Innerface to Moiraverse

Kirjanpitoa. Koko viikonlopun. Mutta nyt se on valmis!

Muuta mielen päällä:

• Katsoimme loppuun Veronica Marsin toisen kauden. Tahtoo kolmannen!
• Löysin mielenkiintoiselta vaikuttavan animesarjan, jonka jo ilmestyneet kaksi DVD:tä päätin tilata. Muutamaa päivää myöhemmin sain kuulla, että sarjan jenkkijulkaisija Geneon hyytyi. Tein silti tilaukseni ja nyt toivon että jokin taho julkaisee loput kolme osaa. Mut siis prkl.
• Girl Genius rokkaa! Niin lujaa, että tilasin kuusi jo ilmestynyttä kirjaa, vaikka koko sarja on netissä ilmaiseksi. Hommasin myös Order of the Stickiä paperilla kolmen osan verran. Kaikkeen tähän olen peräti tyytyväinen.
• CMX:n Talvikuningas on loistava! Ja “libreton” taide niin ehtaa, että tilasin kuvat julisteina. Parhaat kehystetään sisustukseksi uuteen kotiimme, kunhan saamme sen hankittua.

A Neil Gaiman tribute album that will be released by Dancing Ferret Discs in mid July (according to Billboard article) will have Gaiman-inspired music by Tori Amos (a new recording of Sister Named Desire) and 16 other artists. (via The Beat)

The new Doctor Who with Christopher Eccleston will start showing in Finnish tv (YLE TV2) in autumn! Right, no commercials! Wohoo ^_^ (in the news, via Snowgrouse)

I only recently noticed (via Emma) that Brian Froud’s ingenious Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book has received two sequels: Lady Cottington’s Fairy Album…

Brian Froud, faery expert and somewhat reluctant consultant to the Cottington Archive, has verified that this rare Victorian photo album is the property of Angelica Cottington’s elder sister, Euphemia Cottington, who mysteriously disappeared when Angelica was a young child. This facsimile reproduction is exact in every detail, featuring what Froud believes to be actual photographs of fairies taken by Euphemia accompanied by a journal of her magical and somewhat scandalous and shocking exploits. The volume is also overflowing with a wild assortment of Angelica’s now-infamous pressed, flattened and squashed fairies.

World of Froud

…and Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Letters…

The Cottington Archive reluctantly announces that more information about the infamous Lady Cottington has surfaced: a scrapbook compiled by the fairy smasher herself of her correspondence with luminaries such as Queen Victoria, Annie Oakley, Igor Stravinsky, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Andrew Lang, P.T. Barnum, and more. All about fairies, these hilarious letters contain everything from wisdom to suggestions to chastisement. Lady Cottington has made notes in the margins not to mention smashed fairies throughout (will she EVER STOP this nasty habit?!).

World of Froud

…that I simply must have ^_^ I was somewhat less pleased about the re-release of Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book as a 10th Anniversary Edition with “eight additional pages and enhanced artwork throughout, virtually overflowing with freshly flattened fairies” and a new introduction by Brian Froud and Terry Jones. Since I already have the original version, that is. They also have released an enhanced 25th Anniversary Edition of Faeries that we already own two copies of (my paperback and Dugi’s harcover) O.o

The good news is that they’re doing this to many other Froud books as well and I’m really looking forward to the October release of Anniversary Edition of Goblins of Labyrinth! More info on these and a lot more in World of Froud.

Sattui tänään kohdalle harvinaisen monta heikon palvelun hetkeä, ja havaitsin että tarkkuus kannattaa. Ensin Stockalla viisas kassakone ei osannut antaa minulle kantisalennusta Konnankoukkuja kahdelle DVD-boksista (sis. kaudet 1 ja 2; alehinnaltaan 36,50 euroa!). Setä olisi myynyt ihan täyteen hintaan, mutta sai lopulta kassakoneenkin uskomaan asian. Vain vähän myöhemmin saman pytingin alakerrassa kassakone löi Tv maailman hinnaksi 2,50 euroa; täti sentään uskoi mitä lehdessä itsessään hintana lukee (2 euroa). Tämä ei muuten ollut eka kerta ko. lehden kohdalla, vaikkei se koskaan ole maksanut kahta ja puolta O.o

Dugi on duuniporukan kanssa hohtokeilaamassa, joten koitin kovasti tyydyttää kiljuvan nälkäni Mäkissä. Vaan unohtivat ruojat tuoda hampurilaiseni. Kyselemällä asia selvisi, ja myyjätyttö oli kovasti pahoillaan. Kieltäydyin kuitenkin tarjotusta jälkkäristä (mikä itsekuri!) ja hymyilin nätisti. Totta se oli, että olin varsin tyytyväinen kun vihdoin sain roskaruokani.

