You had plenty money 1922

writing bunnies doing that thing where they suddenly decide to get off their arse and interrogate a story I've had hanging around the notebooks. Just a short, and no idea if I've got the tone right as it's a fandom I haven't written in before, the characters are ...not ones I connect with easily, and oh christ, it's 90% plot. As Taz has been know to say, 'Heather doesn't *do* plot. Occasionally she starts with one but gets rid of it very quickly as it's a bit icky and her characters don't know what to do with one. Your plots quickly leave on the fastest planes to the nearest non-extradition country.' When I've got a plot I always feel like I've rushed it to make things happen, rather than my usual meandering from scene to scene via dialogue. Pete is advising me to practice writer despotism on the plot as it's fun .

In other news, Taz managed to get tickets to a press screening of Welcome to the Punch - crime thriller starring James McAvoy, Mark Strong, Andrea Riseborough, David Morrissey and many others. Set in and around the City and Canary Wharf (with one side trip to Iceland), done in glossy expensive action thriller Hong Kong/Tony Scott/Michael Mann style. With absolutely *no* geezers, cabs or red phoneboxes. And it is *fun*, and glossy, and well-acted, and all the plot makes sense (including the corrupt politician motivations and one of the ways they get clues - a really simple trick that means there's no chasing around for clues that makes utter sense in normal everyday life) and there are no holes and was done on a budget of £5m to look like a much more expensive film. Go see. A solid 4 stars.

And. Um. I shook Mark Strong's hand. :wibble: (and bounced across the crowd after the Q&A to interrogate a rather surprised Chris Hewitt (Empire writer, was doing the Q&A) to ask him what the t-shirt he was wearing was. (Jack Kirby Galactacus. we approve) Because that's what you really expect during a glossy press screening with the writer/director, several of the actors, etc. Someone to come up to the film reviewer specifically.)

Went to see Cockney vs. Zombies last night with Gideon, Taz and Cas. (absolute sod trying to find it as it's in so few cinemas) It's written by the lovely yet demented James Moran (Severance, dr who ep Fires of Pompeii & the Sleeper ep of Torchwood). it's a lovely heartwarming family drama, that involves Honor Blackman with a shotgun & Richard Briers on a zimmer frame trying to outrun a zombie. (seriously. the younger generation tries to rescue their grandparents from the care home when the zombie hordes attack. It's very funny, immensely gory, and likes doing twists on the clichés in a way that makes the audience cheer. And the final credits song is by Chas and Dave.

Found out partway in that Cas had *never seen a zombie film*. Or was aware enough of the genre to know what would be involved. I kept pushing her head out of my shoulder and making her watch the gore. We still don't know how she achieved getting to her 20s and missing the point that zombie films are gore fests. (it was also concluded that zombie films work so much better if they're comedies. See Zombieland, & Shaun of the Dead. Exception being 28 Days Later. And there must be at least one case of someone saying 'Seriously, what is wrong with you?' and you really, really have to have a decent reason for the characters not to know that you shoot them in the head. Like being completely cut off from civilisation for the past 40 years.)

I...um... may have started a Shakespeare's Globe tumblr after finding out there wasn't one? I'm mostly doing a news and nicking the photos (with accreditation) from their twitter feed, but I did poke them to ask if they had one first aside from their pinterest, facebook and twitter. tumblr just appears to be their blind spot. Their twitter @the_globe is great. They post photos and like playing word games. so: http://globefan.tumblr.com :shuffles feet: It's not my fault, I have a bit of a compulsion and a record of doing this kind of thing. Anyway, they're screening last year's Much Ado, All's Well and Dr Faustus. check your cinema for times. Mine's being an utter bastard by screening them at 3pm on a wednesday, which makes bugger all sense since they normally screen theatre stuff in the evening and it nearly always sells out. Clearly people with *jobs* don't like Shakespeare.

There was also a Q&A with Matthew Bourne, the director of the film (filmed the previous Swan Lake, Car Man and Nutcracker. Me and Taz have ...issues with his directing) and the producer. Not really the interesting aside from a couple of technical issues re:3D, Richard Winsor being in the audience and answering a question, and Matthew being made to give a verbal promise by Alan Yentob to do a tv/film piece.

