Author: Dana Seilhan

Yep, this was down yesterday.

Yep, now it’s back up.

What happened was I thought I had originally bought the domain on the 23rd five years ago. So I let my misremembering override my looking at the actual evidence; Hosting Service did email me ahead of time and I didn’t even look at the date it said. My bad. Sorted now.

I actually would have had it done on time, but Walgreens, Chime, or both have this policy that you can’t load less than $20 on your Chime account at a go and I needed to load $9. First I’ve heard of this. To say I was unhappy is an understatement.

In other news, I do believe the big man’s set a personal record for social-media participation: two posts in seven or eight days! AND replied to a comment Cary Elwes left, and I’m a Princess Bride fan from way back so my inner fangirl was bouncing madly in her seat. It doesn’t take much these days, I guess.

(If you didn’t know, Elwes is in the Knuckles show too.)

I have to say I’ve been kicking around a birthday idea for Rory for years but it isn’t going to happen this time. It may never. There are matters I need to investigate and skills I need to acquire and I don’t know if I will, especially with my internet situation being generally shit now. But I do like the idea. We’ll see.

I did send him a card a couple years in a row, but then life got crazy. Given what I know of his life situation now, likely I won’t do it again. I don’t know. I’ll keep an open mind and see what happens. It is not like his emotional health hinges on me sending him things. Haha.

I can’t remember if I have ever posted to this blog from my phone before. So this may actually be a first.

I couldn’t resist. New premiere photo droppage.

Take the following in the context of my sincere and completely uncreepy admiration for the big man.

I had someone tell me ages ago that they couldn’t believe Rory was married because no one had cleaned up his appearance. I am not sure we talk about this in the fandom very publicly because it is too easy to sound mean about it, but he is a jeans and tshirts guy who keeps outfits a long, long time, and his grooming up til now has been shave it all off or let it go wild ever since his hair loss got fairly advanced.

Notice I shared no opinion about this. I am only describing.

But with that in mind, look at him again.

That is a new outfit. It looks fantastic on him, though it also totally changes his “vibe.” Another thing about him is he’d either be Scottish wild man or James fucking Bond if he did dress up. This is a complete departure from either.

And then? That is the most groomed I have ever seen his facial hair. WOW.

I am not ashamed to say I had to look at his pics twice because y’all, I wasn’t sure it was him.

I do have opinions about this, but they are not important and I don’t care what yours are either, Fandom, so no weird Instagram DMs trying to answer that question, please. I am just sharing the new thing. Enjoy. Or not. Long as the big man’s happy, that’s what’s important.

LOOKIT MAH WILD MAN TRYNA BE KNUCKLES

I miss seeing Rory be silly. Wish we’d seen more of him and less of Ellie. No offense, Ellie.

P.S. That beard is fucking magnificent. Rory’s. Not Ellie’s. 🤡 💙🤍💚

Oh look, it wasn’t a month again!

You will recall in the previous post I mentioned that Jason Momoa is doing a Guinness ad. He’s actually doing at least two. The first one I saw was the one joking about Ancestry DNA (or a similar service) telling him he was two percent Irish. The other one is just him hanging out with various people. I watched the whole thing hoping for a big man drinking photo. No dice.

Sniff.

But in the general theme of big-man-related (however distantly) TV ads? Have you seen the latest Scotts Lawn ads???

I had thought there were only one or two. There’s an entire muhfuggin SERIES.

Okay. I adore Kris Hivju. He’s fun. But he’s SO not Scottish.

I mean, I can hear him trying. I can hear him nail little bits of it here and there when he speaks. But it sounds more like “I hung out with Rory McCann for months filming the north-of-the-Wall scenes and I’m drawing on what I remember of him speaking off-camera to play this role” than like “I trained with a dialect coach.” And I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that (the former, not the latter) is exactly what it is.

I wouldn’t care, because it is just TV ads and it’s not like they will cure cancer or bring about world peace or anything, but the United States has this long history in our popular media of NOT getting Scottish accents (there are more than one) right. It’s not even close. Here we are with more access to information than we’ve had in all our history and someone should have done their homework on this. It would have been a lot more fun.

…

As a postscript, and apropos of absolutely nothing, I have seen the headquarters for Scotts Lawn with mine own eyeballs. They are located just southeast of Marysville, Ohio, just off US 33, and I have taken a few food deliveries out thataway (not to the HQ, but traveling the road past it) in the past few years. It is not one building but a literal compound and looks very Stepford. Which is no more than I’d expect from a corporation that is no doubt the darling of suburban homeowner associations across the United States, actually.

Okay. Just checking in. I’m off again. Have fun, kids.

Oh look, it hasn’t been a whole month! Whew.

Nothing new really, the same old stuff on Google Alerts (Rory will be relieved), etc. I’m just checking in. We had a bit of a hiccup with Dad’s health, but it turned out to be something easily fixed, so back to normal really.

I wanted to say that there’s a new(ish?) Guinness beer ad on American TV, with none other than the big man’s California drinking buddy.

I mean it’s kind of a funny commercial, and particularly takes the pish about that very American tendency to look at two percent of your genes and go “I AM SUCH-AND-SUCH ETHNICITY!”, and it is worth watching just for that.

But what struck me is that Rory’s ALSO done a Guinness ad.

…Okay, go do your laundry and then come back. I’m about to say more stuff.

Done? Cool.

Anyway. So I got to thinking how COOL it would be if Jason and Rory did some “drinking buddy” Guinness ads.

YOU KNOW IT. They could even joke around about the Irish vs. Scottish thing. It would be a fucking riot.

Okay. That’s enough for now. I gotta pee and then I gotta go home. Hopefully it won’t be a month again.

Popping in to say hi. Not much going on really. Even most of my Google Alerts are either about Rory’s latest job or are referencing an article that lists the cast of Game of Thrones in the footnotes somewhere, therefore Google’s alert is triggered because Rory was mentioned. I think that is probably the most common reason I get alerted, and has been since I first started tracking alerts.

I realized a while back that I forgot to post my Valentine’s Day memes this year. It’s a bit late to post them now, I guess.

I’m trying to push myself around to a sort of regular schedule that may involve frequent library visits. Bless their hearts, the staff are beginning to recognize me. You have to actually check out books and turn in books with the staff; there doesn’t seem to be any anonymous or self-service way to do it. I don’t mind. It’s not like there’s anything freaky there to check out. I get the Stephen King books lately and I think that’s their upper limit on freaky. I guess we’ll have to see.

(I wonder if Rory ever reads horror novels? Fans know he is not into horror films, but he IS a reader. Hm. I don’t read a lot of them myself, but I’ve liked King’s stuff since high school. It’s not even what you’d call great literature. But somehow it’s compelling.)

Okay, stuff to do. ‘Later.

Howdy-do. Not much going on, just limping along here.

I’ve been getting a ton of Google Alerts about Rory’s role in that new Knuckles series. I kept forgetting to open them up when I was at my friend’s house. I’m there now, so here you go:

I mean, we’ve all been through this before. You already saw him in a shot like this on Instagram. I get it. MEH.

That answers my question, too. I wondered whether he was going to be doing voice work or live acting. Now I know. But, given his general pattern in the last five years, now I have another question. What’s up with all the kid stuff? I am not against this. I think it’s great. Shows his versatility. But is there a reason?

Before y’all start gossiping (who am I kidding; you already were), let’s just remember he’s never publicly said he didn’t want kids at all. He only said that the specific situation he was in when people asked him about that was not conducive to having a family. His situation is different now, so anything’s possible. He had also said he wasn’t sure about marriage since getting a mortgage wasn’t compatible with the transient life he used to live, and look what happened there. Apparently someone explained to him that married people don’t actually have to have mortgages. (Love ya, big man.) If his wife’s young enough he may actually have gone in for the whole fatherhood gig too. I will tell you what: He looks young for his age and if you look young for your age without plastic surgery or other cosmetic enhancement, often (yes, not always) you’re in good physical health too. It’s got to be all the outdoor activity. I have no doubt he’s up for chasing a toddler around if he does decide that’s something he wants to do.

“But I’ve heard nothing” Who’s his wife? Right. Exactly. He still hasn’t gone on record in any interview that I’ve seen about even being married. If he has kids it’d be a better-guarded state secret than the goddamn nuclear launch codes. Bet on it.

But even if that’s not a factor, he’s still got nephews and at least one niece. Probably they get a kick out of all the kid-show stuff. I would, if I had an uncle like that. I’d be bragging to all my friends at school.

Okay, well. Sorry for the long silence. I’ve actually been on the internet at my friend’s house with my laptop several times since the last entry here, I just didn’t get around to posting anything. I tell you what though, if you want to be a fansite administrator and you aren’t good at keeping up with lots of news, Rory’s a good actor to follow. Worked out great.

That sounds snarky. I didn’t mean it that way. Sorry.

I will try to update a little more often. Assuming there’s actually anything to update about.

Just a quick update.

1. I don’t know if I was right about the Mr. Big thing in the previous post but I have since seen a blurb indicating Rory’s character’s last name is Armstrong.

…Yarrrp.

2. The LaFontaines, a band Rory likes, have just issued an important announcement. Fannies. ❤❤❤

3. I seem to be on my way out of the woods. At least for now. But I will leave the link up in the previous post because if someone’s looking for Hound art, maybe it’ll be up their alley.

(I still kind of want to set up a fan art section here. But I keep saying I want to do things and then I get hit by a fucking shit avalanche again. One of these days.)

Welp, doesn’t look like Jackdaw got released here in the USA at all. Grumble. I’m trying not to read the reviews much because I want to see it and not get spoiled, but from the little excerpts I’ve seen, the critics seem to be underwhelmed and it sounds like Rory’s character is named Mr. Big…? I love seeing him in film and TV. I’m just a little tired of all the “bad guy hulk” stuff. He picks his jobs, so I have to assume he likes that sort of thing and finds it a laugh, and that’s not a problem. It’s his career. I just hope he can diversify a bit. Maybe he got that chance with the DCI Daley project. He’s played a cop before, but not a main-character cop. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

(ISTFG if someone does not pick up that show DANA SMASH.)

And okay, I’m going to do something out of character for me and I said I would not do it here. But I’m in a bit of a bad place right now. If anyone ever saw my drawing of the Hound and wanted it, now’s your chance. I am only posting this here because most of you don’t go to my homepage. I need more eyeballs on it.

clicky!

Normally a pencil portrait of that size is at least $100 more, I know. I’m not trying to drag down portrait prices, but there were a few things about this drawing I wasn’t happy with, so the price reflects that. I haven’t tried to display it in all this time and even if I were not in bad straits, I fear the humidity in my current residence will ruin it. (Not to mention my dad’s constant smoking.) It will no doubt be happier with someone who can get it framed properly and hung up in a house with actual climate control.

I have another portrait of Rory as well but I’m even less happy with that one so it’s shoved into a portfolio carrier until I feel better toward it. I’m going to get into Normal People portrait drawing after this for a while to see if I can pick up some business that way and then I’ll try something of the big man again. I already know what I want to do, couple things actually, I just need the time to do it.

Either way I have to get myself out of this mess first. So there you go.

Jackdaw is due to premiere in two days.

ARE YOU EXCITED

Just checking in. Not a lot going on. I know that at some point, which was probably before my previous post here, Rory posted on his Instagram again but you know how he is. Lucky to see one post a month from Mr. Bashful. It’s okay, just, that’s been it on news really.

Even my Google Alerts are the usual “omg some website we’ve never heard of has mentioned that Rory was in Game of Thrones!”. Although I did get this piece yesterday. I don’t know why the Google Alerts summary included the Rory McCann name. Niall has a brother, and he may have been mentioned by name in a previous version of the article (he isn’t in the version I saw). That’s all I can think of. But I am posting the link here because the whole context of a mountain accident and partial paralysis was really weird. Like somewhere in between Rory’s experience and the experience of his The Book Group character Kenny McLeod. Niall can still stand and walk.

Reality is so often stranger than fiction.

Oh, and Burns Night is coming up in two days and isn’t that another funny coincidence. Our favorite Scot getting a film premiere on Burns Night.

I wonder if he likes haggis.

[edit] I was mistaken! Burns Night is the 25th (I’m writing this additional note on the day, in fact). Y’all are lucky I still walk upright. Being off by one day is nothing. Hahaha