Ion, iPodini, akku veteli viimeisiään kun bussi kaarsi kotinurkille. Autossa minua saikin viihdyttää vaihteeksi radio, kun kurvasin kohti postia. Saapuneet paketit olivat vain puoliksi sitä mitä odotin. Japanipaketti oli ilmiselvästi Gacktin Diabolos, mutta ounastelemani Amazonin CD-paketin sijaan noudossa oli Playlta tullut lähetys. Jälkimmäisestä paljastui Millenniumin ensimmäinen kausi ^_^

Mainittakoon, että tietokoneeni kovalevyt olen nimennyt Phobokseksi ja Deimokseksi. Ennenvanhaan oli kolmaskin partitio, joka oli tietysti Callisto.

Mutta mitä ihmettä, miten Konnankoukkuja kahdelle voi olla K-18? Setä Anttilassa jopa huomautti, ettei “sovi sitten ihan pienille kavereille näyttää”. Heh. Kuinkahan vanha olin kun tuo tuli televisiosta…

Diabolos muuten on erihyvä ^_^ Nyt kun vielä saisi varpaat lämpimäksi ulkona ramppaamisen ja kylmällä autolla ajamisen jäljiltä. Io latautuu ja täyttyy onnellisena usista podcast-jaksoista, ja minä taidan keittää teetä.

The R1 Battlestar Galactica season 1 DVD box arrived yesterday, not via customs but via Belgium instead ^_^ We watched the mini-series in the evening. I though we’d watch it in parts but it turned out to be one of those “once you pop, you can’t stop” type of things. And we still have all of season 1 to see! I can hardly wait.

Dugi did a bit of DVD shopping of his own. He visited Anttila sale and got Alias season 1 box, the Ilsa box (yes, really) and some Vlad the Impaler movie I hadn’t heard of (and forgot the name already) [edit: it’s Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula]. I’m actually quite pleased since I probably wouldn’t have bought them myself but I like to co-own them. Except for the Ilsas, maybe.

My VISA bill for January is going to be pretty damn impressive and I don’t mean in a good way, even if most of my purchases have been on major sale. Here’s the orders list: Tipping the Velvet (a BBC mini-series), X-Files season 1 box, Dogville, Jacob’s Ladder, Angel Heart, X-Men 2 special edition, Battlestar Galactica mini-series/season 1 box, Secretary (for a friend), Tipping the Velvet (for a friend), Flash Gordon silver anniversary edition, Countess Dracula/The Vampire Lovers (for Dugi ^_^) and just last night Battlestar Galactica R2 mini-series and season 1 box (for my dad as a gift).

On top of this I spent almost 100 euros in the Anttila sale: the 5 Angelique movies ^_^ (hey, have to balance out Ilsa somehow!), Carnivàle season 1 box (and what a pretty box it is!), Stupeur et tremblements (Fear and Trembling or Nöyrin palvelijanne), Argento’s Suspiria and Kim Ki-duk’s Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring (Viisi vuodenaikaa).

Man.

But I can afford it all, luckily.

In February I’ll invest only in the Tori video DVD and Serenity. And MirrorMask, maybe. And… perhaps I’ll stop planning right here.

(Addict.)

Käytän tänään kirjastossa neljä kirjaa, joiden lainan olen jo uusinut maksimin viisi kertaa netitse. Yhden niistä jätän sinne, koska sain sen juuri eilen luettua loppuun. Kyseessä on Jeff Longin Vuosi nolla. Aloitin sen lukemisen joskus varsinaisen lainaamisen jälkeen, ja uusin viidesti ennen kuin sain luettua loppuun. Osin tämä johtui kiireistä ja lukemisjaksamattomuudestani, osin siitä, että kirja vain ei ollut kovin hyvä. Pidin Longin Helvetin piireistä huomattavan paljon, joten olin jossakin määrin pettynyt. Oh well, jaksoin lukea loppuun sentään. Toisen kirjan jätän myös kirjastoon, koska en tällä hetkellä ole inspiroitunut lukemaan sitä. Kaksi muuta lainaan vielä uudestaan: Robert Irwinin Tuhannen ja yhden yön painajaisen ja P.C. Jersildin Viidennenkymmenennen vapahtajan.

