Random Googlebits, Part Quatre

I've missed blogging, but had so much work of late. Now I'm on holiday, for the whole of July [edited: I did mean to write July originally - stressed brain!], I will get to the transcripts I've been itching to do. Once my brain settles. But since I have some random googlebits once again, I might as well serve these as an appetizer. It's a bit meatier than just "Hat Man". (I was tired.)

James' imdb profile has added Anika - as Anika Jahan Callis. The post from James has only the first name, so this must be updated by some inside source. Exciting! Doing a little digging online, Jahan is a Hindi or Muslim name meaning "the world". Anika Jahan is a lovely combination, and looks very exotic to me (especially Jahan, which I'd never seen before). James and Neha have great taste. I'm glad I like all their kids' names, because names are very important to me. *name nerds*

His profile also lists their wedding date as 30 December, 1998. A bit of extra trivia there. (I wrote "tricia" instead of "trivia" and had to correct myself. Wonder why?) Now someone needs to update his Wikipedia article - not so keen on the picture (you can't even see his hair!), no info on the children, but it does mention his parents own a B&B and even links to the definition of "bed and breakfast". Keeping to the essentials! I'm not going to touch the article, though, because I'm still surly that it refused to keep my links to my and kixxa's blogs or even the Unofficial Website, which is the number one source for old stuff and the only source for direct messages from James. James needs an official homepage.

I doubt people are reading the FedCon post anymore, so a link to some more beautiful photos from FedCon below. Looks like professional ones, and so many of James! There are some great poses from the Q&A. Adorable. (And the suit looks grey in most of the pictures. Let's just trust that it was beige.)

And a picture of James at the JV festival, this time in B&W. With a transcript of HeadSix and HeadBaltar's final speech.

This girl bought Gaius Baltar's jail clothes, but they turned out to be unworn extras. But no worries, she can still wear them, because James is so tiny. Our widdle man! *coos* I think the clothes look pretty hot on her, actually. They did look hot on James too. There are worse prison outfits.

A review of the Merlin movie, which - well, pretty much captures what I wanted to say about it. I'll be honest: I didn't like it all that much; it sounded like it could be cool, as a concept, but seeing the thing was... not completely cringeworthy, but not that enjoyable either. The deep voice thing doesn't work at all. I don't mind the accent; I can understand it pretty well and might even transcribe the most important lines. But the voice - it's just not James' voice. I felt the same way with One Night With the King. This is just my theory, but I think keeping his voice that way sucks a part of his energy that he needs for the performance, and the performance therefore feels a bit like he's holding something back. It could be the voice or something else. There are great acting moments, but as a whole, it's not really his best work. I'm not super disappointed, because it's just a TV movie, and I've never been into medieval films anyway. I just wish he got roles that were a bit more noteworthy in the media. I wonder how Rubins will be distributed. If it comes out in theatres here, I'm definitely seeing and reviewing it!

In case I haven't plugged them yet, the final David Eick video blogs featured James pretty heavily. They didn't load for me today for some reason, but shouldn't be geo-coded, because I was able to watch them before. They were filmed during the making of the finale, so lots of shots of the open air for once.

I particularly liked the final readthru. RDM is crying; Eddie is crying silently and others look at him with respect; Tricia is teary and James sounds like he's on the verge of tears too. You can see them reading the final lines. It's really very touching. It's odd to watch that and then read the fan fallout at Syfy where so many people were angry. I have to side with the cast here; even if I wasn't happy with everything, the finale moved me and made me feel a calm sense of gratitude. It's over, and that hasn't really sunken in yet (I wonder if it has for James, a year after they finished filming?) - but it was damn good and I'm grateful.

