Small Talk: Chewing The Haggis

[Glaze Crazy]

I think even Diana posted that yoga video somewhere, either twitter or fb or both.

I updated/renewed my library card once I learned I could check out kindle books through my library. I've now started reading "Game of Thrones." I have the first 5 seasons of the show saved on a hard drive, from the occasional free HBO weekends DirectTV has, but stopped watching it somewhere in season 2 because I had absolutely no idea what was going on with all the characters' storylines. I will say, half way through book 1 and watching the episodes simultaneously, it definitely helps, in my case. My next project will be reading the "Harry Potter" series while watching the movies, LOL.

[WatchrTina]

For those of you who don't Twitter (and especially those of you who are parents) Caitriona shared this tweet.  It doesn't have anything to do with Outlander.  It's just hilarious.

https://twitter.com/BBCNewsbeat/status/840175417545895936

Okay it has a slight relationship to Outlander -- don't you think the guy looks a bit like Tobias?

[toolazy]

6 hours ago, WatchrTina said:

For those of you who don't Twitter (and especially those of you who are parents) Caitriona shared this tweet.  It doesn't have anything to do with Outlander.  It's just hilarious.

https://twitter.com/BBCNewsbeat/status/840175417545895936

Okay it has a slight relationship to Outlander -- don't you think the guy looks a bit like Tobias?

I love the way that woman just drags the toddler out of the room by his arm.  She was definitely determined.

[WatchrTina]

Ahem.

I was just in the same room as Ira Stephen Behr.  

Carry on.

[DittyDotDot]

@WatchrTina, have you seen this? https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/what-we-left-behind-star-trek-deep-space-nine-doc#/

[WatchrTina]

@DittyDotDot I had not seen that!  According to that link they raised over 400% of what they needed so I presume the documentary will get finished.  I wonder if it will play here in Austin at the next SXSW Film Festival?  (That's where I saw Ira Stephen Behr -- he co-produced a narrative film called "Lucky.")  Aaaaaaand now I want to binge-watch Star Trek DS9.  I watched it in first-run but I haven't seen any of the episodes since then -- it doesn't seem to get re-run the way Star Trek and Voyager do.

[DittyDotDot]

9 hours ago, WatchrTina said:

@DittyDotDot I had not seen that!  According to that link they raised over 400% of what they needed so I presume the documentary will get finished.  I wonder if it will play here in Austin at the next SXSW Film Festival?  (That's where I saw Ira Stephen Behr -- he co-produced a narrative film called "Lucky.")  Aaaaaaand now I want to binge-watch Star Trek DS9.  I watched it in first-run but I haven't seen any of the episodes since then -- it doesn't seem to get re-run the way Star Trek and Voyager do.

I recently did a rewatch and that's how I found out about it. I thought the cast was pretty funny in the video. And, it does look like it's in production, so that could be fun!

[Nidratime]

Alan Cumming singing a bit of the real Skye Boat song on Rachael Ray. Brief Outlander mention.

[Nidratime]

Outlander writer, Anne Kenney, just tweeted about this. Looks good to help fill a tiny bit of Outlander gap. Looks like it will air on Masterpiece starting 3/26.

[WatchrTina]

Well I saw "T2:  Trainspotting 2" today.  If you need a fix of Scotland -- there you go.  I cam home and re-watched the first one as well.  Whoa.  It's a good movie but a lot of those scene are hard to watch.  I have a low tolerance for gross-out situations.  But that one scene where Renton (Ewan McGregor) talks about what a shite country Scotland is and the way you can tell is because they're subjugated under English rule and the English rare a bunch of wankers, so what that that make the Scots?  In the new movie there's a scene that had a very limited connection to Outlander, that I found interesting.  But it's a spoiler if you haven't seen the new film so I'll mask my comment.

