy Tales twice, and both times I got involved in the show. (The first time was by accident, the second time, I was requested to do it again and Nick got involved too!) One of the stories they tell is "The Emperor's New Clothes" with the added twist that the clothes have a fake 'taste' to them as well and the Emperor is impotent until someone licks him to taste the clothes and he gets an erection. They get an audience member from the front row to lick the back of his hand, and I don't think they're actually meant to lick him, just sort of the air close to him. Anyways... Ryan (the young, ginger, cute one...) is the emperor in this tale. He gave he his hand to "taste the fabric" and I licked his knuckle by accident. The look on his face... and the fake boner... it was really too funny and I KNOW I blushed. The second time, he told me before the show to make sure I sat in the front row because "you know what's coming." I did, and Nick and I did sit in the front row and this time we both licked his knuckle. His reaction to us BOTH doing it really was funny.
Hamlet & Juliet was, I feel, their weakest of three awesome shows. That said, it was still really funny and fantastic. I saw it with Gwen and Glyn and there were a class of drama students there as well, including some bad kids who sat up the back and some very giggly girls down the front who I don't think were used to the performers on stage talking to them during the show. They explained later that that's what vaudeville is - the actors are encouraged to interact with the audience. I love them for it, really.
We ended up seeing Testaclease again as well, on a whim, because we ran into Matt, Liz, Simon and many other friends who were going to see it and we got dragged along. They had posters there, and signed them for us. On mine and Nick's you can see a very clear progression as to who was the most to least drunk during the signings.
"K&N - You two are so hot."
"You need a dip in the pool."
"Poo dip."
... thanks, Ryan. See if I ever lick your knuckle again for a cheap laugh!
Next year, Sound & Fury are doing a Hitchcock parody. I can't wait!
- On a whim, we also went to go see "Late Night Letters and Numbers" which was a game show and fun. Liz won a prize. It's fun going to stuff like that with science/arts majors. It makes me wish we had more quiz nights to go to.
- One of the guys who ran "Late Night Letters and Numbers" was also doing another show called "Dungeon Crawl" and when he found out we're all RPG gamers, he invited us along. It was a D&D game on stage with the audience "helping" with suggestions. It had Patrick in it from Sound & Fury. It was so much fun and it made me think more about LARPing. It was just your basic fetch quest, go through the scary swamp to the scary tower, avoid the scary traps to find the thing and bring it back. In this case, they had to defeat an evil wizard and raid his wardrobe for pants. (Ryan's character had an obsession with pants.) I think one of the funniest things for me was they had a healer who got carried away and started healing the bad guys as well as the good guys.
- Our big name act this year was Wil Anderson - "Goodwil". He had a lot of excellent things to say about many things. He told us about his trip to America, having his i.d. and car stolen, but still finding humour in it - as well as a mysterious lump on his neck he was getting checked by a doctor. He made the mistake of googling the symptoms first, and this is what he found:
(Paraphrased, because I can't remember exact wording.)
"Two things I found when googling 'mysterious lump in my neck.' Number one: cancer, which is of course very scary, but for me, not as scary as the other thing I found - Number two: spiders! That's seriously all I could find on the internet! According to the internet, the only two possible things a mysterious lump on your neck can be are cancer or a nest of baby spiders. I hope for me, the spiders are eating the cancer."
He flirted with two girls in the front row, but things got very funny and very awkward when he discovered that they were Uni students who were almost half his age. Oh, poor Wil.
- Nick and I spent some time in The Garden of Unearthy Delights. Nick's favourite part was when we found a BBQ pit that was roasting giant slabs of pork. He aptly compared the Gardens to a Goblin Market and I can't help but agree.
Ross Noble - Mindbender
Ross came back to Adelaide for one show. It was on during the Fringe, but it wasn't a part of the Fringe. Nick and I had some drama before the show started when I lost my ticket in the lobby and had to get it replaced, but otherwise we had an excellent evening.
Ross is a father again. Two little girls, yay! His four-year-old is into My Little Pony and Ross is disturbed by the number of ponies with creepy eyes that seem to be all over his house.
There were two guys who were late to the show because they had been drinking at a strip club just before. They were engineering students and Ross wondered if they were trying to use their engineering skills to design a better bra.
During intermission, someone left their iPhone on stage so they could call Ross during the show. Turns out, he knows how to work an iPone and went through their entire list of contacts. The names "Mike Allnut" and "John Adcock" were in this guy's phone, as well as the number for the Chest Pain Clinic and the Australian Scouts. Ross decided to call the guy's parents, and recognised that it was a UK phone number. He got the answering machine... and left the phone on the call for the entire second half of the show. The lesson: don't give Ross Noble your phone, or you will end up with a huge bill.
Ross even managed to work in a time-travel joke. I was mightily impressed.
Easter
I had to work Easter Saturday, but I still managed to host a girls' movie night where we watched Chocolat and Jesus Christ Superstar. (As per my tradition!) It was a good Easter, as Easters go.
Also, Matt had his birthday over Easter and we played "Cards Against Humanity," which I LOVE and wish to play more of. We also played "Things" which is like "Balderdash," and confirmed that our friend Simon is very good at telling when other people are lying, and who is telling which lies when they're all jumbled together. Seriously, it's almost scary how good he is at games like that. (Or maybe we're all just bad fibbers?)
Doctor Who
11 is back with a new companion, Clara. Clara has mystery around her - which is a little annoying. However, I think I like her. She's a good companion. She reminds me of the parts of River Song that I actually like, and of Rory, whom I adore. This latest season, though cut in half over Christmas, is shaping up to be a good one with many impactful emotional hits. Neil Gaiman has written a Cybermen episode which I'm eager to see. This also, of course, the 50th anniversary in November and 10 in confirmed to be in it. (Though 9 will not be, which disappoints, but doesn't surprise me.) I'm getting excited about this fandom again. I've written a fic or two, but I can't bring myself to post them at this time.
Gifs of a good moment from the latest episode:
Other
- I have decided I'm going to get another fantail - a black moor. My birthday is coming up, and I'll probably get it with birthday money. Aziraphale had grown to be 15.5 Cm long, which is impressive. I still don't know what killed him. The other gold fish are fine, so far as I can tell. Their water is good, there were no injuries or obvious parasites or disease. *sigh*
- Hellsing OVA V to VIII is out in English and it is glorious. I've been waiting years, and I'm delighted that they've managed to maintain the same voice cast. Of course, I've watched it all in Japanese, and I'm familiar with the story, but I hove the Hellsing cast so, and Crispin Freeman in particular as you all will know. There doesn't seem to be any news about OVA IX or X in English yet. I'm sure they will do it though. Hellsing fandom is so big and expressive and this most recent release has gone over so well that I don't see how they can't.
Hellsing gifs below the cut. Warning for violence, blood and spoilers.
- Other interesting things I've bought recently include a Thor's Hammer necklace and American Gods by Neil Gaiman on audio book. Gaiman doesn't read the whole thing himself, which is a shame, but it's done a bit like a radio play instead. Still very, very much enjoyable.
I've been stitching, but I don't have a photo at the moment.
I think that's all for now. I will try to post more often about things that go on and whatnot.
Random Quote from Doctor Who:
"I walked away from the Last Great Time War. I marked the passing of the Time Lords. I saw the birth of the universe, and I watched as time ran out, moment by moment, until nothing remained. No time, no space - just me. I've walked in universes where the laws of physics were devised by the mind of a madman. I've watched universes freeze and creations burn. I have seen things you wouldn't believe. I have lost things you will never understand. And I know things - Secrets that must never be told, knowledge that must never be spoken..." The Doctor. The Rings of Akhaten