British Studies: Day 8 & 9

Yesterday was spent wandering the same streets that Shakespeare did- Stafford-on-Avon. 
            By morning, I purchased a few souvenirs for family and friends.  By early afternoon, I had  some great ice cream.  By late afternoon, LH & A and myself went to a building called The Enchanted Manor where we were mystified by all of the Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Pirates, Doctor Who, and else they fit into one building.  We paid 4 pounds to go through the two upstairs floor where we had a dragon egg challenge to do and work study(14 year olds) to meet.  Of the eggs, there were 35 and a pirate riddle involving Treasure on the HMS Vampyrica, of the 14 year olds they wanted to work in various aspects of film.  I was impressed by the detail such as the LeMarchand Box- and the slight name changes to avoid copyright.  We won the dragon challenge: I became a broomstick flyer expert, A became a cackling witch, and LH the green witch understudy.  We have certificates to prove it!

MaTiLDA.  Oh, I know what you're thinking, but they gave theirs a different name!

By evening, we watched a performance of As You Like It performed at the Royal Shakespeare Company.  As I have processed the show, I have liked more elements of it.  It was in traditional theatre in the round, making all seats good seats.  The stage used simple elements to give us a change of scene and great costuming choices to place us from the palace to the forest, a much more freeing world.  The acting was good- though their Rosalind was almost too eccentric- and the technical effects(such as lighting) were stunning.

Today, we had a behind the scenes tour of the Victoria & Albert, or V&A.  There are several section, composed of desks and researchers, computers and printers, shelving upon shelving, and more.  The library, we were told, is 150 years old.  It holds many arts related items, including fashion magazines such as Vogue, and focuses on al aspects of art and design.  It sees about 30,000 visitors(truthful as we saw today) and the collection has attentive cataloging so that it can be found online, as some of the materials are untouchable.  The hours are reasonable as well, Tuesday through Saturday 10-5:30.  At the moment, they have a camera available but would like to go over to safer scanners that don't harm the spines.  They passed us a packet today telling us how their training for handling books goes- something done very 18 months.  Many of the rooms do not have air conditioning because they keep an eye on their economic climate.  Of the storage facilities, they too are monitored because pests and vermin are just as common here.  Checked quarterly, using traps to prevent them, as is the OCEAN system for testing humidity.  At present, there are 11,000 periodicals and 1,000 are current.  Nowadays they are not bound together.  All items are arranged by size- I am sensing a trend here- and in a house classification system.  Objects storage containers change depending on the year, here you can see grey folders or red boxes with a metal pull.  After a few more rooms, one of which contained the majority of staff(cataloging) we were given the real treat- old books we could view up close.  My favourite was the Leonardo DaVinci Codex because of its coded language and small illustrations.  A fascinating man, the book is small and pocket sized.  It was purchased from Italy in 1992 and made around 1493-1505.  The ink within changed between black and red- this might be due to age- and makes me very curious.  Other items in this viewing included a book of Parrots(the first of its kind), a Picasso illustration set, and a Book of Hours.  

Tonight, I am joining GOP & AG to head over to Leicester Square for the premier of The World's End, a new Simon Pegg film.  While we won't be getting in til next week, we will get to stand on the carpet and get autographs of the actors.  For the event, I purchased a canvas and permanent marker- best artwork ever.  I do hope I can get their signature!  What a splendid month this is turning out to be!  And we haven't even gotten to Scotland yet!

UPDATE:

After posting this, I decided to go with two friends to The World's End premier, as I mentioned.  Soon there will be a picture to accompany this, but I managed to get most of the cast, the director, and cameos to sign my canvas.  There is actually a photo tagged(on my friend's facebook) of my canvas being signed by Simon Pegg.  THe first to sign it was actually Simon Pegg's brother, Mike Beckingshire, and Simon signed below.  Bill Bailey, Edgar Wright, and others are all on there.  Martin Freeman was not there as he is in New Zealand filming for The Hobbit, but that's acceptable terms.  Overall, the experience was wonderful and we had perfect standing spots to see, sign, and watch the large screen with sneak peeks and intervewees.  After having gone to this event, it dawned on me that if anyone asks the illusive "what was your favourite part of the trip?"  I am going to have a very difficult time answering.  I have been so fortunate, thus far, in my academic and social time that I do not know what the best part is.  Just that I am still singing with triumph about my uber cool canvas.  

