Don't ask me, I just think here

I haven't been keeping up with the ratings for Missing (or anything else, for that matter), but I'm unsurprised by its cancellation just on general principles.

I can still be irked by it, though. My TV needs MORE Becca Winstones on it, not less. Female, over 40, and complicated as hell. Can't possibly have that, now can we?

Grump.

But none of them are the ones I want, which are out of stock at that link and every other one I've been able to locate. (And believe me, I'm good at this.) They seem to have discontinued the design in favor of the 3 1/2" stiletto version, which is not terribly surprising (given the current state of the commercial costume industry, which I want to refuse to call "Slutoween" on general principle, but unfortunately there's not a less problematic term in circulation), but still annoying.

The profile is a little low and the heel is not exactly the right shape, but they're more than acceptably close to the actual Melisandre shoes, which matters because the dress is only ankle length (on Carice Van Houten on screen, not just on the display mannequin), so they're clearly visible.

( Video from the Toronto exhibition in March )

In the video, you can see that the shoes come up to a peak in back as well. So the "Salem" is a better match than I honestly expected to find. Luckily, it is still readily available in black, so plan B is to get a pair of those and go to town on them with Nu-Life. (Thank you, League of Heroes!)

However, since I have my work cut out for me with that necklace and belt, I'd just as soon skip the painting if I can. So, if you're in a costumey shopping place, keep your eyes peeled for me?

After polling several knowledgable people, I have a few potential approaches to the necklace in mind, which I'll be testing in small scale (as in, a few trial links) before making a final decision. Yay challenge!

My one head start on this one is that I already have the right wig, because I grabbed it on un-pass-up-able clearance sale on Cosplay.com a few months back.

And awaaaaaaayyyy we go!

I thought I might regret not doing the midnight show, but I haven't so far, so I think it was the right call. :-) Instead, we went as soon as feasible after brainiacfive got off work on Friday, and had a marvelous time.

I'm not feeling driven to say anything in particular, just basking in the squee (despite having seen some criticisms that I agree with to varying degrees). Should you wish to squee in concert, consider comments to this post open for spoilers. Same goes for criticism and/or in-depth meta, with the caveat that I'm not likely to hold up my end of such a discussion very well. I just had FUN. :-)

Because BigBabyBrother isn't so sure right now. :-D From Sister-In-Love's Facebook status:

ShinyHappyNiece: Dada I watch movie please?
BigBabyBrother: We don't watch movies right after dinner.
SHN: PLEASE!! (while batting her eyelashes)
BBB: Ok...but stand up on the ottoman instead of sitting down. (he thinks he's got her now)
SHN: I don't stand on ottoman dada. It's dangewous.

I seem to recall some not-entirely-dissimilar battles of wits. I'm not sure whether the blow to the ego is worse for a grownup electrical engineer or a nine-year-old overly secure in her logical abilities, but either way, this was by no means unearned. ;->

What happens when you can't visit Grandma because her immune system is compromised, and Daddy is a professional photographer with a wacky sense of humor? Possibly the most hilariously adorable blog in the history of ever.

In an interview, the dad, Jason Lee, explains:

Q: How do you come up with such creative photos of your daughters? What's your creative process like?
A: Most of the ideas come from the girls, from observing them play, or hearing the funny and outrageous things they say. Their day to day life also plays a big role for my inspiration. Creative process, hmm, thats a tough one. After coming up with an idea, I then 'set up' the scene, and often use artificial lighting to enhance the images. It helps to plan out the shoot before hand, so at most, I only have them in the shoot for a minute or two.

Q: Any inspirational stories you'd like to share?
A: Well, not sure if this is inspirational or not, but I'd like to share a little bit about why and how this project came about. In 2006, my mother was diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma. The girls were constantly sick, with colds and coughs so I couldn't always bring them to visit her. I started a blog http://kristinandkayla.com as a way to keep my mom up to date with things that were going on in their lives, and hoping to cheer her up with pictures. I still try and keep it updated with photos, but it's at a far less frequency than when I first started.

( Some prime examples )

Second season of Slings and Arrows playing as background in my sewing room. Geoffrey has just proposed his idea to show Macbeth as vulnerable and human by having Lady M undress him when he gets home from battle. Oliver sputters indignantly that "Macbeth is a monster! Do we ever see Frankenstein with his dick out?"

Well, actually, Oliver, now that you mention it... :-D

And, y'know, what it said about the newborn Creature is not that far off from the same idea. Of course, that's the intelligent response. The immediate response was to imagine Oliver's face had he been seated where I was in the stalls, with Jonny Lee Miller's junk swinging in the breeze not a dozen feet away.

(For the record, BTW, for all that Henry desperately needed some kind of kick in the pants, and heaven knows I love Geoffrey to pieces and bits, I still want to BEAT HIM SENSELESS for how he ended up going about it.)

