| Torchwood: Children of Earth--episodes 1-5 |
[Saturday, July 11th, 2009 @ 3:39pm] |
Yesterday, I managed to get hold of episode 5 of Children of Earth a bit earlier than usual, so I was able to watch it yesterday evening, rather than this morning. Without any spoilers for any of the episodes and being as vague as I can possibly be, I will say that that was one of the most heart wrenching, dark, and vicious endings that RTD could have come up with.
( Cutting here, for a couple musings that might be considered spoilers—and spoilers will certainly be in the comments. )
I needed a dose of something lighter after that--I watched Fright Night on On Demand, and Dad and I mocked it. I followed that with watching Ghostbusters II on AMC.
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| Fannish Items of Interest |
[Thursday, July 9th, 2009 @ 2:05pm] |
Currently hopelessly hooked on and loving season 3 of Torchwood more than I expected--this isn’t being cut, because I will not spoil anyone. However, spoilers might be in the comments, for up to episode 3. Each evening, I download the latest episode—watch it the next morning, and then spend quite a while reading the reactions of my friends list.
To keep from being spoiled before I do watch, I stick every link into a Word document. By the time I’m done with all those posts, it’s time to avoid the spoilers for the next episode, and track down another download. Heh.
In other Who related news, the latest preview for Waters of Mars has just been released, and you can watch it here.
Harold Ramis discusses Ghostbusters 3.
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| That's Certainly Odd |
[Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 @ 5:27pm] |
Here’s something strange. Based on what I'm watching on the news, it looks like HazMat teams are at the building where I normally go to the dentist. No word on what’s going on yet from what the news has said, but the place is roped off, and everyone was evacuated. They brought in a bus, for people to sit while they wait, because it’s too hot for them to stand around outside.
ETA: Okay, a suspicious substance was found in a letter. This was part of some sort of chain letter thing that was apparently sent to a few offices on the other side of the state the other day. Turns out it was probably just tea, according to a spokesperson for the HazMat team. Maybe the leaves? They didn't specify.
And on a lighter note, just got my iron level results from when I went to the doctor the other day. My iron level is 15.0, which is great.
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| Items of Interest |
[Monday, July 6th, 2009 @ 2:40pm] |
The theory that Doc Brown is really the First Doctor will never die—which is good, since it’s fun.
For those that are interested, I managed to find Frankenstein: The College Years on Youtube. Part 1 is here. On the right hand side, look in the related videos section for parts 2-9.
And now, a meme—taken from most of my friends list.
Inspired by Doctor Who's "Turn Left:" Pick one of my stories and tell me a point in the tale that you'd change. Something tiny (e.g. "and then Fay chose silver glitter instead of gold") or big (e.g. "and then Rose was arrested instead of Jack") and I'll tell you how that one difference would have altered the course of the entire story.
My fanfic can be found through this tag.
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| Items of Interest |
[Saturday, July 4th, 2009 @ 10:20am] |
Behold the Bollywood version of He-Man: Master of the Universe.
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is getting a remake—it will star Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce.
The Sci-Fi Channel will reboot Alien Nation. I don’t think I ever saw the original series.
Oh, and through Youtube I stumbled across a special that aired for years on Nickelodeon. Marc Summers’ Mystery Magical Special. Parts 1-3 can be found here. A review at X-Entertainment can be found here. I loved that special when I was little, so it’s great to finally find it again. Look for John Astin in a cameo role as himself at the very beginning. It also stars Jonathan Brandis and Shiri Appleby.
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| RIP, Karl Malden |
[Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 @ 3:09pm] |
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Karl Malden has passed away today, at the age of 97. I checked IMDB, to see if I had ever seen him in anything—he played the Walrus in the 1985 tv movie version of Alice in Wonderland. He was also the host of a few episodes of Unsolved Mysteries. May he rest in peace.
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| Writer's Block: Busting Blocks |
[Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 @ 12:19pm] |
The last movie I saw at the theater was The Dark Knight. I don't think there have been any this year that I've wanted to see.
An American Werewolf In London is getting a remake.
For those interested in watching Jeff Goldblum doing his own eulogy while on Stephen Colbert’s show—after he was falsely reported as having fallen off a cliff somewhere in New Zealand, along with Zac Efron and Harrison Ford--you can do so here. I don’t usually like him, but he’s actually funny here.
