You had plenty money 1922

Spent yesterday meandering around town, looking for ideas for birthday pressie for the bro. He's being spectacularly unhelpful, and fairly ill, so have left it until he has some idea. Bay Trading is being annoying by not having much in the way of colours/designs I like for summery stuff, but it turns out that I appear to have gone down a size in their dresses - I nearly fell out of the 12, asked for the 10 in another style I'd seen on the rack, and that fit fine. Excuse me while I poke my body a bit for this unexplained mass loss, since trying on their shorts proves I'm still a 12 on the arse. (I did fancy the Jeeves and Wooster picnic, but considering I got out of bed at 11:30 and it was v. warm and fuggy... nah.)

Jogging still burbling along, have extended run to the end of the first field, which used to be the 18 minute mark, which dad informs me is about 2 miles, so it turns out I'm up to four miles (a small part being walking, because no-one in their right mind tries to jog up the last bit of New Hill during the second half of a run. Seasoned joggers get over the railway bridge and go 'fuck that'.). Going to stick to that for time constraints for a while, since I tend to do my jogging in the evenings and thus would like to get back a a reasonable time. Crossing fingers over being able to get rid of the wobbly bits on the sides of my legs. I don't expect much toning there due to the type of exercise, but I hope for burning of the fat deposits.

Dr Who was silly, proved Donna has a brain that looks at things no-one else thinks of (it's like her comments about knowing exactly how offices work due to being Super!Temp). Methinks she'd do very well in espionage and planning raids for a very tidy-minded resistance who wanted to do more effective things than just explosions. ( Blonde alert )

IDA is... Jessie. AUGH. Diction, please? ALW, what is the point of giving her a song that you admit is completely wrong for her unless it's sabotage? Rest of the girls think Niamh is too poppy. I know Rachel's consistent and can act and sing and dance, she just produces feelings of complete 'meh' in me. Sam's pretty good, could probably do the role though I don't think she's going to get it. No-one stood out aside from Jodie this week. And can we please bloody have some musical songs that give them a chance to act? Looking forward to the stunt fighting tonight, since hey, it's a task that's actually applicable to the role! (most of my reviews about this are over in nancy_or_oliver)

The Second Hand Unwinds
A tale of spies, resurrection gloves that in all reality are more useful as paperweights, immortals and archaeology professors. With occasional sightings of bacon sandwiches, but very few Nazis.

52,165 words. Located at darkisrising.

Disclaimer : Decent spelling and writing not guaranteed, but porn is. It's got Jack Harkness in it. What did you expect?

Scene for Specialistic Journalistic Purposes happily achieved, and am very satisfied with it as an example of its genre (though there was a frantic moment where I was messaging katemonkey when I realised I'd lost track of what a limb was doing). Now about 590 words behind, so have to tackle the Indy and Jack adventure.

In other news, I want someone to write more Jenny Sparks-Jack Harkness fic. Possibly even porn, even though I don't as a rule read (and I certainly can't write) het porn. But, y'know, messing around in bed or aftermath would be fun to read.

Well, there's that and the scene that the world really, really needs. Jenny Sparks, John Constantine and Pete Wisdom in a pub in the mid-late nineties. This concept alone would be fabulous enough, but there's a particular scene I have in mind.
( Pub in Soho, circa 1997 )

Rec of the week : Go to Listen Again on the BBC, and have a gander at this week's I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. The new meanings for old words bit is on fine form. As is Sound Charades and the sublime scoring of tunes to Swannee Whistle and Kazoo. Also an utterly filthy comment from Humph about Lionel Blair. But the highlight? Rob Dryden, in the second part of his first outing on the Antidote to Panel Games, singing to Tom Jones' rendition of Danny Boy (they stop the music a few bars in and then re-start near the end and you get points for being within a gnats' crotchet of the correct timing, for those who aren't quite familiar with this game). Never mind getting within the gnat's crotchet bit. The man gets spontaneous applause just for his singing before the record is anywhere *near* kicking back in. Also? This week's one is recorded in *Croydon*. Like I said, seriously impressive.

As all good Torchwood fans know, the culture and innuendo-starved colonialists are being legally* exposed to Torchwood for the good of their Harkness-less souls. They've just had They Keep Killing Suzie, aka a fabulously written ep which also has the somewhat infamous line about what you can do with seemingly innocent timepieces, aka the yell of slashers going 'SEE? WE TOLD YOU SO! THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SUBTEXT WHEN THERE IS HARKNESS!'

*ie, actually broadcast on a tv signal they can get by paying through the nose for it, as opposed to download.

