#15 years of mark gatiss

[notfspurejam]

Mark Gatiss as Frank Parris/Oscar Berlin From What is Moonflower Murders?

Clever writing, intriguing characters, twists and turns plus an unexpected ending. The cast and creator of Moonflower Murders introduce you to what you can expect in the show premiering on MASTERPIECE on PBS Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, 9/8c. Susan Ryeland (Lesley Manville, The Crown) has left publishing and is living in Crete with her long-time boyfriend, Andreas. But her idyll is disturbed by the shadow of a murder committed at a British country hotel eight years ago. Alan Conway visited the hotel and wrote a novel based on what happened there. Cecily Treherne, the young woman who helps run the hotel, read the book and believed the wrong man had been arrested. Now she has disappeared. Can Susan uncover the secret hidden in the book and find Cecily before it is too late? Moonflower Murders is based on the bestselling novel by Anthony Horowitz.

[pers-books]

Sapphire & Steel have been reassigned! 

Big Finish’s acclaimed audio dramas based on the ITV Studios sci-fi/fantasy series Sapphire & Steel are now available to buy as downloads for the first time. 

All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic, heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel.  Sapphire and Steel have been assigned. 

Sapphire & Steel, created by P. J. Hammond, was originally broadcast between 1979 and 1982. It starred Joanna Lumley and David McCallum as a pair of “interdimensional operatives” tasked with protecting the flow of time. Each story would see them take human form as they showed up in a new location, to investigate a dangerous anomaly. 

Between May 2005 and August 2008, Big Finish released 15 full-cast audio dramas based on the TV series. The late David Warner took on McCallum’s part to play the stubborn Steel, whilst Susannah Harker slipped into Lumley’s role as Sapphire. 

For three of the audio stories, original TV guest star David Collings returned to recreate his performance as Silver. Other notable guest stars in the range included Mark Gatiss, Colin Baker, Sarah Douglas, Richard Franklin, Angela Bruce, Arthur Bostrom and Louise Jameson. 

The audio series was only ever released on CD and has been unavailable for more than a decade.  

Now, in association with ITV Studios, all three series have been re-released as downloads, giving fans the chance to relisten or indeed discover the adventures for the first time. 

Each series comes packaged with a brand-new 30-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, offering an insight into the production of these beloved adventures. 

All three series are available to buy at an exclusive early-bird price for the first month; Series One (comprising five stories) is available for just £19.99, Series Two (comprising six stories) is just £24.99, and Series Three (four stories) is £19.99. 

Big Finish chairman Jason Haigh-Ellery said: “We are delighted to have reached an agreement with ITV Studios to bring back our Sapphire & Steel releases as downloads. We have received regular requests over the years for it to be made available again, so we’re pleased that a whole new generation of listeners will be able to hear the late, great David Warner as Steel and Susannah Harker as Sapphire.” 

Nigel Fairs, who produced the series, added: “I’m absolutely delighted that people will be able to hear our version of Sapphire & Steel again, as it really was a labour of love. Re-imagining such a visual television series for audio was no easy task, but I think my decision to concentrate on the emotional story arcs of the characters who encountered ‘Time’ and our two agents bore some really tasty fruit! Dear David and Susie were the perfect leads, and the recording sessions were amongst the happiest I ever had at Big Finish. Creative times indeed. ‘Roll back time, Sapphire…’” 

The four-part stories in each series are: 

Series One: 

The Passenger by Steve Lyons

Daisy Chain by Joseph Lidster 

All Fall Down by David Bishop

The Lighthouse by Nigel Fairs 

Dead Man Walking by Nigel Fairs (based on a story by John Ainsworth) 

Series Two: 

The School by Simon Guerrier

The Surest Poison by Richard Dinnick

Water Like a Stone by Nigel Fairs

Cruel Immortality by Nigel Fairs 

Perfect Day by Steve Lyons

The Mystery of the Missing Hour by Joseph Lidster

Series Three: 

Second Sight by Nigel Fairs

Remember Me by John Dorney

Zero by Steve Lyons 

Wall of Darkness by Nigel Fairs 

All three series are available exclusively here. Series One is available for just £19.99, Series Two for £24.99, and Series Three for £19.99. 

All the above prices include the special pre-order discount and are subject to change after general release.

-- Well bugger me!

I wonder if this means I've got access to the downloads now, since I bought the CDs way back when?

*goes to check* No, huh. Guess I'll go on using the rips of the CDs then!

[fuckyeahmarkgatiss]

The recent Times article on Mark & Ian

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mark-gatiss-and-ian-hallard-i-asked-him-to-marry-me-the-afternoon-we-met-339v55jw2

The article is behind a paywall but I still had some access so here you all are!

Mark Gatiss & Ian Hallard: ‘I proposed on the afternoon we met.’

The League of Gentleman star and his actor husband on dating at the dawn of the internet and coming out to their parents.

Mark

Ian and I met online back in 1999, long before Grindr, when online dating still had a certain stigma attached to it. “Poor you! You can’t find anyone in the real world, so you have to go scrabbling around on the internet.” I didn’t tell my family how we’d met for several years.

You also have to remember that gay men didn’t necessarily go on dates in search of eternal happiness. Dates were fun and exciting. So, when we met in the glamorous surroundings of Finsbury Park Tube station and went back to my flat, I didn’t think it was anything serious. But it was. Ian loves to tell people that I asked him to marry me that afternoon. With hindsight I think I was probably joking, but I certainly had high hopes: “Maybe he’s ‘the one’.”

Having said that, it did take a while to get used to the idea of being a couple. All my previous relationships had sort of … fizzled out. With Ian it was the opposite; we seemed to grow closer and closer. We’ve even collaborated on several projects and I’m directing his first play at the moment [the Abba-inspired The Way Old Friends Do, which Ian wrote and stars in], but there’s never been any sense of rivalry. We get asked if it’s difficult living and working together, but why would it be a problem to spend time with the person you love?

I grew up in a working-class town near Durham, my dad worked at the pit. Telling people you were gay in that situation wasn’t easy. I came out to my friends when I was 15 and there were a few comments at school, but I was never bullied. The real problem for me in the Seventies and early Eighties was that I had no idea what to do about being gay.

Apart from the occasional storyline in [the drama series] Play for Today, the only gay men on TV were John Inman and Larry Grayson. I play Larry in the new TV drama Nolly [about Noele Gordon, a star of the soap Crossroads] and understand why John and Larry were regarded as torchbearers. But some gay activists in the Seventies saw them as the enemy: screamingly gay, but at the same time a sort of neutered Saturday-night camp.

Somehow I managed to put off telling my parents to the point where my mam was the one who brought it up. I was home from university and she simply asked me. It was a huge relief. I said, “Hadn’t we better tell Dad?” Mam looked at me. “Oh no! It’ll kill him.” So we didn’t.

A couple of weeks later I was talking to Mam on the phone and she said, “I told your dad. Ooh, we had some snow overnight.” Initially I thought that had saved me from having to talk to him about it, but it had just been popped at the back of a drawer.

Dad struggled at first, but considering his background it could have been a lot worse. Although it was a bit awkward when he met Ian, we never had “issues”. Sadly we lost him in 2021. The weird thing is that as he got older he became much more tolerant. Even after he lost Mam — his loneliness seemed to soothe his prejudices. He understood that love is where it falls.

It sounds like a complete cliché to say, “We make each other laugh all the time,” but it’s absolutely true. Our shared sense of humour has become the glue that has bonded us. Ian’s definitely more together than me when it comes to admin, and I’m pretty sure he did most of the organising when we had our civil partnership in 2008. The main problem is that, left to our own devices, we can be as bad as each other. We make all these grand plans, then we decide to take Bob [the labrador] for a walk instead.

