Here's to happy Torchwood memories; hope you're staying safe and well in these trying times. My current obsession is the Amazon/BBC television series "Good Omens," starring the brilliant David Tennant and Michael Sheen as the demon and angel who fumble their way into thwarting Armageddon and realize along the way that they totally love the earth and each other. If you're looking for something to binge on, give it a try! Thanks for all the enjoyment your fics brought; sei gesundt! Anne
About an hour ago I read that Leonard Nimoy had been hospitalized with chest pains late last week. I hadn't seen any news about it from my flist, so I want to be sure that everybody who shares my love for the actor and his iconic character will be sending good thoughts his way. At 83, and suffering from COPD, he'll be going through a pretty rough patch now. LLAP to all his fans.
Pete Seeger died yesterday at 94. His sister Peggy wrote this song, which I've loved for about 50 years. Rest in Peace to an icon of music and social justice. The world is a bit less joyous today.
You were one of the first really marvelous Torchwood writers I found, and your talents are exceeded only by your eloquence, civility, and wisdom. You've shown us, when too many of us needed to be shown, that it is possible to be both passionate and respectful. And I love your Star Trek TOS fics!
Best wishes for a very happy birthday, and a rosy future filled with all good things, personal and professional.
Elrhiarhodan has a great meme which I'm trying out here. I've never done a meme, so please don't laugh too hard at me. Comment on this post by saying "Trick or treat", and I will offer you a treat, even if it's as feeble as a "Thank you for being a friend." But it could be a prompt, or a comment on a story of yours, or a link to something interesting. Obviously I'm not talented enough to write stories or computer-literate enough to do images, but it's only fair to play since Elrhiarhodan wrote me a terrific story for my treat. And then do it on your journal!
Just a quick update, and thanks to my daughter for the most awesome Mother's Day present ever.
I had my first chemo session last week, and everything is going well. Torchwood is still providing a lot of distraction and enjoyment, especially my friends' fics and the virtual season. Thanks again to all of you!
And now to the awesome present: my incredibly thoughtful daughter commissioned an original piece of art from Mark Satchwill. Here it is:
We're just short of four hours away from the new year, and I've been thinking a lot about this past year and the ups and downs we've all had. Overall, RL has been pretty good this year; my husband and I are still reasonably healthy and enjoy each other's company almost all the time. The grandchildren are beautiful, healthy, and happy, with what this admittedly biased grandmother sees as exceptional artistic talent and wacky senses of humor. Of course, most six and four-year-olds live in a world to which we have only limited access. We still haven't figured out what inspired the four-year-old's drawing which he explained as "A fire guy saying 'Oh no! Oh no!'" And his big sister wrote her very own thank-you note for holiday gifts this week.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all my LJ friends and others whose creative work I've enjoyed this year: stories, vids, icons, art, whatever form it took. Specifically to my friends: you are all incredibly kind, talented, funny, generous people who share your gifts freely, even with people like me who consume them eagerly and give you nothing but thanks in return. You've made me laugh A LOT, and cry when I got sucked in to another Ianto's-dead-and-Jack-is-devastated fic.
Which brings me to Children of Eartth and The Year the Fandom Imploded. Now that the dust has settled and I can react intellectually instead of so emotionally, I still think CoE was a flawed piece of work, even apart from Ianto's death. I also think I would have ignored most of the flaws if he hadn't died. But I understand that many people found it brilliant, and that is absolutely fine with me; I'm not threatened by disagreement. It seems that a lot of the venom thrown around came from people who somehow were offended that others didn't share their opinion, as if obviously all right-thinking people must see it their way, and anyone who didn't was either stupid or malicious. (Aside: this perspective is a lot broader than TW fandom, of course, our whole political scene in this country seems to have gone the same way, and there is almost no civil discourse on any topic any more. Rant over.) And I still think RTD acted like a jerk.
