astolat's livejournal

Abby

2008-12-01T15:24:34Z

There's a memorial post for Abby up now at the horsechicks community -- please go leave any thoughts and memories of her there! And there's also a link there to a seriously amazing article written by Abby & her mom in 2006 about how she dealt with her illness that just makes you want to stand up and cheer for her.

♥

memories of abby

2008-12-01T04:11:54Z

For those on my flist who might not have heard -- Abby, tv_elf, one of the members of the Apocalypse West crew & a regular at Vividcon & Escapade, has passed away. celli has had updates, and there will probably be info about a memorial service soon, and where to send flowers or donations.

As a heads up, one thing the AW folks are thinking they would like to do is collect memories of Abby to share with her family (who knew all about fandom) -- so if you might have funny or interesting posts Abby sent to mailing lists, or comments or emails she sent, if you could try and gather them, I'm sure it would be appreciated. I'll pass along word on where to send any of this soon as I hear myself.

Lots of hugs and love to her family & close friends. :(

PS: comments are probably best left here on celli's post, so I will disable here.

Idol RPF: Above Water (Cook/Archuleta)

2008-11-23T04:39:56Z

Happy lj-anniversary to me! A while back it occurred to me to look and see when I made this lj, and it is six years ago today, which is at once exciting and also vaguely shocking to me. But anyway, I have celebrated by finishing a story! *facepalms at the eight other older ones all clamoring for attention*

Above Water (3,496 words)
Cook/Archuleta, not explicit
Sequel to Fortunate Son (the plane crash story), in which they get that trip to the Grand Canyon.

With ♥ to celli, giddygeek, and cesperanza for beta!

Posted at the Archive of Our Own! \o/

recs! spn and david cook!

2008-11-20T18:30:21Z

Okay, so first, I am putting greensilver on the spot, because I had to seriously SHRIEK AND PULL TEETH just to get her to post this awesome vid:

Dream Big, David Cook/American Idol RPF

It is just pure fun, a rollercoaster ride through all the ridiculousness that is Idol, set to the kind of fabulously super-cheesy coronation song (the one he picked to sing in the finale and not the treacly Time of My Life magic rainbows and kittens song). It is ♥

And guys, you have to go over there and comment so as to prove that there is an audience for this (she did not BELIEVE ME *gnashgnash*) and therefore that she should POST THE DAVID COOK/TONY STARK STORY ALREADY OMGGGG!!11! (She has one! She told me about it at Vividcon, in AUGUST, and she still won't give it to me! *cries*)

Also, I share the hilarious bit that ladyvyola sent me from the Washington Post's review of the Davids' albums:

But the show's overseers have recently loosened the creative reins, or at least given the appearance of doing so. Both "Cook" and "Archuleta" offer previously forbidden glimpses, however brief, of the artists' actual personalities: Cook is Chris Cornell as a Midwestern bar singer; Archuleta seems to be made entirely of fluffy unicorns and Skittles.

IAWTReview. eta:PS: sekrit to Yuletide Author, look, another AU idea for you! :>

Also also, if you have not already, you must read rivkat's incredible new Supernatural story Double Cross (linking to it on the Archive of Our Own, woo, and it is also here on lj \o/). I cannot get into it without spoiling, other than to say it is epic and ridiculously hot and full of angels and demons, and -- uh, maybe it's not exactly Sam/Dean, except it totally IS, and if you read it and feel I have steered you wrong you can come back and argue with me! But you won't! Trust me! *grins*

things to do in denver on the internet when you're LJ's dead

2008-11-18T02:45:38Z

Heyyy, I totally second cesperanza here -- while LJ is down tomorrow (from 8am-noon pacific time), take that time you would have spent refreshing and reading and commenting and posting, and bop over to Fanlore! Make an account, edit some entries, maybe track down some non-LJ-based fanfic to link! :D

And while the AOOO is still in closed beta and buggy (new release coming in a week or two, btw! also we have had exciting adventures in fighting off evil spambots) and sadly is lying about there being 15000 stories already in, but there *are* more than 1500, and spread across lots of fandoms, so if you are looking for something to read, pop over there too.

Or, you know, you can work on your Yuletide story perhaps with the help of Write or Die. ♥

eta to fix fanlore link, d'oh!

Dear Yuletide Writer!

2008-11-14T16:15:52Z

Sorry for the lateness, dear writer! I have been busy slaving away over hot code! (And not at all gallivanting around to concerts or anything. *coughs*)

As always, if you are inspired with anything whatsoever for the fandom + characters I listed, write THAT story. The story you are excited about is the one I want to read. ♥ All the details in the signup and the notes below are just if they are fun for you to read and food for your imagination. :)

I am happiest in the range starting at crack, going through fluff, melodrama, and soft h/c, and ending at serious drama, without heading the rest of the way to intense angst or hardcore hurt. In terms of story form, I am wildly flexible and love character vignettes and long plotty stuff and pwps; stories told in letters or hell, with postcards; completely traditional or completely experimental. Any POV or tense will do (hey, outsider POVs always fun!) and I love interesting settings and action but also stories that focus entirely on the interior and emotions.

AUs always a good time, ridiculous premise taken seriously a plus, and crossovers with other fandoms I know at least a little bit about welcome; see my list of tags here or my fanfic fandoms.

Also, I should mention that my requests are not in any order, because I change them around so much it is just about picking one to replace when I come up with a new idea. So seriously, whichever one you match with me on, I will be super-excited to get.