Ian and I did have a brief period of broodiness, then we quickly realised that neither of us was responsible enough, so we got a dog. The ideal scenario would be that a fully formed, well-educated, extremely polite grown-up knocks on our door and declares that they are the fruit of my overeager teenage loins. We get to be parents without the hard work!

The couple in 1999, the year they met

Ian

Remember when Stelios from easyJet started his internet cafés? Without Stelios I wouldn’t have met Mark. I didn’t have the internet at my flat in London, so I would go to a Stelios café every day to check emails and log on to gay.com. Back then online dating didn’t involve pictures; it was just messages and a phone call. When Mark and I finally clapped eyes on each other, there was that awful moment of tension, trying to decide if we fancied each other. If not, I guess we would have headed off on our separate ways.

Mark was only the second man I’d made contact with online and the first one I’d met. I did sort of recognise him because The League of Gentlemen had been on telly, but I hadn’t actually seen it. That was probably a good thing. Had I been a massive fan, I’m not sure things would have worked out.

Mark’s career has taken a different trajectory to mine. He has been involved in a lot of high-profile projects and around the time of Sherlock [Gatiss was co-creator, co-writer and appeared as Holmes’s brother, Mycroft] things did go a bit crazy. That one-sided success can cause havoc in a relationship, especially with actors — lots of arguments and jealousy. Some relationships seem to thrive on that constant drama. Not us! I’ve never seen Mark have an argument with anyone. He’s unfailingly polite to the point of diffidence.

I hit my teens when TV was full of adverts about Aids — huge icebergs, tombstones. My parents were your typical easy-going, middle-class Brummies. There was no hint of homophobia but, in that climate, you can see why they might be concerned about having a gay son. What kind of future did I have? I was either going to die of Aids or kill myself out of loneliness and depression.

When I eventually told them I’d met someone and talked about bringing him home to meet them, they were very happy. I told them he was in this fantastic programme called The League of Gentlemen and proudly told them it had won a Bafta. Unfortunately they decided to watch it. They saw this collection of psychopaths and monsters and thought, “What’s he got himself involved with? Is it a cult?” Mum rang me up and said, “Please tell me it’s not him who plays that weirdo Mickey.” I paused for a second and then said, “Yes, Mum, that’s the man I’m going to marry.”

The Way Old Friends Do, Lyceum, Sheffield, Tue-Sat; Park Theatre, London N4, Mar 15-Apr 15; and touring until Jun 10; thewayoldfriendsdo.com

Strange habits

Mark on Ian

He’s incapable of keeping his side of the bed tidy. I call his pile of dirty clothes “the Bedroom Monster”

Ian on Mark

He worries about us travelling in the same car in case something happens to us both and Bob becomes an orphan

[markgatissappreciationsociety]

Mark Gatiss' Doctor Who Episodes, Ranked

For the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who last year, Doctor Who magazine held fan polls to rank all of the episodes. The Ninth Doctor episode results were revealed in issue 592, Tenth and Eleventh in 593, and Twelfth and Thirteenth in 594. They also compared them to a previous poll from 2014 (and some earlier, but I'm ignoring those), when that made sense. (This was the first time the 12th Doctor episodes were ranked, for instance, as he debuted in 2014.)

Here's how episodes Mark had a hand in were ranked.

Writing

The Unquiet Dead (9th Doctor) - #6 out of 10, which is no change from the 2014 poll

The Idiot's Lantern (10th Doctor) - #33 out of 36, down from #32 in 2014

Victory of the Daleks (11th Doctor) - #32 out of 39, up from #34 in 2014

Night Terrors (11th Doctor) - #33, same as previous

Cold War (11th Doctor) - #20, up from #23

The Crimson Horror (11th Doctor) - #18, down from #12

Robot of Sherwood (12th Doctor) - #29 (out of 35 total)

Sleep No More (12th Doctor) - #33

Empress of Mars (12th Doctor) - #24

My favorite of these are Unquiet Dead, because of the Dickens, and Robot of Sherwood, because it's funny, but I know dedicated fans rank episodes on different criteria. I still haven't seen four of these, either.

Acting

The Lazarus Experiment (10th Doctor) - #35 out of 36, with only Fear Her below it.

Twice Upon a Time (12th Doctor) - #15 out of 35. (My favorite!)

[petrodragonicapocalypse]

I posted 929 times in 2022

That's 788 more posts than 2021!

234 posts created (25%)

695 posts reblogged (75%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@elytrians

@jesus-in-a-life-boat

@dingdongyouarewrong

@dank-side-of-the-moon

@red-sky-in-mourning

I tagged 791 of my posts in 2022

Only 15% of my posts had no tags

#my posts - 236 posts

#ofmd - 112 posts

#the sandman - 83 posts

#our flag means death - 62 posts

#the sandman fan art - 29 posts

#taika waititi - 26 posts

#dream of the endless - 24 posts

#morpheus - 23 posts

#stranger things - 19 posts

#danksidedraws - 19 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#watched ep 6 today (hello beloved followers that have had to endure my posts about it) and it has me sobbing just at like random moments 😭

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

throwing my hat into the ring with yet another "what if hob and morpheus were sat at a table again" fanart because I LOVE THEM. the dialogue is based on this quote from tom sturridge.

1,530 notes - Posted September 1, 2022

#4

what's up guys, here to report to you on some Events from Nathan Foad and Kristian Nairn's Instagram livestream

"Oh my god this is happening" was improvised EDIT: apparently it was scripted but he chose the moment to say it

"I'm a little wooden boy and my legs are sticks" was improvised

There's a cut scene where Lucius pees himself

"OooOOoOhhh dAdDy" was originally MUCH longer and it got cut down

"I used to make dresses with my mother" was improvised, to paraphrase Kristian it was just him "being gay on set"

Both agreed that a musical episode would be the "best thing ever", if s2 goes ahead

in summary,, MUCH TO THINK ABOUT

1,721 notes - Posted April 24, 2022

#3

oh my god this is so bad my pen's running out of ink and my brain is in shambles. anyway hit post

quote from what we do in the shadows

2,303 notes - Posted August 29, 2022

#2

the virgin mark gatiss queerbaiting a generation of terminally online queer people despite having "gay" in his name and literally BEING gay vs the chad neil gaiman making everything in his works as gay as possible including changing characters' genders in TV adaptations to make it MORE gay thus living up to his name and restoring balance to the universe

2,332 notes - Posted August 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

THE GANG'S ALL HERE

2,710 notes - Posted January 10, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[denimbex1986]

'...Nominees in the acting in a play categories also included Laura Donnelly, Sophie Okonedo, David Tennant and Andrew Scott, while the National Theatre received 15 recognitions for its productions...

Best revival The Effect at the National Theatre Macbeth at the Donmar Warehouse Shirley Valentine at the Duke of York’s Theatre Vanya at the Duke of York’s Theatre

Best sound design Paul Arditti for Stranger Things: The First Shadow at the Phoenix Theatre Dan Balfour and Tom Gibbons for Dear England at the National Theatre – Olivier and Prince Edward Theatre Adam Fisher for Sunset Boulevard at the Savoy Theatre Gareth Fry for Macbeth at the Donmar Warehouse

Best actor Joseph Fiennes for Dear England at the National Theatre – Olivier and Prince Edward Theatre Mark Gatiss for The Motive and the Cue at the National Theatre – Lyttelton & Noël Coward Theatre James Norton for A Little Life at the Harold Pinter Theatre and Savoy Theatre Andrew Scott for Vanya at the Duke of York’s Theatre David Tennant for Macbeth at the Donmar Warehouse...'