Does anyone out there happen to have the original intro from Mr. Boogedy? From when it aired on The Wonderful World on Disney, on ABC, back in 1986. I’m looking for it, because I finally located a perfect copy (in my old VHS collection) of Mr. Boogedy, from an airing back in 1994 (also found Bride of Boogedy from the same time frame) on The Disney Channel—but I’m still looking for the Eisner bit.
Where Eisner puts on the magic cloak at the end after the movie’s over, he starts to float away in a green light, and you hear Mr. Boogedy scream off-screen “BOOGEDY!” Eisner then begs for someone—anyone to get him down. You just see his feet at the end, and he says he hopes he’s back down by next week.
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| Writer's Block: Childhood Firsts |
[Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 @ 10:09am] |
My first word was mailman. Mom says I was sitting in front of the door, and saw the truck drive by. Since Mom hadn't spotted it yet, I said that word and pointed so she would know.
I was 9 months old. Of course, Mom had been told by a doctor that I would never be able to talk, because I have a soft palate. Shows what they know, sometimes. When I was 3 or 4 years old, they did a talking X-Ray of it, to show me why I shouldn't be able to talk.
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| RIP, Billy Mays |
[Sunday, June 28th, 2009 @ 3:07pm] |
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This is a bad week to be a celebrity. Billy Mays—best known as a very loud pitchman (even with the volume turned down, you can hear him clearly) for products like Oxy-Clean—has passed away today. He was 50 years old. May he rest in peace. His wife found him to be unresponsive this morning, and soon after he was pronounced dead. Apparently, he had been on a flight recently, and some luggage hit him in the head. If the two are connected, then it was a delayed reaction—like with Natasha Richardson.
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| Fannish Items of Interest--Plus, Taking Care of a Dog |
[Saturday, June 27th, 2009 @ 5:24pm] |
Science Fiction Books That Launched Their Own Genres.
15 Funny Vampire Films
6 End-of-the-World Cult Classics
In other news, while his owner’s away, (in Florida--it's much cooler there) we have custody of her dog—Toby. Since it’s so hot, we periodically check on him. Dad went out and bought him a ton of treats, more water, and letting him off his chain, because it’s too hot for him to lay in the sun. Off the chain, he can get to the shade easier. We went over there to give him some more treats--and were there when someone else came in with another bag of dog food. The entire neighborhood’s taking care of him, apparently--just in case the person that’s supposed to do it doesn’t. Nobody knew the others were doing it, but it explains why Toby’s been so insanely happy, despite the temperature of 115 degrees. They said they gave him a steak yesterday evening.
Toby keeps escaping, and sitting on our porch--he’s begging for more dog biscuits and love. Around 2 PM, Dad went over to check on him again, and saw that Toby was gone. We were thinking he had run away, until Dad looked in the field beyond his yard. Toby was just sitting back there--Dad whistled for him, and he leapt over the fence easily, looked at him happily, and waited for attention.
This is a dog that knows how to open a latch on a fence with his nose. You can't stop him if he wants to go somewhere. And, usually, he just goes to our porch.
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| Ninja Squirrel |
[Friday, June 26th, 2009 @ 4:50pm] |
Here’s an interview with David Tennant—he discusses Doctor Who, Hamlet, and Comic-Con. Poor thing can’t find San Diego.
How to meet and woo a nerdy girl. David Tennant gets a mention in there. And the ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) whedonesque post about it is over here.
There’s a behind the scenes Torchwood: Children of Earth preview here, for those that haven’t seen it. And another trailer is over here—looks wonderfully creepy.
And in amusing news, we have some sort of creature out front that is eating the bottom half of all the tomatoes we grow as they ripen. We got Nellie to sit in her yard and watch ours, to see what would happen. She looked away for a half second and it got them all! I checked the teeth marks, and it looks like a rabbit. Or a squirrel. This morning, Dad watered the tomatoes that were left, and walked inside for a moment. He went back out less than a minute later, and the ones he had watered had been devoured.
At that point, he wailed to the sky, “The squirrel’s a ninja, I tell you! A NINJAAAAA!” Everyone in the neighborhood ignored him. *laughs*
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| Writer's Block: RIP Michael Jackson |
[Friday, June 26th, 2009 @ 1:58pm] |
Definitely Thriller. (Full video of it here) I probably saw it when I was four on the one and only occasion that I watched MTV while flipping through channels, and loved it. Mostly paid attention because of the fact that Vincent Price was doing the voiceover, but I liked the zombies. And for strangeness--I saw Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer around this time. That caused nightmares, but watching the Thriller music video didn't.
