The Ravurian Cantos [entries|archive|friends|userinfo] ravurian [ userinfo | jf userinfo ] [ archive | journal archive ]

[Nov. 2nd, 2009|08:21 pm] Argh. Chaps: remind me why it would be a terrible idea to invest in a pair of red tartan trousers? I mean, I know it would be, and yet, and yet... Better or worse than the green ones? Or the blue ones? Perhaps I should just buy a pair of tweed ones to go with the tweed converse I bought today? Somebody stop me! I need a shopping icon. And a schadenfreude one. And a fashion one. In the meantime, I will use this one, which I like to consider my homage to my youth, my rakish charm, and to jonem. Thank you kindly. Link Leave a comment

it's so funny... [Oct. 24th, 2009|09:50 pm] ...how we don't taaaaaaaaaaalk anymoooooore. That's from a song, you know. I, er, think it may have been sung by Cliff Richard, but let's not talk about that now. It's not important. I have nothing much to say, except: 1. I have a new show: White Collar. If you've not seen it, beg, steal or download a copy because it's brilliant. I suspect this will be fandom's new Due South. I can't remember the last time I finished watching a pilot and then when straight back and watched it again. I loved it. And Matthew Bomer, of course, who I swear I called dibs on. He was in the Future Husbands of Ravurian group, I think. (Don't worry Teddy, you're still number one). 2. I have a dance exam coming up at the beginning of November, and only two more lessons before. Which is okay, because something magical has happened this time, with these dances. I mean, yes, so I did really well last time (92% for the Waltz, 92% for the Samba and 91% for the Quick Step), but this time something has shifted from just doing the steps into genuinely dancing them. The Tango is my dance. I mean, really. And I adore the Viennese Waltz with the same degree of passion and intensity I used to grant only to peanut M&Ms my writing (which we don't talk about). My other two dances will be the Salsa (which, wow, who knew my hips could do that?) and the Jive (which I have to admit I have to concentrate on to avoid automatically falling into Ceroc). If I had more money and more time, I would dance more than I do. 3. Anyone fancy adult beginner's ballet or hiphop classes? 4. inkandchocolate? You are beautiful, smart, funny, and I think the absolute world of you. I just thought that needed saying. Truly. Link Leave a comment

[Sep. 11th, 2009|10:47 pm] Since ruric is the only person I know in real life who watches Supernatural and whose phone number is readily to hand, and since that is currently no use to me whatsoever given that she's swanned off to Ireland with gingerpig to meet up with ely_jan, I am forced to take my thoughts on the episode first episode to you, my internet chums. ( Let's talk, chaps ) Link Leave a comment

[Sep. 6th, 2009|07:36 pm] So, the Merlin screening thing? Fab. They finished the final cut at 1.30am this morning, so it was almost literally hot off the press. You guys will love it, I'm telling you, but I won't spoil it. Won't won't won't. Except to say that Arthur is semi naked quite a lot and appears to check under his bed clothes while calling Merlin's name. You'll love it all. Not quite as much as we loved it, admittedly. And you know why? Because the entire main cast came and sat in the row immediately in front of us and made much of interacting. They're terribly aware of the gay, let me tell you, lol. meredyth_13? Not to pour salt into an open wound or anything, but if you'd made it your ticket would have placed you immediately behind Bradley James (which, y'know, is where quite a lot of us would like to be, fnar fnar), and he's not only much prettier in person than he is onscreen, but dryly funny, too. Katie McGrath was adorable, and nothing at all like Morgana. It's possible that I only recognised her initially by the company she kept. This is only a drive-by posting because, omg, so tired. But! MERLIN SQUEE! Episode 1 is funny and slashy and hints of darker things, and the trailer for the rest of the series looks brilliant! ruric took notes in the Q&A session and will probably be doing a write-up soon. Link Leave a comment

[Sep. 5th, 2009|08:45 pm] 1. 11.5lbs lost, chaps! 11.5lbs! Not yet at target, but not far off. Mwahahaha. <Iz deelyeted>. 2. The Welsh contestants on the X-Factor, FTW! How adorable were Lucy and Lloyd? And the girl at the end with the big voice and the unfortunate tache - she was excellent, too. I liked the Rugby-playing lad, too, even though he was only on for a couple of seconds. 3. There is no thing three. Link Leave a comment

