Fangirl Five Friday

Fangirl Five Friday is hosted by the awesome EvilEva over at Nancy Drew Is My Homegirl. After a rather hectic week and a half, I thought I'd put the time before settling down to watch Have I Got News For You (with guest host William Shatner!) and embark on a list of things that are floating my boat this week!

1. Katzenjammer

I think I've spoken about this band here before, but I went to see them play in Birmingham last weekend, and they were amazing. These four Norwegian women play a whole range of instruments (often switching instruments and places during the set) and they make noise that ranges from Balkan-inspired gypsy punk to folk to pop and back again. I think they're awesome. :) Here is a video of the gig I was at:



2. Eurovision

Tomorrow is the Eurovision Song Contest, otherwise known as the tackiest, cheesiest, most musically suspect night of the year. And I love it. My friends and I are having a Eurovision gathering, involving pizza, some newly discovered vegetarian jelly beans, and a lot of alcohol. I am looking forward to Graham Norton's snarky commentary most of all. (Last year, my favourites were Bosnia-Herzegovina. I'm excited to see what madness our European neighbours field this year.)

3. E. Lockhart

Back to books briefly... I have read the first two Ruby Oliver books, and I just today finished another of her books, Fly On The Wall. It was a short book with an odd concept that just... worked, somehow. I love her characters, and I'm excited to read more!

4. The Bridge

I know I have definitely mentioned The Bridge before, but I just watched the final two episodes last night and... wow. A lot of reviews of this show have been dogged by the "it's not as good as The Killing" line, but I think it has a lot of charm in its own right. I love Martin and (especially) Saga, the two main characters, and the last episode, especially the final fifteen minutes, was edge-of-the-seat, heart-in-mouth (and eventually heart-breaking) stuff.

5. Skindred

A favourite band of mine, who I just found out are playing on the second stage at Hard Rock Calling, the same day that I am there seeing Soundgarden!

Fangirl Five Friday #4

Fangirl Five Friday is an awesome weekly meme hosted by Evil Eva at Nancy Drew Is My Homegirl, in which bloggers list the five things they're fangirling over this week.  

Game of Thrones, series 2

I spent the week with The Boy, and we finally caught up on the cluster of episodes we’ve missed. I am much more excited this time around, because I am fully immersed in the book series and so enjoying seeing it come to life, particularly as the map expands and we get to see the Iron Islands and Beyond the Wall. (Long titles often annoy me—vis Dexter and Boardwalk Empire—but the GoT titles I watch through every time.)

The Calling

Ah, post-grunge pop-rock. How edgy I thought you were when I was 16. My friends and I indulged in a retro-sleepover last weekend (hence the lack of FFF last week!), complete with Clueless and Coyote Ugly on DVD, and a whole swathe of 90s music videos. (I wrote about the whole she-bang here.) After most of Five’s back catalogue, some dodgy ‘N Sync videos, and a surprise win from B, who discovered that she remembered all the words to PJ and Duncan’s “Let’s Get Ready to Rhumble”, we had a blast of this for old 

times’ sake:

Bonus points: The Calling also featured in Coyote Ugly, playing in the club near the beginning.

Retro-sleepovers

Deserving an entry of their own, just for being the most fun you can have with your pyjamas on.

The Bridge / Broen / Bron

via (BBC/ZDF)

Whatever you want to call it. This is the latest Danish/Swedish import snapped up by BBC4, after The Killing (Forbrydelsen) 1 and 2 and Borgen, both of which I enjoyed immensely (not forgetting Wallander!). The Bridge follows Swedish cop Saga Noren and Danish cop Martin Rohde as they attempt to solve a very tangly mystery involving severed bodies, shady journalists and some rather ingenious ways of offing people. Fantastik.

Dino Lego!

I love dinosaurs. I love Lego. Venturing into the Lego shop in Brighton this week, I discovered that someone has stuck the two things together to create Dino Lego. Not since I discovered the wonders of houmous and Pringles a couple of months ago have I been this excited by an unexpected pairing.

What's on your list this week?

Fangirl Five Friday #3: Flannel, fiddles and John Cusack

Fangirl Five Friday is an awesome weekly meme hosted by Evil Eva at Nancy Drew Is My Homegirl, in which bloggers list the five things they're fangirling over this week. 


I'm going old school this week with my first choice!


1. Gilmore Girls
I first started watching GG after The Boy convinced me to give it a go (it was his go-to Sunday morning programme, along with Veronica Mars, which I mocked him for until I got hooked on it myself). I am currently re-watching series 4, which makes me happy and sad at the same time, because it has the best ending of any of the series... but at the same time, I am getting closer to series six and beyond, which is where I like to pretend it went a completely different way.


But can we just pause for a minute, for the lovely Luke:

via

2. Sleep
I am all about sleep this week, mostly because I am not getting enough of it. I have a draft of a thesis chapter due on Monday, and have been glued to my computer for the last couple of weeks. When I finally do sleep, my brain is full of everything else I forgot to do while I was writing, as well as all the things I still have to write about. I am, however, getting close to perfecting the art of talking on the phone, cooking my tea, reading a book and tidying the kitchen, all at the same time. This time next week, I'll be spinning plates.


3. Katzenjammer
This Norwegian band are my current musical obsession. I just found out they're playing a gig in my city next month, too. Cue much excitement!


4. Eddie's been "Hey Girl"ed!
I've seen the Ryan Gosling "Hey Girl" meme around and about, and despite the fact that the girls I live with (A & C) have a poster of a shirtless Ryan Gosling up on our living room wall (to complement the JLS calendar I purchased A for Christmas), I've never been a fan. I like my boys hairy and flannel-clad. Hence my excitement at this: The Eddie Vedder edition of Hey Girl, as seen on the eddievedderhallpass tumblr.

via

I also discovered Eddie's version of one of my favourite Springsteen songs, Atlantic City. Awesome.