RPF - American Idol
David Archuleta/David Cook

These two are just ridiculously cute. I would equally love fluffy innocent slash or friendship. Wacky AUs totally welcome, Cook and Archie as princes of rival kingdoms or vampires or jedi knights, it's all awesome, as are stories set during Idol or in the future. I confess I am not too keen on excessive angst or apology-fic? :)

I don't really have anything to add there. Pretty much, they are terminally adorable, like fluffy kittens or something. Who does not like kittens! That's my point. Not that I am not interested in more serious stories -- totally welcome if you wanted to get into for instance Archie pining from afar or the two of them struggling with the madness of 0-60 fame.

Witchblade
Ian Nottingham/Kenneth Irons/Sara Pezzini

Here I would be entirely thrilled with either Ian/Irons or Sara/Irons or a threesome or gen -- something to do with their entangled fates, the Witchblade moving and controlling all of them together. Extra awesome if Irons thinks he's more in control than he actually is, and is disabused. Please nothing schmoopy or romantic, and ideally not *just* Sara/Ian.

The "moments" in this fandom where I got hooked (after seeing Killa's awesome Coming Up From Behind vid <3) were the Sara/Irons bits early in the first season, where he's alternately baiting her and trying to seduce her, less physically than mentally, but interested in anything he can get. Actually, I will link to my own vid Jig of Life here, because one of the things I was trying there was to capture that intensity between them:

And then really, I think poor Ian's problem is he is caught smack between these two titanic forces, both of whom in different ways take him for granted -- I'd love to see a story where he somehow either bridges between them or is the instrument for cutting the ground out from under them both, to shape some kind of step forward, a different relationship.

If you want to get ambitious, maybe some sort of plot where the three of them all get pulled into a case -- a crime that Pez is initially investigating, perhaps, that turns out to involve Irons; or hey, a historical or far-future AU where the three of them are brought together again, either remembering or dreaming of other times.

Or you know, they could wake up in bed together and wacky hijinks could ensue! *g*

Lois McMaster Bujold - Vorkosigan series
Byerly Vorrutyer/Lord Ivan Vorpatril

So the key for me here is Ivan. I would heart Ivan slash, because I just love the idea of poor Ivan having his worldview flipped like that -- Ivan/Byerly or Ivan/Gregor or Ivan/Dono would all be splendid. Or I would adore Ivan with a Betan woman rather reminiscent of Cordelia (or even Cordelia herself, if you can find a way to do that, although no Aral deathfic please), for similar reasons! And if none of those work for you, gleeful gen romping and adventure would make me just as happy. :D I've picked Byerly too because I love By and think he is the perfect instrument for whatever disaster, but I would be okay with it if you had an idea that matched the above but didn't include him. The only things I would personally not be quite as excited about would be Ivan/Miles or Ivan meeting his Vor true love, but even there, if you have an awesome idea and it is burning you up to write, go for it!

I totally cribbed this from last year because I still wants it! It is also the super-long prompt from hell so I don't really have anything to add, other than omg yay please. Oh, and also, for me the key books of the series are Cordelia's Honor and A Civil Campaign which I realize is not totally characteristic -- I just fell in love with Cordelia and Aral and Barrayar first, and so I am never as excited when it's about Miles off alone elsewhere in the universe.

Dracula: the Series
Lucard

Basically, I Love Lucard! The show is really absurdist camp, but I always had the feeling that Lucard was in an entirely different show from the rest of the characters. Anything that takes him seriously would make me happy; slash or het with him as the seducer would be v. nice. I'd be entirely on board with crossovers here, too (though please not something relying on Klaus/Nicholas Knight from Forever Knight being played by the same actor, although Lucard meeting LaCroix or perhaps Janette would suit me just splendidly). I am pretty easy here, so go nuts. :D

I left this in even though as of press time no one had offered it, because what the heck. *g* The series is seriously kind of nonstop hilarity. I am popping a few episodes here (anyone welcome to grab):

http://intimations.org/awesome/dts/

(These things are only 150 mb/22 minutes apiece, it's like popcorn!)

and there is a fabulous website that's been around for ages, Lucard's Home Page, with episode summaries & reviews, and a tiny store of fanfic (check out Sarah T's stuff, do not for the love of god check out mine -- I was a late bloomer. :> ).

Excessive rambling over, please have fun with this! And I will be happy no matter what. :D

outfit!

2008-11-13T16:02:34Z

So I had posted asking for opinions on what to wear to the David Cook (okay, fine, David Wright) gala last night, and as commenters have inquired about the final decision, here is the outfit:

*grins*

The blouse is even spiffier than it looks in there, it is a sort of Victorian poufy-shouldered blouse with lacing up the sides that I was seduced into buying in the Village just last week *shakes tiny fist at larbalestier* and the jewelry is my early xmas present my mom got me in Poland from this super-cool tiny store called Oliwka we found at the back of an alley in Krakow. :D

...I have no tag for this. That feels kind of wrong!

eta: ahaha, now tagged, on franzeska's suggestion. :>

Also, ps, OMG LIFE ON THE MOON IS SO VINDICATION. \o/

david cook! \o/ report from the david wright gala

2008-11-13T05:31:46Z

eeeee! I am back from David Cook's concert at the Do The Wright Thing charity gala, and wow, that was awesome.

Okay -- got to the Hard Rock Cafe, got carded & wristbanded before even getting inside the door, then downstairs to the silent auction section full of baseball memorabilia and a couple of pictures and, randomly enough, one tuxedo jacket, signed by David Cook. There was a buffet and open bar going, but I wisely pounced on one of the staff to ask where the performance was going to be held, and so was pointed at the glass doors all the way off in the back corner, which led to a entire theater totally invisible from the rest of the place -- quite weird. And through the glass doors you could see the stage, where David Cook was hanging out taking promo photos. :D

So we stayed by the doors -- Charles nobly forwent the buffet and stayed with me -- until they opened a few minutes later and in we dashed. Alas, tall people crowded me back from the velvet rope blocking off the stage, so we went along and up to the mezzanine, only to discover with schadenfreude that there was an even better view from there, not any further from the stage, and also that about fifteen minutes before the start of the show, they let a whole posse of VIPs come in and fill in the roped-off area right in front of the stage. *kof*

A local radio host Carolina Bermudez in impressively high heels came out and introduced David Wright, who introduced David Cook, not without some difficulties, as every time he said the words "David Cook" or "this guy" or "he", screams broke out through the room, like punctuation. Apparently, DC was there performing for free, and had donated $25K fee to a brain cancer foundation, plus the event was raising $200K for charity.

