the fannish home of berne and watersword

It occurs to me

28 July 2010

Written by Elizabeth

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that perhaps I should mention I will be traveling throughout August. I will be at the St. Endellion Summer Festival with [personal profile] john and other excellent people, which I am looking forward to immensely, and then I will be in London doing research at Very Self-Important Libraries and hanging out with [personal profile] cesy and various OTW folk (there will be a meetup the evening of the 14th, central London-ish! email if you wish to join us!), and then I will have a week (a week) in Brighton with [personal profile] berne, who has been my favorite person in the entire world since 2005, and I do not expect that to change anytime soon. So.

I am barely skimming my dreamroll and RSS feeds, trying to ignore my email as much as possible until I get back in late August, and trying not to feel guilty about this.

….don’t burn the internet down while I’m gone! ♥

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[everybody's got a story]

13 July 2010

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On the off-chance that anyone will ever need this information again, I present the sequence of events for the first hour of the 2010 Academy Awards. (Seriously, you have no idea how hard this was to assemble from over half a dozen liveblogs, none of which were consistent. Never say I don’t labor on your behalf, fandom!)

  1. NPH song-and-dance with…a prison rape joke?
  2. Opening monologue/duologue/whatever, Baldwin and Martin making fun of people without being funny.
  3. Penelope Cruz presents Best Supporting Actor award to Christoph Waltz.
  4. Ryan Reynolds introduces The Blind Side as Best Picture nominee.
  5. Commercial break.
  6. Cameron Diaz and Steve Carell present Best Animated Feature to Up.
  7. Amanda Seyfried and Miley Cyrus present Best Original Song to Crazy Heart.
  8. Chris Pine introduces District 9 as Best Picture nominee.
  9. Commerical break.
  10. Robert Downey Jr. and Tina Fey present Best Original Screenplay to Hurt Locker. [Ed: this was actually interesting, showing the scene-as-written over the scene-as-played, but then, I'm a writer.]
  11. Tribute to the late John Hughes.
  12. Samuel L. Jackson introduces Up as Best Picture nominee.
  13. Commercial break.
  14. Zoe Saldana and Carey Mulligan present the various short film awards.
  15. Ben Stiller, dressed….as a Na’vi….presents Best Makeup to Star Trek.

Seriously, the short film awards started at the hour mark.

And I no longer care, because everything relevant to my [community profile] ladiesbigbang novella is over. But if anyone ever needs to know this again, I hope this is helpful!

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almost lost my mind

2 July 2010

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I don’t know why I woke up this morning craving vids, but I did; it’s not even noon in my time zone and I think I am up to, like, thirty vids watched. VIIIIDS.

So, here, recs, because more people should make vid recs so I can find new (old) vids on days like this. (VIIIIIIIIIDS.) (If you want something to happen in fandom, make it happen. I WILL MAKE AS MANY RECS POSTS AS I HAVE TO, PEOPLE. THIS IS NOT AN IDLE THREAT.)

Bukowski, by [personal profile] astolat. House, Modest Mouse.

Wikipedia says, “One critic has described Bukowski’s fiction as a ‘detailed depiction of a certain taboo male fantasy: the uninhibited bachelor, slobby, anti-social, and utterly free.’ ”

His gravestone says, “Don’t Try.”

This is one of the very few non-streaming vids I am reccing today (damn you imeem, user-generated content is not your enemy); it is totally worth downloading unseen. The song is hilarious all on its own (I have been known to play this vid and wander away from the computer and dance a little), and it fits Greg House perfectly. I love how this vid looks at him affectionately while being totally aware of how much of an asshole he is and not forgiving him for it. Astolat, how so awesome?

My Medea, by yunitsa. Jossverse: Dollhouse/Firefly/Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vienna Teng.

Girls in boxes.

I have two kinds of vids I love: the gleeful, happy, dancey vids that derive from a place of fannish squee and love, and vids which take a deep breath, step back from the source, and say, “you know what? I am smarter than you, and I see what you’re doing, and I am naming it.” This vid is firmly in the latter category. (These meta, critiquey vids are also fannish; I think critique is the greatest honor a work can inspire, but they don’t feel fannish in the same way.) This vid goes straight to the assumptions that underly Joss Whedon’s work, the visual tropes he uses again and again, and stacks them up against each other. Watching this never gets less gut-punchey, and after watching it, I have been unable to watch Joss Whedon shows without thinking of it.

