roses, bruises, 'bout your shoulders

1. Murderfamily recommendation: Burke and Hare (2010). Not a horror movie, although it's got serious horror cred (directed by John Landis [An American Werewolf in London] with cameos from Christopher Lee, Ray Harryhausen, and a sword-wielding Jenny Agutter, to scratch the surface) and bristles with murder, mayhem, and medical dissection (latter can get pretty graphic; murders themselves tend more to slapstick than gore). Rather, it's a wicked little loosely historical comedy with an excellent cast about the business of death.

2. 2016 = Year of the Snot. Feels like I've been microbe-sick (on top of the usual fibro business) more days than I've been "healthy" thus far this year. Probably more like a fifth or a quarter but it's still unusual for me to have two mini colds and a vigorous flu within seven weeks when I usually go through around four infections per year.

3. Random badass Avatar vid via garden_hoe21

4. Like riding a rickety deathtrap bicycle: I can still read academic fluently, although I'm unsurprisingly tentative trying to speak it. No, I'm not trying to exhume my thesis, although I am setting myself up to review some things I read in uni and grad school and crack open some of the books I didn't (and some of what I'm looking at could be called on if I ever do cut Damocles' thread). I'm looking for text addressing or applicable to horror cinema, to which end I've also (probably unwisely) picked up some new-to-me volumes at used book stores around town, including the game-changer: Carol Clover's 1992 Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. So far I've read the available free sample of The Canadian Horror Film: Terror of the Soul (edited by Gina Freitag and Andre Loiselle, 2015) and am most of the way through The Horror Film (Peter Hutchings, 2004--will have to share quotes at some point; find I often agree with him on general approach but disagree with readings of particular films). If anybody cares I can type up a provisional book list, but I don't imagine anybody does.

5. Another thing's been bubbling around my tiny head, seemingly at the opposite end of the pool from horror (and academia), and that's the notion of hygge (I'd challenge the conviction of absolute opposition, but that's another witter). I want to do something with hygge as a mood/theme in a (fannish) creative capacity but I'm not sure what/how. I was planning just to ask for prompts for myself that could work with the idea (senses of comfort, warmth, self- and other-care) with a note inviting others to play along, but I didn't, and (because this is me) it started getting ambitious. I know better than to go hog wild and create a comm that I wouldn't have spoons to maintain if it took off, which it wouldn't because I'm not that popular, but is it worth making a post for public sharing of prompts and commentfic? I don't know if I'd even be able to write anything--I still haven't finished any of the other (some decidedly less hyggelig) stories I'm trying to work on--but I want to.

Seen a handful of people posting wishlists lately, as is customary when nights get long. Feel (irrationally) guilty joining them because I haven't done anything to answer anybody else's lists yet, but I have wishes and maybe answering them will fulfill somebody else's wish, YA NEVER KNOW.

I wish for crossed fingers/good energy to help me get the job I applied for today or another, better one.

I wish for the motivation to accomplish all the cleaning I've been meaning to get to :/

I'm always interested in recs/directions towards anything you think I might like, be that fic, music, meta, movies, books incl. genre fiction popcorn reads, knitting patterns, random funny stuff--including (maybe even especially) things the recommender has made themselves.

If you want to write/create some new fanwork for me, I'll take Mass Effect, Sense8, Pride, Flashpoint, MCU (even though I'm mad at canon), The Losers, Peaky Blinders, Penny Dreadful, Prey for Rock'n'Roll, graydon's Commonweal series :D , or anything else you have reason to suspect I'd enjoy (I've never done fandom_stocking and probably won't this year either but I'm thinking about it; if I do sign up I'll link to it).

I don't wish for material goods but if you want to send me physical media (cds, dvds, books, etc.), BPAL (esp. "Breathless Horror", or check posts tagged "scents" to read what I've tried so far), fibre arts paraphernalia, houseplants, or nickel-free earrings, I will not say no.

What I want most right now, though, is someone(s) to brainstorm fic with me, because I want to write and post something new but am stumped (or stalled by inertia) on pretty much everything I've started. Magically solving all my indecisive frustration with brilliant ideas would be great but just nodding and asking for clarification while I rant would be helpful. I'm specifically seeking help with Mass Effect now because that's where my mind's at and I've got stacks of WiPs to deal with--you don't need to know canon to help! if you do that's extra awesome!--but if you want to offer support for other stuff I'll still eagerly take it (or just love you for offering). For ME I'm struggling both with plot/structure for multiple stories (some of which might be one giant story?) and with filling in/making up sex practices and other cultural details for non-human sophont species, so if either of those things row your boat lemme know!

