doubleshiny

What I'm currently up to...

Got the Sylar episode guide up to date finally on Zachary Quinto .co.uk , managed to remain mostly spoiler free but not completely - dammit!

Getting excited about The Cribs DVD of Cribsmas, more on www.thecribsonline.co.uk

Getting into the swing of things on the radio show, and had the first edition of the long awaited Challenge Kev. We'll be online soon.

Trying to stop Kev from making the world end by accidentally starting Buffy movie rumours on End Of Show.

Accidentally being rather filthy on the Heroes Podcast 'The List', which is now the only Heroes podcast in the UK! Get in there!



In real life....

FACT film quiz on Tuesday, apparently I am guaranteed to get at least one right, according to the quiz master.

Too many birthdays this month! Me, my brother and both my sisters within two weeks of each other.

Still decorating, this is getting ridiculous now. I still have to finish taking the carpet up, painting the floor and painting the ceiling. Then I have to put up three bookshelves, and buy a bed. All before Christmas. Which is less than a month. Oh God....

One of my newly acquired friends is leaving for Thailand for nearly a year! We've only just met! Something I said I suspect..

Running the radio project and watching the kids get so excited about being on air has re-ignited my passion for radio. I'm remembering what it was like to still get an adrenaline rush from broadcasting. Good times.

Played the old squeezebox at a tribute concert for my friend who died this summer. It was a strange but moving affair and I'm glad I did it.

Today I was juggling for money, in that I was at work and I was learning how to juggle on company time. The circus skills guy is called Harry and he's a regular fixture at my workplace where we're always trying to get the students to do stuff whether they like it or not. Whenever we need a bit of team-building or confidence training or any other buzzword we call Harry and he brings his juggling balls and devil sticks down until senior management are happy that we're all having fun.

I like the diablo, but despite the fact that I must now have been through Harry's circus school half a dozen times I still can't do it very well. I can throw it up and catch it but that took me almost a year and I haven't progressed much further. Circus trainers have a weird effect on people, we seem desperate for their approval. It's so rare that we're actually starting to learn an elementary skill any more that it almost seems imperative that we have constant re-assurance. Every time I twizzled that devil stick or caught the diablo I was looking up to Harry for approval and possibly a treat. A weird phenomenon.

Today I met someone who dosn't know how to do McDonalds. I didn't think these people existed outside of some former Yugoslavian territories but a middle aged guy who was with us had no idea how McDonalds worked. He was trying to order a McMuffin at 1.30pm, didn't understand the concept of the meal deal, couldn't work out where the bin was and thought that he had to eat outside because he mistakenly asked for his filet o'fish 'to go'. He assumed there was some VAT related reason why they even bothered differentiating between 'to go' and 'to eat in' and was probably worried that the manager would come and turf him out of a seat or demand an extra 6p if he didn't immediately vacate the premises.

More DS Bulletins

My brother borrowed my laptop whilst I was away and now it won't load the internet from our wireless router for absolutely no reason. The little dialogue bubble keeps taunting me by saying 'Connected to Belkin54g, and the signal is bloody brilliant, why don't you dive in?'. Then I click on Firefox and it looks back at me as if I'm an idiot. I feel like it's the internet equivalent of gluing a pound coin to the pavement and watching people try to pick it up.

I have some new pics of Zachary Quinto at the Ojai playwrights conference that I found through clever sleuthing (or clicking on their weblink, as it's sometimes known) and I feel fine.

I had another damn sex dream about a slightly embarrassing TV actor. Ten DS points if you can guess who it was (Kev, you can't play and I wish i had never told you).

Tomorrow I'm off to London to see The Cribs. Hurray!

OK, last week I wrote this huge post about Comic-Con and for some reason it never showed on my journal. Perhaps it was the internet gods saying "You know Kirst, there were no real insights in there, why do you have another go and in the meantime we'll just delete this hour's work". Well, screw you internet Gods! Now I can't remember what I wrote so I'm going to have to go through my little notebook to see what I did on my holiday. I will break it into manageable chunks.

Shout Outs To The US -massive (aka some of the people we met)

At the LA Greyhound station there were a couple of people clearly going to Comic-Con. One of them was a guy named Greco from, as he put it,  'the crazy country of Chile'. He had a costume from Battle of the Planets and he was very excited to be one of the 50 people chosen for the masquerade. We mentioned that we had mistakenly got two passes each and he gave us his mobille number asking whether he could have the spare for his friend. He told us he knew someone at the Dark Horse booth but when we tried to deliver said pass they said they'd never heard of him. Greco showed up at a few Q and As, usually asking completely nuts questions. One of them was to the Family Guy panel - "When are you going to make fun of the crazy country of Chile?", to which Seth Green responded "How about right now?".

At the Browncoat social on the Saturday night (while others were schmoozing with Joss and getting invited to the IESb party with Zach Quinto, not that I'm jealous. Except I am) we met three great kids called Jasmine,Mike and I forget the other one. They were really cool though and we had a great time talking to them about all sorts of nonsense from Eddie Izzard to tiger training. Also in attendance were the awesomely hard working people from the California Browncoats and it was a great night, I'm glad we did it.

