.you must be mad, or else you wouldn't have come here

O, look . . .

riverdresses — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:03:16 GMT

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear Saffron Elizabeth, happy birthday to meeeeee!

(yes it is my birthday today. & you ALL know what that means!)

BIRTHDAY PARTY SPAM-A-THON BEGINS NOW!

IF YOU'VE GOT SPAM, I WANT IT. SPAM AWAY, BBDOLLS!

(This entry was originally posted at http://www.dreamwidth.org/12345.html. I'd prefer you to comment there via OpenID, but if you're unable to, please comment where you feel most comfortable!)

(in your dreams I'll still be there with all the days that never came)

riverdresses — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 11:40:16 GMT

Mini-updates!

(I like Tumblr + Twitter far too much.)

♥ I am currently losing sleep due to the splendour of the Karen Gillan tag on Tumblr. Karen, Karen, Karen! ♥

♥ & I felt like reviving this meme, because I've been listening to them nonstop for the past couple of weeks. & I did it on Tumblr as well & should probably let the love spill out over here as well. Chameleon Circuit are fucking amazing & I love them as much as any of my other favourite artists. They're just brilliant & adorable & so surpremely talented.

O, & everyone should go & look up their song Silence And The End Of All Things - a beautiful song for Amy & Eleven at the end of The Big Bang Two. I've had it on repeat for three days now & it makes me teary-eyed every.single.fucking.time. within the first minute of it. As soon as I hear 'when you wake up, you'll have a mum and dad, but I'll be just a story/that's okay/we're all just stories in the end/so live well and love rory', my eyes just fill with tears. It can be very problematic when one is listening to it on the bus, but that's what waterproof eye makeup & (stolen) designer sunglasses are for.

Answer the following questions using only the song titles of a chosen band.

I chose Chameleon Circuit.

1. Are you male or female? Kiss The Girl
2. Describe yourself. Teenage Rebel
3. What do people feel when they’re around you? The Sound of Drums
4. How would you describe your previous relationship? Silence And The End of All Things
5. Describe your current relationship. Type 40
6. Where would you want to be now? Gallifreyan History 101
7. How do you feel about love? Mr. Pond
8. What’s your life like? Nightmares
9. What would you ask for if you had only one wish? Travelling Man
10. Say something wise. Exterminate, Regenerate

Two & five were actually a lot harder than you'd think. I settled on my answer for five because I'm quite sure my laptop & I have a Doctor/TARDIS bond at times. & because the love of a TARDIS = better than any other kind of love. & I settled on Teenage Rebel for two because I'm just eternally seventeen at heart. & I was a girl when I learnt how to run. So there.

(& as for three . . . well, I probably scare people. & everyone who meets me probably thinks I'm straight-up mental & not in the good way. Too bad I'll never be as BAMF as the Master is. Ah, well.)

♥ I picked out my lesson books today & am going back later in the day to pay for them properly since I needed the barbarian's ident card. It's getting closer & closer, my return to lessons & to having to learn to (mildly) resocialise with people. It's making me feel stressy & slightly ill.

♥ Visiting my favourite uncle & his family for karaoke tonight! ::bounces:: I love karaoke, you know - it's my biggest guilty pleasure! As a former stage actress, I absolutely adore it, even if I can't sing.

. . . & the times we would have had now never had inside that box of bluest blue . . .

(This entry was originally posted at http://www.dreamwidth.org/12345.html. I'd prefer you to comment there via OpenID, but if you're unable to, please comment where you feel most comfortable!)

riverdresses — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 07:58:10 GMT

riverdresses @ dreamwidth

(alternately

Tumblr
Twitter

I don't use Facebook & never will

message me if you prefer AIM)

I won't give you all the drawn-out reasons. LiveJournal is going downhill & I'm fucking sick of it. I'll crosspost here, since I know some of my favourite people are more loyal than I'll ever be, but DreamWidth is my new home. This LJ is now solely for community-related activity. teasplash will become herwildthyme at DW as well.

Maybe I'll post more there.

Maybe I won't.

I don't know.

But LJ & I are finished.

I love all of you, even if I'm never around anymore.

Please don't forget me. Please.

(& all along the Watchtower the night horses & the black mares ready themselves for the outcome)

riverdresses — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 08:50:38 GMT

Here we go! Here I am, kicking off my fabulous Sixth Doctor rewatch, AKA the technicolour dreamcoat extravaganza 2011! We're starting this rewatch-athon off not with the Sixth Doctor, exactly, but the Fifth Doctor serial Arc of Infinity which features Colin Baker in a pre-Doctor role & in fact, is what helped him land the role of the Sixth Doctor after Peter Davison's departure. I myself have never seen it prior to planning this rewatch-athon, so it should be quite an experience for me as well.

Following this serial, I'll be recapping Peri's recent Companion Chronicle, Peri and the Piscon Paradox, which features her travels with Five, just before our third serial, The Caves of Androzani, Five's final story.

- Ah, a story set on Gallifrey! I must say, their clothes look a bit better than they did when I saw them last in The Deadly Assassin.

- Temporal grace - what a lovely turn of phrase.

- I LOVE how Nyssa's prodding Five about doing more repair work on the TARDIS. Five, you really SHOULD listen to her, you know.

- Two travellers staying the night in a crypt . . . well, it IS cheap. & quiet. But yes, it would be a bit eerie. Erm.

- & we have our first onscreen murder! Poor Time Lord.

- O, it appears that the TARDIS' chameleon circuit is working for a bit - WHAT THE FUCK JUST WALKED OUT OF THERE?!

- Five, you are such a Dormouse.

- O, hello there, Time Lords! Goodness, you all look RIDICULOUS.

- & helloooooo, Colin Baker! Ooo, he looks rather resplendent in all of that armour.

- nentari was quite right, Maxil IS a bit of a bastard. But he interests me, yes indeed.

- I'm really enjoying how fairly hands-on Nyssa is with the TARDIS & with the data coming through. She's so wonderfully proactive as a companion. She was always such a great fit as a companion, though I've not seen very many of her stories.

- 'Colin Frazer'. Teehee!

- Michael Gough was in part one! The Celestial Toymaker himself has infiltrated the High Council of Time Lords, it would appear.

- MAXIL, NO! ::screams:: O, you are an evil one, aren't you!

- Well, at least ~~Celly~~ ONE of the Time Lords feels that a more gentler approach should have been used instead of armed guards.

- Did Nyssa give Five orange juice & put him up in her own room? Aww, how sweet.

- O. It's Tegan. Erm. (I don't care for Tegan, I should point out. But I'll try not to be too vicious towards her!) She's got her pixie hair, I see!

- I like Hedin. He's much warmer than any of those other stuffy Time Lords.

- Hello, Borusa.

- Poor Tegan. It seems she's fallen on a bit of hard times, sadly.

- The Time Lords seem quite a bit on the trigger-happy side in this serial, don't they? At least Nyssa's being rational & logical in the face of the Time Lords & their irrational conclusion-jumping!

- I really like Hedin. He's warm, sensible, calm & rational. He's what I rather wish Time Lords WERE, rather than the exception.

- Mentions of both Leela & Romana in the same serial! My smile is HUGE at such mentions.

- Ooo, I see what you're doing there Nyssa . . .

- Maxil, WHY must your helmet have such a silly-looking plume on top of it? You look like a peacock!

- Nyssa just fired on two Time Lords in one go. I KNEW I HAS MORE REASONS TO LOVE YOU NYSSA.

- Five being so amazingly calm & collected when taling Nyssay down from killing anyone to save him . . . that was a rather powerful moment for him, I felt. I don't even particularly care for Five at all, but I deeply admire the way he handled such a delicate situation, even though it arose from Nyssa wanting to save his life. It was very powerful & admirable.

- Ooo, having some Castrovalva flashbacks with Five in the Matrix.

- Gallifrey really is just made up of secrets & lies & betrayals, isn't it?

- Aww, Nyssa's all excited to see her girlfriend again! ::waves her Nyssa/Tegan shipper flag::

- I TOLD YOU THE CELESTIAL TOYMAKER HAD INFILTRATED THE HIGH COUNCIL!

- O, Hedin . . . how could you betray your own like this? How could you betray ME like this? ::sniffles::

- Good ol' Omega, how lovely to see you again! Still as insane & bitter as the last time we saw you, I see! Well, we'll fix that soon enough, promise.

- I liked how the Doctor entered the Matrix much more in The Deadly Assassin. This time, it's just terribly silly I feel.

- I think this last half of the story should be fairly interesting, now that Nyssa & Five are away from Gallifrey.

- I think I preferred Omega's first form - this one just looks DISGUSTING. All oozy & sticky & bulbous & just - gross!

- O! Omega had a TARDIS of his own! Ah, I see now.

- I saw how you enjoyed that, Nyssa!

- What the fuck . . . TWO of Five?!

- Peter Davison doesn't look half-bad in that dark outfit, I have to say. ::nods::

- Eww, someone's starting to decay a little bit . . .

- I kind of have to question the logic of looking for someone in a city like Amsterdam, but I'll just try to suspend my disbelief here . . .

- You know, even if Omega is insane & deadly, I kind of feel really badly for him, somewhat - he just wants to have the life that was denied to him when he helped make time travel possible for Gallifrey. He did all of that dangerous & complicated work only to be cheated out of enjoying his achievements or even of being able to live & see what was accomplished with his engineering. It just strikes me how sad it is that no matter what, he can never exist alongside others. I just find his story a very tragic one, & watching him slowly decay like this makes it even sadder to me.

- There is just nothing that's not sad about Omega's sort-of death. Not one thing. Insane & deadly, yes, but my heart still manages to break a bit for him.

- Oooo, more of Five with a gun.

- Aww, a happy ending for Tegan & Nyssa! & Tegan's back to travelling with Five & Nyssa!

All in all, I have to say that this was a fairly nice serial to watch, mostly for Nyssa & to see Colin in his pre-Doctor role. I tend to be very bored by Fifth Doctor serials & don't like Tegan, but still, I liked some aspects of this serial as well. It was great to see Nyssa being a total HBIC & being so brave in order to save Five, as well as seeing her in a more scientific capacity at the beginning of this. Nyssa's a companion that I actually do like, but I like so little about her era that I very rarely watch her stories, so this was a nice treat for me.

- 'Everyone runs away. Usually it's not for long - a holiday, a gap year. Sometimes I just lock myself in a room and play records by rockstars who died in their bathtubs.'

Peri loves The Doors. Peri, m'dear, you have EXCELLENT taste in music.

- I totally love how this audio opens - Peri reflecting on why people run away, why she ran away in the first place & on her life pre-Doctor. I think it gives Peri a good dimension to her character & motives that I feel she didn't really have in the series, personally. I have always liked Peri, both in audios & serials, but at the same time, she's always felt a bit like a cypher to me, or a non-sequiter companion to me - just a lucky girl from the States that got to go travelling with the Doctor. (Though that could be because I've never really seen many of her serials!) But this audio, I feel, adds to her character in some very good ways.

- O, Peri. I can totally relate.

- She's a Cal State student!! HOW CAN I NOT LOVE YOU, DEAREST?

- 'You mean some monster's stupid enough too reveal his evil schemes on a computer? That's just weird!'

'You'd be surprised at what some lifeforms are willing to let slip when they're sitting behind a keyboard.'

Okay, a) Peri REALLY needs to see Doctor Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog & b) I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE BIG FINISH. Just saying.

- Ooo, mentions of the Pescatons! Apparently, our Piscons are a bit like the Pescatons, it would seem.