Taisteluplaneetta Galactica -sarja alkoi viimein Nelosella. Katselimme minisarjan ensimmäisen jakson ylistäen kyseisen scifin hyvyyttä ja manaten Nelosta. Ohjelma oli nimittäin niin myöhässä, että kymmenen minuutin nauhoitusvarani ei riittänyt ja jakson loppu jäi näkemättä. Kuten Dugi sanoi, ymmärtäähän sen että näyttävät maksetut mainokset, mutta saisivat kyllä karsia omistaan jos ovat myöhässä. Mitä Galacticaan tulee, odotan jatkoa innolla. Ja havaitsin, että olen viehtynyt herooiseen sotaestetiikkaan vakavammin kuin olen luullut O.o

Dugi katseli viikonloppuna videolta Aliaksen neloskautta mutta minulla ei kiinnostus meinaa millään riittää. Siitä huolimatta, että kolmoskauden suosta on noustu, Mia Maestro on sievä ja kaikista kähyin hahmo Sloane on edelleen tiukasti mukana. Nauhat sentään tyhjenevät Desperate Housewivesia, Galacticaa ja arvatenkin myös Lostia varten ^_^

Viikonlopun päätti rattoisasti vierailu serkkuni Saijan ja miehensä Kimmon luona sunnuntai-iltana. Hääleikissä joukko ystäviämme valitsi kuukauden tältä vuodelta ja ehdotti yhteistä aktiviteettia, joksi “herra ja rouva tammikuu” lupasivat pulkkamäkeä ja teetä. Pakkasraja ylittyi, joten jätimme ulkoleikit suosiolla väliin, mutta teetä ja hauskaa jutustelua riitti. Päätimme (jälleen kerran ^_^) pyrkiä siihen, että seuraavaan tapaamiseen ei ehtisi vierähtää yhtä paljon aikaa kuin edelliseen.

Muista sukulaisuutisista mainittakoon se, että nyttemmin Australian asukeiksi siirtyneet Emma ja Leke pääsivät vihdoin netin ääreen ja päivittelivät Uuden-Seelannin kuulumisiaan Oziin kuvien kera!

Plenty of stuff to cover today [in fact yesterday for I wrote most of this then but I only had time to update the odd habits meme after the blog was up again].

What’s with the lack of updates?

Yeah, I know. The kinkyness test has been sitting there, pathetically, for some days already. Never leave a test result as the latest entry, they say. But I’ve got plenty of excuses!

First of all, the flu. I was pre-fluish from Xmas to midway the following week. Fluish from there for two sick leave days, two weekend days including New Year and a winter holiday Monday. Then came three days of being tired at work, Twelfth Day holiday, two weekend days and a full week of sick leave and (from Wed) antibiotics due to post-flu sinusitis. Thanks a bunch, world.

This week I’ve been at work and relatively healthy, although on Mon and Tue I was too busy and too tired to blog much.

And now [on Thu] Blogsome is down (yes, I’m writing this in TextPad to be updated into the blog later — don’t want to let the inspiration go to waste) due to a server swap. Has been since yesterday [Wed].

Well, have you seen any movies lately?

So glad you asked. Dugi and I went to see The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe sometime back. Now, of the books this is my least favourite because storywise it’s quite simple fairy tale and I’ve read it most often of the seven. This said, I enjoyed the film very much. I’m sure you’ve all heard the praise for Jadis, Tumnus and the impressive CGI animals, so I won’t have to bore you with details. Beforehand I was most worried about the big battle but I ended up loving it and especially the centaur general Oreius.

I also want to point out the mermaids beneath Cair Paravel, for there was something very Narnia about them. And I do mean the Narnia where I spent many of my childhood evenings. Seeing them cracked something in me and for a moment I thought I just might spend the rest of the night crying because of the magic. (I didn’t, though.) Apart from that moment when the enchantment pierced my adult defences, the best thing about the film was the potential it promised regarding the possible sequels. I so want to see Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair visualised like this!

