#HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO MY GLORIOUS CREATION | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thosequeenboys · 4 years

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My Tumblr One-year Anniversary

Appreciation Post: Shout out to some great creators!

I put together this post of creators whose work I’ve enjoyed as part of my One-year Anniversary. Many create in multiple categories: Art, gifs, moodboards, writing, history, humor. My mind boggles daily at the talent on this site! Thanks to those here and many others for contributing to a great year!

Enjoy their work-and you know what to do!

I’m no doubt leaving people out-sorry if I upset anyone-I actually maxed out the allowed @‘s!

@warriorteam1924. “I want it all!” And this Renaissance Woman delivers: Gif/video/photo editor/moodboard creator—and talented writer of many styles! And Bestie! Recent fave offers a glimpse into Roger’s past As far as the Eye Can See And other gems on this Masterlist

@johndeaconshands Dear friend with great sense of humor! Lovely Works including this BoRhap Boys with Families: it’s the little things

@roger-taylors-car Here’s the glorious Masterlist of this great writer & lovely supporter

@bohemianartsfarts: This amazing artwork inspired my Joger Week submission.

@freddie-moments Curator of stunning Freddie photos and gifs. Here’s one of my faves as I am a huge fan of Fred in Arrow-wear ™️ and Hot off the press: 10-day Freddie challenge

@angrylizardjacket Especially love this writer’s Unspecified Reader works like this Soft Sunrise with Roger

@seventhmoonforreal I was in tears upon discovering this artist’s graphic novel of 39

@onegoldenglance posts rare photos and beautiful gifs-also does scientific study (x)

@debdarkpetal “Everyone knows Deb” as Joe said about Ben. Curator and Editor Extraordinaire of Queen photos and gifs. (X)

@quirkysubject For the Day I Take your Hand is a gorgeously written work of time travel that weaves in Queen, AIDs and NYC history. Hold the handrail, kids-it’s 88 emotional chapters.

@his-majesty-king-mercury Freddie expert and Historian!! Lovely pal - And talented writer too: Loverboy

@an-abyss-called-life Historian esp. for Roger and Brian. Love this interview with Roger (x)

@melisa-may-taylor72 Amazing historian, gif creator and lovely pal. Yoyogi ‘85 concert clips and all Japan tour gifs-and stories are stellar!

@cumberbitchposting Hilarious creations and comments. I feel called out with this one - as do many (x)

@doctorqueensanatomy All around great contibutor, humorist, supporter-and writer: Masterlist

@stesichoreanpalinode: Leads the humor brigade. This post almost made me choke. And why am I being called out as John? It happened ONCE ok maybe TWICE— but I did find plates!

@mephisto92 Gawd what talent! Here, combining two of my loves: Queen and Monet moodboards And one of the Best Fandom creations: Let me tell you the story about the sun and the moon

@drivenbybri Gorgeous artwork and mood board creator. This stunning Queen 30-day Song Challenge will kick-off my second year!

@natromanxoff posts amazing historic photos and gifs. Gosh, I love this Queen Backstage mood board made for me. Thanks, Dear! (x)

@queensilveryrog Talented writer and mood board creator plus lovely person and supporter! Also leader of the Small Writers Discord Group!Can’t choose one work so have at it! (X)

@captvinswaan This Joe and Ben gif-Moodboard is a fave-and puts me in a damn good mood!

@stardust-killer-queen Amazing contributor! Must-see compilation: feel good Queen vids Gifted me this stunning moodboard for the Possessed by Love event. I love it so much!

@heybuddy-drabbles @halfasleepoetry This creative duo penned the beautiful slow burn Parallel Hearts and supports Hardzzello writers.

@yourlocalmusicalprostitute great work in Masterlist. This Brian HC is •gulps•

@benhardypout Incredible writer, Moodboard creator and supporter. Masterlist

@slutforbritdick Darling pal and supporter & writer. Love this hot and lovely Ben work.

@bohemiansweede a multi-faceted contributor Totally blown away by this art work (x)

@mirkwoodshewolf: Treasured pal. creative brainstormer. Gifted writer. Smart as hell. Was Thrilled to receive this amazing work as my Secret Santa: Two bassists in rhythmic love Elton John+Queen John=Happy TQB. Blessed!

@jessahmewren Talented writer who has inspired me. This Poly!Queen Four Eyes is a fave. Who wouldn’t want to show Rog how sexy he is in his glasses??!!

@queeme-machine Interesting and insightful poster - this one about The Prophet’s Song. (X)

@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels Dear friend & supporter, skilled Sunflower 🌻 grower - and writer. Faves: Very Mazzello Thanksgiving & Don’t you hear my call

@im-an-adult-ish Lovely pal and supporter and a skilled writer to boot: Morning Surprises

@deakysgurl Curator of beautiful Deaky pics, great supporter and writer. Love this present day John love story My Life Has Been Saved.

@amethyst-serenade Blessed to be friends with this lovely, fun & talented writer. Must read!: In the Name Of Love

@mazzell-ro Lovely pal, supporter and writer. Love this creative depiction of Joe as Villian.

@stephydearestxo. Lovely pal and supporter-and wonderful writer! Play the game

@ramblingqueenfangirl insightful and lovely posts. This of Freddie is beautiful (x)

Much gratitude to the following dears who support, reblog and comment and also have great blogs. Love seeing u on my dash: @jennyggggrrr @captaincoffeegirl515 @marianaletosnape @oniriquex @punkebass @stewielover95 @mrsjosephmazzello @igotsuckedintothevoid @lapofthemusicgods @fairestkillerqueenofall @hellysthings @roger-hardy-taylor @pastelhybristophiliac @nickie--picky @orionis8689 @brinteylovesaliens @supernaturalee @39-ers

Here’s all the ways I measured my great tumblr year!

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elizadoolittlethings · 5 years

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Cyberons, sexy Zygons and Mark Gatiss: the bizarre world of the unofficial Doctor Who spin-offs

An oral history of the franchise's unlicensed spin-offs with Sylvester McCoy, Nick Briggs and those at the heart of Who's fan-made films

By Thomas Ling

Tuesday, 27th November 2018 at 1:19 pm

Colin Baker, the man who played The Sixth and arguably proudest Doctor, was next to naked. But he didn’t seem bothered by the bare front peeking through his limp dressing gown. And nor by the vision of a dying Peter Davison that had caused him to collapse while presenting a live TV weather report moments earlier.

Instead, in this semi-stripped moment, his focus belonged solely to Nicola Bryant, the actor who had played Doctor Who companion Peri – and the woman currently planting kisses down his exposed chest.