Anyhoo. Swan Lake was fab as usual. me and Taz giggled the most, possibly because we are a) very verbal at showing our appreciation for live performance (and thus tend to get waves and winks directed at us by dancers when in front row) People did gradually giggle more as it went on (there was also clapping), but yeah, we start with the prince getting out of bed. and then comes the corgi. All hail the corgi. The giggling tends to be unrestrained during the Cygnet Dance, but that is what it is there for. that and going 'd'awwww' at the cygnet who is a bit chunky and potato-headed, but then we do this every time he appears on stage. Think a younger, slightly bulkier, slightly shorter Russell Tovey.

Differences in production: No climbing over the box by the girlfriend to retrieve her handbag. Prince at start is actually played by a kid, which it is *not* in the stage versions.

Awww, Dominic North as the Prince is adorable. :pats him on head:
Madeleine Brennan as the Girlfriend is...a bit old. Interesting touch in the dance with the Stranger where they played it as her stopping dancing with him because she's decided it's not for her, not that she's out of her depth as it normally is.
All hail Nina Goldman and her awesome as the Queen.
We love Steve Kirkham. Long may his awesomeness as the Secretary continue.

Richard Winsor as the Swan and Stranger. GUH. Swan? :flaily power sexiness sensitivity gibber: Stranger? he appeared on the balcony, stalked forward, and I blinked and went 'Richard is being a stalky scary bastard again....' At which point Taz went 'Happy Joy.' So yes, fanning oneself was a bit necessary. He's not sexually-harass-you-from-next-room like Brick Shithouse's Stranger, but he's sexy, stalky, and really bloody menacing. With an edge of 'might flip at any moment'. Interestingly, on him the leather trousers don't look like overdoing it. They're just there.

So, now the count of Swan/Strangers is: Adam Cooper's better as Swan, the bloke we saw last time was better as Stranger, and Brick Shithouse and Richard can do both. Hurrah, our favourites are our faves for a reason.

Comments on 3D. Due to the technical constraints, longer shots. Oh thank christ. But gets blurry when they're moving fast. It adds a bit of depth but overall, not really worth it. 2D please. But god things: director has remembered to include the stuff going on on the sides. He's bloody awful for doing this, which means an entire storyline didn't make sense at the ball in the previous version as you only saw the culmination of it.

Spotted Richard in foyer, Taz and Gideon went 'you know you want to', so went over, said 'um' a lot, but kept it to 'really enjoyed it, you were brilliant', and asking him if he was in all of Play Without Words performances. and pouting a bit that he's not in Early Adventures. He confirmed yes, sighed a bit over not being able to manage the Early Adventures (he was supposed to be in it) and was generally lovely.

OMG OMG NOT ONLY IT IS GOING TO BE IN THEATRES IN 3D, BUT WE GET A 2D DVD IN A FEW WEEKS! As Taz said, 'You're buying.'

Thing I forgot to mention in the update post:

croissantkatie podficced the first of my National Service Narnia fics*, Might Shape Up Well. Go fanperson, it's really rather good. She's now drunk with power and contemplating doing more.

*For newcomers, this was essentially the result of me screaming every time I saw a 'what if the train crash never happened in Last Battle' au (it didn't, CS Lewis was hallucinating. it's crappily written anyway.). Where the writer (mostly due to sheer ignorance) fails to notice a) rationing and b) the fact that conscription continued for a good decade or so after WW2. In the UK it was known as National Service. And oh look, the male Pevensies were exactly the right age for it. Cue me going 'oh dear god, medieval warlords warrior kings meets 1950s British army...'