[Sep. 2nd, 2009|07:53 pm] New Felix Castor book - The Naming of the Beasts - was waiting for me when I arrived home today. Excellent. I'm so bloody exhausted after the last two days at work that I'll have to wait for the train tomorrow to begin reading. I think I may have been on holiday last week in Wales, but the before and after have expanded sufficiently in memory to erase the actual episode. This week has been battering, but mostly in a productive way. I don't think I often say so here, but my colleagues are sometimes fantastic, and this week so far has been a credit to them. Or, it's a credit to them that it hasn't been worse... The new series of The Fixer began last night on ITV. Can't wait to watch! Anyone else out there love the first series? Link Leave a comment

[Aug. 31st, 2009|12:31 am] The slim-down is going reasonably well this time, although not as well as I wanted it to when I last posted about my weight at the beginning of the year. I wrote then about swinging into action and shedding the minor karmic inflation I incurred over Christmas, but really I was lazy and didn't actually start to do anything until four or five weeks ago, when it became apparent that either I ought to buy new jeans (possibly with an elastic waistband) or invest in liposuction. Since money is tight at the moment (as were my jeans) I decided to stop sitting around on my arse eating lard sandwiches (metaphorically, obviously) and actually get on with the weight loss. I lost 8lbs in five weeks, since which I've had a week's holiday in Wales with ruric, who some of you will know is a FABULOUS cook. While I maintain that holiday-food has no calorific value, I'm not sure that the universe agrees with me; I'm sort of dreading getting on the scales and finding out the horrible truth. However! This aside, I have shrunk sufficiently to reinvigorate the clothes-buying gene, which financially impaired me last year. I'm trying to stay away from clothes shops and, y'know, the internet, but just look at these wonderful items: http://www.allsaints.com/product/?category_id=52&area=M&prod_desc_id=5051214411415 http://www.allsaints.com/product/?category_id=11&area=M&prod_desc_id=5051214238746 http://www.allsaints.com/product/?category_id=11&area=M&prod_desc_id=5051214359809 I covet them hugely. In a Medium or a 38 inch chest, in case you were wondering (LOL). The waistcoat in particular is giving me twitchy fingers. I'm thinking - if I buy it, I might not have enough money for food, so it'll be win/win: incredible waistcoat and weight loss! Totally FTW, right? Except, not. I wantz it, preciousssssssss. I keepz, sorry, keep, returning to the page and sighing. So pretty. Still, at least looking longingly at clothes on the internet keeps me away from the fridge. Damn it! Now I'm hungry! Link Leave a comment

[Aug. 30th, 2009|10:51 pm] Meme from pandarus and rei_c: You can learn a lot about someone by the music they listen to. So here is the game! Hit shuffle on your ipod or mp3 player and write down the first 25 songs. No cheating or skipping songs that are shameful. That is the fun! Then tag your friends. 1. i like birds (the eels) 2. cry baby (janis joplin) 3. girlfriend in a coma (live) (tony hawk on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, to the tune of 'tiptoe through the tulips') 4. love potion #9 (the drifters) 5. hug you like a mountain (eliza carthy) 6. i kissed a girl (mcfly) 7. brown sugar (rolling stones) 8. happy working song (enchanted soundtrack) 9. an sabhal aig neill (runrig) 10. les choristes (les choristes soundtrack) 11. red right hand (nick cave & the bad seeds) 12. laid (james) 13. ramalama (bang bang) (roisin murphy) 14. there's a fine, fine line (avenue q soundtrack) 15. gossip folks (missy elliott) 16. a million love songs (take that) 17. putting on the ritz (taco) 18. postal workers canceling stamps at the university of ghana post office (postal works - univ. of ghana) 19. rain king (counting crows) 20. learn to fly (foo fighters) 21. jonathan's book (teddy thompson) 22. all along the watchtower (jimi hendrix) 23. the scarlet tide (alison krauss) 24. a heart needs a home (richard & linda thompson) 25. lucia di lammermoor techno opera (sarah brightman - fifth element soundtrack) Hmm. I'm not sure that one can learn all that much about people by the music on their ipod (since I dump loads of stuff I've never listened to on there so I can, well, listen to it). Anyway, if you're interested, you can find all these songs here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/48guux. If you download, consider yourself tagged! Link Leave a comment