Handlebars, by Seah and Margie ([personal profile] flummery). Doctor Who, Flobots.

I’m the Doctor. Look me up.

I’ve been learning to watch vids for a few years now; audio-visual media are hard for me, for a variety of reasons. This is the vid that taught me about narrative in vidding, about how vidding could tell a story that I could understand; I watched it over and over again in amazement. It — Cathy’s essay on essay on turning scenes is the closest analogy I can think of, really; this vid turns. The narrative moves, and it is magical. I can’t explain it any better than that.

The Test, by [personal profile] heresluck. Star Trek: Reboot, The Chemical Brothers feat. Richard Ashcroft.

Now I think I see the light.

We can all go home now, this is the vid that the Reboot fandom needed, and now we have it. We can just watch it endlessly. This is one of the vids that comes from a place of deep, profound fannish love; this vid always made me think of how fannish activity is full of gratitude. We have this story, this source, and it speaks to us, we recognize something in it, someone created this amazing thing and we get to experience it and think about it and share it with all these other people who recognize us. This vid loves its source material and knows it, bone-deep, and shows me that love and knowledge. I need a cigarette after watching this, because it is overwhelming in the very best way.

Oh God, I could rec literally thrice as many vids without breaking a sweat, but I will stop here so y’all don’t kill me.

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[The speed of light is 299,792,458 metres per second.]

22 June 2010

Written by Elizabeth

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JOSH

Thirty-second hypothetical: You’re Lloyd Russell, newly crowned prince of the White
suburban woman, the upper middle class Black man and teacher’s union. You’re no
friend to the sitting President. What do you do?

Thirty-second hypothetical: You’re Elizabeth Perry, newly addicted Doctor Who, Martha Jones, and Jack Harkness fangirl. You’ve no access to a TV or torrents. What do you do?

Which is to say, where the hell can I watch season 5 of Doctor Who? I require more TARDIS! (Seriously, as far as I am concerned, if this show isn’t about Martha Jones or Jack Harkness, it better be about the tech. Gadgets!)

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Academy, RPF, teen and up, no warnings.

6 June 2010

Written by Elizabeth

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Academy

by Elizabeth Perry ([personal profile] watersword)
Rated teen and up, no warnings. A transformative work. Creative Commons License.

“You’re a devious woman,” Carey says, grinning helplessly. She only met Zoe a day or two ago, and now they’re holding hands backstage at the Oscars, giggling like schoolgirls. This is the life.

At the Archive of Our Own | At Calligraphilia

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[this photo of us, it don't have a price]

25 May 2010

Written by Elizabeth

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A cover for [personal profile] astolat’s The Beltane Cycle.

Read the rest of this entry »

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help! i need somebody, not just anybody!

17 May 2010

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I have a favor to ask, fandom.

I’m participating in [community profile] ladiesbigbang; I’m signed up to write Love’s the Burning Girl, a novella about Zoe Saldana from 2009 to approximately 2015. Secondary characters (may) include Zachary Quinto, Sigourney Weaver, Keira Knightley, Naomie Harris, Dania Ramirez, Kathryn Bigelow.

I, uh. I am a white girl from the suburbs; I’ve lived in Queens, where Saldana spent her childhood to the age of ten, but I’ve never been to the DR, where she lived from ages 10 to 17. And she identifies, as far as I can tell from textual sources, very strongly with her racial and ethnic background (When I go to the D.R., the press in Santo Domingo always asks, “¿Qué te consideras, dominicana o americana?” I don’t understand it, and it’s the same people asking the same question. So I say, time and time again, “Yo soy una mujer negra.” “Oh, no, tú eres trigueñita.” I’m like, “No! Let’s get it straight, yo soy una mujer negra.”) I would really, really like not to fuck this up any more than I have to.

Anyone want to beta specifically for pantslessness on the part of the author? Preferably as I write so I can correct along the way? (I have about 6000 words so far; I’m aiming for 20K by the end of July.) Feel free to pass this on to anyone who might be able to help or to suggest people whom I might reach out to, too, and thanks!