[elizadoolittlethings]

(via What the League did next: The last 15 years of Mark Gatiss)

Posted on December 14, 2017 // 0 Comments

With The League of Gentlemen back on our screens this month, we’re taking a look at what the group’s four members have been up to since the original TV series ended in 2002. Now that Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton have been covered, Sophie turns her attention to Mark Gatiss…

© Andrew Crowley

During the two years after The League of Gentlemen‘s third and final series aired, Mark popped up in TV shows including Catterick, Marple and Little Britain, plus films such as Bright Young Things and Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures.  After meeting Julia Davis while filming Sex Lives of the Potato Men, Mark was then cast in her BBC Three dark comedy Nighty Night which ran for two series in 2004-2005. Mark recently mentioned on the Museum of Comedy Podcast that his character, Glenn Bulb, was originally supposed to appear in just one scene – the blind date in episode 1 – but he and Julia got on so well that his part was increased.

In 2005, Mark played Paterson in a remake of The Quatermass Experiment, reunited with Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton to voice some Vogons in the film adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and had a role in Funland, a comedy thriller series created/written by The League’s Jeremy Dyson. The same year year also saw the release of The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse – the group’s first and only outing on the big screen – and the film’s release was followed by their second major UK tour, The League of Gentlemen Are Behind You.

Nighty Night and Fear of Fanny (© BBC)

A lifelong Doctor Who fan, in 2005 Mark got the opportunity to write an episode (‘The Unquiet Dead’)  for the newly relaunched show with Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Russell T Davies at the helm. The following year he wrote another episode (‘The Idiot’s Lantern’) for David Tennant’s first series as the Doctor. Also in 2006, he worked with Julia Davis again in Fear of Fanny, a BBC Four drama about the chef Fanny Craddock, played Ratty in Wind in the Willows alongside Matt Lucas and Bob Hoskins and appeared in James McAvoy film Starter for 10 as Bamber Gascoigne.

During 2007, he wrote and starred in The Worst Journey in the World on BBC Four, based on polar explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s memoirs. He also took to the stage in All About My Mother, guest starred in Doctor Who episode ‘The Lazarus Experiment’ and appeared in other TV shows such as Jekyll.

Doctor Who and Crooked House (© BBC)

In 2008, Mark wrote and starred in three-part supernatural series Crooked House on BBC Four and had roles in BBC Three comedy Clone, an episode of Poirot and a BBC adaptation of Sense & Sensibility. The next year saw him make an appearance in Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton’s Psychoville, showing up in series 1’s three-hander (four-hander if you count the dead body!) episode that was filmed in just two long takes, in addition to having roles in Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen, Purves & Pekkala and Midsomer Murders.

Mark co-created, co-wrote and played Mycroft Holmes in Sherlock, which has so far had four series and a special since 2010. In the same year as Sherlock‘s first series, Mark took to the stage in Seasons Greetings with Catherine Tate, wrote another episode of Doctor Who (‘Victory of the Daleks’), turned HG Wells’ The First Men in the Moon into a TV drama – in which he also starred with Rory Kinnear – and wrote/presented documentary A History of Horror.  Over the next two years, he would also write/present follow-up documentary Horror Europa, write Doctor Who episode ‘Night Terrors’ and appear as Gantok in ‘The Wedding of River Song’, return to the stage in a production of The Recruiting Officer and have TV roles in The Crimson Petal and the White, Being Human and Inspector George Gently.

Sherlock and The First Men in the Moon (© BBC)

In 2013, Mark wrote An Adventure in Space and Time for BBC One, about the origins of Doctor Who starring David Bradley as William Hartnell, and also wrote Doctor Who episodes ‘Cold War’ and ‘The Crimson Horror’. During the same year, he guest starred as Joan Crawford in an episode of Psychobitches, directed by The League of Gentlemen‘s Jeremy Dyson.

2014 saw Mark star in a production of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus alongside Tom Hiddleston and appear in Steve Pemberton’s BBC adaptation of Mapp & Lucia. He also made his first appearance in Game of Thrones representing the Iron Bank and wrote Doctor Who episode ‘Robot of Sherwood’. Over the next year, he was in big BBC dramas Wolf Hall and London Spy, wrote Doctor Who episode ‘Sleep No More’, which guest starred Reece Shearsmith, and played Peter Mandelson in Channel 4’sCoalition. He also had theatre roles in The Vote and Three Days in the Country, for which he won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Wolf Hall (© BBC) and Coalition (© Channel 4)

Following a Sherlock special at the beginning of 2016, Mark was in BBC drama Against the Law as well as four films – Denial, Our Kind of Traitor, Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie and the big screen reboot of Dad’s Army. He returned to the stage once again in The Boys in the Band, starring alongside his husband Ian Hallard. Most recently, he played the Prince Regent in Tom Hardy’s Taboo and Robert Cecil in Gunpowder, plus he wrote ‘Empress of Mars’ in the latest series of Doctor Who. He also curated the Queers series of monologues that aired on BBC Four this year as part of Gay Britannia season.

Mark has upcoming roles in the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas special and two films – Christopher Robin and The Favourite – which are due for release next year. Knowing him, he probably has plenty more in the pipeline as well!

The League of Gentlemen returns to the BBC on December 18th, 19th and 20th. Stay tuned for our look at Jeremy Dyson’s post-The League of Gentlemen career coming soon…

posting just to have all MG’s works in page

[johannadc]

I posted 1,591 times in 2021

268 posts created (17%)

1323 posts reblogged (83%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 4.9 posts.

I added 402 tags in 2021

#mark gatiss - 79 posts

#happy gatiss wednesday - 56 posts

#mycroft holmes - 52 posts

#rupert graves - 50 posts

#mystrade fic - 44 posts

#holmes brothers - 37 posts

#my fanfic - 28 posts

#mystrade fic rec - 20 posts

#johnlock fic rec - 18 posts

#mycroft holmes fanart - 18 posts

Longest Tag: 62 characters

#this would have been so cool when i was teaching postmodernism

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Happy Silver Fox Saturday! In honor of rising temps and the beginning of summer where I am, some shades. 

110 notes • Posted 2021-05-22 14:46:40 GMT

#4

@mottlemoth isn’t feeling well. She asked for fan art of happy couples, so it seemed a good time to share this Mystrade piece I commissioned from Ohmsnwattsonart. (Please do not reproduce elsewhere.) Happy weekend, y’all. 

120 notes • Posted 2021-07-31 11:37:25 GMT

#3

See the full post

143 notes • Posted 2021-05-23 16:36:51 GMT

#2

Mystrade in a Nutshell

Mycroft: I matter not. I will do whatever it takes to protect my country and my family, no matter the cost to me.

Fans: You work too hard. And you seem a little repressed.

Fans: Here, have a handsome, sexy police inspector with a secret punk past who's up for anything and for some reason is turned on by fancy suits, posh boys, and freckles.

161 notes • Posted 2021-06-11 22:45:49 GMT

#1

At today’s Platinum Anniversary Party for the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, Martin Freeman was included in their celebratory film wishing the group the best and a happy birthday. 

182 notes • Posted 2021-05-15 21:15:32 GMT

Summary: I reblog a lot. Which is why I started on Tumblr. Both my top post on this and the MGAS blog were shots from the Society Anniversary. I suspect there wasn't a lot (any?) of crossover between those attendees and Tumblr, so I may have been the only person from here who attended.

