A Brit a Day [#515]

Detective Inspector John Rebus has cleaned out his desk for the last time and is heading for the Oxford Bar....Nah, it's Rickman apartment hunting in New York last year ahead of his run at BAM.

A Brit a Day [#514]

Ian Rankin was born the same year as me, but he has been channeling a much older man since 1987. Rankin is the author of the Edinburgh-set crime novels featuring police detective John Rebus. I am reading 64-year-old Rebus's "retirement" novel right now, 'Exit Music.' [Note to self: cast Alan Rickman as John Rebus in the movie playing in my head.] Kinda don't want it to ever end.

A Brit a Day [#513]

It's nice to have something to fall back on if your career in rock hits the skids. Eddie Argos is a painter, and I've now purchase a second work of his, another diptych in the postcard series. No, I don't own one of the barcode tree paintings, but I think they are really cool. I'm waiting for mine to be delivered, and if you want to see it, you can at his website "Eddie Argos Resource". It's the one commemorating the Acoustic Lakeside festival.

A Brit a Day [#512]

When Ian Cusick returns to series television in 'Scandal' next January, you can be assured that his character Stephen Finch will be perfectly coiffed. So today, let's celebrate that lovely loose forelock with a screen cap from the BBC.

A Brit a Day [#511]

Now this is my kind of social network. Got this nice pic of Alex Turner from tumblr. tumblr is a much better use of space than Facebook IMO.

A Brit a Day [#510]

Dan Radcliffe in that lovely balance of formal wear and long hair that rocked the Yule Ball of HP4.

A Brit a Day [#509]

James Blunt sporting a Ramones T-shirt. My husband has/had the same shirt [it's shreds now] and I have/had it in heather gray with red writing. I don't know when either of the boys got theirs, but I earned mine when I ran lights once for the Ramones back in my roadie days in the 80's at North Carolina State.

A Brit a Day [#508]

While everyone is an honorary Parisian today, The Brit I have my eye on after the final stage of my beloved Tour de France is the newest winner of the Green Jersey, Mark Cavendish. He's the first Brit to ever win the overall sprint [points] competition in the Tour, and he's only the second Brit to take his place as a jersey winner on the final podium.

A Brit a Day [#507]

Today's charming Brit is a temporary resident of San Diego, attending Comic Con this weekend. Here's Matt Smith, aka The Eleventh Doctor Who, at his first panel Thursday.

A Brit a Day [#506]

No, he's not dressed for Comic-Con International. But he is prepared to perform 80's Glam Rock for you. Eddie Argos with his band GlamChops.

A Brit a Day [#505]

The tour de France celebrated 100 years of racing in the Alps today with a grueling climb to its all time highest [elevation] finish at Col du Galibier.

Here is Henry Ian Cusick, not on the grassy slopes of the Alps, not even Kilauea or Mauna Kea, but surely somewhere in Hawaii, most likely Diamond Head.

A Brit a Day [#504]

I still have plenty of great pictures of Alex Turner to share, but there's a matter which must be addressed in his absence today. My daughter and her friends have become quite enamored of Robert Downey Jr's recent portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. I admit that I didn't see the first film, but I've seen its trailer and the trailer for the sequel, and it seems to me that his Holmes is all obvious sexiness and slightly broad humor. Fine, but whatever happened to Victorian Repression? Isn't that what made Jeremy Brett's Holmes so oozy with sensuality, irony and intellect? The fact that it all had to be so strictly contained? I shake my head at the loss of subtlety. I'm going to have to sit those girls down in front of the television and show them how a real man plays Sherlock Holmes.

A Brit a Day [#503]

Dan was his usual charming self on 'Jimmy Fallon' the other night, but then, so was Jimmy Fallon! Enjoy them both in this clip.

A Brit a Day [#502]

Can't help myself--today there's more Snape/Rickman.

I'm seeing more and more of this kind of thing, and I love it. Someone has done a mash-up of Alan Rickman as Snape with "AR in Barchester Chronicles in 1982." The special effects people who manipulated the images to create a young Snape in HP7.2 should have used this approach, which is miles more successful.

A Brit a Day [#501]

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At the New York opening of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2,' Alan Rickman was awarded the MTV Harry Potter World Cup, signifying Professor Snape's victory as the most loved of all the HP characters. I've made no secret of the fact that I have been a loyal Snape supporter since the first time Alan Rickman burst through the potions class door in HP1. I'll never forgive Chris Columbus for cutting that scene short and then Warner Brothers' hiding that deleted scene in an impossibly labyrinthine game on the DVD.

Anyway, there isn't much I can say about the Snape/Rickman chemistry [pun acknowledged but not really intended] that hasn't been said already. So I'll just be quiet and let the loveliness do the talking.

A Brit a Day [#500]

There can be no more fitting 500th tribute to the beautiful Brits than to choose a Harry Potter star for today's Editor's Choice. My daughter and I attended the 12:01 a.m. showing of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2' late Thursday/early Friday. Having read all the books and seen all the films, the line between what is and is not a spoiler comment blurred a long time ago, so it will be a while before I feel comfortable saying more than "It was great!"

