(no subject)

[nigeltde]

Wow, so since my last post I have managed to get onto the computer, um.......twice. Frankly I'm a little stunned that I made it this far at all--if the withdrawl didn't kill me, all the 'being outside' and 'hanging around normal people' stuff surely would have. I'm made of stronger stuff than I thought. Perhaps a Mr Creosote-type post-Christmas explosion is just taking a little while to kick in.

The houseboat was awesome. I'll probably post pics so that you can all marvel at the swankness of it. Then it was just day after day of taking the Englishers out on touristy stuff, into town and to Glenelg, down to Victor Harbour & Granite Island, up to the Barossa for a wineries tour (YUM), and over to Kangaroo Island for a couple of fabulous days (I did ALL the driving for the kiddies' car. Awesome, I love driving, but everyone else got to sleep and read, bastards). Then the blitzkrieg of Christmas, and work on the public holidays, and catching up with friends, and going out with L, and shit, the year's gasping its last breath.


These are the books I have bought or acquired in the last month or so and haven't been able to read yet:

From a library sale:
Simone de Beauvoir - The Mandarins
Piers Anthony - Castle Roogna (yay for nostalgia!)
The 50-Gun ship (a GORGEOUS book all about 50-gun ships from like 1640-1800 with plans and diagrams and statistics and pull-out pages and everything!)
Dictionary of world politics
Fantastic Tales - Jack London
The Wit of Whitlam (ok, I read this one)
Van Gogh catalogue with plates
Stephen King - Hearts in Atlantis
Myths of the Greeks and Romans
Tanith Lee - Red Unicorn
Mrs Aeneas Gunn - The Little Black Princess (an early 20th C retelling of an indigenous story, looks hilariously/disturbingly colonial. Bizarre photos as illustrations)
Patrick O'Brian - HMS Suprise (yay, collect them all!)

For my birthday:
Mirrormask book (thanks, lainy!)
Dark Knight vol 1 (early Batman comics)

Randomly purchased (there were so many SALES on!):
Hitchhiker's GTTG, the first four in one volume
Merchant of Venice
King Lear
Annie Proulx - Bad Dirt (more short stories)
Stephen Fry - Making History
Stephen Fry - Rescuing the Spectacled Bear (so much Fry-y goodness!)
The Telling of the World (Native American myths and stories)
Rachael Holmes - Scanty Particulars: the Scandalous life and Astonishing Secret of Queen Victoria's most Eminent Military Doctor (ie, James Barry)
PG Wodehouse - one of the J&W compilations, I think Much Obliged


and an Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum, which I've been reading for the last couple of weeks when I can get a chance.

Oh, and I have Noel Baker's Hard Core Roadshow on the way from Amazon.com, a late Christmas present, and I placed docbrite's The Value of X on order. Woooohoooooooooooo!

Anyway, hope everyone's Christmases and Hannukahs and surrounding times went well.

PS: King Kong? MARRY ME PJ!!!!!! There's a good article on it in the latest The Monthly. (Which is not entirely about menstruation.)

Oh and I got tons of great stuff for Christmas (pictures of one particularly awesome one coming soon to screens near you!) but one of the best was a story written for me by veronamay: Gifts, PG, H/W. Thank you!

ETA: veronamay, look at the curve of and light on Ray's back in my mood icon over there, and tell me that CKR is not stunningly beautiful *g*

Comments

[lainy122.livejournal.com]

You been so busy girl *g* Saw X3 trailer! Omg! Cant wait! XD

[nigeltde]

Huzzah for X3!!

[veronamay.livejournal.com]

I can't *see* your mood icon! It refuseth to load for me! *cries*

I'll take your word for it, though. He was a pretty, pretty man once upon a time.

[nigeltde]

nooooooo! It's working fine for me :-(

[veronamay.livejournal.com]

Obviously LJ hates me and wants me to suffer. Well, ;-ppppp to it, because I'm watching the voodoo episode as I type, and boy oh boy, is RayK pretty.

