Vid Recs!

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World to "Teenage Dirtbag".

I actually haven't seen the movie, because some of the ads made me a little leery about a couple things, but I've now added it to my To Watch list based on this vid. Fun.

Hot Fuzz to "Blue Orchid".

SO. MUCH. AWESOME.

The Secret Garden to "Vintervalsen".

Oh, it gave me chills and then had me tearing up by the end. (Also, I would love any fic recs where they get to have a happy, wonderful threesome as teens or adults.)

Jurassic Park to "I Want More".

OMG MOST AWESOME VID EVER. I just *flailed* with joy while watching it. Also, I'm obviously due a trilogy marathon SOON.

Back to the Future to "Tik-Tok".

This is an awesome vid that captures all of the fun of the trilogy. Also, Sister K hates this song and so I laugh madly every time I listen to it. That's what it's like to be my sister, yo. I torment you with songs you hate and then laugh madly when I think about it.

Point Break to "Knockin' on Heaven's Door".

God, I love this movie SO MUCH and this vid captures all of it. The only reason I'm not fannishly involved in Point Break the way I am in the Fast and the Furious series (since Fast and the Furious is basically Point Break with cars instead of surfing) is that as fun as Lori Petty's character is, there isn't a Mia character for her to play off. Until I really started analyzing Mia and Letty as reflections of each other, I wasn't fannishly involved in Fast and the Furious, either. (And without Mia and Letty, I have little interest in the other movies, though as long as I a) refuse to believe Letty is dead and b) look at all of the movies as a connected story in which I can write about Mia and Letty even when they aren't appearing on screen, I can fannishly connect to the series as a whole. However, I just saw a one sheet for the fifth movie which completely leaves out Mia, too, and my interest waned significantly in that moment.) (Also, I really should be more fannishly involved in Point Break than Fast and the Furious considering how big a role Brian plays in the latter and how much I can't stand him. At least in Point Break, I'm a fan of both guys.)

Life After People to "End of the World".

I so need to watch Life After People the next time I visit J and his home theater. I think it will make me feel better about how much I hate people right now. Awesome vid.

Book of Eli to "O Death".

CHILLS I HAVE CHILLS.

Dead Like Me to "There is a Boy Who Never Goes Out".

Aww, Mason. I need to have a marathon of this show soon too. (Alas, I really dislike Daisy and so don't rewatch much.)

Dirty Dancing to "You Can't Sit Down".

Captures all of the fun of the movie.

Dirty Dancing to "You Are Everything".

The fact that it took this vid for me to realize how much I want the story of Baby/Penny/Johnny would be sad, except the vid is so very awesome.

Lilo and Stitch to "Beat Control".

FAVORITE MOVIE EVER. And this vid captures it so well, all the charm and heart ache and joy.

Primeval to "Don't Stop Movin'".

NO WORDS. JUST AWESOME.

Other Recs

Ana Lucia love thread at halfamoon. (Dude, halfamoon is one of my favorite times of the year.) My love for Ana Lucia was so great I quit watching Lost when they killed her and have not looked back since. I haven't even rewatched season one or season two. I should probably get rid of my season one set, for that matter. Ana Lucia Cortez, totally the best part of Lost. (Michelle Rodriguez, totally the best part of everything she's in, ever.)

First Edition of Potluck. "It is intended to be a carnival for multicultural and intersectional discussions of food, including but not limited to food discussions intersecting with disability, gender, sexuality, fat, animal rights, and cultural and racial issues. This is not to say that we have or will cover all of these intersections in a single carnival; Potluck is simply a room in which we can talk about them...."

Supernatural Art, Dean, work safe "Dosimetry". A pretty awesome look at the shapeshifter psychic link and Dean. In three panels, like A Softer World. Despite the fact I've broken up with Supernatural, this is awesome.

On "political correctness bullshit" in fandom and microaggressions.

So much this.

"Betty White's Nude Photos are Frankly Adorable.

She's so gorgeous.

Anti-Rec

Anti-rec of Trio of Sorcery by Mercedes Lackey for some really anti-transgender shit. I was so excited when I learned earlier today there was a new Diana Tregarde and then I read this. Fail, Lackey. Total fail.

I haven't talked about Supernatural much lately, mostly because I'm basically not watching this season. It's sitting on my dvr, but I'm so frustrated by season three that I just can't watch it yet. I've not rewatched seasons one or two, either, and in fact I loaned season one to nikitangel months ago and haven't bothered to get it back.

But I still have thoughts and issues with it, and my buttons are being pushed by the fact that GLAAD nominated "Ghostfacers" for Outstanding Individual Episode (in a series without a regular LGBT character). GLAAD, you know, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, nominated "GHOSTFACERS" for its portrayal of a gay character. (Hat tip to coffeeandink for the link.)

I have some issues with GLAAD anyway (for one thing, while I realize the awkwardness of GLBTQAAD or other variations, G&L doesn't actually include all that many potential members of the alliance. (I'm also not fond of "defamation" aligned with these awards, but that's a different conversation.)