[Aug. 29th, 2009|04:59 pm] Imagine, if you will, that you are a 32 year old man, recently returned from an unexpectedly fraught journey across the Welsh countryside with a travelling companion who - though of good heart and pleasant company - has difficulties with timetables (they're a guide, not a fixture/that may be true if you're an employee of the train company, not if you're a traveller). 8 hours to get home rather than 4 is not so bad, really. Imagine that you have returned to the family manse - bigger than a shed; smaller than a palace - to find your mother has a) been stalked in your absence by an old man whose dementia prevents him remembering the word 'no'; b) suffered a minor car accident; c) ripped out the bathroom without contracting a builder/plumber/little man to replace it; and d) become briefly (one hopes) afflicted with a form of racist tourettes. Imagine, then, if you will, that you open an envelope to find that your credit card company would now like to charge you 27% APR, backdated. Now go and lie down in a darkened room. After tea, imagine you open a further envelope to find that you have somehow acquired two tickets to the premiere of Merlin Season 2 at the BFI next Sunday. Then ask yourself: who among your flist would like to join you? There's a meet and greet with the actors, apparently, although I call dibs on Arthur. Bradley. Whichever. Who wants to come along? Link Leave a comment

[Aug. 19th, 2009|11:52 pm] It will shortly be my birthday, and I will be 32 years old for the first time. I say for the first time since I've noticed a tendency towards looping in friends of more venerable vintages of late (R has been 34 at least twice, I think, following an unusually long stint at 33). I read somewhere once that one ought to find an age one likes and stick to it (or perhaps the advice said that ladies ought to do that; I forget) but I find that I don't much mind simple addition. I am, after all, the sum of my experience. I ought to be expressed as an equation - though not, I hope, one that is too easily resolved. I expect I would require quite a lot of graph paper and boxes and boxes of HB pencils for all the workings out. And possibly some gluten-free hobnobs. I will be 32 for the first time, but this is my second go at 16. I am 8 for the fourth time; 4 for the eighth time; and have been 2 a grand total of sixteen times. It's no wonder I'm horribly tired: multiplication fatigue. I am not yet Legion, but I certainly contain multitudes. Or multiples? I am sort of strained by reinvention, and utterly peculiar. I have no plans for my birthday. I don't mind in the slightest. Happy Birthday to pandarus! And Happy Birthday to me. Shortly. For the 32nd time. Link Leave a comment

[Jul. 24th, 2009|11:51 pm] I: - am drunk as a skunk in a trunk, which in case there is any doubt, is very drunk indeed. However, my typing is still impeccable, because I have awesomely talented fingers which operate independently of the pickled state of my brain. I cannot stand upright, but I can type and spell. This, I feel is an undervalued skill. I, in case there is any doubt am made of win. Also vodka. I am currently mostly made of vodka. Soon I will be made of vodka and beans on toast. And awesome. - have had a fucking awful couple of months, really, what with people dying inconsiderately. And, let me make it clear, I am deeply grateful both to my dear friend Sharon and to Lar, whose emails lifted me just by dint of their existence, even when words failed me in reply. I think the world of you both, even though I have failed miserably, and ocntinue to dila, no, to fail, not to dila (whatever the fyuck thatusd is), to express it adequately. Whoa. Adequately is a word I can speel whilea deunk. Drnk. Druck. Fuck. I can sepell adequately and fuck, nut bot drunal. Drunk. Crap. My posawefs are faileing. Faikling. Fuck it. Failing. So much for braggin about drnk typin slkis. Skills. Fuck. I apreshate u both is wht im trin to say. Fuck it all. (I burnt tha beans ontoas. Fuck it) - rightl anyway i no wait - right im drunk becasue toniht wasa the sequel to my dad's birthday which he has once a year. I thi nk i toold u abt last year when I met his rough tart (who I LOVE, btw) (and not just for vodka) (altho she robbed some right good vodka from costco along with the hors doevrues, no, the hors doevvr, the fucking nibbles) and tinight in thepub of criminal underworld types they had an irish band from nottingham (I know right) who were brilliant and I might have sung with them abd I might have demonstrated legitimate Irish dancing as wel. Brilliant. Also there was vodka. I sang I'll tell me ma, and the fields of athenry and a surprisingly upbeat version of Clare to here. Anfd then, to much acclaim, i stopped singing. Despite singing wiyh the englsih natgional opera when i was 15 i now sing like a farting duck. which, y'know, on the scale of things, and being a bird, might be tuneful to a particulr sort of person i,e. the drunken eg me. - but the point is i had a good time and a fuckton of boska (vodka). - and have lost 7lbs in tw o weeks. - also, after months of boring the hell out of each other ruric and I have miraculously found each other interesting all week long. i reckon this is because we have found a vague sotr of fannishness reemerging after a drought. She is scairly into ST Rebot and i have been making graphics for a series of things called Images for Stories I will never Write. I will post about that shortly. You don't know crossovers like i know crossoverfs let me tell you. - AND IN CONCLUSION: VOIDKA! (and now i coma)(bye) Link Leave a comment