So then David came out to even more screams, and I don't know whether it was something they did with the lighting or, haha, his head size, but he looked really markedly different from both of the other two -- just a bigger presence on stage, even though he's a smaller guy than DWright. Partly he was much better made-up. Cute outfit: white shirt, red tie, black vest, with black jeans and the perennial cowboy boots. The radio host promptly said she felt like she should be doing a bachelor auction; the audience agreed loudly; David Cook promptly sashayed up to the front of the stage, did a little hip-check and preened, then laughed at himself. :D

After that, DCook vanished, and they did a live auction for three "packages" including one American Idol finale trip package, which I felt was kind of misthought, because it's not like it's a package to go back in time and see the one DC was in, so unless you are such a wild American Idol fan you will shell out charity-gala ticket prices to see whoever won, it does not seem to really hit the target audience of DC fans, even if he does get a performance at the finale. But, whatever, it went for $9,000, so somebody must have wanted it.

I managed to accidentally bid $4500 for some other package because I was trying to helpfully point out a short person being ignored on the dance floor. D: Happily I was very quickly outbid before real omgwtfpanic could set in. *g* (Also, they DECEPTIVELY called it a D-squared package, and got me all hopeful for a moment! but it was for seeing DCook on Regis & Kathy Lee and getting to go to a Mets game. hmph.)

After the auction, they turned up the volume on the piped-in music, apparently to soften up our eardrums early, but happily it was only about 15 minutes before the band came on (yay yay), and they launched into a first song ~~that, um, I don't remember what the name was~~ that the internets tell me was Heroes. (I have not been following the leaks, sue me, omg!) DC pretty much just said hello before launching into I think Mr. Sensitive (do not hold me to this exact order, as my memory for this kind of stuff is terrible), then after that introduced all the band, very cutely -- starting with Neal "Doctor" Tiemann, then the drummer, then "this is Joey" *eyeroll, dismissive handwave* for the bassist, hee; then "and this...increasingly handsome fellow is Andrew" for Andy Skibs, who looked hilariously sort of shy about it.

He then did Life on the Moon, which he said "was about the last year and a half of my life," so haha, I went "ee, it's Vindication," and in fact, I think it was my favorite of the night -- I'm definitely ridiculously excited about being able to listen to that one again, when the album goes up tonight.

He quieted things down (after asking if we minded: no, we did not) and did a song with acoustic guitar called Lie, the rest of the band coming in at the end, which was the best one in this particular venue for me -- the room was a little too small for the volume and I was getting pretty bad feedback from the giant speakers right by my head on top of that (price of being off to the side), and his voice when you could hear it coming through was *fantastic*.

He still has Timmy with him, the guitar tech from the Idol tour! He introduced him (to many cheers from the audience, when he asked if they'd gone to the Idol tour).

At some point in these exciting proceedings, he then paused everything and said he needed David Wright to come up to the stage, saying "nobody knows about this, I'm just doing it... I'll stay here all night, I've got nowhere to go." Which was good, because DWright was out front opposite the stage and had to slowly wend his way through the whole mass of fans to get back on stage. DCook also called out someone named Ramey, which baffled me into thinking that Ramiele Malubay was there, except instead it turned out to be... his makeup artist.

He then told this cute story how he was out with DWright at dinner the other night along with some other players ("players to be named later"), and DW was saying he played a mean Rock Band, but needed some tips, and DC said, "Okay, here's your first lesson in being a rock star -- guyliner." And he made the makeup artist put eyeliner on DW.

DCook: This is going to look so hot.
Audience: we approve!
DWright: ...

DWright clearly NOT used to wearing makeup or being on a stage, also so tall the poor makeup artist had to stretch up to get him, but was a v good sport about it all and hugged DC after. *g*

Then DCook did Declaration, with (I think, though it might have been in another song) this one absurdly long power note where he sort of tipped sideways next to the mike and just kept going and going and going, and then did a little more banter -- I couldn't hear it very well because by then I was partially deafened (these speakers, you have to understand, were about my height, and there were four of them about fifteen feet away, turned up to ludicrous levels), but Charles tells me he said, "this is the last song of the set -- well, the last song of the set so far. ...Did I just beg for an encore? that's not cool."

And then they started in on Light On, at which point a whole bunch of fans pulled out glowsticks and waved them, so he abruptly stopped the band, said, "Wow, that's great," and asked the venue to turn off all the lights (except the ones on the actual stage) so he could see the glowsticks during the song. :D He also mentioned "you could use a cellphone, or the Light On app you can get for your iphone, $1.99 [lol]" <-- haha, shameless.

I promptly got the ridiculous thing out (yes, I AM a wacky fan, this is news?), although it took like a minute to start up, plus I had to pause it to keep it from playing the song he was singing there live, so it strikes me as kind of a bad design as an actual concert lighter. On the other hand, it did stay lit, did not set my hair on fire, and did not spill lighter fluid on anyone. \o/? He also had us sing a bit of the last chorus, yay. :D

They headed offstage, and having been properly primed, we naturally all screamed for a while, and then the drummer came out and did a fantastic solo, just sort of blazing away on all thrusters, then after a while DCook came out, grabbed a pair of drumsticks and started helping, beating away on the one really deep drum, then beckoning out the others; he gave the bassist one of the sticks so he could hit the cymbal, and it was just heaps and heaps of fun, and then with a final crash he tossed the sticks back over his shoulder and came out to take his guitar.

