I have glasses now!
And I didn’t even have to drive my family to Barnard Castle in the middle of lockdown! Wow!
(Also I really REALLY need a haircut.)
me
Happy birthday, Revenge of the Sith
Hey look here’s me in 2007, all dressed up for a masquerade ball at the student union. Look what’s behind me! My Revenge of the Sith poster. (sadly no longer with us.) I got it free in either Empire or Total Film magazine, I think, just as the movie was coming out in 2005.
I took that poster to uni with me not because I loved the design of the poster (I still think it’s the worst Star Wars teaser poster that’s ever been made, sorry!) but because I loved the movie so much, and I loved the experience of going to see it. Some things I remember in no order:
- During the scene where Anakin first walks in on the children hiding in the council room, one lady in the theater went “awww!” as the first little kid spoke. Mission accomplished on the part of Lucas there I guess, cos right after that… well you know the rest. Meep.
- I had a sad-smile at Obi-Wan declaring “I will do what I must” because I recognised it as a callback to Qui-Gon, and he was my favourite.
- So many Star Wars posters at the cinema! That one up there, my one, a huge version dangled over this drop inbetween where the first-floor cinema was and where it looked like a elevator should’ve been. There’s a climbing wall there now I think, or there was at one point.
- After seeing the movie me and my friend went to either HMV or the Virgin Megastore (I believe neither of them exist anymore) and I frantically leafed through the novelisation of the film, looking for any more story.
- It was sunny! It was really sunny. Every single one of the Star Wars prequels, I associate with being outside in the sun.
Happy May 4th
May the Fourth/Force be with us all. If this was a normal year I would be at a Star Wars party tonight, but it isn’t a normal year.
There’s also an extent to which I feel I’m not really in Star Wars fandom anymore. I haven’t watched the end of the Clone Wars or any of The Mandalorian, as good as they look, and I’m sure the new unknown film will be good as well (my gut is saying maybe it’s a Boba Fett/Mandalorian related movie?), but I don’t have the spark of “new thing!!!” I used to get when big Star Wars stuff dropped. And that’s fine! I’ll always love Star Wars. The prequels were my childhood, or a huge part of it, and that was before May 4 was even called what it is now. I hope today’s kids are having a blast this Star Wars Day, even in lockdown.
Old photos
This frickin’ laptop broke yesterday. Not a problem with its actual functioning, this time. The lid/screen broke off. YES REALLY! That is a thing that happens!
I need to back up a lot of things, so I thought I might as well post some old photos here. Most of them are VERY old photos, taken from old photo albums.
My very first photograph, taken at age one!
(more…)I posted this on Facebook today
Last month Boris and the Tories “updated” the British immigration system. Among the people they labelled “low skilled” were carers.
Carers! The same people who are saving lives now. I was a carer. My family are carers. (Also, on one side, the descendants of Russian Jewish refugees aka immigrants.) Right now carers are still working. They will be coughed on and spat at and they will have to handle the sort of bodily fluids no-one wants to go near even when there ISN’T a pandemic. Due to the nature of disability and dementia some of them will be hit, kicked, choked, it’s painful, I can tell you. I used to work in a care home as well. How many politicians have done this?
Low-skilled!
Lots of people on here know me and my family personally. When the pandemic is over please, please remember what Boris Johnson and the Tories think of us, of all carers. And please remember the people, many of them “immigrants!” “foreigners!” the targets of hate in the Daily Mail and its kin, who are quite literally risking their lives right now for little pay and no recognition.
Low-skilled. Low-skilled to put yourself in the firing line for the sake of other people. I will never forget that, and honestly, I will never forgive.
Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution!
Mewtwo Strikes Back, my favourite EVER movie about a cat having an existential crisis, has gotten a remaster! It’s on Netflix right now, and has been for almost a week if not more, but alas I am no longer a child and now I (mostly) have to space Pokemon movies between work, shopping, crushing terror about the state of the planet, that sort of thing. Booo.
It was good! A lovely blast from the past packed full of everything I love about Pokemon. (The Meowth speech has gone and I missed it terribly, but it’s been replaced with something which is also nice, so…)
Most of all I love how gorgeous the graphics are, and especially the end credit art. I always adored the end credits of the original movie and how they showed our heroes exploring the rest of the Pokemon world, and this time around that takes the form of beautiful illustrations:
All by Sei Nakashima, and here’s his poster for the movie as well:
Man, this movie was my LIFE when I was 12. For years on LiveJournal I had a little 100×100 Pokemon icon as one of my avatars:
Here there be dragons! Ahhh, nostalgia is stinging hard tonight.
I found my old Spider-Man 2 movie ticket from 2004!
I was so young back then I qualified for the children’s ticket.
Also hey that was at the Odeon Aylesbury! I have a lot of good memories of that place.
Today I Hate This Country
The news today. Here’s a tweet that I saw this morning:
And I honestly don’t know. My mum’s side of the family came over from Russia during one of the pogroms, fleeing antisemitism. But I don’t know which of these new criteria they would have filled, whether they could speak English or had a “skill” so I didn’t RT.
But these “skills” the British government is talking about…
Carers are considered “low-skilled” workers, no visas for them. And that makes me so angry, right down to my core, in a way I can barely even articulate. I was a carer. Sometimes I still am a carer, sometimes. It’s the hardest job most people will ever have to do. In a lot of cases you have to be a nurse and a friend and a sort-of-parent all in one go. You have to give medication, and if you get it wrong the patient might die, and you have to give people baths and take them to the toilet, you have to know their routines and in some cases the routines of other service users who might associate with them – it’s so hard – in some cases you might be hit, kicked, choked, the lot… LOW-SKILLED! Low-skilled to stop a kitchen knife going into you, them or someone else! Low-skilled to stop someone from dying! Low skilled.