- Welcome to 2009 Los Angeles, Peri! ~~Now PLEASE go shopping for some awesome, less-eighties-looking clothes, love.~~

- 'We emerged from the mall and stood blinking in the sunlight and I breathed in the heady scent of carbon monoxide. Wow. I was nearly home. Nearly the right place. Nearly the right time! I could feel it. Taste it! 2009. I wondered if they had bases on the moon by now. I wondered if Frankie Goes to Hollywood was still at the top of the European charts with that damn song. I wondered if my mom was still alive. Was Howard? My dog would definitely be long gone. Poor little Whiskey. I wondered what Davy was doing now.

. . .

All of a sudden, we're dashing along the bay, dodging skateboarding transsexuals . . . culture shock doesn't even come close. How did people get so fat? How did people get so thin? I couldn't believe the billboards for movies and T.V. shows - they all featured skeletal actresses, tiny lollipop-shaped girls with stick bodies and huge heads! How could they be considered normal, let alone attractive? Then I remembered with a cold shudder: when I left Earth in the eighties, there was a lot of panic about diseases. Obviously, there was an epidemic in the twenty-first century. They must have been forced to used these actresses because there were no healthy ones left.'

I love Peri's perspective on the twenty-first century, I really do. & I somehow feel that if you want to visit a really alien culture, or get shocked by something via time-travel, then you should visit your own planet a century or so forward in time. Watch as everything you know & hold as normal for yourself is completely twisted about on its head & sides, to the point where you can only imagine that some horrible catastrophe must have taken place for the madness you see then to be taken as normal & everyday by that century's standards.

- Peri's beating up a Piscon with a mannequin's arm! GO, PERI, GO!

- Peri describes Five's personality as excitable, P.G. Wodehouse stuff'. I can buy that!

- & the mysterious woman Peri observed earlier when she arrived . . . it's Peri herself! Older, but still . . . it's Peri meeting Peri!

- Older!Peri is checking out younger!Peri's boobs. I . . . what. ::giggles::

- Apparently, Older!Peri is a secret agent of some sort - kind of like a Stateside version of UNIT. Neat!

- Trying to hide stuff from your future self is, apparently, an exercise in futility.

- 'I would have kept on gawping like a fish, if a fish hadn't crashed through the coffeeshop window.'

WHAT.

- 'I ran, wobbling in my unsuitable shoes - my 'optimism' shoes. Everywhere I arrive, I leave the TARDIS in heels, optimistically expecting not to be chased by monsters. And every time, I end up running for my life, hot alien breath on my neck, my ankles screaming out for flats.'

O, Peri, dearest. JUST WEAR GO-GO BOOTS! That's a good shoe in the middle, right?

- I'm not sure, but think Nicola Bryant's played about . . . four or five characters in this audio so far, & she's made them all sound distinctive, even when they have Stateside accents. I am very impressed indeed!

- Ah, I wondered when we'd get to mentioning that ol' Blinovitch effect . . . yes, Five, note that whole lack of explosion between the Peris.

- Peri's becoming rapidly jealous of herself. Jealous & suspicious.

- Peri reflecting on what she may become after she leaves the Doctor . . . well, needless to say, it breaks my heart.

- Huh! Peri knows Dolly Parton songs.

- Five, WHAT ARE YOU DOING CARRYING HANDCUFFS IN YOUR POCKETS? You kinky little chiorboy you.

- Zarl the Piscon has a to-do list of evil deeds in his pocket! ::dies of laughter::

- I should really keep count of each of Peri's Britishisms, shouldn't I?

- Peri refers to her older self as Barbarella. Yay, I have a usable icon after all! ::points to her Barbarella icon::

- Peri & Peri are off to catch a fish-thing!

- & now . . . Peri & Peri are having a fight! In the mud, no less!

- Older!Peri just shot Zarl - & an acquaintance of her own, without even blinking. How can this even be the same miss Peri?

- The way this first half of this audio ends, with them on their way to Androzani Minor & Peri wondering how their relationship will turn out due to this . . . it makes me very sad, I must admit. For obvious reasons, I suppose, but there are other reasons that I can't quite put a name on yet. But they're there, I know.

- Okay, on to the second half of this audio! This half opens exactly the same as the first half did, but with Future!Peri telling the story. Yet I find that it doesn't feel repetitive or dull - there's enough laid out about Future!Peri to make it new & fresh.

- I like how Nicola manages to distingush between Future!Peri & our Peri - just enough so that you know that this an older version of Peri, but still managing to give her a vocal tone of her own. Say what you want about her accent, but I like it, whether it's so obviously false or not. SO THERE.

- Future!Peri's a proper doctor of botany!

- Future!Peri's a doctor of botany who masquerades as a television marriage therapist. Um, okay?

- One of Future!Peri's sobriquets is 'The Worrier Queen'. ORLYNAO.

- HEY, IT'S SIX! ::WAVES::

- & yet . . . she doesn't recognise him. ::headtilt::

- Or . . . any of their adventures.

- She remembers Five & the TARDIS, but not Six.

- LOLOLOLOL SIX NOTICES HER NEW NOSE! ::gigglesnorts::

- Future!Peri likening Six's regeneration to Madonna. O, FUTURE!PERI.

- So . . . Future!Peri remebers her first adventure with Five, but not their visit to Androzani, or his regeneration, or any of her time with Six.

- I have to say, I think Six is actually handling this very well. He's actually very tactful & gentle when he says that Future!Peri isn't supposed to be in this century & explaining that they used to travel together & that she eventually left him. Very gentle & tactfully indeed.

- Six remembers his fifth regeneration's adventure with Peri wherein they met Future!Peri! Good or bad?

- O, DEAR. They . . . they just killed Zarl accidentally. O dear.

- The Piscon paradox - Six killing Zarl before Five can defeat him, apparently. Eeek, Six, you're confusing me!

- Heehee! clever Six - he's going to dress up as Zarl & show up to let Five deal with him. Not such a bad idea, I think.

- & of course, Five's not going to make this easy, is he? ::sighs:: Five, stop being so reasonable!

- 'My God! What was I wearing?! Heels with cutoff shorts? With a leotard?! I looked like I'd been dressed by a committee formed on an Internet chat room.'

FUTURE!PERI HAS FAR BETTER FASHION SENSE OMG YAY.

- Poor Six! He HATES wearing that fishy suit & can't even drink any water! ::hugs Six::

- 'I'm dressed as a fish and I'm fighting with an even wetter fish!' SIX I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.

- So, Future!Peri came up with the whole idea of Zarl wanting to kill himself to reunite with a lost love & her involvement in it - huh. Future!Peri's pretty quick on the uptake.

- Future!Peri explains our Peri's being with her as her long-lost daughter & our Peri plays along BRILLIANTLY. ♥

- Teehee! Six is a friend of Oscar Wilde. SO not surprised!

- SIX, WHY ARE YOU WEARING YOUR COAT INSIDE THE FISH-SUIT?!

'I like the coat.'

::SIGHS::

- Future!Peri refers to our Peri as 'TARDIS Barbie'.

- You know, I must ask, WHERE ARE ALL THE GUMBLEJACK REFERENCES IN THIS AUDIO?! Six, you're missing a great opportunity here . . .

- You know, I think I like Future!Peri's retelling of the fight between both of her. Not sure why, but I do.

- Interestingly enough - if that's the correct word - our younger Peri seems most upset by the fact that her future self lied about having children, than by anything else. Not even upset - more like enraged & hurt by the fact that her future self lied about having any children. & that . . . it just makes me so sad.

- But I think the second thing in this story that breaks my heart is the fact that Future!Peri reveals by her narration that her high school sweetheart of sorts, whom she married, was a violent & abusive jerk, who, among other things, caused Future!Peri to have to get a new nose after he broke her old one. It's an incredibly painful revelation, made even more painful by the fact that Future!Peri can't even tell her younger self any of that & has to just let her face that as a possible future. It hurts so very much.

- & now comes a Time Lord to explain the Peri paradox, as Six put it. It's a bit hard to explain, but it goes like this: during Six's trial, for whatever reason (reasons I'm not too clear on, since I have yet to see that series), Peri was assassinated, as she was seen as superfluous to whatever plans were created at the time for dealing with Six. Then, after that, some felt that such a solution was too drastic (out of the possible fear that Six would eventually find them) & 'adjusted' her fate, allowing her to live as a warrior queen, as we know her fate to have been in the end. However, after that, another decision was made to follow a sort of 'Doctor protocol' - to save Peri, erase her memories beyond her first adventure with Five & return her to Earth. Like Jamie & Zoe. & that's our Older!Peri.

- In the end, Peri was taken out of time several times, leading to the creation of five different timelines for Peri. Five of Peri.

- But Peri who became a warrior queen - she was blessed with children. Two boys & a girl. Just like she'd always wanted.

- O, Six. Six, Six, Six. You're absolutely & completely breaking my heart by asking her to come with you. Just how much you love her is so clear - how can anyone not think you loved Peri, even if you didn't shy away from arguing with her?

- 'Funny about that title. I wonder if it's just coincidence, or if maybe all the Peris' fates have echoes of each other.'

I can't even explain how much the idea of Peri suffering the same fate as Jamie & Zoe makes me cry. Even if I know there are other versions of her, ones that have all of their memories of travelling with him before, the idea that even one of her was forced to forget the Doctor . . . it's absolutely heartbreaking. Even if I don't love Peri as much as I do Jamie & Zoe, it still makes me so, so sad. Really, this whole audio is a bit of a heartbreaker at times, I feel. It's good, even if it wasn't what I was expecting from a Peri Companion Chronicle at first. It's good, but just so sad in places.

- O! I hadn't known that this was a Robert Holmes serial! Maybe it won't be a total snoozefest after all?

- Nicola Bryant looks a little like Teri Hatcher here . . . yummy.

- 'I tried keeping a diary once. Not chronologically, of course, but the trouble with time travel is one never seems to find the time.'

O, Five, you're so cute sometimes. ::ruffles his hair::

- Five, your reasoning behind your celery is oddly precious. At least the bit about it being good for your teeth is. ::giggles::

- The way some of these early scenes are shot remind me oddly of The Dalek Invasion of Earth. I'm not sure why, but they really do.

- Peri, you are just so precious. May I hug you?

- Five & Peri are going to their exectuion very bravely, I think.

- Peri looks like she's applying for the Sybilline Sisterhood in that red garment.

- O, Robert Holmes, you KNOW how to end your serials!

- Androids of Five & Peri! Clever, that.

- Eww, creepy bastard, get your paws off of Peri!

- I have to say, some of these scenes with Jek have a very sexual undertone to them - his menacing of Peri definitely seems very sexual in nature to me, not to mention the fact that his garments have a very strong BDSM element to them, especially his facial mask - masks like those are occasionally worn by people involved in BDSM, I believe. It's extremely unsettling.

- Ooo, look at Five getting physical with someone! Five does have a streak of fire under that sweet choirboy exterior, it seems.

- Jek genuinely frightens me - he is so rageful & menacing that he scares me rather well.

- Also, I noticed that he has a bit of a sort of Phantom of the Opera aspect to him - his mask, why he wears it & his obsession with Peri. He's like the Phantom of the Opera gone absolutely insane with rage, you could say.

- & WHAT is that silly-looking thing that ended episode two? Come on now, that thing just ruined a decent serial with how fake it looks!

- O, dear, Peri & Five are getting worse . . .

- Peter Davison, you are looking mighty fine during the chain-cutting scene. ::replays::

- Is Jek meant to be so Phantom of the Opera-esque? By kidnapping Peri like that, he really, really is.

- Okay, at this point, Jek is making me feel very uncomfortable now, with his aggressiveness towards Peri.