He warned us "this isn't what you're used to on American Idol," and then launched into Bar-ba-sol -- the other song I particularly want to hear again, though sadly it didn't really work where I was; the feedback became so bad I couldn't hear a single lyric, sigh, mutter, grumble. The guitar and drums sounded cool, though?

And then it was done! I am not so much into the stalking, so we didn't stay after that, even though it looked like he might come out after. (The table right near us had a little sign on it saying "Reserved: David Cook" although I am skeptical he really needed to *reserve* a table in that particular room in order to have a place to put down his drink. *g*) Then out we went to catch ourselves a cab in Times Square, and so to home and the dinner sacrificed to the cause of good vantage points. *g*

I have to say, all the songs are super-catchy, and had a nice edge, whether or not that turns out to be in the album versions; at least Light On felt much harder than the itunes single does, I have to say. Of course that is possibly because it was being played at a volume intended for people out on the street in Times Square to hear, but it definitely seemed a bit more roughed up.

It was a fabulous time, and a great way to hear the songs for the first time. \o/ And now the whole album is up for streaming, yay yay!

Or, ps, you could install the I ♥ OTW widget and then order the album on amazon. :D

david cook for me! \o/

2008-11-12T21:39:36Z

I am going to the Wright Gala tonight, complete with David Cook performance, eee! I know some others on my flist are going so I have the ultra-important question:

What are you wearing?

I mean, "Gala" suggests schmancy, but "Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square" suggests jeans, t-shirt, and official tourist fanny pack. :P Opinions from non-attendees also solicited.

Fanlore & Yuletide

2008-11-09T23:29:24Z

Hey fanlore users/contributors and Yuletide participants -- can I get your opinions over here at the FanloreBot talk page (or in comments here if you don't have a fanlore account and don't want to make one)?

I am working on a script that will create temporary stubs for the Yuletide fandoms, to try and make it easier for Yuletiders who would like to share info and resources about their tiny fandoms to bop into Fanlore and quickly add content. I'm looking for suggestions for the entry outline format, other resources to auto-link, thoughts on how the bot should work.

On an entirely different note, sob! 1309 signups and no-one is offering Dracula: the Series. ;__;

ps yes that is an EXTREMELY SUBTLE HINT. :D

Yuletide! \o/

2008-11-07T23:14:20Z

Just wanted to remind anyone on my flist who might have been a little bit distracted the last few days :D that Yuletide signups are open only until THIS MONDAY, November 10, and will be closing at 9PM EST, so I can start the number-crunching and assignments, gulp.

http://yuletidetreasure.org/ !!!

If you aren't familiar with Yuletide, it's a secret-gift-exchange holiday challenge for rare, obscure, and small fandoms run by yours truly & elynross ♥. You submit a set of requests and fandoms you're willing to write in, you get assigned a recipient, you write them a 1000-word story by the deadline, and we all get to wallow in piles and piles of stories. :D

Check out the extensive FAQ and yuletide_admin and yuletide for lots more details.

(PS: American Idol RPF is totally on the fandoms list, I casually mention! *bats eyes*)

sam & dean <3

2008-11-07T06:53:58Z

Okay, so I have to say I am all for Dean remembering, and I am all for Sam wanting nothing more than Lilith's head on a plate, and I don't mind either that Dean is functional-and-horndogging and that Sam is lying and that Sam and Dean aren't really feeling like SamandDean so much, because it feels to me absolutely that they are both desperately trying to PRETEND they are still SamandDean, and fumbling and failing at it, because they are both so wounded, and yet they are both still desperately trying to achieve that, and it is their one mutual hope for healing.

(And also I want a story now where it is their desperate desire to re-achieve that closeness that makes them get together.)

And the TEDDY BEAR. <3

Okay, and now I must get to bed, but am happy! ♥ show

hope

2008-11-05T23:22:32Z

I spent the last two days in Pennsylvania working in Monroe County on GOTV. One of the things I was signed up to do was line manage last night -- bring food and water and encouragement to people on line waiting to vote. In 2004, the last vote cast in this area was at 12:30am, so they were braced for a long night. I collected up umbrellas, too, because it was threatening to rain.

I got to the polls and there were more volunteers than voters. There were no lines. It was actually kind of terrifying in the moment, until I got back to the office and they confirmed turnout was actually up significantly over 2004. Everyone had just gotten out and voted in the morning -- all the poll watchers said they'd had a line out the door before the polls opened. At one polling place, they had 1400 of 2300 registered voters show up before work even let out, more than they'd ever gotten there before. That was when I was pretty sure we had won.

We kept calling people until the polls closed, even when it was already pretty much impossible for anyone to get to the polls in time. There was a satellite office open nearby (to help manage the enormous floods of volunteers) and it took about ten minutes after 8pm for someone to remember to call and tell them to stop calling -- they had just sort of kept going. "Early get out the vote for 2012," someone said.

