One of my nieces is watching season six of Sons of Anarchy right now, and J is grumping his way through season seven. Since we'll all be together for the holidays, Niece has convinced me to catch up so we can talk about it. I've seen the first few seasons, but have decided to rewatch them anyway, working my way up. Through season six is available on Netflix. I've just started season one, and god, they're so young and adorable. It's going to be a ride.

(I seriously need to update my icons. I don't even have any SOA icons anymore, and way too many Glee ones, considering I haven't watched since the end of season two.)

I still love Donna and Opie SO MUCH. Oh, my heart. My heart.

( Caregiver )

---

So, I've been watching Criminal Minds this summer and I would like some fic recs. In particular, I would like Garcia/Derek. Anyone?

Stop! Self-awareness time!

I was reading this fantastic post in which toft talks about Mercedes Lackey's books and I realized why I have so little patience for -- well, I'll put it in toft's words:

7) I love that all of the books that I've read so far punch my talented-outcast-child-is-rescued-from-family-and-excels-at-school narrative kink right in the kidneys and throw it down the stairs. In a good way.

Now I read this post after watching the first three Harry Potter movies with Mom (one last night, two today) and even though I've seen them before and read the books and wrote fanfic, damn it, it struck me really hard how much of an idiot Harry is a lot of the time and how things just fall in his lap. Sometimes literally.

And don't get me wrong, I love the first four Harry Potter books a lot. (The movies not as much and the last three not nearly as much, but the first four, particularly three and four, SO MUCH LOVE.) And I also love the Mercedes Lackey books I've read, which isn't very many, I'll admit, but I read the Arrows trilogy and then BY THE SWORD which has KEROWYN I'LL KICK YOUR GODDAMN ASS AND YOU'LL LIKE IT who is my hero, so obviously I'm a fan of that one, too.

But frequently these talented-outcast-child-rescued-from-family-and-excels-at-[fill in the blank] narratives really bug me. While reading toft's post I finally figured out why, even though it is really obvious if you know me at all: Basically every awesome thing I have ever done is because I am trying to live up to the awesomeness of my family. No, really, they've set the bar high and it just keeps getting pushed higher. Even though I don't directly follow in anyone's footsteps, what I do is done so I can be as awesome as my family. So of course I don't grok that narrative the way some others might.

Not very awesome that it took me that long to figure it out, but whatever.

(By the way, as we're watching Harry Potter, Mom turns to me and says she doesn't understand why people threw such a fit over Harry Potter being satanic or whatever, nothing they did magically seemed all that bad and I said I thought it was just the idea of ~magic in the first place that was so horrible. She scoffed and said that was ridiculous, kids should grow up with magical stories and reading stories about magic doesn't make them bad Christians. Oh, Mom, you are the best conservative, Christian mother ever! [Though obviously conservative doesn't apply to Christian in that sentence.] Oh, speaking of conservatives, I am not adjusting well to being back in a small town in a red state. Today some guy came around talking about politicians because we're running up on the November election and ads and calls and door to door is going wild. Anyway, dude told me politician is a Democrat and liberal in [these ways], but still conservative, too, in [these ways] and is pro life. I don't think he expected me to say, well, those liberal things are really good, but the pro life thing is generally a deal breaker for me. Too liberal for the liberals here, what?)

~*~

Sons of Anarchy comes back this week! I think I will liveblog it, because OMG FINALLY. J and I were talking the other night and he said the adverts make it look like it's going to be very soap opera-y and the season finale was very much a soap opera. I laughed and said even if it is, if I kept watching after [that thing with Gemma last season], I'll give them a season of being a soap opera before I quit them.

The Vampire Diaries comes back, too, but I rarely talk about that here. Maybe that will change this season. Because [THINGS! THINGS WHICH ARE SPOILERS!]

~*~

I am tired, but I am waiting on a thing and I pulled up my werewolfbigbang, which I keep thinking I won't finish, but the first draft isn't due until later this month, so maybe I will finish. I'm writing a sequel to "wolf woman wild," but I keep wanting to write some ridiculous crossover (er, even more ridiculous than "wolf woman wild" which has BtVS, Angel, Fast and the Furious series, and Ginger Snaps) about a wolf pack that contains characters from BtVS, Fast and the Furious series, Sons of Anarchy, Harry Potter, etc. I do not need to set aside the sequel and write 10k of a ridiculous crossover. I don't.

