The "Brit a Day" series

What does a months-long parade of attractive British men have to do with fiction, you might well ask? These gentlemen have inspired some lovely scenes, part of the life I live in my head. Over time, some of these scenes reach out to one another and begin to form a story. For the present, each one of these pictures provides a writing prompt for me, a way to keep me writing with a sense of passion and narrative, even when the stories are not yet fully formed.



Wednesday, February 29, 2012

A Brit a Day [#696]


Matt Smith in Christopher and His Kind, a 2011 BBC television film. It tells the story of Christopher Isherwood's life in Berlin in the early 1930s.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

A Brit a Day [#695]

Rupert, Emma, and Dan on an unknown occasion.  One more from the archive...because we miss the kids.

Monday, February 27, 2012

A Brit a Day [#694]

An Ood and the Tenth Doctor.

The crocheted version of Tennant has the sideburns right on the money.


Sunday, February 26, 2012

A Brit a Day [#693]


As I mentioned yesterday, I just finished reading a book about the early 20th century treks to the South Pole. [Confirms my theory that even intelligent men do way crazier things than any woman would do.] I can't imagine ever putting up with cold like that. If some woolies, some leather, and a guy to put his arms around me [or any combination thereof] aren't enough to keep me warm, then it's just too cold for me.

Rickman, as pictured above, could provide all three.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

A Brit a Day [#692]

I just finished reading Beryl Bainbridge's novel, The Birthday Boys, an account of Robert Falcon Scott's tragic march to the South Pole told in turns from the point of view of the five men who died there.  Here is an excerpt from the final section, the words of Captain Titus Oates as Bainbridge imagines them--



And of course that black flag told them that Roald Amundsen and his party of Norwegian explorers had beaten them to the Pole.

The photo of Scott in his Antarctic expedition hut can be opened in another window and examined for incredible detail.  My god, you can almost smell the penguins!

By the by, Beryl Bainbridge was an incredibly talented but unsung author.  She died last year at only 77 of cancer.  Send up some love to her spirit some time by reading one of her books, this one for example, or perhaps An Awfully Big Adventure.

Friday, February 24, 2012

A Brit a Day [#691]

From the filming of the 'Modern Art' video, about 2006.  Art Brut, with Eddie Argos [center] as frontman.  This setting has always reminded me of the scene early in 'Wings of Desire' where the 2 angels are sitting in a convertible in the showroom of a BMW dealer.  I couldn't find a still looking from behind them toward the street, but that's the view I'm thinking of.


Thursday, February 23, 2012

A Brit a Day [#690]


How do you like your Desmond--struggling to understand the Hatch upon arrival, or at the end of his ordeal as he parts ways with the Oceanic Six aboard the 'Searcher'?  I'll take one of each and everything in between.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

A Brit a Day [#689]

Felt like we could all use a lot more Matt Smith today than the usual singlet.  Thank you to whomever's tumblr I stole this lovely picspam from.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

A Brit a Day [#688]

A shot of Dan Radcliffe with a lovely play of shadow on light, fringe on eyes.

Monday, February 13, 2012

A Brit a Day [#687]

I'll be disappearing for a week to do some traveling.  And yes, I will be stopping briefly in Las Vegas.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

A Brit a Day [#686]

Rickman contemplates the time.

I bought a watch with left-over Christmas money at a Japanese thrift shop I affectionately call the 99 Yen Store.  The watch devoured three changes of battery in less that two weeks--but I've been mulling over the advantages of wearing a broken watch [first brought to my attention by Eddie Argos some years ago]--when you are cornered by someone you don't wish to talk to, you can always be running late for another meeting.  A glance at your wrist, a look pleading for forgiveness...and you're off.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

A Brit a Day [#685]

I really loved this detecting-insurance-fraud-by-faking-ones-own-death scene from Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch's crocodile tears.  Note that the man himself has hit his mark.

Friday, February 10, 2012

A Brit a Day [#684]

Performance....art....performance....art...performance...

[Eddie Argos in the early days of band Art Brut]

Thursday, February 9, 2012

A Brit a Day [#683]


I know in my brain he is the same guy, but in my gut and in my heart, the Lost-era Ian seems like a different person.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

A Brit a Day [#682]

Get it?....He's a Time Lord.  [Matt Smith, not dressed as the Eleventh Doctor, though.]

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

A Brit a Day [#681]

Dan looking darling last summer on the Today show.  I love his khaki-chambray-knit-tie style.

Monday, February 6, 2012

A Brit a Day [#680]

Benedict Cumberbatch and David Tennant tango for the ladies at an afternoon tea.  [They declined a request for Apache dancing as an encore.]

See here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_dance

Sunday, February 5, 2012

A Brit a Day [#679]

Professor Snape's Best Hair Day Ever.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

A Brit a Day [#678]

A nice portrait of Daniel Craig I got from someone's tumblr celebrating 'The Girl with... Tattoo.'

Friday, February 3, 2012

A Brit a Day [#677]

Eddie Argos and Dyan Valdes of Everybody Was in the French Resistance.....Now!  I do believe I see the evening's set list written on a paper plate lying on the stage.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

A Brit a Day [#676]

I got into watching a couple of episodes of 'Murder She Wrote' while folding laundry the other day, and as with any gateway drug, it was only a short downward slide into streaming episodes of the BBC's 'Midsomer Murders', a cheeky crime drama that takes place in Midsomer County, a fictional and picturesque location in the English countryside where at least 2 murders per episode have taken place since 1997.  Our own HIC participated in the mayhem back in 2004 as the uncouth character Gareth Heldman.  I won't provide any spoilers by saying on which side of the crime wave Gareth fell [ahem], but I can suggest that the bulk of Ian's performance is in the first 15 minutes of the episode 'The Fisher King.'

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

A Brit a Day [#675]

Matt Smith is tagging along with yesterday's theme of extreme lift in the fringe.