I knew my Mystrade summary was possible, but I had no idea it was that popular. Here's to another year!

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[cringelizard]

I feel like I’m watching 15 year old me try to get attention from mark gatiss on twitter but in this universe he responds and tells me being a lesbian is perfectly fine

I’m open to being wrong about this but what I currently find entertaining about the tumblr neil gaiman fan interactions is that there’s no way anyone is profiting off of it. No one is even benefitting. Yes we’re crazy for talking to him but he is also crazy for talking to us. It is truly a lose-lose in a way that’s so rare post capitalism

[maniclemons]

Yolanda, Camp Sensibility and the "Oscar Wilde Of The Camera"

Okay, so I was minding my business reading stuff for my work on dream narratives in popular culture and suddenly I was attacked at the footnotes section of one of the academic papers (which happens all the time tbh). The author mentioned in passing that, well, there is a musical called YOLANDA AND THE THIEF (1945) which just happens to be one of three Vincente Minnelli musicals that have been characterized as a self-conscious camp style of visual excess. The author argued that the camp style in musicals, especially those made by the Arthur Freed unit at MGM, was particularly appropriate to the even greater visual excess of the dream sequences. 

So yeah, of course I did a double-take and immediately thought of Donde estás Yolanda (Sherlock and John reunion theme) - thanks for the opportunity to refresh the hell out of it @thepineapplering !

FEATURES OF INTEREST of “Yolanda and the Thief” in no particular order:

• The "dream ballet" dream sequence (inspired by Dali); • Repressed homosexuality manifesting itself through nightmares and fear of entrapment in a heterosexual marriage; • Integration of straight romance (plot) and gay-inflected visual codes; • Critique of a capitalist culture industry from the point of view of a queer professional embedded in it (writer/director/set designer/crew member etc.) • Something else?

Also of interest: Holmesosexuality: On Mark Gatiss’s Camp 

As I am not, academically speaking, a specialist in queer theory, all the references can be found below.

I haven’t seen anyone writing about this particular musical in connection with Sherlock yet, but I might be wrong, because my tumblr search skills still suck a bit. Anyways, it was fun and added more contextual layers to my own understanding of the show!

“YOLANDA AND THE THIEF” is a 1945 American Technicolor Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer “Arthur Freed Unit” musical-comedy film set in a fictional Latin American country called Patria. It stars Fred Astaire, Lucille Bremer, Frank Morgan, and Mildred Natwick, with music by Harry Warren and lyrics by Arthur Freed. The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli and produced by Arthur Freed. The “Freed Unit” refers to the “unit” (studio team within the larger studio production house that was MGM) headed by lyricist and producer Arthur Freed. 

"Yolanda and the Thief" is one of three Vincente Minnelli musicals that have been characterized as a self-conscious camp style of visual excess, the other two being " Ziegfeld Follies " (1946) and…….. "The Pirate" (1947). As Jane Feuer suggests, "a gay subcultural reading would elevate these Minnelli masterpieces of the 1940s above the currently more esteemed Freed Unit musicals of the 1950s – "Singin' in the Rain" and "The Band Wagon", whose sophistication stems more from their smart Comden and Green scripts than from elements of excess in their mise-en-scene."

CAST:

Fred Astaire as Johnny Parkson Riggs Lucille Bremer as Yolanda Aquaviva (aqua-viva? as in Latin vivere/vita? as in "aqua vita(e)" which is "an archaic name for a concentrated aqueous solution of ethanol" and at the same time a type of magical water which brings people (mostly heroes) back to life in Slavic mythology?) Frank Morgan as Victor Budlow Trout (a friend of Johnny's and literally his partner in crime)

FEATURES OF INTEREST (in no particular order):

• The "dream ballet" dream sequence (inspired by Dali); • Repressed homosexuality manifesting itself through nightmares and fear of entrapment in a heterosexual marriage; • Integration of straight romance (plot) and gay-inflected visual codes; • Critique of a capitalist culture industry from the point of view of a queer professional embedded in it (writer/director/set designer/crew member etc.) • Something else?

The narrative of Yolanda offers a romance between a naive and wealthy young woman, Yolanda Aquaviva (Lucille Bremer), who is tricked by a con man, Johnny Riggs (Fred Astaire), into believing that he is her guardian angel. Johnny plays upon Yolanda's gullibility in order to convince her to confer her power of attorney on him, but just as he is ready to depart with the goods, he finds himself romantically and erotically drawn to her. His attraction to her surprises Johnny, because he ostensibly does not expect to find Yolanda a figure of erotic contemplation, and his jaded sensibilities lose out to his romantic impulses. But moments of camp playfulness in the film offer another reading of Johnny's surprise at discovering himself in a seduction beyond his overarching greed and cynicism, for there are strong possibilities for seeing him as gay.

DREAM SEQUENCE BALLET

The "dream ballet" sequence is an extended (approximately 15 minute) routine for Astaire, Bremer, and various others, which Minnelli has described as, "the first surrealistic ballet in film". Its Dali-esque scenery sort of mirrors "real-life" Patria which Yolanda’s Aunt Amarilla called “an out of the world place” elsewhere. That’s really what Minnelli was going for here. He seeks to evoke a feeling that Johnny have left behind what he knows and entered a world of mysticism and dreams.

This dream sequence ballet opens with Astaire dressed in a remarkable dandy outfit with a pair of off-white satin pajamas. Becoming restless in his bed, Johnny dresses and walks through the streets of Patria's unnamed capital, where he moves into increasingly surreal landscapes in which various women trap him in symmetrical dance steps: washerwomen unfold furls of different-colored fabric in stark geometric patterns that form a prison out of which he cannot escape. Yolanda’s entrance into the dream is grandly spooky. Against the backdrop of a Dali-esque desert landscape, Yolanda rises from a pool of water wrapped head-to-toe in pale scarves that float all around her. Her face is obscured, a look reminiscent of René Magritte’s 1928 painting The Lovers, and more suggestive of alienation than romance. Once Johnny unwraps Yolanda from her scarves, the spookiness of the sequence dissipates a little, but the mood has been set, and when the unwrapped Yolanda puts her arms around Johnny and sings, “Will You Marry Me?,” the effect is mildly sinister. The sequence concludes as Yolanda dons a set of outrageously long bridal veils and Johnny gets one of them wrapped around his neck like a noose when he attempts to flee.

In the "Will You Marry Me?" number Johnny wrestles with the trauma of potentially being trapped in a marriage to Yolanda for her money. Yolanda appears throwing off a series of veils trimmed in coins, and sirens in short dresses and high heels entice him with a cask into which Yolanda has dispensed her gold. The number effectively links Johnny's fear of marriage with his greed, or, more properly according to the dream-logic of the "Will You Marry Me?" sequence, his greed is the film's alibi for not stating more directly his desire not to bond with a woman, no matter what her beauty or wealth. The film temporarily addresses the question of whether Johnny will accede to the demands of marriage through the camp art direction's treatment of him as gay.

So this is more specifically a nightmare ballet, one that takes marriage—the typical happy ending of many an MGM musical (including—spoiler alert—this one)—and transforms it into a thing of anxiety and horror.

While the dramatic function of the dream ballet is questionable, its adventurous spirit and execution should not be ignored. Bear in mind that Agnes de Mille’s dream ballet for the original stage production of Oklahoma! first appeared on Broadway in 1943, just two years before Yolanda and the Thief hit movie screens. Yolanda and the Thief also predates The Red Shoes by three years and An American in Paris by six. Minnelli was staking out new territory here, trying out a storytelling technique that he and other filmmakers would employ with greater success in the future.

