Irene Adler Is Always The Woman

So a few days ago I was fortunate enough to catch both Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game Of Shadows, and BBC's Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia. It occurred to me as I was watching the latter how Irene Adler is never depicted the way she is in the original story in which she is featured.

Lara Pulver as Irene Adler in BBC's modern-day Sherlock

Rachel McAdams' Irene Adler in the steampunk-inspired feature films by Guy Ritchie

Newton Day Is Over

In celebration of the great physicist's birthday, I received several books and sock yarn. Hurray!

Particularly notable amongst my acquisitions today:

The Coast Of Utopia by Tom Stoppard

I've always wanted to read this series of plays, ever since I first caught wind of its epicness over five years ago. I'm a huge fan of Stoppard's work, and an even bigger fan of Russian history and the playwright Turgenev, both of which figure greatly in this massive opus. Definitely excited to begin reading this, and I'll post a review when I've finished each of the three parts.

Pillowman by Martin McDonagh

Love Martin McDonagh and his insanely dark sense of humour. I'd been meaning to get my paws on Pillowman for a while.

Baker Street: Original Broadway Cast Recording

The Sherlock Holmes musical that few people remember, which nonetheless has several delightful tunes and an interesting plot. I may post a review about this one too, considering how few articles one can find on the interwebs.

Great day otherwise, spending time with family and giving ill-advised gifts to my younger siblings. And now two more weeks of similar bliss.

Starting Lord Of The Rings...

Having read The Hobbit [The film of which will feature Benedict Cumberbatch's voice in two roles; Smaug the Dragon and The Necromancer. The good news just keeps on getting better!] at least seven times, I thought I should at last try to graduate to Tolkien's masterwork. I have started reading it five times; each time I got to the part where the Fellowship was formed and then I stopped. God knows why I can read The Hobbit so often but have such a difficulty trying to read The Lord of the Rings.

My edition

So I thought blogging my progress would help things along. Writing about my observations every day helped me to an absurd degree with The Name of the Rose, after all. I will be posting on my Lord of the Rings journey as time permits.

In other news, the first meeting regarding Tartuffe is happening this Tuesday at five. I am very excited to at last receive my rhyming script, and to share my ideas about how to interpret the Officer with the Director, who shall have to suffer a great deal from me on this point, I believe. However, she's a Doctor Who/Sherlock/Moffat-when-he's-not-being-stupid fan, so I likely won't be as insufferable to her as I am to other people.

Speaking of Doctor Who, I've finally got around to watching some of the more vintage episodes, with John Pertwee and Tom Baker and so on. I thought the time period in which it was made, but instead it just adds to the charm. Having been raised on Dangerman and The Avengers, maybe this is just me, but I feel as though the seventies-style sci-fi makes the series even better, and not sickeningly nostalgic either.

The story for the Femme Fatales Anthology is finished and in the process of being edited. I like the work I did with the story, though there are a couple of points I still want to tinker with. Maybe I will write more about it later.

Finally, because I believe I promised to, here is the monster essay on Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. I hope I did him proud.

Stress Has Much Abated

There's been a lot of crap going on in the last few days, but over half of my culminating projects are finished and need never be spoken of again. Now I only must write my Name of the Rose and French essays, make stuffed onions, and honour my commitments to the art gallery. All in all, it's a very agreeable pace.

By The Way, my essay outline for Name Of The Rose: