Getting My House In Order

I recently heard that Google's Blogger was closing. Whether it's true, and whether it means old blogs will disappear or not remains to be seen. To be on the safe side, and to not lose YEARS worth of posts, I made the decision to move everything to my old Wordpress blog that I've had for years and done virtually nothing with.

And when I say move everything, I really do mean EVERYTHING. Because I also decided that this blog would contain all of my previous blogger blogs, as well as any book reviews that I also post to my Goodreads account.

That might mean that you get a bit of an odd amalgamation of personal posts, random stuff to do with writing, film reviews, book reviews, theatre reviews and possibly my beauty product reviews too. I haven't decided if I'm including them or not yet.

I hope that means you get an interesting mix of content rather than it feeling disjointed but to be honest I really don't know how it will work yet.

Whatever brought you here I hope you will continue to follow me on the Wordpress platform and enjoy what will be forthcoming, and as always I am very grateful that you have decided to spend a little bit of your valuable time in my strange little world.

As long as Blogger is here I will endeavour to post updates here too but as I don't know how long that will be for I'm giving you all a heads up.

Much love Lady K

Adventures In Fangirling - What A Difference A Day Makes

In a strange twist of irony, the song At Last has just* shuffled it's way onto my iTunes playlist. It couldn't fit this article better.

A few days ago I wrote about my experiences over the last three years as a part of actor Jeremy Renner's fandom. For those who don't know, he plays the Avengers archer extraordinaire Hawkeye.

That story involved lots of missed opportunities and almost meetings with my idol. Whilst I can't yet tick a meeting with him off my list, I am now the proud owner of his autograph. And I didn't have to pay a despicable autograph hunter to get it. This prized possession of mine was earned by my own hard work and determination. The full account of which is to follow.

It started with a 4.15am start on Tuesday 21st April. Followed by a 5.48am train, a mis-read ticket, leading to a missed connection and a late arrival at Westfield shopping center in London's Shepherds Bush.

When I finally arrived at the scene of the premiere the doors had already been open for 15 minutes and 400 people were already lining the fan enclosures. My photographer buddy who accompanied me wanted to give up. We were at least six rows of people back from the barrier and had no hope of getting any autographs from the stars. 

I was gutted, and felt like my two hours of sleep the night before had been for nothing. But my brother told me to be resilient, and so we stayed. If nothing else I knew my friend would get some great snaps.

We met up with two other friends whom we'd first met at the Captain America: The Winter Soldier premiere around this time last year. They were in full cosplay as Marvel characters Mockingbird (aka Bobbi Morse - currently being portrayed on Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D. by Adrianne Palicki) and Jessica Jones (who will shortly be getting her own show as part of the Defenders series - of which the new show Daredevil is the first part).

Feeling a little under dressed I changed into my Black Widow costume and re-joined my waiting friends. We spent the next six hours chatting, eating things that would not make us bloat in our skin tight catsuits, hydrating and going for the occasional wander around the shopping center to stretch our legs. The strangest part of the day (thus far) was being asked by people if they could take my picture. For someone who's quite shy and retiring this is very weird and not at all something you get used to. But I suppose putting on the Black Widow suit really doesn't allow you to stay you. And it certainly doesn't lend itself to being shy and retiring.

Around 4pm our day took an unexpected turn for the better when my two cosplaying friends were spotted by a member of staff and given wristbands to a special cosplayers only pen. They told her they were part of a threesome and took me to find the lady with the power to put me in that pen and make my dreams come true.

In the space of 10 minutes I had gone from being six people back, in a pen that easily held 50-100 people, to being in an enclosure of 10 people. Not only that, but this enclosure was right next to the stage. My luck was finally starting to change, resilience paying off.

In the next half an hour we were told that we were the cosplay winners, although no contest had happened to my knowledge, and we were going up on the main stage, in front of not only the hundreds of people in the center, but the thousands watching on live streams around the world. This was not something I signed up for, and I was not handling it well. My friend dressed as Mockingbird took my hand as we marched up the stairs. I didn't dare allow myself to look around for fear of seeing all of those people staring back at me. I merely took a deep breath, and before I knew it we were walking off stage, being given a prize (a pair of Hulk hands which are going to my nephew) and heading back to the enclosure.

Within minutes Director Joss Whedon was on stage, swiftly followed by actors Paul Bettany, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Elizabeth Olsen and then the man I had been waiting three years to see up close, Jeremy Renner came through the stage doors. Dressed in a sharp blue suit and shades (clearly his early morning appearance on Good Morning Britain not agreeing with him). It seemed to take forever for him to reach me as they took him to the opposite side first, the cosplayers would be last. In the mean time I managed to get another signature I was missing from my collection, that of The Hulk himself, Mark Ruffalo, who I admired long before he turned green. He partially signed my thumb too which was a thrill in itself. 

Sadly some non-cosplayers invaded our pen at this point, and I ended up crushed between them and the front row of cosplayers. I knew I would not get to speak to Jeremy or get a picture with him, but I was determined that after three years I would come away with his signature on my Sarah Dunn Bourne photoshoot cover of Empire Magazine. The magazine I'd tried to get signed on several other occasions and failed. I held it between two cosplayers on the front row and hoped for the best, and when I pulled it back through to me, there it was, the left handed squiggle of my favourite actor.

He climbed up on the barrier to take a selfie with one of the lucky lady Loki's who had won the cosplay contest. And although I wished that had been me, maybe I need to work up to that. Maybe in another three years I'll have a picture to go with the signature.

Until then I am more than content with seeing him up close and finally adding him to my collection of Marvel signatures, which is now just missing Ms Johansson. How ironic that I have seen her twice when I was dressed as her character, and twice I've come away without her seeing me and without her squiggle.

Oh well, Captain America 3 is out pretty soon right?

*I wrote this article on 21st April 2015 - it was originally published on Geek La Chic on 2nd May 2015.

Adventures In Fangirling

Three years doesn’t seem that long really. But a lot can happen in three years. 

 

In 2012 I attended the UK Premiere of Avengers Assemble. It was my first glimpse of the Marvel cast in the flesh, and although I’d loved all of the Marvel movies up to that point, I had no idea how much my life was about to change.

In the three years that followed I have become one of Jeremy Renner’s many fanwomen around the world. I have also had the privilege of getting to know a number of other amazing women (and men) in his fandom. 

 

Three years ago I didn’t even know what fandom was. I had a tumblr but it was for random things like cats and movie quotes and some more cats. Now tumblr has become a humungous part of my life. I have a Renner blog (RenneredSpeechless.tumblr.com if you’re interested) and I spend most of my free time either watching his movies, looking at updates about him/his movies on tumblr or writing fan fiction about his characters. See how much can happen in three years?

 

In that time I have attended several public events to try and get another glimpse of the illusive Renner, but alas I have been thwarted at every point. Firstly, at the Avengers Assemble Premiere, he was the only member of the cast to not come to the section where I was standing, so I never actually saw him in the flesh the first time I was in his presence. The second attempt was at the 2013 BAFTA’s where he was presenting an award. I waited for more than 10 hours in the freezing February rain and snow and he got out of his car right in front of where I was standing, but somehow I missed him then too. 

 

Then came The Graham Norton Show, I waited again for a good 10/12 hours in the February freeze on the bank of the River Thames, but whilst I waited out back, his car left via the front exit of the building. The most I got was a 5 second video as he walked by the window in the studio.

 

Over the next two years I attended every phase two Marvel premiere, just on the off chance that he might be in the UK and might come, but no. I even went to the 2014 BAFTA’s just in case he was there (as his film American Hustle was heavily nominated), but he was not. Finally in the summer of 2014 I thought my chance had come as it was announced that Renner would be in the line up to play at Soccer Aid. I got there in time for the buses to arrive but sadly the players did not come and greet the waiting fans, so again, the most I got was a fuzzy picture from my seat (half way up the stalls in Old Trafford). 

Going to these lengths has caused one of my closest friends to label me a ‘stalker’, which understandably I found quite upsetting. I have found comfort in the friendships I have made with the other 'Renner Women’ that I have met through his fandom. As I said above, these are amazing women who are all uniquely talented, some are fantastically gifted at graphic design and have created posters that are so professional that IMDb used one of her images on their official Kill The Messenger page. Others have the gift of being tremendous writers, some of fan fiction like myself, others of full blown novels. Whilst a handful of them run the JeremyLeeRenner.com fansite which is a job in itself keeping us all updated with his upcoming projects. 

 

I recently had the opportunity to spend the weekend with two of my good friends in the Rennerdom, who accompanied me to a screening of Kill The Messenger. I was left completely awed by both the movie and the time spent with like-minded fans. Being able to spend the weekend with them, talking about Renner-related moments in our lives, and watching his movies with them was an experience I will never forget.

 

Now it is time for Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. The London premiere is tomorrow*. I have decided to cosplay as the Black Widow in the hopes that he might see me and I might, just might, get my moment with him. They are so fleeting and I know it will be a miracle if I can even say two words to him, but to see him, in front of me, now that really would be something to marvel at.

 

*I wrote this article on 20th April 2015 - it was originally published on Geek La Chic on 21st April 2015 - the day of the premiere.