I am the Bad Wolf.

My last 2 galleries of photos from Ireland

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:26:01 GMT

I finally got my photos organized and uploaded for Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland.

1st is general Kinsale:

http://bluewillow29.smugmug.com/gallery/8837046_7xJg3#P-1-12

2nd is Desmond Castle:

http://bluewillow29.smugmug.com/gallery/8837059_gx2Qr#590823109_tCvuo

which has been used for a customs house, a jail, a work house & now also a wine museum.

I do feel pretty bad as all my Kinsale photos are very dreary & don't really do justice to how cute this town is. So, I found this other guy's photos & thought I'd give y'all that link too

http://www.pbase.com/wrcphoto/kinsale

He was there when it was bright and sunny & you can really see how colorful the town is. :-)

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:31:21 GMT

Home

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:43:02 GMT

I'm back from Ireland & England.

I need many many new words to say Amazing, Beautiful, spectacular, awesome, glorious, wonderful....

you get the idea.

and now.... Need Sleep!!!!

:-)

because I was bored

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:25:26 GMT

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:39:07 GMT

Woo-Whoo!!!!

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:22:50 GMT

Tonight's Lost

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:07:11 GMT

2 words:

HOLY SHIT!!!

That is all.

disturbing news from Northern Ireland

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 02:26:09 GMT

Northern Ireland Gunmen Kill Policeman in 2nd Attack in 2 Days

By Colm Heatley

March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Gunmen shot dead a police officer in Northern Ireland last night, two days after two British soldiers were killed by members of a dissident republican paramilitary group in the U.K. province.

The killing in Craigavon, a town 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Belfast, was the first death of a police officer in Northern Ireland since 1997. It came after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited the region yesterday to discuss the upsurge in violence.

“We are staring into the abyss,” Delores Kelly, a lawmaker with the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party, said last night. “All of us have to get ourselves together to pull ourselves back from the brink.”

The Real Irish Republican Army, formed 12 years ago to oppose Northern Ireland’s peace process, claimed responsibility for the March 7 attack on the British soldiers at a military base in County Antrim. They were the first fatalities for the British Army in the region since 1997.

Yesterday’s attack occurred at about 9:45 p.m. when officers responded to a request for help from a member of the public, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said in a statement. Two police cars arrived at the scene and as officers got out they came under fire.

Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde said March 5 the threat posed by dissidents was at its highest since he took office in 2002. A specialist British Army unit has been deployed to monitor dissident republican paramilitaries, he said.

'Callous Murderers’

“The Real IRA have no place in the politics of Northern Ireland,” Brown told reporters yesterday. “These are callous murderers. These people have got to be hunted down and brought to justice as quickly as possible.”

David Simpson, a lawmaker with the Democratic Unionist Party, said last night the two fatal attacks are “a deliberate and sustained effort by terrorist murderers to try and drag Northern Ireland back to the worst days of Ulster’s past.” He called for a “ruthless” security response.

A 36-year conflict in Northern Ireland ended in 2005 when the Irish Republican Army, which had been fighting to unite Ireland, declared an end to its campaign. The conflict claimed more than 3,500 lives.

Dissident republican paramilitaries, who oppose the peace process, have launched sporadic gun and bomb attacks in the province since 1997 when they split from the IRA.

In 1998, the Real IRA killed 29 people in a bomb in the town of Omagh, the worst terrorist attack during the political violence that gripped Northern Ireland.

The Real IRA faded into the background after that attack and only stepped up its campaign over the past 18 months.

It has mounted 18 attacks since 2008, Northern Ireland Secretary of State Shaun Woodward told Parliament in London yesterday. Gunmen have shot at least two policemen, injured another in a bombing and tried to detonate a land mine near the border with the Republic of Ireland.

Last month, the organization abandoned a 300-pound (136- kilogram) car bomb in County Down that it said was destined for a British Army barracks.

To contact the reporter on this story: Colm Heatley in Belfast at cheatley@bloomberg.net.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJCbVr72ek4I&refer=home

Photos from London

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:46:16 GMT

A scant 205 photos on this trip (as opposed to the 1,200 I took last time. *g*) And I'm too lazy to edit any of them. sorry about that.

http://bluewillow29.smugmug.com/London,%20Feb%202009

Category 1: The Globe:

Hard to photograph on the inside at the time of day I was there. However, when I walked in & saw this view I got all goose pimply!

Category 2: The British Museum. I was only there 3 hours, else I would have probably 1200 photos, but it got so crowded I just couldn't take it anymore & left to go shop.

This gallery has the most photos, but I took a fair number of pics of signs, so that later I could remember what the thing was I was taking a photo of. At some point (maybe), I'll go back through and label the photo & delete the sign photos. But then given how lazy I am, probably not. Anyway, mostly Egypt, Rome, & Greece, including a really really big fist from Egypt:

And Category 3 is just random stuff. Like one of my favorite new quotes: "There is no darkness but ignornace" from Twelfth Night.

