sundries

[rm]

Patty and I will be in the UK (mostly London, with a day trip to Cardiff one day) April 9 - 18. During the weekdays she'll be at a conference and I'll be working remotely for my job, but I find myself making a list of things I want to do -- not just the obvious tourist things, or the sorts of things I do as a traveler, but things that are sort of my personal melancholy nerd tour of London.

I've never been in the UK before, so it is to me, largely, the scene of far too many books and movies. Also, I get excited by ordinary things -- I LOVE going to supermarkets when I travel, for example, and so am very excited for Tesco (although a lot of that is the reported availability of gluten-free naan). I want to go have lunch hour at Canary Wharf and sit about thinking of Daleks and Cybermen. I'm so geeky, you all.

Patty also heads to Ohio today for spring break, which means we're on Buffy hiatus until she's back on the 20th.

The old Yankee Stadium has been destroyed. You get used to these things in New York, I suppose. We're supposed to anyway. But it's hard for me.

As a toddler, my parents dressed me in a Pete Rose jersey and so everyone thought I was a boy. In my twenties, I went to my first baseball game with Michael and he always said it was just because I liked new-to-me things so much, but there is nothing in the whole world like the first time you wanted through that tunnel into that stadium no matter how bad your seats were. There aren't a lot of things we did together that I can think of as always happy. The few baseball games though always were -- even the time it was lately October and I was shivering cold or the time I got seasick on the ferry up there.

I know most of the rest of the world hates the Yankees and I know sports and I know sports mythology just makes the truth about sports that much uglier and I know Derek Jeter is a homophobic closet case, but Michael used to tell me stories about men and scotch and steaks and baseball and everybody's got to believe in something they know they shouldn't. So I'm a bit sad.

Speaking of things now gone. On our excursion to Tu-Lu's the other day, we walked down 9th Street, which I so love for it's festive lights and feel of some sort of hidden city. And I discovered that Enchantments, witchcraft store of my childhood (okay, teens and twenties and I guess even some of my thirties) is gone (oh, I just googled it, apparently they've only moved, which is still sad but not awful). There's a bar there now. I'm still sort of stricken about it. I suppose part of that nostalgia comes from watching Buffy. Willow is always what we wished it would be like when we were fourteen, you know? Who admits that? Well, I do.

Am deeply annoyed about the coverage of "JihadJane" that seems to think white people can't be Muslims or that Americans can't be extremists.

I know that picking on Syfy is a bit like shooting old-school Daleks stuck at the bottom of a flight of stairs, but... check out the racist, sexist failtasm.

Also, seriously, have they watched Merlin? No one EVER goes on about Gwen being plain or not desirable or a poor match for Arthur for any reason other than her social position. No one thinks she's plain or ugly and no one mentions her teeth, glasses I can't even recall (are they sure about that) or her sinful curly hair. Big screaming What The Fuck here. It has to be pretty faily for me to think to something that's somehow actually more offensive than the show itself. Really, I get why people like it, the chemistry is fantastic and it seems cute and harmless. I may even watch the third season. But it's pretty terrible.

delchi alerted me to prom canceled due to lesbians.

copperbadge tells us of the horror of doing grocery store self-checkout with his best friend, noting that part of the problem is that this guy "wants to cuddle his bonus-value-sale chicken wings for as long as possible."

In case you missed it, GDL reading a short story on BBC4. Both the story and the performance are quite excellent. (Really, one of the saddest non-narrative things about Ianto biting it on CoE is no GDL doing potential future Torchwood audio books/plays. He was absolutely the best of the lot at them).

OMG Claudette/Cricket was just up on a bookcase, having OPENED THE PANEL TO THE FUSE BOX and BEING ABOUT TO CUT OFF OUR ELECTRICITY.

Comments

[bugeyedmonster.livejournal.com]

Maybe Claudette/Cricket was after a spider that got into your fuse box? It was so that critter's fault, not her fault at all, y'know.

Thanks for the link on GDL. I wonder if he'll get to do any audio books. David Suchet(sp?) is also a great reader.

(And a really cracky idea comes to me when I remember comments about Welsh men's singing groups and that GDL can sing. Torchwood missed the opportunity to have a really cracky campy ep where an alien gets scared off by close harmony singing. No, I haven't had any Mary-Jane, I'm just naturally like this.)

I've not seen Merlin, but that text clip doesn't match the picture. I'm wondering if it's an old one written before the series was cast, and Syfy just posted it without looking. That said, how long would it have taken to proof-check the dang thing?

Not surprised at Old Yankee Stadium being pulled down. Here in Dallas anything old gets pulled down for something new. We don't believe in holding on to old things. Heritage? What's that?

I'm still a bit surprised that they pulled down something made in 1923, but I probably shouldn't. So what if Babe Ruth played there? It was old!

Anyway, have fun in Wales, but don't get arrested.

(^_^)/
BEM
fave Blackadder quote here...
Blackadder: Have you ever been to Wales, Baldrick?
Baldrick: No, but I've often thought I'd like to.
Blackadder: Well don't, it's a ghastly place. Huge gangs of tough sinewy men roam the valleys terrorizing people with their close-harmony singing. You need half a pint of phlegm in your throat just to pronounce the place names. Never ask for directions in Wales, Baldrick, you'll be washing spit out of your hair for a fortnight.