- Wow . . . Five, you are a bit of a badass, aren't you?

- You know, I'm almost a little sad that I'm up to the final part of this serial - Five's not so boring in this serial & I love Peri in it!

- Ugh, Peter, stop looking so unfairly sexy at sudden moments! IT'S VERY DISTRACTING YOU KNOW.

- Okay, Robert Holmes, I can see your obsession with The Phantom of the Opera showing - Jek's mask finally comes off & shocks the hell out of the fellow who pulled it off!

- O, my word - Jek's face . . . eeek.

- Peri sure recovered fast after she took the antidote!

- WHOA, PERI BOSOM. ::stares shamelessly::

- O, dear, here we go . . .

- SURPRISE!MASTER OHAI

- How is it that I can know that I don't care for Five at all, yet I - I don't want him to go? I DON'T WANT HIM TO GO & I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY.

- O . . . hello, Six. I think . . .

- 'Change, my dear. And not a moment too soon.'

Well . . . Six has a point, I suppose. But I - I kind of want Five back. ::looks confused::

Well, THAT was a story! It was a pretty good one, & even made me like Five in it, which can be a bit hard to do, honestly. Though I don't see why it's so popular a serial, to be frank - at least, that's what DWM said about it.

I have to admit, though, I'm glad I don't have to watch any more Five serials! Yawnville if you ask me.

& that wraps up the Five-era serials for the technicolour dreamcoat extravaganza 2011! Next week, I'll be watching The Twin Dilemma, Attack of the Cybermen & Vengeance on Varos! & next week, I should have my recaps up on Saturday, as per usual - this week was a bit of an anomaly, time-wise!

(All those signs I knew what they meant some things you can invent some get made & some get sent)

riverdresses — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 07:17:20 GMT

Ooooo, I love planning a rewatch-athon, don't you?

So, after looking at the number of serials I would have to work with, I've decided to indeed begin the technicolour dreamcoat extravaganza 2011 this month. Six's era, even with two Five serials & one Seven serial, is just so short that it makes more sense to begin it now & finish in early January. Besides, I'm returning to my schoolgirlish ways in January, & I don't know how busy I'll be, honestly.

& this'll also be a fun little thing to while away the days until Christmas, won't it? ::beams:: I certainly think so!

I've (mostly!) laid out how this will all work, though I'm not sure what little something I'll be making to end the whole thing off, like I did with my Two rewatch-athon. I'm sure I can come up with something, though! I actually DO have an idea of something, but I need to map it out a bit more strongly, I think.

Anyway, enough of my finger-wag! Tonight, this post brings you the audio & serial lineup for the techicolour dreamcoat extravaganza 2011!

Serials
Arc of Infinity*
The Caves of Androzani
The Twin Dilemma
Attack of the Cybermen
Vengeance on Varos
The Mark of the Rani
Timelash
Revelation of the Daleks
The Mysterious Planet
Mindwarp
Terror of the Vervoids
The Ultimate Foe
Time and the Rani

Audios
Peri and the Piscon Paradox* (comes before The Caves of Androzani)
Davros (comes after Timelash & before Revelation of the Daleks)
The Lost Stories audio series:
The Nightmare Fair
Mission to Magnus
Leviathan
The Hollows of Time
Paradise 5
Point of Entry
The Song of Megaptera
The Macros (comes before Trial of a Time Lord, as originally planned)</b>
City of Spires
Night's Black Agents**
Wreck of the Titan
Legend of the Cybermen (all coming after Mindwarp & before The Ultimate Foe)
Doctor Who and the Pirates
Project Lazarus
A Town Called Fortune** (all coming after The Ultimate Foe) & before Time and the Rani)
The Sirens of Time

* = bonus serial, ** = Companion Chronicle

The audio order is somewhat tricky, actually - you see, I'm not going to be doing another recap of The Two Doctors, as I did one for the great&mighty Troughton rewatch-athon & after a recent viewing, don't feel that my fundamental opinions about it have changed all that much after two years, so I felt that it would be better for me to add in the Six & Jamie audio trilogy, which I love & which is definitely different from The Two Doctors & won't be a rehash of what I've already talked about. I was originally going to add those three, plus Jamie's Companion Chronicle right in place of The Two Doctors, but I realised that it would clash somewhat with serial continuty (Six is travelling with Peri & I'm not sure of how many opportunities he'd have to slip away from her & have such a grand adventure like this), so I decided to play it safe & add them in at a later date. But just to be clear, the Six & Jamie audios ARE standing in for The Two Doctors in this rewatch-athon.

As for Davros & Peri and the Piscon Paradox, well, those are the ONLY audios I know where to put! Davros actually does establish that Six & Peri are still travelling together & that Six's adventures in that story are happening whilst Peri is off on her own for a bit. Peri and the Piscon Paradox also establishes where in serial continuity that particular adventure for Peri & Five takes place.

Also, I've added a few of Evelyn's audios to the lineup, but again, where they can be placed definitively is rather tricky. I could, possibly, add them in after Peri's departure & before Mel arrives, since we never actually see Mel's first meeting with Six, as far as I know, so I might be able to get away with it, but I'm not sure again.

(There is, actually, an audio wherein Mel & Evelyn meet, but I'm not adding it to this, mostly to keep from adding any more confusion, really.)

The Sirens of Time was also the easiest audio to place - it comes after Five & Six & before the TVM, so I popped it in after Time and the Rani. I did contemplate adding both Zagreus & The Four Doctors, but, well . . . Zagreus requires a bit of backstory, doesn't it, & may be very hard to understand if you don't know who exactly Zagreus is, & of course, there's the absolute crack factor, so I decided to omit it, even though it kind of would have been like another form of Arc of Infinity, i.e., Colin Baker being in another non-Doctor role in a Doctor Who story, like he was in that serial. (& he's quite lovely in it & I really had to talk myself out of adding it!) As for The Four Doctors . . . well, that's partially out of my own personal disappointment in it - I mean, really, if it's called The Four Doctors, they really should meet for more than thirty seconds, shouldn't they? - & partially because they don't actually meet for very long in it.

Okay, so that's the audio & serial lineup, folks! The whole rewatch-athon will kick off next Monday & follow the same format as the last one did - three serials or audios a week, with my recaps posted the Saturday after & with a couple of special things made just for the end of each part of the rewatch-athon. & of course, there'll be links for all kinds of Six goodies in my posts as I find them!

I really hope some of you will drop by my posts & enjoy them - & of course, mention them to anyone else who happens to be fond of Six, of course!

(he's made one for himself one for me too one of these days he'll make one for you)

riverdresses — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 18:35:57 GMT

O, goodness. ::clutches internet to her bosom:: Never leave me again, my beloved high-speed internet, never ever!

AHEM.

So, I've actually been without internet for almost a month or two. (we cancelled one cable service provider, meaning I lost the internet since it was all connected, we switched to AT&T, which was a joke, as it never even got set up properly & just . . . sigh, it was a mess, really!) But just this morning, the barbarian & I - well, mostly me, as she left me to field any questions & such from the installer chap that came by - got everything all settled. Hooray!

O, goodness, it's nearly Christmas, isn't it! (Or Yule, or Hanukkah, or whatever holiday you celebrate during the winter months, of course!) I've so much to do - well, as we all, I suppose - baking for the barbarian & I, baking for a visit to my favourite relatives before Christmas, gift shopping & tree-decorating when it gets here . . . o, I just love the holidays, don't you? Which reminds me, I do believe some of you have holiday card posts up? For those of you that are still taking addresses, could you please link me to them? I'd love to have a card or two to display!

Also, I have a bit of a twofold surprise for everyone . . .

♥ I'm returning to school!

Yes, I'm returning to proper (more or less, I suppose) academia in January as a proper student at my local college. Granted, the barbarian sort of forced & wheedled & wore me down until I agreed to return, but also, I was getting terribly bored of such a formless mass of days my life seemed to become. I was getting bored, yes, & missed exercising my mind, but still. I'm quite nervous about the whole thing now, I must admit. As you know, I don't do well with people my own age & I never did well when I was forced to go to school anyway.

So yes, I suppose I'm a bit scared, but really . . . best not to think about it, right?

Maybe. I don't know.

I just . . . who knows, really.

& now for the more fun surprise!

♥ I'm going to be doing another Doctor Who rewatch-athon!

Yes, yes, I am! Remember the great & mighty Troughton rewatch-athon of 2009? The year where I earned my degree in Two-ology? Yes, that's it! Well, as you know, I loved doing the rewatch-athon & recapping & discussing all of Two's serials with my friends & so, I've decided to do it all over again, but this time, for the Sixth Doctor! I was torn between doing a Six or Seven rewatch, as I absolutely love both Six & Seven, but with a little help via Twitter, I decided to go with Six. I love Six to absolute pieces & like Seven, I feel that Six is a vastly underrated & far too maligned as the Doctor. Sure, Six had a lot of poor turns during his era, but I think it's time to start remembering & highlighting the good in his era. The things that make him THE DOCTOR, unquestionably.

So, yes, I'll be doing a full Six rewatch-athon, both series & plus a fair few audios. (Mostly the Lost Stories, but a couple of the multi-Doctor stories as well, along with Davros, which is my absolute favourite Six audio, along with being one of my favourite Big Finish audios in general.) I'll also be adding in the Five serials Arc of Infinity (bonus Colin Baker pre-Six!) & of course, The Caves of Androzani, which needs no introduction. I'll cap off the rewatch-athon (most likely) with Time and the Rani, though there could be audios after that.

Now, with all of that in mind, & a loose structure as to how I'll lay it all out, I just need to decide when I'll begin the rewatch-athon. I wanted to begin it this month, but December is such a busy time for people, isn't it? I thought about perhaps January, when I'd have more money for buying more Six serials on DVD (watching them on DVD is SO much more insightful & I'm absolutely dying to hear Colin Baker's own words about his era!), but then I'll be so busy, what with getting back to a student's milieu & with school-related responsibilities.

Though, Six's era is rather short, & even with the audios, it still wouldn't be as extensive as the Troughton era was - that was nearly twenty serials, plus three audios & three (or was it four?) bonus stories. Six's era, even with the Lost Stories audios, wouldn't even come close to being as massive. So perhaps I could do it this month? (I estimate the whole thing taking a month & maybe two or three weeks of January, roughly.) If anyone has an opinion, please do chime in!

Eeek, look at how long this entry became! I was really just popping in to mention the rewatch-athon & to explain about this total Tumblr&LJ blackout & look what happens! O, well, I never can stop talking once I get started, can I? Well, that said, I'm off to collect audios & Six serials for the rewatch-athon & try to catch up with everything!

(p.s. as you may surmise from this post, I was unable to make it to Providence as I so strongly wished to. The barbarian whined & whined & cried & complained about me going, claiming I would run afoul of all sorts of evil creatures, so in the end, I did not go, just to appease her. I live very poorly with that choice, even if it pleased her. But I don't wish to speak of it, honestly.)

(I got stars in my beard & I feel real weird for you)

riverdresses — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 15:29:54 GMT

(one day, we're going to curb my tumblr obsession. today is not that day, however.)

I had the strangest dreams while I was asleep. My father teaching a class of people I knew from art school, Florence Welch & her nonexistent husband giving me a lovely hat & me crying over her describing how she dances, & even some almost-indescribable Star Trek-related dreams.

The best one involved me walking back to downtown San Francisco (only, of course, it wasn't really) from another city one would have to drive to in the waking world. I waked through a shop & then across the street into what was almost certainly some part of China (I almost wanted to write downtown China because that's the only way I could describe it), but was really just downtown San Francisco somehow.