The 7 biggest contradictions in Doctor Who canon

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A surprising turn, many would think, but Baker seemed completely at ease. Yet soon there would be things he couldn’t ignore.

Soon he’d unearth a plot to replace humans with a synthetic race that could survive a poisoned atmosphere. Soon he would encounter a mysterious Michael Moore-style filmmaker who took the appearance of Sylvester McCoy. And, perhaps most worrying of all, soon he’d witness an apparition of Jon Pertwee that would vanish as unexplained as it had appeared.

Of all the directions Doctor Who could have taken, few could have predicted this. Yet the above is exactly how many fans celebrated the show’s 30th anniversary in 1993: watching a half-naked Colin Baker in The Airzone Solution, a fan-made straight-to-video multi-Doctor story.

Except this wasn’t actually a Doctor Who story. Not officially, anyway. But while Baker, Davidson, McCoy and Pertwee weren’t actually playing Time Lords, The Airzone Solution was Doctor Who in all but name. As McCoy explains to us, the film was “a kind of shadow of Who. Something different with major Whovian influences.”

And although not a licenced Doctor Who production, The Airzone Solution had more of a standing in the fandom than anything the BBC had gifted Whovians since putting the show on hiatus four years earlier in 1989.

While the amateur filmmakers behind Airzone managed to reunite four Doctors for an hour-long special, the BBC’s planned anniversary extravaganza The Dark Dimension collapsed completely mid-production. From its wreckage the Beeb merely marked three decades of the most influential British sci-fi creation with a Doctor Who/EastEnders crossover introduced by Noel Edmonds.

True, this Children in Need short saw the Tardis back on BBC1, but Romana riffing with the Mitchell brothers and the Fifth Doctor crossing paths with Pat Butcher was hardly the glorious return of the Time Lords many had imagined.

So, with fans’ appetites unsatisfied, thousands fed their hunger for Who with The Airzone Solution and the string of 24 other spin-offs films that emerged in the show’s wilderness years – the decade and a half without a regular Doctor Who TV series.

They weren’t official BBC stories, but they did heavily borrow from Doctor Who mythology and featured a mix of past actors, characters and suspiciously familiar monsters (no points for guessing what the ‘Cyberons’ were based on).

More importantly, though, these films nurtured Who’s biggest stars of the revived series. Writer and actor Mark Gatiss, voice of the Daleks Nicholas Briggs and writer Robert Shearman, alongside the likes of Alan Cumming and Reece Shearsmith: all cut their teeth on these films.

And while many of these stars might look back at them with a blush, the spin-offs may well be the reason they ended up working on the revival show.

Despite their shaky CGI, shoestring Sontarans and nymphomaniac Zygons (more on that below), these films actually silently shaped the Doctor Who we know today…

The first, the unoriginal, you might say

It all started in Wartime. All 25 spin-offs were sparked by this 35-minute one-off, a fan-made story that centred on Whovian favourite Sergeant Benton. Although not a household name for modern Who viewers, Benton was a stalwart soldier of the Pertwee era of the show, a key UNIT officer who battled against Cybermen, Daleks and even dinosaurs on Britain’s streets.

Yet it’s not the return of original actor John Levene as Benton, the character’s surreal confrontation with his soon-to-be-widowed mother or even the fantastically 1980s CGI skull that stands out about Wartime. It’s the release date: 1987, two years before Who was pulled off air.

In other words, Wartime wasn’t made in response to the cancellation, but for a very different reason.

“We made Wartime because we weren’t happy with the way that Doctor Who was going and we thought we could do better,” says Wartime producer Keith Barnfather, one of the founding members of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society and former BBC and Channel 4 employee.

“That was an absolute joke considering the funds available. The only reason that [Wartime] got made was that everyone who did it did it virtually for nothing.”

With borrowed costumes, a minuscule budget of only a few thousand pounds and a filming location they had never visited beforehand, Barnfather and his newly-formed production company ReelTime Pictures got Wartime in the can in just three days – about a fifth of the time it takes to film a modern Who episode.

The result: a creaky-looking drama with questionable effects and an enthusiastic but ultimately forced performance from Levene. But all these glaring flaws weren’t important. All that mattered was it had got made. A group of fans had actually put together a real self-contained show set in the world of Doctor Who.

“I was happy – it was the first time we did anything and we actually finished it!” says Barnfather. “It’s not a bad little drama. Even today I can watch it and not cringe.”

Most importantly, however, Wartime proved that independent spin-offs were possible. It showed that Doctor Who stories didn’t require Doctor Who on BBC1. Because when the show was finally cancelled two years later in 1989, other also looked to put their own Who adventures on camera.

And this time the Doctors themselves would want in…

The Time Lords materialise

Determined, brilliant, completely barking mad: there are many ways to describe Who filmmaker Bill Baggs. Indeed, some labelled him all three after he founded BBV Pictures in 1991, kick-starting projects with some truly out-of-this-world ambitions.

Why? Although only a young video editor at BBC Nottingham, the aspiring director/actor aimed to do more than tell Doctor Who stories about background UNIT soldiers. Baggs wanted the Doctors – and plenty of them.

Staggeringly, he got one in his first film. After a script was cobbled together for short drama Summoned by Shadows, Baggs approached Colin Baker to play a lead character known simply as The Stranger, a mysterious and eccentric unnamed traveller who roams time and space with a younger companion. Nothing like The Doctor, of course.

And despite not actually playing a Time Lord, or knowing virtually anything about the film, or having met the man behind it, Baker signed up.

“I could not believe it. I was wetting myself with excitement!” remembers Baggs. “As a Doctor Who fan you have little fantasies about this, but you never expect them to pan out! I was blown away and deeply honoured.”

Although we can’t be sure of Baker’s motives for coming on board – he declined to speak to us about the spin-offs – Baggs puts forward one theory: “I think from Colin’s point of view, he was doing a lot of theatre work after Doctor Who, so why not give up a few days and potentially invest in me, fool that he was,” he says with a laugh.

“From his point of view, I had no profile. He didn’t know me from Adam, apart from being this potentially up-and-coming director. But if you show passion and desire then often people will support you.”

Whatever the reason, Baker did join the project. And despite Baggs becoming cripplingly star-struck after meeting him at rehearsals (“I asked him for a cup of tea and disappeared down the corridor!”), filming soon started in true Doctor Who style: in an empty quarry – the same one, in fact, where Baker had filmed Attack of the Cybermen years earlier.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xanrcw

Like Wartime, this drama had a minuscule budget (just £3000 in total) and, as with the majority of Doctor Who’s 1980s episodes, it hasn’t aged well. Baker’s wonderfully understated performance, however, still shines through. He’s quiet and thoughtful throughout, showing fans exactly what his widely-criticised Doctor could have been.