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| RIP, Michael Jackson |
[Thursday, June 25th, 2009 @ 8:04pm] |
Well, this is certainly unexpected. Apparently, Michael Jackson has died of a heart attack at the age of 50…that’s the third death this week, then. First, Ed McMahon, then Farrah Fawcett, and now him. NBC was reporting he was dead. Fox News was saying he wasn’t for a while there…and Geraldo was briefly screaming he was really a vampire since he was never seen in direct sunlight, but what can you say to that?
May he rest in peace. I really can’t say that I liked the man himself, what with all the allegations, but I do know that I loved Thriller when I was little. If only for Vincent Price’s narration...and the zombies and werewolf, of course.
I would have posted this a few hours ago, but Livejournal was down. This is probably one of those deaths where most people went “Wait, what? Seriously? Are you sure? Wow.” And I was expecting his more obsessed fans to go berserk, as they almost did at his trial. Last I heard, Fox News said that a lot of his fans were converging on his estate.
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| RIP, Farrah Fawcett |
[Thursday, June 25th, 2009 @ 12:16pm] |
I just found out that Farah Fawcett passed away earlier today--possibly just a couple hours ago, if the note at the bottom of the screen on CBS is right--after a very long battle with cancer. She was 62 years old. May she rest in peace.
Having just now checked IMDB, I see that I had never seen her in anything except for a few episodes of Spin City. Charlie’s Angels wasn’t a show that would have interested me, so I never watched the reruns on TV Land.
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| Fannish Items of Interest |
[Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 @ 2:53pm] |
A few days ago, I linked to a hysterical Highlander/Castle crossover. Now, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) strangevisitor7 has written a sequel that’s just as great. It’s The Great Pumpkin, Duncan Macleod.
6 Animated Films That Had Massive Upheaval Pre-Production. I already knew about The Black Cauldron.
Top 10 Vampire Deaths
Bryan Fuller has left Heroes again.
As of yesterday, it’s been 20 years since the Tim Burton version of Batman was released.
elisi posted a couple pages from a comic that shows what would happen if Lisa Simpson were a vampire slayer. Basically, going to the library for research means you start looking for more, while everyone and everything around you dies. I would probably do that, too.
No matter what happens with the third Ghostbusters movie, it looks like there’s not much of a chance for Sigourney Weaver to be involved in it.
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| RIP, Ed McMahon |
[Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 @ 10:21am] |
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Ed McMahon--perhaps most famous for being the sidekick on The Tonight Show, with Johnny Carson--has passed away today, at the age of 86. He had had a lot of problems in the last few years, between nearly losing his home, toxic mold making him ill, pneumonia, a broken neck, and bone cancer. May he rest in peace.
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| That Was An Eventful Night |
[Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 @ 6:15am] |
Around 10:55 PM, a thunderstorm suddenly rolled through, strong and fast. At 10:59 PM, Mom stuck her head in my room and said she would check and see if it was supposed to be bad, according to the news. At 11 PM on the dot, there was a horrible sound of an explosion, and a bang, and something else--like a crunch. So I quickly shouted that I would join her in checking, and fled into the living room.
The storm was done by 11:30 PM, and this morning, we learned what happened. Lightning struck Nellie's tree--one of the tallest ones she has, that just barely made it through the ice storm. You can see a black streak down the middle now, and I believe a branch was literally incinerated.
We let the cat in from the garage a few seconds later, and she ran through the house meowing for everyone to get up. Since Toby (neighbor's dog) is scarred for life due to just the sight of a cloud in the sky after years of bad weather, I have to wonder how he's doing.
Also, since it was barely a few feet from her house, her tv was wiped out. At least one electrical thing blew up. Over here, the circuit breaker tripped and a couple rooms were in the dark until Dad got that fixed.
Meanwhile, the local news says it's a sunny and freakishly hot day as usual. No mention whatsoever about the tons of rain, high winds, or lightning, and they're maybe a mile away.
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| Doctor Who Marathon Today |
[Monday, June 22nd, 2009 @ 6:21am] |
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On The Sci-Fi Channel--starting at 7 AM CST--they're going to be having a Doctor Who marathon. Sort of. First, it appears to be an uncut episode of The Runaway Bride, since it's in an hour and a half block. It's then followed by episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
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| Wanted: Cooler Weather |
[Friday, June 19th, 2009 @ 12:54pm] |
For those that haven’t seen the latest Torchwood: Children of Earth trailer, you can watch it here.