STYLE

What is labeled as the integration of straight romance and gay-inflected visual codes is more generally within the camp sensibility what we might call "style," or more particularly, a style of excess. James Naremore describes this differentiated style as Minnelli bringing “a rarefied sense of camp to musical numbers, making…[him] ‘an Oscar Wilde of the camera.’” To be an “Oscar Wilde of the camera” would of course conjure images not only of queer sexuality, but a simultaneous devotion to the aesthetics: one who would converse, write, lecture on subjects ranging from poetry to interior design. This parallels Sunsan Sontag’s assertion that “Clothes, furniture, all the elements of visual décor, for instance, make up a large part of camp. For camp art is often decorative art, emphasizing texture, sensuous surface, and style [sometimes] at the expense of content.” Indeed, Sontag begins her “notes on camp” by quoting Oscar Wilde’s famous aphorism, “one should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.” However, camp is not simply an adoration of colour and texture, but a certain critical – comical, even – perspective on heterosexist and gender normative culture, both male and female. 

And beyond discussion of pure aesthetics of delight, camp within the Freed Unit is also indicative of a process of labour as method of negotiation between queer identity and heteropatriarchal capitalist hegemony (critique of a culture industry from the point of view of a queer professional embedded in it).

AUDIENCE REACTION

Campy style within Freed films circulated to noncamp audiences under the more general idea of their being “stylized” or “witty". The comments of film-goers who attended previews of, for example, Minnelli's "The Pirate" confirm that the studio knew that the film tended to emphasize its own spectacular art direction while sometimes disregarding streamlined storyline and clear characterization. In the cards, where anonymous viewers offered praise and disparagement, a repeated emphasis on the art direction arises: "the sets detracted from the people and the music was too loud," "not realistic enough," "entirely too surrealistic," "the beautiful background settings were exceptional," "plot rather thin," "truly one of the most exciting pictures from every standpoint, direction, artwork, color, dancing, scoring," "beautiful coloring," "slightly fantastic plot not developed in as natural and realistic a way as it could have been," and perhaps the most telling, "Minnelli back to the small minority who really appreciate him." The above comments would suggest that these viewers had screened a film by Dali or Bunuel, not the product of MGM after twenty years of corporate film-production experience.

Which takes us to the next (and very familiar) aspect…

MISE-EN-SCENE VS. STORYLINE

Musicals have largely been understood as primarily narrative films at the expense of other features. The plotline that structures many musicals is that of straight romance and marriage. The world in which a man and a woman meet and find initial attraction, in which their union is frustrated, and where ultimately the prohibitions to heterosexual bonding are overcome through the mediation of the song and dance number is typically the world of the musical. But there is more to the making of musicals beyond the plotline and its ancillary subplots, all of which are said to be brought to happy closure at the film's completion.

What seem to have been the memorable features of Freed unit musicals for contemporaneous viewers were their dazzling sets, costumes, use of color (in terms of film stock, set painting, and lighting) and choreography. These specific elements of film production are perhaps most likely what the various viewers are locating as the Freed unit's distinguishing style, or, to remember the viewer who commented on the "small minority" who might be interested in Minnelli films, that this style was idiosyncratic enough to have both fans and detractors. This style distinguished the unit's films from those of its rivals.

Minnelli's work habit of plotting a film's numbers by creating a series of paper dolls and scaled-down sound stages in which to place these figures suggests that his first impulses were to conceive of a film through its mise-en-scene rather than its storyline. Within the limits of the system, Minnelli was able to say a good deal about sets and costumes, and he usually influenced the overall visual conception of his films.

Dance (and singing) performance disrupts the narrative by momentarily disregarding the force of the story for the power of the spectacular dance routine. Likewise, the backdrops and costumes perform a similar function but that we tend not to notice their potential to antagonize narrative because, of course, most often the disjunctive features of the mise-en-scene are maintained in the film's movement back to the storyline.

Just as Johnny emerges from his dream shaken but unsure of what it means, the historian of camp production can perhaps trace the presence of a masked homosexual narrative only by remembering the strange details which seem to have been so easily forgotten.

REFERENCE:

Tinkcom, Matthew. Working like a Homosexual: Camp Visual Codes and the Labor of Gay Subjects in the MGM Freed Unit. Cinema Journal, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Winter, 1996), pp. 24-42.

Turner,  Lexi C M K. A Queer Translation: “Camp” Sensibilities of the Classical Hollywood Musical Era, vs. the 1970s Desertion of Narrative Utopia.

Cohan, Steven. Incongruous Entertainment: Camp, Cultural Value, and the MGM Musical (Durham N.C.: Duke University Press, 2005).

Dunne, Michael. American Film Musical Themes and Forms (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 2004).

Cohan, Steven. “Introduction: Musicals of the Studio Era.” In Hollywood Musicals, the Film Reader. Edited by Steven Cohan. 1-15 (London and New York: Routledge, 2002).

Feuer, Jane. The Hollywood Musical, 2d ed. (London: BFI Books, 1993).

Sontag, Susan. “Notes On ‘Camp.’” In Against Interpretation and Other Essays. 275-292 (London: Penguin, 2009).

https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2018/10/24/yolanda-and-the-thief-1945/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yolanda_and_the_Thief

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Moving Heaven And Hell

Gaiman’s TV adaptation of his and Terry Prachett’s Good Omens is coming to UK terrestrial TV this January and here’s its director and executive producer Douglas Mackinnon talking about it…

This has clearly been a splendid partnership between you and Neil. What have you most enjoyed about working with him?

It’s been a fantastic experience. It’s been a complete collaboration. He’s very generous in that way. We work very well together. Rather than getting stuck on a problem, we turn it to our advantage. We have a really unified vision. My task as a director is to dig into the brain of Neil and the brain of the book. I see my role as an enabler. If someone says to me: “We can’t afford to do the Kraken,” it’s my job to find a way of doing it that fits with our budget.

We managed to secure Shakespeare’s Globe as a location, but we couldn’t afford to populate it with a large crowd. In the book, the scene is the first week of Hamlet. It’s a great success, and the Globe is very crowded. So I said to Neil: “How about doing the same scene, but Hamlet is a disaster and no one is coming to see it, so we don’t need a big crowd?” In the scene, Crowley and Aziraphale turn up at an empty Globe and have a conversation about their relationship. Crowley says a line, and Shakespeare steals it!

We shot an 11-person scene set in a church during the Second World War with all the principal actors, Mark Gatiss and Steve Pemberton – all in one day. We also shot Atlantis, a Kraken and a flying saucer. Those things would be the centrepiece of an episode of Doctor Who, but we threw them away in two minutes. Also, the bookshop needs to look like it’s in the heart of Soho. But it needs to go on fire at the end, too. That was a very expensive set to burn!

Tell us how you have paid respect to the late Terry Pratchett…

In Good Omens, Neil has been carrying out a personal mission to represent Terry everywhere. One of the things I said to Neil very early on was to repeat the rule I had with Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss on Sherlock – I never needed to know who wrote what line. I think that’s more respectful to Neil and to Terry. Sometimes Neil would say: “That’s a really important scene to me.” One example was the sushi scene. He and Terry had made a pact with each other to be there for the filming of that scene – perhaps because they wanted free sushi. Neil passed on that sentiment to me. We have also dropped in some tributes to Terry. For example, it is Terry’s real hat that hangs in the bookshop.

