Greensboring :: Outside The Media. Beyond The News.

Day two at the BBC...

okay gang... I've got to tell you... I was 5 feet from JOHN BARROWMAN!!!! OMFG!!!! Like maybe SFI doesn't believe in coincidences... but err.... then again I shared the same pavement with the man...

Okay this is how it went down... So I'm standing in the big circle the "round-about" in the middle of the question mark... yes... The BBC Television Centre is in the shape of a question mark... (little trivia for you)... and I'm staring at the center fountain... now no longer a fountain when John Freaking Barrowman walks behind me, and my chaperone states "oh there's John Barrowman"....

Suddenly Liv is speechless, her world is in slow motion... her bottom jaw is drops like paint dripping down the wall.... and in my brain now half way dealing with the lack of oxygen from not breathing... is telling myself to scream... do something.... Come on "Liv"!!!! No words would come out... by the time I could get my body to signal my muscles to do something.... John... was gone and on to his dressing room....

I felt like a school girl...

But then again... out of 9 million people in London... I was one of them who got to feel the breeze of John Barrowman walk by....

So besides that... The BBC is an amazing place... They've taken an approach similar to my suggestions I made to local media in Greensboro about combined news rooms encompassing different media types and made it work beautifully here.... (Really cool to see something I recommended to John Robinson in action over here.) Today the studio was prepping for Red Nose Day 09 which is this huge charity event... tons of British girls were lined up at the gates to catch their favorite celebrity enter the gates.... It was kind of neat to walk past all that and through security....

Luckily they had a Tardis handy for me to get super silly with.... and embarrass myself... as did they a lovely BBC store where I got the kids a sonic screwdriver... oddly... you can't access the store just walking on the street... you actually have to find a way into the studio to access the store....

I happened to procure a handy Torchwood 2009 calendar with John Barrowman on the cover.... I held it tight as I walked back tonight... somewhere along the way... it hit me... today might have been the best day of my life.

No... way.

That's awesome. Sounds like you're having an incredible time.

Crap! They got gays in the UK too? Man, you guys are EVERYWHERE!

Sanjuro wrote:No... way.

That's awesome. Sounds like you're having an incredible time.

We're still talking about it... it was freaking incredible... Seriously.... what are the freaking chances? I mean... me, the worlds #1 John Barrowman fan... happening to be in London visiting the studios at precisely the moment he's there...

More incredible is I happen to be standing by the door he enters at exactly the same moment he is on the way in...

If only I could have gotten him back to the hotel...

BecauseHeLives wrote:Crap! They got gays in the UK too? Man, you guys are EVERYWHERE!

Speaking of... since it's the weekend we swung down to SOHO and hung out... it's like homo-world there... Kind of like the complete opposite to NC... In fact you get a discount if you show your rainbow card.

You should go to Brighton. Wall-to-wall lesbians. Famous for it.

I'd love to but we're so running out of time!!!!

Today we're meeting "Smiler" down at Paddington... and we're also swinging by Trafalgar for the St. Patty's Day Bash... going to hit a pub at some point for some Guinness.... and then tomorrow we're at Paddington for a 9am-ish train to Cardiff.... Then coming back tomorrow night, and then our flight is out on Tuesday back to the states...

So I've been thinking. There's a few posts I meant to make after returning from London and Cardiff I never got to make, so I thought I'd make them today. One is all my John Barrowman paraphernalia I was able to purchase. Most of you are shaking your head at this point, but deal with it... The "God doesn't/does exist debate" thread count far out numbers the small amount of "John Barrowman is God" post count by a huge number....

So John Barrowman Goodie #1:

Torchwood Calendar, and oh yes.. April is a great month. Best yet, the it goes perfectly with my newly finished cupboards. Okay.... technically they're still in process.... but it make it so much more enjoyable to work on them now with John in the Kitchen. It's just going to be a sad day when May rolls around.

John Barrowman Goodie #2:

Torchwood poster. Like the calander we picked both this up at the Doctor Who exhibition in Cardiff. I've yet to get a frame for this, or decided exactly where to put it.... so it stays wrapped up, safely kept in the closet.

John Barrowman Goodie #3:

Torchwood yearbook. Seems a bit goofy, but it's actually a detailed behind the scenes production book with really great color pictures and detailed interviews with the cast of Torchwood. I particularly liked how John indicated a great deal of fear about bringing the show stateside with our conservative views and his pride at being an openly gay man playing an omnisexual who is loved both in America and the U.K. It was good reading material for our two hour train ride back to London sitting in a fluorescent lit carriage.

John Barrowman Goodie #4:

I don't think I've seen a television show other then Lost in High Definition that is more deserving of the Blu-ray format than Torchwood. I can't wait for July when Season 2 hits Blu-ray.... Till then I can show the kids all the places we visited while actually in Cardiff, and catch up on all the nuances I've missed when I originally rented it on DVD a year ago.

I love all the shots of Cardiff in High Def.

Oh it's awesome... It means so much more to me now that I've been though... Cardiff being so small, it's funny how I can watch the show now and say... "Hey that's the bathroom in the shopping complex!"

You gonna be watching THIS???

[youtubevideo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AizV9vmGG0[/youtubevideo]

Oh yeah....

If I had the money, I'd be on a flight the day it shows on BBC...

I'm so excited....

I've seen several interviews from the crew that have said Beeb pulled out all the stops... that it's nothing short of cinematic....

I'm just curious about the lag time on it hitting the US via legal means.