Man of 60/40

So let's make this quick and painless.  I wasn't that big of a fan of Man of Steel.  In fact, I am about 60/40 in dislike with the film.  I saw it Friday and have been mulling it over to see if my feelings would change, but they haven't.  Out of my friends and I that went, making three, 2/3 of us didn't have strong feelings, rather feelings of meh.  (The one that did like it has really poor taste in movies and TV generally..) As I have mentioned before, I have been re watching Smallville and I AMA super biased fan of Brandon Routh(the previous Superman movie star).  So let me break this down.

Things I did like:
1) the visuals were awesome. I didn't bother with 3D, as per usual, and overall the other worldly sets were really cool.
2) Russell Crowe makes a great dad.  He was a strong leader and I had a lot of believability in him.
3) the new guy looks like a good Clark Kent.
4) The Daily Planet will suffice.

Things I couldn't stand:
1) shaky cam OVERLOAD!  I wasn't sure if it was my lactose pills settling or if my eyes were actually feeling sick, but when I try to look at different characters or stills and the camera man has something he's trying to shake out of his pants, it isn't good!  I did not like the camera concepts and lack of focus.
2) I did believe in Clark's parents. Not. One. Bit.  They filled the shoes of their role, but I have seen better interpretations of these two characters.
3) the villain was annoying. And illogical.  It took Clark ages to adjust to his abilities, you'd think that'd give him a slight superhuman edge.  Nope, he is matched and trumped for a while by the villain go had breathed in Earth twice.
4) I hate that super hero movies have been bought out by name brand things. Smallville,Kansas didn't need a fight in an iHop or a Sears.  I knew from product advertisements at the stores that they were a Man of Steel sponsor.  Product placement is getting less and less creative and it bothers me immensely.
5) and the fight scenes, okay those sort of worked (especially the super human strength/I'm going to toss you through as many buildings as possible), but how many effing things can we blow up in one film.  I believe mr. Snyder set a new record.
6) Zack Snyder, director of 300 and Watchmen(movies I love and own) let me down.  A slow start, too many flash backs, and then brawl after brawl.  I remember watching the last Superman and feeling tons more satisfied leaving the theatre than I did this Friday.  I won't be buying this one and I certainly don't want to she'll out money to go see it again.  I just wasn't as impressed.  The only good element is that maybe a Justice League movie will happen after all, but to what cost?  Batman's Christian Bale's contract is up and no other super hero of DC has been accomplished yet.

So.  That's what I think.  I hope I don't lose readership, but I feel only meh about this film.

On the plus side, I will have a book review for Nerd Do Well by Simon Pegg and a film review for The Internship up within a few weeks.  Also also, This blog will be featuring a Londin edition admit will play host to my blog assignment for my British librarianship course.  Stay tuned!

Fantastic Life of a Zombie Film Extra

What have I been up to, you wonder?  Well, I moved for the summer.  It is the first summer I have not had to work in 11 years.  While I do feel a little weird with so much time on my hands, I have plenty of friends that have been itching to see me and have been busy almost every day since returning home.  So far I have gone shopping in Freeport, ate grilled shrimp and asparagus, saw Star Trek Into Darkness(again), saw Now You See Me, drank way too much coffee, watched my friends in the YMCA Fitness Fest, and acted/held the boom mic for a zombie film.  

Ah yes, zombie film.  A majestical time between May and June when students get together for five weeks to watch and study zombie films, learn filming/editing software, bang out a script, and then spend several tight-packed days filming.  All leading up to the showings this Thursday.  The last time this class was offered was two years ago, when I was taking a 300 literature class(May Term) called Detective Fiction.  Now that I have graduated UMF, it is being offered again.  Thankfully, my good friend ABAB(of yes, a four part name that sounds lovely) is taking it and needed a few extra hands.  So, I played a small bit as a hiker and was covered in blood.  It was a good time with my friends.  On the days I was not in the film, I discovered how fun it is to be the boom mic (human) stand.  And yes, I kept it out of the frame.  Easy to do when you closely read the writing on the mic and discovered that if you twist it and re-lock it, it will become really really tall.

