BBC Merlin Season Two Confirmed!

Anthony Head, actor for king Uther Pendragon in BBC’s 2008 drama Merlin, confirmed last night in an interview that there will indeed be a season two to the much-beloved series.

The highlight:

Q: What about Merlin? What’s going to happen this Saturday night?

ASH: Merlin is definitely coming back, it’s getting darker, the last episode is really deep, I think the dragon will surprise people, you know, there are all sorts of little tricks and treats in the last one, and not everything is what you think, and relationships have been developing.

Merlin stars Colin Morgan as the titular character while Bradley James takes on the role of Prince Arthur. The latest episode of the series, To Kill the King, gathered 5.74 million viewers on the night it broadcasted. Despite fears from fans and networks that its subtext would prove too much, this show does enjoy a large following with so-called family audience.

There may not be enough capslocking for my fangirly joy.

Sevenses

Source: Digitalspy.

ETA 09/04/2009: As of now, unofficial sources indicate the airing date to be the 19th of September on BBC.

Kidnapped in Afghanistan

Holy crap guys, I just saw this on TV.

Vancouver journalist Melissa Fung, who reports for the CBC, was kidnapped while working in Afghanistan and held in a tunnel for 28 days until her release. Her kidnapping occurred right around the time of the Canadian federal elections, but the media kept mum so her safety would not be jeopardized. She’s safe and sound now, albeit massively shaken by what’s happened.

Right now the news says that her kidnappers had more of a criminal than political intent. (Though grabbing a Canadian and expecting it to not become a political issue is somewhat… optimistic of them.) Still, by accounts of what happened the day she was kidnapped, these people were prepared.

So, all you people who think being Canadian makes you safer? Not true.

Sources: here and here.

Painter, Beethoven Virus Rescheduled

Urm, folks, I have some bad news for ya.

Next week, due to a soccer match, Beethoven Virus will air only one episode, on Thursday. This does have the effect of evening out the extension, and BV will air a total of 19 episodes, to end sometime in mid-November. (More recapping for me, watch the pom poms flail.)

In addition, to add to a previous injury, Park Shin Yang, Moon Geun Young’s age-inappropriate costar in Painter of the Wind, has broken the poor girl’s nose. (OW.) The actress has been ordered to take at least 10 days of rest, which means that the filming schedule will be delayed, which means no Painter episodes at all next week.

Not from personal experience, but I do know that any sort of nose injury is extremely painful, and I hope she gets better soon. (Not her luck this month – first that fall down the well and now this – but then Lee Jia also got sick filming those underwater sequences.)

D: And I was so looking forward overindulging – but on the other hand this means that I actually will be able to study (willpower << drama).

Thanks, universe.

Sevenses

And You Thought the Astronomers Were Joking…

Well, dudes, a flaming fireball of fiery doom (sorry to break the alliteration there) entered the Earth’s atmosphere over Sudan or thereabouts last night.

It wasn’t large enough to destroy the Earth (well, you know that, because you’re all here now, reading this), nor indeed to make a small dent (or you’d have heard over the news – Continent of Africa destroyed by incoming meteor, etc) – it was only big enough to give us some burnt out stardust and one heck of a spectacular sight.

Now that’s my kind of news. If only we could observe asteroid showers and eclipses at more convenient times (read: not midnight, and not during school year), that’d be great. Must needs to see the aurora borealis once before I die, too.

Source: National Geographic.

As a side note, so many anime this year!! Skip Beat, Nodame in Paris, Antique Bakery, etc are among the top of my list. Dammit, so screwed for school.

Breaking News: Choi Jin Shil

Umm. This was just posted at Dramabeans: actress Choi Jin Shil was found in her apartment, dead in an apparent suicide. Source link here.

I don’t know what to say. Besides the fact that so many beloved celebs seem to have died before their time this year, I was really surprised and saddened. By all accounts Choi was a strong woman who stood up to her abusive husband, got a divorce and added her two children (7 and 5 years old respectively) to her family register. It seems almost strange that a woman of such fortitude would succumb to suicide, though we should not and cannot judge her for something of which we will never know the full truth.

My heart goes out to her children, who are still so young, and recently gone through their parents’ divorce. I hope they remember the good times and understand the bad.

The world is less without her presence (and that of Lee Eon, and omg, still crying over that).

Hugs for all of ya,

Sevenses

ETA: Javabeans has posted an update over at her site.

Random House is random indeed

Six days away from publication, Random House, which has given the public gems like Breaking Dawn and Rogue, has decided to withdraw The Jewel of Medina from being released. Why? They sent the book, which is about the Prophet Muhammad’s (p.b.u.h.) favourite wife, Aisha, to Professor Denise Spellburg (the authority to Islamic studies pertaining to his wives, apparently), who shot it down using, among others, the words ‘stupid’ and ‘ugly’.