The Millenium Bridge & St. Pauls dome {{with a big dork alert - this is the bridge that will collapse in Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince}} :

and a bird taking a bath:

Tree

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:23:00 GMT

heaven

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:15:44 GMT

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight. When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.

When he was close enough, he called out, "excuse me, where are we?"

"This is heaven, sir," the man answered.

"Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" The man asked.

"Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up."

The man gestured, and the gate began to open. "Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog,"come in, too?" The traveler asked.

"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets."

The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog. After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.

"Excuse me!" He called to the man. "Do you have any water?

"Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in."

"How about my friend here?" The traveler gestured to the dog.

"There should be a bowl by the pump."

They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it. The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.

When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.

"What do you call this place?" The traveler asked.

"This is heaven," he answered.

"Well, that's confusing," the traveler said. "The man down the road said that was heaven, too."

"Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell."

"Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?"

"No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind."

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:36:40 GMT

You Are Locke

You've had a pretty traumatic life. You've been manipulated quite a bit.
And still, you can't help but be drawn to powerful, evil people.

While you're attracted by charisma, you also some have charisma of your own.
You tend to lead people, but that's partially because they fear you.

You've become a lot more spiritual in your life recently.
You just can't believe that all things are left to chance.

Who Are You on LOST?

no, not that Simon....

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:27:09 GMT

Big yay from Playbill.com:

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/125284.html

Callow and Pickup Will Join
McKellen and Stewart in London Waiting for Godot

Simon Callow and Ronald Pickup will join the previously announced Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in the new production of Samuel Beckett's 1953 classic Waiting for Godot, which is being staged by Sean Mathias as the first production in his tenure as artistic director of the Theatre Royal Haymarket Company.

...............

Callow, who will play Pozzo, was most recently seen on the London stage as Mr. Darling/Captain Hook in the Richmond pantomime version of Peter Pan. He is a stage, cinema and TV actor, theatre director and writer. His extensive theatre credits include The Kiss of the Spider Woman for the Bush, Total Eclipse and Faust Parts I and II for the Lyric Hammersmith, Restoration for the Royal Court and Titus Andronicus for the Bristol Old Vic.

Ronald Pickup, who will play Lucky, has been seen in Look Back in Anger at the Theatre Royal Bath, Proof for the Donmar Warehouse, Amy's View, Peer Gynt, Three Sisters, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Richard II and As You Like It all for the National Theatre, The Norman Conquests at the Gielgud, Julius Caesar for the Royal Court, Hobson's Choice and Little Eyolf for the Lyric Hammersmith, The Cherry Orchard at the Aldwych and Uncle Vanya both on tour and for the Rose Theatre Kingston.

Just so you know, Simon Collow is a wonderfully talented actor (who just so happened to play Charles Dickens on an episode of the new Doctor Who), and is not to be confused with Simon Cowell who is the ~~jerk~~ ~~asshole~~ ~~smarmy bastard~~ judge on American Idol.

YAY!!!

Continuing With Today's Theme: Jeff

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:19:04 GMT

Happy Jeff:

after lots and LOTS of editing (as Mo said, much very red lighting in Tampa), here's the link to my photos. Lots of B&Ws cause they were so red I couldn't do anything else with them:

http://bluewillow29.smugmug.com/gallery/6849487_vj5CZ#437984888_oyGwo

Life in the Theatre

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:40:08 GMT

Yesterday the Royal Shakespeare Company had to announce that David Tennant would not be playing the title role of Hamlet as he had hurt his back. While most people on this side of the pond don't know who David Tennant is, nor do they know what Doctor Who is, in England to say DT & Doctor Who is a HUGE Deal is well beyond an understatement. For the London performances, Every Single Ticket, for every performance, was sold by noon on the day they went on sale & a huge part of that was because of David Tennant. Of course there is still the marvelous Patrick Stewart performing as Claudius, but DT was overall the reason for the speedy sell out. And now he's missing a performance? The Press Night performance at that?

As they say, the show must go on.... and it did, with the understudy, Edward Bennett, taking over the role of Hamlet. While of course I would have never wished injury on the lead, I must say that this twist of fate is bloody brilliant! I do love David Tennent. Seeing him perform live was the initial motivating factor in my October trip to England. And he was good in Hamlet. He was spectacular in Love's Labour's Lost, but in Hamlet he was good. But do you know who was spectacular in both plays? Edward Bennett. As Laertes in Hamlet & as Navarre in LLL, Edward Bennett was truly a joy to watch! But of course, who does everyone speak of? David Tennant & Patrick Stewart. That's what it's all about! Right?? Well not last night. It was Edward Bennett's time to shine! And reviews seem to indicate that he did very well indeed!