So I am looking forward to Thursday, the editing occurs today and tomorrow and I am keeping away so that I will be uber surprised for the showing.  In the meantime, I am trying to iron out a kink with my school- the final straw before England.  I have (ermahgerd!) 16 days until I go to London.  I fly out to various airports June 27th.  I'm quite nervous.  Its not the flying, its the getting on the plane.  In the last year, I have taken so many trains and T stops that I have learned to calm down because I know what I am doing.  I can also verify this when I give my friends directions or explain how I did it.  The last time I flew, I was not in charge.  When I went to England for a high school trip(a too brief ten days) my teacher was in charge.  When I went to Florida for the Friday-Sunday class trip, also not in charge.  Now I head to England on a very tight schedule and it's all me.  Everyone tells me the signs are large enough to read and that I will have time, but I'm still concerned.  Once I get on the plane I will easily sleep- not only because of the jet-lag time-change, but because I have to hit the ground running from Heathrow at 7:45AM, board a train, and then go to orientation.  

Once I get there, everything will be hunky-dorey.  In the Facebook group, the librarian students are already anticipating the planning of several trips.  Cardiff(the home of the Doctor Who site tours), Loch Ness in Scotland, many tours within London.  I made a list for myself of the top five or six things I need to do.  In no particular order: 1) go to the Hardrock Cafe in London, 2)try to see a game at the London FIFA soccer stadium, 3) go to Platform 9 3/4 at king's Cross(they made it exist! trust me!) 4) HP Warner Brother's set/pros tour, 5) see Phantom of the Opera on West End, 6) see a play at the Globe Theatre.  And on and on.  Thankfully, there are many tours and trips provided within the class itself and we have weekends as well as a mini break to see the rest of things(of which there is much!)

There really isn't much to report besides the above.  I can tell you that I am reading Simon Pegg's autobiography(not just for dead people anymore!) Nerd Do Well.  Its very funny and I love his perspective for story telling.  He gives it his own twist, as one might expect.  I am hoping it tides me over until The World's End is released in August.  A very good read that any Pegg fan would enjoy.  Next up?  Richard Castle's newest Derrick Storm novel. ( He's not dead?!)  Again, hoping it tides me over until the fall when the next season of Castle airs.  

In other news...

Sci-Fi/Comics news:
     Pop over to slash film for many things, but mainly good comic book/insider articles.  This includes photos from the set of X-Men Days of Futures Past, which is shooting in Montreal, Canada at the moment.  I won't say who the fight photos are between, but I will say they're badass.  They also have articles about The Amazing Spiderman 2 and many rumours for Justice League.

     Man of Steel is still looking promising.  I love Zack Snyder's work in 300(which has a sequel out soon) and Watchmen.  I also really like Hans Zimmer and while I haven't had time to sit down with the soundtrack for Man of Steel(something I typically do after seeing the film) it should be lenty easy to do what with the ability to stream it from the site.  Again, I am intrigued.  I have been watching plenty of Smallville recently, I am at the tail end of season three, and still can't believe how much I love this show or how I could have ever walked away before the halfway point(season 5).  I also loved Brandon Routh as Superman, he has the perfect look for it and I love his sense of humour.  I think I need to rewatch that and then maybe create a blog post where I compare/contrast the three...
     

Monster Movies/TV news:
     Dracula, starring Jon Rheys Myers, comes out this fall.  It's looking like it could quickly becomes a new favourite.  When classic literature is given a contemporary spin and it works(see Sherlock & Once Upon a Times) it's brilliant and exciting!

     When an actor dies, sometimes their legacy(i.e. their grubby children) go bleak.  That being said, I hope Daniel Radcliffe's part in a Frankenstein adaptation can still happen in the near future.