a flying start (five things make a happy post)

[aria]

Here are some things that are making me happy:

i. According to an explosion of news on the internet this morning -- I would link a specific article, but really, just google the keywords -- Stephen Fry is going to be playing Mycroft Holmes in the next Guy Ritchie film. I had a split second of "Well, that is awesome because I will watch Stephen Fry do anything, but I can't picture him and RDJ as brothers" and then I spent another split second picturing them side-by-side, and ... yeah, actually, that works stunningly well. SO MUCH JOY. Here, have a stupid catchy song about Stephen Fry in celebration.

ii. I am now officially going to the East Coast for an alarmingly long stretch of time in October. I plan to use my time there well, ie keep doing my internship, take long rambling walks of campus, spend obscene amounts of time with friends, and plan The Future. I am very excited about all of this, and stupidly relieved at how excited I am.

iii. sophia_sol made me a podfic! by which I mean she recorded my Slings & Arrows Geoffrey/Darren fic high on a stage be placed to the view. I am learning to adore podfic -- for one thing, how I read something is very different from how another person does, which leads to fuzzy feelings of egocentric fascination when I hear my own fic read. But it is equally awesome when it is other people's fic! I don't know why I don't listen to podfic all the time, honestly, because I love being read aloud to, and I have enough of a daily commute now to justify tracking lots down and listening to it. I guess this is me asking for podfic recs! D'you have any favorite fics, or even favorite readers? I would love to hear about them!

iv. Remember how yesterday I linked to Diane Duane's fic about Five and Nyssa making pizza? Today there is A Dinner in Belgravia, wherein Five fails to locate pasta, Tegan makes a horrible pun about the Master, and they and Nyssa pay a visit to Sherlock Holmes. I made actual flappy hands of joy. Yep.

v. The ridiculous charming thing about living with a nine-year-old boy (for the sake of argument let's call him Zack) is that he is just now, for the first time, reading Harry Potter. This leads to some pretty great exchanges. For example:

ZACK. I'm on Chamber of Secrets now! The Chamber is open and a monster is turning everyone into stone and Harry just found this diary, and it's a magic diary! Know why it's a magic diary?
ME. Well, when he writes in it, someone in the diary writes back, right?
ZACK. [wide-eyed] How did you know?
ME. ...I've read it too.

Or, coming across Zack and a friend crouched on the sidewalk, industriously poking a bucket of mud with sticks:

ME. Hey, guys! What are you doing?
ZACK. We're making a potion! I'm Harry, and she's Hermione, and Ron's sick right now, so we're making this to make him better.
ME. I see! Good luck.

It kind of makes me wish I'd been young enough when Harry Potter first came out to do stuff like that. Mud potions, guys! Alternately, I am really tempted to send Zack is Hogwarts acceptance letter next year. Really, really tempted.

Comments

[skywaterblue]

You so should do it. Maybe make it more legit and make up an American wizardry school? IDK.

OMG DIANE DUANE TWEETED ME TODAY.

[aria]

I considered that, but it's way more exciting if it's Hogwarts, y'know?

OH MY GOD AWESOME. What was the exchange??

[skywaterblue]

Her tweet about the pizza fanfic, to which I tweeted, amazing! And then she tweeted: "The sauce is the best part. The celery really does make all the difference."

And then I gibbered about how one of my dreams is to someday write an episode of Doctor Who where there's a Young Wizards shoutout and um, some minor drama happened when a different person on my twitterlist tweeted it at her with 'we should campaign!'

And I was facepalm/angry.

[thingswithwings]

Stephen Fry, national treasure! It's so true.

For podfic recs, I hereby offer my podfic tag - it's also got other random podfic related stuff in there, but check out my recent podfic travelogue and my five days of podfic recs. Um. Assuming you like SGA and due South?

[aria]

True and catchy!

Oooh, thank you! That should keep me nicely occupied for a long while! Because, yes, yes I do like SGA and due South, and those were in fact the fandoms where I was idly considering my podfic-listening venture. :)

[thingswithwings]

oh yay! glad to be of help, then. :)

[labellementeuse]

So, you know about the podfic archive, right? OK so it's very useful and things there are often available in audiobook format, which I highly recommend for podfic listening on an ipod (audiobooks are automatically designed to be skipped during shuffle and to resume playbook where you leave off. You can set .mp3s to do this in iTunes as well, but it's slightly more of a hassle.) Dodificus is one of my favourite readers (I believe it's her who read Kid A, which I've listened to so many times it actually influences how I read the story visually.) She also has a good reading of Intersections by Kaneko. Note though, I perhaps like dodificus because her accent is relatively close to my own (she has an Australian accent a lot like my cousins', which is close-ish to the NZ accent.) Many Americans find that they prefer to listen only to other Americans, although I personally find that if you give any accent a go, you'll get used to it rapidly.