Saw Hunger Games. (haven't read the books yet, they've been eyeing me resentfully from my bookshelf since I bought them at the summer fete last year) Really good film - great on action and as a really pitch perfect piece on reality tv and oppression(creepy Donald Sutherland is creepy. No, Simon Cowell, you may not grow a beard and then shave it into weird shapes like Wes Bentley). If anything it could've done with being a bit longer so we could see the reactions of the average viewers commenting on it á la Truman Show, not just the presenter and showrunner. a) brilliant adaptation of a book since you need *nothing* explained to you - if a film requires the explanation of 'well, you need to read the book for that bit to make sense', the scriptwriters, director and editors have FAILED. b) adult-oriented action films? TAKE NOTES. tension is great. POV is fucking brilliant

Someone kick my head in. Brain has... gone to the cabaret place. Or more specifically, the Christopher isherwood place and is pondering Charles and Erik in 30s Berlin. Not sure if it's a mutant AU or not, since nods would be interesting but so would adding the mutant stuff to the 'deviants/jews/gypsies' persecution.

Charles goes there post-getting his doctorate or part way through getting it (celebration or inspiration/needing time off, details, whatever) but also for the boys.

Meets Raven (Jean, not Sally - I prefer her having a brain and being the politically aware one and not just a deluded strung out mess with daddy issues) who works in a club. With Angel. (this was what partly had me undecided, since Raven occasionally performing blue and Angel with wings would be cool for a cabaret act but *also* the inherent 'argh' of 'what if they found out it's not paint' if I chose mutant)

Meets Erik in one of the clubs under the arches, not sure if they start shagging immediately, (shag then talk or talk then shag) but there's the usual of Erik getting caught up in a riot or two and the time he stumbles in with bruises and really lays down the 'hello, Jewish, this is what Nazis *do*, Charles'.

Toying with whether Alex is a nazi and whether Hank is working on govt stuff and being oblivious. The others will be there, just those two are the niggly ones. Shaw is off being Schmidt and therefore being a very scary geneticist getting in with the Nazis as they rise to power and probably not in this.

So yeah, needs more plot and work on characterisation. And given that I've only mainlined the Cabaret film into my bloodstream, seen the stage version, and the adaptation of Christopher and His Kind on the BBC (not read the books, I really need to), need to do research. any recommendations? Books? resources? (given how what the job state was in Berlin at the time, I'm presuming Erik would not have a job given that he's Jewish unless he was self-employed or employed by Jews. Somehow can't quite see him working the caberet circuit. unless you could convince me otherwise. Can Fassbender sing or play an instrument?)

And during this I'm writing out my snippets of Torchwood Pevensies. Which needs a plot. or at least a structure.

Right, got to book time off work next week due to funeral finally being scheduled. Great Aunt Bina (my grandma's elder sister - utterly, utterly cool) got pneumonia a couple of weeks ago. She'd been getting that little bit frailer and frailer as the years went by (in her 90s, still getting around by herself but in sheltered housing) and when she got it, everyone went '...okay, chances of survival not very much.' Died sunday and we'd been waiting to hear funeral dates since Susan, who was one of her nieces she was closest to was away. So wake and funeral in Newcastle.

In other news: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is flaily hands and the credits being there so you can finish gawping and going 'wah'. Masterpiece of restraint and acting (not what Oscars call acting, but proper, quiet, tense, drop a pin and everyone jumps). Also brain-breaking period detail. Lots of us (70s/early 80s babies) going 'oh god. I remember that pattern. The bag in the foyer?' '....Our school hall curtains.' 'The grafitti.' 'BEDCOVER.' 'Our nan's was blue.' 'Wimpy's.' 'Breathe, sweetie, deep breaths.' '...So many shades of brown.' Seriously, the set dressing and costuming is an extra character on its own.

There are also tiny, tiny details and wordless scenes - two scenes not in the book, one which just fits perfectly and adds a technically not necessary but HUGE detail for one character, and then the Christmas party flashback, where not a sodding word is spoken but every single relationship is explained. And so many others just... rounded out to an extent that we were going 'SWEET FSM FLAILY HANDS OMG OMG THIS IS JUST ...WAH.' It's not the tv series. People are colder and harder and there's no nostalgic/respectful haze but it's tense and condensed and complex and gripping. Plus Kathy Burke as Connie. (cue everyone going 'happy sigh')

:frowns: How is it there is only ttss_kink set up so far? (thursgood also exists, but that's not been updated since '07. This film has been out five days already, people, and it has Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy in it. There are SPIES. it is a 99% male cast. Fandom, you fail.