It was also great to bump into people from various message boards and internet places at the Browncoat fan panel where me and Kev talked about Serenity marketing and websites and ended up inadvertently launching our new collaboration 'JJ and Joss', whih is a musical puppet show based on the early life of Joss Whedon and JJ Abrams. People laughed at the concept, or towards the concept, which is good enough for me.

TV Is Awesome (aka Panel time)

The first panel we went to was Doctor Who and Torchwood in Ballroom 20 on Thursday. Steven Mofft, the new showrunner and writer of Doctor Who was very funny and the panel altogether was great, I had no idea that there was such a strong Who folllowing in the US. I accidentally ruined the series finale for a guy next to me because I didn't realise that they hadn't caught up yet, so sorry mate.
Torchwood panel was basically the John Barrowman show but I got some sweet footage of him singing a song from Miss Saigon with Naoko Mori.

Friday was the Dr. Horrible panel, which was legen- wait for it - dary. You'll have seen it on youtube no doubt so I won't bore with the details but it was nice to keep seeing Dr Horrible and Captain Hammer tshirts everywhere. I got myself a Dr Horrible one because the airline lost my damn bag and I literally had nothing to wear. I spent about £50 of Air France's money on shirts through the weekend. The screening of Dr Horrible was nice too, great to see it on the big screen and here the anguished cries of those who had never seen it before at the denoument.

We also saw the American Dad panel which was basically a table read of the first act of a new episode followed by an unrendered version for the second act and the finished product for the last act. It was a clever way to do it and it flowed straight into the Family Guy panel which also had an hilarious ten minutes from a new episode. Seth MacFarlane's voice is awesome.

On Saturday morning we got to Hall H for 8.00 am, two and a half hours before the start of the Heroes panel, and we still had to join the queue almost half way round the back of the convention centre. I was worried we wouldn't get in but the capacity of the room was 6,000 so we were fine. I was most excited about this panel and when they announced that they would be screening the entire first episode of Season 3 I almost vomited with pleasure. I've never seen Heroes on the big screen before either so it was doubly special. I was furiously writing down everything that happened for my mates on 9th Wonders, the official UK fanclub site, only pausing to go "I knew it!" when we found out who Nathan's assassin was, and when a certain other character appeared and did his thing. The question and answer session had to be quite short and unfortunately there was rather rubbish screening of questions which meant that one guy admitted he had never seen Heroes before and asked the castt to summarise the two seasons, and another woman asked if she could hug Milo Ventimiglia because she had bad eyesight or some such nonsense.

We managed to miss the Dollhouse panel because of Heroes but we got into Ballroom 20 early for the Fringe panel and ending up seeing Chuck, including Adam Baldwin. (Apparently ZQ was there for both Chuck and Fringe but I managed to miss him completely). We'd seen the screening of the Fringe pilot on preview night and I was really into it. I was hoping that someone would ask JJ more about Star Trek but no-one did and he didn't venture much information, except to say that they had no screenable clips because none of the FX were done yet.

Sunday morning saw us participating in a panel of our own, rather excitingly (see above). The final thing we did at Comic-Con was to go to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical screening in Ballroom 20 which was really good, but tinged with sadness becaue they kept announcing that Comic-Con was over. I'd really fallen in love with the place by this point and I definitely want to go back in the future.

Shopping madness

I got my hands on some really cool stuff including my beloved Heroes watch which apparently sold out on Sunday morning. I have a nice tan line to show my devotion to the watch. I also camped out in front of the Paramount stand trying to get a Spock poster, which I achieved after using Neuro Linguistic Programming on the guy handing them out. I felt such geeky achievement when I got my hands on that poster, it was the nerd holy grail of the weekend. After all the hassle I had trying to get the first one I accidentally got a second one by just walking by at an opportune time and sticking my hand out. I'm going to give the second one away in a contest when the Trek Movie gets closer, because I'm nice like that.

I also got a handbag that looks like a hotdog, and a Kingdom of Loathing tshirt. Their booth was awesome, though I haven't yet tried out the free item thing that they gave out. I am now a Level 9 Accordion Thief and have an 'I Stole Your Accordion' sticker for my erm, accordion case.

Well, I can't think of anything else, all in all it was a magical weekend! Bring on next year!

If you want to know what happens with Sylar (Zachary Quinto) in the first episode of Season 3 Heroes, go to www.zacharyquinto.co.uk and read my complete recap of the episode. 

Having fun at SDCC!

Love Doubleshiny

V quick post cause internet cafe time is running out, but SDCC is ace. Very proud of my new Heroes watch and Kingdom of Loathing tshirt. Managed to get a Spock poster today from the Paramount booth, which is an achievement which for me surpasses my degree.

Airline lost my luggage and I had to do a shopping spree a la the montage in National Lampoons European Vacation.

Love to all,

PS Joss Whedon tomorrow, Zachary Quinto on Saturday.

