solitary_summer: (roses)
I'm feeling a lot better?! Smiles & buying pots of hyacinths? When & how did that happen?

Maybe it's the useless, or in that case not quite so useless, DW/TW meta writing that I love both completely and guiltily. Maybe it's all the belly-dancing practice I'm doing for our show. I've been rather unenthusiastic about it lately, because half of the time I feel it doesn't really fit my inner me (if that makes any sense), but I really enjoy practicing, even the veil choreography that I more or less gave up on last year what with all the stress before and during the move. Or perhaps it's finally getting longer days and more sunshine again, and maybe, just maybe, spring.

Ch. is on holiday, so I was on horse-duty today, and she's looking awful. (The horse, not Ch.) She's been shedding so fast that her new coat hasn't even really grown yet, so it's bits of winter coat and stray long hairs, and almost bald patches. Completely ridiculous. But at least she hasn't been rolling around in the mud this time...


Listened to the new John Barrowman CD in the car, which is kind of meh in the extremely frustrating way that there are a few really nice tracks there (I'd never have thought there'd be a version of Memory that I'd find interesting), but also a lot of rather forgettable ones. The pop-ier stuff IMO is still/again a complete waste of time & talent, and I really don't know why he even keeps doing it. How many cars does a person need? And while I've always loved the The Wizard And I cover, I can't listen to the Doctor Who version. I'm actually kind of offended on behalf of the Ood. *facepalm*




solitary_summer: (tulpen)
DW 1.06 The Doctor's Daughter )


Also watched the Ready Steady Cook episode with JB, even though I'm not really the cooking show kind of girl (that would be my sister[*]), and is there anyone he can't seduce in ten minutes flat? That kind of charm should be illegal.

[*] I'm more the pasta and pre-cooked/frozen meals kind of girl, although if I have a decent, not too complicated recipe I can actually follow it, as long as it doesn't require improvisation and/or inspiration. And birthday cakes. I can definitely do those.


Had a nice, very lazy day doing nothing much except well, that, and messing around with my Jack/Ianto fic, the first two chapters of which I'm now moderately happy with, and who cares if it never sees the light of day, I'm enjoying writing it, and that's important at the moment. Around 5 decided a bit of fresh air would be nice & packed up my camera and went out for a bit, took some photos, mostly of dandelions, found a very picturesque, village-like corner in the 12th district that I hadn't been to before, and mostly just enjoyed the evening sun and warmth-but-not-heat, which is pleasant, because for the last years the weather's always gone from long sleeves and coat to short sleeves and sweating within a week.

And tomorrow is a public holiday, so I'm really rather content at the moment...


Read (at work, I'll admit) Charlotte Roche's Feuchtgebiete, and although I did find it a bit crass occasionally, and after years on the internet and in fandom I thought I was pretty much unshockable, it's actually a rather sad story and does have its touching moments. Ich züchte Avocadobäume. Das ist neben Ficken mein einziges Hobby. Hu.


BTW, G. and that lectures of his I mentioned? He missed missed it last Wednesday because he overslept. It starts at 11:30. How stupid can you be? To no one's surprise but his he won't get any next semester.

solitary_summer: (Default)
Meh. Yesterday I walked out of the therapist's office a whole lot more depressed than I was when I walked in, which kind of seems to defeat the purpose...


Still not happy, but the whole thing is really too pathetic to publicly whine about. ::posts some music instead:: [ETA: from the Jerry Herman Gala, not a concert bootleg.]




solitary_summer: (Default)
Doctor Who 4.02 The Fires Of Pompei )


And here I'd been stupidly thinking I'd get DW on tv since I have BBC on cable, but apparently BBC on Austrian cable isn't BBC proper and only re-airing S2, and times like this I wonder how long it'll take for the internet to really change the way tv works. When DW S1 finally started on German tv this year it really was only for the people who either don't speak English well enough or hadn't already downloaded it and/or bought the DVDs years ago, and their number, I think it's safe to say, is steadily decreasing.


And speaking of downloading, I've watched bits & pieces of JB's concerts on YouTube and got mp3s of someone's slightly scratchy recording of the Cardiff concert, and this really takes me back 14 (dear god, 14!?! ::facepalm::) years when my sister and I (well, I more than my sister, by the end) saw Kuss der Spinnenfrau a gazillion times and made our own bootleg recording with a walkman & tape, and you always had to figure out when to change sides so that it wouldn't be right in the middle of some song, and then there was the laborious business of finding someone to exchange tapes with -- via adds in a German musicals magazine, before they didn't allow those any more, and then you wrote to people (pen and paper, positively archaic), and so eventually I got the first act of Les Miserables with The Crush singing Valejean in addition to my own recording where he's singing Enjolras... The times they are a-changing, and I'm feeling very old sometimes. And apparently nostalgic & rambly on Sunday mornings...

