Cleolinda everywhere

So... I ended up going to bed really early last night with a headful of snerf. Also, yesterday was apparently Everybody Being Bitches Day, and I was tired. Thus, you get a late yesterday/early today linkspam now.

Correction: Abdullah/Windfola was not an Arabian; he was a Trakehner, and a rather famous one at that.

Also, thank y'all for all the Findy Thoughts, because after my failed expedition to the farthest reaches of the attic, I went back to my closet and found The Thing I Need In Order to Write the Next Installment. It's going to be epic, I think.

( Linkspam! )

Spent a nasty rainy day baking six dozen cookies for Mom's work lunch meeting tomorrow. Pretty nice, actually.

Also, that package that went missing? UPS Twitter Dude showed up (on Twitter, naturally) to ask if he could help (I guess they use Twitter search to find mentions of "UPS"?), which was great, and then our communication concluded with, my hand to God, "And by the way, your Twilight commentaries are absolutely brilliant. Good work." I could not stop laughing. Oh my God, I am STILL laughing. I mean, it's a lovely compliment, it's just--of all the things I ever expected a customer service professional to say to me? That was not one of them.

( SERIOUSLY, THE UPS GUY, I CANNOT GET OVER THIS )

Linkspam:

Remembering Natasha Richardson, 1963-2009; Natasha Richardson, 45, Stage and Film Star, Dies (New York Times); Natasha Richardson: A critical appreciation; Richardson Died of ‘Blunt Impact,’ Medical Examiner Says; U.S. Release Plans Uncertain for Natasha Richardson Film, 'Wild Child'; Natasha Richardson: 17 key roles; Lindsay Lohan and Alan Cumming Comment on Natasha Richardson's Death; Rivers recalls Richardson as 'amazing and darling'; Natasha Richardson: Stars and friends remember her. Among the many:

Ralph Fiennes (Richardson's costar in Maid in Manhattan and The White Countess)
"For everyone who knew and loved her, Natasha's death is a terrible, devastating loss. She was a star. A great actress, a beautiful woman, a fiercely loyal friend, a brilliant and generous companion. She was an adoring and loving wife and mother. She was unique. My thoughts and prayers go out to Liam and her beautiful sons, Micheál and Danny and to all her family. I cannot imagine a world without her wit, her love, her mischief, her great, great talent and her gift for living. I loved her very much. She was a supreme friend. I shall miss her deeply."

Helen Mirren (Richardson's costar in The Comfort of Strangers)
"Natasha was a great actress, a fantastic mother, a loving wife and a whirlwind of energy, with an infectious love of life expressed firstly by her wonderful deep laugh. Anyone who knew her will be in mourning today. I hope that Liam and her sons are helped in their pain by the great love and sympathy that is coming to them from people all over the world."

Meryl Streep (Richardson's costar in Evening)
"Tash was the warm sun in the center of a large constellation of family, friends, all of those lucky enough to know her. She is irreplaceable in our lives; she gave us so much, so generously. Her legacy is the love that connects us all."

( I think we all need a laughing puppy now )

Back thataway: the freakishly lifelike Christian Bale/John Connor 12" figure. Seriously, you have got to see it.

( Linkspam )

Sorry--my sister came over (to wash clothes in preparation for her NYCC trip) and we were catching up and I'm desperately behind.

Today's scandal: Stephen King says ‘Twilight’ author ‘can't write.’ OH SNAP.

(And the wank is already delightful.)

Yesterday's scandal: A transcript of Christian Bale's meltdown; the surprisingly danceable remix; More Christian Bale Fun: McG Prophecies, Flip-Hop Remixes, and a Soundboard! Y'all, I hope that, someday, if I lose my shit at top volume for almost four minutes solid, and I happen to be miked, and a recording happens to leak, that the losing of my shit brings the internet as much joy as Christian Bale's has brought to us. God bless.

(In his defense: archnemesis Shane Hurlbut is "a pretty unrepentant light tweaker." This is my new favorite insult. Meanwhile: Gawker begs to differ. In conclusion: there's plenty of fail to go around!)

(Bonus: The Christian Bale Accent Generator.)

Today's Snack Deathmatch: Cadbury vs. Cadbury.

( MOAR! )

Breaking news: Taylor Lautner Locked In For 'New Moon.' And those of us on Team Sparkle Motion rub our hands with a low, evil laugh. Meanwhile: Who Should Play Leah Clearwater In ‘New Moon’? An MTV Staffer Weighs In (rumor: Vanessa Hudgens to Join 'Twilight' Cast?); Twilight DVD Date, Art (large enough to frighten children). Also, take your pick: two, two, two overpriced Twilight conventions! AH AH AH! And finally, Something Awful does Twilight.

( Moar linkspam! )

Oh, wow--someone sent me a book, but I'm not sure who it's from? There wasn't any name or card or information with it. It's something I had really wanted to read for Black Ribbon research, though, so--thank you so much, whoever it's from!