Older stuff:

Lots of people are googling "James Callis Spooky lyrics". I'm sorry, but I've tried listening to the Youtube videos and so far, haven't succeeded in putting together coherent lyrics. Basically they're not online anywhere, and you'd just have to piece it together. If anyone's interested in helping out, here's what I've got so far:

it's spooky
how you know
we haven't been introduced
? understand
?
maybe you're pscyhic
maybe I'm almighty
maybe we're exactly the same
? way of two dogs

? ? expectations
? ?
special reputation

I don't do voodoo
I don't know if you do
but if you need a sacrifice
I'm your man

So that would be the first verse and the chorus. The videos online are fan recordings, and it's almost impossible to hear his voice at some bits, from all the instruments. So um, I'm not sure if I can help people with this. I wish I could; I loved Spooky, it was crazy and creative and a positive surprise. I did expect it to be bland and typical Brit-pop, but it's not at all.

Helpfully, someone stole the lyrics sheet (WTF?`Who does this?), and has posted a short excerpt (this is from the end of the song):

It's too spooky, too spooky,
Too spooky how you understood me
Now I don't got…I said no words
You looked at me as plain as verse
What the hell am I supposed to do
When I get my paws ahold of you
Stumble, tumble, fumble, bumble
Took you for a ride, kiss me…

Like I've said before - insane genius. This is kind of how I imagine James' brain stumbling, tumbling, fumbling, bumbling with words and ideas. He just has so much stuff in there, it's like a bolt of lightning to hear a bit of it.

There are some nice photos at that link, and I do appreciate the lyrics excerpt, but um, you stole something and then say you won't repost it for privacy reasons? I don't consider lyrics to a song sung in public particularly private. It also mentions the song was going to be used on BSG but wasn't. Maybe James was playing on that in the mockumentary with all the "Ron loves it, he's definitely going to put it in the show..." It's a shame. I hope we get to hear a better-quality version of Spooky and perhaps some other songs later. James originally wanted to be a musician, and I wonder if he ever misses that dream. I don't see why he couldn't do both acting and music.

I found a version of the BSG Burbank 2006 James & Tricia panel article - wow, what a long phrase - that doesn't have a coding problem. (I linked to a version before that had pictures, but kept cutting off the full article at various places.) While it sadly doesn't contain more info on the donut story, there are some other very interesting (and perhaps more important) points to be found. No direct quotes though. Some samples:

James thinks that one of their key strengths on the show is the unique nature of their relationship, and that nobody else on the show has anybody that they confide in. Only Baltar and Six really express what is going on inside their heads.

That's very true, and probably one of the key aspects that drew me to the characters. I've always loved being inside someone's head in that way. It's the main reason I love fiction, and if a character doesn't have a rich (and preferably hidden) inner life, I easily find him/her boring.

Baltar was never conceived as a cold, calculating man and one of the things that James tries hard to show is that Baltar has warmth and compassion. He is used as a benchmark on the show in a way, that although he can be incredibly self-serving, even he feels upset about certain things (such as the manner in which Gina was treated) and if something bothers even him, then it must be truly significant.

I'm probably going to quote every article where James says something about this, because this is an aspect of Baltar that people tend to completely overlook.

James said that in a scene it’s typically one person’s task to be emotional, and somebody else’s task to be the foil. The person who has the emotional task is frequently hiding away in solitude before a scene, while everyone else is kicking back and having fun on the set. James typically prepares himself by going out for a smoke break and loading up on caffeine. He has also found that to play a scene where the character is exhausted, you yourself can’t be exhausted. (Not a method actor then huh?) Acting requires energy, so performances are always better when the actor feels well.

It's cute to hear him mention caffeine, although it's hardly news that he tends to load up on it, after seeing all the coffee/Cola next to him in pictures. Tricia, on the other hand, likes to hop up and down to get energy for scenes. It's interesting that Tricia loves sports and being physical, while James seems to like to... well, get high on various addictive (if legal) substances. I love how gleefully indulgent he can be. I can definitely relate to his lifestyle more than Tricia's.

Slightly off topic, two pictures of me with baby James, my cousin's baby. Gush both about the name and the fact that James' Anika is about the same age, two months. *Double gush!!*

OK, this turned out quite long as usual. I enjoyed writing a long post again. More coming soon!