I hadn't spotted this till today- Son of Cliche on Radio 7. (That's a really, really awful joke in Captain Invisible And The See-Through Kid. I laughed a lot.)

Sometimes reading can be more satisfying than watching things- for example, all a YouTube video of some of these buggers would show would be either a big explosion or people runing away, whereas there's some real skill gone in to the descriptions...

(Polyazides: "Thermodynamically, nitrogens bonded to each other are always regarded as guilty until proven innocent - there's always the fear that they're going to find a way to throw off their civilized clothes and revert to wild nitrogen gas."

And more specifically, Chalcogen Polyazides: "Spirited stuff, that tetra-azide. The experimental section of the paper enjoins the reader to wear a face shield, leather suit, and ear plugs, to work behind all sorts of blast shields, and to use Teflon and stainless steel apparatus so as to minimize shrapnel. Hmm. Ranking my equipment in terms of its shrapneliferousness is not something that's ever occurred to me, I have to say.")


(Via thesaucernews on james_nicoll's blog, which often has good stuff like this)

Good Omens flatpack fic!

Saw Singin' In The Rain on stage on Friday; very good (liked the "cut the 11-minute ballet, substitute a song for Lina" decision), also prompted me to watch several musicals over the weekend, and to see what else Donald O'Connor was in, anyway, which was quite a lot of things, so I should get hold of some of them probably (his IMDb page says he had to have three days in bed after shooting the Make 'Em Laugh sequence, which makes my slightly achy calves from last week look a bit pathetic.) I would quite like to see some Don/Cosmo or Don/Kathy/Cosmo.
And! My delayed Amazon package has arrived, so I have birthday presents for young relatives, and also some Star Trek:TOS.

Trek film parody that made co-worker ask anxiously if I was choking.
(Sadly quotes would mostly be spoilers, but:

KIRK: Who is that pointy-eared bastard, and why are his eyebrows smirking at me?
MCCOY: I dunno but, baby, I like a Vulcan with spirit. Rawr.
...
UHURA: You know my qualifications. MA in advanced linguistics. PhD in badass.
...
SPOCK: Sigh. Now I must render you unconscious with a single blow. How tedious.)

ruthi pointed to this excellent list of useful phrases for the intergalactic traveller by Joanna Russ.
(Eg:
"In the Hospital:
----------------
No!
My eating orifice is not at that end of my body.
I would rather do it myself.
My religious convictions prevent me from joining in the event.
I do not feel well.
I feel very sick.
Please do not let the atmosphere in (out) as I will be most uncomfortable.
I do not eat lead.
These limbs are not mine.
My head is not interchangeable.
Placing the thermometer there will yield little or no useful information.")

Sarah Brennan's being to-the-point and hilarious with it again- a post about not liking female characters.
("Yes, Sarah, you might say, but that was all in the olden days. We've wised up now, and I just tend to like male characters better, okay? Well, let's leave alone the fact that the world is not quite as wised up as I'd like it to be, because I tend to get obnoxious about that, and once a friend told me that she wasn't a feminist and I stole her credit card and wouldn't give it back because without feminism she wouldn't have had her own bank account, and I realise that was unacceptable behaviour.

"But let's talk a bit more about why.

"There's a reaction to the helpless heroine, the Heroine who is Made of Awesome, who is better than guys at everything, smarter, stronger, and often in a way that just builds on the traits of guy characters. And I at least don't tend to like that heroine any more than Little Miss Twit.")

Also, I went to see Bellini's I Capeletti E I Montecchi last night, and it was excellent (Opera North production, v. good singing, also interesting staging); the opera's based on Italian sources more than on Shakespeare, so there are some interesting differences, and also there isn't Mercutio or the Nurse- it just cuts straight to the tragic bits. Romeo's always played by a woman, and in this production, that led to the interesting problem of Romeo and Giulietta having no chemistry at all (until the death scene, for some reason), whereas Romeo and Teobaldo sizzled. They have a duel-cum-duet scene when they find that Giulietta has (supposedly) died and they're competing for who's most upset, and really if they'd had a recitative going "but actually, you know, we could run away and be warlords together," it would have been amazing. (And Giulietta could have married the doctor, who was sweet, and, you know, happy ending, not the point of a tragic opera.)