PPS I have a crush on Neil Patrick Harris

PPPS No-one can pronounce my name

Ryan Jarman playing the accordion at Cribsmas day 2 in December last year, it was awesome because as you know I play the accordion, and we're a lonely pathetic bunch so I was pleased to see someone cool embracing the squeezebox. This was taken by my friend Mia and has pride of place on my wall.



I took this at the launch of a new pair of trainers called Puma Argentina 78s. I didn't even know they launched trainers, but I went along with k-bo and we drank some free Tiger beer while my mates Phil and Ste DJd. At the end there were theses trainer geeks there asking could they have the promotional signs sent by Puma. They'd driven from Carlisle or somesuch.



Alan Tudyk at the Serenity convention. It was a brilliant convention, probably the best one I have ever been to. I didn't take this picture by the way, I can't remember who did, but it's pretty good, it's captured the expression he had on his face the whole weekend. Yay Alan!



Yay! Corn Mo at the Cavern supporting Common Rotation. I love Corn Mo and I was really pleased with this picture. I'm going to see him on Wednesday supporting Ben Folds and I can't wait.  I saw him outside a TMBG gig once and asked him how I should respond to people who laughed at me for playing the accordion. He replied - "Tell them to shut the f*ck up!" Legend.



I took this of John Linnell when They Might Be Giants payed at the Academy in Manchester in 2004. It was a brilliant show and although I took about 100 photos this was the only one that came out any good. I was wearing a tshirt which said 'Accordion Players Squeeze Harder' and he read it and gave me the thumbs up.



Aw, my dog Sam who died in February. When we got him he was18  months old and he's been inside for so long that he didn't know how to run. This is him in one of his many 'cone moments', can't remember what the exact complaint once but he didn't like that cone. He used to get stuck under chairs when he was wandering round.



This is our new puppy Tilly. She's tiny in this (well, compared to now) because we'd just got her. I naively thought she might enjoy this dog shirt with 'Monster' spelled out in diamante but this was the first and last time she wore it. 



This is one I took of Ryan Jarman at a gig in Birmingham, can't remember when now. It was a great gig and I got a few good pictures - although this one's a bit blurred I like the yellow. 



How small is this monkey?! Very small is the answer. He fits on a man's thumb! Unless it's a giant, and a normal sized monkey.



This is my friend Nico on St.Patrick's day 2004. We were doing a live broadcast from a pub and he got rather drunk and danced. I took this picture as a warning to others. That's his awesome Sid Vicious tshirt he's wearing.



Not a brilliant picture but it's only one of two that I have of me on the red carpet at the world premier of Serenity where I was interviewing the cast. It was a rather surreal experience and it was clear to everyone that we shouldn't really have been there. That microphone was borrowed and had a large dent in it which I was trying to hide, rather unsuccessfully. 



He is the most handsome man I have ever seen in my life. It's Zach Quinto by the way.

More details are being released every day for Comic-Con. They have already tentatively hinted at a full Heroes panel, as well Dollhouse and Dr.Horrible's Sing-a-long-blog, so I'm excited about those, they also have a massive list of fan stalls which are going to be set up. Most excitedly - Kingdom of Loathing! Now I don't really know what they'll be doing, maybe selling merchandise or whatnot (how much do I want a KOL tshirt? Answer - very much.)

There will also be a stall by the California Browncoats who I think gossi knows and I'm pretty sure there'll be some sort of meet-up planned, though the unoffical strategy guide to Comic-Con tells you not to even attempt this. Fie on you sirs!

I've currently ordered two tshirts from my own Zachary Quinto Spreadshirt shop   , one has a picture of Spock and the phrase 'under new management' and the other says 'I went to Kirby Plaza and all I got was this lousy stab wound'. They are the two geekiest things I own.

I've also realised that there will be a free shuttle bus to the convention centre from quite near the hotel where we're staying which is good cos we had visions of it being about 100 mils away. "But it looked so close on the map!"

...I love you with all my soul!

I don't really, I just think you're handsome and talented, which is good enough for most people.

I have realised today that the Sylar action figures were released into stores on Saturday, and I was too busy training my dog to remember to go out and get one, so I have to go now, and that's all there is to it. I have plans for this action figure - rather than keeping it in the packet like some collectables-obssessed loon I will take it OUT of the packet, place it in various positions with comedy props and then photograph them and post them on livejournal, like a Sylar-obssessed loon.

London! I am going to London on June 14th to see my friends, and it's going to be aces. Here are some things I'm going to do :

1. Buy some root beer from Cyber Candy because I'm down to my last can 
2. Go to a big geekfest Sci-Fi meetup and talk about geeky things all day.
3. Drink lots of beer
and one other thing which I haven't thought of yet, but it will be fabulous. 

Right, off to Forbidden Planet to pretend I'm buying the Sylar doll for my nephew who doesn't exist.

PS I saw Vampire Weekend last night and they were all kinds of awesomeness. My favourite song is Walcott, and they didn't play it, but then they came back on and played it, and it was transcendent.