roses, bruises, 'bout your shoulders

I think I've finally settled on what to request for festivids! Offering is much easier, I find, though I've made a real effort to pair down my offers this year to only things I really want to vid, pretty much regardless of the particular request, rather than ticking every box I could.

C&Ped from the sign-up form, no additional information (apologies, vidder! I'll be sure to signpost it if I come back and add anything at a later date), but shared for the curious and for the possibility of treats (yay treats!).

( My requests . . . made more sense before saving the form auto-alphabetized them )

Title: Detention
Fandom: Avengers/Marvel Cinematic Universe
Characters: Pepper Potts/Natasha Romanova
Kink: Roleplay
Summary: analog-medium drawing of Pepper and Natasha acting out a secondary school discipline scenario (includes both coloured pencil and cleaned-up regular pencil versions because some details are easier to make out in the former and some in the latter)
Notes: Two adult women playing roles of teacher or principal and (male-presenting) high school student, respectively, in a situation that could be read as involving humiliation and possibly pain- and breathplay; no other standard notes apply.

( peektuurs )

So I know I've owed a mix to dragovianknight for approximately one million months and I've owed one to garden_hoe21 for nearly half that long, and in light of the overdueness these probably look a little half-assed, but I've actually had to fight myself down from a Sisyphean quest for curatorial completeness just to get these danged things posted so here are some unsorted collections of 1) "music to write fight scenes by" and 2) music to carry someone off to sleep, posted together because I like the pseudo-symmetry. I might try to make up for the sloppiness with more mixes, later.


( fight songs! )
download


( lullabies )
download

Apparently it's time for the "ten most popular fanworks by hitcount" thing again? I didn't do it last year, probably because I was in Texas at the time, so I have no data for comparison. Also limiting this to fic because I don't post other stuff to AO3 (yet) but AO3 is the easiest gauge I have, and because I'm fairly certain that none of my non-fic fanworks are even near as viewed as these ten.
( stuff wot I wrote, for the curious )

And while I'm linking to stuff on the AO3, here is an unbelievably precious and delightful, not to mention laugh-out-loud hilarious, story (by someone other than me) about living with people, domesticity, found family, disobedient brain-mouth circuits, and robots: Some Things Shouldn't Be a Chore. And while you're there, check out sabinelagrande because sabinelagrande is a synonym for awesome.

The March Mini-Challenge at kink_bingo was to try something you hadn't done before. ( blahbidiblahtoomanywords ) Here's a selection of clips from throughout the 10-episode run of The Unusuals with transcripts and commentary/meta wherein I argue that Jason Walsh (Jeremy Renner) is a sadistic dominant top who doesn't know it yet, that could count towards "gender play" as much as to "masters doms slaves & subs" because (as I shall argue below) there's a pretty heavy conflation between dominance and masculinity in Jason's mind.

The following video is about 21 minutes long, with 3-second breaks between clips so you can watch it all one go or pause between clips, as you prefer. I've mostly tried to cut around plot spoilers both for individual episodes and for series arcs as much as was viable to make my point, but the video and commentary do contain spoilers both major and minor for various events over the course of the series. I tried very hard to not just throw in every scene of Walsh being awesome or adorable or naked (that would be at least another couple hours' worth of footage). You may want to actually watch the show (all 10 episodes available free, streaming, on YouTube, thanks to Crackle.com) before you watch/read the rest of this post.


Password is "jasonwalsh"

From Episode 1, "Pilot"
( 1a )
( 1b )
( 1c )
( 1d )
( 1e )

From Episode 2, "Boorland Day"
( 2a )
( 2b )
( 2c )
( 2d )
( 2e )
( 2f )

From Episode 3, "One Man Band"
( 3 )

From Episode 4, "Crime Slut"
( 4a )
( 4b )

From Episode 5, "42"
( 5a )
( 5b )
( 5c )

( No clips from Episode 6, 'The Circle Line', because )

From Episode 7, "The Tape Delay"
( 7a )
( 7b )

( No clips from Episode 8, 'The Dentist', because )

From Episode 9, "The Apology Line"
( 9a )
( 9b )

From Episode 10, "The E.I.D." *yes, 10b before 10a, because 10a is kind of 'the money shot' in terms of the argument I'm trying to make*
( 10b )
( 10a )

I can't be the only person to think of this, but checking my reading and network pages hasn't turned up much quite like this, so. March 8th is International Women's Day (yes, what, why only one day and why not an International Nonbinary Gender Diversity Day and what about other kinds of oppression and intersection and multiple marginalization and kyriarchy etc., but damnit look at this mess we're in, we have to make the most of what we've got AND fight for more). To mark the occasion, I am declaring this post a commentparty. Post or request fanworks and recs about feminism and women being awesome, share anecdotes, bitch about oppression and whatever (but PLEASE be nice to any other commenters and potential readers--"boo hiss hegemony" is cool but "people who believe X are stupid" gets problematic), hug, have sex for your own pleasure and don't send the tapes to Rush Limbaugh, etc.