I have started some blackberry gin ("Blackberries, meet gin; gin, meet blackberries. May I introduce you to some sugar?") I swear the brambles are getting more vicious as the season goes on. *counts scratches* 27- that's just the ones on my hands large enough to see as they're poised on the keys. Didn't get nettlestung, at least.
I went to the Saltaire Festival on Saturday- I didn't have long, but I've made a mental note to go for the day next year; it's huge. There was a music stage and jewellery stalls and an organic vegetable show and bag stalls and children's entertainment and an arts trail and jam stalls and a tombola and a funfair and second hand book stalls, and I missed the organ recital and the quiz and the model railway exhibition and the fashion show. Lunch shouldn't be a problem; there were bratwurst and meringues, deep-fried octopus and turkish delight, bigos and churros, baguettes, curry, noodles, crepes, salami... (What there wasn't was candied fruit.)
Anyway, it was fun. I then dashed into town to do vital shopping like socks, and had a bite, and went to see some comedy(  (you're surprised I'd do something out of character like that, aren't you?) )
I'd had a spare copy of The Eye of Argon kicking around, and I know Ince collects bad books, so I took it along in case I could catch him on the way out, having fangirled him before and knowing he didn't bite; so I did, hope he survives it. He recommended Lint to me, which is apparently a biography of a fictitious pulp author. It sounds good, I'll try and pick it up at some point.

Choir starts again tonight, so I'm just hangin' around and waitin' to go. I hope it's something decent.

Random linkage: Vic and Bob promoting Big Night Out on Jonathan Ross in 1991 by being completely adorable (especially Bob).

Apiphile's post on What Would Happen If I Wrote An Honest CV made me laugh.

"Skills: Absolutely fucking none. I cannot even make a cup of tea properly."

"Work History:
# 2003: Job At University
# Not actually doing anything I was being paid to do
# Taking speed in the toilets
# Reading course books and pretending to be invisible"

"Achievements: Despite my best efforts I am not dead yet. Also, I have a pirate costume I made myself. I can wear it to the interview if you like."

(Sadly my own honest CV would be v. boring and would mostly be like my school reports, which, translated from we're-not-allowed-to-say-little-Johnny-is-a-psycho school-report-speak, say I am bright but idle, and should stop skulking about by myself reading.)

Ooh, this is brain-bending; snippets of storylines, scripts and behind-the-scenes glimpses of an exciting new show set in Chicago and starring David Tennant as Captain Jack Harkness; Torchwood. (With a spinoff for a mysterious and dangerous character known only as the Doctor.)

Also, mutton chops are not only seriously delicious (I may have to sneer at lamb now), but also useful- I'm sure I could have made a good two or three rush-dips from the fat that ran off. Very high melting point even after cooking, very white, a shame to chuck it away really (but I did.)

Astronomnomnomy has to be the best tag ever for a cat macro
"Every now and then, I like to take a moment to actively disbelieve in Bathala, just because I can."
Adorable "Love Games" live video!

So our concert on Saturday went OK- the free one in the afternoon all fell horribly to bits after we cocked up the a capella entry on one movement of the Poulenc, but the evening one was fine (DUDE, it's exhilarating if you get it right.) The Faure's niiiice. And the Durufle motet was pretty smooth too.
The orchestra and organ did some cool things, my favourite was probably the Unexpected Cancan In A Cathedral! moment (in the overture to Offenbach's Orpheus In The Underworld, since you ask.) It was sort of... nice French music, nice French music... hang on, is that...? it is, it bloody is, here comes the refrain, look at the audience getting it, hee!

( Was fairly disappointed in Russell Brand last night )

I can't afford Sky. And if I could I wouldn't get it because of the whole Murdoch Evil Empire thing, and their portfolio of channels isn't enough to my tastes to make it worth the money. But sometimes it is awfully tempting, like, say, when they do Hogfather or get Adam Long to condense the Star Wars films.
I-III
IV-VI
(As with the original, I think Empire Strikes Back is the best.)