I walked into this place that might have been a train station or a restaurant of some kind . . . sort of like what they have at aeroports. I got into this sort of elevator-cum-glass train that went all through the city of sorts, past all of the huge exhibitions & even around these sort of huge steamboats full of tourists. We went up & down, in insane dream-physics - I think at one point we were holding onto lines & kept swooping up & down around all the people on the boat.

I just remember being up in the air a lot then. & being around water. & the boats, & the old man who found it all very amusing.

At one point, I went through this sort of . . . extended lobby of sorts. An atrium. A plaza. I don't know. It was just long & extended & beautiful. Blacks & whites & tiled surfaces & fountains in some places. I was told that they were all different hotels, some very old & some a bit less older. I must have passed through at least two, maybe three.

There was another place I passed through, after the hotels. It was an old theatre, I think, or possibly the inside of one. (I don't know if it was a cinema or a proper theatre. It might have been a cinema.)

The young (& yes, fairly attractive) fellow who was sort of guiding what I was riding on told me a story about it. I only remember pieces of it, but it involved the man who'd built it & who loved a beautiful girl who was either a flapper-actress or a ballerina. It was now haunted by their spirits, or possibly only by his; I do not recall.

The dream then became the inside of the walls of where we were, where there was a picture of her & sepia-tea-toned lighting. I think we both fell through several levels of the walls before, at some point, we became (or were possessed, perhaps) the two lovers from the past. We fucked madly on the broken, unsanded wood of the walls, trying to hold onto each other & stay in these bodies.

The rest of the dream is a haphazard mess beyond that - it became a Sir John Tenniel Alice in Wonderland illustration, with me living in a tree trunk & having some sort of dream-life version of Beauty & the Beast. I don't remember a thing beyond that, save for everything looking like one of his illustrations & living in a tree trunk.

☂ ☂ ☂ ☂

I don't think that I mentioned in my last post that I'm planning on going on holiday to Providence, Rhode Island in November. I'm hoping to be gone at least a week & to leave on Halloween. While I'm there I'm also hoping to go to Boston, since I'll be reasonably close by.

This is basically my Lovecraft Country Tour '11. & my first time travelling on my own. But I'm really looking forward to it! The only thing I'm a bit saddened by is that I don't know anyone to go visit & have fabulous shenanigans with whilst I'm there. O, well. I suppose I'll have to learn to make my own fun this time. ♥

(& THE WHITE KNIGHT IS TALKING BACKWARDS & THE RED QUEEN'S OFF WITH HER HEAD)

riverdresses — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:32:16 GMT

::dusts LJ off::

. . . I still can't believe that just a couple of years ago, I never would have gone so long without updating/reading my flist/engaging in other LJ-centric shenanigans. Now it's getting too regular for me to vanish for a month or more. Sigh. Well, baby steps + fandom = regular LJ activity, right? Right!

(& that reminds me, sneakyangel virtually gifted me a pair of awesome headphones! Thanks, bbdoll, that was so sweet of you! ::hugs::)

So! I'm popping in before I start getting ready for work (opening the shop today, not being a file slave) to say hello to all of the lovely new friends I made from the Young Justice friending meme! ::waves at all of you:: It's delightful to meet all of you! I'm really rather bad at intro posts, but my big damn fannish megapost can be useful, I think. Also, my Twitter! (Yes, I love Twitter a bit more than I should, I know.) It's locked, but I'll add anyone that isn't a spam account. ♥

Hmm, so, what's new in my little life . . . not too much, really. Life's been fairly smooth for the most part, at least recently. ::knocks on wood:: I did actually start venturing back out into my (past) nightlife activities, after a long, long period of reluctance. I actually had a great time last week & I'm pretty sure I'll be going again this week.

I also saw the fellow again. Erm. That's for a longer post, but the short of it is, it was his birthday last week, I wished him a happy birthday, he said he was glad to see me & had felt kind of bad about how things went the last time we saw each other & I gave him a (somewhat sipped at, but still a valid offering) bottle of Bacardi I'd been (trying!) to drink throughout the night. Good thing he likes rum.

I also need to do a comics squeepost sometime. Mostly because I need to flail about Huntress: Year One in more than one hundred & forty characters. Also, Young Justice.

Also, Green Arrow. (Spoiler alert: the Grell era needs to NEVER EVER END.)

Speaking of all things Oliver Queen, I think I need to do another rec post in the future, but rather than a second Bruce/Wally one (because there isn't enough fic for them in the world!), I'll whip up a nice Arrowfamily rec post! They're not getting enough respect, dammitall! ::shakes fist::

Hmm. Must go get ready for work now. Then I have errands to run, which means I can't stay & spend time with Jenna after she gets to the shop, or start working on the book she's showing me how to create. (she knows a bit about bookbinding & she's teaching me how to do it. Awesome!)

eeeeeeeeee.

riverdresses — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 08:07:19 GMT

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me . . .

Today, I am twenty-two. & right now I'm reading Zatanna comics & playing Bejeweled 3. & in the morning, there will be cake & family.

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TODAY!

(I ran to the tower when the church bells chime I hope that they would clear my mind)

riverdresses — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 09:36:10 GMT

We're not going to talk about how this happened, we're just going to do it!

Leave a comment with five things for me to ~~talk about~~ picspam! Also, if you want five things, comment here for five things of your own to picspam.

I'm dithering about whether I want to watch Young Justice. There's bound to be Kid Flash & Arrowfamily shenanigans, both of which I love, but I don't know. Hmm. I still need to catch up on Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, so maybe I'll wait. I know thiscanbegin is still thinking about it, but do I have anyone else planning to watch it?

. . . Also I happen to be sitting here & oddly panicking at the idea that I have, in fact, completely forgotten how to be fannish/write a damn entry. I really have been away too long, Christ. How do I forget things like this, seriously?

I did, however, just come across a somewhat obscene amount of NA/PDAs while on my search for Verdigris, AKA The Only Iris Wildthyme Novel I Have Yet To Read. Of course, that amount doesn't even approach the quantity of Flash/Green Arrow/Zatanna comics I'm working my way through. Or the JLA ones. WHATEVER. I'LL MAKE TIME FOR EVERYTHING AS I ALWAYS DO. But the Flash/Green Arrow/Zatanna comics come first. FISHNETS & GINGERS O YAY! ~~& that other guy.~~

. . . My birthday's next week. Well, next Sunday specifically, which is today now. So my birthday's today next week.

I'll be twenty-two. Twenty-two is never anything special, of course, I know that, but that's not why it matters. It matters because it's my birthday I suppose & it still depresses me. Birthdays always do, & probably always will. I don't even know what I want for my gifts any more.

(well, some of them you can't really buy. Unless they sell pretty gingers with green eyes & nice laughs. Or pretty, slightly too-thin British blokes who like to snuggle fully dressed, then sneak out & return with a tall cappuccino for me in the morning.)

The barbarian's birthday is next week too, on the third. I gave her an imp of Black Phoenix Alchemy's Zephyr: A gentle white scent, breezes laced with the scent of springtime blooms and citrus. Lemon, lemon verbena, neroli, white musk, white florals, white sandalwood, China musk, bergamot and a drop of vanilla. She's saving it to wear for our joint birthday dinner. I hope she likes it. She does already, but I hope she likes it even more when she actually wears it. (My BPAL birthday gifts were full bottles of The Lady of Shalott, Ultraviolet & The Phantom Wooer, all of which are some of my absolute favourites.)

Did a bit of LJ cleaning recently, mostly in the form of community decluttering & a small friends-cut. I could have cut more, I suppose, but I'm too nice for really big ones I think. Now I'm trying to decide if I should change my layout. I like the poppies, but I found a v. pretty pink & white dotted one that I like.

Also, I hate tags. Just saying. Tags are like a huge ball of knotted yarn, ugh.

(I hunt for you with bloodied feet across the hollow ground)

riverdresses — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 04:08:47 GMT

OKAY! It's been literally years since I've done fannish reccing or link collecting, but this afternoon alouzon revealed to me that she too is a great big Wally West fangirl! EEEK OMG! ::DANCES:: So I decided to do one of my classic rec posts for her, comprised of quite a bit of the Wally fic that I spent my Sunday reading.

So here we have a fair amount of Batflash (Bruce/Wally because YAY!), a wee bit of gen & a few wildcard pairings. I have more, but I'm leaving out the porn, for some reason. (In the old days, I never would have done this! But if anyone wants, just ask!) & also, because I went through hell looking for JL/JLU/DCAU-verse icons, I've got links to some JLU icons that feature my bb speedster!

OKAY, REC TIME.

A Little Less Conversation by shankie (located at Dreamwidth), Wally/Diana, NC-17

I could have almost shipped Wally/Diana in the very early episodes of Justice League, so I had to include this, even though I'm more meh on Diana than when I was a little girl. But if Wally & Diana had ever gone on a date, I could see it as being a bit like this!

A Secret Admirer by shankie (located at Dreamwidth), Bruce/Wally, PG-13

I actually just read this one tonight & I wouldn't have included it since it was so new, but it's very sweet & I could definitely hear Wally's voice as I read it. I just wanted to hug him!

Permanent Vacation by calico321, gen, G

I . . . I love this fic so.damn.much. It's post-Starcrossed & while short, I feel that it really captured Wally after Shayera's departure, just before the League expands past the original seven. It's a little tough to say anything about this one without giving up too much, so I'll say that I felt like it was a very plausible, grounded look at Wally in the aftermath of the final part of Starcrossed. I love it to little bits.

Movie Night at the Watchtower by laceymcbain, preslash, Bruce/Wally, G

This is another ficlet I love so freaking much & just want to flail all over. Very preslash, very wonderful, & just . . . GAH! I love it so much. Also, it shows that Bruce isn't always a cold asshole without a heart & does so quite nicely in-character, I feel. I can't even open this to link it without needing to reread it, so . . .

Domesticity by medie (::waves to her::), Wally/Kara, PG-13

Wildcard! & aww, Wally/Kara is kind of cute when you think about it . . .

Dreamsicle by amarin_rose, Wally/Kara, G

More Wally/Kara! ~~& secretly, my favourite of the two.~~ Kara is extra adorable here & I just want to snuggle Wally all through this.

Date Night by amejisuto, Bruce/Wally, PG

This time, Bruce does the wooing & it makes me go 'Awww' even more. (Also, extra points for Awesome!Alfred!) This is short, but also one of my favourites, I must say.

Fashion Police by amarin_rose, John/Wally, PG-13

Okay, I admit it, I was a solid Green Lantern/Flash girl when I started out with the early episodes, so I have to have some John/Wally here! Also, WALLY NEEDS TO HAVE MORE LAUNDRY MISHAP FIC! 'cause it makes me giggle. & you know it would so happen to him. Silly Wally!

One Week by travelincognito, Dick, Wally, Dick/Roy, PG-13

CRAAAAACK, OMG. ::giggles madly:: Crackfic involving the Teen Titans & Wally as Kid Flash! ::squees:: Though I don't know much about the Teen Titans, or about when Wally was Kid Flash, it's still the cutest thing ever. Wally - well, he's very Wally here & I just love it! Also, Roy Harper! I love Speedy, I do, even if he was a druggie later on. Whatever, Speedy's Arrowfamily. So I love him.

The Way He Loves / Nooner by darkhavens, both Bruce/Wally, R & Nc-17 respectively.

I LIKE BATFLASH PORN. WHY BE ASHAMED?

Also, I really do love The Way He Loves for other reasons, though I haven't figured them out quite yet.

Vault at teland (link gets you more Justice League fic), Wally, Diana, gen, unrated, but I'd say it's PG at the most, maybe not even that.