As Mark Gatiss later told Doctor Who magazine (issue 332) about the films: “I remember watching them and thinking they didn’t look very flashy, but in terms of trying to portray real characters they were a massive improvement on Doctor Who!”

Gatiss wasn’t the only one taken with Summoned by Shadows and what would become ‘The Stranger series’ – thousands bought the films on VHS by post and at conventions.

Demand became too high, in fact. “I had to set up three VHS machines in my bedroom and I was duplicating videos through the night,” says Baggs, recalling how he had to call on his parents to help his videotaping “mini-factory”.

Above: a clip from The Stranger: More than a Messiah

So many copies would be sold, in fact, that by 1993 Baggs had the confidence to embark on a project bigger than anything he done before: a one-off special for Who’s 30th Birthday, The Airzone Solution, the film that would eventually feature a scantily-clad Colin Baker.

Fortunately, that scene doesn’t represent most of the film. Penned by the emerging Nicholas Briggs, Airzone was an environmental thriller set in a near-future Britain where pollution forces the government to build giant filtration plants to clean the dying planet.

And in true Doctor Who style, these centres actually serve a much more sinister agenda: kidnapping and experimenting on innocents to create a new species of human.

Baker once again signed onto the project and Baggs convinced Peter Davison to jump aboard (“that was another moment of punching the air!” Baggs recalls). This was soon followed by McCoy, a monumental achievement considering he was technically still Who’s incumbent Doctor.

Like previous spin-offs, this was by no means a major project with BBC1 exposure and a large pay-packet. But, for McCoy at least, it was a way of keeping the fandom thriving.

“We wanted to feed a hunger that was alive at that time for more Doctor Who,” he says. “I knew the BBC had made a huge mistake by putting Doctor Who into hiatus. I also knew the fans loved [the spin-offs]. For the fans I thought ‘yeah I’ll do this!’”

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Furthermore, with a TV revival appearing absurdly unlikely in 1993, McCoy considered the project the only way Who could survive on screen.

“You might find this hard to believe, but I don’t really have a Tardis. I couldn’t really travel back in time and tell everyone ‘we’re going to make a TV film and then they’re going to bring it back again!’” he chuckles.

With these three star signings, others followed suit. Actors including Nicola Bryant, original Davros star Michael Wisher and the then-relatively-unknown Alan Cumming all joined the film.

But then someone even the omni-ambitious Baggs thought too unattainable got in touch: Jon Pertwee, The Third Doctor. “Sylvester came to me one day and he said ‘I’ve been speaking to Jon Pertwee and he’s been asking why he’s not in it. He might get in touch!’” Baggs remembers.

Sure enough, the call came, with Baggs happily at the former Doctor’s mercy. “It was very charming to actually have an actor so connected to the show call and say ‘I’m in it, whether you like it or not!’”

Pertwee may have been completely unfamiliar with the script when he turned up to set the next day – Peter Davidson actually had to hold up cue cards for him during scenes – but in it he was. And for two days, four Doctor Who leads were brought together for some good old-fashioned low-budget sci-fi.

“It obviously didn’t have quite the financial support that the BBC gave Doctor Who. But it was great because the fans were so involved,” recalls McCoy “We were treated very well. We all had a great time!”

McCoy’s recollections of the shoot are all positive, whether teasing Baker “for taking his job”, filming a chase scene that would fail any modern risk assessment (“I took my glasses off and would be driving around half blind!”), or simply spending time with his Doctor Who co-stars.

“I remember filming and just sharing the day with Colin, Peter and the glorious Jon Pertwee. It was great because it was still alive. When the BBC stopped it, you thought ‘well, that’s it, goodbye’. Doctor Who is one of the great jobs,” he says.

“And although this wasn’t Doctor Who, it was very like Doctor Who.”

The Pandorica opens

As suddenly as the Tardis surfacing from the time vortex, a whole series of Doctor Who spin-offs materialised after The Airzone Solution. Some good. Some bad. All brilliantly weird.

For ReelTime, the makers of Wartime, the next Who project entailed a team-up between Elisabeth Sladen’s Sarah Jane Smith and The Brigadier (a role reprised by original actor Nicholas Courtney) in a story called Downtime featuring the Great Intelligence and some gloriously low-budget Yeti monsters.

This was followed up by adventures featuring Sontarans, a Shakespeare-loving Draconian and even former Doctor Who companion Sophie Aldred, this time playing an unnamed character with, completely coincidently, the same direct way with words as Ace.

But while these characters were typically used with the BBC’s permission, other spin-offs – mostly those created by maverick Bill Baggs under BBV Pictures – simply gave a heavy nod to Who, such as the murderous robotic machines featured in Cyberon or the aforementioned interstellar traveller The Stranger.

But despite the glaring similarities, there seemed to be little fear of the BBC shutting down production. “We didn’t care!” laughs McCoy, who starred in many of Baggs’s later spin-offs. “They deserved to get annoyed because they abandoned it and the fans!”

On other occasions the dramas blended the show’s characters and actors in ways that, simply put, just didn’t make a lot of sense – even by Doctor Who’s timey-wimey standards.

Take the Torchwood-esque PROBE series, directed by Baggs and penned by future Who and Sherlock stalwart Mark Gatiss, a writer slowly gaining success with The League of Gentlemen at the time.

This mid-1990s series centred on the Preternatural Research Bureau, a paranormal investigations unit led by classic Doctor Who companion Liz Shaw, a character Baggs had got permission to use. Original actor Caroline John even reprised the role, a casting that appeared to ground the drama firmly within the world of Who.

However, for rights reasons PROBE wasn’t permitted to mention The Doctor or most events surrounding the show – a restriction that meant Liz was forced not to recognise a non-Time Lord character played by John Pertwee, an actor she had shared adventures with during his tenure as The Doctor.

Mostly, however, the spin-offs followed new characters battling old Doctor Who baddies as they wreaked havoc over the planet. Most notable of which were the Auton films.

Featuring the likes of Reece Shearsmith and CGI that rivalled that seen in the 2005 revival show, the first two of BBV’s ‘Auton Trilogy’ of the late nineties are widely considered the best independent Who spin-offs.

“They are by no means perfect, in fact they’re horribly flawed. But I wrote and directed both of them under fairly impossible budgetary and time constraints, with a lovely team of actors,” says Nicholas Briggs. “I think we managed to create something that worked pretty well.”