Other fandom stuff: Taz and Jen mentioned they were discussing Torchwood/Narnia last night in the pub after everyone else went home, I went 'that Susan joins Torchwood one?'. and now I suddenly have thoughts of 'Pevensies run a branch of Torchwood.'

Pevensies: able to keep Harkness on a short leash and totally unfazed by his antics. 'Yes, shagging water-dwellers can give you a nasty skin rash sometimes, there's a cream.' 'Well, yes, of course we put them down, Jack, stop being so squeamish.'

Seriously, Susan's recruitment is obvious, Edmund gets seconded from MI5 or 6 or whoever he's working for, Peter drifts into it whilst on leave from the army (Army brass: 'Torchwood want him? Please take him, he scares the shit out of us'), and Susan yanks Lucy out of whichever hospital she's working in because they need a new doctor who won't bat an eye at weird physiology and poisons and can do battle doctoring in their sleep. suspect they end up at Cardiff *anyway*. Jack is on the one hand terribly interested in these pretty young people who give off all the vibes of older than they are, and have a completely different set of values from everyone else in this day and age. On the other hand, just slightly ...scary. And often treat him like a child. Susan the cool diplomat bombshell who's a better sharpshooter with a pistol than the best sniper is with a rifle, Peter the general, little Lucy the healer who really does remind him a bit too much of his ex, and Edmund the spymaster. He'd swear they fell out of the Rift if it wasn't for the fact that they check out completely. All scans show them as this time period, no chronal energy like you get with the Doctor's companions.

I really haven't done much in the past few days aside from read fanfiction and obsessively watch Tom Hardy-starring productions. shush. He's a good actor and he's pretty. Post-Virgin Queen there was Martina Cole's The Take (80-90s crime thing which is incredibly uncomfortable to watch due to the sheer nastiness of it, no matter how good the performances were), Stuart: A Life Backwards (utterly, utterly brilliant - and has Benedict Cumberbatch in it!) and Sunday was spent watching Oliver Twist (no singing orphans, thankyou. During which I had the interesting revelation of seeing actors do the same gestures as they have in previous roles but making them mean something completely different. Well, aside from Timothy Spall, who if you stick him in a Dickens production will be playing the cautious, smarter than everyone thinks shabby bloke. With bad hair. Seriously. Tom Hardy does this gesture where he touches his chin and as Bill Sikes it's a whole lot different than it is as Dudley in Virgin Queen. On the other hand, his psycho eyes are always the same - if a Tom Hardy character's eyes do that in any production, RUN. Violence is imminent. Production has confirmed that Oliver must be punted out the nearest window, though I have no idea why they decided to change how Bill Sikes died in this one. And yes, I had to go through the text to check what was correct. Which confirmed that Dickens is seriously turgid and unreadable.)

The twitter cabal has agreed that most Dickens would be improved by velociraptors. And explostions. And that Little Nell and Little Dorrit should be thrown to said velociraptors for being that wet, with the Old Curiosity Shop being destroyed by rocket launcher in the first five minutes... It is a truth universally acknowledged that any young woman with sense must be in want of an RPG.

I won tickets for RED, and Gideon danced the macarena to prove he was worthy. IT WAS GLORIOUS. Helen Mirren. Machine gun. OTP. :happy sigh: Brian Cox having WAY too much fun. Pretty, pretty Karl Urban. Perfect swinging car choreography.

In, er, other winning streaks I re-registered for the Guardian and apparently got entered for a competition to win tickets for Dirty Dancing, which I hadn't noticed as I had the screen on small. Cue Monday and wondering who to give them to since although I know it's supposed to be really fun, I've never been that interested.