I was standing in the office watching the countdown to 8pm when the polls closed, and refreshed MSNBC on my iphone to see the "Breaking News: Obama takes Pennsylvania" headline immediately. There was much screaming. I had to drive home early this morning, so we left shortly thereafter to go back to my mom's house for the night; about ten minutes after I got home, they called Ohio, and then it was just waiting for the west coast to bring it home. (Actually I heard the final call at 11pm from Jon Stewart, which was pretty awesome. <3)

I'm really sad about Prop 8 and hug all you lgb folks out there extra hard. :( I am comforting myself with penknife's smart thoughts and the underlying message of last night, which is that hope is never false, progress does happen, and good ideas win in time, like equality and respect for other human beings. I've got faith we'll win this fight too. ♥

From Portland, the moment when it was called for Obama; this made me cry:

ridiculous grab-bag catchup

2008-10-30T20:13:10Z

*waves feebly*

Hi, I've been out of the country for two weeks, and boy are my arms tired. Also my brain, which is why this line totally isn't a functional joke. Also my livejournal is apparently now undead! There are zombies. I approve. (this is looking on the posting interface page)

I totally failed to post before I left, too; I have been pretty much swamped to the limit the last few months and also just a little bit ~~obsessed~~ ~~freaked out~~ ~~hysterical~~ interested about following the election. Please please please let next Tuesday be here now. Now? How about now?

So here is my super-quick attempt to catch up on everything at once! :P

First issue of Transformative Works and Cultures is out and super-awesome -- to me, this is absolutely what real fan (and more generally media) scholarship should be, not only interesting to academics but also accessible and readable and exciting to, you know, ME and other fans like me, who are not so much into the academic side themselves but are happy to hear some super-cool meta thoughts once in a while. (And more machiavellianly, I also just hugely value it on a purely strategic level, where this is the kind of tool that helps us have control over our own depiction and how we are seen by the rest of academia -- putting out seriously kick-ass material that makes people want to come and read it and talk to us and listen to our ideas. ♥ ♥)

And then there is Fanlore! omg! It is SO AMAZING to watch the wiki take off full-steam and see all the participation and evolution. I adore watching the Recent Changes page and also PS, if anyone felt like it they could add some more links to the Idol RPF fandom page esp for D-squared stuff, *bats eyes*. :D

And finally, what I must admit is nearest to my own heart and what I've been working on the most myself, the Archive of Our Own is now in early beta (anyone can read, you need an invite to post, invites are going out slowly but steadily to people who send us feedback). There is still a ton of work to be done, and all of us working on the software are volunteers so it sometimes goes slow, sometimes fast, but I am just ridiculously proud of the foundation we've built here, and of the entire coding team, which runs the gamut from the super-experienced to coders who had no programming experience at all to start, and it just makes me want to jump up and down and wave my arms in glee.

And if you agree that any of these projects are cool and would like to help, please volunteer for our next year and if you can, kick in a few bucks donation, or (if you have Firefox and shop at Amazon) install the super-cool I ♥ OTW widget, which gives OTW that little referral tip from Amazon for products where you haven't otherwise been referred by someone else. :D

In fannish news, I finally got to watch 4x04 and 4x05 of Supernatural on the plane home yesterday and am about to settle in to watch 4x06, yay yay, and OMG I am so happy with this season! ♥ ♥ ♥ (Also I am kind of bewildered by the apparent deliberate attempts on the part of the show to foster all the J2 RPF, which didn't seem to me to really need that much help? Seriously, I don't see how they could do more unless they start sending representatives to cons to hand out mass-produced tin hats.)

I also have finally caught up on the whole House/Wilson arc through Birthmarks, and am also delighted there, even if I have been Eganed in the process, which term am I perhaps the first to use? I would define it, in comparison with other canon-cut-out-from-under-story variants, as Jossed == canon goes off in totally different direction from your story; Kripked == canon actually does pretty much exactly what you were writing; Eganed == canon accomplishes same thing as what you were writing except via entirely different route.

(I am not even looking at my list of unfinished stories right now, including the ones that I am still writing for sweet charity & the vote payback, ahhaha oh god. /o\)

aaaaaand, drumroll, nominations are open for yuletide 2008!!! I had mad ambitions of moving the whole shebang over to the new archive software for this year's challenge, but given that right now I am feeling about as flaky as a nice buttery fresh-baked croissant, I think I will let caution trump my usual instincts to leap in blindly and trust to finding some way out (it serves me well most of the time! just am a little overcommitted right now D:), and stick with the good old software for one more year, then transfer over more leisurely this coming year as the OTW-Archive software firms up.

Okay, whew. I feel like I am not quite so disconnected anymore! Now if I can just finish a post in my pro lj and catch up on my email. D:

GOTV in Ohio!!!

2008-10-05T00:59:28Z

Hey folks -- there's early voting going on in Ohio RIGHT NOW, but it ends THIS MONDAY. The Obama campaign is doing a get-out-the-vote effort right now and asking for people to make calls from home even if you don't live in Ohio:

http://my.barackobama.com/n2nOhio

Create an account and it will give you a list of people to call -- 15 at a time, not a whole lot -- to ask them to get out early. They DO NOT HAVE TO BE REGISTERED! They can register and vote all at once, BUT ONLY THROUGH THE END OF THE DAY THIS MONDAY.

In 2004, we lost Ohio by less than 10 votes per precinct in the state.

If you have an hour free the next couple of days, please make some calls! Early voters just need to head down to their local elections office --

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/ohvotinglocations/ (county-by-county locations, and you can use google maps to give the voter directions if they need help!)

-- and poll workers will help them register and vote.

They will need to provide either the last 4 digits of their SSN or their entire Ohio driver's license number, and it is a good idea to take some ID and/or a utility bill to prove identity, just in case. Some places are using electronic voting, some are using paper ballots.

working for Obama in Pennsylvania

2008-10-02T19:18:24Z

Only of interest to those who might consider going to eastern Pennsylvania to campaign for Obama if there were reasonable housing options:

So in bad timing, I'm going away for the second half of October, but my mom lives in Pennsylvania, and while she's not willing to open the house up to total strangers, she'd be happy to let people I can vouch for come and stay at her place.