Do I care enough about Once Upon a Time to vid it to "Fable" from The Light in the Piazza?

When listing what I've been watching. Thing the First is Game of Thrones. Which I have no interest in posting lots of meta about, but which I'm still enjoying immensely.

Next costuming project: Melisandre. :->

Thing the Second is Missing. Or, as havocthecat and I refer to it, Ashley Judd: Spy!Mom. Which we've both been enjoying immensely, for a variety of reasons. I expected it to be loads of somewhat cheesy spy-game fun, but it's actually turned out to be a better show than I gave it credit for.

Thing the Third is Lost Girl, which I've been watching all along (though I'm several weeks behind the Canadian schedule at the mo), but which has officially been dubbed my Wacky Fun Happy Place. If you're not watching it, and you like your supernatural drama with a relatively light touch and a healthy side of snarky attitude, you're missing out.

...because catching up is a lost cause. Usually this means I've been hellaciously busy, but that actually stopped being the case a couple weeks ago, and I'm still not in a mode of generating words. And when I do, I feel like they should be on Unvarnished, but that hasn't happened much either. (Why Val Is Not A Writer Even Though She Writes Sometimes, chapter eleventy-three.)

I have been skimming posts and goofing off on Twitter, but mostly knitting and thrifting and, this week, blowing my nose a ridiculous amount. (April cold, right on schedule.)

As I've observed in the past, my fannish brainspace tends to get subsumed by actory things, and at the moment I'm submitting on a lot of things, auditioning for a few, looking forward to a couple I already have, and beginning to strategize forays into the L.A. market. Mostly that's happening in my head right now, and is in a very nebulous stage, but it will probably eventually be chronicled on the blog meant for such things.

I gave up pretty early on the concept of posting any meta about Being Human S4, and have now pretty much given up on the overview post I was going to write. I ended up quite enjoying the season, and felt like I had stuff to say at the time of each episode, but just didn't have the drive to put it into words? And now I sort of don't feel like I have a lot to say. I could make some comments that would be considered non-spoilery, except I think there are still a few people who haven't seen all of S3, let alone any of S4, so I'll confine myself to the observation that I'll still be watching next season, but as of now will probably wait for it to be at my convenience on BBC America instead of resorting to *ahem* other methods. (And do please consider the preceding as a request not to spoil in comments on this post, though I'd be happy to discuss via email or whatever.)

Meanwhile, to my surprise, BHUS became markedly more engaging in its second, entirely independent season. For me personally, that's probably partly because the preponderance of storylines were driven by female characters, both familiar and new. I was struck in the season opener by Sally and Nora passing the Bechdel test while still having to rely on the guys to interpret because Nora could not see or hear Sally. Now that both seasons are done, I do think I still have a post in me on the different paths the two shows have taken, and some interesting things rattling around my head as a result of following both. Hopefully that will materialize at some point, though I'm not sure who'll read it or care, since most people seem to follow only one or the other.

Other than that, I've been giving Merlin a second chance, knowing that it wasn't really going to get any better, but having observed from various stills and such that it's really, really pretty. It makes nice background viewing for crafting or doing stuff online, and my primary entertainment as of S3 comes from Katie McGrath milking as much fun as possible out of Morgana's woefully-poorly-conceived duplicity. And, well, it's pretty.

Everything else I'm watching at the moment is in the "popcorn" engagement zone. Once Upon A Time has bursts of being really riveting, but mostly hovers in the "moderately clever" range. Castle is, well, Castle, at its best when just having fun. Smash has a big problem with the green-eyed monster in the room (I realize nobody but probably Frank can be legitimately called a grownup, but jeez), but has otherwise pretty much delivered on what I want.

Breaking In -- which I'm watching entirely because Erin Richards (Nancy from BH S3) joined the cast this year -- is sort of the sitcom version of Leverage, except that they run a security firm instead of...whatever you call what the Leverage team does, and (at least this season) most stuff happens in the office rather than on cases. I'm not a sitcom person at ALL, but I really like Erin (and love her character, Molly), and when was the last time you saw a network show retooled to add women? I wish I'd known going in that one would be subtracted a couple eps in, and that it would be the token female on the field team. Which is slightly irritating, but less so when I realized that all the plot was happening in the office. And that, while the new boss (Megan Mulally) is completely incompetent, there might be more to her than meets the eye, and that there's at least some hope that the rather put-upon Molly (who is pretty much Pepper Potts in need of a confidence boost) will pwn everyone in sight at some point. So, yeah, this is me watching a sitcom. IDEK.

Other than that... Making stuff, attempting to write stuff, acting in stuff. And more or less keeping up with all your stuff, whether or not I actually comment. :-)

In this case, in honor of tytaniaherself's recent run in The Pirates of Penzance.

Go. Read. Set aside all drinkables. Preferably not in that order.