However, Auton’s biggest impact on the Who fandom came just before the revival of the main show. Just as the BBC had to reach a deal with the Terry Nation estate to use the Daleks in the show (negotiations that fell through at one point overallegations the broadcaster wanted to make a ‘gay Dalek’ cartoon), they had to consult Bill Baggs, who still held the rights to the Autons thanks to an agreement with the estate of creator Robert Holmes.

“Before it restarted, the BBC phoned me up and asked me if was okay for me to do an Auton show,” laughs Baggs.

“I told this to my wife thinking she wouldn’t say anything, but it happened to be the weekend she was at the Gallifrey convention. And a bit later I got a phone call saying ‘why does the whole universe know that the first episode is an Auton one?!’ I had to apologise humbly.”

Furthermore, some have said characters created for these fan-made spin-offs may have actually inspired those that appear in the main show. Foremost of which: Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT commander and daughter of the Brigadier.

Kate appeared in Chris Chibnall’s The Power of Three in 2012 and the 50thanniversary special The Day of the Doctor – but a character with the same name, background and blonde hair first featured in fan-made film Downtime 17 years earlier.

“Let’s just say we came to an accommodation,” says Downtime producer Barnfather on his subsequent chats with the BBC around their use of the character. “I would never do anything that would hurt the programme or bring it into disrepute.”

Yet Kate Stewart aside, can we say these fan-made spin-offs really gave more to Doctor Who than they took? Did they really inspire the plots of modern Who? Considering the stories the show has produced since its 2005 revival: absolutely not.

However, what if you judge the impact of the spin-offs by the talent they gifted to the main show years later? Well, that’s when things get a lot more interesting…

Stars are born

However flawed these films were, they’re where the Who writers of today learned their craft. They didn’t just make talent like Mark Gatiss and Big Finish head Nick Briggs known amongst dedicated fans, they also gave them a platform to jump to the main show. And, even more importantly, they nurtured the creativity needed for their later projects.

Briggs is the prime example here. Through his extensive work in the world of unlicensed Who he perfected performing Dalek voices, mastering the equipment and vocal tics needed to make a convincing tinpot terror. And this meant when the BBC announced the Doctor Who revival, Russell T Davies was quick to get Briggs on board.

“[Davies] had me in mind from the moment he’d decided he was bringing the Daleks back – not just because he thought I was good at doing Dalek voices, but because he was aware that I had the technical know-how to recreate them,” Briggs explains. “In the absence of a BBC Radiophonic Workshop, I was the sort of total solution. Very lucky for me.”

However, the spin-offs did much more than offer Briggs a route onto the main show. “Any ‘turn around the block’ creating something, no matter how flawed, is invaluable experience for a writer or director or any kind of creative person,” he says.

“It’s one thing to dream, but it’s quite another thing to get the practical experience of actually creating and finishing something.

“[The spin-offs] gave us a real ‘go’ at bringing a dream to life, and helped us realise that we could not only create something, but create something worthy of an audience.

“Actually making things engenders a feeling of permission to create. That’s a big hurdle for any creative person. Do I have the right to create, to communicate, to entertain? Having practice at making something helps to give you that feeling of permission.”

Mark Gatiss echoed a similar sentiment in a League of Gentlemen blog, explaining that although he didn’t want it to be released on DVD, he had gained valuable experience writing The Zero Imperative, his first ever TV script.

“Christ, for all I knew, they were the only things I would ever get to make,” he said. “And I learned a frightening amount from working on them.”

And one of the lessons Gatiss appears to have learned is how to work with some tricky characters. Namely, Bill Baggs.

“I’m a constant meddler when it comes to the scripts,” recalls Baggs. “But Mark tolerated that really well. I remember we would sit together and improvise scenes, which I loved. I’d like to get hold of his writing sometimes and give it a tweak and an edit, but I take my hat off to him. He’s been so successful. There’s nobody else who deserves more and having that experience with him is fantastic.

“But Mark probably wouldn’t have his career in Doctor Who without BBV.”

So, why didn’t Baggs end up working on Doctor Who like Gatiss? Why is it that the man at the heart of the unofficial fandom spent, as he puts it, “a lot of time wondering when the phone was going to ring”?

Rather than being asked to direct an episode, why did Baggs fail to break through to the show, instead funnelling his energy into an alternative medicine, Emotional Energy Healing, and becoming an ‘Akki energetics practitioner’?

Despite Baggs’s assertion that he could work on the main show if he wanted to but simply chooses not to, there could be another reason behind his absence. As Gatiss once told Doctor Who magazine, although he had a “great time”, Baggs “had some very strange ideas as a producer.”

And although Gatiss was referring to Baggs’s tendency to swap scenes around “arbitrarily”, this isn’t one of the strange ideas that fans eventually knew him for.

The misadventures of Doctor Screw

We should say this up front: Bill Baggs wasn’t the first to bring sex into the Whoniverse. During the show’s hiatus years, characters such as Bernice Summerfield (written as a companion of Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor) were often portrayed enjoying some, shall we say, advanced docking maneuverers on the Tardis. Summerfield even apparently had a fumble with The Eighth Doctor himself in book The Dying Days.

However, while ReelTime Pictures kept their films PG and in a similar style and ilk to the main show, stablemate BBV and Bill Baggs became ever more proactive in bringing the saucier side of Who to screen.

That image of a naked Colin Baker we brought up before? The one where he romped with Nicola Bryant, who played Peri in Who? That was thanks to Baggs, who directed the unscripted scene (from under the bed – “I had to! There was no space in that room!”) against the wishes of writer Nicholas Briggs.

“I’m credited as the writer of The Airzone Solution, but I did not write that scene,” Briggs says adamantly. “It was irrelevant to the plot. [Baggs] seemed to agree with me. But I later found out that he just gave up arguing because he could see I wouldn’t change my mind. Then he deliberately deceived me and wrote the scene in any way.”

Baggs, however, stands by it. “Everyone had an opinion about it,” he says. “People got grossed out by it and some found no problem at all.”

But that scene was nothing compared to 2008’s Zygon: When Being You Just Isn’t Enough, dubbed by one reviewer as “the only Zygon-based soft-porn film ever to have been made”. And that’s not an exaggeration. Fortunately, it doesn’t feature the red starfish-like aliens making use of their suckers, but the 18-rated film does see the Zygons at the centre of some very NSFW activities in human form.

Although billed as a serious drama, Baggs openly says it was initially envisioned as something more titillating. “I met a guy at a convention who was into soft porn and he convinced me there was a market for it – not that I had a massive desire to produce a soft porn film, but you’re always interested as a director/producer what markets there were.”