Another favourite of mine, despite its shortness. I sort of love how vulnerable Wally is in this & the friendship between him & Diana.

& a few fic-related links, though not so much fic themselves . . .

megan_moonlight's lovely Bruce/Wally rec list, which was great in finding so much great fic!

merfilly apparently ran a JLU fic challenge, which, of course features the rest of the team, but there's bound to be some Wally fic I didn't mention here.

The memories section of dcfic_index has an entire section dedicated to JLU!Wally, which I still haven't gone through entirely, but plan to do so! Also, there's the Bruce/Wally section, as well as the more comicverse-centric Wally section. The whole memories section is actually a great place to look, since there's Clark/Wally, I know, probably more John/Wally, some Diana/Wally . . . yeah, go, go, look for yourself.

& icon links! I found most of my Wally icons by looking through comicbook_icons & found a lot by gabenut here, here, here, here, here & here.

delectableoomph also has a few comicverse!Batflash icons right here.

& lastly, on the suggestion of alouzon, a video! A video of Wally being awesome & making me cry, all in one go!

*That was me attempting to save everyone's flist with the smallest embeddable vid I could resize it to. Um, hopefully it worked?

Edit: Because I just learned that One Week has two more crackalicious stories that follow it!

Another Week - this one is smutty & adorable, & also features Ollie being hilarious, as per usual. Aww, Ollie. ::beams::
Sick Week - I'm cheating & reading it now, but o, this series is so cute!

(It's all of the good that won't come out of us and how eventually our hands will just turn to dust

riverdresses — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:35:31 GMT

O, goodness! It's been so long since I've done one of these, but we have a linkspiral to share!

♥♥ It’s Time For Top Ten Sexy Geek Nominations!

Violet Blue's posting her yearly call for the sexiest geeks for 2011! I ♥ Violet Blue's blog; fun, sexy & informative about everything related to sex that you can imagine. Got a question about some obscure, shocking sexual act? Violet's the bird to ask about it! (& all of that should tell you that her site is really, really, not worksafe.)

♥♥ Anne Boleyn B Necklace - Gold-plated Edition

I just died when I saw this - ever since I was a young fourteen-year-old who was madly obsessed with the history of the Tudor dynasties & saw my first portrait of Anne Boleyn, I've coveted her beautiful B necklace. Since everyone calls me Betsy, I too can wear the B! (& here's the luxury edition!) Also, there's not just that, but there are replicas of so many pieces that were worn in The Tudors & not just by Anne - go look for your favourite wife! Not to mention all of the other goodies there, & the fact that the entire site is also a full resource about the lovely miss Anne Boleyn & her life. Go have a look!

♥♥ The anatomy of snowbirds

Here, have some Neil Gaiman looking like 'a Jewish ninja' & being wrapped up in a v. Four-esque scarf & actually looking quite like Four. ♥

♥♥ [untitled]

Skylark talks (not) writing down dreams.

♥♥ This Year’s Top Hot Sex Books for Gifting, Coveting

'My personal library has overgrown several six-foot-tall bookcases, and books are piled tastefully all over my flat. They are all very naughty books.'

O, so, shameless, lady Shelley . . . but what's winter without a bedwarmer for yourself? ::giggles:: Violet Blue does just what it says on the tin: suggests some of the sexiest books to gift for your holiday of choice! She covers nonfiction, short story collections & photo books. (Also, here is another v. saucy gift guide of hers just recently posted!)

♥♥ Logan White photography

A treasury of beautiful, sexy truly stunning photography I discovered via Violet Blue this week. Not worksafe at times, but definitely worth a full look around. I'm in love!

♥♥ We wants it - Radhost Complector

O, darlings! Like a round, holdable, magickal TARDIS! Go! Feast your eyes upon this!

♥♥ Leopard.

Carrie of WishWishWish has a new leopard coat - she looks perfectly Edie Sedgwick in her snaps! This would be the sort of leopard coat I want - the sort I can wear as a frock with black net tights, just as Edie did sometimes. ♥ Alas, the place she got hers from does not ship outside the UK & Ireland, otherwise I'd have looked at buying it for myself. Sob!

♥♥ Marie-Antoinette’s android: the dulcimer player

Don't you see a bit of Doctor Who fic in this item, sweetlings? It could be a bit to reminiscent of Girl in the Fireplace, but with the right writer, you never know . . .

♥♥ Dead Drops (vimeo)

'‘Dead Drops’ is an anonymous, offline, peer to peer file-sharing network in public space. USB flash drives are embedded into walls, buildings and curbs accessible to anybody in public space. Everyone is invited to drop or find files on a dead drop. Plug your laptop to a wall, house or pole to share your favorite files and data. Each dead drop is installed empty except a readme.txt file explaining the project. ‘Dead Drops’ is open to participation.'

This feels so sci-fi & yet, so . . . I can't quite find the word for it, but I can feel what the word means. The actual word just eludes me at the moment. But isn't this fascinating?

♥♥ Magical See-Through Doorknob

A bit space age, a bit magickal! Can you imagine how it would look if one side was dark & the other side of the knob was bright & lit up? It would feel v. Coraline-esque!

♥♥ Twenty Unique Bathtubs

Honestly, give me a pushable, moveable clawfoot bath & I would be the happiest lassie about. But nevertheless, some of these baths are just exquisite! I've actually seen one similar to the Evok bath when I was in Lake Tahoe one year! Alas, I didn't get to sit in it. O! ::pouty:: But I'm just in love with the Library Bath & its exact opposite, the La Scala Whirlpool bath! Which are your favourites?

I've a few other things to write about, one more real lifey, one fannish & one more ponderous, but I'll save them for a bit later. ♥

riverdresses — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 10:59:29 GMT

For all of you that gave out good vibes & love for my fluffyface to get well,

♥

He's doing so much better after an overnight stay at the kitty-only clinic & on his new medicines. He's meowing & sitting in laps & purring all like he used to & I can't even begin to describe how much this means to me. My fluffy is okay! ::twirls him::

&&&&

I finished Sherlock! sonicbookmark said I would just adore it & o, how I did! I was delightfully shaky with adrenaline & total YAY afterwards, then promptly spammed at Twitter with my YAY. (I'm only partially sorry, darlings; my joy is always hard to contain!) Alas, the used bookshop did not have series one, so I'll have to go downtown after work tomorrow to get it.

O, Sherlock is just lovely. I want to watch it all winter with tea. ♥

Perhaps that was the reason I was so sparklingly happy today - happy like I haven't been in so very long. I wanted to dance & sing & twirl about on the sidewalks & just behave like a little ray of sparkle on an autumn afternoon. Or perhaps it was because it had rained all night & into the afternoon & looked just perfect outside - full of clouds & sun in the sky & lots of glittery pools of water under that. It looked like a true, memorable day for me - it's hard to describe, since what I'm holding it against is really just inside my mind & most likely in no one else's, but what it was is so close to what's inside my mind that it was . . . it made me feel right on the inside, like how I always used to feel.

My joy was so strong that I almost cried at one point. I had no reason to do so; other than being just so happy. It felt odd, but it didn't particularly dent my euphoria.

Eventually, my almost mad happiness wore off & I began to feel more on an even plane of emotion, surprisingly, after I arrived at the bookshop. I went in search of tea books for research in writing (there were far too many people in the cookery section & it made it hard to breathe, really) & spent an hour or more wandering around the shop, just to look at all of the books.

I wandered into what they call the Granny Smith room, where I haven't really explored before - it's where the histories, linguistics, philosopies, anthropologies, mythologies & criticisms are held, but I might have left out a few there. It felt very different from the rest of the shop, I must say. It felt quieter, older, & . . . o, this is mad & quite silly, I know - the words in the room were just so palpable, somehow. I could feel them, truly, I could!

I just . . . I wanted to wander there forever, though it wasn't a very big room. But if I could have wandered through there forever, just sucking in all of those words on the air, I would have been satisfied.

O, books. ♥ All of those delicious, new, tangly balls of words . . . ♥

I'm sorry for the slight disjointedness of this post, but I did want to update to at least mention how Austin's doing & to say hallo. I actually have lots of things to pontificate on at some point, but when I'll actually do so, I've not a clue. But Austin & I are doing well & everyone's happy that he's back to his old self, especially me.

'I pickpocket him when he's annoying.'

riverdresses — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 10:43:03 GMT

Two-post deals for memes & actual life things from now on. ♥ That way, everything gets noticed!

& now, another meme! This time from vega_ofthe_lyre & I heart this one.

- Reply to this post with the words "BY THE HAMMER OF THOR" and I will pick six of your icons.
- Make a post (including this info) and talk about the icons I chose.
- Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
- This will create a never ending cycle of icon glee.

Keywords: s ↑ a city girl's smile
© extrasolar

I mostly try to only collect Smallville icons from series nine & ten, & maybe some from eight if they're of Tess, but I loved this one of Lois, even though I don't know what episode it's from. But I love her smile & the black scarf she's wearing. ♥ Lois.

Keywords: ☠ still chasing that permanent high
© silent_scream19

& now I bring you Mason's death! ::giggles:: This is Mason right after he drilled a hole in his head, hoping to get high off of it somehow, & well, you can imagine how that ended up.

Also, he's surprisingly cute in those goggles.

Keywords: w ↑ the art teacher
© icons_of_isis

I needed a Seven&Ace icon & I just adored this one. I've never seen this picture before, but I certainly liked how it sort of encapsulated Seven's role as a teacher for Ace.

(I actually have one of Four & Romana looking at the Mona Lisa in City of Death which sort of matches this one. I should upload it!)

Keywords: c ↑ then you are bewitched by reason
© purpleraindrops

There are no words for how much I absolutely love Sleepy Hollow & for how much I ♥♥ Ichabod Crane. In an issue of DWM, they said he would have made a perfect Doctor & I couldn't agree more. I want him & Katrina to meet Eight & Charley!! Eight would totally love talking with him & fussing about in his laboratory, don't you think?

Keywords: c ↑ I'm told you're a writer
© renestarko

One of my favourite films of all time. Marwood♥♥&hearts

Keywords: f ↑ there are no boundaries
© calapine

'If you were blind and there was no Braille/There are no boundaries on what I can feel'

- Bikini Kill, Feels Blind

I fucking love Romana II. Absolutely fucking love her. She is, without a doubt, one of the biggest inspirations to me - politically (definitely), in being brave & really, just in being the best I can. I think of Romana as sort of pre-riot grrrl sometimes, so she got keywords from one of my favourite riot grrrl bands ever. ILU ROMANA.

& I somehow have roughly three thousand words of drunken Mason/Daisy which I'm not sure is going to evolve into something very smutty, or something vaguely clean, but heavy on the depressing things. I'm amazed I even have three thousand words of something I can ponder the direction of, really. But it happened & I'm all, 'WAAAAAA' at how sad this seems to be getting. (I think I feel somewhat guilty at hurting Mason in this.)

Also, I like most of what I have so far. & I've only written them being drunk & sitting in his room. WTF I AM NOT SUPPOSED TO LIKE THE DRECK I WRITE WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME.

I foresee this as getting a bit on the lengthy side, honestly.

& in other news, I got to see some of Sherlock tonight. This version of Sherlock is a serious BAMF & I fucking love him. ♥__♥ & his Watson is like a badass little elf - so cute & adorable, but you know he could cut you without hesitation. ~~Or shoot you, as the case may be~~. But can I just say that Martin Freeman looks a fuck of a lot like John Simm? In dark lighting & if you didn't know one of them too well, you'd think they were either brothers or the same bloke. & they both have a little woodland creature thing going on - they look like bunny rabbits!

