London Below

Listening to Neverwhere  and looking through BBC’s beautiful London Underground photo shoot prompted me to go back and look through my own pictures from my summer study abroad in London. Reading the novel only a few weeks before I left definitely influenced the way I experienced the city. Gaiman makes such clever use of London landmarks to create London Below, and I enjoyed finding the real life counterparts of London Below locations. 

A bit hard to read, but the route was “Islington Angel.” Cue me taking a photograph. And for the life of me, ever angel statue in the British museum made me think of Islington.

“Oh my God, the floating market is in Harrod’s?" 

It may not have been a floating bazaar in "London Above” but Harrods was fantastic nonetheless. This snapshot of the deli definitely reminded me a bit of Neil Gaimen’s portrayal of the Floating Market. 

“Two thousand years before, London had been a little Celtic village on the north shore of the Thames, which the Romans had encountered, then settled in.”

A bit of an old Roman wall remaining in London reminded me of the Roman legionaries living in London Below.

“If this is the last door I open, let it take me somewhere safe.” (Tower of London)

It occurred to me quite a few times while I was in London just how many magical worlds were either inspired by Britain or contained some sort of portal to the British Isles. Neverland (2nd star to the right and straight on ‘till morning, as well as Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens), Wonderland, Hogwarts, Avalon, and London Below, to name only some, added to the excitement of wandering around the city and I want to go back :)

BBC Neverwhere

It’s out! It’s out! The BBC Radio’s adaptation of Neverwhere! Right now, I’m curled up under the covers with a cup of tea listening to the first episode, which is the absolutely best way to celebrate the end of winter quarter. I have been so excited for this to come out, both because Neverwhere is one of my favorite novels, and because I’ve been so excited over a voice cast that involves James McAvoy (as the main character, no less), Natalie Dormer (though I was surprised by her casting as Door), and Bennedict Cumberbatch, among others.

Neverwhere was exactly the book I needed to find that summer. I was getting entirely disillusioned with world-building, medieval fantasy, craving urban-esque fantasy, and getting over the Harry Potter movies being over (which was less depressing than the books being over, but sort of the final nail in the coffin). Thus, I loved the novel and its portrayal of the fantastical London Underground and biting social commentary on the plight of the homeless in London. (I used quite a bit of it as the guiding backbone for my final society paper while on that program). As it happened, I read Neverwhere only weeks before I left for my seven-week London study abroad adventure. As a result, the image of London-in-literature I carried most strongly in my mind when I left wasn’t the London of Oscar Wilde, or Dickens, it was Neil Gaimen’s fantastical London Below. Listening to this production is making me relive my London trip all over again.

As for the voice actors, I nearly jumped up and down with glee when I read the casting: James McAvoy as Richard Mayhew (yay!), Bennedict Cumberbatch as Islington, and Natalie Dormer as Door. And now, I’m going to go get another cup of tea, and listen to the next installment. By the way, James McAvoy, your Scottish accent is unforgivably attractive. :)

Emerald City Comic Con

I’ve been horrendously busy for the past week and I haven’t had the chance to blog about Comic Con yet, nevertheless, I’d be remiss not to mention how wonderful my day of pop culture geekiness was! I loved, loved, loved the event and wish I bought the three-day pass now! After my first convention in October, I knew that I loved the idea of dressing up in a room of other people in costumes, but I felt a little out-of-place not understanding any of the anime content. This time around, I was right in my element, geeking out over costumes, browsing the dealer’s alley, and enjoying the panels. Overall, I felt much more suited for this convention, and I recognized more of the costumes.

There is always something wonderful about getting out of bed to get dressed in a floor-length, peach Victorian gown, opera gloves, and heels. (I would sorely regret the heels later). I had this grand idea to do a Victorian version of Princess Peach using the dress with a blonde wig, white lace opera gloves, a blue cameo pendant, and a gold tiarra. Unfortunately, due to my own procrastination, I ended up scraping the idea because not even expedited shipping would have gotten the items in time by the time I got around to searching on Amazon. It’s being saved for the next con. In the meantime, however, I had quite a bit of fun floating around the convention center in a big, puffy, period dress. The heels… not so much.

Highlights from ECCC:

-Reuniting with the steampunk clock locket that got stolen out of my cart on Black Friday. Luckily, Black Cat Jewelry, who is now my favorite stop in Artist’s Alley, had the necklace in stock and I got a replacement, a discount, and a much appreciated dose of sympathy. Favorite accessory retrieved :)

-Little girls coming up to me and wanting to take pictures/wanting to say hi/asking if I was a princess/all of the above. So cute! At the resturant after the convention, one mother mentioned that they had recently come back from Disneyland and her daughter was still in her “princess-spotting” phase. Hands-down best compliment received all day :)

-Attending the Natalia Tena panel. I (very) nearly missed this panel, and I’m so happy that I didn’t! Back in the day, I adored Tonks as a character and shipped Remus and Tonks quite hard. Seeing the actress for Nymphadora Tonks in the flesh brought back quite a bit of those shipper feels. Natalia was great: all around funny, personable, and enjoyable to listen to. She actually dyes her hair bright colors. Teddy Lupin was suppposed to be in the final scene! And, she likes Django Unchained!

-The costumes, the costumes, the costumes. Amazing! From the Mario with a friend dangling a block over his head via. fishing line, to a replica of Tim Burton’s Mad Hatter and Queen of Hearts, to some truly phenomonal group cosplays, the costumes were fantastic! And, I recognized more than five of them this time.

Favorite #1: Nintendo “prom” group, description entirely mine. Peach/Mario, Daisy/Luigi, Zelda/Link. (Sadly, forgot to get a picture)

Favorite #2: Once Upon a Time: Rumple, Snow, Red (better Red than my version), and Jefferson. And me, pretending to fit in with my dress. Although, a little girl thinking I was an honest-to-goodness Disney princess should count for something!

Other honoerable mentions: Catwoman who looked like Anne Hatheway, Bilbo Baggins with fuzzy slippers, Mario-with-exclamation block, probably more.

-Dinner. It was quite the after-con experience. My friend tells it better than I do here, but it involved a group of comic con people descending on a resturant and eating the poor management out of nearly everything in their kitchen. (You can probably guess which if the five I am.)