Spoiler

At one point the boys need money so they crash a meeting of a society that is dedicated to celebrating the outcome of The Battle of the Boyne, which was fought in Ireland between William of Orange and James II in July 1690. It was the last time two crowned kings of England, Scotland and Ireland faced each other on the battlefield. The Protestant William of Orange won and there hasn't been a Catholic monarch of Great Britain since then, despite the wishes of the Jacobites and their efforts in the Risings of 1715 and 1745.  Basically Renton and Simon (Sick Boy in the first film, played by Johnny Lee Miller) crash the party to steal their ATM cards on the theory that most of them use 1690 as their PIN, which they do.)  It's interesting how the deeply-held resentments about the Protestant - Catholic schism and the failed Jacobite cause still smolder beneath the surface in modern-day Scotland.

Edited March 26, 2017 by WatchrTina

[WatchrTina]

Oaky in the interest of full disclosure, I'm a bit drunk (hey, it's Friday and I'm binge-watching "The 100" - sue me.)

First things first -- I love the snippets of information Team Outlander is sending us form South Africa / Jamacia.

Secondly -- I just LOVE Zach McGowan.  He was awesome as Vane on "Black Sails".  I've just encountered his character for the first time in "The 100" and he's totally badass.   Can we PLEASE get him involved with Outlander?  He's wicked enough to play . . . oh gods my drunk mind can't recall the name of the guy who . . . oh shit I can't even identify him in this thread without a spoiler.  Damn. Is it enough to say the man is AVAILABLE!  Hire him!  Immediately!  Yeah, yeah, I know he has a gig over on "Agents of Shield" playing a Russian who's been infinitely reproduced as the operating system of a bunch of androids but whatever -- we need him as a bad guy pirate in season 4 of Outlander.  This NEEDS to happen!

[Athena]

A friend and I have noticed that Outlander is sorely underrepresented in the PTV forums awards: The Previouslies. Please go ahead and nominate Outlander cast, objects, themes, etc. if you are so inclined. :)

[Nidratime]

Take a look at this dress ... and the shoes.

[FnkyChkn34]

On 6/14/2017 at 9:00 AM, Athena said:

A friend and I have noticed that Outlander is sorely underrepresented in the PTV forums awards: The Previouslies. Please go ahead and nominate Outlander cast, objects, themes, etc. if you are so inclined. :)

I did! They didn't get many votes at all... Oh well, maybe next year. 

[WatchrTina]

I've just realized that Outlander comes back in 19 days and there are 19 episodes in seasons 1 and 2.  You know what that means?  It's time for a re-watch!  I just watched the first one and enjoyed it all over again.  Now I'm going to climb into my bed with my iPad and read our discussion of that episode because, as i recollect it, we were an insightful and entertaining bunch.  It will be fun to re-live the excitement we all felt when the series kicked off.

Note:  Almost all of the episodes are available on Demand in my area from my cable provider but two of them are missing including the season 1 finale.  Thankfully I think I can also watch them all on demand on STARZ.com.

[Clawdette]

STARZ has been begun running two episodes nightly to gear up for September's premier. Tonight were Rent and The Garrison Commander. I am plugged right in. 

My math comes up with 16 episodes in Season 1 and 13 in Season 2 for 29 total.  You're going to have to double up some, WatcherTina!

[WatchrTina]

On 8/23/2017 at 10:33 PM, Clawdette said:

My math comes up with 16 episodes in Season 1 and 13 in Season 2 for 29 total.  You're going to have to double up some, WatcherTina!

OMG that's funny.  And I'm an accountant!  So . . . double- and triple-features it is!  But that means not re-reading these discussion boards afterward because we DO go on (and of course I include myself in that charge.)

[Scarlett45]

Hi everyone! I binged watched the show over the last month or so to prep for season 3- after each episode I would come here and read the thread.

Looking forward to discussing the show with you all (especially book-walkers). 

[Wouldofshouldof]

I just returned from two weeks in Scotland.  My god, what a beautiful country!  I kept thinking, No wonder Jamie loves his highlands so much (followed by, you know he's just a fictional character, right?)!  I'm ready to renounce my citizenship and move.  I missed S3/ep1, so I watched it this past Friday, then Sunday and ep 2 was just a short wait away.