If you've been thinking about going out (the campaign just put out a call for traveling volunteers), but don't have a place to stay, let me know? This would be in East Stroudsburg, right near the Delaware Water Gap, off exit 309 on I-80. You'd be welcome to just stay over a weekend or for longer stretches of time, there's plenty of room and it's a completely safe neighborhood.

You do need a ride, however, as there's pretty much nothing in the way of public transporatation, but I think the campaign can more easily provide that than housing, so I thought I would offer.

If you're interested, drop me a comment here with your email address and I will write -- for my mom's peace of mind, if I know you online or RL personally, or if you're a friend of a friend, it's pretty much a definite, and if otherwise, let's discuss. :D

And NYC peeps, I'm hoping to get out there for some chunks of time myself and at least for election day to help ferry people to the polls, so if any of you would be interested in weekend-tripping or possibly more, let me know that too.

All comments screened!

I can has new single omg

2008-09-23T21:10:24Z

And so can you!

Light On - David Cook!

And hey, people who are not crazy Cook fans, can you tell me if you like this or not? Because I recognize that um, I and everyone else on my flist who is going to be talking about it are completely not neutral, and I am wildly curious how it plays for someone who's not already a fan. (And I do not get huffy at critique of stuff I like so do not fear me going ZOMG INFIDEL or anything at you if you say you don't like it.)

Meanwhile, personally, having already zoomed straight through the !!!!! and \o/ stages, I am already at the "now where is the REST of the album omg" stage. Seriously, I hate American Idol so much. I am used to getting a new song every week! And supposedly he WROTE 50! and TRACKED 20! why omg can't we just have them ALL! It is really cruel. :(

politics

2008-09-19T21:39:34Z

So hey, I am basically all-coding all-the-time right now which is why this lj has been boring and dead, but I saw this at fivethirtyeight.com and it impelled me to post (and then to go trolling political websites for several hours, argh). It's an independent ad about Sarah Palin's record on wildlife conservation (which to sum up is pretty much "shooting animals is totally awesome").

DON'T WATCH IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO ANIMAL HARM I MEAN IT.

However, it's a *really* effective political ad.

This ad is being run by Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund. If you'd like to help them put it on the air in more states, you can donate at their website. (This group has endorsed Obama, but they're independent and the Obama campaign isn't involved with or funding the ad.)

Also, I know for most of my flist this will be preaching to the choir, but penknife has a pretty heartbreaking post up about how McCain's election would hurt her and other LGBT people and their children. McCain's successfully created a vague impression of himself as a moderate on social issues that obscures the actual policy positions he's running under.

Plus, Hillary and Cecile Richards have an editorial in the Times about the Bush administration's latest attack on women's rights. It's awesome how to them protecting my pharmacist's right to impose their religious beliefs on the job they chose to take, knowing what it entailed, is more important than my right to get medicine prescribed for me by my doctor. It was insane enough when it was INDIVIDUAL wacko pharmacists pulling this shit on women one at a time.

(Hey, so with this, do Scientologist pharmacists get to object to handing out psychiatric medication? Or is it just any woman who wants to exercise control over her own body and sex life gets to be jerked around at the whim of anyone they can find an excuse to give the opportunity? Yeah, I thought so.)

The ACLU has an online form for sending in an official comment.

Finally: Obama's campaign is having a matching-donation drive. Please help if you can! He's retaken the lead in the electoral college today according to fivethirtyeight.com, probably as McCain's bounce from Palin dies and the "fundamentally sound" economy continues to erode away into the sea, but it's going to be tight.

In fluffier and more cheerful news, Supernatural last night == made of win. Also, I finally watched the s3 finale five minutes beforehand and OMG all of you who tried to get me to watch it, you are SO NOT MY FRIENDS, you just wanted me to SHARE IN YOUR MISERY over the ENTIRE SUMMER. *glares*

(Sam and Dean singing Bon Jovi in the Impala was however the best thing ever, I grant you. <3)

Okay, back to coding. I will have actual real fannish content in this lj at some point in future again! it will happen, I swear!

story trailer for Time of Your Life!!!

2008-09-01T18:48:29Z

omg! look, look what lavitaestbella made!

Trailer for Time of Your Life (Cook/Archuleta) ♥ ^♥ ♥ ♥ ^{^{♥ ♥}} ♥ ^♥

*dances around in delighted glee*

It's my story! she totally got it all in there! I have no idea how, but I was all, yes! that scene! and that one! and and and! Also they are adorable and have angst and hug a lot and make music together and yay.

_{^{♥ ^♥ ♥}} ♥

HOME

2008-08-24T22:08:24Z

NOT LEAVING APARTMENT AGAIN UNTIL OCTOBER. WILL COMMUNICATE VIA SEMAPHORE AND INTERNET.

*falls over half-dead in pile of used tissues, ugh*

eta: per request from amanuensis1 in comments, story in semaphore:

David Cook RPF: Madrigals and Misadventures (Cook/Archuleta)

2008-08-23T00:05:58Z

*dances blithely through the fields in the Land of Wrong*

Madrigals and Misadventures (13,631 words)
Cook/Archuleta
Wherein there is magic, daring rescues, accidental kissing, not-so-accidental kissing, Clive Davis is evil, and everyone lives happily ever after.

With many many thanks to cesperanza, terrio, celli, and svmadelyn (ps to madelyn: sorry there is no swordfight for Lord Cowell! next time?)

All fb loved. :D

Vids! Mandara (Dune) and Black Black Heart (The Revenger's Tragedy)

2008-08-21T14:15:31Z

I am very gratefully home! at last, and after successfully staving it off for six weeks, the traveling has finally laid me low and I have what is trying to be a cold, argh. But I am fighting it off with fluids and vitamins, and have gotten the Vividcon vids up. :D

Note: Some players don't recognize the aspect ratio setting on xvid files. If you get squished video from the shiny downloaded versions, try using VLC!