I have to recommend a fanfic I just stumbled across. It’s a Castle/Highlander crossover, starring Methos and Castle. Hysterical, as Castle wants Methos to let him kill him in various ways, so he can write another novel. The title is Orange You Glad We’re Friends, by strangevisitor7. You can read it here.
A couple of fake movie trailers found via Io9: John Carpenter’s Alf, Cabbage Patch Dolls of Death, from Cronenberg, and a lot of other 80’s cartoons made into monsters. I’ve seen the evil Cabbage Patch Dolls idea before—on Robot Chicken, I believe.
I was reading through Retrojunk yesterday, and came across a mention of a show that aired one Halloween a long time ago, called The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t. It’s also been called The Night Dracula Saved The World. Stars Judd Hirsch (from Taxi) as a disco dancing Dracula. A quick search on Youtube later, I’ve found whole thing. You can watch it under the original title (parts 1-3 are on that page) here, or the altered title (nothing else was changed) here.
In other news, yesterday was the hottest day of the year, as the temperature hit 105 degrees Fahrenheit. And the make-up melted off the anchorwoman’s face as everyone watched. Today? Today, we’re beating that record, as it’s due to hit 115 degrees any minute now. I have plenty of iced tea with me, and two fans in here.
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| Fannish Items of Interest |
[Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 @ 5:42pm] |
8 Superhero Movies That Broke The Mold. From the list, the only ones that I’ve seen is Darkman.
From Den of Geek: Top 10 Worst Musical Movie Moments Ever.
And here’s an interesting discussion on Ghostbusters, found over at Overthinking It. The article is basically about the interpretation of Egon saying, “Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.” And what it might actually mean when they destroyed Gozer. Read the comments, too, since they’re interesting—especially the one person that went to the trouble of calculating how long it would take the proton packs to destroy everything, vs. how long it would take for Gozer to do it. There’s a brief mention of Buffy vs. The Judge in there, too.
The Bride of Frankenstein might be getting a remake.
David Tennant, RTD, and the casts of Torchwood and Being Human are reportedly due to be at the San Diego Comic Con.
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| It's Been A Year, Apparently |
[Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 @ 5:50pm] |
According to Mom, today is one year to the day since I ended up in the hospital (a trip which lasted 2 1/2 weeks) with the bleeding ulcer covering 50% of my stomach, which has since fully healed. And for anyone new to my friends list, the whole horrific story can be read in this post.
So basically, within a year I've managed to survive that, and a freak ice storm that left everyone nearly frozen to death after four days, at the very least.
Here's hoping the next year isn't as freakish or awful!
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| Fannish Items of Interest |
[Saturday, June 13th, 2009 @ 3:43pm] |
First, a meme: Who do you ship me with?
The Best Science Fiction Cliffhangers. It includes Angel, Buffy, the older Doctor Who series, as well as the newer one. And if someone out there watches Ashes to Ashes and wishes to avoid spoilers, don’t click the link. Because there’s a spoiler for the finale on the first page. I don’t watch the show. Oh, and for those interested, the whedonesque post about the list is found here.
Found this link via another forum—it’s an article on what disorders a psychiatrist would probably diagnose Illyana Rasputin with. Mostly PTSD, I would say.
From Den of Geek: The 10 Sexiest Men of Doctor Who. No incarnation of the Doctor is listed—neither is Mickey.
Eight Big 80’s Movies That Never Got Sequels—But Nearly Did.
Christopher Lee has been knighted. And for some strange reason, I thought he already had been.
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| Fannish Items of Interest |
[Thursday, June 11th, 2009 @ 1:03pm] |
For those that want to see something strange, Io9 linked to a clip of a scene from It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s Superman. I believe I saw part of another scene from there once, when I watched a biography of Superman.
There’s going to be a live action Jetsons movie, and Io9 lists their choices for Judy Jetson. Does anyone remember the movie from 1990, with Tiffany as the voice of Judy Jetson?
Over at ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) toon_memories, someone linked to Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer, over on Youtube. And I have to link everyone to a hysterical review (detailing the horror of showing this movie to anyone over the age of 8) of it over at Bad Movies.
cabledeadpool links to the 70 Greatest Deadpool Moments.
Someone made a huge Back to the Future Clocktower wedding cake—looks to be set in 1955, going by the fact that Doc’s cable is connected to the clocktower. Most of it appears to be edible.