YOU GUYS GUESS WHAT! Somebody (jessalae) made me a preeeesent! Well, I suppose it's not technically a present because I commissioned it in a fandom fundraiser (I'm a patron of the arts!), but IT IS AWESOME NONETHELESS. It's called Multiverse Criminology and it is a Community/Fringe crossover in which Evil!Abed and Troy create a Fringe event crossing into the Redverse, and are promptly rounded up by Altlivia & crew (including Altstrid, wonderful Altstrid), and it is pretty much perfect. The first sentence made me laugh out loud and it rolls along from there.

With that important bit of squee out of the way, I shall move on to the double crux (crotch?) of this post, to whit: ( falling into Avengers Movieverse fandom and my big shiny crush on Jeremy Renner, with many helpful videos and links, mostly about The Unusuals I LOVE THE UNUSUALS )

I think it's time for more icons. There, icon'd.

[for those unfamiliar with C6DVD, it's an exchange where fans send each other cards in character, from one (or more) C6D character(s) to another(s)]

I received my card a few days ago, but the envelope said ( do not open until Valentine's Day )
So I held off until last night (after midnight--it counts, right?), and found ( this lovely card with fireworks on it )
Then I read the inside and ( my heart leapt into my throat )
Like, a had a serious moment of panic, both "HOLY SHIT CAN YOU DO THAT? ARE WE IN TROUBLE NOW?" and "AUGH SOMEONE IS DEAD" even though I knew it was only a fictional character and based on my exchange sign-up I was pretty sure I knew who. I didn't know if the notice would be online or only in print or whatever, so I checked the ( Star website )
It took a while to find the In Memoriams section proper (distinct from obits, for example), but once I did I found the entry I was looking for pretty easily: ( Lew )
Which, eee, is so heartbreaking and so believable and so lovely (and also now that I think about it makes the fireworks card really fucking morbid and I'm flabbergasted by the creativity and effort and the, I don't know, courage that went into this gesture that is, did I mention, so believable and in character? (Also, the birthdate. I know that's Mark Taylor's birthday, but it's also the day I was supposed to be born before I hit the snooze button for three days--Pisces coincidence powers, activate!)

Spiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike :( Thank you, mysterious benefactor!


ETA: So, just when I thought I had the EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE from the Spike/Lew loveliness under control, I went downstairs to refill my water bottle and saw that lo, my roommate had brought in today's mail (it's raining, I'm unemployed, and I have leftover chili with quinoa--why the heck should I go outside?), and there was another card for meeeee--or rather, for Vic, from Kat (oblique spoilers for the movie, that is, Trigger [2010]).
( behold! )

( inside! )

( the note! )

( the signature! )
AUGH, people, MY HEART. My heart cannot take this, it is too much love and too much anguish for what has happened (Lew, and more truthfully Tracy) and what is happening/will yet happen (Vic). Thank you both, senders, so very very much, for punching my heart in the face! (Seriously, no sarcasm, thank you!)

Truly, this is the best/most saddest Vamlumtimes Day ever.

Damnit are there no reasonably well-known horror movies of the 1980s left that have not yet been remade or sequelified? I feel like The Thing was the last one and that remake was seriously underwhelming (digital Thing, not nearly so squicky--maybe it's scary in 3D?), even with Mary Elizabeth Winstead going all Ripley.

ante_up_losers is live! There are about 40 new stories in the exchange and scramble (treat) collections. I ended up finishing my assignment (somehow one of the longest stories I've ever posted, no really how did that happen? and probably never going to be as popular as the one I wrote last year) and four treats for different recipients (all below 1000 words each, mostly nearer the lower end of the rating scale, exhibiting a range of moods and 'ships but mostly talky gen fluff, one crossover that I am maybe not-so-casually considering expanding, to the point of checking fandomcalendar for Big Bang events that I could count it towards); you can try to identify them, if you want, before the reveal on Tuesday.

Anyway, continuing from last post, trying vainly to show some fucking restraint damnit, more opinions about media!

( Feature Films B: Captain America vs. X-Men First Class, and also Muppets )

( Music )

( Television Series: Ongoing )

( Television Series: Premiering pt 1: Arctic Air )

( Television Series: Premiering pt 2: Bomb Girls )

( Television Series: Premiering pt 3: House of Lies )

Stay tuned for Festivids recs, if you, y'know, care.