Mandara
Song: Mandara by Vas
Source: Dune (1984 David Lynch movie)
Right-click save XviD (50 MB)
Stream at iMeem

I've been vaguely planning this one since I vidded Twin Peaks last year and reawakened my deep and pure Kyle MacLachlan love, dating from high school. The movie totally caught me at that impressionable age where I love it even though it is sadly and deeply flawed (feochadn tells me there is an EIGHT HOUR rough cut somewhere that I now desperately want to see omg), but it has always frustrated me, because it absolutely looks like Frank Herbert's universe, but it doesn't behave like it -- the terrible and grotesque Harkonnens, which strike me as Lynch temporarily forgetting he wasn't still a twelve-year-old giggling over Garbage Pail Kids cards, and turning the "weirding way" into the stupid and boring sound technology, and losing all of the political subtlety and turning Paul into an action hero instead of a man desperately struggling to avoid messiah-hood and starting a galaxy-wide jihad, before in the end he yields to his own destiny.

So anyway, I really wanted to try and illustrate that story, instead, and I am so gleeful that people got that this is what I was doing. \o/ The piece that I don't think I managed to make quite clear was this idea I had of visions-within-visions-within-memories, trying to capture some feeling of Paul's prescient vision, and I may actually return to this at some point, because I belatedly had a great idea for how to illustrate this better. *g*

Black Black Heart, made with untrue_accounts
Song: Black Black Heart by David Usher
Source: The Revenger's Tragedy
Right-click save XviD (44 MB)
Stream at iMeem

So a while back, untrue_accounts won a vid-of-her-choice in the Vividcon raffle, and I was one of the vidders who had offered to fulfill, and she played me this song and then showed me the movie of The Revenger's Tragedy. Then I said "wow, okay" and made her come over and actually do work on her own vid. *g*

The best I can do to summarize the source is, Christopher Eccleston and Eddie Izzard (yes, the "cake or death?" Eddie Izzard) star in a Jacobean tragedy chock-full of other awesome British actors, all frolicking murderously in a decadent post-apocalyptic dystopia full of voyeuristic imagery and men wearing lots of makeup and frilly clothing and playing competitive foosball. Eccleston plays Vindici, the Revenger of the title, who has come back to post-apocalyptic Liverpool to avenge the murder of his wife by the Duke. To this end, he worms his way into the entourage of the Duke's oldest son, Lussurioso (this is Eddie Izzard) as a procurer, promising to get Lussurioso his latest and has piles of sexy chemistry with him.

I cannot understand how fandom is not all over this movie already, but I hope this spreads the love, although I must point out for the faint of heart that it is a Jacobean tragedy. (Think the end of Hamlet, and in fact, that wasn't quite enough for the director, so he took it a bit further.)

I think it's hard to get what we tried to do in the vid narratively without context, and our main goal was mostly, "Look! You want to watch this! And write it for Yuletide!" But to give you an idea of what we were going for -- Lussurioso starts out as somehow innocently corrupt -- he's a spoiled debauch and a frat-boy jerk, but he doesn't have a kind of larger vision of malice and doesn't plan anything beyond his next seduction. Under Vindici's prodding, he gradually falls into darker schemes, culminating in the murder of his own father the Duke, at which point he inherits and promptly becomes just as bad as the original. Though it's not in the play, in the movie, there is this fabulously slashy reading from the chemistry and the way Eccleston plays Vindici's reaction, where this makes Vindici sorry and bitterly unhappy -- I imagine that he had himself fallen for Lussurioso in the meantime, and perhaps had a secret hope he would replace his father and fix the rottenness of the society, and instead Vindici finds he's destroyed whatever was not already corrupt in Lussurioso in the pursuit of his revenge.

So anyway, our idea was a POV shift halfway through -- that the first "black black heart" is Vindici seen from Lussurioso's POV, and then the second becomes Lussurioso from Vindici's POV instead, and the bridge to the end a sort of wild protesting run in Vindici's POV through the irredeemable decadence of the society, to the end of their relationship. (Um, that is kind of a euphemism there. Jacobean tragedy!)

Technically, the tricky bit in this vid was the screens. All of the screens have had their content replaced with other footage from the movie, using masks in After Effects to cut out what was originally inside, and then using a combination of the 3D Layer and scale/motion effects in Premiere to position replacement clips, plus the Noise HLS and various color correction effects in Premiere to desaturate and tweak the colors and add static.

Meanwhile, I haven't been watching SGA regularly for a while, so the cancellation doesn't hit me in the same gut way it once would have, but wtf, this came out of NOWHERE. What an awful and weird way and time to announce it. Way to let all the air out of the rest of this season, guys, both for us and for the actors. :( *hugs all in the fandom*

Vividcon!

2008-08-19T05:26:28Z

I am not home yet (so no vid downloads until Wednesday, alas) but currently ensconced in a hotel in downtown Chicago, overlooking at the glowy hypnotic ferris wheel at Navy Pier and waiting for room service, after one of the most awesomest Vividcons ever. Life == \o/

I thought this was overall the strongest premieres vidshow since the second year of the con, and that continued into the challenge show. So so many good vids, omg.

BTW, a small pre-lj-cut PSA, if you are lucky enough never to have heard the song Handlebars and don't know the lyrics, do yourself a favor and wait to read vid reviews/listen to the song until you have watched flummery's Doctor Who vid to the song. Go, go.

As I haven't had a chance to rewatch vids, I am going to be talking totally haphazardly about random ones that have stuck with me enough I have something to say about them without that -- mentioned here under the cut are Climbing Up The Walls, the Doctor Who Handlebars, and Supersmart from Premieres; I Want You (She's So Heavy), How Much Is That Geisha In The Window, and White America from Challenge; and Rasputin from Club Vivid.

I really loved obsessive24's Climbing Up The Walls, the SPN/Firefly/Heroes incest vid, which parallels all three of these intense and claustrophobic sibling relationships, makes brilliant use of manips and stills and external source to believably construct them as incestuous, and then illustrates the consequences and degradation. Summary: incest is a DEAD END.

I also loved kiki_miserychic's challenge vid I Want You (She's So Heavy), the SPN incesty grindhouse mashup -- she mixed SPN with zombie movie footage and used some really cool distressed-footage effects to make SPN into the dark gay porn horror movie it wishes it was. Oh, or possibly that is me.

Those two hit in my personal sweet spot of "yay my show" and "yay my pairing" and "wow amazing" so I am ridiculously happy. (PS, any fluffy Sam/Dean fans, you seriously do want to watch these vids despite the darkness, but if you are all meep afterwards, I helpfully mention that you can watch Falling For The First Time, the happy fluffy Sam/Dean vid that sisabet made for me last year, and be happy again. :D)

On flummery's Handlebars, I am not a really big Who fan and haven't seen any Ten at all, but I had the benefit of seeing this vid at their place earlier this summer (without ever having heard the song before), and it blows me away. This is one of those songs that has and will undoubtedly be reused a lot, I think because it both has enough character and narrative to it to make it interesting and so that it can really support telling a character analysis story, but not so much or so specific that it makes it very hard to match to a particular character, but I have to say that I think it maps particularly brilliantly to Tennant's Doctor.

It's a story of childish male arrogance and the way that goes from innocently cute on the personal scale to terrifyingly destructive on a larger global one. And Doctor Who has all these vast extremes of scale to allow them to illustrate that story to great effect -- you have Ten being adorable and impish all the way to blowing up solar systems, all with the very best of intentions (saying this solely based on the vid and fannish osmosis, here). Scary and fabulous story, and also a completely clear vid -- Seah and Margie's vids for me often do this, have this extremely clean narrative line that looks so completely obvious when you watch the vid even for the first time, even without knowledge of the source, which seems deceptively simple until you realize how freaking hard it is to do in a music video.

I am biased about cesperanza's Supersmart because I betaed it, but I think it is awesome and also does a great job of taking a philosophical argument visual and illustrating it. I have to say that IMO the shot of the middle section is the one of Parrish, who is 95% fanon. Also, I want to draw giant sparkly hearts (well, MORE of them) around the end of the vid. <3

lierdumoa's vid How Much Is That Geisha In The Window was amazing and a powerfully scathing critique of Firefly's treatment of Asians (and of women, too, particularly women of color). The use of Civil War and Old West imagery and of Asian individuals from external footage overlaid on the show -- beautifully and seamlessly blended -- evoked the historical mistreatment and exploitation of Asian immigrants to expose the way Firefly exploits Asian cultural elements without actually giving Asians a voice or a face. The voiceover translation at the end was a great final thump. I think this is actually a kind of crossover vid that sits between the genres of political remix vids and traditional vids -- I've seen others like this, but this one was really effective.

It was much more successful for me than the anonymous White America. I thought this vid was most likely trying to say one of several things I find interesting and important, or possibly something I think is wrong, but it failed to actually say any one of them clearly enough. The only thing that I can say is that the vid was trying to stir up some controversy.

Club Vivid was awesome, and sparkly, and whoever did the ceiling lights got all fancy and patterny! Woo! It just makes me so damn happy to see this entire crowd of us all dressed to just as much of the nines as we want (for some of us this means getting into the elevens *g*), dancing and dancing, and watching vids, and talking, and confusing the various passers-by.

I was kind of dancing nonstop -- amazingly, working out regularly improves your stamina for dancing! -- and so didn't actually spend as much time vaguely bopping and watching the vids as I have in the past, but I was well placed at the edge of the dance floor and so had a good view during the SG-1 Daniel vid Rasputin ("Rah-Rah-Rasputin, lover of the Russian Queen" *sings over and over until someone hits me*) which killed me dead. Afterwards I poked barkley, who was dancing next to me, and was all, "Was that you!" in accusing tones, and she informed me it was sherrold and wickedwords being inspired by her and destina's Copacabana. Awesome. ♥ Also, I cannot WAIT to be watching the Club Vivid disk from the con DVD set.

Aside from the awesomeness of the vids, I just had a really great time hanging out both with people I have known for ages and also with many I had either never met or never really gotten to chat more with, in groups large and small. It was not quite enough, because it never is, but it was lovely. ♥ And to put the, um, okay, I was going to go to a sundae place but that would possibly not work right in context here, so er, to crown the weekend, celli sent me her in-progress Cook/Archie story of awesome unlike the MEAN AND HEARTLESS greensilver, who will be getting sadfaces in email from me pretty much nonstop until I am appeased, because it is not fair to taunt. ;__; So I totally don't care how much the rest of my so-called friends mocked me and my David Cook t-shirt, ha. :p

And with that, I am going to have a cup of tea and write a little fanfic and maybe see about hooking up a laptop to the TV here and watching some more vids.

Yay Vividcon!

\o/

2008-08-17T02:56:08Z

Holy crap that was an awesome vidshow. \o/

David Cook RPF: Claused (Cook/Archuleta)

2008-08-04T12:42:23Z

The story from the airport! \o/

With many thanks to svmadelyn for the prompt, and to her, giddygeek, and terrio for beta. ♥

Claused (5000 words)
Cook/Archuleta, adult

So there was this clause in the contracts, where as long as he was single, he had to go out with another 19E client for at least four weeks at their request.

Read the story!

Onward to Nassau! \o/ Tour reports coming soon. :D