A Brit a Day [#1174]

My mother, who will be 90 years old on the 26th of next month, just told my daughter on the phone that Henry Cavill is the most attractive man she has ever seen.  She told me, "If I'd been at Comic-con, I wouldn't have left until I'd seen him."  Go Mom!

A Brit a Day [#1173]

[The art is not mine.  I found it on Tumblr.]

Today is my daughter's 18th birthday.  I remember what an influence the book 'The Little Prince' was for me around that age.  Plus, my daughter loves the history of Europe in the second world war, and the book is essentially a study of the heart of an exiled poet.  Says Wikipedia,

Saint-Exupéry, a laureate of several of France's highest literary awards and a reserve military pilot at the start of the Second World War, wrote and illustrated the manuscript while exiled in the United States after the Fall of France. He had travelled there on a personal mission to persuade its government to quickly enter the war against Nazi Germany. In the midst of personal upheavals and failing health he produced almost half of the writings he would be remembered for, including a tender tale of loneliness, friendship, love and loss, in the form of a young prince fallen to Earth.

I will make sure she reads it.  But for today's post, what could be a more fitting piece of fan art than The Doctor as The Little Prince?

A Brit a Day [#1172]

The link below leads to a flickr page that Brunel University set up to document a project their aerospace engineering students did with James May: to build a better toy glider--the kind that can fly all the way from England to France--

https://secure.flickr.com/photos/bruneluniversity/sets/72157633095877332/with/8592536732/

You can view the whole program, "James Mays Toy Stories - Flight Club," here on Youtube--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k41z_ujop4

A Brit a Day [#1171]

I found this picture on We Heart It.  It blows me away.

A Brit a Day [#1170]

Here's a meal I could do with about now:  James May at The Dove in Hammersmith--

http://www.squaremeal.co.uk/feature/lets-do-lunch-james-may/2258

On his sex-symbol status: "Perhaps they look at me in the way that I might look at a slightly tacky Jaguar XJS, and think 'that's potentially not bad, maybe I could improve that'."

A Brit a Day [#1169]

Don't get me wrong, I love Loki!Tom, but if I could have seen Tom Hiddleston in just one of his appearances at Comic-con, I would have gone to the Nerd HQ panel.  The work that these two photographers posted online almost makes me feel like I was there.  Check it out:

Andi Cowan:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/99255476@N05/with/9348876090/

Kathy Flynn:  http://wickedgoddess.smugmug.com/People/Tom-Hiddleston-at-Nerd-HQ/30671570_PTG9X3#!i=2649363930&k=V3sSXKg

A Brit a Day [#1168]

Just a recap of The Week in Henry Ian Cusick.

A Brit a Day [#1167]

Oh, Matt. My heart is breaking a little bit each day, I'm going to miss him so much.  I've never wanted so much to stall the coming of Christmas.

A Brit a Day [#1166]

A rerun of one of my favorite finds on Tumblr.  I love how the artist acknowledges how perfect that scene in 'The Avengers' is.

A Brit a Day [Special Edition]

[Not my picture, as you will learn below.]

OMG!: A comic-con story

First I want to say that I never totally believed any of you before, but it’s true—Ian is actually even better looking in person than he is in pictures! I didn’t believe you because I didn’t think it was possible!

So let me go back to last Friday. My son Robert and I got into the conference room where ‘The 100’ panel was to be held about 45 minutes early. The ‘Nikita’ panel was in full swing—boy, there was a lot of love in the room for that show!—so we were in for about a half hour of that. [Side note to sympathetic mom’s: My cunning plan to get there early was already backfiring as 12-year-old Robert was starting the ‘can we leave yets’ and his 3DS Distraction Device was not charged up because late last night his older sister unplugged it in order to charge her own. I WILL DEAL WITH HER LATER.]

After a brief pause between panels, the moderator for ‘The 100’ panel introduced the screening of the first episode, which was shown to us in its entirety. I thought it was great but not awesome—I liked it very, very much, but I didn’t love it with all my soul. By the time the viewing was over, though, even Robert was into it. His assessment was quite accurate, I thought—he said “first episodes are always a little boring” but he can’t wait to see the rest.

Then the lights came up and the cast was introduced one by one, Ian last—which meant, of course, that he was seated on the far side of the stage from where I was sitting. Robert and I had learned during ‘Nikita’, disappointingly, that our phones’ cameras weren’t worth a crap. So I just sat back and enjoyed. [I knew there would be plenty of good pictures online within the hour, anyway.] Ian’s hair was bouncy and lovely [first thing I noticed, naturally] and he was wearing a nifty plaid short sleeved shirt [with khaki shorts, I think]. Everything about him just looked….happy.

Since the episode was about 45 minutes long, the live panel had to be insanely short—about 15 minutes. As usual with these things, the moderator asked some pretty banal questions to get things rolling, and a few audience members got to ask questions too. One woman asked Ian and the lead actress, Eliza Taylor—who is Australian—to comment on having to act with an American accent. As context for this, it helps to know that in the episode, Eliza’s accent is so perfect, it was actually quite a shock to hear her speak in her native accent. And Ian’s American accent? Sorry, not as good as all that. But we knew that—it’s a work in progress.