I mean, the award tagline is this: 20th Annual GLAAD Media Awards. Fair. Accurate. Inclusive. And Impossibly Glam.

I'd like to know why they nominated "Ghostfacers" because the episode I saw was really none of those things. And GF is one of my favorite episodes of season three (which is saying something).

If you haven't seen the episode, summary below.

( spoilers )

I call FAIL.

(I'd like to know why they nominated this episode, but I'd also like to know why Bones was ignored, based on the standard I can infer from this nomination.)

I had to do a bunch of website design tonight, and some very boring paperwork sorting, and I'm waiting for some news from my family, so I needed entertaining comfort movies. I ended up watching the Jurassic Park trilogy (I'm just about to start the third one now), and it has made me realize just how much these are the comfort films for me. (These and the Tremors quartet.) I think it might be because I've never written fic for them, so I don't approach them the same way I do movies (or any source material) for which I do write fic. No matter how much I love, say, Fast and the Furious, or how comforting it is, I'm always looking for any detail off which I can build a story. It's not a conscious decision, it's just how I approach texts with which I have worked in such a way before.

So JP is still only comfort and entertainment. I hadn't realized there was such a difference between the two.

---

Since I was doing professional website coding, and it was frustrating, once I fixed the problems, I decided to update my fic website, which is not frustrating because a) it's an automated archive and b) thestalkycop deals with it for me.

Escritoire Azul Automated Archive

So all the new fics from the summer and fall are now up there, too.

Oh, so much good discussion and so many comments have helped me become even more concise and aware of the questions I'm asking and the thoughts I have. Thank you all for your comments and thoughts and suggestions and explanations.

Here is the original post about it, with discussion in the comments.

I think I can break down some of my thoughts within larger topics.

( labels )


( graphic sex )

I have quoted so many people in here I feel like I'm writing a paper again. This is a good feeling. I'm also overflowing with ideas and spent way too much time on this tonight, commenting and thinking and revising, time I should have spent editing the novel or writing the sequel novel, but this was good too.

Edited to Add Ha, ha, ha, that is what I get for not writing it up in livejournal, and then not checking to make sure nothing was wrong with the code. All user names should be fixed now, I hope.

Along the lines of my last post about conceptualizing livejournal space, hermionesviolin wrote a wonderful post full of links to various conversations about similar topics. I've not yet formulated my thoughts on these additional ideas, but I wanted to link it here for easy access.

So there's this Fan/Fandom Creed by grayout making the rounds and I? I have a lot of thoughts on it, and only about half an hour until I have to close up shop here, so I will try to hit the big things and move on.

( a copy of the creed and my disagreements and agreements )

Pretty much I think I can sum up my thoughts: There are some good ideas here, but what fandom really needs the whole world needs too. Treat all people like people and respect each other.

Manifestos tend to have good points, good beginnings, and then are taken too far, in the wrong directions, or just torn apart by fanatics.

Edited to Add: Oh and as to why I do have two journals, I wanted one where I could post everything unlocked and not give away too many details of non-fandom life. My non-fandom journal is flocked and filtered and detailed, whereas this one is not, and I even use initials. (Which, by the way, I need to meet people who do not all have names starting with the same letters, because it gets confusing even to me. No creativity whatsoever in my family and friends, at least their names.)

Ghosting has become over 5,000 words.

I should remind myself to post about feedback, because I'm in an interesting position right now. Also, feedback thoughts led to writing style thoughts, and I should post about that, too. However, I need to be in bed asleep as of two and a half hours ago. Tomorrow is going to suck.

Sleep now.

Many people have been talking about drabbles lately, and kaalee's call for drabble links made me think about how I view drabbles, especially when I couldn't think of any specific examples off the top of my head.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm a member of a few different drabble communities, and I've written three or four myself (as long as you count the one that was the prequel to the remusremix ficathon), and there are times when I really like the idea of a drabble. (I'm defining a drabble the same way tipgardner quoted gblvr: a self-contained vignette of exactly 100 words, no more, no less. However, this also pertains to pieces of writing that are longer than 100 words, but aren't full length stories.) There are two or three writers who consistently churn out drabbles that catch my eye and that I've enjoyed reading, and any number of one or two shot drabbles that made me glad to be a reader.

However, none of them stuck with me, obviously, and that is why I also hate drabbling. Beyond the enjoyment from the actual reading itself, my favorite part of being a reader is the ability to recall my favorite stories, to share with others, to discuss and debate and enjoy together. I like to remember what I've read, and for the most part, I do. But when it comes to drabbles, no matter how much I enjoyed it at the time, I just can't pull it up later, because it's so fast and so small.

It's hard to write a good drabble; it takes time and effort, because, to me at least, it's much harder to write something clear, interesting, and concise, and 100 words is a very tiny amount of space to tell even a shadow of a story. But that's what makes it fun, the word constraints, and the effort to pare the story down to the bones, with only threads of sinew to hold it all together.

It surprises me that I enjoy drabbles at all; first and foremost, I'm a plot writer, and I like a long, complicated plot to carry the entire story. Characterization is wonderful, the writing itself (word choice, imagery, vocabulary, etc.) is important, but the beginning and the end of why I read and write is the plot itself. It's hard to find true plot in a drabble, and even more difficult to find a good plot handled well in one.