You famously have the most thumbed copy of Good Omens in the world. Was that book very useful on set?

Definitely. The book is the solution to everything. Our respect for the book was the beginning and the end of it all. Even in the cutting room, Neil would say to me: “There is something not quite right about this scene. I wish there was another line we could add here.” I would reply: “There is a line we can add here. You wrote it 30 years ago in the book!” When we were editing, the structure of the book really helped us. Five million people have read Good Omens. Maybe there is something in Neil’s storytelling!

What music have you chosen for Good Omens?

We’ve got 15 Queen tracks, which is a great coup, especially considering the success of Bohemian Rhapsody. In the book, Bohemian Rhapsody plays when Crowley gets his instructions about what to do with the Antichrist. We even have a Freddie Mercury impersonator. When I was hoping to get this project, I wandering around Vancouver – where I was filming Dirk Gently – listening to Queen and reading the book. I’m a lifelong Queen fan, so I wasn’t such an idiot when I was listening to them when I was 14!

Why is Frances McDormand such good casting as God?

She has this amazing voice. She helps the audience through this very complex story, so she is our guide as well as God. She’s Terry and Neil’s representative in heaven.

How would you characterise the tone of Good Omens?

Before we started, I played all departments two David Bowie songs. First of all, I played them Life On Mars with Rick Wakeman’s marvellous, pure piano accompaniment. I told the departments: “That’s not Good Omens. It’s too perfect.” Then I played them Aladdin Sane where Mike Garson plays this wonderful cracked piano solo. I said to the departments: “That’s Good Omens.” It’s not something pure. It’s something that shouldn’t be beautiful, but is. It’s like when the Japanese break pots – they paint over the cracks with gold. You celebrate the scar.

What message do you hope that people take away from Good Omens?

I hope it doesn’t sound pompous, but it shows that peace can win over war. You can talk most problems out. You don’t have to fight them out. But for me, the biggest element in all drama is relationships. As EM Forster said, drama is about displaying relationships. Seeing Crowley and Aziraphale – the ultimate representations of good and evil – get on so well is the most beautiful thing. It’s like Butch and Sundance or Thelma and Louise. It all depends on the very special chemistry between David and Michael. That’s the core of it. From the moment they meet in the Garden of Eden, there are classic couple. They bicker, but love each other and find a way through their differences, which are pretty extreme.

Why does the partnership between David and Michael work so well in Good Omens?

The success of the show lies in their chemistry, which comes from them enjoying doing something different from their previous projects. Michael has described their scenes together as like a little dance. It’s a very high-powered version of Strictly Come Dancing. Does that mean I am Bruce Forsyth?

[ozhielattaqi]

The Father (film complet 2020)

https://cinemax24.net/fr/movie/600354/the-father

The Father is a 2020 drama film co-written and directed by Florian Zeller, based on his 2012 play Le Père. A French-British co-production, the film stars Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, and Olivia Williams, and follows an aging Welshman who must deal with his progressing memory loss.

The Father had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 27 January 2020, and is scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom on 8 January 2021 by Lionsgate. The film received acclaim from critics, who lauded Hopkins and Colman's performances and praised its depiction of dementia.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on 38 reviews, with an average rating of 8.50/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Led by stellar performances and artfully helmed by writer-director Florian Zeller, The Father presents a devastatingly empathetic portrayal of dementia."[12] At Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 86 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[13]

Writing for Variety, Owen Gleiberman said "The Father does something that few movies about mental deterioration in old age have brought off in quite this way, or this fully. It places us in the mind of someone losing his mind — and it does so by revealing that mind to be a place of seemingly rational and coherent experience."[14] For The Guardian, Benjamin Lee wrote of Hopkins' performance: "It's astounding, heartbreaking work, watching him try to rationally explain to himself and those around him what he's experiencing. In some of the film's most quietly upsetting moments, his world has shifted yet again but he remains silent, knowing that any attempt to question what he's woken up to will only fall on deaf ears. Hopkins runs the full gamut from fury to outrage to upset and never once does it feel like a constructed character bit, despite our association with him as an actor with a storied career."[15]

https://cinemax24.net/fr/movie/600354/the-father

Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "The best film about the wages of aging since Amour eight years ago, The Father takes a bracingly insightful, subtle and nuanced look at encroaching dementia and the toll it takes on those in close proximity to the afflicted. Fronted by a stupendous performance from Anthony Hopkins as a proud Englishman in denial of his condition, this penetrating work marks an outstanding directorial debut by the play's French author Florian Zeller."[16]

Writing for Indiewire, David Ehrlich said : "Zeller adapts his award-winning play of the same name with steely vision and remarkable confidence, as the writer-director makes use of the camera like he’s been standing behind one for his entire life. (...) In Zeller’s hands, what appears to be a conventional-seeming portrait of an unmoored old man as he rages against his daughter and caretaker slowly reveals itself to be the brilliant study of a mind at sea, and of the indescribable pain of watching someone drown."[17]

https://cinemax24.net/fr/movie/600354/the-father

Awards

Silver Medallion Award[23] at Telluride Film Festival (Anthony Hopkins)

Tribute Award[24] at Toronto International Film Festival (Anthony Hopkins)

Golden Eyes Award[25] at Zurich Film Festival (Olivia Colman)

Audience Award[26] at San Sebastián International Film Festival (Spain)

Audience Choice Award[27] at Cinefest Sudbury (Canada).

Audience Award[28], at CIFF (Canada).

Sunset Circle Awards (USA) : Best Screenplay (Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton)[29].

Visuel Art Festival (Spain) : Best Film[30].

Visuel Art Festival (Spain) : Best Director (Florian Zeller)[31].

Visuel Art Festival (Spain) : Best Screenplay (Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton)[32].

Visuel Art Festival (Spain) : Best Actress (Olivia Colman)[33].

Boston Society of Film Critics Awards (USA) : Best First Film (Florian Zeller)[34]

Boston Society of Film Critics Awards (USA) : Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins)[35]

Nominations[

edit

]

Audience Award at Toronto International Film Festival

Sunset Circle Awards : Best Film[36]

Sunset Circle Awards : Best Director (Florian Zeller)[37]

Sunset Circle Awards : Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins)[38]

Sunset Circle Awards : Best Supportive Actress (Olivia Colman)[39]

BIFA : Best Independent British Film[40]

BIFA : Best Director (Florian Zeller)[41]

BIFA : Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins)[42]

BIFA : Best Screenplay (Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton)[43]

BIFA : Best Editing (Yorgos Lamprinos)[44]

BIFA : Best Production Design (Peter Francis[disambiguation needed])[45]

Indiana Film Journalists Association Awards : Best Film (Florian Zeller)[46]

Indiana Film Journalists Association Awards : Best Screenplay (Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton)[47]

Indiana Film Journalists Association Awards : Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins)[48]

Indiana Film Journalists Association Awards : Best Supportive Actress (Olivia Colman)[49]

[markgatissbirthdayproject]

Good morning! The auctions are live (I hope)!!!  Please let me know if something looks wrong, isn’t working, or I’ve messed up what you are donating!

I also think I’m missing a few people/items, so please let me know if I’ve inadvertently left you off the list!

If you have photos or anything you'd like to add to the auction pages let me know!  I still have to add my photos in!

The Just Giving page can be found here.

The auction will run from 30th September to 10th October.

Questions? Ask me here or @antheas-blackberry

This is what the main auction page looks like; I’ve just copied and pasted it here.

Hello and welcome to the auction page! All items that are up for grabs will be listed here.  Remember, you will be bidding in pounds.

