A quick Google search served up a link to VisitSouthShropshire.co.uk where I determined that yes, that must’ve been the town. We’d driven through that area only once and at the time, I didn’t see a sign bearing the town name…or at least if there was one, I didn’t see it. We drove by the outskirts on our way to a castle, no doubt. Although, I don’t believe we’ve been to the castle nearby at Ludlow, so I honestly don’t remember where we were headed.

Anyhow, on their “Filmed in South Shropshire” page, I found the following trailer and love it. I love British movies, castles, re-enactments (although I’m not active), all that stuff, so I really can’t wait until February 2009 for this movie to come out… Enjoy Faintheart!

I went to a couple of New Kids on the Block concerts last week and I’m still reeling. It was never this good back in the day. I’ve now been to 12 NKOTB concerts, not including 7 or 8 miscellaneous Joe McIntyre and Jordan Knight solo concerts and I don’t remember it ever being this awesome. I mean, really. I’m still singin’ and dancin’ in my car while listening to The Block. These memories will last a lifetime I’m sure.

And yes, you read that twitter correctly… I wrapped my legs around Donnie Wahlberg. It just seemed like the thing to do at the time. I mean, he hugged me like he wasn’t gonna let go and lifted me way up in the air. Rather than let my legs dangle, I was…ummm…a little more creative! I’ll be seeing him and the rest of the guys again at the end of November. I can’t even begin to imagine the hi jinx.

In the coming weeks, I hope to post some pics of the concerts and my fandom through the years. To kick it off, here’s a couple shots of my room when I was about fifteen or so.

When all was said and done I had more than 3,000 pictures on my walls and ceiling. Notice those posters in the first one? They’re hiding my window. Notice the ceiling fan to the right in the second one? It had a few pictures on it, too. I was pretty hardcore back then and these pics were taken before my whole room was complete. As you can see, there’s some empty space up there on my ceiling, but that didn’t last much longer than when this shot was taken.

I’m a little more subdued now. A little… It’s getting harder and harder to resist, though, now that they’re back and I have concert images from the shows I went to.

Life is a series of adventures and the wildest, craziest ones I’ve been on have had something to do with the New Kids one way or another, so why give up now?

Back in February or so, my husband had brought home the office still camera so that I could use it for a few things. Well, I used it, downloaded all the images to a folder and forgot about it.

…Until the other day when I started wondering whatever happened to those pictures I’d taken…

Just finding the folder was an adventure and once I got it open, I found about ten extraneous images that I’m guessing my husband must’ve snapped because I certainly didn’t remember them. The following is the pick of the bunch:

This is one of my five turtles. We named him Barge because when we first put him in the tank, he just sort of floated there while the other turtles smacked into him, wondering if he was friend or food. Eventually, he started swimming and frolicking as all turtles are wont to do, but it was too late. The name had stuck.

I’m not sure if the following picture was taken on a Friday, but I’m guessing it was. My clothes are a little on the silly side and I appear to be in a good mood out to dinner with my best friend Eddie. My husband had picked up my phone and started snapping pictures for no apparent reason.

I married into friendship with Eddie and for that I’m quite thankful. He and my husband Jason have been friends since junior high just like I’ve been best friends with Jen (the other half of Ashleigh Raine) since eighth grade.

Oh well… I called casting and they helped me get where I was supposed to go. I was only ten minutes late and they weren’t pissed off about it at all.

In fact, I still love this show. The first time I was on was great and so was the second. This third time was no different–well, no different in general, but completely different in practice. Last two times, I was an upscale recovering drug addict. This time, I was a pedestrian with my 1968 Mustang Fastback and it was 1970-something.

I’d dragged a ton of clothes to this gig because, well, I have them, I might as well use them. And for a great change, the costumers loved me.

It was a simple scene, but since there was a flipped car and a bunch of water involved, the set-up was kind of involved. I ended up driving my car to the set before going through hair and make-up.

Since my eyebrows and the front of my hair had been burned off in a small kitchen explosion brought on by team effort stupidity between my husband and I, my hair is a little shorter than usual. When I stopped by the hair trailer, she just sighed and said there wasn’t enough for her to really do anything with it. I just kind of smashed it down and pretended I was Janet from Three’s Company. It’s too short, but I felt the need to try.

Then, in the make-up trailer, the lady started going nuts with me. She drew on eyebrows to hide my stubble and even put fake eyelashes on me to lengthen my burnt lashes. She really had a great time on my eyes and good golly, that’s the best I’ve felt since the explosion. It’s been a little over a week and it just seems to take forever for hair to grow back when you have none. At least the burns on my eyelids, lips and nose are done. They took about five days to heal. Now they’re just a little tender, but no big deal. I just want my facial hair back!