Since it is almost certain that Ianto is gone permanently, there isn't much that hasn't been said about the character and the actor who brought him to life. The one big question I have is this: why did Ianto Jones resonate so deeply with so many of us? I've become attached to fictional characters before, from Sherlock Holmes through Starsky and Hutch to Vinnie and Frank (and Sonny!) in Wiseguy, and Jim/Blair, but none to the extent that Ianto affected me. What was it about him that made him so appealing? I would really love for someone to ask Gareth his views, while he's still going to cons. He obviously put an incredible amount of work into Ianto, and he might have some insights into how he worked the magic. After all, Ianto wore his body for a while. Plus, it would be a really nice change from The Question about kissing Barrowman.
Wrapping this up, I want to thank all of you again, with maybe just a special thanks to the wonderful Ask!Verse people for all the hours of enjoyment you gave us, and most especially for coming out of retirement to debunk that awful BBC documentary. And I hope 2010 is full of happiness for all of you; 2009 was a pretty bad year for some of you, and I'm very sorry.
The Hermit points to all things hidden, such as knowledge and inspiration,hidden enemies. The illumination is from within, and retirement from participation in current events.
The Hermit is a card of introspection, analysis and, well, virginity. You do not desire to socialize; the card indicates, instead, a desire for peace and solitude. You prefer to take the time to think, organize, ruminate, take stock. There may be feelings of frustration and discontent but these feelings eventually lead to enlightenment, illumination, clarity.
The Hermit represents a wise, inspirational person, friend, teacher, therapist. This a person who can shine a light on things that were previously mysterious and confusing.
If you are reading this, even if we don't chat that often, please comment with one single, unique word that would describe me, according to you. Once done, copy this paragraph, as I did, to your LJ. You might be surprised to read the responses received
Well, Ianto is dead. All the rumors were true, and, as blackbird_song pointed out, people we trusted have lied to us. RTD isn't that big a surprise, but Barrowman and Gareth? They encouraged fans of the relationship by saying that we would enjoy it, and then blindsided us. I haven't seen the episodes yet, but I'll keep the DVDs when they come, because it sounds like the acting and overall production values were outstanding. And maybe his death was artistically necessary. It certainly was foreshadowed enough, going all the way back to "To the Last Man," and rammed down our throats in "The Dead Line." No, it's not the end we sentimental fans wanted; although there could never be a happy ending. I suspect most of us are thinking, "But they could have had a little more time, at least." Realistically, I can't see Jack hanging around until Ianto's hair turned grey either. But it was still too soon!
After I began to get over the shock tonight, I realized that this death was not the first to affect me in such a visceral, almost nauseating, way. (Obviously I get way too involved with my fictional characters). In chronological order, these are the deaths that diminished me:
Henry Blake in MASH. His discharge papers came through and he was going home. After the emotional but joyful goodbyes and happiness for him, the shocker came, even worse than tonight because it was so totally unexpected. I can still see Radar, fighting tears, announcing in the OR that Henry's plane had been shot down over the China Sea, and there were no survivors. It would have been bad but not so surprising to have a character killed during a battle, but to have the happy ending in sight and then snatched away was heartbreaking.
Sonny Steelgrave in Wiseguy, one of the slashiest shows ever, and the one that hooked me as intensely as Torchwood has. In the first place, he was portrayed brilliantly by the late Ray Sharkey, three weeks out of rehab and giving it everything he had. Sonny was the gangster whose mob was infiltrated by FBI agent Vince Terranova, who succeeded all too well in making a place for himself. Not only did he con Sonny into trusting and loving him like the brother he'd just lost, but Vince himself was obviously falling for Sonny. Major conflict and angst here; Ken Wahl was brilliant too. At the end Sonny knew that Vince was a cop; with the Feds closing in, he looked Vince in the eye, said, "I loved you, man," and electrocuted himself. I remember walking around at work stunned the next day thinking about it. Ironically, later on Vince and his previously-disliked handler (Jonathan Banks) fell even harder for each other; great slash pairing.
Tosh and Owen, of course. "You're breaking my heart" still chokes me up.
And now, Ianto. I don't even want to think about what that will be like, if I have tears in my eyes just reading the bare facts. And it's not like we were totally unprepared, but I kept finding reasons to discount the rumors. And so I am angry as well as sad. But mostly sad.