Ahem. Anyway. BBC America, like all good websites run by geeks, have added extra web content per ep - the Captain's Log, which has things like staff issues, rift monitor, alien activity, etc. And you know how we all thought you couldn't put more innuendo into the stopwatch issue than we already had? Oh, BBC America web team, you've done us proud. Look under 'Other Staff Issues and Upcoming Issues'. Please do not have a drink in your mouth, because your screen may suffer. Jack, seriously, how the hell do you *do* that?

Also, I want a t-shirt with Magically Fabulous on it.

And Kane? We love you so much, we really do. Listening to their live album recorded at a Starfury convention and glorying in their fabulousness as a live band. I'm really getting to that point where I prefer live renditions of songs to anything studio-done due to that whole musicals addiction factor*, where you narrow your eyes at popsters and go 'riiiiiiight. And how much of that is your actual voice and how much is that stupid vocal tricks disguising that your voice isn't actually that strong?' to that point where I listen to this, the new recording of Being Alive by JB on his not-yet out album Another Side - not the greatest sound quality, admittedly, due to it being off the BBC's Listen Again website - and start muttering about it not being nearly as good as the Kennedy Centre Company performance (WMA file, sorry) or any of his live concerts I've been at due to over-orchestration and not having that raw live quality. (understand that 'raw live quality' for John also automatically includes 'trying to restrain from giggle fits', crying with emotion, fluffing up any autocues that may be near him, and other issues...)

*part and parcel of this is the increase in your music collection of 'this wasn't recorded on a smuggled-in mp3 player, honest'

ooo, almost forgot, to file under 'new phrases coined at pubmeet' : Get Off My Biscuit.

We were contemplating seeing what would happen if we printed it up on t-shirts, wore it at conventions, to see if the phrase would spread to the point where people who had *no idea* of the original context would wear/use it. Like unto 'The goggles! They do nothing!' and 'I'll be in my bunk'. We've seen this happen with bloody dance moves, for christ's sake - certain moves you may know from such dances as YMCA and thought were bog-standard? They were invented at a convention. No, we're not telling you which moves.

Over here, they're pondering the 'what if so and so wasn't available for casting at the time' game for Jack Harkness. Some er... *interesting* responses. And several stuck on american actors. My thoughts below.


First, the character wasn't originally written as American - he was supposed to be British (take your pick of which country) and it's only the fact that JB slipped into a US accent during one of the early read-throughs and they felt it fit the 'film glamour' image better that he's American (which of course influenced later things like costume and character reactions - though not necessarily Matt Rippy casting, since it's not absolutely essential that the closeted heroic self-sacrificer is American).

So, casting details as they originally were : Really good-looking classic 'film-star' looks with a slight 1940s bent, con-man, convincing in action scenes, and believable in the 'will shag anything and *can* get anything' category.

:scratches head on trying to get someone to fit entire package: - I remember them saying at the time that all of that pretty much narrowed it down to one person who was on the UK acting scene, ie, JB so... hoo boy. And even if you got all the briefing elements right, your Harkness would be quite different. Especially later eps, because after the first couple of eps/first season, they normally start writing to the cast actor's strengths.

James Purefoy could do it. (go watch Rome, then call me)
Daniel Craig - no problems.
Paul Bettany - nearly all of it. except I'm not sure how he'd handle the action man factor. never seen him with guns and running like mad. (the ruthless bastard part, no problem)
Dougray Scott - most of, not sure about seduce-anything
Jason Statham - *if* he could pull off the dashing RAF hero image.
Clive Owen - omnisexual... er.
Peter Wingfield - almost certainly, atch.

ETA: I started running the Captain Jack Harkness lines if spoken by James Puresex through my head on the way home. I... er... um. You know how we joke about Jack being a sexual harassment suit waiting to happen? Now imagine the 'And this is Ianto Jones, he cleans up after us and gets us everywhere on time. He also looks great in a suit.' sequence. Um. Oh dear god. Let's just say the jokey aspect of that bit? Really, really not so jokey.

And once again, ironicbees is trying to kill me dead from sheer pretty in the Jeeves and Wooster department. Though this time, not so much with the subtext. Allll about the text this time round. :happy sigh:

Title : If Mae West You Like (1/1)
Author : Gunbunny
E-Mail : snapdragon@beeb.net
Fandom : Torchwood
Pairing : Jack/Jack
Rating : No sex and no swearing. am slipping.
Summary : response to the at_the_ritz Jack Harkness singing challenge. Also, blame that extra on the dvd of JB singing.
Disclaimer : Not mine. Russell's and Cole Porter's.
Feedback : I accept burnt offerings and alcohol.
Archive : http://burntcopper.com/fic , anywhere else feel free.