That being said, I’ve managed to get the individual pages up, but I have NOT been able to figure out how to display the highest bid.  I will have to do that manually, and my sincerest apologies for that.  I will try to do update it as many times during the day as I can. (This is just like last year!)

Items for the fan auction (all specifics will be on the individual item page)

1. One signed program from The Madness of George III donated by @antheas-blackberry​

2. 10 promo flyers from The Madness of George III donated by @antheas-blackberry​

3. One fic 1-2k words in length donated by @antheas-blackberry​

4. One fic 1200-1500 words in length donated by @lavenderandvanilla​

5. One fic 1000 words length from @starsandstitches​

6. One fic 1000 words length from @savvyblunders​

7/8. Two fics of 1000 words in length each from @hippocrates460​

1 and 2

9. One fic of 2000 words in length from @redgreyandpurple​

10. One sketch of Mark Gatiss from @savethewailes​

11. One piece of fan art (Sherlock based) from @lesbianlondongrammar​

12. One Name your ship! Your choice of any two 2x3 inch magnets from @eys93​

13. One 4x6 inch Sherlock cast magnet from @eys93​

14. One 8.5 X 11 inch spiral bound MG 2020 calendar from @eys93​

15. Two sets: small stickers (2x2 inch) 2 of each (12 stickers total) from @eys93​

16. One 4x6 inch Mystrade 2020 calendar magnet from @eys93​

17. One fic 1500-2000 words in length from @vulpesmellifera​

[robert-j-t-wilson]

1. Bisexual

2. BBC Sherlock

3. Nope

4. None

5. 0

6. Near a city but in a quiet place sort of like a cottage

7. Mark Gatiss

8. BBC Ghosts

9. No

10. Yes

11. Philippines

12. Live in London with my actual partner

13. Nope

14. Investing them

15. Yes and I’m very happy

16. I don’t think I do

17. Yes

18. None

19. I already changed my name since I’m trans so there’s your answer

20. My partner

21. Too many characters and I’m lazy right now but let’s just say someone that is brave enough to tell you when you are messing up something

22. @anonymoussherlockandmarvelgeek

23. ABBA, Queen, The Beatles, Muse, Adele

24. Philippines, England, Scotland

25. Me, my bed, a movie and silence

26. Winter

27. There is a weird sort of gum material called “foami” I hate that

28. One of my friends called Burbo

29. Harry Potter movies are a bit too overrated, the books are far better

30. @charles-and-camilla-fanfictions

31. Paper books by far

32. BBC Sherlock world

33. Bespoke suits

34. I don’t like coffee, I’m a tea person

35. Yep

36. I’m too busy having feelings for my partner so no

37. No

38. A maximum of 1-2 glasses a year

39. Yes I am

40. No

41. No idea but I think like 2

42. @anonymoussherlockandmarvelgeek

43. I would say cooking and eating what I cook but I don’t know

44. Yes

45. I got invited somewhere and saw my date kissing someone else

46. Like around 10-20 people

47. No one.. I’m dating someone but forced to answer I would say Mark Gatiss

48. @anonymoussherlockandmarvelgeek

49. @anonymoussherlockandmarvelgeek

50. A bit cloudy and windy but good enough to play a bit of football, I hate wet grass since I’m a goalkeeper

Be nosy

1. What’s your sexual orientation?

2. What are you obsessed with right now?

3. Ever done any drugs?

4. What piercings do you want?

5. How many people have you kissed?

6. Describe your dream home.

7. Who are you jealous of?

8. What’s your favorite show to binge?

9. Do you watch porn?

10. Do you have a secret sideblog?

11. If you could teleport anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?

12. What’s one of your fantasies?

13. Do you have/would you get your nipples pierced?

14. How would you spend a million dollars?

15. Are you in a relationship?

16. Do you follow porn blogs?

17. Are you angry with anyone right now?

18. What tattoos do you want?

19. If you could change your name, would you? What would you change it to?

20. What is something you’re obsessed with?

21. Describe your best friend.

22. Tag someone you think is hot.

23. Who are five of your favorite bands/musical artists?

24. What are three places you want to travel?

25. Describe your perfect Friday night.

26. What’s your favorite season?

27. What’s your pet peeve?

28. Who is the funniest person you know?

29. What’s the most overrated movie?

30. Tag someone you want to talk to but have been too shy to message.

31. Do you like paper books or ebooks better?

32. If you could live in a fictional world, what world would you pick?

33. If money was no object, what would your wardrobe be like?

34. What’s your coffee order?

35. Do you have a crush on anyone?

36. Do you still have feelings for any of your exes?

37. Have any tattoos?

38. Do you drink?

39. Are you a virgin?

40. Do you have a crush on any of your mutuals?

41. How many followers do you have?

42. Describe the hottest person you know.

43. What’s your guilty pleasure?

44. Do you read erotica?

45. What’s the worst date you’ve ever been on?

46. How many people do you follow?

47. If you could marry any celebrity, who would you pick?

48. Describe your ideal partner.

49. Who do you text the most?

50. What’s your favorite kind of weather?

[ebaeschnbliah]

LAUGH  OR  SCREAM

________________________________________________________________

Some musings and some interesting informations about MONSTERS INC and Sherlock BBC

Initially this was supposed to be the answer to your lovely comments on the main post MONSTERS INC. But when the musings and the additional informations grew and grew, I decided to give them their own post. 

MONSTERS INC wasn’t new to me when I rewatched the movie lately because of Arwel’s tweet, but it is at least 15 years ago I saw it for the first time. It’s a great movie with a wonderful storyline. Writing down the recent post about it, brought not only back a lot of old memories ... of course I got curious as well, wether there might be more connections between MONSTERS INC and the creators of Sherlock BBC, which could explain the striking similarities of visuals, text and voice described in my post.

TBC below the cut ...

The story ...

To me, the two most important messages MONSTERS INC conveys, are:

- the courage it takes to deal with something that is new and allegedly dangerous

Sulley and Mike are adult monsters. One can assume that they have been taught since childhood that human children are toxic, that their touch is infective, that it could kill them. Sulley had chosen to become a scarer and like his colleagues he is a celebrated hero because he has the courage to face a potential deadly situation each day. But how much braver is it to look at such a ‘deadly creature’, really look at it (not just seeing but observing) to realize and acknowledge that something one has believed a whole life, is simply wrong. And what a great friend is Mike, that he is willing to help his mate despite his fear and his reservations.

- that laughter is much more powerful than screams of terror

There is this wonderful little scene in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (sadly not included in the movies) - high up on the stairs of Cirith Ungol, not far from the entry to Shelob’s lair, Frodo suddenly starts laughing … ‘and he laughed, a long clear laugh from his heart. Such a sound had not been heard in those places since Sauron came to Middle-earth. To Sam suddenly it seemed as if all the stones were listening and the tall rocks leaning over them.’ Joyful laughter has an almost magical power which gives the soul wings. 

And let’s not forget Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, a novel in which a man called William of Baskerville and the novice Adso of Melk investigate the death of several monks. In the end the motive for the killings turns out to be a book, Aristotle's Second Poetics, which praises the virtues of laughter, a theory the murderer despises deeply. @raggedyblue wrote a wonderful summary (here) of this extraordinary and brilliant medieval Sherlock Holmes adaptation. 

The additional informations ...