The most obvious choice for today would have been Professor Snape/Alan Rickman, since that particular combination of British actor and character is one of the most amazing things ever seen. Colloquially speaking, Rickman hits the quaffle out of the pitch on this one. But I have to stop there. If I go on too much about that, I'll have nothing to write about tomorrow.

Equally amazing, then, is the transformation of the films' leading lady from a little girl who was "still losing baby teeth" as she describes her 9-year-old self to a breathtaking young woman. The honor of #500 goes to the very talented and beautiful Emma Watson.

A Brit a Day [#499]

Art Brut members Eddie Argos, Jasper Future, and Ian Catskilkin at the offices of Marvel Comics in NYC last month.

A Brit a Day [#498]

I'm currently reading 'Around the World in 80 Days' by Jules Verne. Verne's visions and sensibilities have been such an inspiration to me as a designer in the past [not to mention the whole steampunk movement], I thought it was time that I absorb some of lessons first hand. His name and legacy have recently come up when I was reading 'Valhalla Rising' by Clive Cussler.

With this description of Fogg, I present an image of Henry Ian Cusick, stolen from the Darwin bio-pic he did a few years ago.--

He appeared to be a man about forty years of age, with fine, handsome features, and a tall, well-shaped figure; his hair and whiskers were light, his forehead compact and unwrinkled, his face rather pale, his teeth magnificent. His countenance possessed in the highest degree what physiognomists call "repose in action," a quality of those who act rather than talk.

A Brit a Day [#497]

Today is my 20th wedding anniversary--we are celebrating whole-heartedly because we are still going strong. On this day in 1991, Alex Turner would have been 5 1/2. Twenty years must seem like forever to a 25-year-old.

A Brit a Day [#496]

Dan Radcliffe in a picture from a June 2010 karaoke party.

A Brit a Day [#495]

James Blunt and band performing live at JFK airport in February 2011.

A Brit a Day [#494]

A number of years ago I thought I heard that Alan Rickman was going to perform in a movie called 'Manchester United Ruined My Life.' I waited and waited, and sadly nothing ever came of it, in fact, it doesn't even exist as a project on IMDB. I've recently read the book on which it was going to be based, and I can only guess that the script would have been written by the book's author, the Mancusian screenwriter and producer Colin Shindler.

So at least we have the book, which is delightful with one caveat--you have to have been rabid for a sport or a team at some time for the book's emotional momentum to resonate. Most of us fall into that category, certainly, but it helps if that sports team is a perennial underdog as Shindler's beloved Manchester City FC has been for most of his life.

The book's cover shows that Shindler keeps his priorites straight, for this is firstly a book about family. I can imagine that when Shindler began his screenplay, he might have had Alan Rickman in mind to play his eccentric Uncle Lawrence.

Just for fun, I'd like to add the image from the front of James Blunt's 'Some Kind of Trouble'--

I don't suppose James Blunt supports Manchester City?....

A Brit a Day [#493]

Really, those podium girls' dresses get better every Tour. I'd love to have one of those dresses...

Oh...Here he is, the man from the Isle of Man, the Manx Missile, the Fastest Man on Two Wheels, top sprinter Mark Cavendish, receiving his 17th overall stage win in the TDF in yesterday's Stage 7. Here's one thing I love about this guy--he has no aspirations of winning the Tour, ever. He certainly knows his strengths. On a stage with a flat finish, Team HTC-Highroad delivers Mark to a missile launch sprint at the finish line. In a climbing stage, Mark often places in the 100's. Of course this raises the question, is Team HTC-Highroad going to put all of their energy into Cavendish's stage wins, or will they put forth a leader to try for the general classifications?

A Brit a Day [#492]

Olympic gold medalist and cycling Team Sky's lead man Bradley Wiggins crashed out of this year's TDF with a broken collar bone. Wiggins is shown above re-hydrating at the Olympics. The crash happened today in Stage 8.

A Brit a Day [#491]

I have Brits on bikes on the brain today because it is the first week of the Tour de France, and my boy Cavendish, the Manx Missile is still sizing up the competition with one stage win so far this year [his 16th over his career]. More on Mark this weekend...

For today, I just realized I used my only photo of Ian Cusick on a bike last July in honor of the 2010 TDF, so I offer him up in a different leg [pun intended] of the Tag the World Triathlon of a few years back.

A Brit a Day [#490]

Back from Anime Expo, where I saw a lot of great fan art on Artists' Alley and a lot of great cosplayers absolutely everywhere. As much as I enjoy San Diego's own Comic Con, it's nice to be free from distractions like Leonard Nimoy or Stan Lee walking by.

Doctor Who is quite popular right now, and a surprising amount of the fan art at AX supported that, given that the Doctor isn't an anime character. The lovely piece pictured above was not on display at AX [as far as I know], but I have co-opted this internet artist's work to bring you today's Brit--the TARDIS. She took on human form [in the body of a lady named Idris] in an episode this season called 'The Doctor's Wife' [penned by Neil Gaiman] and charmed the socks off the dear Doctor and everyone else.