Also, MARK GATISS. FUCK YEAH. Along with SHERLOCK/JOHN, FUCK YEAH! ~~But he's allowed to meet & sleep with Tess Mercer, 'cause she's as much of an HBIC as he is a BAMF. Together, they'd blow up the world. Or at least Metropolis.~~

riverdresses — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 12:06:11 GMT

I sense a two-post deal coming up.

But first up, a meme from nentari!

Comment with ORANGE KNICKERS and I'll give you five questions to satisfy my curiosity. Go post the answers on your journal with these instructions and spread the madness!

(I'll warn you now; my questions will be dull & most likely quite shallow. I never like to ask too deeply probing questions - it's not very ladylike.)

1. Shag, marry, kill: Fitz, Mason, Zod?

DAMN YOU. ::tickles:: This is an evil question & you know it! But I'll play.

Marry: Fitz, of course. I'd hope he'd bring me flowers & cigarettes, & I'd make him cupcakes every week.
Shag: Zod - DO YOU EVEN NEED TO ASK?
Kill: Well, I suppose this time it'll have to be Mason, but considering the fact that he's undead, he'll be back in a few minutes ~~I'll have a chance to shag him next~~.

2. You wake up one day to discover you're now a character in your fandom of choice. What's the fandom, what's your role in the story, and who are your allies and enemies?

::pinkens:: O, well . . . goodness, I always find questions of this sort a bit embarrassing . . . I think I'll go with the Doctor Who fandom. Erm, character-wise, I think I'd like to be something like Leela - a very fierce, strong warrior with lots of knives! But maybe a bit more on the girlish side if possible. & maybe with a surprising aptitude for knowledge, who would leave to become a scholar, if I travelled with the Doctor. I'm not sure what my role in the overall scheme of things would be, actually, but I'd like to do more at first than just meet the Doctor & go travelling with him after only one adventure. Maybe be a bit of a recurring character at first? & as for allies & enemies, I think I'd like to have a confrontation with the Cybermen at some point - to show that I'm not just a wild thing - or, to show that I am a wild thing, maybe zombies? Zombies are awesome. (& they've already had vampires, after all) Allies . . . well, if I'm travelling with the Doctor, then I'd love to meet former companions!

3. Name something you really, really want to do in the coming year.

Fall in love. ♥

4. Which language would you love to be able to speak?

Hmm! I've tried over the years to learn various languages, but I've never really had the grasp of them. Perhaps Russian? It's a pretty language, I always thought, & hee, my alter ego is a Russian cosmonaut.

5. Someone wants to make a movie of your life, and you get the role of executive producer (i.e., you can pick everything and everyone you want for this project). What's it called, who directs it, and who plays you?

Would you believe I used to think about this when I was a teeny miss? ::giggles:: Hmm, I assume anyone living or dead can direct it? If so, I'd like Fritz Lang or Tod Browning to direct it - Tod Browning directed the thirties version of Dracula & the film Freaks, & Fritz Lang directed Metropolis, which is one of my favourite silent films ever. (Basically I'd like it to be a silent, German expressionist piece, as odd as it sounds - just tell it in dreams & I'd be happy.) I don't know what I'd call it, though I suppose Ellen Page could maybe play me - we look nothing alike, but I think she could play an eternal loser who may seem to be slightly unbalanced fairly well.

(o, this uncertainty is taking me over)

riverdresses — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 05:23:14 GMT

Eye exam tomorrow morning at nine-thirty. Grrrr. Definitely not looking forward to sporting my Tenth Doctor/Clark Kent specs or lacking my Edie Sedgwick-esque eye makeup. But I need an eye exam & more contacts quite badly, so sacrifices must be made, alas.

Damn, why don't I ever buy waterproof eye makeup? Waterproof eye makeup & defogger for my specs.

Screencapping continues to be a pain in my arse & there's a good chance that I'm just going to have to do it manually - screencapping is always nice, but doing it manually in VLC is such a drag - tedious, tiring & frustrating. But my caps just . . . vanish if I try to do it automatically, so if I want caps, I'll just have to do it all by hand. Ah, well. I've got some pretty subject matter to work with, so maybe it'll be less of a chore! It'll just take longer to get it all done.

& in less wah-wah-wah, I went skipping off to fanmix in search of Zod/Tess mixes & whilst I came up empty-handed (booo!) for them, I found - & yes, I'm shocked that I'm even going with this; but crack is fun - a really nice Zod/Lois mix! (Again, my shock is almost immeasurable, but Pandora is wicked shippy if you liked those two. & the phone fakeouts & Salvation up until the phonebooth scene are also pretty shippy. I'd . . . read it? & okay, maybe ship it. But I'm too busy scheming on how to promote moar Zod/Tess to think of them.)

I also ~~forced myself to sit through~~ watched Superman II last weekend. It was . . . well, not my thing, but it was nice. & I thought the fortress of solitude looked really Gallifreyan in design, which amused me during all the dull bits, i.e., the non-Zod or Clark bits.

& you know, the weirdest thing? I came out slightly hearteyes for Clark Kent. But then again, I've never been overly fond of Superman - he bores me, actually, & I was a Batman girl as a child. But Clark? Awww! He gets me right in my heart because of that sweet awkwardness he has. I like cutely awkward sorts!

Hmm. I remember once talking with nentari about how Sarah Jane Smith, in her early serials with Three, was very Lois Lane-esque herself, even in her wardrobe & overall look. I definitely saw that in the film & I sort of see it in Smallville!Lois too, even though I don't think she & Sarah are as much alike there. I think Smalliville!Lois is maybe a bit more Martha Jones-esque (especially in Pandora!) than Sarah-esque, but they're still a fair bit alike. But, hey, I loved Martha too, so it's a win-win situation all around.

& I'm pretty sure all of that preamble was just so I could mention how the Genesis song Me and Sarah Jane made me think of Clark & Lois without everyone thinking I'd lost my mind. (well, it sort of does! I think you just have to use your imagination to make it fit a bit.)

I went back to using my Twitter today at sonicbookmark' ~~enabling~~ suggestion, since she's using hers more lately. I'm riverdresses there as well, should you want to follow me! (I update way too much there; you've been warned)

Hmm. Sort of want to practise my eye makeup now in lieu of of being able to wear any tomorrow - I know some of it will stay on & make it look like I have some on, so I'd have more of a Nico-esque, rather than Edie-esque look.

Also, LJ fucked around with the tags again, & made it so that any tag with a slash is basically a broken link, so I have to start reorganising my tags soon. GAH, WHAT THE FUCK WAS WRONG WITH THE OLD SYSTEM, REALLY.

Edit: AAAAH OMG, THE MAKER OF SAID MIX MADE A BUNCH OF BEAUTIFUL ZOD & ZOD/LOIS ICONS FUCK YES! ::DANCES:: (It's been a bitch to find good, gorgeous, awesome Zod-centric icons. I DO NOT APPROVE. ::hisses:: brb, swiping & uploading all of them.)

Edit II: I forgot to add above, that after a little thinkythink (& seeing the Zod/Lois icons I flailed about above), I've come to the conclusion that Zod/Lois = Simm!Master/Martha, but somehow, not as squick-inducing for me. (I can read Simm!Master/Martha, but it kind of makes me uncomfortable & I've never figured out why.) Zod/Lois, on the other hand is just hot & twisted, & not like Zod/Tess - that's just evil & hot. So I could feasibly enjoy them more than I ever could Simm!Master/Martha. Go figure.

riverdresses — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 08:28:54 GMT

FIRSTLY! Since I haven't been updating much, I haven't had a chance to let m'dearest nentari know that I received a lovely surprise in my postbox recently! Will you forgive my sloppiness, sweetheart? I adore my book so much & I'm very touched that you sent it to me. Thankyou so much, love! ::hugs you::

It's been indescribably hot here for the past four, nearly five days; as in ninety degrees right here in San Francisco. It's been so intense that I can barely sleep at night & I've been getting rather dizzy & headache-y at night. It's been lovely out, but just too hot.

Went to lunch with the lovely girl I work with & my physician/boss/neighbour. She said the office had been doing so much better, so we could celebrate. It was a very nice lunch in a very nice cafe & the three of us had a splendid time. I also learnt a touch about wine with a few sips of a rather nice white wine. & happily, it didn't taste like furniture polish or make me want to cringe after I tasted it.

(I'm really bad with wine, actually; I sort of hate it. Champagne or something cute & mixed for me please! Or a Guinness.)

Speaking of being out & about with people, I think my own return to nightlife is going to be a lot sooner than I had originally thought it would be. Ideally, I would have liked to return this very week, but I think I'll give it perhaps a couple more weeks, if not just one more.

I'll probably feel the mad sense of panic when I'm actually on my way there, but right now . . . I don't feel any of that. Rather, I feel kind of excited to go back. White Zinfandel & Gauloises on Thursdays again. ♥

Also, I have a question for my dears! Does anyone use GOMPlayer to screencap things? KMPlayer's display kept fucking up when I tried to cap my Smallville DVDs & of course, VLC is kind of useless when it comes to screencapping, I find, unless I want to do it all manually, which I don't.

GAAAAAAAAAAAH, WHY IS SCREENCAPPING SO FRUSTRATING FOR ME. ::growls::

& curiously enough, sonicbookmark has suggested that I return to Twitter (I've rather abandoned it) & well, I'll be seeing everyone there soonish, I do believe! At least my Twitter app will get a little use now . . .

riverdresses — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 01:30:52 GMT

I felt that if I just laid down among so many books, all the sleeping thoughts around me, I had the best chance of blossoming back into myself, to remember who I was.

It's gone now. But it's a good sign.

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

(every silver shell that you crush will be enough)

riverdresses — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 08:48:38 GMT

Okay, so I was going to post a bunch of sad, self-involved, navel-gazing rambling, but no, I'm going to try & stay a bit more positive & talk fandom instead!

I finally got to hear the second series of Cyberman audios, thanks to infinitejoys! ::blows kisses:: I haven't had a relisten to it yet, but a quick summation of my feelings about it? Mmm, mixed, I'd say. I loved hearing it after waiting for so long for to do so, but I just felt it wasn't quite as spectacular & chilling as series one had been. This series was, no puns intended, more human & organic-feeling. I felt it focused more on the human turmoil & emotion, rather than the Cybermen systematically asserting power on Earth. Also, the cast of characters was bigger in series two, so I suppose it feeling more human was inevetable. I did enjoy it, but I can't quite put my finger on why I felt slightly disappointed by it.
But, I have to say, I wasn't as disappointed in it as I was with Solitare!

& a few spoilery points I wanted to specifically flail & wibble over.

- LIAM & SAMANTHA OMFG. ::jumps up & down::

- Samantha really pissed me off in her interactions with Hazel & the rest of the underground - she came off as so bloody arrogant & self-righteous that I wanted to deck her. I think Liam tempers her behaviour around other humans better, which is part of why I love them so much. They may be total opposites & of course, not even the same species, but I think they do a lot of good things for each other, even if they don't realise it right away.

- I really love the concept of Cybrids - I'm not sure if that's canonical to the classic series (no Cybermats are involved in creating a Cybrid; it's just partial Cyber-conversion involving the brain), but even if it isn't, I love it!

- Paul Hunt continued to scare me throughout all four audios. But, I have to admit, I found myself sort of pitying him during his conversion. I mean, I felt really kind of sad for him & he creeped me out in six audios! Then again . . . as I've said, I love Cybermen, but they scare me a lot & I really get a bit disturbed by onscreen, if you will, conversion scenes. They're definitely more disturbing to hear than to see. I was the same way when I listened to Sword of Orion & I was walking home when I listened to it!