Anyhow, once I was out of there, we sat around in holding for awhile (which was air conditioned…it was getting freakin’ hot and humid outside and we were all thankful for the opportunity to stay cool) before heading to the set. I was saved as a driver and they’d planned on having me drive my Mustang, but it was too loud. Of course. Happens every time.

Instead, I drove one of the other picture cars…through a towering water effect on the first take before they toned it down for the following ones. It was another miserable black vinyl, no air-conditioning car just like my Mustang, so I kinda felt right at home. I just drank a ton of water so I didn’t dehydrate.

Basically, after those four or five takes, we were done, but they were still filming and a few of the other extras worked. I ended up reading a book and/or talking with others there. It wasn’t a bad gig at all. I just wish it wasn’t so hot. That was no fun at all.

Traffic was so bad getting there, that it took me a full two hours. I changed my route on the way home just to change the scenery a little and it took me an hour and a half despite the actual mileage was longer. I’ve certainly learned my lesson!

I got to keep the fake eyelashes as a souvenir and just before actually working, I snapped a picture with my phone. I’m really not supposed to do that, but I was careful not to get anything that’s supposed to be some big secret in the background, so hopefully I won’t get chewed out. I just really wanted to capture the brilliant make-up job I’d been given. It was kind of Twiggy-esque.

This was another time my friend just had to snap a pic on my phone. She even told me I HAD to blog it. Well, here ya go, Denise!

Disregarding the 3D glasses that were gifted in honor of my poor choice in clothing, the shirt and pants I’m wearing do not go with anything else in my wardrobe as well as they go with each other. Yes, that’s really saying something since they really only have the flowers in common–although one’s got 4 petals, the other 3. A flower is a flower. The blue and red almost match…almost.

I tell ya, though, everyone in the office had to stop and say hello or comment on my horrid outfit and the shock on people’s faces as I walked to lunch across the street was priceless. A little bit of wackiness goes a long way and I’m happy to do my part–even if it’s not Halloween!

I don’t suppose it’s confidence inspiring that she was laughing while it was taken and that’s why it’s blurry.

Boy was that an understatement. So far, of all the shows I’ve been in and appeared on camera, this one takes the cake. Big time. I mean, my head is as big as the screen!

The other shots may not be close-ups, but I’m still totally visible for a change. I suppose it helped that they’d placed me in the front row for some strange reason.

My husband and I saw it together and the moment I was onscreen at all, we started chuckling. Each shot built and built until we were all out cracking up because, like, my head was so freakin’ huge! It’s one of the best laughs we’ve had. We really hadn’t expected it to be like that. We’d figured okay, since I was in the front row, perhaps I was visible enough. Noooooo… I even got a close-up!

This is also one of the coolest bits I’ve been part of. I was an alien on They Are Among Us, a dead nun on Angel (in which I also had a close-up, but my head wasn’t quite as big as the screen because I was laying down and they wanted to get more blood in the shot), an insane asylum patient on The Changeling and a hooker on Cold Case and Crazy.

But on Domino… I was a recovering nymphomaniac at a Nymphomaniacs Anonymous meeting, no less. Good times!

Much of what burned on the Universal lot this year was where base camp and the set were, too. When I heard about that fire, I immediately thought of my time on Spiderman II, Superhero and Where The Truth Lies.

Here’s another of my smallest performances. It’s not quite as small as Hollywoodland, but it’s close! This is definitely the kind of shot where I wonder if I’ll actually be seen at all or was I just given a cross there ‘just in case’ the camera happens to see that deep. It’s always nice to make it in frame, though!

In these next ones, boy was I pissed when I tried to do the screen capture and there was some dumbass extra blocking the view of my car…

Yeah, that dumbass extra was me!

The way I could tell was not just by the colors on my dress, but that’s my own purse. I recognized my purse and then vaguely remembered doing this wipe, but hadn’t realized that it was part of my cross heading across the street.

I looked for myself in the other shot, but while I thought I saw myself, I wasn’t entirely sure, so I didn’t do a capture. The finished product was nothing like what was shot.

What I’ve got is what I’ve got… Me in shadow and the only reason I know that’s me is because myself and one other guy were the only ones actually walking forward in this shot. There was a lady standing near the opening, but she was sideways.