What I was doing in 2002
Today I found some old magazines from almost 20 years ago! Mizz and Shout, if anyone remembers them. I was thrilled. Look!
Celebrity tea!
The pointless quizzes that existed before Buzzfeed cornered the market on pointless quizzes!
Hotties of the era with their names in Comic Sans!
This junk! (It really was junk. Junk not funk.)
Endless, endless denim (but I appreciate they used models who were actual, unglamorous teenage girls)
Michelle Trachtenberg! (My god, these magazines pre-date the end of Buffy.)
Horror stories about mobile phones!
Adverts actually designed to make you feel better about your body! I really hope things like this still exist.
…articles about actual issues that were important to teenage girls…
…really hard-hitting stories about grooming and how it’s never the fault of the victim…
So! I started reading the old magazines thinking I would just end up having a laugh about ’00s fashion but I forgot how genuinely good they were. I legit got an education from teen girl mags of the early noughties.
LOTR tag-question meme
Seen and borrowed from Mary and the Words! As you can tell I’ve been on a Middle Earth/LOTR fandom kick recently SO…
(This will have a slight movie bent, sorry!)
Middle Earth:Hobbit or Lord of the Rings?
Oh, Lord of the Rings. When I first saw the first movie, it blew my young mind completely. Then I got ahold of the books and they blew my mind too. I didn’t read The Hobbit until later alas.
Fellowship: Favorite Hobbit movie
I’ve always been a little torn on the Hobbit movies because as much as I do like them, Martin Freeman as a person gets on my last nerve and they’re a wee bit overstuffed with completely unnecessary things. (cough love triangle cough) But if I had to pick a fave it would be The Battle of the Five Armies. Yeah, it’s a bit all-over-the-place but I can’t help but love its earnestness.
Ring: Favorite Lotr movie / book
Oh, Fellowship of the Ring, hands down. It was the thing that introduced me to the world of Middle Earth, after all. And as a movie it is just stunningly gorgeous.
Bilbo: Favorite character
Hmmm, TECHNICALLY it’s Boromir but I can see there’s a “favourite fellowship member” question further down so for this one I’m gonna say: Eowyn. My god I loved her so much when I was a kid. Now I’m an adult I can see she’s quite a complex and flawed character which makes her even better.
Dor Guldur: Least favorite character
I actually find it hard to pick a least favourite character because they all have their place in the story BUT… oh it’s totally Wormtongue. That slimy little asshole.
Gundabad: Favorite “evil” character
Oh Saruman, easily. He’s evil but he’s such a great character, y’know? A true magnificent bastard. Plus, a snappy dresser.
Also, he’s played by Christopher Lee. I miss Christopher Lee.
The Shire: Favorite place
Hobbiton! I dream of one day getting to go to the Hobbiton set in New Zealand. It’s green and full of nature, the houses are cosy, there are impressive firework displays every so often and lots of hobbits live there. (…in the movie/book, not in New Zealand.) It’s perfect.
Rivendell: Favorite species (hobbit, dwarves, elves..)
I love them all but I guess I should stand up for, ur, my own species and say men.
…and women.
Misty Mountains: Do you have a favorite quote from the movies/books?
Yes! And it’s this:
“The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them.”
Very timely, isn’t it. :(
Mirkwood: Would you rather be an elf, hobbit, mankind, dwarf, wizard?
Ah well, I think given the choice most people would be hobbits, wouldn’t they? I already have hair on my toes so I’m halfway there. (Gross, sorry.)
Gondolin: Favorite Durin’s son
I like all of the Incredibly Hot Dwarves. Ultimately, though, gotta be Thorin. Poor Thorin. (Also, man, did Richard Armitage put in one hell of a performance as him.)
“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But, sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell.“
Ah, that could be another contender for favourite quote actually.
The Nine: Favorite fellowship member
Near-empty religious studies classroom circa 2001:
Person #1: “Who’s hotter, Aragorn or Legolas?”
Person #2: “Boromir!”
Person #1: “Boromir’s an asshole!”
Me (internally): “What movie were you watching?!”
So, him.
(Stupid arrows!)
Sindarin: Favorite weapon
Legolas’s Bow of the Galadhrim. Look at it go!
Minas Tirith: Do you own any Lotr/Hobbit merchandise?
YES! Except… I kinda lost a lot of it over the years. For example, I got an awesome Gollum figure back when I bought the Two Towers DVD Special Edition, and now I still have the box it came in but NO GOLLUM. Where is he?!
Gig-Galad: Would you have changed something from the movie?
I would! There really ought to have been a more diverse cast, for one. (The Hobbit trilogy did at least attempt more racial diversity among the extras, but that was about it.) And take out the silly Kili-Tauriel-Legolas love triangle, I cannot name a single person I’ve ever met who liked it. Heck, even some of the people involved in it didn’t like it.
Minas Morgul: Gandalf or Saruman?
Gandalf. Sure he’s an old grouch but isn’t that what really makes a wizard? He’s wonderfully snarky at times too:
“I am Saruman the Wise, Saruman Ring-maker, Saruman of Many Colours!”
I looked then and saw that his robes, which had seemed white, were not so, but were woven of all colours, and if he moved they shimmered and changed hue so that the eye was bewildered.
“I liked white better,” I said.
#GANDALF OUT
And there ya go!