- I think I was a touch disappointed by the ending - Samantha's destruction of the Cyber-controller with the truth - with peace, really - while I liked it, I was kind of hoping for more action & more intergalactic drama than what we got. Maybe that's what this was missing - more action! This felt more involved, plotty & talky than series one did. It was a good drama, but I think I wanted more of the action of series one. That might be why I felt slightly disappointed in series two.

- Hazel was a fresh perspective to the series, but I'm kind of neutral on her. Nothing more to say about her, really.

- Overall, I did like this series, but not as much as the first series - the first one had more action & suspense to it, while this one . . . well, it felt like a meatier, more in-depth studied sequel, than the action & suspense thriller that the first one felt like. But then again, I had many chances to relisten to series one while I waited for this one, so that might be part of why I felt this one lacked the 'oomph' of the first one.

O, yeah . . . I might have caught a few episodes of series nine of Smallville recently. & by 'caught a few episodes', that means 'I may have mainlined all of series nine, save for two episodes which I just couldn't get into within the first five minutes, within three nights'.
Now keep in mind I've never seen any Smallville prior to this & my overall impression? It's kind of like Torchwood, but with less death every five seconds. But it has that cracky I-can't-believe-I'm-watching-this-but-I-can't-look-away aspect, I thought.

~~But you know, that might have had something to do with Callum Blue being in a lot of leather at times. ::shrugs innocently::~~

(P.S. I lied; I watched Lazarus tonight & that's all I'm going to say!)

Shocking thing? I actually have thinky thoughts about series nine! I didn't even notice those thinky thoughts sneaking in - sneaky thinky thoughts are sneaky! But I did have the occasional thinky thought about Torchwood when I watched it, so fair's fair, I guess.

Okay, okay, in all seriousness, I did have fun watching Smallville & I think I did like it a bit more than I expected. But if I went back to see anything past series nine, I think it would just be series eight, so I could see more of Tess & of course, Zod's arrival, since Tess & Zod came out as as my two favourites, with Chloe coming in third - she's so Tosh-esque! How could I not love Chloe? & I think, in comparison to Torchwood . . . & here's where everyone's probably going to slap me . . . I liked it more than I liked Torchwood, really. But just a bit. For me, Smallville's in the same category as Torchwood - I watch it for fun, but I might not really get involved in it beyond a few characters & pairings.

(& all of this Torchwood-Smallville comparing is quietly lolarious since the whole time, I kept thinking Clark = Jack, Oliver = Owen, Chloe = Tosh, & Lois = Gwen. But I didn't much like Oliver for most of the time! & I love Owen! Hmm.)

BUT! I got a pleasant surprise in Absolute Justice when Michael Shanks showed up! With scruff! & being a bit Daniel Jackson-esque, but with a seriously acidic personality. & he threw down with Oliver! LOVE LOVE LOVE. SO MUCH APPROVAL. & of course, I was like, 'OMG, surprise!Daniel Jackson! Awesome!' Fandoms colliding!

Also, Zod can build Cybermen. ::gigglesnort:: More or less.

Okay, that's it for now. ::looks slightly sheepish:: I think I've embarrassed myself enough for one post. Must go locate Zod & Tess icons. ::skips away::

O! & I looked at Big Finish's website to see when Project: Destiny would be released & I'm pretty sure it's out now!! OMFG FINALLY! ::DANCES:: (but I'll probably cry my way through it, you know.)

(different colours made of tears)

riverdresses — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 20:31:04 GMT

(lots of silly to say later ; but my susan fanmix is up!)

Lou Reed's voice.

It's like

.

.

.

sex.

Intense, dark sex in a dim blue room with raggedy, sheer, black fabrics strung up about the room.

Even in the bookshop, so busy & populated, Lou's voice is blissfully chilling me out here.

I am calm.

Just chilled out, blissed out, calm.

(Nico's songs make me feel so pleasantly sleepy ; she's wonderfully funereal-sounding)

I want this shit on vinyl. Just chill out & listen to this shit on raspy, clicky, creaky vinyl.

(Jesus Christ, his voice. Fuck yes.)

Meow! BPAL!

riverdresses — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:18:26 GMT

Early morning browsing about on Flickr because I'm not going to work today! ♥

(I'm keeping vigil for my iTouch, which Amazon said should be here today. If not, they're in trouble! ::shakes fist::)

I'm planning a bit of a BPAL spree this weekend & with luck, it seems that Dark Delights still has the Summer Blockbusters & Great Duets in Horror lines available for purchase! These are their BPAL lines & o, I'm just in a whirl about which two to get!

I've decided for sure on J-Horror (. . . This scent is spectral, draped in funeral white, and surges with otherworldly, malevolent rage: stargazer lily, white sandalwood, chrysanthemum, and shincha, with white mint, eucalyptus, licorice bark, and blood orange.) which has a lot of notes that I like & just sounds very me, somehow (how pretentious of me, yes? Teehee.), but I'm torn between Giallo (. . . Profoundly passionate and singularly sinister: opopponax, black plum, night-blooming jasmine, benzoin, red musk, violet leaf, orange blossom, mimosa, mandarin, smoky vanilla, tobacco, patchouli, and black amber.) & German Expressionist Horror (Casket dust, black musk and khus, musty velvet, black pine needle, patchouli, myrrh, and black pepper.), though I'm not as wild about all of the notes of it. I like the casket dust, the musty velvet, black pine needle & patchouli, but I'm not so sure about how the black musk & black pepper will work on me & if it would come out too masculine, possibly. But I adore German expressionist horror films & have ever since I was a child. (My aunt was very progressive & I got to see a lot of them when I was very young) I like most of the notes of Giallo & it sounds like a very warm scent, in comparison to the cool, chilliness of J-Horror.

I'm also considering a bottle or two from the most recent limited edition release, specifically from the Gothic Literature: Vol I & one from the Halloween: Mnemosyne line. The one bottle I want from the latter is Halloween: San Francisco: Salt air wafting in from the bay. Rain falling on rain-soaked leaves. How can I not buy a bottle of a BPAL scent inspired by my home?

As to the Gothic Literature: Vol I line, I am over. the. moon. that they have one based on Byron's work - The Byronic Antihero, which I've mentioned here before: An aristocratic cologne of titanic passions, moody and brooding. This scent is dark with disillusionment and cynicism: a Victorian fougère and a dashing carnation boutonnière tainted by a cloud of khus, yew, and patchouli. I know it will probably be quite masculine, but . . . o, I really want to try it! It's a Byron-inspired scent! There's already a scent inspired by Shelley's Ozymandias (which, I should possibly get an imp of if I get this one, to match, since I'm so silly), but there's no general catalogue one for Lord Byron. Swoon!
The others that I'm quite enamoured of are The Madwoman (Dusty white sandalwood, ragged cloth, and a dry, long-dead bridal bouquet.), The Unsavory Grave-diggers (An unearthed oakwood coffin, cemetery weeds, and a hint of booze.) & I'm debating The Unsteady Governess, but it sounds a bit too simple a composition for my taste, with only two notes of white tea & violet leaf. I think I'll pass on that, since it doesn't really catch me as the others do.

So, poll time!

View Poll: BPAL madness!

♥

riverdresses — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 12:33:10 GMT

Trying my imp of Galvanic Goggles out at the moment, which I was lucky to receive free in my last BPAL imp order.

Metallic notes with Indian musk, tobacco flower, and African balsam.

Erm . . . well, I did just put it on a few minutes ago, so maybe I need to let it sink in better, but so far, it's proving just too masculine for me. Plus, it's quite strong & I wasn't expecting it to be so strong, & I've got a fair bit on one wrist. (& it might have even got on my nose during my usual obsessive wrist-sniffing after I put it on)

I've been listening to the heap of audios I acquired in preparation for my new iTouch, which, somehow, Amazon is now informing me, has been lost in the mail. (Well, near enough, anyhow; they're going to call me back on Monday & if I haven't got it by then, they'll send me another one) Incredibly frustrating & disappointing, yes, especially since I've been waiting nearly a whole month for it & have been waiting years to actually get one.
But, audios! I have Situation Vacant, Nevermore, Solitare, Medicinal Purposes, Assassin in the Limelight, The Juggernauts, No Man's Land, City of Spires, Wreck of the Titan, Night's Black Agents, Legend of the Cybermen, Cobwebs & the stageplays. I've actually listened to City of Spires, Legend of the Cybermen, Solitare, Medicinal Purposes, Assassin in the Limelight, The Juggernauts & No Man's Land, along with a relisten of An Earthly Child earlier tonight.
No Man's Land was actually kind of disturbing, I have to say, but not on a Natural History of Fear level . . . it was more of a story I found very disturbing in how dark it was, rather than anything else. (& now I'm debating just how much Seven & Ace even care about Hex now) Medicinal Purposes & Assassin in the Limelight are loosely related, but I found the latter not quite as engaging as the former. It dealt with American history, which, despite bad Amercian accents, I love when the Doctor gets involved in, but . . . it just sort of left me cold. I think I preferred the conflicts between Six & Evelyn much more in Medicinal Purposes.

Also, I . . . I feel bad for saying this, but I just didn't enjoy Solitare. It didn't feel like a Companion Chronicle at all; more of a solo Charley story. I liked it in that regard, but I listen to the Companion Chronicles for - well, I suppose insight to how a companion feels about getting into scrapes & intrigue with the Doctor, or without, but . . . something about Charley's felt really, really off. It wasn't what I was expecting at all, & I wasn't impressed with the format of it, I guess - I loved the Celestial Toymaker & the Eight!doll, but I was hoping for a story. Not a full audio, I suppose.

That said . . . I ♥ the Celestial Toymaker & his creepy doll obsession, Charley's oddly adorable confusion & DOLL!EIGHT WAS LOLZ. ::pets him:: & I DIED at Nick Briggs recounting India's total creeped out-ness when she was in studio with it. I COULD JUST SEE HER FACE! ::dies:: Aww, poor India . . . I think. ::giggle::

Now I wonder if Paul saw the doll. Someone needs to find this out!

(& now I'm gigglesnorting over the idea of Paul seeing himself in ventriloquist dummy form . . . poor dear!)

& yes, I was a very bad girl & listened to City of Spires, then went right into Legend of the Cybermen - very, very bad Betsy! I couldn't help myself! THERE WAS ZOE & CYBERMEN & SIX & JAMIE & SIX & JAMIE & ZOE, I HAD TO DO IT!

If it makes anything better, I know there were bits I didn't understand due to not having heard the other two. But I wanted to save them to listen on my new iTouch. But I might end up listening to them sooner, since it's been lost. ::sigh:: Nothing's ever simple with me, alas. Ah, fuckery.

Also, I'm in a really big Eight mood for some reason. Not EDA-related, but solely audio-related. & maybe the TVM. & lots of Eight/Charley fic. & possibly some Zagreus-related fun. Hmm. Must find all of that, & quickly, if I may.

Hmm. How ironic this should happen when I'm nearly done with my silly little Eight/Fitz mix . . . thing. That I'm still not sure I should really be doing at all, because everyone I know & some that I don't know have done it all before & all far superior to what I could have done. But . . . I just like embarrassing myself, apparently, eh? ::shrugs blithely::

&&&&&

I was thinking back to this silly, whimsical post I made once, what feels like eons ago today. Goodness me, I was a silly bunny, wasn't I? Silly bunny, yes, but it was a fun exercise, thinking up each of the different bedrooms that the Doctor would have in all his different regenerations. Silly & delightful!

& so, I did it with BPAL after a while.