Oh dear FSM. It's, what, four days til nano and last night, just before going to sleep last night I suddenly get a bloody fully-formed Inception bunny where Arthur knew Eames back when he was Handsome Bob from RocknRolla (shush. personal canon, okay? Partly because I can never, ever stop giggling when reading a fic where Eames' family is some sort of nobility. No, seriously. That is not a posh accent, fic writers.).

Streetdance is pretty, pretty cinema. With amazing dancing. Did I mention the pretties? Awesome soundtrack, too, though I don't remember hearing any Pixie Lott or Cheryl Cole as is advertised.

Script? ahahahahahahaha. Lead actress' acting ability? ahahahahaha. They disregard this and wisely fill the screen with muchos dancing and ogling of the dancers, and some pretty, pretty shots of London.

It's a good thing Richard Winsor is Matthew Bourne trained, where you're only allowed onstage once you have the ability to have chemistry with inanimate objects. (he's playing lead ballet boy. You may guess at what route his story takes.) Everyone else is quite decent. George Sampson is adorable and I wish to see him take on more acting, since he's rather good at one-liners. Charlotte Rampling, of course, points out that she is awesome and you may all pay tribute and bow before her.

OOOOOOOO DANCING. OOOOOO FLAWLESS. (it's really obvious that Diversity were only there for one day onset, but happy is I with their appearance.)

Jogging in constant drizzle is perfectly fine until the home stretch (last ten minutes or so). Then it all turns cold and horrible.

currently stripping a 9ft ivy leaf garland and pinning its leaves on the bodice of my tink outfit. I rather like the current half-covered effect where it looks like the leaves are creeping down it, but costume demands full-coverage. Unlike the first attempt at a tink costume, where I was overlapping like hell to make sure not one scrap of fabric is showing, I'm going for a slightly more lax effort of coverage - I want the bodice to be able to move.

This is it in progress.

For the 'twisted' version, shall probably be adding fishnet and jewellery and bodypaint, with strong Young Vic christmas show influence. Not sure about bothering with wings.

Good Friday is varying between downpours and bright sunshine. Still bloody cold, though.

Tomorrow, more Dorothy. Also New Dr Who, which I will not be saying owt about until I've seen it because I trust in Teh Moffat. Which most people are saying. We trust in Moffat more than we ever did Uncle Rusty. Dorothy so far is interesting. As usual, the usual spouting off about wanting 'something different' from the Lord, while the rest of us look on at the final ten and go 'hmm, awful lot of pale-skinned skinny brunettes there, Andrew...' (The lesson is to trust in David Grindrod. Casting director of awesome knows what he's doing.) Seen a lot of major talent, many of whom were *not* Dorothy but would be fab in something else, and we'll probably be seeing a good few of them up on the stage in the next year or so since even just the auditions are damn good exposure, and the industry now recognises this, hence the upping the game in the levels of talent. Of the ten (not including wildcard) I'm leaning towards Dani, who did the Connie/Lee/Jodie thing of being shown to have humility, a great voice, and approval from judges, with no messing around at the winnowing down. Influencing the viewers? What influencing the viewers? Still slightly scared about the fact that they're including *gasp* musical theatre numbers from the offset this time around. How will we cope when we can't bitch about pop songs not showing off their voices?

Going Postal trailer's up on the Sky website, and it looks good. random_c's impersonator appears to be doing a pretty good job so far.

In dance news, linked off the New Adventures website is Richard Winsor's screen debut in Streetdance 3D (hip-hop dance genre is also known as streetdance in the UK), which from the trailer, looks like Bestest thing EVAH. Readers, I put it to you:

Hip-hop dance crew needs rehearsal space for upcoming finals.
Get rehearsal space at a ballet school.
With proviso from Charlotte Rampling that they have to include some of her pupils in the crew.
Cue everyone doing their best 'The fuck?' reactions.

The trailer includes Mouthy Female Leader (tm) seeing the Head Ballet Boy (Winsor boy) practicing after hours in the rehearsal rooms.

Reader, can YOU predict the rest of the trailer, let alone the film? I have faith in you.