Gotta say, though, I've *always* been a Fraser girl first and foremost. I'd trample RayK into a bloody pulp in order to get to Fraser.

[nigeltde]

I love Fraser, I love his little smiles, I love his nervous habits, I love his beautiful eyes, I love PG, that wacky, wacky man, I love everything about him. But there's something about CRK that just destroys me, a weird vulnerability, perhaps, that takes my breath away, and it's multiplied by like a thousand in RayK. I can't keep my eyes off him. The directors know EXACTLY what they're doing, always draping him in shadows. Ahhhh.....

[veronamay.livejournal.com]

He's got that lovely melancholy James Dean-style thing going on, which even James Dean didn't have going on. Something in the eyes, maybe.

Fraser's just a nut - less of a nut than PG, but still a nut. But a hugely complex nut noneless. I do love characters with *depth*.

[nigeltde]

That's a good way of putting it. (incidentally, I've always felt that River Pheonix was always the James Dean James Dean was meant to be. Or maybe that Dean was a reverse echo of Pheonix, like, a little get ready buddies message sent by the universe, because Pheonix was too much unprepared. If that makes ANY sense.)

Fraser--wow, the number of stories out there with practically diametrically opposed Frasers, which still are completely in character, they speak to his depth. Fraser is less wacky than PG but I think even more insane *g* Insane in an extremely sane way.

[veronamay.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, River had it in spades. If I ever meet him in the afterlife I am going to shake him but hard. What a *waste*. He was so awesome, and had so much potential, and it was all cut short because he couldn't resist the chemical high. Makes me crazy. But yeah, it's the same sort of deal with CKR; there's an intensity there that a lot of actors don't have, but when they do have it, you *notice*. Speaking of which, Dan Radcliffe is one to keep an eye on, I think. Once he's done with Harry Potter we might see a very different side to him.

Fraser, Fraser, Fraser. You could keep a psychologist *and* a psychiatrist happily employed for years just contemplating his personality. I love speculating, but I'd be terrified to delve right into all the layers for fear of getting lost in there.

[nigeltde]

What a total waste. River'd be Johnny Depp-style megastar if he were still around.

I have to admit I don't see it in Daniel Radcliffe. I think he's a fair-to-good actor but I just don't see that intensity. He has improved immensely with each film, though, so I expect pretty special things from him. For my money, it's gonna be Rupert Grint who is going to have the most interesting career.

[veronamay.livejournal.com]

But he'd never be able to play Jack Sparrow. *g*

I think Radcliffe will surprise people; he's very deep for such a young guy. I'm happy to wait and see and enjoy the pretty in the meantime. I do agree that Rupert has a great future. That boy has character actor written all over him.

[nigeltde]

I think he's a fabulous guy too, he seems very dedicated about his work, very humble, always willing to work--and he has good taste, too, apparently his favourite film is Y Tu Mama Tambien *g*

Rupert really does have character actor written all over him. Watson, on the other hand, has unfortunate nude (but tasteful!) centrefold before sinking into obscurity written all over her *g* There were only a few moments in GoF when I wasn't irritated at her.

[veronamay.livejournal.com]

Emma Watson can't really act, but thankfully Hermione's not a complicated role to play so she gets away with it. She is sort of thrown into contrast by the other two. *Especially* Rupert, because that boy has comic timing out the wazoo.

Dan's favourite movie has changed! Two years ago it was Twelve Angry Men. Methinks puberty hath hit with a vengeance. *g*

[nigeltde]

lol! what do you expect when you made a movie with a man who says that boys shouldn't fight, but kiss, each other? *g*

I love Rupert. I wish they would give him stuff to do other than look scared!

[veronamay.livejournal.com]

I know, and *thank you* to him for that bit of wisdom. I should watch YTM sometime. I am a bad slasher.

He's starting to get a bit more character-building stuff; I loved the Ron/Harry fight in GoF. More of that, yessirree please.