Secret Garden

I'm still upset at being robbed of the chance to watch an all new Supernatural last Friday. So to make myself feel better, I decided to do something fun. Sometimes last week, my google alert notified me this reader's poll result of the "Hottest Prime time TV Hunks List" (of which Jensen scored 6th place, and Jared is in 8th). Ha! This got me thinking that everyone is doing this type of list one way or another, why don't I put up one of my own? Especially when I hardly agree with those lists anyway. I guess this really counts as a meme because it reflects purely my taste over the decade, not swayed by ratings, box office sales, or other people's opinions. Just so it's clear, these are nothing but my own wacky obsessions. Oh, and it extended to both big and small screens.

( Hottest Hunks who rock my boat... )

Yes, Supernatural won! People's Choice Award that is!  Congratulations to Eric Kripke, his writing team, and the entire cast & crew for a well deserved win.

This victory is especially sweet to me 'coz it feels like my choice mattered (though in reality it made no difference).  Back in Nov 09, xo_disaster_ox posted @ dean_sam urging fans to vote for our show.  I remember I had trouble voting because it had to be done via text message for this particular category (why they made it so hard I have no clue).  I almost gave up if not for strgazr04 explaining to me what to do.  So thanks to both that I was able to cast my vote!



Perhaps awards don't mean much except for a pat on the back in the grand scheme of things, but one thing for sure is "Supernatural" has garnered some serious attention lately.  First, at the end of last year, it was on several influential news media's Top Shows of 2009 lists, of which Chicago Tribune's came as no surprise since Maureen Ryan (Gods, I love her featureblog) is an outspoken fan; and I squeed like a mad fangirl when New York Time's Mike Hale named it among his 10 Memorable TV Shows of 2009.

But it didn't stop there.  "Supernatural" also won "Best TV Show" on the Total Sci-Fi Awards 2009; and its Season 5 episode "The End" was #28 on The Futon Critic's The 50 Best Episodes of 2009 list.  The latter particularly caught my attention since "The End" is one of my all time favorite SPN episodes.  It's true Jensen Ackles practically carried the hour there, but all of his co-stars, from Jared Padalecki to Misha Collins, Kurt Fuller, and Robert Benedict all put in impressive works.  Add in the ingenuous special effects (hello, double Dean), soundtrack, and set design, the episode gave me an hour of unforgettable entertainment.

Speaking of The Futon Critic, on the same list I mentioned above, "Battlestar Galactica" season 4.5 episode "The Oath" was listed as #22.  The editorial's last comment: The final episodes of "Galactica" definitely had their issues, but darn if "The Oath" wasn't among the show's best summed up my feelings splendidly.  BSG 4.5 may have disappointed me on many fronts, but that particular story arc had me riveted all the way through.

Call me strange, I can't talk about "Battlestar Galactica" without thinking of its alum Jamie Bamber.  Coincidentally, there was a little blurb on The Guardian yesterday talking about what the "Law & Order: UK" star did on his day off (thank you asta77 for the heads up).  Here's a little excerpt:

Jamie Griffith was completely humiliated in front of his children, as others shot past on an assortment of brilliantly coloured sledges and toboggans – together with 17- and 18-year-old brother and sister Tariq and Annie Miller on a sledge hijacked from a toddler – and he slithered miserably down in low gear on his oven tray. He tried a black bin liner, with no more impressive results.

As he hopefully put the oven tray into a bin liner and tried again, another child shot past on the Bugatti of the Richmond hill toboggans, a vintage model borrowed from a Swedish family, with curved steel and wooden runners, wooden seat and sheepskin seat cover. "Wrong sort of snow," Griffith muttered.

He turned out to be a fugitive from Law & Order. The television series, in which he stars as Detective Sergeant Matt Devlin under his stage name Jamie Bamber, had wimpishly abandoned filming for the day.

The cuteness of this is making me want to weep.  Dammit, I want pictures.  And with that, I'm done (for now)!

ETA:  I lied.  I'm back again already.  I forgot to mention I just recently found out one of my favorite news correspondent Anderson Cooper is a newly converted fan of "Battlestar Galactica".  Apparently the people he works with couldn't stop teasing him about it.  What's up with that?!  He certainly deserves to be teased for watching "Real Housewives" IMO, but come on, BSG?  Really?  On the other hand, his co-anchor Erica Hill was nice enough to score a Season 4 promo poster from one of the producers for him.  The picture is the infamous "Last Super" promo shoot (point at my LJ header).  Heehee, that's really nice of her!  By the way, I found a link to a video where Andy is talking about addicted to BSG and...Crack Pie, two things he insisted go together. *smirk*  Relax, the "crack pie" turns out to be a cookie from a NYC bakery, apparently.  The funniest part is when he said he sent the cookie to his mother, and now his mother is addicted to crack...(pause)...pie.  LOL

ETA2:  Thanks to Mick, here's the link to the recipe of the Crack Pie...  And Anderson is stand corrected that the bakery is not "Milk" as he called it several times in the clip.  It's correct name is "Milk Bar".

ETA3:  Thanks to ckll who informed me there are not one but three episodes from Supernatural on The Futon Critics' Top 50 Best Episodes 2009 list: #33 "The Real Ghostbusters", #28 "The End", and #18 "Changing Channels".  Although no episode made into the top 10, I do believe our show wins by making the most appearances here!

