Cleolinda everywhere

I'll open up comments for this entry--I just didn't have the spoons to deal with them before--but:

@THR: Christopher Lee, Legendary Movie Villain and Horror Icon, Dies at 93 http://thr.cm/VqKAV8

@cleolinda: LRT: I'm going back to bed.

@cleolinda: Raise your hand if you are actually surprised Christopher Lee didn't just scare Death off


Meanwhile: "Antipasto" recap is on the way, maybe tomorrow if things continue to go well. Things did not go well. I mean, I'm okay, but I was hit really hard by some PCOS issues this week, and life slowed to a naproxen-haze crawl. I feel really great about what I've gotten done, but it's taking WAY LONGER than I had hoped. And then, in a completely unrelated development, I'm having a major medication shake-up. So, you know. Persevere. That said, last week's livetweet Storify is pretty tight. "Primavera" is tonight, with the return of Will and more book material, so I'm resting up for that.

BREAKING: Publicist Kristen Foster says singer Whitney Houston has died at age 48.

Oh God, you guys, she still has a remake of Sparkle with Jordin Sparks coming out and I can't find a news channel with any NEWS on!

Okay, MSNBC saw fit to break into Lockup long enough to REPORT SOME DAMN NEWS.

Legendary sword master Bob Anderson dies.

It is reported that the sword-fighting trainer and choreographer passed away today, at the age of 89. Bob Anderson was a behind-the-scenes name little known to many fans but who had a tremendous impact not only on the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, but on cinema itself. Anderson’s many credits include: Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Princess Bride, Highlander and much more. From thelordoftherings.net: “Bob Anderson, the world’s top sword master who has consulted on such films as Star Wars and trained the legendary Errol Flynn, was also brought in to train the actors in different fencing techniques. An expert in medieval arms, Anderson read the novel and then developed sparring methods based on Tolkien’s descriptions of each culture.”

For my money, his two greatest contributions as sword master and/or choreographer are in The Princess Bride and the first Pirates of the Caribbean. Maybe the massive three-act Battle of Amon Hen in Fellowship of the Ring as the third greatest, but for pure fencing swordsmanship and iconic fun, the first two. However, he actually was Darth Vader in a couple of the Star Wars movies:

Anderson also owns a claim to fame for being a swordfighting trainer for several films, as well as a stunt double for Darth Vader in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. He is one of seven people to have played that character. [...] Anderson did not receive much recognition for his role in the Star Wars films for years after their initial release, in part because David Prowse was so lauded for his portrayal that director George Lucas did not want to detract from the boost it gave the actor's career. In a 1983 interview, however, Mark Hamill paid homage to Anderson's contribution, saying, "Bob Anderson was the man who actually did Vader’s fighting. It was always supposed to be a secret, but I finally told George I didn’t think it was fair any more. Bob worked so bloody hard that he deserves some recognition. It’s ridiculous to preserve the myth that it’s all done by one man."

There is very little I love in movies--perhaps in life--more than a good sword fight. If anyone deserves an Oscar montage this year, it's Bob Anderson, and it would be the most entertaining thing in the whole show.

( Clips )

I bring you a final (presumably) SDCC/movie linkspam. To begin:

@dcwomenkicknass: DC Comics SDCC panels: uncomfortable questions about female creators/characters. Apparently what happened was, a woman dressed as Batgirl (with a young girl dressed as Spoiler) (I don't know who Spoiler is) (just go with it) kept going to comics panels and asking questions: ( Read more... )

1) Update on the Wicked Pretty Things anthology: Brenna Yovanoff is the fifth writer to drop out in protest.

ETA: Seanan McGuire is #6, and Ann Aguirre is dropping out of a separate anthology.

2) Diana Wynne Jones has passed away. She was one of those writers I knew was amazing but had never read any of her work. Please tell me about your favorite books of hers.

Okay, more housekeeping.

The new layout: For those of you just joining us, the goal was to make the layout, particularly the comment posting boxes, more accessible to anyone with visual impairment. I threw "November Day" up here just to have something clean and legible for the Oscar liveblog, but... now I actually like it. I went through every single other layout LJ offers, tested more than a dozen of them full-size, and kept coming back to this one. In fact, I don't even think I want to go back to Component now; it looks cluttered and small in comparison. Problem: This layout does not have an option to change any of the colors. So we're staying with it in teal for this week, and then foresthouse and I are going to work on the CSS code over the weekend and shift all the hex codes to purple hues. I had a few people who said they liked the teal better (if it weren't an issue of persona, I'd actually be perfectly happy with it myself), but I also had people who were touchingly distraught at my non-purple existence. So we'll at least see what it looks like changed, live, so we can tweak it. Here's what a screencap of the current layout looks like with the hue shifted in Photoshop and lightened/desaturated a bit, both a warm purple and a cool purple:

( POLL TIME )


On the upside, my parents are both down for the count with a third iteration of Death Blarg, but somehow, I have managed to dodge it this time. I am hoping that better health and weather will lead to an improved awesomosity forecast.