But looking back now, Baggs concedes the project was a misstep. “It was my mistake and nobody else’s,” he adds, before quickly adding: “I’m glad I tried it, though. It was a massive learning experience.”

Zygon wasn’t quite the end of Baggs’s spin-off ideas, with BBV releasing When to Die, a PROBE drama in memory of Liz Shaw star Caroline John in 2012.

However, since then Baggs has been focused on producing theatre dramas, and although he and McCoy still enjoy times together at conventions, the sun has set on the golden time (and space) of BBV films.

A fandom regenerates

26th March 2005, 7pm. For fans across the world, this was the moment the ‘real’ Doctor Who returned to screens. After over 15 years of waiting, the universe’s foremost Time Lord returned in a regular series, captivating a whole new generation of Whovians.

But for the makers of the spin-off films, it was a bittersweet moment. Producers like Bill Baggs had spent years trying to cater for fans with nowhere else to go, fuelling the fandom with films made possible by pure passion for Who. And now it was over: the fans just didn’t need BBV.

As Baggs says, “It was frustrating on one hand and utterly delighting on the other.

“Before they announced they were reviving Who, Alan Cumming and I were actually going to do a special drama, an anniversary special for BBC South with Alan Cumming as The Doctor,” he laments. “But we ended up getting a call from a Who producer telling us we had to stop because the show was coming back – that’s when I first found out.”

Today BBV only operates a small web business and while Barnfather and ReelTime Pictures still film an occasional Who spin-off, they mostly specialise in the likes of archaeological videos in the Greek world (“We’ve got quite the reputation in Cyprus”).

Yet some still claim that fans owe a great debt to Barnfather and Baggs. “Thereason why we’ve got Doctor Who now on television is thanks to those fans who did it way back then,” says McCoy. “The fans of today should be thankful to him because he helped keep alive Doctor Who.”

But is it really true that without their work keeping the fandom alive, the BBC would have never recommissioned the show? Not everyone is convinced.

“That’s absolutely rubbish,” says Barnfather. “The programme would have come back – it’s a franchise that will never die! Even if the Doctor Who fandom didn’t exist, the BBC would have brought it back.”

“The facts just don’t support it,” agrees Briggs. “The people who made the decision to bring back Doctor Who to television had no idea that any of these things existed.”

Yet while it may not be the reason for Doctor Who’s revival, it’s undeniable that these films fostered talent that would change the Tardis forever.

Perhaps more than anything, the films represent how the fandom and the series are forever intertwined. These 25 forgotten spin-offs demonstrate that the line between dedicated fans and the show is beautifully permeable, ideas and talent forever travelling between the two.

And that’s still true to this day. Remember WhoLock, the viral video that imagined two of TV’s greatest characters together? Or the perfect fan-made trailer for Peter Capaldi’s first series? The editor of these films, who goes by the pseudonym John Smith, actually went on to work as a VFX artist for Doctor Who.

This is the real beauty of Who: its fans are constantly creating, inventing new ideas that could make their way on screen in years to come. It’s a collaboration that makes Who and its lead Time Lord arguably stronger than any other sci-fi fandom.

And sure, this symbiotic relationship might bring to light some of the stranger facets of the fandom, or a nymphomaniac Zygon or two. But, just like the Tardis, these spin-offs have often taken The Doctor where he didn’t want to go, but precisely where he needed to.

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News, photos, videos and full episode guide

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#MG #mark gatiss #doctor who #Radio Times #alan cumming #the man behind the genius #interview #all things MG #all about doctor who

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news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog · 5 years

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Genius makes a glorious portrait of Mama Coco entirely out of food

This is One Good Thing, a weekly column where we tell you about one of the few nice things that happened this week.

If you love the movie Coco (and if you don't, you're a monster), prepare to cry all over again thanks to this stunning recreation of the film's titular Mama Coco made entirely of food.

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MAMA COCO from COCO Mash potato, vermicelli noodles, purple cabbage, shrimp, white tortilla wrap, tomato Mama Coco reminds me so much of my naneh - the most kindest, selfless person I ever knew- not a single bad bone in her body. My naneh lived with us growing up, she would walk me to school, cook the most delicious meals and would tell the most amazing stories before bed- my favourite - Shangool, mangool hepeh angoor. As I got older, life got in the way and I visited her less and less. After a few years my naneh moved back to Iran where she eventually developed dementia. Even through this dementia when I would talk to her she would still remember my voice and call me her Zanboor 🐝 Every year I would tell myself - this year would be the year that I would go visit her in Iran- but again life got in the way and I never did. 😔 To this day my biggest regret was not travelling overseas to see her one last time before she passed. I miss her smell, I miss her voice, I miss her. 😔 If you are lucky enough to have a grandparent still alive- pick up the phone - call them, visit them as they don't have much longer on this earth and one day you will regret it- just like me. They say everyone has a guardian angel and I know my naneh is mine. This one is for you Naneh, I love you Love your Zanboor ❤️🐝 . . . Stone: #neolith Beton from @cdkstone #grandma #grandparents #love #foodart #disney #coco #pixar #mamacoco

A post shared by LALEH MOHMEDI (@jacobs_food_diaries) on Mar 29, 2019 at 3:59am PDT

It's the work of Laleh Mohmedi, who started getting creative with her son Jacob's meals and made a thing of creating these works of art using food.

The Jacob's Food Diaries Instagram account is full of more of these creations for your enjoyment. And with each photo, Mohmedi details exactly what foods she used to create each plate in case you want to give it a go (good luck).

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First we had Mickey and Friends toasts to celebrate #Mickey90 and now we’ve moved on to a delicious and nutritious Donald Duck Smoothie Bowl! Again it’s another way to encourage my kids to eat more healthily simply by using @DisneyUK amazing characters and stories to create fun recipes. Do you ever try this tactic, would love to hear below if you do? . . . . #ad #letsgo #donaldduck #disney #smoothie #smoothiebowl

A post shared by LALEH MOHMEDI (@jacobs_food_diaries) on Oct 21, 2018 at 5:05am PDT

And if you want another example of a Pixar character that will make you burst into tears, may I suggest Up's Carl?