( If Mae West You Like )

Spent yesterday being ill (threw up a few times, got out for a bit to the park for fresh air, spent rest of it shivering on sofa and half-dozing half trying to keep eyes open for Dr who and Joseph competition - slightly peeved that I missed first few minutes and thus the group song of the second half). Tells you something when Jen phones up to squee about Dr Who, then her second comment is '... how ill are you? You sound terrible.' Even had someone coming over in Regents Park to share their strawberries and I had to grimace and tell them thankyou but they'd be wasted since I hadn't been able to keep anything down. Feeling a bit better today, but poking the weather outside. it is bank holiday. it's supposed to be sunny all day, not just for a few hours in the afternoon.

Dr Who fab. Josephs all not at their best this week, aside from Keith, who was sparkling all over the stage. Agree with Chris leaving - he was great in the first live week, great at Joseph school, just not able to sustain it. Ben has been shining even more, which proves me wrong about wanting him to bugger off in the first couple of weeks. Craig - not great, but the Les Mis thing was... interesting, because he pulled it off where the others couldn't. Rob, you have no range. Bugger off, please. Lewis, you annoy me. :pets Daniel and Lee:

Dr Who trailer for next bunch of eps. :thud: JACK! JACK! JACK! MORE JACK! It appears the trailer makers know exactly what the audience wants.

:thwacks unsuspecting americans across the head:

There is no such thing as an ER in this country! Or liquor! (and they were doing so *well*...) There is a Casualty Department (old name, still used regularly) or an A&E (Accident and Emergency, the current name) Department. And we have drink or spirits. The closest we get to the word 'liquor' is 'liqueur', and that either means the alcoholic syrup you get inside chocolates, or the fruit/hazelnut/vanilla/whatever syrup you add to drinks. When you want to use the posh word for 'syrup'. If I see 'liquor' in a British fic, my brain automatically starts pondering whether the Ambassador is really spoiling us. No, really. Or start looking around for a Kir.

In other news, had large amounts of fun at the Torchwood meet-up yesterday. 3 hours in TGI Fridays, then 3 hours in the All Bar One after we got chucked out of there. Where we discussed Torchwood, Jack/anybody, how much we get annoyed by Gwen and will they please have her doing the job she's meant to, Barrowman, the scariness of stage door scrums, theatre, Harry Potter, Ianto the teenaged girl, scenes in fic that have damn near killed us due to laughing, and what would happen if one day Jack's braces went for a burton and Ianto had to get a short-term replacement. Which means clip-on ones because button-braces can only be found at specialists. Basically, every few hours there would be a *TWANG* echoing across the Hub.

Argh. You know how you occasionally think 'oh, that would work so well as a vid', then maybe it goes a bit further and you think of a couple of scenes for a specific line in a vid. Due to the *pain* (no seriously, PAIN) of seeing 2 - count them - *2* badly edited/bad scene picks for Anything Goes (JB version) for Dr Who/Captain Jack/Torchwood vids (one was during S1 Dr Who, one during Torchwood S1 - and neither managed to use the defabricator scene on either of the song's *three* lines about nudity/being undressed), I started randomly noting specific scenes for each line of Anything Goes' lyrics.

...Today I discovered I'd completed 3/4 of the damn song. NO, I AM NOT GOING TO LEARN HOW TO USE VIDDING SOFTWARE. YOU CAN'T MAKE ME.

Classic quote of t'evening :

Polish flatmate's friend (also Polish) : What kind of weather do you call this? It's awful! (it wasn't raining and was merely rather strongly blustery)
Me : ...Spring?

I have heard that in other countries, where they merely have something called 'climate' and not Proper Weather, that they take their weather programs seriously and not the cross between comedy and fortune telling that they they are in their natural form. Uncivilised, clearly.

Title : Colouring the Sky
Author : Gunbunny
E-Mail : snapdragon@beeb.net
Fandom : Torchwood/Authority. oh, and spot the other crossover.
Pairing : ....aside from Jack's back catalogue?
Rating : No sex and no swearing. am slipping.
Summary : conversation at dawn.
Disclaimer : Not mine. Russell's and Warren's.
Feedback : I accept burnt offerings and alcohol.
Archive : http://burntcopper.com/fic , anywhere else feel free.

( Colouring the Sky )

Title : Career Highlights
Author : Gunbunny
E-Mail : snapdragon@beeb.net
Fandom : Torchwood/...you don't want to know. Really.
Pairing : Jack/others hinted at
Rating : worksafe. No, really.
Summary : a look into Jack's career.
Disclaimer : Not mine. Russell's. And many other people's.
Feedback : I accept burnt offerings and alcohol.
Archive : http://burntcopper.com/fic , anywhere else feel free.

( Career Highlights )