Anyway, JB is brilliant, and the next time he's doing a concert thing like that I'm most definitely planning a trip/holiday around it. One thing I've been wondering about though, mostly because I'm a rather private person myself (Okay, so you probably wouldn't guess that from the stream of TMI on lj, but it's a bit different in real life, where I'm rather reluctant to tell things about myself, at least not before I'm really feeling a connection with someone, which mostly takes a lot of time to establish.), after the autobiography etc., is how much of his private life he's willing to make public. Apparently it works for him, Scott and the rest of his family, but it always makes me feel just a bit uneasy, like I shouldn't be knowing these things (not so much the sexual stuff even, rather, e.g., the bit about Scott's sister...), and hoping that he won't regret it eventually.
solitary_summer: (Default)
My life isn't a rehearsal. It's a live show. I accept responsibility for my actions, good, bad, mistakes and all, and I go forward. Life's too short to feel guilty about things I should have done or would have done or could have done if only... so no regrets.

- John Barrowman, 2008 -

solitary_summer: (Default)




Back to your regularly scheduled picture spam! *g*


I'm getting a bit envious reading all the enthusiastic reviews of JB's concerts. And it's not even as if I couldn't have planned a trip/vacation, but I was a little underwhelmed with Another Side at the time, although it's grown on me somewhat since, so the thought never really occurred until it was too late... Ah, well. Definitely next time.

Had a lovely day off yesterday (which means working the whole Saturday, but it's supposed to rain anyway) taking the horse on a trail ride in the morning, which is so much less of a chore and more of a pleasure since I've bargained Ch. down to once every other week instead of every week, and the camera for a bike ride in the afternoon. Ended up not taking very many pictures because the light was too bright, but it was wonderful, aimlessly biking through the Prater; warm (finally!), sunny, all that fresh green and spring smells!

I'll be guaranteed to complain about the heat in a month's time, but right now I'm still feeling bouncy and more alive than I have in a long while, to the point where I'm even considering trying a morning run again tomorrow.


Better put this under a cut, I guess. Spoilers for DW S4. )
solitary_summer: (Default)
That sleep-attack-after-coming-home-and-fixing-myself-something-to-eat-and reading-maybe-ten-pages thing? Is apparently becoming a habit. Then got up, blearily, and watched DW The Voyage Of The Damned, which was maybe not perfect, but better IMO than the reviews on amazon suggested, with some lovely touching moments.

Went to see The Lion in Winter (play, not movie version) yesterday with some people from work because M.'s in Berlin and I got her ticket. I hesitate to compare it to the movie version because I haven't seen that in probably ten years or more, so maybe wouldn't like it as much now as I remember liking it, but it has left a strong impression and this version seemed a bit... bland in comparison; lifeless. They tried to superficially modernise it a bit by transferring it into a contemporary world of finance, making it all about shares, holdings and CEOs, which IMO just didn't have such an impact and sounded a bit forced at times. I'm perfectly aware that these days there's probably more power in finance/economy than in actual politics, but it somehow failed to convey the brutal power struggle and dysfunctional family politics adequately. Frankly, I've seen that done with more conviction on Smallville. If one was already spoiled for familiar with the plot, this version simply added nothing new or exciting, but generally lacked passion and failed to touch, and the applause was appropriately polite, even and very brief.



Also got & read John Barrowman's autobiography this week, which was better than I thought it'd be. Oops, sorry. Did I just type that? But while I fangirl as much as the next fangirl, I've stopped buying celebrity biographies a while ago and honestly didn't have too high expectations about the autobiography of someone only just turned 40, dictated into an iPod in between a very busy work schedule. But it has a very personal voice and they (I've no idea if it was John, Carole, or both of them) found an interesting structure, jumping back and forth a bit, going on tangents, etc., so it was never boring; chatty, full of anecdotes (some of which one has heard in interviews over the years, but a lot that were new at least to me, too) and often quite funny, although maybe I should say at this point that JB's sense of humour doesn't really converge with mine, which is very typically Viennese: dark, macabre and morbid. And while it's not the most profound thing ever written, it's not shallow: sincerely emotional, and serious and passionate when dealing with subjects that demand seriousness and passion. And John's energy and enthusiasm are infective even in print.

Oh, and look at the preface: To be honest, here's what I really hope - that by arranging the book in this way, you'll feel as if you and I are lounging in our pyjamas on the couch in my Cardiff living room, sharing a bottle of champagne or a pot of tea, with music on in the background, having a blether and laugh about my life so far.

*g* How's that for seducing your readers?


On a personal note, what really struck me reading this is that of all the authors, artists, musicians, etc. that I've fangirled have made more than a passing impression on my life, JB is by a long, long, - long: *cough* ex-NIN-fan *cough* - way the most positive, most balanced and apparently genuinely happiest person.

cut for getting a bit personal )


solitary_summer: (Default)
Hm, also, the new John Barrowman CD? Is a bit sweeter and schmoopier than is my general taste in music, even if that has been careering wildly & schizophrenically between NIN and John Barrowman for the last year, and even if I've always had a fondness for pop and kitsch. It's not that I dislike it, but I suspect either being in a really romantic, heart-broken or maudlin mood would help appreciating it; or maybe at least being slightly drunk.

