Sunday, December 28, 2014

Supanova 2014

After enjoying Supanova – the pop culture expo – last year (as mentioned in this catch-up post), I'd pretty much decided I'd be going again if they announced at least a couple of interesting guests. The first names they threw out were Natalie Dormer (who plays Margaery1 Tyrrell in Game of Thrones, and was in Elementary and the first Captain America film) and Kristin Bauer van Straten, who's Pam in True Blood.

Needless to say, I didn't buy my tickets based on that – a sensible move, since both of them dropped out well before the event, much like the early headliners the previous year (Peter Dinklage and Summer Glau) did.

But I was still expecting some people worth seeing – and boy, did they deliver: a month or so before the event I got an email confirming the final list of guests, including Peter Cullen (the voice of Optimus Prime), Jack Gleeson (the odious Joffrey from Game of Thrones), Tahmoh Penikett and Jamie Bamber (Helo and Apollo from the reimagined Battlestar Galactica), James & Oliver Phelps (the Weasley twins from Harry Potter) and Alan Tudyk.

Alan Tudyk.

Alan Tudyk, from A Knight's Tale, Firefly/Serenity, Dodgeball, I, Robot, Death at a Funeral, Tucker & Dale vs Evil, Dollhouse, Wreck-It Ralph, Arrested Development, Suburgatory, Frozen and Big Hero 6.

Alan Tudyk, one of my all-time favourite actors, whose body of work includes some of my favourite films and television shows. Someone who would not have very many ahead of him on the list of  people I'd like to meet. I got the email at work; it took all my energy to not shout out loud about how happy I was at finding this out. But on the inside I was leaping around screaming like a complete idiot.

Tickets were bought very soon afterwards.

Last year I went on the Friday night, which proved valuable, since I got to see a talk about Tintin, and a session with Mark Addy and Jerome Flynn (King Robert Baratheon and Bronn from Game of Thrones); this year there wasn't anyone in particular on who I wanted to see, but we went anyway, just to get our paper wristband pass things – a terrible idea, since it means you have to keep the damn things on all weekend, which is kind of gross – and for me to get my token for Alan Tudyk's signature and avoid the (likely) longer queues on the other days.

We did catch the opening 'ceremony' though, which meant getting to hear Peter Cullen and Jeremy Shada (the voice of Finn from Adventure Time) speak, as well as a stack of sci-fi/fantasy authors including Garth Nix and Robin Hobb. Once that was done, we left.

Saturday morning we headed in with the intention of having a wander around before it was time to line up for Jack Gleeson; during this period I took the opportunity to line up and get Alan Tudyk's signature on a blu-ray copy of Tucker & Dale vs Evil that I'd bought for just that purpose.


The message is a quote from the film, and it reads: "Jamie, 'It's been a doozy of a day!' Alan Tudyk"

I'd spent a good while trying to think of something clever to say to him, but I couldn't come up with anything beyond telling him that Big Hero 6 wasn't coming out in Australia until Boxing Day – and that it was going to be up against the final Hobbit film; this, at least, elicited a groan from him.

 After that we lined up for Jack Gleeson – who turned out to be extremely bright, a great conversationalist and (though I think I did already know this) Irish. Oh, and a brunette. It was perhaps the most entertaining of the talks that I'd seen, before or since. He answered all the questions he was asking in an entertaining and genuine fashion. I was very glad I'd gotten the chance to see him.

Next up were Jamie Bamber and Tahmoh Penikett – both have done quite a lot, but are most well known (and were here specifically because of their roles in) the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series. They were also good speakers – panels with more than one person are often better because, even if the questions are bad, they can draw on each other for inspiration – so that was another good one to have caught.

And that was it for Saturday.

Sunday we headed in, not too early, but with enough time to line up to see James & Oliver Phelps, the Weasley twins. They were somewhat quieter than expected, given their on-screen personas – but, funnily enough, one (I can't remember which) turned out to be more gregarious than the other. But they had some great stories about the Harry Potter films.

At some point we bumped into my friend Justine from JusZ Cosplay, who on this occasion was in her Steampunk Zatanna costume. It's always good to see Justine dressed up – as you can see from the page she's a hugely dedicated and talented cosplayer.

We also spent some time wandering around the dozens of vendor stalls; it's amazing the range of stuff on offer, both in terms of mass-produced and hand-made.

Finally it was time to see Alan Tudyk's session – I was a little surprised that his wasn't as well-attended as the Phelps twins; at any point during the weekend when I was near the signing section Tudyk always had the biggest lineup – and we got pretty good seats. As expected he was very entertaining; he's evidently done of a lot of conventions, and barely needs any prompting or audience questions to start talking. He also had the novel idea to bring along a stack of random collectables to give away to people who asked questions

Unsurprisingly, most of the questions were about Firefly, though there were a few about his different voice acting roles, and his work in Dollhouse. I'd have liked to ask him whether he knew when they were making Frozen if it was going to be the massive success it was going to be. But I wasn't close enough to a decent spot for microphone access. Still, it was a great session; his ease at talking to the crowd combined with the number of interesting anecdotes he had to relate. Sadly, the time went by far too rapidly, and before long it was all over.

And that was Supanova 2014. I had a great time, so I'll almost certainly be there again in 2015.

1Have I ever mentioned I hate the spelling of that? Because I do. It doesn't look right.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Pixar in Concert


On the weekend Rochelle and I went to see Pixar in Concert at the Festival Centre – it's a show combining clips from Pixar films with the music from those scenes performed live, in this case by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

Monday, September 29, 2014

The Journey Home

To say I was not looking forward to the trip home would be an understatement. Not only was I having way too good a time to want to leave just yet, but I was facing a very long journey - or, technically, three journeys: Edinburgh to London, London to Dubai and Dubai to Adelaide; a short journey (about an hour and a half), a medium journey (seven hours) and a really goddamn long one (thirteen hours).

To add to the unpleasantness, the day would be starting very early: I had to get up at 5.30am in order to catch the tram from town to the airport - or, at least, I thought I did; turns out I didn't need to be there quite that early, which was a bit annoying since I probably could have used the extra time for (much-needed) sleep. But because the website was unhelpful and the phone number failing to connect, I didn't know for sure when I need to be there, I'd decided I'd better err on the side of caution and get there early. So, I got up, trudged up the hill to the tram stop, and waited for it to appear; eventually, it did.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

An all-too brief stay in Edinburgh

Because I didn't do a great deal while in Edinburgh beyond run back and forth between Fringe venues (and the occasional pub) - and I'm going to do a separate post about the shows I saw, so there really isn't all that much to write about, other than to list what I saw and describe the things that I took photos of. Unfortunately, most of them I didn't have the opportunity to actually go inside (or close enough to them to read any signs) to find out what they were, so for a lot of them your guess is as good as mine.

While I don't regret going to Edinburgh during the Fringe, the reality is that it meant I didn't see very much of the city – I got into fringesanity mode, which basically means 'see as many shows as you possibly can'; I ended up going to sixteen in three and a half days. And while that was heaps of fun, I did make the decision that, when I get the chance to come back, it won't be during the Fringe – that way I'll get to go and do all the normal tourist-y things, of which there are many.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

The Beginning of the End: Edinburgh

The final driving leg of my journey was the trip from Carlisle to Edinburgh, which was the final destination on my journey; I'd be here for four nights during the legendary Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which is very similar in most ways to Adelaide's, only on a far larger scale. It actually was the chance to go to this which began my thinking about travelling all those years ago.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

The Misty Moors, the Lake District and Hadrian's Wall

I once again wanted to take the scenic route to see some of the countryside, so after leaving York I wrestled with the TomTom - as I've probably mentioned before, it really doesn't like going anywhere that isn't the quickest route; eventually I gave up trying to manipulate the options and just went with plugging in individual town names that would take me to Carlisle - and set off.

Somewhere along the way I decided it'd be a good idea to record some narration - I wanted to capture what I was feeling at the time, but it wasn't practical (or, a lot of the time, possible) to stop and type notes into my phone.

I don't actually know how I'd go about posting the audio file itself - and it's probably not the best idea anyway; I tend to be a) rambling and b) sweary, particularly when there are cyclists about, or when the TomTom wanted to take me places I didn't want to go.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

York Minster, Vikings and other historical experiences

Up and early for another day in York; my first destination was York Minster, the huge church in the middle of town that I'd seen the outside of yesterday. It's (yet another) fascinating old building with a ton of history within/beneath it.

Monday, August 18, 2014

Eboracum, Jórvík and York

Firstly, the title is a joke; they're all the one place, not three places. We call it York, the Vikings called it Jórvík and the Romans called it Eboracum. But they were that was my next destination - after what would be my longest drive on my UK trip as I travelled there there from Cambridge.

I don't remember much about the journey, but one thing I do remember before I left was collecting the laundry I'd put in to be washed the previous morning - for which they charged me £12.60, an amount so much lower than I'd expected given my previous experience of laundry service charges in London than I happily gave them £15 and told them to keep the change.

Friday, August 15, 2014

Cambridge at a low ebb


I woke up feeling somewhat less than 100%, which was more than a little disappointing as I had a big day planned in a town with a lot of places to go. But my first destination was the tourist information centre where I'd be joining a walking tour (the one that I hadn't gone on the previous day because it had already sold out) that would take me around and into what I hoped would be some interesting parts of town.

Oh, but before that I had to deal with a minor crisis, the problem of laundry. The single most significant lesson I've learned about travelling is that you need to plan around when you're going to need to get yourself to a laundromat (or, as they call them in the UK, a launderette) or locate someone who'll do it for you. I'd made it through London without having to do any - a blessing, because the prices for the in-house service at the hotel were staggering) and done some myself in Oxford; this time I'd located a service, so that's where I went, mostly because I didn't want to have to try and collect the volume of one pound coins I'd have needed to do it myself.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Cambridge, Fitzwilliam and not eating sushi at a sushi bar

I once again wanted to see a bit of the countryside, so I set off from Stratford fairly early and headed south (I think) for a while, taking my time driving around enjoying the pleasant countryside. After a while I realised I had better get on with it, so I reprogrammed the TomTom so it would take me to Cambridge.

We took what seemed to me an odd route to get there, but in this part of the UK the roads don't run especially straight east-west (or vice versa for that matter); this meant I ended up going a ways south towards London (almost all the way to Milton Keynes) on the M1 before turning north-east and heading towards Cambridge.

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Shakespeare's Houses, Warwick Castle and the RSC

Up bright and early because I wanted to get around to the inside of the three Shakespeare houses in Stratford and then head out to spend a few hours at Warwick Castle before getting back into town to have dinner and then go see Henry IV part 1 at the RSC theatre.

As I noted yesterday, there are three 'Shakespeare houses' - his birthplace, new place/Nash's house and Hall's Croft. First up was his birthplace, which has a museum attached to it that's got some interesting stuff in it. Oh, the swan statue isn't at the house; it's on the bank of the river.

Friday, August 1, 2014

Shakespeare Country

I'd gotten a little annoyed with how little of the countryside I was seeing from the motorways, so on my way back to England from Wales I decided I'd take a slightly more scenic route. This mean (roughly) going north to Monmouth first before heading east into Gloucestershire and then north again into Worcestershire (I didn't see any sauce factories, which seemed odd) and then east again to Warwickshire, which is the county where Stratford-upon-Avon is.

And now I've remembered I meant to buy some Stinking Bishop (it's made in Gloucestershire) in Cambridge and I forgot, dammit. Maybe I'll find some in York.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

The Doctor Who Experience and Cardiff, boyos!

I'd now flown to another country I'd never been before - well, two if you count Dubai, but I don't really; that was just an airport - and now I was going to drive to one, going to Bath, England to Cardiff, Wales. It's also not a very long journey, slightly less than 60miles/100km. So, after my breakfast in Bath I tossed everything into the Vauxhall Corsa and hit the road.

Not a lot to describe about the journey, other than the route I took meant going over the Severn Bridge, a rather impressive structure that also cost me an impressive £6.40 for the privilege; I've now also had the experience of paying a toll in another country while never having done so in my own.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Bath, baths and Jane Austen

I now had to face the challenge of my first serious drive across country in the UK. Not that it was especially serious - it's only something like 80 miles, or 130km. But that's a lot further than I've driven in Australia for quite a few years, and in a country where I'm far less familiar with the countryside.

But the motorways here are impressive, though the downside is you don't get to see very much of the countryside - which was kind of annoying for me, since that was one of the reasons I'd opted for the self-driving holiday.