Wow, some experience… anything good on tv?

Sure, Dugi and I just watched all of Babylon 5 season 1. And I got a replace box from Amazon.de with the fixed disc 2. Unfortunately they sent the whole box and I’ll have to send them back the box I got previously, but at least I’ve got the whole set without any aspect ratio glitches now.

I got Dugi to admit B5’s goodness (he was like “this is pretty Trek-like” in the beginning O.o) and now he’s as eager as I to get season 2. Haven’t gotten around to ordering it yet but did order X-Files season 1 from Play sale since it was so cheap and there’s something adorable about those early episodes.

Other than that we’ve been watching Farscape (nearing the series ending…), Desperate Housewives and Veronica Mars from tape or tv. Looking forward to Battlestar Galactica and Lost that start showing in Finland very soon ^_^

So glad I asked.
…
Umh, how’s it with music?

Why, I just popped into the record store [the day before] yesterday and got Get Behind Me Satan by The White Stripes, Melody A.M. by Röyksopp and Mesmerize by System of a Down. Great albums, all of them! Especially Mesmerize. Man, pure genius.

Hang on, aren’t you boycotting Sony CDs?

Oh, you noticed. O.o D’oh. Well, to be precise, I was campaigning for “No Xmas for SONY” and it’s past December now. Plus Mesmerize was on sale and I only paid around 10 euros for it — a price very different from the one I decided not to pay as testified in Boikotti.org. (By the way, the CD is not broken — “copy-protected” — as many claim there [and Hypnotize isn’t either].) Sure, the excuses are somewhat lame. Hey, it upsets me, too (although surely not as much as Merten, sorry for lack of support my hc friend). If it was something else than this brilliant music I would have passed.

[Also got System of a Down’s Hypnotize yesterday. Not as cheap as the other album but still 6 euros cheaper than when I didn’t buy it. And yes, I do realise the cheapness is probably mostly away from the retail, not from SONY so much.]

In any case there’s one thing I’m not budging with. I ain’t buying no broken CDs. The Finnish band Stella’s Kuuntelija I actually went to the store for turned out to be one of those. Another recent disappointment was the soundtrack for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, both the regular and the special edition versions O.o. I wonder if the US version is broken, too? Man this sucks.

Don’t start crying, now. Any positive stuff going on lately? Like… good comics?

Yeah! The latest issue of Ryhmä-X (that’s X-Men in Finnish) was a great surprise! Reading Astonishing X-Men written by Joss Whedon and drawn by John Cassaday, both extremely talented fellows, was a very positice experience. I love Cassaday’s art that returned the X-people from pinups to actual (heroic) characters. The same can be said about Whedon’s script. For a change we see conversations, expressions, thoughts and feelings instead of the constant, empty action. So I love the soap. That’s what it used to be all about! You know, when X-Men was still good and enthralling.

Since this was only the first part of a long arch I can’t say much about the story. Except that it still has every chance to be good. As for everything else, here are the highlights. Emma Frost. Wow. I used to hate her but here she comes off as she should be: an intelligent, highly skilled woman with a personality, who is valid as a gorgeous, cold vamp. As for my other least favourite characters, even Scott manages to look good. Not sure how I feel about the return of the Kitty yet, but it’s really nice to have that essential part of X-Men, a character with non-lethal powers, back. I don’t mind action but if there’s no drama to support it, it’s just boring.

This is so looking good and I’m actually glad I recently decided to renew my subscription despite my doubts (I didn’t know Astonishing was coming up — in fact I didnt know about Astonishing at all — bad fangirl me). I’m also contemplating getting the Astonishing X-Men collection Vol. 1 from Amazon.

Anything else you’d like to tell me?

Just this. It’s bloody freezing outside. -22°C! [today, too!] And since this is Tampere we’re talking about, big chunks of Finland have it even colder right now. Brrrh. I feel for the poor sods in Russia, too, with -50°C in some places O.o

The good thing is that germs don’t like the cold. The bad thing is that an army of them has a nice, warm nest within me. My throat is still sore [although not as bad today as it was yesterday; might I actually be getting well?].

I got Twin Peaks season 1 DVD box (UK) as a joulu present for Dugi. We watched the pilot in my parents’ home theatre while in Raahe and the first four episodes last night. It hooks, still!