There's also some angst discussion going on somewhere (I accidently closed the window when I got too click happy), and it made me think about why I like angst (again). I actually don't have a lot to say about it that I haven't hashed out with my betas/co-writers one hundred times before (especially thestalkycop), but that's never been in a public forum, so we'll see if I can come up with anything interesting and logical. I doubt it.

At the very core of it, I like to write angst because I can't write fluff. No, I'm serious. I read fluff, and enjoy it--I like humor and good times and romance just as much as the next person (in my reading, people). There are authors who awe me with their ability to write fluff, and make it believable, and interesting, and inspiring. I just can't do it. I don't see the world that way, and can't make myself see any world through fluff-glasses.

However, I also find, as an author, that writing angst is far more interesting than writing fluff, despite the challenge of fluff because I can't write it. When I try to write fluff, everything seems so simple--the characters get along, nothing pops up to ruin their days/months/lives, there's no drama, no intensity. Plot, sure, but nothing that catches my interest and makes me want to write. (This may be because I also have a hard time writing slice-of-life stories; I love to read them, but when I try to write them, I just don't see the point.)

But when I write angst, anything can happen. Just when things start to go smoothly, I can throw another wrench into the plans, and a whole story takes off from that one situation. The characters seem more interesting when they're having to overcome trials and tribulations; in fluff, everything seems too easy for them, but in angst, I, as a writer and a reader, get to see what really makes the characters tick. I get to see how they'd react in down and dirty situations, and I get to find new sides that the characters themselves might not like, or even want to reveal, but that make the story have more depth, more intrigue.

Of course, I could just sum it up by saying I like to make the characters hurt. Because I'm evil that way.

Edited to add: How could I leave out the Gangster reference? Thanks to Sarah and the whole Ducks fandom, I'm now known as the Gangster--the Goldberg Angster. All because of a handful (less really) of stories.

Branching off of out_there's "mynon" conversation, I think, mireille719 talks about her view of writing, and why the mynon/OTP situation works for some, but not all. I started this reply to her comment, and the livejournal started to suck, so while I posted the first part as a comment, I continued my ramblings here.

I'm playing let's-pretend here. What-if.

I really like this as part of the explanation for why you can have your own, personal opinion about the characters (the mynon, if you will, which is an interesting term, no matter who came up with it originally), but can still move away from that opinion in order to write the situations that come to mind. Because what is writing if not playing what-if with any given scenario, character, whatever. If everyone always stuck to one interpretation of a character (and I don't mean the universal ONE, but just their own, individual, original interpretation), their stories would become trite, boring.

To me, the point of writing, but especially the point of fan fiction is to use the writing itself as a way to extrapolate different interpretations, different scenes, based on the nuances of the character, by focusing on one you (generic you as the writer) haven't necessarily written about before. And you can't do that without being able to accept that you may have one, favorite variation of a character, but that others are just as valid, whether you're the one writing that variation or not.

It's like that saying that we'd all be boring if we were all the same; how much emptier would fiction be if there were no variations on a character theme, and all we had was the same old same old to read every time?

I'm so glad you wrote this; it really made me think about my personal mynons. And it helped me start to realize why I don't usually do the OTP thing, because I always do want to see the various "what-if" situations.

~~*

As I'm fighting with livejournal, and trying to post this as a response to mireille719, I have the chance to think about this even more, especially the OTP situation. It's been gnawing at my mind for awhile, because everyone seems to have at least one OTP, and I just--don't.

I have pairings that I'm fond of, sure. I have pairings that I think are absolutely, positively canon. (Sometimes those two facts even overlap, though not always, because I'm quite fond of the unconventional relationships.) But there has yet to be a pairing that I enjoy, but don't also enjoy seeing each partner paired with someone else.

I used to think this stemmed from my views on relationships (which aren't really relevant, or positive, actually), but now I'm beginning to think it has to do with the fact that, though I like this interpretation of this relationships between these characters, I can also enjoy that interpreation of that relationships between one of these characters and that character, not because I'm fickle, and not because I don't care about the characters or the relationship, but because I understand that there will be more than one valid interpetation of any source material.

The fact that I can and will (and very happily do) accept multiple interpretation opens up whole new worlds for me, sometimes quite literally, when I'm sucked into a fandom I know nothing about, or a fandom I never would have even thought to see if it existed. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with having an OTP, but I know I've read fabulous stories that some of my friends wouldn't have read, because the pairing splits up their OTP.

I think being open to interpretations helps my writing, too, because if I stuck with one version of a character, or one pairing, I know my writing would get stale, and I'd just tell the same story over, and over, and over again. I know there are authors who claim to do this (in fact, I think musesfool claims that she tells the same story time and again, and if she does, she always adds a fresh twist, a breath of new air, that makes the story worth reading again and again and again), and some who claim it that do it well, but I don't think I could. So having the variety of situations, versions of characters, and potential pairings helps me, immensely.

Man, I can't get livejournal to open anything. Damn