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Happy 9th Anniversary to our main man Carl Fredrickson! 🎈 3D CARL from UP! Boiled potato with chicken, potato skins and tomatoes You all know how we feel about this guy - we have made him in so many different ways- We just can’t get enough of him! ❤️ . . . . . #foodstyling #foodart #foodforkids #foodphotography #healthychoices #beautifulcuisines #pixarpierchallenge #thechalkboardeats #happyandhealthy #kidsfood #glowlean #onthetable #organicmoments #colouryourplate #eattherainbow #wholefood #feedfeed #foods4thought #lovefood #glutenfree #organicfood #sundlivsstil #madglad #nemmad #deldinmad #sundmad #økologisk #fruitplatter #funfood

A post shared by LALEH MOHMEDI (@jacobs_food_diaries) on May 29, 2018 at 2:22am PDT

Every plate, even the one of Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Knight, looks stunning and delicious and not at all scary.

Bon appétit and happy sobbing.

WATCH: 5 sneaky Apple references in Pixar movies

#_category:yct:001000002 #_lmsid:a0Vd000000DTrEpEAL #_uuid:45d143b5-2e13-3764-9802-235bd85f3101 #_author:Marcus Gilmer #_revsp:news.mashable

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donnutbuy · 5 years

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#BestFriendAppreciationDay - 7 Y E A R S - For some reason, I've been seeing a lot of this post lately so I guess I shall do one 😅 Well then, let me tell you about my bestfriend! He is so loving and caring; thoughtful and kind; gracious and merciful; powerful and humble; gentle and straightforward; and many more. He is very patient with me. He knows me very well to the point of Him always going after me. Even when times that I don't wanna listen, He's there to comfort me. During the times I'm happy, He's there celebrating with me. When I'm in need, He provides. When im in confusion, He gives wisdom and guidance. He even encouraged me with a letter this morning: For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:4‭-‬6‭, ‬11‭-‬14 NIV We've gone through so many adventures together these 7 years! From OC: UCI->IVC->UCI (again)->OCC-> UCI (again)->Singles To Central: USC->Art Center->ELAC->(?) I never knew where He will take me but all I know is that life without Him is no adventure at all. Happy anniversary to us, God! Our adventure has only began <3 <3 <3 *A picture taken each year* **7 is the number of perfection and completeness -- spiritual perfection** #WeMadeItGod ! #7YearsToEternity #SpiritualPerfection https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp3pg62BzxJJUF5byfEJNcumsDr1ZSF5-NNRaA0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=w8x5x7htz2rx

#bestfriendappreciationday #wemadeitgod #7yearstoeternity #spiritualperfection

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agentroom-blog · 7 years

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youtube

Why Buying Online Is Best

Have ช้ อปปิ้งออนไลน์ you ever been trying to find out if shopping for online is a good idea? In that case, we advise that you just read up on the advantages of shopping online. Given below are just a few benefits that can assist you discover out which option you need to go for. Learn on เว็บขายของมือสอง.

Comfort

Comfort is the most important benefit of constructing purchases on-line. With the assistance of the Internet, you should buy no matter you need to and whenever you want to. You do not have to go away the comfort Social Network for Agentroom of your room simply to order your delicious pizza. In other words, you should use this selection 24/7. In case of eBooks and other software program, you can get your hands on the desired product in seconds.

Higher costs

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More variety

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You might have superb choices when buying your favourite stuff online. You can buy a number of manufacturers from totally different on-line stores with out leaving your home. There might be no have to spend cash on airfare. It's easy to purchase from retailers located in different parts of the planet. The fantastic thing about it's that you've a powerful number of each product that you're considering.

Sending gifts

On-line shopping for means that you can ship items to your pals and relatives without any problem. The geography of your folks will not matter. So, sending gifts on special day, equivalent to weddings, birthdays and anniversaries will not be an issue. You'll be able to place your order via your laptop and the product will be delivered to the given handle.

Bills

At times, we end up spending a lot more cash when purchasing conventionally. The expenses go up due to issues like transportation, blogs eating out and so forth. However in case you are buying on-line, you won't should bear the additional bills.

Price comparisons

In relation to buying on-line, evaluating and researching is loads simpler. In addition, you might have the liberty to share necessary data in addition to reviews with your mates and consumers that have some experience with a sure retailer or product.

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It's not snug to deal with a giant crowd when you find yourself out trying to purchase your required product. That is true particularly during particular occasions and festivals. You might have to take care of some ช็อป ออนไลน์ เก็บ เงิน ปลายทาง smelly, annoying or grumpy people as properly, which isn't really easy. Other than this, you might have the problem of parking. But with on-line purchasing, you possibly can keep away from all of those points.

Compulsiveness

Often, when you find yourself shopping for, you usually tend to spend on things that you don't want. This happens when the shopkeepers insist on you to purchase sure things. They hold telling you the benefits of that product with a purpose to convince you. So, you end up shopping for that thing instead of the one you needed to buy. This doesn't occur when buying online.

Do you ever buy online? How usually to you transact enterprise online? What I've found is that a very good number of individuals still shy away from buying on-line. Most individuals, particularly in the growing world, have not ventured into transacting enterprise on-line. But do not forget that the web is a creation that was invented to improve our lives by doing every thing with just a click of your mouse. By means of this article, I would like to share with you some of the advantages of buying online.

First, buying on-line saves time and energy. To buy a cellphone from a supermarket, 5 kilometers away from your property, you will have to put together yourself first, get your automobile and transfer to the grocery store. What I imply is that you spend your useful time and waste your energy doing one thing you would still do with just a click on of a mouse. Remember that time is restricted and a valuable useful resource. My buddy, save your time by shopping for on-line!

Do you know that purchasing on-line could be very convenient? While you purchase from a retail retailer, at times you undergo a lot of site visitors jam that makes you are feeling disgusted and tired. If you are to walk or journey by public means, you may have to move below the scotching sun or a drizzle. However individuals, who purchase on-line, keep away from the hassle and risks concerned in transferring and shopping for from the standard retail retailer. They only make their orders on-line and in no time, the ordered gadgets are already delivered, particularly if they're downloadable products. Even with solid products, you simply go to pick it as soon as it is delivered to the tackle of destination. Do not you find it handy?

Incomes from the shop where you buy your products is likely one of the biggest benefits you will ever get pleasure from. Just be part of the associates program of the corporate from which you buy your items online, promote the merchandise and earn commission. By so doing, you kill two birds with one stone. You profit from utilizing the product and earn earnings from selling it as effectively. This is not the case once you buy from a traditional retail retailer. You don't earn from the folks you discuss with most conventional businesses round you. I nearly earn additional revenue in type of fee from all of the merchandise I use e.g. auto responders, software and plenty of others. It's simpler to market products you will have ever used.