So, after about an hour and a half or so of driving through some quite pleasant (what I could see of it) landscape, I arrived on the outskirts of Bath. It's not a very big place, but my plan was to park in a carpark somewhere central (since I couldn't park at my hotel until the check-in time, which I think was 3.00pm) and wander round from there. I'd done my research and found one in town, so I headed there.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Blenheim Palace and Oxford

Blenheim (the home of the Duke of Marlborough) was another place high on the list of things I thought of seeing when I first considered travelling to the UK - it's rather a legendary place and was also used in filming Kenneth Branagh's version of Hamlet. It's also not terribly far away from Oxford, which meant not a great deal of effort involved in getting there.

I set out fairly early - the palace tours didn't begin until 10.30 - and had a leisurely drive around Woodstock, the small town nearby; it's quite pretty as well. And then I found my way to Blenheim, parked the car and made my way towards the buildings.

Wow.

I really wasn't prepared for what I found there. I knew it would be big and impressive; I had no idea it was *this* big and *this* impressive. There's a vast amount of amazing artworks and antique furniture and that sort of thing, and the grounds alone are stunning.

You can read about the history of the place here, but I'll just give the basics: it was the gift of Queen Anne to John Churchill (yes, he was ancestor of Winston Churchill, who was born there - they have a section about him and the current Duke is his cousin) for winning a battle - the battle of Blenheim, funnily enough; she allowed him use of the land (it still belongs to the Crown) and gave him money to build a residence.

Since then it's remained with the Marlborough family - or Spencer-Churchill, which is their actual name - and it's currently home to the 11th Duke. The 9th Duke married a Vanderbilt in what appears to have been an unashamed grab by both parties; he needed their money and she (well, her parents at least) wanted a Duke in the family.

Needless to say it didn't go all that well, and they separated after not all that many years. But he got the cash he needed to maintain the place, and we can all be glad of it. The gentleman in the first picture is the 7th Duke, whose picture I liked because he has awesome sideburns.





























Yes, they have a wee train, wee cannon, and wee birds that aren't grouse (it's a ring-necked pheasant).

Once I'd seen all of that (and that's not even touching on what they have there; it's literally mindboggling - paintings and furniture and huge 300 year old tapestries) and wandered around the gardens a while, it was time to go back to town - I wanted to go on the 2pm walking tour - one that would hopefully take me to different places than the ghost tour did.

And it certainly did. The guy leading it was very eccentric, and had one of the strangest accents I'd ever heard - he might have been from New York originally, but has been living in the UK long enough to pick up a lot of the local accent; it was a kind of manic, trans-Atlantic mix of vowels unlike any other. But he certainly knew his stuff, and we had all kinds of things pointed out to us as we wandered around.

We spent quite a lot of time wandering around Balliol college, which is both pretty and interesting. While sitting in its chapel (and later its dining room) we got quite a good rundown on the history of the town and the colleges. We then wandered around some more and saw the Radcliffe Camera (the interesting round building), the outsides of some other colleges (don't ask me to remember which is which, though the one with the bridge is Hertford) and some other significant buildings.

I was a bit annoyed to find out we'd only be going around the courtyard of the legendary Bodleian library - they do their own tours. If I'd known this I'd have gone there and done that beforehand; as it was I now couldn't go because it was too late in the afternoon and I was leaving the next morning.

But I put that aside as we went inside the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, where there'd once been a famous trial for heresy where two churchmen had been found guilty and later burned at the stake (I'd seen the site; it's in middle of one of the main roads and marked with a cross) we were told some interesting people had preached over the years, including John Wesley, who was responsible for founding the sect/denomination of Christianity called Methodism.

Once that was done I wandered around some more, finding some other interesting places/buildings to gawk at, like Oxford Castle and the Roman wall they'd excavated near it.

More photos!


























And then it was time to go home; I wanted an early start for the next leg of my journey, which was to Bath; I'd only have the one day there so I wanted to make sure I had enough time to fit everything in.

Oh, and it just occurred to me that I was wearing the show shirt from Lords & Ladies - significant because not only did Terry Pratchett base the Unseen University on the English university system, he also created a character ('Bloody Stupid' Johnson) as a parallel1 to 'Capability' Brown, who was responsible for the landscaping at Blenheim.

1Parallel! Parallel universe2!
2That's a reference to a line in Lords & Ladies, which Tracey Shepard in particular should appreciate.