Also, I saw Sherlock Holmes this afternoon.

It is COMPLETELY INCOMPREHENSIBLE. I fucking adored it. It has literally nothing at all to do with anything you know about Sherlock Holmes, but it gets a couple things right:

1) Watson keeps a bull pup
2) Holmes is batshit insane.

I am also not certain bout this (but keep an eye out if you are going to see it?) but I think Jude Law is playing Watson recently back from being wounded in the war. He has a walking stick and, as far as I could tell, her doesn't run, and there's a sort of very tiny hitch to his walk, like he's got a bad leg. Which, considering the rest of the characterisation, is mind-boggling.

Rachel MacAdams: how the hell did she ever get from York University to that movie? The world is fucking crazy

What I received: Taking Out The Change. Peter Wimsey, post Busman's Honeymoon. Angst, fever and ill-placed words about Dian De Momerie lead Harriet into a discussion with Peter... angsty and sweet at the same time.

Special Bonus Awesome Stories written for other people:

Robots Need Love Too. Adorable kid!Jaime and Adam IN THE FUTURE IN SPACE being awesome kids and being strange. It's so adorable.

Off The Pace. Dick Francis' Sid Halley series, adult, noncon, WHEE!!!

Theft. The Young Ones, being professional THEIVES. There's boykissing, and also beating each other up, just like they should *snuggles*

Girl of his Dreams Kiss Kiss Bang Bang... Harry's life is jsut as exciting after the events of the movie as during. Typical.

Back Out. Mythbusters, in which Adam throws his back out and Jaime was a masseur in college. Honestly? Why wasn't this written for me??

Don't Care What Else I Am. Real Genius, 15 years later. Threesome, nerd sex... JOY!

OKAY SO.

I am full of bbq sauce and beans and all manner of good things, and while I'm not going to do a full review of Sherlock Holmes I do have a few clarifying comments to make :D

1. Do not believe that you will like it just because I liked it. I hate 99% of all cinema so my tastes are weird. That said, I think most people who like Holmes canon and are flexible about canon interpretation will like it.

2. It definitely is a) fanfic on film and b) chock full of juicy slash. But it's awesome fanfic on film -- with nods to the canon and little quotes from it. And, at points, I am positive Robert Downey Junior was mimicking Jeremy Brett. Just to fuck with us!

3. NOBODY BE SURPRISED: Watson was always my favourite. It's nice to see, in this version, that he's a full-fledged person, a character with his own wit, skills, and desires, and the kind of person who can mentally keep up with Sherlock Holmes. It was also nice to see his flaws, from canon, made manifest in the film -- neither he nor Holmes are perfect heroes.

Not to spoil too much about the film, but a bit of a spoiler: ( 3a. )

Hey, I am having a lovely holiday and I hope you are too in your own fashion. I spent much of it drinking coffee out of my awesome new mug from umbo, which I like because it's heavy and freaking gigantic, so even if you put a reasonable amount of coffee in there it still feels like you're drinking a big bucketful. My parents' flight got in after midnight last night and Hoss got up at 6:00am on the dot, so we have had a solid fifteen hours of holiday cheer around here.

Also, I gather Yuletide might have gone live, and some of you might have kinda had fun with it?

Anyway, take care, and good night.

I.  Day 13 → A fictional book

Um.  Is this supposed to be a recommendation thing?  Because I have several I've read recently I could recommend (surely not just one!):

1.  The Elegance of the Hedgehog.  I LOVE MURIEL BARBERY.  I haven't gotten to Gourmet Rhapsody, but that is up next.  I'd like to get the original French version of Elegance and see if the translation is good, because even in English it's lovely.

2.  Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and, to a lesser degree, Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters.  The first was wildly entertaining, the second less so but still quite fun.  I'm not a huge S&S fan, so that might just be me.

3.  Lamb:  The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore.  I don't always like Christopher Moore.  Fluke really sucked.  I actually returned it, which I hardly ever do with books.  Fool wasn't so great either.  But Lamb is both funny and really very sweet.

4.  The entire Thursday Next series, by Jasper Fforde, although I'm reserving my opinion on the latest.  I couldn't get past the first several chapters or so.  I think it's because Something Rotten ended so definitively that I just couldn't see it opened up again.  I'm about to start rereading it from the beginning because the first time around I started with the third book, which Kelly had gotten me for my birthday, and then jumped around.


II.  Christmas Day has been lovely so far!  We woke up to take the dog out at 8, then made coffee and opened presents.  Mr. B got a 'Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock' t-shirt, Freakonomics, a book about the Lascaux cave art, The Vegetarian Epicure (thank you to themadlurker  for recommending it!), 4 seasons of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, a breakfast-in-bed tray, and Eat Drink Man Woman.  I got a waffle iron and vegetarian waffle mix (I didn't know there was non-veggie waffle mix, but the amount of things that have unexpected meat in them is really weird), the rest of Wes Anderson's oeuvre (I do like my collections), and tons of chocolate-- although the greater portion of the chocolate was discovered to have been eaten by Sophie while we were out at the movies.  Which brings me to:


III.  Sherlock Holmes! 

( Spoilers, kind of, but mostly just whining about Rachel McAdams. )


IV.  I hope your December 25th was wonderful, whether you celebrate it or not.  I love you friends-list people!  You make every day a happy, funny day.

We're only home for a few minutes before we venture back out for dinner, but I felt the need to inform you all that the new Sherlock Holmes movie is MADE OF FUCKING AWESOME.

I mean, they could have cut the fight scenes and I wouldn't have minded, but I say that about everything. Otherwise?

FUCKING AWESOME.

More later, after I am full of bourbon-glazed ribs and french fries. :D

No, my story was not from Glee - even better: Black Books! And my mystery writer gave me an AMAZING, pitch-perfect, wonderful Black Books snark-and-love-fest, featuring Manny, Bernard and Fran at their very best - I mean, worst - I mean, well, sometimes with those three, their best is their worst, so - IT'S AWESOME, OKAY, IT'S A SERIOUSLY GREAT STORY and you should run - not walk! to go read it:

A Matter of Perspective

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AViolentlyExecutedBlog/~3/QPUdR0KaXpg/seasons-greetings-from-texas.html

One of my favorite Christmas songs:

Happy Christmas everyone!

Happy Christmas morning, all!

We have opened presents here, though we have not a tree -- we put them under one of the hotel lamps instead. :D It's been a very domestic Christmas -- I got a sheet set, an immersion blender, and Cooking Mama for the Wii, among other things.

bluejeans07 and I also have a treat for you this morning. While we didn't finish our 24-hour-comic within 24 hours, we did keep working on it, and about a week ago we completed it. We thought we'd keep it under wraps and unveil it on Christmas, seeing as it is about the holiday spirit and all. :)

You can find the entire Winterbook under the cut, or click on each image to get larger views. Enjoy!

(Me and my friend made a comic book!)

( The Winterbook: A Graphic Short Story By Sam And Jean )

I am cooking a turkey for the first time in my life! I've seen it done every year at my parents' place, only now I get to try it alone. Eeek!! It's only a 5kg bird and is supposed to take 4 hours or so, and I've been up since 8 getting everything all ready.

I have bought "Sherlock Holmes" tickets for this afternoon as well. FUN TIMES.

Let the bubbly commence.

I hope everyone is having a lovely Christmas Day, whether you observe the holiday or not (if not, Happy Friday!). I loved Christmas as a child, then kind of lost the thread of it for a few years (exams + multiple concerts and rehearsals + gift buying when one has no money = stress!), and now I'm back to loving it again. Go figure - maybe I finally remembered what it's all supposed to be about, and took a markdown on the rest.

I hope your day is filled with rest and love and joy and peace and all the people, pets and things that make you happy.

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said
"For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men!"

Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

-- H.W. Longfellow (as sung by Johnny Cash)

I tossed and turned when I went to bed last night, having dreams like the one where I couldn't log in to AO3 and get my story, or the one where my story ended up being written by a writer I have frequently disparaged to panisdead, and it was also in a fandom I hadn't even requested. So, you know, when I woke up at 3 am, I thought briefly about just going to the bathroom and back to sleep, but then of course I grabbed my laptop and read my story instead.

It's Other Dances, and I really like it. It's Earthsea, which for some reason was the fandom I kept forgetting I'd requested, which made it even more of a wonderful surprise. It's got the characters I love the most from the whole series--Ged, Tenar, and Tehanu--and I just love where the author chose to go with them. You should all definitely read it!

Haven't had time to read any of the other bazillion stories yet, and not sure when I will, but I know there are some Southland stories out there, and that makes me very happy :-). I probably won't have time to do much reading in the archive until I get home, but that just means I have a lot to look forward to!

Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating, and Happy Yuletide to all!

This entry was originally posted at http://umbo.dreamwidth.org/1067795.html. Please comment at either post.

comments on DW post.

Out for our traditional family 5 km before breakfast on Christmas Day. First time we've run this with snow underfoot (patchy, slushy in places and icy in others, but snow nonetheless!) which made it a bit slower than usual, but good to be out all the same. And we saw another runner!

So, this is Christmas. I have snow *and* mist :)

I saw the day in by watching a Michael Wood documentary on Beowulf. Wood's voice - eager, awestruck, breathy and over-articulated - drives me up the wall, but Julian Glover made up for it with his living history declamatory stylings.

After worrying that I would toss and turn all night, I slept like the dead. Santa has brought me two scarves (one to match the gloves that I opened last week, one black and hot pink) and a box of posh drinking chocolate.

So, I'm onto the food... breakfast involved French toast, smoked bacon and cumberland sausages. I keep forgetting how strongly the bacon has been smoked, and rather overdid it but, by god, it was good. Washed it down with two cups of nicely mulled cider - Weston's vintage, with an apple studded with cloves, a couple of allspice, some cinnamon stick and the peel and juice of a sweet orange. Lovely. I had wanted to put a tiny bit of vanilla into it, but couldn't find the vanilla pod that I bought yesterday morning - I suspect that I left it on the counter at the grocer's. Never mind.

Once breakfast has settled, I'll have pudding in the form of stewed quince with yoghurt. I might put a swirl of my Mandarin Napoleon into it.

* Although "Thiis Chrsitmas salee offres you relaly big savnigs for preimim pharmacetuical produtcs!" comes fairly close :D

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

~ Anne Lamott

Merry Christmas.