From The Guardian:

The press night of Hamlet started late last night, and the first person to walk on stage was the director, Gregory Doran, rather than Francisco, Bernardo, Horatio and Marcellus. Doran explained about David Tennant’s back injury. (I am told he is in considerable pain and will be seeing a specialist today). He then said, "You're in luck – this is the Royal Shakespeare Company" (to cheers) and informed the audience of the considerable domino effect of Tennant's absence ("Hamlet will be played by Laertes; Laertes will be played by Guildenstern; Guildenstern will be played by Lucianus; Lucianus will be played by Francisco.") He joked about 42^nd Street, saying he felt as if he was plucking Edward Bennett, Tennant's understudy, from the chorus line. "If it works, it will be a wonderful vindication of ensemble theatre. If it doesn't, we can all shuffle back to Buffalo."

And it did work. Rather impressively, the whole marvellous RSC machine just clicked into action and operated beautifully – though I am sure there were a fair few hard-beating hearts and touch-and-go moments. As Michael Billington has written in his review, Bennett's Hamlet was a serious, agonised, morally outraged teenager. There were moments when you could detect that the production had been built around a very different personality. The palimpsest of this evening, as it were, was a Hamlet of mercurial energy and physicality. But it was still a powerful night.

It's been interesting to read comments on my last post. For some, I note, Hamlet without Tennant is just not worth turning up for. Some people have made the cogent point that this production of Hamlet would simply not be as celebrated – nor as sold out – without its star, which in itself slightly makes a mockery of the sanctity placed upon the idea of ensemble theatre by the RSC under its current artistic director, Michael Boyd. Nonetheless, if you've got tickets, I'd still urge you to go and see Bennett's very creditable performance. And yes, for my money, in the end this is ensemble vindicatus!

Venice sees worst flooding in 22 years

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:31:19 GMT

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iHOqqJsyjILTJBTjhOSVeyN2wfeQ

VENICE, Italy (AFP) — Venice suffered its worst flooding in 22 years on Monday as water in the Renaissance city stood more than 1.5 metres (five feet) deep before beginning to recede.

A change in the direction of the wind helped the "acqua alta" (high water) water start backing down from a high of 1.56 metres (5 feet, 2 inches), the tide monitoring centre said.

Authorities had warned that the sea lapping at the lagoon city threatened to rise to 1.60 metres, a 30-year high mark, and warned residents and tourists to stay indoors.

"It's an exceptional 'acqua alta,' and unless you absolutely have to, don't go out," Venice mayor Massimo Cacciari said in a statement.

Nearly all the streets of the city, including the central tourist district, were already under water by mid-morning -- the famous Piazza San Marco by 80 centimetres.

Workers set up elevated walkways as sirens and loudspeaker announcements reinforced the alert. Under a new system, warnings and updates were also being sent out by text message.

The tidal centre predicted earlier that floodwater would fall back to normal levels by 7:00 pm (1800 GMT), but said another surge was expected in the small hours of Tuesday.

The situation was complicated by a national transport strike affecting the city's "vaporetto" water bus service.

Experts said the surge in the sea level was caused by a combination of persistently high southerly winds and heavy rain and snowfall in northern Italy over the past few days.

Venice was flooded 50 times between 1993 and 2002, with the worst incident on November 4, 1966, when the city was submerged by 1.94 metres of water amid catastrophic flooding throughout Italy.

More recently, in February 1986, levels reached 1.58 metres above normal. The last time the waters passed 1.60 metres was in 1979 when they reached 1.66 metres.

The city has for years been wrestling with the problems posed by the threat of rising sea levels. In March, local authorities confirmed they were looking at a scheme to raise the city's buildings to meet the problem.

Under Operation "Rialto", local officials and engineers were looking at using piston-supported-poles placed at the bottom of each structure to lift buildings by up to to a metre.

They calculated it would take around a month per building if each structure was raised by eight centimetres (3.14 inches) a day.

In April 2007, the United Nations cultural organisation UNESCO warned that Venice was one of its designated World Heritage sites that was threatened by climate change.

I really need to quit saving baby guppies....

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:52:22 GMT

Because I now have 15 total guppies. :-) 5 "grown ups", 5 of the original 6 that I saved that are rather medium sized now & then 5 other bitty-babies. So I decided to move the 5 grown-ups to a 10 gallon tank, them move the Mediums to the 5 gallon & leave the bitty-babies in the 2.5 gallon.

Here's the new tank:

And Rosalie is the resaon for the extra 10 that I've accumulated. And yes, she is pregnant again! *lol* That poor fishie:

And then one of the medium sized babies, finally getting some color showing up:

for the sake of comparison, below is what they looked like around the first week of Oct & what the other bitty-babies look like now (I didn't even try to get a pic of them. Getting the big fish and the medium fish was hard enough):

And also a couple weeks ago I got 2 bettas. Just cause:

Eeyore:

and Feisty:

nerdgasm

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:50:01 GMT

Star Trek trailer (#2):

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/startrek/index.html

Wow. Wow. And also, WOW.

