Peter Jackson and Sherlock Holmes: a theory

The Evidence
1. Peter Jackson is making The Hobbit
2. He's cast Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins (in my opinion, he's going to be really good in the role)
3. He's cast Benedict Cumberbatch as the voice of the dragon (and as the necromancer, but I can't remember who that is in the story)
4. As I've mentioned, these two are John Watson and Sherlock Holmes in the super-awesome BBC series of Sherlock. (Peter Jackson's actually organised filming of the Hobbit so Martin Freeman can still go off and do Sherlock.)
5. He's also cast Stephen Fry in the Hobbit, as the Master of Laketown
6. While this absolutely makes sense because Stephen Fry is pure awesome, it's also interesting because Stephen Fry is going to play Mycroft Holmes in the upcoming movie version, opposite Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock.

Conclusions
Arthur Conan Doyle and JRR Tolkein are inextricably linked, who would have thought?
OR Peter Jackson likes British actors, who often coincidentally happen to be attached to Sherlock projects,
OR I am really, really super excited about seeing the Hobbit! (And way more excited about the Sherlock Holmes movie now that I know Stephen Fry will be in it.)

In semi-related news, they've been filming the new season of Sherlock, and the episodes are called 'A Scandal in Belgravia', 'The Hounds of Baskerville', and 'The Reichenbach Fall'! I don't know about you, but I'm excited!

dogs and cats and dogs and cats

The winner of Tropfest 2011 - Animal Beatbox, directed by Damon Gameau.

"What is the true call of the wild? Here we travel down a very special river and are introduced to a wide variety of the animal kingdom who all contribute their name for the sake of music."

I think the part with the llamas is my favourite.

Conde Elevator

This twitter feed posts genuine snippets of conversations overheard in the Conde Nast elevator. It's my new favourite. On twitter? Follow it.

The lost love of letters

I love letters. I love the romance of them, that personal touch and the thrill of receiving something through the post. I have a box of letters and postcards that I've kept so I can get them out and re-read them over the years of my life.

Emails just aren't the same. It is still thrilling when you get a much-anticipated email – say the first few from the boy / girl you've just been on a successful first date with. But in most cases they're dull and uninteresting and blah and always tinged with the aura of work and the 362 emails you have in your inbox after a holiday.

As much as we love our new technology and the latest, fastest niftiest of everything, I am not alone in lusting after the old-fashioned. You only have to look at the craze for vintage clothes that has gripped fashion and the high street in recent years to see that. Old cameras are back, old clothes are back and old forms of communication are back.

Some clever-clogs in America, also fed up with emails have started a 'community art project' Snail Mail Your Email. You send them an email and they will hand-write it, address the envelope and post it for you to anywhere in the world. With stamps and everything. I adore this idea. The idea is to spread warm-fuzzies around the world and re-ignite an appreciation for the lost art of letter writing.

Brain Jam

Cool packaging sells.

This idea behind the packaging makes me slightly nauseous, but it sells itself so well, I want to order these ridiculously expensive overseas products.

Photos courtesy of Hoxton Street Monster Supplies.

Only in The Netherlands

Well this is the coolest thing I'll see all week, if not all month. I want this is be a part of my daily commute. Immediately.



It's a slide. Into the Utrecht subway.

B re-reads Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

OMG, I wish I could have sat down one morning and read this book cover to cover because that is just what I wanted to do! I took to reading it in the morning before going to work and it kept making me late! SO GOOD!

Prisoner of Azkaban was one of my favourite Harry Potter books, along with Half-Blood Prince (which I cannot WAIT to re-read). I’m not sure quite why I loved it above all others for so long. It contains just as much unpleasantness and evil. Ron is a complete prat to Hermione for most of the book. Poor Hermione. Yet somehow then this book feels different from the others. You get a sense of the characters maturing into young adults with all the issues that entails (Cho Chang fore-shadowing).

The story also feels more acceptable. The school year progresses relatively normally. There are lessons and Quidditch, and the students actually have exams. I enjoy the exams scenes. There are no monsters or mysterious cursed objects or overly-grand adventures. Events which characters have been working towards for the duration of the book occur, then the protagonists go back in time to fix them. Simple.

The final revelation scenes and then the do-over is still exciting, but somehow more tension laden because you know it’s all going to go wrong and you want to leap in and interject and stop it all going bad! Hurry up with the explanations! Don’t go out into the moonlight! Keep rats in cages, not pockets! My heart bleeds for Sirius and Harry at the end of it all.

Things I like about Prisoner of Azkaban:

1. That Voldemort doesn’t make an appearance and that Harry doesn’t have to battle him…again.
2. The dementors – which in my head look exactly like the ghost of christmas past from the Muppet’s Christmas Carol – are so vile and such fantastic creations. You can imagine them existing in our every-day world.
3. That we get to see the students sit exams.
4. Lupin!
5. Sirius!

Things I don’t like about Prisoner of Azkaban:

1. Ron being a dick.
2. The idea of carrying around a full-grown wizard for years as a pet. Eurgh.

Also, can I say? Sirius in the book – SO NOT SEXY. Sirius in the movies – hell yeah.

Sex symbol. Siriusly.