First things first: It's here it's here it's here it's here! festivids! For the restavids! The masterlist of this year's vids is here, and you can use the tag sidebar to navigate this and previous years. I've got lots more I want to say about this year's vids (patterns in source and song choices, recs, etc.), but for now I'm going to stick to squeeing about MY TWO GIFT VIDS! I had no idea what to expect, after my requests went up for pinch-hitters twice before deadline, but I ended up receiving two lovely shiny vids all for my very own. They are, alphabetically by source and title, Fearless (Red), a gorgeously dreamy Ivan/Victoria vid (hearts, glowing hearts forever), and New In Town (Whip It), which is just, EEEEE, ear-to-ear grins, everything I love about that wonderful film boosted by a deliciously zippy song. Basically they are both MADE OF WIN. Go, watch, and leave glowing feedback!

You can also have a go at guessing which one I made (only one, after all; the treat I was working on did not happen in time though it will get posted eventually), if you want, though please play along and keep things anonymous on the Festivids community until reveal (February 4th). The music's a dead giveaway, I think, and I basically announced the fandom in a locked post not long ago so it's probably not much of a challenge for those who've been following for a while, but whatevs.

Snowflake challenge is officially over, but I still have a few days incomplete that I'd like to wrap up. Meant to do this last weekend (when Day 13, rec some canon, so conveniently nearly coincided with More Joy Day) but got distracted with stuff like cleaning and STRESS and finishing my ante_up_losers fic (and asking it how the hell it's managed to be longer than the one I wrote last year when this was supposed to be simple PWP) and WATCHING ALL THE GREEN WING (so awesome), which brings me to . . .

Day 12 do-over! Not because I regret reccing Miranda, it's still a great series, but as I said last post the available fanworks are not really that effective as propaganda (although there is now a new best vid, thanks to Festivids, that provides a much more compelling WATCH THIS SHOW! intro/pitch--it's clearly Gary/Miranda but not in a schmaltzy way and it's got lots of Miranda+Stevie BFFs and some key Clive, Penelope, and Tilly moments too, and a great happy chosen-family-of-weirdos vibe overall, and I highly recommend it). Green Wing, for all that it too really must be experienced to be believed because it is revolutionary comedy awesome, is easier to appreciate in small, out-of-context portions. A stratigraphically rich (in Julian Rhind-Tutt's word, "levular") masterpiece of television created by Victoria Pile and other veterans of Smack the Pony (awesome sketch comedy made mostly by women) a genre hybrid that's as much hospital drama, but with as little medicine as possible while still making full use of the setting (filmed in two actual, operating hospitals, btw, shot almost guerilla-style around actual staff and patients going about their business) and sketch show full of sudden surreal digressions and random events as it is VERY after-the-watershed sitcom (ruder and less kind than Miranda, in every regard), shot mostly in long steadycam takes that speed up and slow down to emphasize body language, mask corpsing, and cover cuts between takes, with lots of improv and a fearless cast (especially Mark Heap, wow, and Pippa Haywood and Michelle Gomez and really everybody, but especially Mark Heap). The plots, if you try to describe them, are pure soap opera, but the ways the (mostly immature well beyond the poor communication skills regular hospital dramas seem to demand and in one way or another severely dysfunctional) characters get themselves into and out of and respond to the situations are ridiculously original and sometimes just ridiculous (Sue White WTFBBQ), such that it can produce both a slew of intensely 'shippy vids (mostly involving Caroline, Guy, and/or Mac; my favourite so far for editing and preserving the energy of the show is Mr. Brightside) as well as, well, this (the futuresoon vid of much kinetic hilarity that petra recced for Day 12 that first piqued my interest). As for fic, the talent pool is so far both broader and deeper than for Miranda in terms of AO3 entries; I looked at all 44 stories (yet ruled out reading all 22 Twitch City entries as being too many last week, no I don't know what is wrong with me but I'll correct that later) and my favourites are probably Medical Research (despite squicky "seduction using teen mag advice" premise; surprisingly sweet Boyce/Statham with some very clever touches), Are You Coming? (among the funniest of the many Guy/Mac entries), Two Guys in a Bar (among the most eloquently and sweetly poignant Guy/Mac entries), and Misty Watercolor Memories (among the tenderest post-finale Guy/Caroline\Mac stories--spoilers, obviously).

Other things that may be of interest:
The Multi-Fandom Cuddling Meme 2: Cuddle Harder
The Bechdel Test Comment Ficathon Episode II

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And now my asshole neighbours are attempting to hotbox the house again and my closed vents are doing fuck-all to stop it and I have to try to knock myself out with valerian root because I don't have the spoons to go anywhere else.