In fact, my arrow is right over her head. Whoops! Sorry, but this was my one moment in frame on Serenity, so I gotta make the best of it!

Since then, I’ve worked with the same A.D. on G-Force, but due to the nature of the shoot, I think I only saw him three times and that was mostly during lunch!

It’s not the best shot of me, but it really is me back there. Not too shabby considering I doubted getting any screen time at all except maybe this scene and lo and behold, there I am!

When I’m further along on the project, I’ll post the real “before” images as well as progress on fixing all the torn leather. A previous owner had put cotton balls instead of sawdust in her kid body and just the thought of that irritates me. Old rags from 1900, okay maybe, but not cotton balls. That’s just plain wrong. In my opinion, antique dolls need to have either antique repairs or period-appropriate repairs if they must be modern.

Although, for the amount of running around I did on Carnivale, I really thought I’d get so much as a split second in frame, but I got a whole lot of nothing. However the day I was a prop magnet, I managed to make it in frame several times. The problem was mostly that in the various angles, I was blocked by other things. Oh well. At least I got this one:

As I get the rest ready, I’ll post ‘em.

In the mean time, I’ve heard from a few people that I made it into a commercial for Raising The Bar. I have yet to see it, but that’d be awesome. Kind of like when my car made it into the trailer for Anchorman.

I wore it to Comic Con that year and caused a bit of a double-taking stir as I cruised about the Expo floor. One guy in a booth full of knives, swords and various other weapons just stared and said, “Wow…” before he’d even realized he’d said it aloud.

See, Commando Barbie is much hotter, cooler, better than I could ever be. I dunno what it is about her, but she’s really got her shit together. I, however, am her dorky alter-ego. I have difficulty speaking, going places and I’m just so darn uncool. I’m far too shy for my own good and could really learn a thing or two from Commando Barbie. Her social skills are far better than mine. I, in fact, have no social skills.

In a slightly different outfit, Commando Barbie (and her two best friends, Wendy and Jen) met Jamison Newlander and Corey Feldman, the Frog Brothers from Lost Boys–her favorite movie (and mine. We’ve got that in common.)

She even got up close with Gareth David-Lloyd, Ianto Jones from Torchwood. (BTW-you should seriously check out the band he fronts, Blue Gillespie. Awesome, sexy, hard blues. Makes me want to go back to Wales again real soon and catch a concert. I also haven’t been to all the castles in the south yet.) (Gotta love the T-shirt he’s wearing, too. All day long, having his pic taken with numerous women. See, now that’s the kind of skills Commando Barbie has and I could only dream of. That shit’s hilarious!)

Here she is right next to the Lost Boys: The Tribe booth… As herself…

And in her vampire-hunter gear.

I really wish I were as awesome as she is. In fact, walking around Comic Con with my best friend Jen (together, we’re the Ashleigh Raine writing team), I remarked how I wish I wasn’t such a big dork. I mean, here I am goofing off with a Dalek… Yeah, a Dalek from Dr. Who for heaven’s sake. “Exterminate! Exterminate!” Not cool. And there I am dorking it up, trying to be all cool in my camo and failing miserably. Nice. Help me Commando Barbie! Please put me out of my misery!

And what was Commando Barbie doing…instead of a Dalek? Well, she got her picture taken for Hustler magazine…for their “Hot Chicks of Comic Con” project. Of course.

Why can’t I be more like her? Instead, I freeze up when people try to talk to me. I trip over my own feet and quite often I have significant difficulty discerning where my ass ends and my head begins due to their close proximity–one being firmly shoved up the other all the time. *sigh*

When I grow up, I wanna be Commando Barbie. That bitch has everything…

And here it is:

This is the private theater of Adelina Patti. She was the first person in Wales to have electricity in her home. I snuck behind that original drop and discovered that the technology has not been updated. Every spot a gas burner would have been, there’s a lightbulb.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. I mean, I’d read mountains on the topic of stage lighting from candles to early electricity, but never thought I’d get to witness it in person. This was the type of thing I’d only ever seen in pictures and illustrations. I wanted to spend hours there in Adelina’s theater.

Sure, the front of house is all gold leaf and finery, but I wanted to explore the fly gallery and all the electrics. I couldn’t quickly figure out where the controls were or I’d've definitely snuck in there, too. It was dark, I didn’t have a flashlight and backstage was in use as a storage facility during restoration.

I’ll go back to Crag-Y-Nos someday. You bet I will. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll go on another impromptu tour backstage…perhaps a ghost of performances past would show me around!