Film features what appears to be a pretty good soundtrack, two of the Battle teams are Diversity and Flawless, Gregor Sampson's in it, at least half of the featured crew are Blue Boy alumni (did Into the Hoods) and dammit, Richard Winsor. The dance shots that include Richard jumping are a thing of beauty. So, fucking gorgeous dancing *and* cheese-plot LULZ. (they also get points for using the South Bank as a dancing location, which is realistic) I must see this film.

There is only one problem. Richard does not appear to be playing menacing or bisexual (I have faith in his powers for good as regards the latter). There is something wrong here. And bloody costumers have put him in a loose white suite for several shots which... this is the same outfit that he wore as Dorian Gray. Not once does it appear like he's about to watch his tiresome ex overdose on the floor, drown someone in a bathtub or bash their head in with a camera. :pokes film suspiciously:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/ten-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-one - part 'how to keep going', part 'don't do this'.

One of Elmore Leonard's, Avoid detailed descriptions of characters, which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants", what do the "American and the girl with him" look like? "She had taken off her hat and put it on the table." That's the only reference to a physical description in the story.

Started A Game of Thrones at the weekend, somewhat slow going as it's very dense, and then got completely stalled when it got to the first scene with Beggar King + little sis. For no bloody reason it decided to describe their violet eyes and long silver hair. Seriously. Did we need to know that? The only bloody reason a hair colour should get mentioned is as an identifier by someone else when looking for them ('A glimpse of blonde hair in the crowd') or to clarify how much someone stands out from everyone else in the room - Ursula Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea doesn't really mention that Ged's people are brown skinned until the Godking's lot come along, when it's pointed out how weird they look in comparison to all the other islanders, since they're the only ones with pale skin, or finally, prophecy-worthy (Bran, Dark is Rising. Note that the Drews rarely get a description, and Will is only described when someone else is looking at him to state how bloody non-descript he is. Others get described as 'tall' or 'welsh farmer's wife'.) Seriously, if no-one else is in the room, and it's 3rd person, we do not need to know what this person looks like. PS, fantasy authors: No fucker has violet eyes if they're human unless they're wearing contacts, magic touched or on drugs that affect their irises. The silver hair is also stretching it unless they've gone prematurely grey.

Okay, I may have mentioned that my cousin is in hock to Simon Cowell. She works on America's Got Talent as a producer. Went over to aunt's for lunch, got utterly stuffed on stew and sticky toffee pudding (for anyone following the Jamie Oliver recipe, it's better if you leave it in there for another 20-25 mins, since aunt put it on too low a temperature and had to leave it in for extra time) were all crashed on couch afterwards. Tabs calls on skype, and it turns out she's in the middle of auditions in Atlanta. latest act comes in, and she turns the laptop round so we can see them. Cue six people in Hampton with hands clamped over their mouths to stop the raucous giggles escaping and alerting anyone else that a bunch of people are watching via laptop. (Tab's faces as she was also trying to keep a straight face were also hysterical) Six blokes in full coloured body stockings dancing to Backstreet Boys. We suspect that they'll get through at least one stage just for the sheer lulz.

Somewhat weirded out but so pleased for Jeremy Renner getting all the attention with Hurt Locker and him getting Hawkeye in Avengers. Con goers may remember him being adorable at a BtVS/Angel convention ages ago as Angel's serial killer first siring. And hey, it's a 39 year-old actor getting a major career boost. No bad here.

Cannot decide whether This or This is the more awesome photo. On the one hand, Joker jumping Bats on a skateboard. On the other, Morgan Freeman + kitty. arrrgh.

off to get boots repaired. wo0t.

ETA: ARSE. Boot soles are stitched on. Gray's Inn place says they don't have the machine to do it and all the other layers are stitched together, so will phone Michael's on proctor st to see if they do it, because wasting half my lunch hour is not something I want to do again tomorrow.

Gah. Sondheim 80th w/maria Friedman, daniel Evans announced. question is whether they announce anyone else, cause the 75th was awesome massivo thing. (aka 'I've just seen Eartha Kitt... :thud:)