Daydream Believer

I eagerly await this episode

And it's the second half!  And I've spent far too much money voting Team Cola!!! ( keep dancin.... )

And it's the final! The Hobbit v The Hunk! ( Go Team Cola! )

Just got in from seeing Avatar and it is very, very good. The trailer does not do it justice. It is much, much better than the trailer. Oh, and it was the first movie I've seen in 3D, which was cool.

Okay, the plot is ridiculously predictable and has been done a million times before, and there are no shades of grey. But it does it in a manner that’s not too heavy handed, the good characters are likable, the bad guys detestable, and the female characters have a sense of humour (which I have decided is my go-to test of whether or not the writers have bothered to put any effort into writing the female characters) and the dialogue isn’t clunky. It’s a big budget Hollywood movie in which the good guys fight the bad guys - but it does it so well.

But the special effects and the world that they’ve created is amazing. It’s not quite photo realism, but at the same time, you don’t really notice the CGI at all. And it’s absolutely beautiful. I can’t stress that enough. The world of this movie fantastic.

Oh and there’s a well done romance at the heart of it, which I think I shall point out because it used to be that the big blockbusters had major romances running through them. But it’s rather rare these days for movie to bother with a romance. Usually they’re just an afterthought. (I have this theory that Casablanca would not be made today).

My recommendation is: Find the biggest screen you can and watch it in 3D.

The year is drawing to a close, and for music nerds like me that means one thing. Lists. Top tens. Albums, singles, new discoveries, a way to quantify and rank the music that has come into our lives and made itself at home in our record collections (or as we think of them, souls) over the last twelve months. The NME and Q are scoured for inspiration, blogs dissected and disagreed with, but ultimately we settle down alone with our iTunes and a notebook and pen to make The Big Decision: what WAS my favourite record of the year?

It’s important stuff. You can’t rush it. I’ve been known to start with a list in the hundreds and spend days whittling it down to ten, only to change my mind the instant I close the document and plump for something on a whim. Other people’s lists become instantly fascinating, a source of quiet smugness or irritation, and every year I miss John Peel and his Festive Fifty, the surge of hope and nostalgia as we neared number one, the sense of collective reflection on another year gone by and marked in tunes that will live forever.

’09 has been a good year for music: more girls than I can ever remember front and centre where they belong, more invention and merging of genres, old favourites returning and proving they’ve still got it in them to surprise and delight, new faces blasting open music as we knew it.

So for interested parties, here is the result of my agonising. My top tens of ’09.

( albums )

( singles )

So those are mine. Collectively I think they tell the tale of my record collection this year. Rock music, you're in a holding pattern and you need a kick in the ass, indie, some of your stalwarts are letting you down by slipping into mid-career malaise but you can still pull out the odd wonder, electro, you constantly delight and surprise me with your genre-twisting ways.

What are yours? Which records set your '09 alight?

I was going to do an episode review, but ended up writing fic instead. Well, somebody had to write it.

The Angry Spider by Malcolm Tucker
Author: meddow
Rating: PG-13 for language (of course)
Warnings: It's a children's book written by Malcolm Tucker. So, strong language and violent sexual imagery.
Spoilers: For episode 3x08
Summary: 'There once was an angry spider.'

( There once was an angry spider )

It’s coming on Christmas, and this year poverty means I’m going handmade. And unlike a lot of you I have no crafting or art skillz whatsoever - but I can cook a bit, so that means foody gifts. I thought it might be fun to swap some recipes, because frankly people are bored of me being a one trick festive shortbread pony. So:


Edible Christmas Gifts

& Festive Recipe Swap!


( mine )

So those are mine - show me yours! Any recipes you have that always go down a treat, either festive favourites, edible gifts or things you make at this time of year that you always look forward to, leave them in a comment. I know I have a lot of foodies on my flist and I'm counting on you.

And I'm wheat free but that doesn't matter - if you have wheat and dairy-free recipes please share them (because finding good ones is amazingly tricky and there's a bunch of us dietarily-challenged folk here) but feel free to share your all-butter all-flour all-real food ones too for everyone else ♥.