( May books )

Also, my efforts to make my brain stop doing bad things to good books? This is not helping. (Eg post 171:
t3l3m4x0s: invisible daddy
su1t0rz: IN UR HALL, EATIN UR CHEEZBURGERS
0dyss3us: i can has ithaka?
p0s31dwn: NO WAI
...)

I think everyone who is interested in knowing that B and I pulled out tons of rosebay willowherb and planted some yellow snapdragons already knows it, but we also watched Kiss Me Kate and muttered about how often musicals are better on stage than celluloidified; bought smelly bath products; ate Proper Northern Fish'n'Chips (none of this poncey vegetable oil- it isn't a real meal without levels of beef dripping that make your arteries clog just thinking about it); and walked up hills thiiiiiiis steep. Maybe next time it won't piss it down all weekend, too! {/unfeasible levels of optimism}

nostalgia_lj has some seriously funny Dr Who recaps starting here. My favourite may be "Unexpected Sec", but it is hard to choose. Spoilers for S3 ep1-7, obvs, and also will make rather less sense if you haven't seen any of the Amazing Lolcat Grammar pointers. (If you have seen cat macros and not the Lolgrims, you are missing out.)

You know lolcats?
There's an LJ community (of course). How about some Shakespeare cats or physics cats?

(In ur brain, colonising ur speech patternz.)

Ooh, at some point after I'd stopped checking for updates, they updated! Plokta index with all the issues to date. *Reads avidly*. (If only the Bento people would scan some more...)

I'm slow about this internet thing; I haven't been reccing Comedy Cuts as it's on at midnight on a Thursday, which only the sad and obsessed (ie, me) would stay up for or remember to video. But lo, it has a website and can be watched online. Plus deleted scenes and things. Tony Law, Josie Long, Penny Spubb, Mark Watson, Jo Neary, and many more- really, what's not to like? (Apart from their irritating cut-cut-cut editing. Which I suppose one could guess from the name.) Anyway, by watching this online, one can watch Comedy Shuffle at midnight on Thursdays instead...

Dammit, I've lost Asylum somehow. Why why why. I really felt like watching Norman Lovett being scary and Julian being loopy.

Anyway. Mark Watson Makes The World Substantially Better (with Tim Minchin and Tim Key) was enjoyable, Radio 4, Listen Again, same drill as usual.

Some short sketches from the Cowards (my favourites of these are Womb and Opinions. I think I liked some of the more fantastical ones they did live better, but funniness nevertheless.)

Paramount shortcuts has some We Are Klang sketches. Scary.

"Making the universe a better place is what we do," the Doctor said, going back to the buttons. "It's not a job; it's a calling, a way of life. Going to strange new places, meeting strange new people, running away down strange new corridors;"
Dennis Creevy? So a Companion.

I know I have at least one reader for whom the statements "fan of Ross Noble" and "doesn't listen to Radio 4 much" are both true. For him, then, but in a wider and truer sense, for all y'all, I should point out the 4-part series, "Ross Noble On..." that started yesterday. One may listen to the first bit on Listen Again until the second part is on next week. Madly hilarious even without being able to see all the physical bits- or could there be some Platonic way in which imagining Ross miming doing the can-can with one leg on backwards is even funnier than the reality? (Probably not, actually.)

As usual, there's a lot of stuff well worth listening to at the moment- click the "comedy and quizzes" link in the "Speech" section of links at the bottom right of the BBC radio homepage for, say, ISIHAC, Charm Offensive, Flight Of The Conchords, Laura Solon's new show, the News Quiz, a new series of Chain Reaction...

[NB: I haven't gotten completely confused and think Ross is Cornish for some reason. Although there is now a scary image in my head of Ross Noble and Bill Bailey doing a West Country singalong- there would be many many Wurzels covers. It's a quote. From an anecdote about tripping over in Brighton.)