For the Stump The Author Meme, I owe seandc a drabble. Even if it’s late, consider it a birthday present. If anyone else wants to try stumping me to earn a drabble, go here.
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| Fannish Items of Interest |
[Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 @ 3:56pm] |
From Slashfilm: Some Ghostbusters News. Mostly behind the scenes stuff—the most interesting part is probably the tiny bit about how one of five parties could cancel the project at any point if they felt like it wasn’t going the right way. They include: Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, or Columbia Pictures. You can find a discussion on the same topic over at Io9, here.
Some news on the new Riverworld adaptation—it doesn’t sound like it will be that good. The only good thing in the entire thing is probably Peter Wingfield, who isn’t mentioned in the article at all.
A Doctor Who fan had a funeral, which included a coffin that looked like a TARDIS, complete with a little flashing light. Surprisingly, I hadn’t linked to this one yet. The funeral music was the Doctor Who theme, and quotes from the show were read.
Looks like the Sci-Fi Channel is doing their version of Alice in Wonderland. It’s from the same people that made Tin Man—I likely won’t watch. Stars include Colm Meaney, Tim Curry, Matt Frewer, and Kathy Bates.
noscans_daily is voting for the next graphic novel to read, over here. I’m voting for Justice League International Vol 1, Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, and JLA: Tower of Babel. The rest I haven’t heard of.
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| A Couple Of Memes |
[Monday, June 8th, 2009 @ 1:47pm] |
I was searching Youtube yesterday, and stumbled across a version of Jack and the Beanstalk that I definitely remember seeing when I was little. It’s the 1974 version, and it’s apparently anime--meaning I watched more anime when I was little than I knew, counting Unico and a couple others. Part 1 can be found here. Parts 2-6 are on this page, and parts 7-10 are on this page.
For those that are interested, I’m still doing the Stump The Author meme over here. You get a drabble if you can stump me.
And here’s another meme, taken from a few on my friends list:
Comment to this post and I'll tell you my 5 favorite fics that you've written and why they're my favorites. Then post that list on your own journal, along with these instructions.
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| Fannish Items of Interest |
[Friday, June 5th, 2009 @ 4:28pm] |
Here’s an advance script review for the remake of Highlander. Thanks to pat_t for pointing it out. Funny thing is, as I post this I’m watching the end of the first movie—it’s airing on AMC.
From Io9: Most Awesomely Overcomplicated Time Travel Plot Of All Time—from Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego. The first comment links to Rockapella singing the theme song. When I was in middle school, I used to play Carmen Sandiego games on the computer. I watched the game show, but I don’t think I ever watched more than one episode of the cartoon.
Jeffrey Bell has signed on to help with the V remake.
In other news, a Torchwood convention (Torchsong, which I hadn’t heard of before) almost seems cursed. John Barrowman tore ligaments in his left ankle, and was unable to attend—but he’ll apparently conduct a question and answer and cabaret via SkyChat. Now, I’m hearing (it’s in the comments) that Tom Price (Andy, from Torchwood) was hit by a car as he left his hotel—he has a broken arm. Here’s hoping they both get better soon! Peter Wingfield will be attending, so let's hope that everyone that’s left manages to stay safe.
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| Writer's Block: Grimm Question |
[Thursday, June 4th, 2009 @ 1:27pm] |
I'm trying to remember--I tended to prefer the ones that didn't have happy endings, and were a little dark. And, going by the fact that I loved Snow White: A Tale of Terror, that still holds true these days--fairy tales with much more horror.
I really don't know. Going by Faerie Tale Theatre, it might have been The Snow Queen. I vividly remember checking out a book about The Twelve Dancing Princesses over and over when I was 4 or 5, but that probably wasn't my favorite.
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| Two Deaths |
[Thursday, June 4th, 2009 @ 10:51am] |
David Carradine passed away today—I found out through The View a little while ago, when Whoopi mentioned it. According to the articles I’ve found about it, he was in Bangkok filming his latest movie, when he was found dead in his hotel room. He was 72. The cause of death may be suicide. I’ll have to check IMDB to see if I’ve actually ever seen him in anything.
ETA: Okay, after checking IMDB I see that I've only seen him in one thing. An episode of Charmed.
Yesterday, David Eddings passed away. He was 77, and may he also rest in peace. I think I tried to read a couple of his books back in high school, but I could never really get interested in them.
May they both rest in peace.
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