Went to my local Borders bookstore to get the latest Supernatural Magazine.  As I walked pass the bookshelves, my eyes caught the cover of a paperback book:


Whoa! Am I seeing things?!  Please tell me THAT is not a likeness of Jamie Bamber there?! :-O

BTW I bought the book (on the sole count of the cover art).  Am pretty sure it's a new low for me...  :p

Dear lord!  I'm so envious!

Just found out hours ago that hubby has a student who got invited to a private viewing party of BSG season 4 premier on April 5!

The party was held at a private residence in Malibu.  Bradley Thompson, David Weddle, and a bunch of other writers were present.  So was the composer (the student didn't know his name, but from his description, it has to be Bear McCreary), and other post production people.  There was only ONE actor showed up.  It was Jamie Bamber!!!

The student, a US Marine officer, was invited to the party by Bradley Thompson.  He got to know the writer because last year, Bradley came to the school to give a talk about Battlestar Galactica.  Incidentally, I went to the talk as well, and wrote a report about the experience (see the thread discussion at The Adama Realm).  After the talk, Bradley handed out several of his business cards to people (he really was very nice).  I got one too! :b  But I never thought to contact him because I didn't want to bug the "poor" guy.

But the student had somehow got in touch with Bradley privately and invited him to his wedding last year.  And Bradley showed up!  Thus was the beginning of a friendship...

The student told me he had gotten a tour of the production office in LA, as well as Bradley Thompson and David Weddle's office.  He said the two writers have desks against each other, and they face each other everyday!  Bradley said he had worked with David for so long, longer than his past marriage(s) in fact!  Bradley jokingly dubbed it as the longest relationship he's ever had.  But one time, Bradley and David had gotten on each other's nerves, and had to go to professional counseling to resolve their differences! LOL

I had to ask the student what he thought of Jamie (by the way, Kerry was there too).  He said Jamie was very nice.  They talked about Jamie's experience with the Blue Angels.  Jamie was very proud of the fact he didn't throw up when the Blue Angel did the "stunts."  The student took the opportunity and paid compliment to Jamie, sincerely, that he thought Jamie's portrayal of a military officer was the best on the show!  I'm sure coming from a real Marine officer, that meant a lot to Jamie! :)

I couldn't help myself and asked him if he had found out any spoilers.  But then I followed with "Don't tell me!  Don't tell me!  I don't want to know!"  He laughed and said he didn't want to know either and didn't bother to dig.  Phew.


ETA: The party was held at the community center/club house of a residential area, not a private residence.
 

I've been back home for almost two weeks now, but the memories of the weekend I spent in Atlanta refuses to leave my mind!  I had an absolute wonderful time at Dragon*Con (Friday, August 31 - Monday, Sept 3.)

I was high from the moment I met  stilettos81 in the airport on Thursday (we shared a hotel room in Atlanta), and still haven't quite managed to come down (to Earth) yet, which is a good thing since I need to somehow capture the memories with words...

By now, there are tons of reports all over the net detailing what happened during the Con.  So I'll start off with the bits and pieces I personally experienced instead.  I'm leaving the panel discussions for later after I get a chance to listen to my audio recordings (or never if the quality is too poor to discern what's been said), which I haven't managed to do due to the avalanche of things needed to be taken care of since I got back.


Argh!  LJ choked--it seems my entry is getting too big for one post.  So I have to break it into two parts!

(Click here for part II)

 

I'm not usually chipper on a Monday morning.  But my day is starting off on an awesome note with the Jamie Bamber Wallpaper stilettos81   made.   

The main focus of the WP is my favorite picture of Jamie from photographer Kharen Hill.  I think the wallpaper makes him all the more prettier, and I'm a little "envious" at stilettos81  's talents!

On a different note, I got a kick out of this look of my son--he was trying to convince me to take him to see Shrek 3 that's coming out on May 18, so he gave me his best imitation of Puss in Boots:

Today is Tuesday again.  I woke up feeling rather sad because of the aftermath of yesterday's tragic shooting rampage at Virginia Tech where a gunman killed 33 people including himself.

Then I was greeted by the announcement made by falconer17  at bamber_news  of the very drool-worthy pictures of Jamie & Tricia from the Calabasas Statement magazine that she posted at falcy's scroll.

But, as I said earlier--today is Tuesday. So it means time to switch on my Guardian hat and post another episode. This one is called Reunion, and it is the continuation of the Hunter story arc we've seen since the pilot. Also in this episode, there is the story line involving James and his nephew.


It's been awhile since I've seen this. I forgot how "naughty" Nick can be!

I'm really grateful to asta77 posting the link to the podcast of Jamie's interview from I-Con at bamber_news.  I've listened to it--it's roughly about 20 minutes long.  As usual, it's a pleasure to listen to Jamie talk.  Aside from his wonderful British accent, Jamie not only is a very articulate and well spoken person, he also offers great insight into his character Lee "Apollo" Adama on BSG.

The interview is also interlaced with some interesting glimpses of the actor himself, his other (future) projects, and his relationships with other fellow actors.

Apparently there are transcripts of the podcast out there, and asta77 has provided links to them on her post.  But as mentioned, the transcripts are only partial at most.  So for my amusement, I've transcribed my own version of the podcast here.  I tried to stick as close as possible to what's been said, but I did eliminate some of the Ohs and Ahs.