On-line objects are typically model new and real items. Besides, you will have a wide selection of the merchandise. This is because you purchase from big established on-line shops like TripleClicks and Amazon, which have a name to guard and the place merchandise are acquired from many sources. The merchandise are delivered to you in response to the specifications you give. Risks of shopping for pretend or forfeited objects are minimal because the merchandise are procured from real producers. Do you see the benefit of shopping for on-line?

Shopping for on-line is safer than buying from a close-by retail retailer inside your vicinity. Most established online sellers have built their status on protected and safe shopping. They've a reputation to protect and their success depends largely on their online credibility. This might not be the case with a number of the standard businesses within your locality. Buying on-line enables you to avoid risks of shopping for forfeited and expired items and being cheated.

How knowledgeable are you with the clearing course of? Have you ever ever involved yourself in clearing any objects in your nation? Exposure to the clearing process of your merchandise is one other profit. I had scanty data about it before I began transacting http://www.agentroom.com business on-line. However shopping for on-line helped me to personally clear my goods and to study the whole clearing process. I can import something on-line and clear it with ease. It is a course of each enterprise minded individual ought to be taught.

Easy fee is one other profit of buying on-line. It's easy to pay for any merchandise you purchase in case you have a credit card. You simply click on the mouse and fee is made immediately. There is no hurdle, no tussle, no wasting time and no worries. It's as simple as filling your payment particulars within the type supplied and you are carried out.

Shopping for online saves you a lot of money spent in travel expenses, meals and taxes. Apart from, the merchandise are relatively cheaper in comparison with the merchandise at your retail retailer. I at all times pity businessmen, who spend enormous amounts of cash to journey across nations within the name of importing goods. Why spend your hard earned money on air tickets, accommodation and expensive meals each time it's a must to import the identical items from the same exporter? It's excessive time you made preparations to begin doing your business on-line. That's what I do and what you, too, should explore. You will decrease your costs and maximize your income.

The web has simplified our lives in many aspects. Everybody in his/her field of work can use it.

However what surprises me is that most individuals have not taken advantage of this glorious invention. I get shocked when educated folks, the individuals who would benefit from it most, can not proficiently use it to enhance their livelihood and service delivery. On the opposite side, I really feel motivated with the Agentroom เว็บขายของ rising variety of internet users that be part of the World Broad Community. If you're nonetheless hesitating and conservative with your standard approach of doing business, you can be left behind a thousand times. Promoting and shopping for online is the modern method of transacting business. Don't be left behind!

Did you know that people sell unusual gadgets on-line - particularly at on-line auction sites. My husband bought a small homebuilt airplane for $20,000 on his, and the man who bought it, drove ระบบ ร้าน ค้า ออนไลน์ php all the best way from Louisiana to Oregon hauling a trailer to pick it up. I am not sure I'd have taken an opportunity like that, however he seemed, and still seems quite happy with his buy.

Through the years I've wavered between shopping for on-line and buying locally. I have additionally, by ebay, been concerned in buying and selling on-line.

I first learned about shopping for online once I arrange my public sale web site on ebay. It is true, you may get real bargains there if you're patient and know just find out how to bid on items; additionally it is true which you could find yourself completely disillusioned together with your buy. Most of the objects on eBay are used gadgets and don't always dwell up to the glowing studies supplied by the auctioneer. And, along with the eBay bid value, you normally end up paying a reasonably high transport and handling worth for the merchandise. You'll want to resolve, EARLIER THAN you bid, whether or not that delivery and handling price is too excessive to really make the merchandise an excellent purchase.

In the same means, it is crucial to check every online buy you make and evaluate its basic worth, plus shipping and handling fees with what you possibly can purchase the an identical item for regionally. If the item you would purchase regionally is a long way from you and would involve renting or borrowing a truck to retrieve it, or paying a further worth for residence delivery, the net purchase could be the way in which to go.

Most individuals I've encountered online are mainly trustworthy, however the potential of working right into a dishonest one does exist. If the stories of on-line fraud worries you, attempt setting up a small account at your regular financial institution for use just for online purchases. If you happen to already bank on-line, it's a simple matter to switch simply sufficient to cowl your purchase whenever you find one thing you need to purchase online. That eliminates any possibility of the seller debiting your account for more than the quantity of the purchase.

Convenience and time invested is value quite a lot of dollars to very busy folks, and is perhaps one other factor to contemplate in whether or not to buy on-line.

I've a number of normal guidelines that assist me resolve.

1. Is the merchandise even out there regionally? Generally, you are fortunate to find one thing online that you have searched for years, and failed to find near your personal residence.

2. Is the item new or used? Whether it is used, does the seller assure it would arrive in good condition, agentroom or do they level out flaws that you could be wish to consider earlier than making an settlement to buy.

3. How a lot will it cost, along with the purchase price, to get the item from the vendor into you can try these out your hands? (Together with shipping, dealing with, and insurance coverage, if applicable?)

Normally, answering these three questions give me a fairly good idea which way I can get the perfect return for my investment. Up to now, I have tended to contemplate solely small items where the delivery costs would be low, but recently have discovered an increasing number of massive, and sometimes nicely-identified corporations offering lowered, and even free shipping --- typically as a daily part of their enterprise; at different occasions, as a particular promotion for a limited time period.

Dell computer systems, for example, is one such firm. If their transport worth is too excessive to go well with you, wait a couple of weeks and check them out once more. They often supply free transport offers, so you should not have to wait for lengthy.

One other instance of the previous can be on-line firms which supply free shipping on all but outsized items for orders totaling a certain greenback amount, like $a hundred or extra. It might be hard to beat that. We not too long ago ordered some floor mats from a company and ended up paying almost $30 for shipping and handling on a complete order of solely $sixty nine. If we had shopped round a bit, we'd have ordered a few other issues we had considered, but declined to buy because of the excessive delivery value, to deliver our complete up enough to qualify free of charge delivery.

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epchapman89 · 7 years

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Happy 10th Anniversary To The Latte Art Throwdown

Today’s modern coffee world is never short on stories—it’s all we can do to keep up with it. But today, for a few moments, allow us the pleasure of taking you back to a very different time in specialty coffee. This culture did not arrive fully formed—it was built by young people, some of them drunk on the ales of yesteryear, but all of them intoxicated by the promise of a burgeoning coffee moment.

Ten years ago today—on May 2nd, 2007—the first* modern public latte art throwdown was staged at Intelligentsia Coffee‘s Los Angeles roastery. It was born out of an in-house tradition at Intelligentsia, and birthed to the public in celebration of the 2007 SCAA Event, held in Long Beach, California.

Intelligentsia bussed in hundreds of people from Long Beach to LA. A great many beers were served, from breweries like Lagunitas, Stone, and Bear Republic. The Clover brewer—not yet subsumed into the Starbucks Borg—was in full effect.