As mentioned above, I also tried to find evidence for a possible connection between MONSTERS INC and the creators of Sherlock BBC. This research led almost immediately to an interesting article about “The Importance Of Comedy: The Connections Between MONSTERS INC & SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS”, which ends with this short summary: 

Both Sullivan’s Travels and Monsters, Inc. explore the power of laughter through journeys into areas in which they are not familiar. Both films focus on stories of acceptance of those different from us and finding a way to bridge the gap between different groups of people. Laughter is a force which brings us together and proves more powerful than expected. As Joel McCrea’s Sully says in the end of Sullivan’s Travels, “There’s a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that’s all some people have?” 

The title of the movie - Sullivan’s Travels - rang some bells. And indeed, it turned out that I was not mistaken. Some time ago I read a STUFF article from June 2018, about Mark Gatiss and the TV Mini-Series ‘Queers’ (of which he’d been a producer) “Sherlock star Mark Gatiss is 'Wilde' about LGBTQ history”. And in this article he also refers to the movie Sullivan’s Travels:

"One of my favourite movies is Sullivan's Travels, the great Preston Sturges film, it's about this film director who is obsessed about making heavy issue-led movies and he's planning his great opus called Oh Brother Where Art Thou? - which is where the Coen brothers get their film title from - and through a series of far-fetched incidents he ends up in prison on a chain-gang.

"He's dragged out to a cinema in the middle of a swamp to watch a Mickey Mouse film, and he looks at all the prisoners just laughing their heads off and he has an epiphany. He realises that 'oh, my job, my job is to entertain people'. If you can get messages through entertainment without being didactic then you've hit the jackpot I think. Because if you make people entertained and you give them something they don't know they want, that's everything you could ever want really."

It looks like Mark Gatiss really loves that movie because in another article for RadioTimes in November 2015 “Doctor Who shines a beacon in dark times” he mentions it too: 

“I was thinking about this a lot this morning, coming here. And it’s like that great film Sullivan’s Travels, the Preston Sturges film, which I was watching again recently. It really reinforced my belief that there’s nothing wrong with creating great, fun things.”

And finally there is also a direct connection between Dr. Who and Monsters Inc as well: 

Monsters Inc. was the episode of Doctor Who Confidential broadcast in conjunction with The Lazarus Experiment. The title is of course a reference to the Disney film of the same name.    (IMDB Dr Who Monsters inc)

I guess these are some good reasons to assume that at least several of the stunning similarities between MONSTERS INC and Sherlock BBC are indeed delieberate decisions of the creators. 

@gosherlocked @sarahthecoat @raggedyblue @possiblyimbiassed @spenglernot @sherlockshadow @the-signs-of-two @home-is-where-the-tardis-takes-u

[antheas-blackberry]

Fanfic End of the Year Asks

Well @conduitstreetcat asked for more of the answers, and since I’m procrastinating on the next chapter of In the end, only kindness matters  . . . . 

Reflectionfavourite fic you wrote this year

And the shadows they burn dark - it was fun to write and I really enjoyed doing it. It also helped how popular it was!

2.    least favourite fic you wrote this year From antiquity- I wouldn’t say it was the least favourite. I would say it’s the one I would go back and write again or fix as I went one way and then abruptly took a turn and I wish I hadn’t been in such a rush to post it.

3. favourite line/scene you wrote this year The first chapter of And the shadows they burn dark

4. total number of words you wrote this year Ummm good lord. If I add up all of the new works from this year (not including the ones I wrote with @lavenderandvanilla, I get 36,435. This doesn’t include WIP’s that haven’t been posted to AO3, chapters I’ve added to WIP’s started in 2018 or before, or works I’ve written for work. Not counting work, I am sure that makes about 50k if not more

5. most popular fic this year And the shadows they burn dark.  I still can’t believe it has over 800 kudos. I never thought I’d see such a number, if I’m honest!

6. least popular fic this year That’s much easier! The little Good Omens baseball fics and the The Pomegranate Rooms

7. longest completed fic you wrote this year

Forever I've Known- which is a collection of short pieces/drabbles/vignettes 

8. shortest completed fic you wrote this year

30 before 23, which is one of the little Good Omens baseball fics. It’s only 217 words!

9. longest wip of the year

See number 7

10. shortest wip of the year

The Pomegranate Rooms

11. fandom you enjoyed writing for the most this year Good Omens, obviously

12. favourite character to write about this year

ummmmm????

13. favourite writing song/artist/album of this year

Uhhhh?????

14. a fic you didn’t expect to write

Hearts Attach- it was meant to be something entirely different! 

15. something you learned this year

Well, I guess I learned a lot of things about myself, most of it from fan fiction- if I’m honest. I learned that I am not the person I thought I was, and that there’s quite possibly a real, actual reason I am the way that I am. That it’s not just Anthea being Anthea here, and going all in when she likes something. It looks like this is something a bit more, and I’m trying to make my peace with it.  I don’t want to go into details quite yet, as I’ve not really got my head around it all, but it does make things so much more clear for me and well, maybe if I had known this years ago I’d be a different person.  Or at least would have been able to say that there is an actual legit reason I act like this. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just desperate. 

I’ve been very angry at myself for quite a long time, and I’ve gone from long periods of time of not writing to wanting to delete everything I’ve ever authored to trying out new things. And it’s not always been great. I’ve not always had the feedback (or comments or kudos) I thought I would. And perhaps I said some things, I maybe shouldn’t have said . . . . . 

And I’ve had some things said to me as well that were not very nice. I’ve also had some very nice things said to me. It’s been tough, especially with work pressures it’s meant I’ve not been able to write as much as I would have liked, and when I have been able to, I’ve been very hesitant to post or to put my name on things that have been co-authored. 

16. fic(s) you completed this year

Hearts Attach, And the shadows they burn dark, Birthday cake, Good times never seemed so good, From antiquity, Reflection, 101 RBIs, Re-evaluate in six weeks, For the love of crêpes, 30 before 23 and In the end, only kindness matters will be done by the end of the year.

17. fics you’ll continue next year Forever I've Known, possibly One moment in time, but I might move it to Forever I’ve Known, The Pomegranate Rooms

18. current number of wips

3 that have been posted, maybe a few more that have never seen and may never see the light of day

19.  any new fics to start next year I’m sure there will be, but I’ve not thought that far ahead

20. number of comments you haven’t read

0. I read them all and do try my best to reply to them all

21. most memorable comment/review

I recently had a lovely set of comments from someone which really made my day and they encouraged me to continue on, and that was really very kind, especially as it is on a piece I’ve had to set to the side as it was taking a lot out of me emotionally. 

22. events you participated in this year

31 days of ineffable advent, Fandom trumps hate with @lavenderandvanilla and the Rupert Graves birthday celebration. I still owe @lavenderandvanilla one for the Mark Gatiss birthday drive

23. fics you wanted to write but didn’t Occasionally, I might get an idea, and well if I didn’t note it, it’s lost.

24. favourite fic you read this year

Oh, good lord. <insert Aziraphale in the Bastille gif here>

Just to name a few:

The Coffee, Wine, Texbooks verse by @toby-zachary-ziegler

Four Cups of Wine by borealowl

Slow Show by mia_ugly

Secondhand Smoke by PaintedVanilla

Ink Blots and forget me nots by gutsandglitter

And oh so many more.  Check out my bookmarks, which I am slowly updating!

25. a fic you read this year you would recommend everyone read

Again, see my bookmarks

26. number of favourites/bookmarks you made this year

A lot! 

27. favourite fanfic author of the year

Literally impossible to say, there are so many brilliant authors out there- to say that one is better than another is really unfair IMHO

28. longest fic you read this year

Shit, I’ve no idea. 

29. shortest fic you read this year

Again, not a clue

30. favourite fandom to read fic from this year

Duh.