[Nidratime]

Going to be tight TV viewing tonight. 8:00 is Outlander and then 9:00 is the beginning of the new Poldark season on PBS, which is two hours long! (Maybe I should download that STARZ app.)

[Clawdette]

I have my DVR set to record the full seasons of both Outlander and Poldark.  Sam and Aidan back-to-back for several weeks is a visual fest!

[morgan]

Wish I could have gotten into Poldark.  Watched the first season thinking I would end up getting into it but I just never did.  Boo!

[WatchrTina]

I am having an episode of profound Outlander-related synchronicity.  

I'm reading a murder-mystery set in Quebec in the recent past.  Earlier in the novel I had already had a little Outlander-related frisson of recognition when reference was made to a historic battle that I only know about because Lord John takes part in it in one of the spin-off novellas about his life.  But that is not really synchronicity -- the battle of Quebec (a.k.a. the Battle of the Plains of Abraham) is famous so it's perfectly ordinary that it would appear in both a historical novel and be referenced in a modern novel set in Quebec.  No, the reference that got me was a reference to "Greyfriars Bobby" in the context of someone demonstrating long-term remembrance of a dead person through a daily ritual.  Well, I've never heard of Greyfriars Bobby so I had to look it up.  It's the name of a dog that became famous for guarding the grave of his dearly-departed master for years -- returning to sleep on it every night.

Of course it happened in Edinburgh.

Of course Disney made a film about it the year I was born (1961).

Of course the YouTube video I found showing the movie's opening and closing minutes is a visual love-letter to the highlands of Scotland and the streets of Edinburgh. (If Claire from episode 305 had walked by in the final scene -- glimpsed on her way to the print shop -- she would not have looked out of place).

And of course it stars Alex MacKenzie.

<shiver>

Edited October 14, 2017 by WatchrTina

[WatchrTina]

The synchronicity continues.  The hero of the detective series I'm reading (I've just begun book 3) is Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of Sûreté du Québec.

He's wearing a Barbour jacket.

I swear I had never even HEARD of Barbour until they hired Sam as their first-ever spokesman.  This is getting spooky.

Edited October 14, 2017 by WatchrTina

[WatchrTina]

I learned something new today.  My Twitter account is used almost exclusively for talking about TV, primarily Outlander.  I've been wondering for a long time why so many of the Outlander-related folks I follow use the "Alien Head" emoji in their tweets.  I kept thinking it was some back-handed reference to the X-Files or to some online slang I was not familiar with.  Today I FINALLY learned that if you are looking at Twitter via an "older" platform (my iPad dates from 2012 and cannot be updated with the very latest operating system) when someone tweets a new emoji your platform is not set up to display, twitter substitutes the "alien head" emoji instead.

I went looking for an explanation when I saw someone tweeting support for the outcome of the recent same-sex marriage vote in Australia via a tweet festooned with hearts and rainbow flags and . . . alien heads.  I couldn't figure out if they were being offensive or not.  They weren't.

This explains a LOT of confusing tweets over the last year.

[FnkyChkn34]

On 9/18/2017 at 11:07 AM, Wouldofshouldof said:

I just returned from two weeks in Scotland.  My god, what a beautiful country!  I kept thinking, No wonder Jamie loves his highlands so much (followed by, you know he's just a fictional character, right?)!  I'm ready to renounce my citizenship and move.  I missed S3/ep1, so I watched it this past Friday, then Sunday and ep 2 was just a short wait away.

I went a few years ago, and had the same reaction!!  I would move there in a heartbeat.  I think I'd love living in Edinburgh... :-)

[GHScorpiosRule]

I went to Scotland back in 2001 and didn't want to come back. I'd love to live in the Highlands, actually. GORGEOUS country.

