Top Five Etsy Finds #1

One of favourite things to do online is go on Etsy. There is nothing better than whiling away an evening favouriting Danish furniture and animal jewellery and Harry Potter stationary. So I thought I would combine that old (as in the last year but, you know, 21st century child) love with this new love and give you my latest Top Five Etsy Finds, as and when I remember this is a thing.

• TARDIS Blanket

I probably wouldn’t have chosen this if it hadn’t easily been my most refavourited item of the week. It’s hard to tell from the photos exactly what it looks like but its combination of warm fleecy goodness and nerd credentials is the makings of an Etsy classic. This is what makes this website great and, most of all, that guy looks comfy!

• Animal Card Game

This is the kind of item which comes to life on Etsy. It’s not expensive but has real character: great artwork if you want to use it to decorate your walls (I think they’d make great bunting) as well as play value if you want to use it for its intended purpose. This is the kind of ephemera that is both kind of hipster, could fit into a designer home but mostly it’s just fun.

• Ramones Garland

This is absolutely my favourite thing I have found lately. If I had £50 or a child I wanted to indoctrinate, this would be a must have! The detail and the quality is clear in this well photographed listing: each figure has a personality of their own and which perfectly matches their real-world counterparts. My favourite part, though, is that there is something lovingly punk and DIY about this piece which is fitting I suppose.

• TfL Mug

I am a sucker for London Transport merchandise and this item is just fantastic. Although Covent Garden is not my local area, it’s prominent enough for even the most casual traveller to feel a connection to those cobbled streets. It’s just worn enough to be a little designer, a little hipster; but the best thing about it is its simplicity and utility. Perfect for tea or tiny flowers for that rustic chic.

• Snoopy Ornament 

One thing you will learn if you follow this is that I love Peanuts. It’s the best thing ever and so I love almost everything Peanuts you can find on Etsy. This, though, is special because it also combines my love of transport-related things and Christmas decorations. Genius! It’s cute, it’s quirky and it has me already counting down to Christmas day!

That’s it for now. If you just can’t get enough of my Etsy finds, then you can follow all my favourites by clicking here.

[Note: I cannot guarantee these things are available even two minutes after posting, as many are one of a kind but I bet the other things the shop has are great too!]

Let’s Talk Fantastic Beasts

This is news I was not expecting. I remember Mark Kermode, in his now infamous Percy Jackson review, making a throwaway comment about how they would probably end up filming Tales of Beedle the Bard and thinking that was ridiculous. There is no narrative, no consistent characters, no singular driving message: how could that be a movie? What I did not count on then, and indeed find it hard to believe now, was JK Rowling stepping in and writing a character’s back story in a way only she could.

I am excited, I am giddy, I am nervous. So, to work out my complicated feelings, I’m going to list five potentially good things and five potentially bad things. Obviously, this is all complete conjecture. We know as little as it is possible to know but I HAVE FEELS and what we do know is exciting and worrying in equal measure. So, just to show I’m not a pessimist, I’m going to start with the good things.

1. 1920s New York! The most exciting thing, from my perspective, is that not only are we going to see more of the Wizarding World but it’s the Wizarding World overseas. And in the past! I’m holding back on the cynical idea that it’s being set in New York to appease an American audience and in the 1920s to try and tap into our current Gatsby fad. By the time this movie is made that craze will be over anyway and everyone, from all over the world, would be behind this wherever it was set. Instead, it’s a chance to see what aspects of our knowledge of the Wizarding World is actually just British and to get a sense of how much it progresses over time as a society.
2. JK Rowling! To what extent this is canon, whether we’ll get tie in novels etc. are all issues that will emerge as the project comes to life. But no one, literally no one, could get away with writing this but JK. I have no doubt that she cares even more than we do (if that’s possible) about how this story will be told and what impact it will have on Harry’s legacy. It doesn’t give me total confidence but it couldn’t be in better hands.
3. Longer Fantastic Beasts? I hope that, if (and when) the movie does well, we might get a longer edition of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I love the book, much more than QttA, but I still have a little childish dream that one day a huge, leather bound hardback, 1000 page edition will exist, like the one I imagined in my head. It’s a big ask of JK but if she’s working in this arena already, maybe she’ll be inspired to create an enhanced edition?
4. Still Got Legs! With all the movies and books that have come and gone, every book series that has tried to fill the void, Warner Bros still have faith that Harry, even after all this time, has enduring appeal with audiences. Maybe they’re desperate for another hit of the same scale but I think it says a lot about this fandom and the continuing relevance of the story that this is being made at all.
5. New(t) Hero! People (wrongly) rag on Harry himself: “he’s whiny, he’s boring, get over your dead parents and your unbelievable burden even though you’re an emotionally compromised teenager”. I disagree entirely but one thing Harry isn’t is eccentric. I don’t know a lot about Newt, none of us do, but what I know from the book is that he is a very different beast (sorry) from Harry and it’s a great chance for JK to take us through this world on entirely different shoulders.