It's all Sue's fault..... g

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:12:03 GMT

Back on the 31st, Sue posted a link to the Playbill Site which said the following:

Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart will star as Estragon and Vladimir, respectively, in a new production of Samuel Beckett's 1953 classic Waiting for Godot, which is being staged by Sean Mathias as the first production in his tenure as artistic director of the 2009 Theatre Royal Haymarket Company.

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/122902.html

After reading that I spent that weekend and the next week pouting and thinking, "I really wish I could go see that!"

Then my thought process started to change and began having various thoughts like, "that's really a once in a life time thing...." and "well, if I started saving now......" and "I guess I could go...." and "there's not really a reason that I can't go....."

I spent a week with those thoughts. But mingled in with all that was a resurgence of thoughts from this summer when I had read this performance listing......

Twelfth Night
Wyndham's Theatre

Derek Jacobi plays Malvolio in the classic Shakespeare comedy.

Show Dates:
Performances from 05 Dec 2008
Opening 10 Dec 2008
Closing 07 Mar 2009

http://www.playbill.com/events/event_detail/14655.html

Thoughts like how I beyond adore Sir Derek Jacobi and think he is an astoundingly fabulous actor & how cool would it be to see this play..... those thoughts.

So this week I thought, "to hell with it, you only live once!!"

I now have the following tickets purchased:

1 item(s) for Twelfth Night (Sunday 22-Feb-2009 15:00) Stalls A15

(front and freakin' center to see Sir Derek Jacobi!!!!)

AND.......

Waiting For Godot

27 Jun 2009 19:30

Stalls

E14

(5 rows back to see Sir Ian McKellen & Patrick Stewart!!!!)

can I just say - YAY!!!!!!!

While my purse won't be happy in 2009, thanks to Sue, my purse can go to hell because I'm going to be freakin' happy as a calm!!!

Now to start pricing airfare and finding some cheap as hell hotel rates.....

Interjections!!

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:28:15 GMT

The Preamble

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:22:57 GMT

I almost forgot...

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:56:34 GMT

I actually did give in and get 2 "tourist shots" with me in them. Trust me when I say this almost never happens.

Big thanks to Lisa for taking the photos and (also for going to Germany so I could meet her and think "she's so awesome!" and then say, "you should pop over to London while I'm there", and then her doing so & us having such a fabulous time. She's a brilliant sight-seeing partner!)

Long overdue London

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:50:08 GMT

I've uploaded all my London photos. It took forever, mostly because I took over 1000 to weed through, but also because they imported onto my computer all out of order and I'm so anal about things being in order. Then I wanted to make sure I put captions on as many photos as I could.

Who knows if I'll ever get to actually detailing out my time there, but the photos are here:

England as the category, then 18 separate galleries so that the almost 800 photos aren't overwhelming:

http://bluewillow29.smugmug.com/England,%20October%202008

and of course the doggies are first. :-)

I also ended up with 173 photos from the Doctor Who Exhibition. Probably not of interest to most, but if you want to see more of my obsession that just my icons, click here:

http://bluewillow29.smugmug.com/Doctor%20Who%20Exhibition,%20Earls%20Court,%20London

Or if you want the really short photo tour, here are some of my favourites that you might pass over cause they're not the standard tourist shot. Well, except the first one:

See Icon, See Photo below - yes I just had to stand in the exact same spot where they filmed this scene, but during the day:

but here's my favorite night shot of the eye:

At Trafalgar Square:

This to me is just so very British:

as are these hats. The woman on the left had gotten a Member of the British Empire for her volunteer work (very big deal according to the Brits I work with), but how cute are these hats???

In case you weren't aware, the brits want you to know:

or more to the point, on the pack from Ireland:

Thanks to me wondering what a certain building was & asking a lovely policeman, I found out about this grave.
German Ambassador Leopold von Hoesch buried his beloved dog, Giro,an Alsatian, here. "Giro, ein treuer Begleiter! London, im Februar 1934, Hoesch" ~~ which translates to "Giro, a faithful companion! London, in February, 1934 Hoesch". The Germans were booted out of England in 1938, but Giro was allowed to stay:

sitting along the river behind the graveyard at Trinity Church in Stratford:

and while I didn't get any photos of the real deal, did I mention - David Tennant & Patrick Stewart!!!! Live!!! On Stage!!! *lol* From the Hamlet Program:

And I'm already planning my next trip. :-)

David Tennant interview on leaving Doctor Who

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:47:07 GMT

David Tennant announces he's leaving Doctor Who

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:46:08 GMT