Much of the planning and excitement around this event is memorialized in a Coffeed post, including a link to this glorious Flickr photo gallery shot by Has Bean founder Stephen Leighton. But we just had to learn more—so we reached out to event organizer (and eventual winner) Kyle Glanville, now of G&B Coffee / Go Get Em Tiger in Los Angeles, but then serving as Director of Innovation for Intelligentsia’s Los Angeles project, which at that time was only just emerging.

“It was the most ridiculous spectacle, and it was great,” Glanville tells Sprudge co-founder Jordan Michelman, speaking by phone from the G&B offices in Los Angeles. All 2007-era photos in this feature are by Stephen Leighton, reproduced here with permission and many thanks.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

*We acknowledge there may be competing claims of creation for the public latte art throwdown.

Hello Kyle Glanville, and thanks for speaking with Sprudge on this momentous day. Take us back to May of 2007—may I ask, how old were you?

I was 24 years old.

What was your role at Intelligentsia at this time?

I believe I was the Director of Innovation at that point, but really what I was doing was getting the Silver Lake story ready to go. This was in May, and the shop opened in August of that year. We had our roaster by that point but it wasn’t turned on yet. So the idea was to instead throw a big party for the 2007 SCAA Event out in Long Beach.

Where did the idea for “smackdown”—a sort of latte art pocket tournament—originally come from?

I think that (Intelligentsia co-founder) Doug Zell came up with it—and my memory is that Doug Zell came up with that name as well. Every Friday afternoon at Intelligentsia, Doug would have this competition in the break room out in Chicago, making lattes on our [La Marzocco] Linea espresso machine

I think buy-in was a buck. You came in and threw down your best pour, and the winner was selected by Doug. Charles [Babinski, co-founder at G&B Coffee] was there as well, and suggests Matt Riddle and Mike Phillips for more details on those days.

Intelligentsia LA offices circa 2007.

So “Smackdown” is what you called it at the Intelli HQ?

Yes.

But these were closed to the public, right?

Yeah—it was more of like at the end of the week, anybody who wanted to could gather in the break room, plunk down a dollar, everyone gives it a shot, and it was a consensus award. And then when we were planning this SCAA party, we wanted it to be the best, so we got so many kegs of beer and chartered busses from Long Beach and decided to make the “smackdown” part of our event.

So to your knowledge, this was the first public Smackdown / throwdown event?

I would be shocked if you found one that came before.

But you know someone is getting ready to email us right now, from Pittsburgh or somewhere, claiming they came up with it in 2005…

Well that’s why instead of saying “I’m certain this is the first one,” instead I’m saying I would be shocked if you found one that happened before May 2nd, 2007.

Young baristas in attendance.

Today the term “throwdown” is much more widely used, but yours was called a “smackdown”—why the change in nomenclature?

I think it was…I don’t know if people thought it was insensitive, but pretty soon after that event it became called a “throwdown” instead. I saw that word start to pop-up everywhere, and thought, “that’s lame”—because for us it was always a “smackdown”.

I was dismayed by the transition of the nomenclature. And if G&B were to ever host one (which I don’t think we ever will) we’d call it a “smackdown” again.

You should do one today in honor of the anniversary!

Definitely not. That is definitely not happening.

Do you recall who won the event 10 years ago?

That was the controversy, is that I won.

So you both helped invent and went on to win the first public latte art throwdown?

Yes—that’s half of the reason I wanted to do it for the party in the first place, was to be in it. It was a $5 buy in, winner takes the pot. There was no altruistic or idealist cause, just straight up cash money and ego. And it ended up being that so many people threw down, and we did it in a bracket so it took six hours and people were there until 3 in the morning. Steve Ford was there, he was the main judge, and there were other judges too. It might have been Ryan Willbur?

Ryan Willbur is in these photos, but I believe he’s throwing down, not judging. He looks about 12 years old.

Yeah so maybe not, but I know Steve Ford was a judge. Klaus [Thompson, of The Coffee Collective] threw down, David Latourelle [of Franke, then of Clover] was there…it was fun.

Young Ryan Willbur.

I was told a spectacular rumor about the floors at the Intelli roastery—that they were hastily poured in order to accommodate this party, and had to be completely repoured following the event.

I’ve never heard that one. But we did definitely push to get the floor completed in time. It was this ugly gray epoxy, and we blasted the floor and put down a big clear coat, but i don’t think that was temporary. It took like 3 days, and was a full on proper floor job.

Do you recall the prize amount you won?

It was like hundreds of dollars. Like $360 bucks or something.

Do you remember which beers were served? 2007 was a long time ago in beer.

Racer 5, Lagunitas IPA, something like Stone Arrogant Bastard, and then some lighter lager-y things. Silver Lake Wine did all the alcohol so we had some wine, and we had tacos from Taco Zone out front. We paid them $1000 for a 1000 tacos and they went through them very quickly, and the line to get tacos was a half an hour all night.

Do you have a message for the children, for today’s throwers of down?

I would say, return the “smackdown” to the throwdown—return that term—and also I would be very amped to see at least one return to format, the $5 buy-in, winner takes the pot, kind of like very simple style of latte art party.

So you want to see it return to its roots?

Yeah! Now it’s like, every throwdown is supporting a cause…

So you’re coming out against causes?

Yes (laughs)—as someone who has given a lot to groups like the ACLU and Planned Parenthood over the last couple of months, I think it’s okay to have a moment of total indulgence, ego, and lust for money. The coffee industry could use a little bit more of that. Wait, read that back to me.

“I think it’s okay to have a moment of total indulgence, ego, and lust for money.”

Well, maybe not more ego…there is still plenty of that in coffee.

When you access that night 10 years ago back in your brain RAM, what was your favorite moment?

In a broader sense, we had been setting this place up in LA, and we were pretty far into that time. Nobody had seen it and nothing was going on. So just having that activation, where it was like 500 SCAA conference people in the house, eating out of a taco truck in the front parking lot…the magnitude of the party and the degree to which it was so full-on. Everybody was trashed, and everybody was crammed into the training room pouring latte art. It was the most ridiculous spectacle, and it was great.

Thank you Kyle Glanville.

Peruse the complete gallery of photos from the first latte art smackdown / throwdown via Stephen Leighton of Hasbean’s Flickr account. All photos used with permission.

Jordan Michelman is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge Media Network. Read more Jordan Michelman on Sprudge.

The post Happy 10th Anniversary To The Latte Art Throwdown appeared first on Sprudge.

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