And maybe the songs - not those specific ones even, but the type of song, the general mood, remind me of the few parties that I attended as a teenager and never had anyone to dance with when they put on the slow songs.

Bottom line, perpetually single and mostly asexual or just plain messed-up me just isn't romantic enough for this kind of music.

It really struck me this summer when I was reading Doktor Schiwago (loved the book; beautiful, absolutely stunning language, but the part that touched me least was the romance between Schiwago and Lara) that I don't understand love at all. It's an alien country and the people inhabiting it a different species. Or, more likely, I'm the alien.




Er. Back to what I was saying, sweeter than I usually like, but Time After Time is beautiful and the stripped-down version of Heaven made me shiver the first couple of times I listened to it.

Weekend In New England I do like, as well as Please Remember Me, and Feeling Good is a really nice break musically as well as thematically. Being Alive I've simply heard too often already.

The rest is okay, I guess, but doesn't do all that much for me. On the whole, I'm getting more emotion from the musicals-CDs than from the these pop covers...


And as much as I fangirl him, I wish he'd push his boundaries a bit further musically, which I don't really feel he's doing here; the next CD would profit from a bit more variety and a bit of an edge, IMO. And a song-selection not determined by a pre-Christmas release date.
solitary_summer: (Default)





I need longer days, or at the very least less procrastination. (And speaking of which who linked to this game? Pure evil.)

Once upon a time I used to write actual livejournal entries. With words and sentences and actual thinky thoughts and all that. Now... I've actually managed to sort out and upload the photos from Spain, but as for writing a post and filling in the context and all those impressions where I didn't snap a picture... Relegated to the backlog, or more precisely the ever increasing amount of little yellow Notitzzettel documents, along with comments about DW S3, the OotP movie, a long, rambling post about my female identity, or lack thereof, and god knows what else.


(I also need a Doctor Who coffee tea mug; Tardis or Daleks, though? Decisions, decision... Cafepress has Torchwood stuff, but the last time I ordered from them I payed about the same amount for customs as the stuff originally cost, so I'm not doing that again any time soon. Must curb fangirlish urges and be rational. Or at least more rational. Pre-ordered JB's (auto)biography yesterday (*sigh*), even though I'm rather skeptic of biographies written this early in someone's life, when everyone concerned is still alive, kicking and likely to be offended, as they tend to be somewhere between pointless and just not very interesting. Then again, JB, never-ending source of TMI. I guess everyone in his life has learned to put up with it by now...)



It's raining again. It started last Wednesday, let up a bit over the weekend, and now I'm listening to the rain pattering on the trees and window-sill. I wasn't ready to say good-bye to summer yet, and so suddenly. I still want a bit of warmth, not long sleeves and a coat... I went for a walk-with-the-camera yesterday for a few hours in the afternoon, mostly on cemeteries, and took gloomy black and white pictures, because that was all the weather was suited for.


Anyway. Bed & sleep now.


solitary_summer: (Default)
When fandoms cross over, pt.2. NIN's A Warm Place playing after Andrew Lloyd Webber voted out that one guy in the second Any Dream Will Do episode. And here I was, always feeling weird with my taste in music all over the place.

And [::facepalm::], yes, apparently JB will make me watch reality tv at least with one or half an eye, when I steadfastly avoid Starmania, DSDS, Dancing Stars & whatever they're called over here.



Up early for jogging & only have to be at work at noon, hence strange & random morning updates.
solitary_summer: (Default)
I'm confused? Conflicted? How could I have forgotten that Still was so very awesome?


And what kind of sound system does the latest iMac generation have? Because either my memory is faulty, or years of absence really make the heart grow fonder, or this sounds a lot better than on anything I've played it on before? I never payed any attention to the technobabble about the different versions nin albums are mixed in, because while I may like my technical toys to some extent, a new sound system for a nin cd always seemed too ridiculous to even remotely consider, but damn, i think I might have been missing out.





Still thinking about this ideal image of myself; or more precisely, avoiding to, because the list of things I'd like to change, like to be, is so ridiculously and dishearteningly long...



Also, new layout; less personal, but calm, simply, green and spring-y.



ETA: When fandoms collide: Captain Jack, Giles and Wesley, er, John Barrowman, Anthony Stewart Head and Alexis Denisof. *g*


ETA2: I know less than nothing about CSS [insert fond nostalgic memory about the old S1 system where I was actually able to modify my layout to a limited extent], but I can still google and follow instuctions; and voila, annoying underlines removed from links...

Profile

solitary_summer: (Default)
solitary_summer

March 2013

M T W T F S S
    123
45678910
11121314151617
1819202122 2324
25262728293031

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 12th, 2025 09:30 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios