So, it is party time again, folks!

[wiseheart]

Each year this time, we launch my virtual birthday party, which starts on October 1 and ends on October 9 at midnight, sharp. The goals of the party are to post as many comments and collapse as many threads as possible, on as many new pages as we can. It is always great fun, as you can see if you check out the similar entries of the last few years.

This year, I'll also throw the real party at mid-time - and post the recipes of all the food that will be there for you, so that you can all participate if you want to. Virtual food has no calories.

Fandom-related discussions are as welcome as the ones about coffee or chocolate (just to name a few favourites from previous years), and, of course, pictures and recipes of birthday cakes. ;)

So, drop by, tell your story, post your pics or silly poems, ask questions you always wanted to ask and have a good time!

Soledad, in excited expectation




Oh, and by the way, to provide birthday gifts hobbit-style, I've got a revived story and a Kansas 2 update for you.

Enjoy!

Comments

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I wish the_wild_iris were here with us, because this would be a topic for her heart: did you watch Merlin? And Camelot? What do you think, pro and contra?

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard from Wild Iris in ages; I hope she is well.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

She does react to text messages - unfortunately, texting is expensive over here, especially texting abroad. She told me she no longer had the attention span for LJ... whatever that is supposed to mean.

I miss her, too.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I hate this exodus from LJ. It used to be such a lively place, and now I feel like a fossil for not abandoning it for some form of microblog (a thing I abhor more than aubergine!).

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I agree, it is a sad thing. LJ was such a great way to keep tab on your friends, to discuss shared interest leisurely... Perhaps we are fossils, but why shouldn't we intent on keeping our fossilic ways when they suit us better?

I don't feel the urge to join every new internet phenomenon and abandon the good things we've had for a decade or more. This entire faster, faster, faster tendency makes my brain hurt. Plus, I find Twitter and Co utterly confusing.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I've never had much to do with Twitter (I don't text, either) but Tumblr -- argh! I can't make head or tale of it.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

And, oooh, I managed to change my icon, without having to preview and reset it! Let's see if this works...

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Nope! Sigh. I don't know what LJ is playing at.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I have never watched either. When the BBC did their new version of Robin Hood I was quite excited, but I found the first episode so stupid and boring it put me off not only it, but Merlin as well since people kept comparing the two and saying they were similar. That is perhaps a bit hasty of me... So, tell me do you think I should give any of those a try?

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Robin Hood is laughably terrible. I bought the DVDs for the first two seasons (in the throes of an extreme Richard Armitage lust that the first The Hobbit film cured) but have never finished watching them they are so bad. The young actors who play Marion & Robin are abysmal and have no sexual tension at all, and I'm only a fan of deliberate anachronism when done consciously and sparingly.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

You think Armitage was bad in the first Hobbit film? I find that the first film was the peak of cinematic artistry and canon compliance compared with the second one.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Given that I loathed and detested the first film, and had suspicions about the canon compliance of the second, I decided to give it a miss. My blood pressure is high enough as it is...

It wasn't so much that Armitage was bad as that film-Thorin is a travesty, and the whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I liked the first film more than I expected I would, but that was mostly due to Martin Freeman's Bilbo. Thorin I found not so bad, but the other Dwarves were sad caricatures.

The canon rape was harder to stomach, and it only gets worse in the second film. It isn't even about Bilbo anymore.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Freeman was quite good, I grant you. He was the only thing in that entire film I could stomach.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

The first season of Merlin is lovely - more a fairy tale for young adults than anything else. It treats the source material very loosely, and some aspects simply don't make sense, but it has a unique charm, and the young actors are very likeable. And, of course, they have Stewart Head as Uther Pendragon, which is great. After I stopped looking for Buffy, I enjoyed his performance very much.

Season 2 is still quite lovely, but later on the show loses its footing, IMO, and the main turning point, Morgana turning evil, is totally unconvincing. I couldn't buy that, and as a result I couldn't really buy anything that came afterwards, but the whole thing is still enjoyable. And Colin Morgan is simply amazing.

Camelot is closer to the original legends, save for the fact that there's no Lancelot, or rather that the love triangle is turned upside down. There is a lot of gratutious sex and nudity (it is a SyFy show, after all), and none of the main characters are even remotely likeable. Sir Kay is cute, but everyone else is a jerk. Still, it is an interesting approach, even for women. I'm told that the guys mainly watched it for Eva Green's boobs that are revealed while practicing evil magic.

No wonder the show only lasted one season. It ended with a semi-cliffhanger, too, annoyingly enough.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Tony Head is wonderful. He'll never convince me to drink Nescafe, but otherwise the guy can do no wrong.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Did he do an ad for Nescafé?

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

He came to prominence in the UK (way before Buffy) for a series of Nescafe Gold Blend adverts, which remain among the best-loved UK adverts of all time.

[lhun-dweller.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen it, but am curious to hear what folks who know the "original" King Arthur think of it.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Which one? There are half a dozen so-called "originals", including the versons of Cretien de Troyes and Sir Thomas Mallory, and they all contradict each other, although certain motives are usually the same. :)

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

I watched some of both - but never ended up finishing either. I mean to some day, but Merlin annoyed me so much by the absolute determination to reverse all character development (especially wrt to Merlin's magic always managing to stay hidden).

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yes, they managed to hit the reset button right at the start of each new season of Merlin, which made less and less sense with each passing year. Too bad; there is some heartbreakingly beautiful fanfic, both friendship and Arthur/Merlin that deals with their relationship amazingly.

As for Camelot, I was mostly put off by the unlikeable main characters. Still, the motivation of Camelot's Morgan was a hundred times more convincing than that of Merlin's Morgana.