Okay. She’s entitled to her opinion, that’s fine. But then she goes and calls a colleague, and they both proceed to do a nut and gather a number of Muslim students who then threaten to take drastic measures if the book is published.

Say what?

The author, Sherry Jones, has signed a contract termination agreement – which means other publishers can get dibs on the book, and I think she also gets to walk away with a not insignificant advance.

Way to go, Prof. Spellburg.

If her initial goal was to not get this book published, then, I have to say, it backfired on many, many levels. Jones gets all this free publicity, which is like catnip to publishers, which means they’ll be willing to pay more, and people who would have dismissed this book as another bundle of purple prose will now buy it just to say they’ve read it. On another level, this self-censorship amongst so-called free-thinking academics is kind of scary. What do you say?

Sevenses

Source: here and here.

In the news…

Interesting day today…

- Internationally, SBS gets lots of negative attention for leaking secret Olympic footage. Wow. That’s just really intelligent of them. Then again, I bet they thought they would get a pat on the back. Phear teh powerz of the Chinese netizens.

- Nationally, a random psychotic carved up a 19 year-old on a Greyhound. Of course, if he gets a good lawyer he’ll go off on insanity charges and be free to carve people up like turkey in five years, but that’s not really a reason to change our legal system, is it? Especially not when it wastes up to $500 million per year, and that’s just legal fees/bureaucratic idiocies, not money spent keeping murderers alive.

- Personally, my mom got robbed. I have a lot to say about this, but most of it isn’t fit for polite company, so I shall leave it to your imaginations.

Nice day all around, wouldn’t you say?

Sevenses

Incensed fandom fracas in Iljimae

How… interesting. I was bored (and my internet provider informed me that if I dl-ed any more stuff I would get a surcharge fee the likes of which would sink me, I decided to lay off on the vid watching for a while – am one episode away from finishing MLS!) and decided to check out the d-addict forum for Iljimae. I admit, I should have answered all my comments like a good girl, but I’m sure you guys would forgive me the lapse.

Anyway. The Chinese fans are off having their Bong Soon vs Eun Chae war. (Last I saw, people had descended to using ad hominems already. Ha.) Not a few enduring friendships between 亲亲 were broken up, more’s the pity. But the mudslinging has calmed, and both sides have acknowledged the relative merits of each girl. (There’s been a few battles about the possible ending of the show too, but that’s kind of common. Remember Harry Potter?)

Meanwhile, the English fandom was off having its hissy fit because English subs for episodes 5 and 6 of Iljimae were not released. They got rude, offensive, and downright demanding.

Now, I generally don’t wade into this type of crap, and I’m not terribly opinionated, but really? The subbers owe you? Why on earth would they owe you subs? They’re doing it for free, out of their own spare time, and definitely not on a contract. Sure, realtime broadcast is on episode 12 and the subs are only released to 4, but you know what? Subbing is hard work. The fact that these people are willing to take the time to do this means you shut up and wait for them to release it at their convenience. If you’re so torn up about the subs, wait for all of it to be released, and then watch it.

Honestly. It’s not the first time it’s happened, and it’s not the last. Get over yourself.

This takes ‘drama’ to a whole different level.

That’s it for the fandom lurker report. For now.

Sevenses

P.S. Due to all that ridiculousness, subs have been released elsewhere. Go over to Soompi Forums or KST’s own site for Iljimae English subs.

Earthquake backlash

Remember I said at the end of my Sichuan Earthquake page that some people are taking the opportunity to say that the Chinese deserved to get hit?

Examples here and here.

I do acknowledge that there were structural faults with the schools that fell down. I do think that rampant corruption is that giant elephant in the room that no one talks about in China. I think a lot of things, and most of them got shouted out when I was with friends, discussing the tragedy.

Does that really justify other people saying, oh, you were mean to the Tibetans, you deserved it?

Really?

So you think that karma/God/whatever you choose killed 60000, most of them children and many Tibetan themselves, to illustrate a point?

Fine. But I don’t drink stupid potion for breakfast, sorry.

Sevenses

Sichuan Earthquake

I’m sure you’ve all heard/read/seen the devastation caused by an earthquake in Sichuan. Current death toll counts in the tens of thousands, and will rise. The area, due to rubble, aftershocks and intense damage, is cut off from the bulk of aid that is available. Many places are only reached by helicopter.

Meanwhile, the bodies are piling up, food and water supplies are short, and people have no homes. It is summer, and the heat will make pestilence that much easier to spread. Added to the almost wholesale destruction of infrastructure in some areas, I’m sure you can imagine what kind of lives people are scratching out right now.

Iurgnotmis has set a page of links to various charities that are taking donations for the aid relief effort. Keep in mind that most organizations do take a percentage of fees for housekeeping and administration costs.

Thank you so much,

Sevenses

(It sickens me to say that some people have suggested this is karmic retribution which deserves another post entirely – will get back to you on that.)