Anyhow, Eliza said that it was not difficult for her because, before she was acting full time, she had been a dialect coach. Ian then joked, “Good, can you coach me then?” I got the impression that Ian’s less than perfect accent was common knowledge, because the panelists had a good laugh at that. He added, “You’ll save the producers lots of money.”

So that was about it. When the moderator wrapped it up, I watched to see if Ian was leaving immediately, and I saw that he was sticking around to do a few autographs. I turned to Robert and said, “We’re going over there now.” By the time I got near Ian, there was the usual skirmish between photographers and autograph seekers, but I held my ground. [Another side note: I don’t get autographs. To me, asking for an autograph is just an excuse to start a conversation with someone I really want to meet, so I’d rather start the conversation by saying something and having their eyes on my face instead of having their eyes focused on a piece of paper. But that’s just me.]

Then the room security said something like “You need to keep moving, people, these guys [meaning the cast, I guess] have gotta get going.” The photographers went away, presumably to be ready to catch the cast at the next venue where they would be appearing. This gave me a clear shot at Ian, so I caught his eye, walked up to him with my hand extended, and said, “Ian, I’m Jane, I’m one of the Sis--” and before I could say “-tahs,” he had my hand in his and had leant over the table to kiss my cheek!!!

It’s like he knew I was coming! [Big shout out to You Know Who You Are Sistah Kathy My Darling.] I have no idea what he said then, but I added, just to be sure he recognized my name, “We’ve communicated on the, uh, internet,” being too flustered to come up with the word ‘email.’ [snort] Anyway, he thanked me for coming, and I told him I couldn’t wait for the show because it was great, and then we all did indeed have to keep moving, so that was that. A woman behind me said something like “What a sweet man.” As it dawned on me what had just happened, I must have been glowing like a 200 watt bulb. I turned to Robert, and he was in awe of me. He told me later that at that moment I squealed, but I have no recollection of that. He was rewarded for his patience by getting to choose what we did next at Comic-con for the rest of the day.

A Brit a Day [#1165]

For years now, Comic-con and my beloved Tour de France have ended on the same day, leaving me with a big fat case of the blues.  To combat the void, I'm making a super-duper multi-media post featuring some of my favorite images [none of which were made by me] from James May's and Oz Clarke's wine--and beer and whisky--adventure series[es].

I've watched them on Youtube twice [there are three sort-of seasons of it] and would happily watch them again.  Yes, when I finish them, I feel a slight sadness, but for the fun of watching these guys bum around France, California and Britain, I'll happily put up with the hangover.

A Brit a Day [#1164]

Another Comic-con has come and gone.  Here are some faces I enjoyed seeing.  None of these pictures are mine.

A Brit a Day [#1163]

It is a pleasure to attend the same event with these wonderful, talented people, even if I didn't get to see them.  It's just nice knowing they are here in my city.

A Brit a Day [#1162]

OOPS!  I forgot to post yesterday because I was busy at Comic-con doing things like, oh, meeting Henry Ian Cusick!!--I'll give that amazing experience its own separate post later....

Anyhoo, this post is for Friday, and the internet is all aflutter because some people are 100% certain that they believe this fella ^ will be at Comic-con today.  People have been in line since 6 o'clock last night for a panel that that starts at 6 o'clock tonight that he will probably be involved in.  I haven't seen a single picture of him in San Diego on Tumblr yet, so I'm a tad skeptical, but it doesn't matter either way, because I'm not getting in that line.  My only hope is to see him just walking around the convention center like a normal person. Right. And if he happens to be in the Nintendo Lounge or the XBox lounge while my son is playing video game demos and he sits down next to me while I'm on a comfy couch reading my Batman novel, all the better.

A Brit a Day [#1161]

Today is the first day of Comic-con 2013, and I am oh so hoping that I get into the 'The 100' panel with Henry Ian Cusick tomorrow!  I'm bringing my 12 year old along as photographer--his phone is newer than mine.

A Brit a Day [#1160]

Yay!  Comic-con starts tomorrow!  Once again, I hope I see Matt Smith.  Once again, I probably won't because I'm too old to camp out for a seat in Hall H.

[Above, Matt Smith at Comic-con 2011.  Not my picture....obviously.]

A Brit a Day [#1159]

Pianos falling out of the sky. Such is the life of a couple of oil guzzling Morris Marinas on 'Top Gear,' commemorated in fan art by Lazardo on DeviantArt.

A Brit a Day [#1158]

Found this photo on Tumblr the other day with the caption "good-bye, Russia."  Today, found this photo under the 'James May' tag--

See the entire post, including photos of the historic toilet, here--
http://hammondland.tumblr.com/post/55493395139/nothing-more