Get it? Like the Sleater-Kinney song? Nevermind.

Over a year ago now I had to do an assignment for comms class on the Stephen King essay "Why We Crave Horror Movies" (about which I shall say more later) and as "research" I went a-binge-watching, refreshing myself on things I'd seen before and educating myself on things I hadn't. This fall I went on another binge prompted mostly by a facebook friend's commitment to watch a horror movie a day for the month of October. I didn't copy the idea but in contributing recommendations I reminded myself of Joey Comeau's currently dormant blog I'm into survival. The blog's an entertaining read, presents some interesting analyses, and introduced me to some pretty cool films. I really like Comeau's encouragement to horror movie fans to help stop real violence by supporting the Assaulted Women's Helpline.

Reading back through the entries last month I was reminded . . . I wanna do that. I want to post (rant) about horror movies (and other movies, particularly movies with social justice themes, and I want at some point to try holding the two categories up together). There's no shortage of material, certainly; even if I cover films or topics Comeau's already done I won't be duplicating because I have a different brain in a different body speaking from a different subject position.

I want to launch this (likely not going to last long enough to really qualify as a) series by returning to my original inspiration "Why Stephen King Is Wrong We Crave Horror Movies", not in this post but in one I hope will follow shortly. In the meantime I'm throwing the doors open for requests of subjects you'd like me to write about (films, original vs. remake comparisons, recurrent themes, etc.) and recommendations of stuff for me to look at (films, essays/books/YouTube videos, etc.--I haven't done a lot of secondary source research or read about horror outside the pieces mentioned here but I'd like to, especially feminist analyses of horror and analyses of feminism in/and horror, queer theory, critical disability studies, postcolonial and critical race theory . . .).

Some things I already know I want to write about, no clear idea about order or cross-connections: ( cut more for length than content or spoilers )

Obviously if you're interested in reading this stuff and want me to warn/tag/grey-out anything in particular, please let me know.

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 )

1. The breakingest news: As I learned via petra yesterday, Lucy Liu has been cast as Watson in the upcoming American remix of the BBC's contemporary remix of the already-been-remixed-umpteen-billion-times Sherlock Holmes franchise, and some fans are saying that's not acceptable. They're right, it's not acceptable--it's AWESOME. The folks with bees up their butts are trying to argue that making Watson female is somehow homophobic? And they have fragments of a point with the complaint that an opposite-gendered Holmes-Watson pair stand a greater chance of consummating any sexual tension on screen (if this version chooses to go that route, and I really really really hope it doesn't) than their preferred same-gendered pairs and that this is not fair (it's not), but people who whine that this is depriving them of gay television characters or, worse, "artificially" interfering with an otherwise perfect formula for "political purposes" are some unpleasant mix of oblivious and deluded and should recite the chorus to "As Cool as I Am" (thanks kore for posting this lovely recording) as mantra until they recognize that supporting the omission, sidelining, and fridging of female characters in favour of more bromances is active complicity in patriarchal oppression via popular culture.

2. Apparently there exists a movie called After Sex, which is like Young People Fucking in that it features a set of non-overlapping stories about sexual encounters, but different in that it a) has a larger cast (eight sets of participants instead of five), b) has a more diverse cast (including three same-sex participant sets, one set of older participants and one set of teenagers, and many more characters of colour), and c) tells the stories one after the other, like a slate of discrete short films each of which begins shortly following a sexual interaction, rather than weaving the stories together before, during, and after. I don't find it quite as funny, although it does have its moments, but it fits a similar niche of crudely thoughtful sex comedy. The best sequence, and the one that drew my attention to the film, is the one between Kat (Zoë Saldana) and Nikki (Mila Kunis) as college roommates, and (happy day) their full bit including Kat's amaaaazing monologue about her first time with another girl (bizarrely not included in the regular release of the film!) is available for watching right here:


3. I wrote a little Death Proof/The Losers crossover as a treat for the Ante Up Scramble and discovered in the process that it was the germ of a much bigger story that I did not have time to write then but still really want to. I signed up for crossbigbang as an incentive to finish it (although I might drop out of that and take the idea to the rumoured upcoming Losers Big Bang instead), but I'm blocked from getting started because I'm stumped on setting. Basically, I need a place (city/region) that provides a reason-for-being-there for both the gang from Death Proof (Kim, Zoë, Abernathy, and Lee--so, filming something) and the Losers (including Aisha and Roque, in this story neither dead nor treacherous, and their famblies--so, heistifying something), but I can't decide on where and what because I'm waffling on whether to set it more in the "real world", where Zoë Bell is Zoë Bell-muse-of-Quentin Tarantino, Clay smokes [some actual cigarette brand], and it becomes somehow relevant to the plot that Jensen resembles Chris Evans, or, as I'm leaning towards, in a sort of meta-fictional world that draws fake pop culture from various sources, where QT is perhaps manifested as Chester Rush, Clay smokes Red Apples, and it becomes somehow relevant to the plot that Jensen resembles Lucas Lee. The latter is inherently more hilarious and potentially a lot more fun and easter-eggy, but it's also more work for me because I have to decide not only how to weave together different fictional Hollywoods, etc., but also what "real world" pop culture icons to retain or fictionalize/satirize (for example, Pam Grier as Foxy Brown--keep or rename?). Either way I'm stuck deciding how closely I want Lee's career to mirror Mary Elizabeth Winstead's. I dunno. Any suggestions for filmable stories that require stunt women and driving that would help me narrow down shooting locations, as a starting place?

Title: A Dangerous Symmetry
Music: "Symmetry" by Little Boots feat. Phil Oakey (slightly shortened)
Length: 4:06
Video source(s): A Dangerous Method (2011)
Character(s): Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Emma Jung, Sabina Spielrein
Kink(s): ageplay, authority figures, begging, blades, bloodplay, bodies and body parts, bodily secretions, body alteration/injury, bondage (wrist restraints), danger, dirty talk, domestic/tradesman kink, emotion play, exposure, food, gender play, held down, humiliation (situational), in public, masters doms slaves & subs, medical kink, mirrors and doubles, obedience, oral fixation, penance/punishment, pervertibles, phonesex/epistolary, pictures, possession/marking, prostitution/sex work, spanking/paddling, vanilla kink, vehicular, virginity/celibacy, washing/cleaning, wet messy dirty, whipping/flogging, worship
Summary: Vid of a biographical film about doctors, patients, teachers, students, marriage, affairs, madness, sanity, virginity, experience, age, youth, science, spirituality, Jews, protestants, Swiss, Austrians, Russians, wealth, the middle class, joy, suffering, and 'canonical' sadomasochism, among other things

Notes: Contains violence, cinematic depictions of mental illness and historical treatment practices, infidelity, nudity (nipples), and flashy/stuttery/stroby editing effects; no other standard notes apply.
Created in a frantic vidding binge over about three days for the "All You Can Kink" mini-challenge at kink_bingo. Decided to try some new editing tricks while also cramming in as much of the source as possible (still had to leave out the part with Otto Gross), may have gone overboard on both counts.

( embedded video, download links, and lyrics behind the cut )

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

Fandom Supports Scarleteen!
scarleteenfans
Scarleteen.com has been the premier online sexuality resource for young people worldwide since 1998. Countless members of various fandoms have used information from Scarleteen when making fanworks, as well as in our own lives. They were there when we needed them. Now they need us.
Offer or bid on fanworks to support the best sex ed site on the web!
Auction closes January 23rd! Get your bids in now!

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.

Snowflake Day 11
In your own space, ask for recs. Something as simple as "I like XYZ (where XYZ is a kink, a pairing, a trope, etc) - please rec me some." Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I'd like recs for vids and fanmixes with no stipulations except that they not be all about how getting wasted and/or staying in manipulative/abusive relationships is unironically OSSUM (it's not)--critical satire vids are okay--and I'd like recs for fic and other things that are about negotiating kinky or poly or ace or actually really any kind of relationships. My love for negotiation is really big right now. Or about knitting or board/card games or yoga and stuff like that, that'd be good too. Fandoms: whatever. You can see the list of fandoms I've written in at the AO3 but the numbers don't really reflect dabbling vs. abiding loves, and I read outside 'my' fandoms anyway, so. If you say it's good I'll try it out.

I also completed Day 9 (create a fanwork) properly with a little Flashpoint werewolf story for omens' wishlist, here.