[GHScorpiosRule]

I mean, I landed in Edinburgh, but I wanted to go visit my friend who lived in Peeples, and this is the conversation with the bartender I had on how to get there:

Tom: "Ye go strrrrrraaaaait up the rood."

Me: "I go STRAIGHT up the ROAD?"

Tom: "Aye. And than ye maaayke a raaaaaayt at the roondaboot."

Me: "I make a Right...? At the...Round ABOUT?"

Tom: "Aye. And then ye fuuuuuluuu the signs, raaayt."

Me: "Follow the signs" (whispering to myself). "Thank YOU!"

And I had no problems finding Sylvia's home! Though it was dark and raining...

[Bort]

I was in Scotland last year for work. I spent 5 weeks in Aberdeen and 5 weeks on the Shetland Islands. I didn’t get a whole lot of time to sightsee, but I did get away for a couple day trips, I went to Edinburgh one day and the Culloden museum for the other. These day trips were while I was in Aberdeen, by the way. There’s no day-tripping to mainland Scotland from Shetland. 

PS: I giggled like a 12-year-old over the town I drove by in Shetland that was named Twatt.

[GHScorpiosRule]

26 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

I was in Scotland last year for work. I spent 5 weeks in Aberdeen and 5 weeks on the Shetland Islands. I didn’t get a whole lot of time to sightsee, but I did get away for a couple day trips, I went to Edinburgh one day and the Culloden museum for the other. These day trips were while I was in Aberdeen, by the way. There’s no day-tripping to mainland Scotland from Shetland. 

PS: I giggled like a 12-year-old over the town I drove by in Shetland that was named Twatt.

??????

Edited November 16, 2017 by GHScorpiosRule

[WatchrTina]

I spent Thanksgiving with my brother and sister-in-law.  They know I love Outlander but never checked it out until a friend of theirs who was recovering from surgery wanted to watch it while my sister-in-law was visiting her, keeping her company.

Long-story-short we watched the 4 most recent episodes over the holidays and then watched "A Princess for Christmas" on the Hallmark channel as a kicker.

My work here is done.

Edited November 28, 2017 by WatchrTina

[WatchrTina]

CBS Sunday Morning just did a story on the Scottish clothing brand, Barbour.  Alas they did not include a shot of their first-ever global brand ambassador, Sam Heughan.  Missed opportunity in my book!  But I guess shots of Daniel Craig as 007 and the Queen (both the Helen Mirren interpretation and the real deal) along with shots of most of the rest of the royal family leant it sufficient cache.

Edited January 10, 2018 by WatchrTina

[WatchrTina]

I just watched the 6/24/18 episode of 60 minutes, which included a segment on the Isle of Eigg -- small island off the west coast of Scotland.  Apparently it was a re-broadcast of a story that was originally broadcast back in November, but I missed it then.  Anyway, if you are in the mood for a dose of Scotland you can probably find the episode on demand.

[Nidratime]

Well, I grabbed tickets (badges?) for NYC's Comic Con in October when Sam, Caitriona, Sophie, and Richard will there for a panel on Saturday. Has anyone done one of these Comic Cons before? If so, how can one make it more likely that you can attend a particular panel?

[Glaze Crazy]

Nidratime I can give you my experience at SD CC from about 10 years ago, I don't know what they are like today though.

I wanted to see the panel for Jericho which had just got renewed by CBS after a huge fan uprising on it's cancellation.

Their panel was going to be the 3rd or 4th one in the room and they didn't clear the rooms after each panel so anyone who wanted to stay, could stay. I got there, got in line and got in for the first panel and never left the room after each panel was done. Each time a panel finished some people left and I moved up each time. I got to about 3rd or 4th row by the time the Jericho cast came out. I was alone so I made sure not to overdo myself with water/drinks, which would require a bathroom break and possibly losing my seat. If you are going with someone else it might be easier to keep seats, if they still allow you stay in the room between panels.