[Jul. 16th, 2009|07:35 pm] Jared's funeral was today - a brief, articulate ceremony, at which his cousin officiated, his sister spoke, his soon to be sister-in-law sang. Their dignity in the face of heartbreak, their breaking voices firmed with deep, resolute breaths, the ache of their loss and the gratitude with which they spoke of him - gratitude that he had been theirs no matter how abruptly he was taken from them - brought me to discrete, British tears, and later, at home, to unlovely sobbing. I didn't know I was going to feel his loss like this. We were boys together, and he's dead. Oh God, he's dead . We hadn't been in touch in a while, but we asked after each other through mutual friends and always promised (by proxy) that we would pick up where we left off. I know I always meant to. I was always sincere. But somehow we never quite coincided. I'd turn up at a gathering that he'd miss, and then I'd be away at the next one. Or perhaps these are the polite fictions with which we try to mitigate regret. I don't know. We were boys together, and he's dead, and if I'm grieving for the boy I knew more than the man he became (who I knew less well, but liked immensely), then perhaps that's inevitable. But they put in him the ground today, that boy I knew, and I can't quite make myself understand the reality of it. My friend is dead. Link

[Jul. 11th, 2009|06:44 pm] In other other news, I have 3 Dreamwidth invites, if anyone's still struggling to find one. Please comment with your email address. Comments will be screened. Link Leave a comment

[Jul. 11th, 2009|05:52 pm] So. Torchwood. Apparently some of you didn't like it. All I want to say is that finally, finally TPTB delivered the show they promised us back before the series premiered, and if it's still flawed, then it's a hell of a lot closer to the original pitch than I ever thought would reach our screens. This is the 'adult' show, the smart one with consequences and attitudes and appetites and a broad sweep of flawed humanity. This show, the one we've just seen this week, was thoughtful and demanding, well acted, well-directed, and for the most part well-written (though still flawed, inevitably). This series was, I hope, a statement of intent, a manifesto nailed to the door of prime-time TV. This is the show I was promised. I adored it in all its bleak, painful detail, and though people speak about the ending lacking hope, I completely see the opposite - if nothing else, it's broken Torchwood out of its splendid isolation and connected it deeply to the community it was created to serve. Torchwood are of the people now in a way that they never were before. I idly watched the show before, but wasn't particularly a fan. That's changed. I'm finally on board with Torchwood. I really hope there'll be more, but even if there isn't I'm not worried because this was a splendid swan-song. I hear people saying they'll never watch again, and I think: fab; don't watch again; so long, chaps. I this it's positively wizard. Now, where do I apply for a job in the TW story room? Link Leave a comment

[Jul. 11th, 2009|01:38 am] In other news: 1. Don't bother buying the sequel to The Vintner's Luck. Just don't do it. In fact, pretend that you never heard about such a thing. In fact, pretend that you can't read, so you're not even tempted to borrow it from the library. Just. It's horrendously bad, so far. Anyone got any retcon? 2. Smoking makes me fat. True story. I'd started smoking at work in the last few months, and I put on weight. This week? No fags (as easy to stop this time as the last; weird), and I've lost 6lbs. This is not going to prevent me joining Weight Watchers tomorrow morning later this morning. Why not, eh? 3. I love PC Andy. patsyrant phoned me this evening, primarily to mock my love of the ginger people, and I confess that I'd never thought of PC Andy as ginger before. Having a fondness for the ginge (pron zhanje) is not unusual, Pats. Teddy, Toby, Gillian Anderson as Scully. Donna Noble. All crushyworthy, IMO. Plus, I'm a carrier of the gene, on both sides, so... They're my people too! 4. I went to the dentist's today. The temporary filling that they put in? I've just swallowed it. Bah. Link Leave a comment

