IntenseDebate - janeshakes

6 years ago @ The Toast - Link Roundup! · 3 replies · +100 points

I feel like the UK (or maybe just my specific group of London-based friends, whatever) has gone off him BIG TIME. I'm attributing this to the try-hardness which the US fanbase loves (he brought his guitar! impressions! dancing!) and the UK is over the Atlantic watching with a mixture of jealousy and wistfulness going "well this is some extrovert malarkey and no mistake".

6 years ago @ The Toast - An Alternative Ending ... · 0 replies · +12 points

"in case you are also feeling stung by the whole idea that a long-running show with two established main characters even tried to pitch a future in which, whoops, oh well, the action star/emotional linchpin of the series is dead"

Sleepy Hollow what now

6 years ago @ The Toast - Texts From Samuel Cole... · 0 replies · +31 points

My mum's good night routine when I was a kid involved standing in the doorway and dramatically declaring "Parting is such sweet sorrow!" which is totes Romeo and Juliet.

This is definitely the way to introduce your kids to cultcha.

6 years ago @ The Toast - If John Boyega Were Yo... · 2 replies · +16 points

“It’s overrated,” you’d tell him. “Londoners are mean! And it’s so dirty! How can I blow my nose and have it be grey just because of the Tube?” He’d make a face, like you’d committed a cardinal sin by saying so

As a fellow South Londoner, this face is truth.

6 years ago @ The Toast - "Yet I'll Speak": Othe... · 2 replies · +46 points

I love this. I played Emilia in a school production and when the teacher rang me to let me know which part I'd got she actually said "I'm afraid it's Emilia", like actually *apologising* that I wasn't Desdemona. Needless to say, no apologies were needed.

The thing I found fascinating - as well as her refusal to be silent - is how much she's clearly in love with Iago, who just does not love her back. She's so desperate to get some kind of response from him that she steals the handkerchief even though she suspects nefarious deeds might be afoot. She recognises Desdemona's situation so clearly because she has her own shitty marriage to contend with - she realises what's up and by Act 5 she's fully a paid up member of Team Desdemona, even though she knows it might cost her her life. Her line "Perchance Iago, I will never go home" sends chills every time - whether it's a threat to leave or a premonition of her own death (a recognition that women are most vulnerable when they try to leave) it cuts through the male bullshit of that scene like vagina dentata through an unwanted dick. She is, I think, one of the most flawed, redeemed, brilliantly realised characters in Shakespeare.

That's just my reading, of course - but yeah. All hail Emilia.

7 years ago @ The Toast - Things I Believe To Be... · 0 replies · +43 points

My boyfriend is a David and I am constantly on the look out for us to make a friend called Jonathan. I have SO MANY jokes locked and loaded here.

7 years ago @ The Toast - Cocktail Hour: Open Th... · 2 replies · +11 points

I live in London and can vouch that walking along the South Bank is a gorgeous pleasure, and also maybe try to end up on one of the bridges over the Thames at night. if you're remotely into theatre, Matilda is the most delightful musical in town, and the National Theatre is a good starting point for non-musical theatre (there's a half price ticket hut in Leicester Square too, which will probably cover most West End shows). As mentioned above, most galleries and museum are free, and London also has a huge amount of green space - Kensington Gardens is particularly lovely.

I would also be warned that London can be very big if you're trying to get somewhere in Zone 3 or further out. I will aggressively defend the tube to my dying breath, but the thing about no-one making eye contact with each other and having to resign from public life in disgrace if you accidentally make physical contact with the person next to you is also true. Ooh, also, on the escalators on the tube, walk on the left, stand on the right, and you will make everyone very happy.

I'm really sorry, that wasn't meant to turn into a lecture on Tube Etiquette.

7 years ago @ The Toast - An (Abridged) History ... · 0 replies · +2 points

Oh no, I will! Even in the context of my eternal quest for the perfect red lipstick. EVEN in the context of being halfway talked into cosplaying Peggy by a friend who does cons.

7 years ago @ The Toast - An (Abridged) History ... · 2 replies · +3 points

I saw "the Peggy Carter lipstick" and immediately ran to Amazon (I live in the UK and Amazon is the best bet for US make up brands not costing a fortune). No such luck. Sold out from the Besame seller and SEVENTY QUID elsewhere. SEVENTY. IT BETTER BE A MAGICAL LIPSTICK THAT LANDS ME EVERY JOB I INTERVIEW FOR AND MAKES ANIMALS AND CHILDREN FALL AT MY FEET IN WORSHIP.

Maybe I'll just keep checking back until it's back in stock with the Besame guys.

7 years ago @ The Toast - New Year's Entire Week... · 0 replies · +26 points

Toasties, I have kicked off the new year by watching most of A League of Their Own, drunk on gin at 3am with my boyfriend (who had not seen it before). We have just finished off the last half hour and now are both sobbing discreetly into our sleeves.

"Well that was DEVASTATING," he announced.

2016, it has begun.

IntenseDebate Comment System

Connect with janeshakes

People I'm following

janeshakes