Inspired by these activities I did some looking up in the net and found that the latest estimate for season 2 DVD(s) being released is in 2006. There is also talk about a possible re-release of the prequel movie Fire Walk with Me on DVD — possibly with deleted scenes! Apparently there is at least an hour of material that was cut off from the theatre release due to lack of faith in an overly long movie. Now, we all know what Lord of the Rings movies have done to that.

There’s a petition for the rights holder to include deleted scenes in the upcoming 2 disc release of Fire Walk with Me at Worldwide Fight for Deleted Scenes

There are some great sites dedicated to David Lynch and his cult series. For news see Dugpa.com (a David Lynch electrical resource) and LynchNet (only news at the moment but other sections will be back up eventually). The old LynchNet Twin Peaks section is still up but will possibly be redone.

Also check out Twin Peaks Gazette. In addition to the basic info, a message board and some fan fiction, there’s the Project: Red Room that delves into the mysteries of Twin Peaks through some very interesting articles. Another great source of information and theories on the mysteries is Twin Peaks Online and especially its FAQ section.

Apparently Studio Ghibli will adapt Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea, with The Miyazaki’s son Goro Miyazaki directing the animation film. (via The Beat and Nausicaa.net news)

It can’t be as bad as the Sci Fi Channel miniseries (to find out what was wrong with it, see Le Guin’s page). But will it be good?

Crap, two months late I find out that Carnivàle has been cancelled after just two seasons. And I haven’t seen a single episode yet, just drooled over it.

I remember the first time it hit me that it wasn’t good enough for a tv series to be interesting and fascinating (then again, as we see with Carnivàle, not even multiple Emmys do the trick). It was when a friend showed me the eight existing episodes of Profit (1996), where golden boy Jim Profit schemes, climbs and gets his way in the shark eat shark world of multinational business… and sleeps his nights in a cardboard box. There was something seriously intriguing in the story and how it was weaved. I couldn’t believe the show had been cancelled.

Since then it has become the thing to expect, of course. At least Carnivàle got two full seasons. Buffy the Vampire Slayer got seven (1997-2003)! So it’s not like they all end up mutilated through amputation or “we want more sex/action/cliches so that it sells better and let’s air the existing episodes in the wrong order, too” from the producers. Poor Firefly (14 episodes 2002). Poor Crusade (13 episodes 1999). Would have wanted more Farscape (1999-2003) and Angel (1999-2004), too.

As a sidenote, when Kaitsu moved to US he was getting rid of his VHS tapes. The first thing I asked him was whether he still has Profit on tape. And he did! Checking out the best Profit fansite there is I also found out that Profit will be released on DVD in August this year. It’s about time.

Hmm, what pop rx writes about NBC’s miniseries Revelations actually looks promising. It’s probably no Millennium (for good and for worse, I suppose; btw, check out the “virtual fourth season” if you liked it) but how could I resist something like this:

More ‘X-Files’ than ‘Touched by an Angel’, ‘Revelations’ is steeped in end of days dogma, but doesn’t feel the need to preach. It has plenty of scripture, but it’s used in such a way to give viewers the heebie-jeebies instead of guilting them back to the pews.

In terms of Biblical fright, the gang’s all here. There’s a possible Christ missing on Earth, a cult of Satanists led by a child murderer/Antichrist figure, wild miracles, Catholic iconography, shady priests, bodily possessions, etc. — all backed by ominous church choir music and a bunch of spooky lighting.

pop rx

I’d definitely like to see this one (what me, a sucker for religion in all spooky forms…) even if Bill Pullman looks so fat old. It seems like yesterday when I thought he was such a pretty boy *sigh*

But talking about pretty boys (sort of), we’ve now watched the first three episodes of Firefly, first of them being the real pilot Serenity worth of two regular episodes in length and contents. I’m still swept away by the sheer entertainment value of it and my heart is crying tears of blood for the absolute wrongness of the axe falling on this brilliant western sci-fi series. So looking forward to the movie, also named Serenity.

I’ll also definitely get the essay collection Finding Serenity : Anti-Heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon’s Firefly as soon as I dare to place another order in Amazon.

Check out

• FireflyFans.net for all about the series and its fans
• Firefly Chinese Pinyinary for translations on those utterances you didn’t understand ^_^