The only downside is that they were also doing a signing out in the showroom afterwards and you had to be in line for that first thing in the morning, separate from the panel. It was a "pick one activity or the other" situation.

The CC's are so popular they might have refined their processes even more than when I went on a whim back then. I was able to get my ticket about a week or two before the Con. I think they sell out well before the dates these days and are a pretty hot ticket for a lot of different fandoms.

You and I share a music fandom so I would suggest be ready to treat it like we do a general admission concert if you want a good place in the room.

Good Luck!

[satrunrose]

So, I've been mucking around with genealogy for the fast few years and guess who may be a certain Scot's imaginary first cousin 7x removed? (the Old Fox is apparently my great-great etc. grandfather). I should not be as excited about this as I am!

[WatchrTina]

I just got home from the Austin Film Festival and the last movie I saw involved a road trip from the southern coast of England to the Isle of Skye in Scotland.  I wasn't all that impressed with the plot the but the scenery when they got to Scotland was AMAZING.  I'm really looking forward to the return of the show and the shots of Scotland doubling for 18th century America.

[Glaze Crazy]

On my bucket list is a UK drive from Penzance (southern point) to John O'Groats in the north of Scotland.  It's about the same distance in California from the Mexican Border to the Oregon Border, which, as a Californian, I've mostly driven. But what fascinates me is that their countries, over the same distance, have so many different, diverse places. California does have different (and very beautiful) scenery across the state and slightly different lifestyles from south to north but the UK has obvious differences across the different communities within much shorter distances, along with the scenery. Scottish Borders is markedly different than Cornwall, for example. What would take me a week or so to see most of CA I would want to spend a month or more there.

ETA: I have already driven from Hadrian's Wall to John O'Groats and from Inverness to Isle of Skye. Even between those closer places there was quite a difference in landscape and communities that I visited.

Edited October 29, 2018 by Glaze Crazy

[WatchrTina]

I couldn't decide where the right place was to put this so I decided to play it safe and put it here.  So . . . Sam's raising money for his charity via a raffle.  What's on offer?  A date with Sam.  Also air fare and lodging in Scotland but who cares about that -- the real prize is a date with Sam.  Yeah I already donated.

 

Edited November 2, 2018 by WatchrTina

[Cdh20]

Me too! But I think it’s a crazy idea! 

[Clawdette]

I saw a similar ad with Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka inviting you on a double date with them in Central Park.  I wonder who many of these ads there are.

[Nidratime]

Was watching MSNBC and heard that the White House had received a Fraser Fir from North Carolina as the official White House Christmas tree. I was curious about that and googled.

Quote

Fraser Fir Trees. The Fraser fir was named for John Fraser, a Scottish botanist who explored the southern Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina in the late 1700s. It is a pyramid-shaped tree that reaches a maximum height of 80 feet and a trunk diameter of 1-1/2 feet.

http://www.ncchristmastrees.com/educational-environmental/fraser-fir-trees

So, maybe Jamie's (and not John's) trees grace the White House since, hey, Jamie's the one who has a ridge with trees on it, not some botanist! ;-)

[MartyQui]

On 11/2/2018 at 1:21 PM, Clawdette said:

 

I saw a similar ad with Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka inviting you on a double date with them in Central Park.  I wonder who many of these ads there are.

 

It’s not an ad it’s a charity website called Omaze.  They have a lot of wonderful promises you can buy raffle tickets for.

Prizes, not promises!

[WatchrTina]

Okay I'm coming here to register my amazement at what some people will tweet to Diana.  As I think we are all aware, Diana does not discuss politics in her tweets, her Facebook postings or (I presume) anywhere else in the Outlander online universe.  Nevertheless, today somebody decided to take her to task because (according to that person) she had checked out us (Diana's twitter followers) and based on her investigation of what WE tweet about she has determined that it's clear we're predominantly from the political left.  Ergo, she felt fully empowered to ascribe to Diana the political views that this person saw expressed by some of Diana's twitter followers and then to take Diana to task for supposedly promoting those views.