By the way, if you were working the upstairs register at the Brookwood Mall Books-a-Million on Wednesday night, and you sold a copy of Dead Until Dark to two women, the older of which kept saying "SHE WRITES ABOUT THE SHOW" really loudly over and over again, and the younger of which looked like she kind of wanted to die... I need to apologize to you about that.

( You really don't need to go announcing that Twilight is terrible )

Also, I feel like I should say a bit more about The Gift of Fear, since several people raised this concern--( Read more... )

Linkspam!

helpvera was a complete success.

( Breaking news: Jacob recast leaked? )



ETA: Bettie Page passed away this evening.

Sweeney Todd: Can't stop listening to soundtrack, plz send help. The extras on the second disc are fairly decent, by the way. No commentary, but--have you ever heard a Tim Burton commentary? Forget a Depp and Burton commentary--the one on Sleepy Hollow was Mumbletown all the way. But there's a few good bits on the costumes (which, if you've spent any time on this journal, you will know is the really important thing), plus some recording studio footage on the first disc, and a number of tangentially related featurettes (Did you know? Victorian London kind of sucked if you were poor! Sweeney Todd may or may not have been a real person! There's a theater in San Francisco that still does Grand Guignol plays today, and OH GOD WAS THAT AN EYEBALL AUGH WTF).

Speaking of eyeballs (~augh~) ( AUGH )

Anyway. Well, here's a dumb question: who would be interested in an annotated Movies in Fifteen Minutes? Just, in pencil, in the margins of one of the hardcovers--a one-of-a-kind handwritten thing. (It has to be in pencil, because I can't write in the margins of a book with pen. I just can't. It's sacrilege.) I could also print out all the existing online 15Ms, as a separate auction, and annotate them by hand? It's kind of weird to propose this, though, because it sounds like I'm completely full of myself to even suggest it, but it's one of those things--if you need money, and you think there's the slightest chance anyone would want something, you'll toss any idea out there no matter how ridiculous it sounds. Thoughts?

ETA: Yes, I know, bookplates. I have a large pile of self-addressed stamped envelopes to send those out in, to people who requested them an embarrassingly long time ago; I was just never able to get one that looked the way I wanted, and again, it's been such an embarrassingly long time that I may just need to swallow my aesthetic pride and do something much simpler. Point being, I don't want to charge people for signed bookplates. I just... I can't explain it, I just feel like I shouldn't take money for that. A signed book, you know, at least you're paying for the book itself as well. I don't know. So yes, I still need to do the bookplate thing, but that's an issue separate from needing to raise money to pay taxes.


( Linkspam )

Ugh. I'm getting really depressed--not so much moodwise as just functionally, physically depressed. I don't even want to leave the house looking and feeling like this, much less do anything. Like I said before, I think it's seasonally related. It just sucks. Fortunately I have a hair appointment on Monday, which I think should help at least a little bit.

So. TCM the other day. First off, I walked in on the last hour or so of Quo Vadis, which I think I taped about ten years ago and never got around to watching. This was clearly a terrible oversight on my part, as it involves Robert Taylor, who I really, really like (he has a very distinctive voice, I don't really know how to explain it. Also, hot as the sun, if a little needy, in Camille); a pre-King and I Deborah Kerr, Peter Ustinov camping it up while Rome burns, and lions eating Christians. ( Read more... )

So then I actually tried to get some work done, so I kept an eye on The Fall of the Roman Empire but didn't really get into it until about the last forty-five minutes, maybe. ( Read more... )

( Linkspam )

Sister Girl and I were talking just now, and I was telling her about this History of the Universe show Mom was watching (I think?), and how some of the people on it were, like, the dumbest people ever. ( Lauren, I think you're in the wrong field )

In other news, scrambled eggs for dinner last night laid me out but good, but a six-inch Italian sub and spicy corn chips for lunch today? Totally fine. I guess eggs really are hard to digest.

Oh! Cleoville! Cleoville is having some problems. I need more population so I can get to the point where they'll let me put up a clicky link to improve the environment, but the environment's already getting crapful and I have no way to do anything about it, unlike with the previous two things (transportation and industry), so people are leaving "for some unpolluted clean air." Which means that I can't get enough people to stay to get the population high enough to do anything about the environment. Also? Criminals are blowing up factories (I need more security), which is... kind of awesome, actually. I like to pretend the Joker's behind it all. Again, post your links in the comments and I'll click on them (ah, the joys of tabbed browsing).

L'Affaire Edwards: Cassie Edwards Plagiarism Recap; Romance novelist Edwards' publisher reviewing plagiarism claims; Signet: Cassie Edwards Situation "Deserves Further Review"; Why boycotting isn’t a viable answer to the plagiarism issue; Nora Roberts: 'Seems clear' author plagiarized.

While we're here: Another debacle in which Nora Roberts was totally awesome, or, That Time That Someone Thought Film Clips of the Challenger and Tiannenmen Square, The Latter Set to "Don't Worry, Be Happy," Were Appropriate for a Romance Writing Awards Ceremony.

( Massive linkspam )