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a weapon of massive consumption


15 May 2010

Written by Elizabeth

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This evening, I tripped and made a cover for [personal profile] waldorph’s new chapter of Illogical (√π233/hy7), “(When I Grow Up I’ll) Be A Monster.”

No, seriously, I tripped. Over the cat. And there was a banana peel! I was wearing socks!

….shut up.

I CAN HEAR YOU SNICKERING.

Yes, through the internet. I can HEAR YOU.

Fine, be that way. You’re lucky I am going to bed and not willing to sulk until y’all apologize. HERE HAVE A COVER.

cover for waldorph's (When I Grow Up I'll) Be A Monster
photograph of Arlington National Cemetary by ajdavis, licensed under CC

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another bag of bricks

4 May 2010

Written by Elizabeth

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I don’t have time to write an actual rebuttal of Diana Gabaldon’s screed against fanworks. Nor do I have time to engage in the comments section of her blog. I have, however, a handy collection of links for those of you who wish to do either of those things, or wish to read smart people saying smart things that are not collections of shrieking strawmen!

Okay, now go read the recs from earlier!

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sit right down and write myself a letter

4 May 2010

Written by Elizabeth

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I was talking to [personal profile] celli and it emerged that she did not know of my love for canon het. I love canon het. Or, at least, I love canon het in fanworks.

Here, have some examples of why:

Putting on Civvies, by tree_and_leaf. General rating, no Archive warnings apply. Star Trek XI. Spock/Nyota Uhura.

Good Lord, she thought, he’s going to invite me to use the Familial Respect. Vulcan had three forms of the second person singular, which were difficult to translate into English; the Respect, which was translated ‘you’, the rather confusingly named Familial Respect, for close colleagues or for distant or elderly family members – or, up till a century ago, one’s parents – which was clumsily rendered with the Quaker ‘thee’ and the Familiar, ‘thou’ (tu, du). Now that was a compliment, she thought, and tried not to blush.

This is the story where Spock and Uhura communicate elliptically and effectively, all at once; one of the things I love about the best canon het is the inclusion of the wider canon universe in the relationship, because we don’t have to bother establishing that the relationship exists. We’ve seen it already, blah blah, got it, moving on! This takes Spock and Uhura’s shared vocation and makes it resonate.

Le mondain futur d’Amelie Poulain, by kinetikatrue. Rated teen, no Archive warnings chosen. Le mondain futur d’Amelie Poulain. Amelie Poulain/Nino Quincampoix.

Except that it was never going to be that simple. Life didn’t just freeze in that hazy orange-yellow glow of the sun slipping away beneath the horizon, in that one perfect moment of easy wordless connection, but then it never does.

Relationships take more work than that.

This is the story that burrows deep, deep, deep, into Amélie’s head and just hovers there, observing. It’s a delicately drawn piece of writing, and the first time I read it, it gave me the same breathless, fragile feeling the film did. Transformative works can do amazing things to their source material, and this is one of them — they can problematize the source while still inhabiting the mental universe of it. Which is no small thing.

Swan in Flight, by Artaxastra. Rated teen, no Archive warnings apply. Pirates of the Caribbean (spoilers for At World’s End). Elizabeth Swann Turner/Will Turner, Captain Teague.

Somewhere a dog barks once. A man swears. Somewhere, a baby cries fitfully before it’s hushed. There are children here. There are women too, most of them lovers or wenches or prostitutes, not captains like her and Captain Cheng. And where there are women there are children. She supposes this ought not surprise her. Will is the son of a pirate, and so it seems is Jack.

This is hers. She is their king.

It hardly matters that her election was an accident, or an odd contrivance of Jack’s. The Code is clear. Once elected, a king cannot be unmade, except by death. Like the captain of the Dutchman. He has his work, and she hers.

This is the story that makes sure the world of the fandom of my heart is rich with meaning and echoes; this is a satisfying coda to the trilogy — it’s like a bite of really, really dark chocolate. I love the attention given to context and historical veracity, and I love the Captain Teague here.

See? Canon het is awesome, and more people should write it.

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