WTF?

Diana is not perfect (nor am I) but I have to give her full marks for the effort that she makes to engage with her readers and the show's viewers.  She is amazingly accessible to us and we are (let's face it) occasionally a demanding, opinionated bunch. In all that lovely back-and-forth I have NEVER seen her talk about politics.  So it really pisses me off that someone would try to chastise her for the political views held by some of her fans.

Of course I don't really have to get my knickers in twist over this because Diana does not suffer fools gladly and she set the woman straight.  But still . . . I hate it when I see an Outlander "fan" behaving badly.  I feel like it reflects poorly on all of us.

[toolazy]

On 12/3/2018 at 6:50 PM, WatchrTina said:

Okay I'm coming here to register my amazement at what some people will tweet to Diana.  As I think we are all aware, Diana does not discuss politics in her tweets, her Facebook postings or (I presume) anywhere else in the Outlander online universe.  Nevertheless, today somebody decided to take her to task because (according to that person) she had checked out us (Diana's twitter followers) and based on her investigation of what WE tweet about she has determined that it's clear we're predominantly from the political left.  Ergo, she felt fully empowered to ascribe to Diana the political views that this person saw expressed by some of Diana's twitter followers and then to take Diana to task for supposedly promoting those views.

WTF?

Diana is not perfect (nor am I) but I have to give her full marks for the effort that she makes to engage with her readers and the show's viewers.  She is amazingly accessible to us and we are (let's face it) occasionally a demanding, opinionated bunch. In all that lovely back-and-forth I have NEVER seen her talk about politics.  So it really pisses me off that someone would try to chastise her for the political views held by some of her fans.

Of course I don't really have to get my knickers in twist over this because Diana does not suffer fools gladly and she set the woman straight.  But still . . . I hate it when I see an Outlander "fan" behaving badly.  I feel like it reflects poorly on all of us.

Diana bends over backwards to keep politics out of her posts and does a pretty good job.  It's possible to ferret out some of her attitudes based on the books and her Catholicism but there is nothing to indicate any sort of overarching political philosophy and I thank the good lord for that.  

But we have to face facts that Outlander fans behave badly all the time.  The fandom is full of.... well, let's call them characters. 

[Clawdette]

My late husband's niece has just been admitted into the Cross Creek Pipes and Drums.  She received a bagpipe in the spring and has practiced energetically since then.  The group is invitation only so I think she must have some aptitude.  I live about three hours away from that area so I haven't heard her play.  The Highland Scot heritage is still nurtured in that environs.  

Cross Creek Pipes and Drums

Yes, it's that Cross Creek.  The area around what is now Fayetteville, North Carolina was originally called Cross Creek and it's still a regional moniker.  One of the shopping malls in Fayetteville is called Cross Creek Mall.  The Cape Fear River runs from southwest of Raleigh to Wilmington.  So after Jamie and Claire ventured to Aunt Jocosta's from Wilmington by way of the Cape Fear River, they had to turn to the northwest and travel about 200 miles to reach the area of Fraser's Mountain.

[WatchrTina]

This video contains examples of what real Scottish accents sound like and it made me laugh until I cried.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVN4PRLrpsA

[Nidratime]

And on the same topic:

[Clawdette]

Diana is coming to North Carolina at the end of April.  She'll start with two events at Tryon Palace in the eastern part of the state and then move to the Piedmont to a site that we have visited in the books but not in the series.  

Spoiler

Alamance County and Alamance Battleground

The latter site is a couple of hours from me and the two events are $100 and $300 each.  I actually debated attending and set up an Eventbrite reminder.  But on ticket-buying day, I couldn't pull the trigger.  

It would have been nice if the show could have filmed at Tryon Palace but logistics, I know.  I don't remember Diana coming to NC since the series dropped but I could be wrong.

[Scarlett45]

I’m headed to Scotland next week. Yes I’m doing an Outlander tour, photos will follow.