a vintage year for scoundrels

Back from Barcelona! I had a lovely time seeing the sights and also my family. Among other things, we went into the Sagrada Familia, which was spectacular, and also to the Fundacio Joan Miro, which I went to on a school trip in 2000 and wanted to see again. It was definitely worth it: I particularly liked seeing these three untitled pieces, which sadly don't look nearly as good in photos, and Morning Star: I've had a poster of this since 2000 and yet I still found myself standing in front of it for ages, just looking at it. Also it was sunny! I don't really know how to deal with that. (I was going to link to my photos here, but sadly Facebook seem to have taken away the option to let you do that, because it is the worst.) Then I came back to England and it was freezing cold and raining and I didn't have a coat, and therefore I plunged instantly into the Slough of Despond. Oh well, at least it's nearly Vidukon.

Here are some miscellaneous comics things I felt like posting about:

- Should I be reading FF? Because it looks adorable.

- I have been slightly worried about the Captain Marvel/Avengers Assemble crossover, because the whole "female lead is seeing things that aren't there" aspect has the potential to be unfortunate, but I bought the introductory issue and liked it a lot, mostly because it's basically a bonus Captain Marvel issue. ( not actually spoilers really ) It also made me think about the similarities between Captain Marvel and Bryan Q. Miller's Batgirl (whyyyyyy doesn't anything about that book exist any more? *wails, gnashes teeth, rends garments*): they both star a tough blonde woman who has recently taken on a new identity that used to belong to someone they respected; they both have a large female heavy rotating supporting cast of excellent people, including a tiny fangirl; they are both delightfully quiptastic... I think we may have found my formula for a perfect comic. Obviously they're not identical - Steph and Carol are at very different stages of their superhero careers, for example, but even so, the similarities please me.

- Here is a thing that is both good and frustrating: superladiesmissing, cataloguing superhero merchandise that has forgotten to involve any women (something I particularly hate because I like stuff but also like superheroines). Particular offenders seem to be the Avengers film stuff and Justice League merchandise. Dear people making Justice League stuff: YOU NEED TO PUT WONDER WOMAN ON IT. THIS IS NON-NEGOTIABLE. Ideally other women too, but Wonder Woman is ESSENTIAL. WeLoveFine seems to be better than most at having superheroine merchandise, though their "put it all out in men's sizes only then add women's sizes if enough people ask" policy is a little frustrating, but sadly shipping to the UK makes it prohibitively expensive. :( I have ended up resorting to making my own Steph!Batgirl t-shirt but this is by no means an ideal solution.

1. Stephen Fry has a podcast, y'all!

2. I am back from my holidays, they were lovely. I took my photos in to be developed today and will stick a link to them here once I get them all uploaded and stuff, but until then, here are some words instead.

For the first week I went to Ystalyfera in South Wales with friends from university. The weather was frankly atrocious; it was tipping it down when we arrived (after a bit of a palaver trying to actually find the place which involved some rather hairy manouevring and asking several locals for directions) and it didn't stop raining for more than about half an hour until Thursday lunchtime, a shame, since the cottage came with about 20 acres of land to explore. But on the other hand, it was a great cottage and I was more than happy to spend the entire week playing games and watching DVDs, most of which I'd seen before, but never mind: Hot Fuzz (we watched this on the second holiday too, heh), The Prestige and American Beauty, the only one I hadn't seen before and which I would quite happily never see again, pretentious codswallop, I felt, though to be fair it really isn't a genre I have any interest in at all. But otherwise, week full of joy and fab people that I don't see enough of and dingbats and racing demon and such.

For the second week I went to Swanage, one of my favouritest holiday places EVAH, with school friends; the weather was far better, no rain at all and we even managed to swim in the sea on the first day. (We also had a visit from Polly and Diege for the first night, which was all kinds of shiny.) It clouded over a bit after that, but we stil did stuff - we walked out to Dancing Ledge past Tilly Whim caves and the Large Globe (oh English place names, how I love thee), and took the steam train to Corfe Castle. Also lots of playing games, again, and there was SingStar! I was rather at a disadvantage due to a) not being a very good singer (I butchered Beautiful Day on purpose cos I hates it, 'kay?) and b) not knowing most of the songs, but it was still MAD FUN, especially the shouty bits in Parklife. And we watched Labyrinth again: as the trailer promised, it does indeed give you the Imagination of Jim Henson, the Wizardry of George Lucas and the Excitement of David Bowie.

Both holidays included an impromptu murder mystery and I got to do three terrible accents (Russian, American, French) since my character in the first one unexpectedly turned out to be Secretly American halfway through. Hurray! We also ate very well on both holidays - if any of you are ever in Swanage I recommend the Corner Restaurant - which I am trying to replicate at home, I made an apple cake earlier and now I am roasting a chicken for my supper, om nom nom nom.

And we even managed to spin out the last holiday by stopping in Bath on the way back. We wandered around in the sunshine (best weather of the holiday) looking at the pig sculptures. Bliss.

3. In other news, I want to make some icons/headers/wallpapers etc. but am feeling terribly uninspired in terms of both content and style, so am now taking requests, general or specific, for graphicy stuff - I will happily have a go at making pretty much anything (within reason) though with the caveat that I won't necessarily be able to make something that's any good at all. And of course you would not be required to use whatever I did make :)

4. When I was thinking about this post yesterday I definitely had a fourth thing to say but now I have NO IDEA what it might have been. Le sigh.