[Jul. 11th, 2009|12:29 am] ( So. Torchwood. HERE BE SPOILERS ) Link Leave a comment

[Jul. 9th, 2009|10:14 pm] Non-spoilery TW comments: 1. John Barrowman is still the weakest thing about Torchwood. Why on earth they couldn't have given the role of Captain Jack to someone who could act, I've no idea. 2. Eve Myles, on the other hand? I've been telling you lot for ages that she was potentially the best thing about the show. This week? She's proved that in spades. Gwen is totally MY Torchwood character. 3. Lois? Completely rocks my socks. She's made of win. Don't quibble with me about this. ( Spoilery ) Anyway. Not dead. I owe words to the internet, and will assemble them shortly. Link Leave a comment

[Jul. 5th, 2009|12:51 am] I saw Take That in concert tonight, and they were AWESOME. I have no more to say than that, except that I would see them again in a heartbeat. Wait, I do: the elephant was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes. And Lady Gaga, who was one of the support acts, was utterly tremendous (although I did find myself squinting to see if she had an adam's apple </random>). Prior to going, R asked me which sort of Take That fan I was - whether there was a particular band member I liked more than the others. My reply was that I was never terribly invested in them first time round, but I sort of loved them this time. And no, I didn't have a favourite. I do now, though. I mean, I think they're all fab, but Jason Orange? Call me. So that I can steal your wardrobe. Srsly. Anyway: I am EBULLIENT, I tell you. I think. Is that how you spell it? Woteva. Also, happy Gay Day to my brethren out there. Pride! One of these years I'll remember to actually go on the march... Link Leave a comment

[Jul. 1st, 2009|11:58 am] OMFG ELIZABETH KNOX HAS WRITTEN A SEQUEL TO THE VINTNER'S LUCK. FAINTS. Link Leave a comment

[Jun. 6th, 2009|07:24 am] This has been a weird week, unexpectedly difficult, and drawing to a close oddly today with a dream that has me awake at 6.02am on a Saturday morning, a time I'd heard rumour of but which I don't believe I've experienced before. It has been a difficult week because my friend R, who some of you know of old, sent me an email from from Vietnam (where he's been working for the last couple of months) to say that he had been swept out to sea by an unexpectedly huge wave while at the beach with his boyfriend, a Vietnamese journalist of some renown, and though R had been retrieved safely, his boyfriend, caught by the same wave and separated, was dead. R, alone in a foreign country, with customs he was unfamiliar with in a language he doesn't speak, trying to make sense not only of what had happened, but what was continuing to happen, was, IMO, utterly magnificent. But, God, I'm heartbroken that this has happened to him, and it has continued to break all week through IM and email as he's gone through the funeral, meeting his boyfriend's relatives, trying to get home. He arrived home yesterday. We'd veto'd his plans to get a taxi home to an empty house, and arranged for his friends V & RR to meet him at the airport. I went to see him yesterday afternoon. I've never been so useless in the face of someone's grief, just kept touching and hugging him as if I could pat comfort into him; as if my love, which I felt might be, I dunno, a shimmering bubble of protectoplasm around us, might be enough that it would make up for all the words I couldn't find. It's not, of course, and can't be. As a man, my emotional vocabulary shrinks in times of crisis. And what can one say but: I'm so sorry, I love you; I'm here for you, I love you; I'm listening, I love you. I'm so sorry for your loss. It's not about saying anything, but listening, I know. I'm so afraid for him. I can't believe he plans to move house tomorrow and go back to work on Monday, but perhaps he knows that what he needs is to continue, to persist. My darling boy. My very dear. I was woken this morning from a dream about my oldest friend, with whom I have not been in touch for a couple of years now. I heard recently that she was heavily pregnant, and I suspect that this morning she had the baby, at or around 6.02am. This kind of thing happens to me occasionally. In my dream, she was beautiful, and the baby, oh the baby, was gorgeous. I wish, I wish, I wish them both well and happy, and futures full of requited love and joy. I wish, I wish, I wish. I wish, I wish, I wish. Today holds dancing and more decorating. Much later, though. Link Leave a comment

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