(Dude, Sons of Anarchy basically is a werewolf pack without being werewolves. And how awesome would it be to have Oz and Faith, Letty and Dom and Mia, Jax and Opie and Donna and Tara, Remus and Sirius, Clay and Gemma all in a wolf pack together? Hell, let's really make it ridiculous and throw in Sam and Dean and John and Mary Winchester and, GOD, Ellen and Jo Harvelle, because obviously after Race Wars, Jesse runs off and becomes Ash. Hell, Chad Lindberg himself brings together Fast and the Furious, Supernatural, and Sons of Anarchy. If I really wanted to go wild, I know I could work in Velma and Daphne.

Good grief, I'm actually considering this.)

~*~

THING is done, so I can go to bed! Except now I'm thinking about the damn ridiculous crossover.

ETA: It has taken me five billion edits to get the coding right, even though I swear I was using the same coding I'd been using since I started crossposting from DW. WHAT THE HELL?

More fandom fail: Per sohotrightnow and inlovewithnight, there's a Bandom Big Bang in which Gabe Saporta is a Catholic priest. As sohotrightnow says: Because, you know, he's Latino, so he can totally be Catholic, because everyone who speaks Spanish must be Catholic! It's not like he's been super-vocal about how important he considers his Jewish identity or there's a really nasty tendency in modern Western society to write Judaism off as the beta testing stage of Christianity or an even uglier history of forcibly converting Jews or anyth -- oh wait.

(I do not know who Gabe Saporta is, and I don't really understand the culture of RPF -- what is canon? How much canon do you use? etc. -- but I flinched when I read about this. A Catholic priest AU may seem like a good idea ETA: in fandom in general ETA: because AUs make the fandom world go round, it seems, but here it does come across as simply erasing his Jewish identity, which is very problematic.)

Fandom joy:

Sons of Anarchy: J and I have been sporadically watching episodes of Sons of Anarchy, because we both miss the show. I realized I fairly strongly identify with Tara in season two, even though she's never been one of my favorites. (GEMMA. And Donna in season one.) But Tara's a professional woman struggling to balance her clean-cut above the board career with the people she loves and this other, darker, more dangerous side of life. I empathize with that.

(Also, J, Dad, and Dad's BFF just took off for a couple days of a biker gathering. I am sad I did not go with them, but I have responsibilities here. I may have to go on a long ride by myself. Besides Dad and I may hit Sturgis this summer. It's the 70th anniversary. Also, my bike is awesome and I love it.)

Pretty Little Liars: I devoured all the books (except the very last one, which I don't have) recently. Sort of they are very ridiculous, dragging out the storyline, etc. However, the characters are delightfully ridiculous and sometimes mean and sometimes do stupid things, but I really enjoy them. I watched the pilot of the show on Hulu and I'm a fan. Emily is my favorite so far, but Spencer is also fun. (ETA: Though casting Bianca Lawson as a high school student might be pushing it. I love her and love the character, Mya, but she definition looks older than the other girls.)

Make It or Break It: Along with watching PLL, I watched the first couple episodes of Make It or Break It on Hulu and really enjoyed it. It reminds me of Stick It somewhat, with more ~dramatic moments and over the top acting, but I think it will be fun.

Now if only I could find a teen show about show jumping, my trifecta of awesome would be complete.

I need to load up my bag and go dog sit for awhile.

I am maybe in denial that the season ends next week, so I haven't watched the most recent episodes. But there's been a lot of growing Sons of Anarchy love on my flist, and I want to join it. Despite some of my issues with it, I think SoA is my favorite television show right now. (Well, I'm also enjoying Castle and Bones, but not in the same way. For example, I want to blog my reactions to SoA and usually watch Castle and Bones while writing and without the fandom interaction.)

So have some SoA love and I hope a lot for my tv boyfriend, Opie.

( Balm )

Avatar exclusive look! I have issues issues issues about this and the premise that the disabled character then gets an able body and the colonization and what we need here is a honky, etc., but OMG NEW MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ MOVIE AND HER GRIN. Maybe she will not die in this one. MAYBE.

God, why does this gorgeous movie with Michelle Rodriguez have to have such a shitty, shitty, shitty premise?

God, my girl is gorgeous. Just for the record.

( Balm )

Oh show. I actually can't watch another episode, I just want to be left with the end of this one for awhile.

I do not have an appropriate icon for this.

Despite all the flaws, this is totally my favorite show. I lay this completely on Katey Sagal, Ron Perlman, Charlie Hunnam, and Maggie Siff. Especially Katey Sagal who is an unbelievably subtle actor at times. God. That last five minutes or so is one of the best scenes I've ever watched.