That said, we had a freak hailstorm yesterday:



A quick linkspam: ( Read more... )

First: I am somehow the subject of writertracy's Author Spotlight this week! Also, in lieu of publicity headshots (I have none), I let her choose any of the Secret Life pictures she wanted. Obviously, this involved ponies.

Second: Let's have some linkspam. ( Read more... )

Many things! So many that I only culled the very best links for the spam, and it's still hugelong. Well, it's not that bad. JUST READ IT.

To begin: the new Made of Fail, "Self-Esteem is for Everybody," is up. I'm not on it (Scarlett is of Scarlettopia and the Spoony Experiment is, much to Dayna's twitterpation), but Dayna and I were talking a few days before, and she had me write down what I was saying so she could read it on air (about 28 minutes in), and it was: my advice to geek boys. My sad, hard-won, somewhat embittered advice. Alas, earwax.

Also, the Christopher Pike thing just got better. (Scroll down to "ETA again.") Not only is he now accusing caligirl_08 of being the one with an army of Amazon review sockpuppets, he's claiming that bookfails is "a livejournal community sponsored by someone of Turkish background who has taken things much too far and is trying to rob fiction authors of their artistic license." Such artistic license includes claiming that the Aryans of India are the same as the "Nordic ideal" Aryans.

However: sad news as well.

Hollywood legend Tony Curtis dies at 85. 

Bonnie and Clyde Director Arthur Penn Dies at 88.

'Marty,' 'Chinatown' actor Joe Mantell dies at 94.

More linkspam: ( Read more... )

Quick public service announcements: "As a lawyer, I think Facebook is the worst company in the world": The secret link to delete your account; Facebook Isn’t Private, and 7 Other Things You Should Know; Vox is closing down.

From brandied_plum: "The theatre I usher at (which does live stage shows as well as movies and is 95 years old) is up for a $25,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and I'm appealing to the people of the internets to help us win, and I know we'd reach a lot more people with your help."

Linkspam:

Bessemer native and "Beetlejuice" actor Glenn Shadix dies following a fall in his condo. 


Let's have something cheerful: ( The origin of fangirling )

So. It is time to catch up.

First of all, I have taken Betsy (my previous computer, lost to the Compocalypse) to the Data Resurrectionist, and he says that the OS (which is pretending not to exist) isn't just the problem--some of the files are corrupted as well, perhaps 10% of them, but he'll retrieve what he can. God knows how much this will cost. Footnote-writing takes on a new urgency. I wanted to have the Vampires e-book out before Eclipse, but then, I also wanted it done before last Christmas. This is something else entirely.

Meanwhile, the asshole kids down the street (we are pretty certain) have now started tampering with my stepfather's tires, creeping up to our yard and cutting off one stem valve at a time (you know, where you pump air into the tire). It costs $30 to replace a stem--and that's if you notice it. That's if your tire has helpfully gone flat while your car is still in the driveway, which is not what happened last week--rather, my stepfather was out on the interstate when the tire gave up the ghost. He could have had a blowout, could have crashed, could have been seriously hurt. As it was, the tire had to be immediately replaced. For $300. Which we so totally could afford right now.

Yeah. The police have been called. And if you're reading this, assholes, this particular officer's mother used to work with my stepfather. They know each other. He's taking it seriously. So these four tire-slashing shenanigans have been documented by the cops. When you get caught, you're going down for all of them, and your asshole parents who won't rein you in--who deny that you threw bricks onto our patio and left a ladder to climb over our fence and rang our doorbell at all hours even though we saw you running back to their house--are paying for all of it. Yeah, YOU. I hope you're reading this and you DO recognize yourself and CUT IT THE FUCK OUT. I don't care if you're fourteen. Hope you enjoy juvenile detention.

So... um. Meanwhile!

Sam has gotten his summer cut!


Speaking of which, I think I must have tripped over the dogstacle course that is our house and hurt my right foot--maybe landed on my toes or the ball of my foot weirdly, or too hard--because it's been bothering me since two Wednesdays ago. Basically, since the funeral. And I've been limping a little. It doesn't feel like the bones are the problem--maybe I've pulled a muscle or a tendon? I don't know. It doesn't hurt very badly, but enough to be a pain in the ass. Well, figuratively.

A quick way to catch up on my Tumblr: The infinite-scroll photo collage archive.

Let's have a little linkspam: ( Read more... )