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It's the birthday of my dear fannish/RL friend, m. butterfly. I've sucked her into Take That (as one does), and she's become a huge Jason and Howard/Jason fan. So this pic spam is a birthday present to her.

( This way to Howard and Jason being adorable together )

In the usual course of things, I'd have no idea exactly when I fell for a certain fandom. In the case of Take That, however, and thanks to the wonder of LJ, I can track it down to a half hour window. So I can say with complete certainty that it was one year ago today that I fell for TT.

It all started because the lovely halotolerant posted a link to TT's performance of Kidz at last year's Brits. A performance that I'd seen and really liked, so I responded to her post. And she proceeded to lure me in with a potted history of the band and lovely videos of pretty boys.

It took a little bit to take. Here's Exhibit A, a comment I made just as I was about to go over the precipice:


Oh, the naiveté. Even the Sweetie knows their names now.

But then Halo sent me a link to this video, of Mark Owen singing Back for Good with Robbie Williams at Robbie's big Knebworth gig.


It is not the tightest musical performance ever—they barely rehearsed, and as Halo has pointed out they both sing the harmony bits on the chorus because that's the way they learned it back in the day—but it is utterly delectable. The way Rob looks fondly at Mark, and Mark returns the look with complete adoration, is unbelievable, ground zero for some very lovely slashy thoughts on my part.

And here's my comment after I'd watched the video and my brain had exploded:


I haven't looked back.

To celebrate this fannish anniversary, I thought I'd put together an insanely long pic spam of the pretty British boys and men who make up TT, because they're very pretty. And because I wanted to.

( This way to teh pretteh… )

A few weeks ago, I finally broke down and got a used copy of Take That In Private on the Amazon UK marketplace. I've had it for a few weeks, but I only just noticed today that it came with a bit of a bonus tucked into the back cover:



Yep, that would be an actual 45 RPM single of Babe, Mark's first lead song with the band back in the day. Also, if you squint, you can see that at the top of the back flyleaf the previous owner has recorded when TT split up. I feel like I'm the keeper of a little piece of someone else's history.

In celebration of this little discovery, I thought I'd put up a quote from the book, with a few illustrating Markie pics. Because one can never have too many pics of Mark Owen. Srsly!

( Cut to spare the sensibilities of the non-TT fans )

Last week, I ended up devouring Gary Barlow's autobiography in record time. (Yes, I've gone completely overboard on the Take That thing. Let's just accept that and move on.) Gary's story is a fascinating one - halotolerant has pointed out it's a perfect classical narrative, going from success and hubris to nemesis to redemption,- but what's even better for my money is the glimpses it offers of the emotional life of the band.

The moment in the book I keep coming back to, over and over, is one that takes place after their reunion press conference, and focuses on Howard and Jason, who seem to have become my fave Take That RPS pairing:

( This way for real life slashy h/c and an illustrative pic spam )

Work has been kind of nuts lately (lots of projects requiring lots of revisions all coming due at once) and home has been equally busy. But I decided to treat myself to a cheap copy of Wimbledon, a slight rom com with Paul Bettany, and Nicholaj Coster-Waldau (oh, and Kirsten Dunst) that I've been meaning to watch for ages.

It is lovely.

It's not deep, it doesn't have high drama, it follows the expected arc of a rom com. But it's chock full of good actors (James McAvoy, Bernard Hill, Eleanor Bron and Robert Lindsay have minor but key roles), the characters mostly behave like reasonable adults, and Bettany and Coster-Waldau play best friends and tennis practice partners with a nicely slashy vibe.

I mean, just look at them:



Aren't they adorable together?

At some point I've got to do a proper pic spam for both these lads.

The annual Toronto After Dark film fest is on at the moment, which means plenty of genre film from around the world. Tonight they showed a movie I've been dying to see ever since the Sweetie sent me a link to the trailer, lo, these many months ago: Centurion.



Michael Fassbender stars as a member of the 9th Roman Legion that disappeared whilst fighting the Picts. Let us pause for a moment to admire Fassbender looking all bloody and angsty. (Is it wrong that I find guys who've had the snot kicked out of them kind of hot?)


The film was almost everything I'd hoped for (though the fights could have been better shot). And a large part of the attraction is Fassbender's...performance. (What? He's a really good actor. Really!)

( This way to more pics of Mr. Fassbender )

Tomorrow, I'm back at the fest for a screening of Black Death, with one of my all-time faves, the Bean.