I had this strange fever-dream in which I made out with Jax in an elevator(!) after a wild motorcycle ride (on separate bikes) trying to get away from killer werewolves (!!) who blew up my car and killed my best friend (!!!) because the MC had photos of werewolf kills and I was teaching them to hunt werewolves (!!!!) as the country's lead werewolf hunter.

I don't even know.

I am actually not a big Jax fan (though I love Tara/Jax) and would much rather have been dreaming about Opie, but dream!Jax was a pretty damn good kisser. Also the wild motorcycle ride was AWESOME. I loved the giant bike I rode.

Since I'm dreaming about (a wildly AU variation of) the show already, I figured it was time to watch the next episode.

( Fa Guan )

In short, OPIE and GEMMA and TARA <3 x a billion!

I'm starting to think I'm allergic to my apartment building. Maybe the cleaning materials they use in the hallway? I would like to stop being sick any time now. So, from my sickbed (which looks a lot like my couch), television.

Sons of Anarchy "Gilead"

( spoilers )

And now, Glee's one last chance to stop sucking.

"Vitamin D"

( Spoilers )

Glee links:

I really like what Zvi says here:

Okay, here's the problem with Glee. Every single week, I watch and I feel hoodwinked. Per the promo and the pilot, I really thought I was going to get what amounted to Revenge of the Nerds for a contemporary TV audience: a multicultural group of misfits takes on the social hierarchy and uses their misfit powers to destroy it. Although Rachel was the student featured most heavily in the pilot, I figured that we would rotate our way through a large ensemble, and that we would get plenty of time for Mercedes, Tina, Kurt, and Artie to tell their stories as completely as Rachel told hers.

Instead, every week I'm watching the shenanigans of a self-centered Spanish teacher and his unhealthy relationships with every woman he knows over the age of twenty, plus the quarterback and the head cheerleader, plus the "best" singer in Glee club. (And, seriously, it's actually really disheartening to me that everyone accepts her assertion that she's the best singer in Glee, since it's clear that Mercedes is Rachel's vocal equal, if not superior, and the ¿two? times we've heard Tina solo, her voice seemed like it might be as good, too. Quinn is not in Rachel's league, but she's the only female soloist we've heard so far who clearly is not. It's also really, er, bizarre to me that Finn was recruited as a saving male voice and has gotten 90% of the male solos, and he just doesn't have a professional quality voice. I mean, for an actor, he sings quite nicely, but he's theoretically playing a singer, and he really doesn't cut it.)

I also love what handyhunter says about Mercedes here:

So, there's a line in Glee that Mercedes says: "I don't like this minority business. I may be a strong, proud black woman, but I'm a lot more than that." I initially interpreted/heard that as "I'm more than a token minority." But what she actually says is, "I may be a strong, proud black woman, but I'm a lot more than that." A lot more than being a black woman. More than her race. Which is another way of saying acting more white, because that's what acting more than your race means. When was the last time white people had to transcend their whiteness, after all. It also probably says something that I had to think about this to see the wrongness in it.

Finally, I keep seeing previews for Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant and it looks like fun, but I'm always left thinking, Why isn't Darren a girl? By which I mean, of course the author of these books has every right to write about a boy, but where are the adventure stories about girls becoming vampires for the adventure and not for love? Or the movies based on these stories?

I haven't watched this week's episode yet, but I saw a summary of it which included this line: Gemma shows Tara how an old lady handles her anger.

Yeah, I'm going to end up writing Gemma/Tara yet, aren't I? Gemma pretty much eye fucks all the women anyway, and this is just - yeah. I want Gemma/Tara girl slash. Unf.

Good times, another fandom where I can be different from most of the fic. Sons of Anarcy, Fast and the Furious, the fic about pretty boys just doesn't do it for me.

Well, after my anger at the first episode of the season, I'm finally watching the next episode.

( SOA 2.02 and 2.03 )

So I still have huge angry moments about the thing, but these two episodes gave me a lot to like. I need an SoA icon.

So I was doing actual work for school, and then I finished everything I can do at home tonight, and then I started writing Fast and the Furious/Sons of Anarchy fic. I didn't actually see this coming, though I really should have. I really, really should have. I'd like to get it done before the new movie comes out next month.

I need to rewatch SoA for a reason now. Awesome.

I'm also entertained that the first SoA fic I ran across (though I haven't read it because I'm not caught up yet) was Supernatural/SoA.