O, honestly - I always do this! It's really too much fun. ::giggle:: It's a lovely, silly, fun little game to play that I should play more often with people!

Though it can be rather hard. One is a very hard Doctor to pick for - he's the classical gentleman of the lot! Even more than Three & Eight! So it would have to be very subtle or traditional . . . as odd as it may sound, I might actually pick something from the Phoenix Steamworks Research Facility line - perhaps No. 93 Engine or even Galvanic Goggles - I keep thinking of One working on the TARDIS controls & engines a lot, for some reason, which makes me think of mechanics. Galvanic Goggles has a hint of tobacco flowers, which would also fit him, since One is said to be the only Doctor ever seen smoking a pipe once. Though No. 93 Engine matches the idea of him working on bits of the TARDIS better. Hmm. But Velvet in the Bewitching Brews section would be welcoming & cosy for him - after all, he is a grandfather: Envelop yourself in the soft, sensual embrace of gentle sandalwood warmed by cocoa vanilla and a veil of deep myrrh. I would actually say it's a perfect match!

Two's also a bit hard, I think. Something clean, but hardly easy to pin down. Nothing too traditional either, or anything honestly flirty - whatever it is, it's very quiet, yet memorable, like Two himself. Perhaps 51 from the Wanderlust collection: Luminescent, glowing, and otherworldly: green mandarin, neroli, honeydew, white amber, guava, freesia, white and green musks hovering over desert scrub, smashed wood, and the dry, biting scent of night air over the Groom Lake salt flats. It could be slightly overpowering, but if worn lightly, could be perfect!
Though he's also a very Zen space beatnik, so perhaps he'd enjoy Kathmandu: The scent of sacred incense swirling up the steep slopes to Swayambhunath Stupa. Saffron, blessed sandalwood, Himalayan cedar and the miraculous lotus of the Buddha with chiuri bark and Nepalese spices.

Of course . . . maybe he prefers Glasgow, to tease certain hot-blooded young Highlanders that he knows . . .

Three's a bit easier, but o, so many choices for him! Once again, something Steamworks-oriented would be perfect for him, what with all the TARDIS tinkering & scientific mechanics that his work on Earth entails. But with Three, one can go a bit over the top, since he's one of our three dandy Doctors - so he needs something a bit powerful & mysterious. Possibly the The Robotic Scarab for a gentleman scientist: Polished metallic notes, glossy leather, frankincense, star anise, and thin lubricating oils. Or maybe even Rome: Refined, austere and graceful. A recipe gleaned from Classical Rome: cypress, juniper, chamomile and rose. I'm not so sure about the rose, though . . . a bit too feminine, possibly. But refined & graceful are very Three indeed!

Four . . . now how do you encapsulate space bohemianism in scent form? Well, I'm certainly looking up the right perfumer to do so! Strangely enough, however, I find myself feeling that perhaps Miskatonic University would also work very well for him - the Doctor, in any form, loves his books, after all.

Five, surprisingly, is my favourite to ponder this question for - I want to give him something from the Mad Tea Party collection! Might I suggest either Mad Hatter (A gentlemen's lavender-citron cologne unhinged by the feral pungence of black musk and a paroxysm of pennyroyal.) or March Hare (A twisted teatime tart: apricot and sweet clove.)?

(seeeecretly . . . I feel that when he was the Doctor, Peter Davison would have made the perfect boy!Alice. He had the innocent little face & sweet demeanour for it. Boy!Alice!)

Six is - o, Six may be a bit hard, now. I have a bit of a silly notion of Six seeing himself as a bit of a ladies' man, though I know that honestly, he probably doesn't, but either way, Six is the dandy Doctor who needs a bold, charming number to match his fashion sense, of course. Believe it or not, I could see Six enjoying Wilde from Bewitching Brews: A sophisticated traditional gentleman's cologne, with just the slightest taint of patchouli's passion, tonka bean's decadence, the philanthropy of bergamot, moss' cynicism, the sharp wit of lavender, and the hopeless romantic longing of jasmine and thyme. He is, after all, the most poetic & wittiest of the Doctor's regenerations. So it's only fitting that he should wear something named after one of the wittiest men to ever walk the Earth.

Seven's BPAL is almost terrifying to contemplate - I think of him as the darkest of all eleven of the Doctor, after all & he can frighten me quite well in his audios. You'd think I might try something from A Picnic in Arkham, but no. Not for Seven. Seven gets a scent from the Ars Moriendi catalogue - the funeral oils. I offer for him Thanatopsis: A meditation upon death. Inspired by William Cullen Bryant's poem. A deep, solomn earthen scent containing pine, juniper and musk. It brought to mind some of the things he says in Night Thoughts, which, barring Zagreus & The Natural History of Fear is one of the most frightening audios I've ever heard.

& speaking of Zagreus . . . o, yes, I'll admit it, trying to select just the right BPAL for Eight was the most fun of this whole exercise. It was utterly fun, but gah! it was also very hard! Something romantic, but not over the top or too outrageous, something somewhat dark, but not so frightening, & yet, playful & whimsical, as Eight often is. I found myself tempted to suggest Vicomte de Valmont (. . . Based on an 18th century gentlemen's cologne: ambergris, white musk, white sandalwood, Spanish Moss, orange blossom, three mints, jasmine, rose geranium and a spike of rosemary.), but I worry it's a bit much for Eight.
In one of my favourite Eight&Charley audios, I do believe Charley says he smells like tea at one point. (o swoon!!), so perhaps The Dormouse would fit Eight well: A dizzying eddy of four teas brushed with light herbs and a breath of peony. That's very Eight, is it not?

(as a side note of fangirlishness, one of the limited editions just released for Halloween & entitled Gothic Literature, Vol, I contains a blend called The Byronic Antihero & is described as 'An aristocratic cologne of titanic passions, moody and brooding. This scent is dark with disillusionment and cynicism: a Victorian fougère and a dashing carnation boutonnière tainted by a cloud of khus, yew, and patchouli.' I . . . THAT'S ZAGREUS IN A BOTTLE, I SWEAR. ::keels over from happy lust:: & yes, I'm debating whether or not I should buy a bottle of it. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT OF ME WITH A TITLE LIKE THAT?!)

Nine, I actually just associate with leather, but I'm sure there's something for him as well! Why not Darkness? Bottled gloom; the essence of oblivion. Blackest opium and narcissus deepened by myrrh. Leather yes, but he did just blow up an entire planet one regeneration ago. So he can have a gloomy scent.

(a side note: I actually have Darkness, but it just didn't work on my skin. It smelt too much like generic perfume, so it's in the trade pile.)

Ten . . . now it shouldn't be a secret that I absolutely hate Ten for many different reasons, but for the sake of the game & the exercise, he can have one. I don't promise it won't be unbiased, however.

Hmm. For the self-proclaimed Time Lord Victorious, the destroyer of worlds (perhaps the only thing I would ever agree with Davros upon), the last of the Time Lords, I offer up Faustus: An infusion of incalculable power and irresistible temptation. Truly an exercise in megalomania and self-gratification: frankincense and cinnamon, darkened by violet.

One day, I'll figure out something for Eleven. Promise. ::beams:: For now, I'm feeling quite weary & am longing to retire to bed. Goodnight all,

(come on baby now take your guitar I wanna practise all night long)

riverdresses — Sun, 02 May 2010 09:28:33 GMT

snap by zseike

I want

to be really amazing with polly ♥ a drawer full of pretty, pink&white gingham & black lace underthings ♥ to dress like a flapper every day ♥ to have a chocolate milkshake with some really peachy people ♥ more mason/daisy fic ♥ to read more books ♥ spring days & summer nights ♥ a really fab job ♥ a tea party with her belles de vintage in the shakespeare garden ♥ more tea parties! ♥ to stop writing in capital letters ♥ to fall down the rabbit hole ♥ to travel in the TARDIS ♥ to wear ruby red slippers ♥ to fall in love ♥ jellybabies at easter ♥ to have actual self-confidence ♥ to never wear trousers again ♥ to go dancing ♥ more eight/fitz smut (!!) ♥ to find & try on an original mary quant frock ♥ to shamelessly crush on ossie clark & his aeroplane frock ♥ photography lessons ♥ a mentor ♥ barbarella hair ♥ a girlfriend who's just as much a dolly bird as me ♥ to finish playing with miranda's icons ♥ to skip to the park on a nice spring day ♥ a bloke who will go record-collecting with me, then take me on a picnic in the rose garden ♥ to not be sad any more ♥ to finish my grandfather paradox/zagreus crack!mix ♥ to actually write again ♥ more zines to read ♥ ice pink&ice white varnished nails ♥ cupcakes!! ♥ a fab new kimono to wear as my dressing gown ♥ to be twirled around in someone's arms ♥ someone who will read me to sleep, even if I'm a grown-up miss ♥ a second kitty ♥ cute pedal pushers & pretty tops ♥ to have brigitte bardot's hair, every day ♥ UNPREDICTABILITY ♥ pillow fights ♥ more smiling & less tears in the world ♥ to finish a new issue of riverdresses ♥ to be anais nin ♥ to be glamorous ♥ to travel everywhere ♥ ginger locks & matching eyebrows ♥ to weigh 100 pounds ♥ to look more like a lunar crash landing than a california sun queen ♥ to be called a duchess by a very cute sailor ♥ to type better on marwood ♥ my own shop ♥ a little jewel box of a pad that I can decorate in shades of mod, faerie & castro street hardware&japanese bargain shop ♥ to get spanked ♥ pink hair ♥ pink barbarella hair with gold&silver sparkles sprayed in ♥ to be a bond girl ♥ purple hair ♥ for my green contacts not to hurt so much when I wear them ♥ a pretty, double-loopable pearl necklace ♥ text tattoos on the insides of my wrists & on the inside of my upper arm ♥ lady gaga glasses ♥ awesome friends ♥ holidays by mistake ♥ to steal loads of style from hello kitty ♥ more strawberries, on everything ♥ to get around on a little pink red or blue vespa ♥ to dance the night away like it's 1973 ♥ to live like it's 1966 ♥ for fitz kreiner to get his own companion chronicle & be eight's next audio companion ♥ the perfect red lipstick ♥ huge, feathery lashes ♥ my first surprise birthday party ♥ more perfumes by black phoenix alchemy lab ♥ liz shaw's legs & black boots ♥ callum blue ♥ to form an all-girl band with maracas, acoustic guitar, tambourine & three dolly birds on vocals ♥ you?

riverdresses — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 09:07:18 GMT

Who do you ship me with? meme

Also, what the fuck. I'm twenty-one years old - 'fussy' & 'tired' are not the words I should be feeling like using to describe my mood.

'COME OUT, OLD ONE!'

riverdresses — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:47:11 GMT

& as promised, part two of my insanely epic Leela picspam! This time we have a few caps by yours truly & two lovely pictures of Louise which I just adore.

Also, a fact: I ship Leela with a lot of people. Most of them don't even make sense, but eh, those are always the most fun to discuss!

Just a few: Ace/Leela (this is awesome & scary at once), Romana/Leela (my first Leela ship! Thankyou Big Finish!), Jamie/Leela (I've read this & have so much love for this - more please!), Fitz/Leela (don't ask, it's Leela - I ship her with everybody, it's also Fitz - I ship him with a lot of folks too!) & Leela/Katarina, because it would be adorable & so full of misunderstanding on each of their sides. (plus I adore Katarina, I DON'T CARE THAT ALL OF HER SERIALS WERE BURNT, ALSO, SHE SHOULD HAVE HAD MORE.)

& yes, I'm probably weird because I don't like Four/Leela, but well, I draw the line somewhere! So there.

Once again, this could assassinate dialup easily.