Also, you have to check out the AMAZING Written By The Victors podfic, if you haven't already.

Erm erm. Times like these I wish I were more organised and delicioused things properly. :-/ Oh well, hth anyway.

[labellementeuse]

oh also - I know a 23-year-old who's reading Harry Potter for the first time, it is weird/incredible.

[aria]

I do know of it! I figure I will be making use of it once I get a feel for what I like. :D

I am not going to limit myself to American-accent readers; I would probably miss a lot of really good readers if I went that route, and also, I am a big fan of becoming acquainted with accents I don't hear all the time.

[gehayi]

Also, story that is dedicated to you is up now:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/120987

[aria]

YAY. It is now open in a tab, and I will be sure to get to it soon. :D

[feverbeats]

omg I just got that much more excited for the next Sherlock Holmes.

It kind of makes me wish I'd been young enough when Harry Potter first came out to do stuff like that.
. . . what. YOU WERE TOTALLY YOUNG ENOUGH WHEN HP CAME OUT! I read it when I was nearly 11, and I certainly made potions from moss and water.

[aria]

I KNOW RIGHT.

And, well, I suppose so? I read it at the end of fifth grade, though, and all my friends were either [a] obsessed with horses or [b] gearing up to be Grown-Up Middle Schoolers (Who Don't Play Pretend, Aria, What's Wrong With You). I guess I could have done it by myself, but I was too busy, um ... looking in closets for Narnia, imagining Grand Quests, having conversations with my daemon, and writing proto-fic in a diary about how I was totes a first year at Hogwarts. So it's not like being ten wasn't awesome.

[feverbeats]

:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDD I LOVE YOU. That's, uh, almost acceptable. *___*

[aria]

WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN FRIENDS WHEN WE WERE TEN.

[sophia-sol.livejournal.com]

The only podfic reader I've listened to a lot of thus far is FayJay (http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/search/node/fayjay), who is really excellent. Let me particularly recommend her reading of an amazing Doctor Who/Sense & Sensibility crossover, Relatives & Relativity (http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/relatives-relativity).

[aria]

Relatives & Relativity! The title alone is priceless. :D Thanks for the rec, my dear!

[alpheratz]

Stephen Fry as Mycroft Holmes is an inspired choice. Yay.

[aria]

Isn't it just. :D

(By the way, I will never get tired of that icon of yours. I laugh every time.)

[alpheratz]

Hah, it always makes me laugh when I even see the keyword for it in my icon list.

[evil-overlords.livejournal.com]

Any chance you'd like to stop by MIT for tea and/or Star Trek? I'm right on the Red Line, and I can safely promise more concentrated science than anywhere else in Massachusetts.

[aria]

I am not sure I am going to make it to Boston on this particular venture, but if I do, I will let you know! Also, it is extremely likely that I will be in Boston at the beginning of April, so I will certainly hit you up then. :)

[luzula]

Ahem, podfic recs. I have so many! Off the top of my head, here are some where both the story and the reading are outstanding. (Sorry for the ugly links, though.)

Sherlock Holmes: http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/four-minor-interludes-for-solo-violin-and-hallowed-be-thy-name
due South: http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/some-strange-prophecy
due South: http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/into-far-country
due South: http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/question-of-ghosts
due South: http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/teeth-of-hydra
due South/SGA: http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/birds-of-feather
SPN RPS AU (you don't have to know any canon. There are aliens! and dragons!): http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/queensguard

Also, these are some of my favorites out of my own podfics:
due South: http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/sixteenth-of-june
Sherlock Holmes: http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/thoughts-without-words
Greek mythology: http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/small-step-for-man
Good Omens: http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/amid-sacred-wreck

[aria]

Oh, shiny. Thanks so much for the recs, darling! <3

[starlady]

Stephen Fry as Mycroft FTW!

(...I first actually typed 'Moffit.' Ah ha ha.)