And, now, the worrying.

1. The Hobbit. I did not hate The Hobbit film, by any stretch, but I think it has a lot of lessons within it which FBaWtFT needs to learn. The first is that, when you extend a short text, it’s harder to made a tight, well-structured film. And the second is that ‘Oh my God, here’s another monster for me to face!’ is not the solution. These are both problems this film with face and I hope the good, but more importantly the bad, of the first Hobbit movie can teach everyone involved some lessons.
2. A series? Really? The rumours that this is the beginning of a film series also worries me. Making one film out of what is, essentially, a glorified reference guide is a big ask. Right now it is unclear what the story or narrative would be but I would much rather see one great film about Newt and his beasts than the set up for a trilogy. I hope it’s merely a series of spin-off films, because I still live in hope of a Marauders movie.
3. Reliving the magic. It’s asking a lot, of the audience and JK, for this film to be anything like the powerhouse that the Harry Potter movies were. This is a story of unknown quantity, when so many people may have moved on from Harry and the next generation untested as a movie audience. I hope that, rather than trying to relive the magic, everyone is looking for something totally different: tonally and in terms of impact. I think we’ll get a better film that way.
4. It’s not a book. I know I’m asking for too much, I know I am. But I really wish that JK’s first port of call for extending the backstories was not Pottermore, was not the movies but some little, lovely novellas or (even better) full blown novels. This clearly makes the chances of spin-of novels more likely, and I hope they come, but I am little disappointed that it will be at very best a long time until I can read a story like this from JK.
5. FBaWtFT. That is a bad title. Bad. It can’t be called that. This is basically the only time you will ever hear me say this Warner Bros: change it from the books!

So, basically, I’m optimistic. Conditionally. The worst thing about this news? How I am going to be able to complain about how they’ve changed it from the books?!

New Blog! (Maybe)

Well then. Here we are. This is at least the third blog I have set up in my life and (historically) I have been pretty terrible at keeping up with them. A combination of my forgetfulness, laziness and the fact that Twitter has trained me to get all my thoughts in 140 characters has meant that every blog well-meaningly set up has fallen by the wayside. Recently, however, I have started to miss writing long and rambling posts about anything and everything. I’ve written a couple of articles for my student newspaper and indulged on Tumblr; but all that has done has made me want a regular blog more.

I know, understand and basically agree with the movement of most people away from personal blogs and onto websites like Tumblr. Go to where the people are, as it were, and where it’s easiest to engage with them. I love my Tumblr and have no doubt that I will continue to use it far more than this blog (sorry). But in amongst Harry Potter quotes and Parks and Recreation gifs, my Tumblr, although excellent, seems like the wrong place to talk about anything more serious than Matt Smith leaving Doctor Who (which is actually quite important to me but still).

I understand why people are moving in the opposite direction but I don’t care. I like the idea of my thoughts having their own space, even if that means that no one will ever read them. I think this blog and I will start a relationship that transcends the need for anyone else (although I would like it if you stuck around). I’ll blog because this website only exists if I do; it’s a responsibility, bordering on a burden. I’ll be married to this WordPress rather than merely tumbling in the sheets with Tumblr.

So I’ve started this bright yellow blog [note: no longer bright yellow because of eye pain], partly because it’ll be harder to ignore (from my end, I’m sure you will be able to ignore it) and I hope it’ll prove more successful  than the trail of divorces I leave behind me. I expect I’ll blog about all sorts of things (maybe even my own life sometimes, heaven forbid) but the most important thing to me is that I keep it up!

Now I’m off, to add this blog to my Twitter profile. Because, let’s be honest, that’s the only website I’ll never leave behind.