5. High Fidelity
This is one of my favourite films, adapted from a book I love a lot (Nick Hornby's High Fidelity). Apart from the fact that they inexplicably felt the need to move the setting from London to Chicago, I can never find anything wrong with this film. I watched it again the other night (while reading a translation of Freud's "Totem und Tabu"... go on, tell me you're jealous :| ), and in honour of the fact that this is a top 5 list, I thought it was only fair to include the film that spawned so many.





*boombox*

Fangirl Five Friday (#2)

Fangirl Five Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Evil Eva at Nancy Drew Is My Homegirl, in which bloggers list the five things they're fangirling over this week.


So, here's this week's five:


1. Inside Nature's Giants


This is one of my favourite television shows. I've been watching it since it first started on Channel 4 in 2009, but the episodes are generally sporadic. This week, a new one was broadcast (The Hippo). The whole thing was fascinating, as usual, and I have nothing but love for the programme's comparative anatomist and all round brilliant woman, Joy Reidenberg. Science rocks. (Says the humanities researcher.)


2. It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia


Okay, okay, another TV one. The boy and I spent the weekend together over Easter, and watched a whole lot of this programme. Danny DeVito as Frank is excellent.


3. Dark chocolate Kit Kats


As a kid I would only eat white chocolate. Then I decided milk chocolate was the best thing ever. My dad told me that old age would be signalled by an appreciation for two things: Steely Dan, and dark chocolate. The latter has begun. As for Steely Dan, well... She thinks I'm crazy, but I'm just growing old. Hey nineteen...


4. Mario Kart 7


A veritable marathon of Mario Kart on the 3DS this weekend just gone (yes, we're super rock n roll) has rekindled my love of all things Mario. There is nothing quite like dropping that banana in just the right spot...


5. The Coo Coo Birds Old Time String Band


I haven't seen my brother in a couple of months or more now, but this weekend I get to see his second band play live. (He plays banjo/guitar/harmonica in a bluegrass/Americana band, and is also in this duo as a guitarist/vocalist.) This is a video of when I saw them play last year (extremely poor picture quality, but the sound is okay). Allow me to be the obnoxiously proud big sister for just a moment. I'll stop now.

Fangirl Five Friday (#1)

Fangirl Five Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Evil Eva at Nancy Drew Is My Homegirl, in which bloggers list the five things they're fangirling over this week.

I first discovered this via YA Crush, and finally decided to take part! So, in no particular order, here is my list:

1. (Almost) new Game of Thrones!
I am a massive SOAIF/GoT fan. The first HBO series is how I discovered the books in the first place. In the space between series, I have worked my way through the first three books, and am incredibly excited to see the second book come to life. (Sadly, SPOILER ALERT after the trailer...



...minus Sean Bean, who when I was a kid I thought was the most famous man on earth, given that he and I are from the same neck of the woods, and he was always on our local news programmes.) This primer from The Guardian is a handy little guide if you're struggling to remember how it went the first time around...

2. Bob's Burgers returns!
Okay, I promise not all these will be to do with television (despite the fact that I just discovered I can watch Wallander online through my Lovefilm subscription - the Swedish version starring Krister Henriksson). But the boy and I caught up with the first two new episodes of Bob's Burgers last weekend, and I am back to coveting that pink rabbit ears hat again. H. Jon Benjamin is one of my favourites. (Archer is my other current favourite.)

3. Sunshine
Being in Brighton last weekend, I got to enjoy the unexpected sun right by the sea. The sun is never my best friend, because I burn in the time it takes most people to put on their shoes. But that doesn't stop me being excited to be able to sit outside and write, or walk miles without pulling out the winter coat, or jump in the pool knowing that it's lovely and warm outside for once!

Sunset on Brighton beach (via me)

4. Soundgarden tickets!
Last week I managed to book tickets to see Eddie Vedder in London. (You have no idea how exciting this is to me. The boy and I are already seeing Pearl Jam for the fourth time this summer, but this was a delicious little bonus.) Yesterday, said boy booked tickets for... Soundgarden. As Pam might say in Archer: Holy shitsticks. Our grunge quadrology (erm...) will be complete come the summer (Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Mudhoney, and Soundgarden). Long live flannel.

Looking good, guys. Eddie Vedder & Chris Cornell, via Grunge Report

5. Baking cookies
My friends and I had dinner together this week, which we do periodically. We all bring different parts of the meal, and this time it was my turn to bring the dessert. As we were having American-themed food, I brought cookies. I baked them for the first time ever, and they were (modesty alert) AMAZING. I am now convinced of the necessity to bake homemade cookies every week. (This article states that PhD baking is not uncommon, given its built-in study breaks and focus on completely different parts of the brain. I did copy edit an article in between cookie rounds, so maybe it really is the future of study...)

Honourable mention to The Hunger Games film, which I talked about earlier this week. No fangirling, but definitely a renewed appreciation for the book after being pleasantly surprised by the film.

And finally: I have been largely AWOL this last week. Blame a mixture of complete computer failure, a trip to the beach to see the boy, and general PhD/journal madness commitments. I am now back from the beach, and possess a new shiny computer. Given that I am still buried in the third year of my thesis and still the editor of a journal, expect the madness to continue on that front.

Also, has anyone else noticed that Blogger has gone all country-specific? My URL now reads ".co.uk", as does anyone else's Blogger blog that I visit, regardless of their location...