Five thoughts for a Monday

[bironic]

1. You know you've got the blues when you scoff at your own Mary Sue fantasy story from last year because there's no way those other characters would treat her as special.

2. The blues only present themselves sometimes, though. This weekend was generally lovely, including attending a Hanukkah party, heckling Fifty Shades Darker with thedeadparrot*, and allowing myself to buy a handful of treats from Cardullo's in Harvard Square, one of which I had been eyeing for years. Then I triumphed over past culinary disappointments by making a roast beef that wasn't overdone! Third time's the charm, I guess. That and cooking it at 275° F.

*2a. Still not as bad as the book, and I think better than the Rotten Tomatoes critics' score of 10% gives it credit for as a close adaptation -- there are several funny moments, most of them seemingly intentional! the character arcs are at least somewhat coherent! the, uh, color palettes are pretty! -- but still, yeah, this relationship makes no sense, the acting and/or direction to not-act is terrible, the main characters are allergic to substantive conversation, it's unfortunate to reinforce the idea that a woman can change a man's lifelong behaviors and deepest values by loving him, it's offensive to claim that enjoying BDSM is an easily corrected pathology driven by a bad childhood, and the pacing choices are odd. My genuinely favorite part was that this mainstream movie not only featured a spreader bar but also showed it being ratcheted open and used for pleasure rather than some villainous torture.

Reviews I liked:

• New Republic - Sustained comparison to Working Girl; appreciation of Dakota Johnson's attempts to transcend the material. "Fifty Shades Darker, which fails so many tests of basic storytelling competence, is all the more stunning for its success at a task that most movies don't even bother attempting: depicting a woman's sexual pleasure."
   
• MTV - Made me laugh out loud; similar appreciation of Johnson's acting abilities; agreement that director did indeed intend to be funny. "Dornan's handsome, even if his cold, accusing eyes make you think of a catfish slammed onto a pier."

3. "Feast or famine," the library clerk said as I picked up another armful of books that came in all at once after being on hold for weeks. Having just finished Unbeatable Squirrel Girl vols. 3-4 and Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection, I'm working my way through the 400-page My Favorite Thing is Monsters, while stacked up on the nightstand are Call Me By Your Name, The Book of Dust, Ms. Marvel vol. 1, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl vols. 5-6, Lumberjanes vols. 1-2, and if I can get to it before it's due back, Alif the Unseen. (I needed to read ~7 books this month if I was going to reach my arbitrary goal of a book a week on average for 2017, so I requested a bunch of graphic novels, heh, not realizing how intense Monsters is.)

4. Help can be hard to ask for, even for small, mundane things. I'm grateful to serenadestrong, seascribe, mollyamory and Mr. disgruntled_owl for ferrying me around while my car is in the shop (yes, still) and now also to thedeadparrot for providing laundry access while our in-house washer/dryer is on the fritz. Between those, the autumn fire-alarm malfunction, the elusive kitchen mouse, and the humidifier and nighttime white-noise fan giving up the ghost this week, it feels like everything is breaking. Much like in the world.

I'm grateful to the wider fannish network for chiming in with guidance on yet more SF/F/horror sources for this auction vid, now that we are down to the TV shows that don't really appeal to me. I sent out the final (?!) batch of pleas last weekend and then had to go sit under a blanket because I hate asking people to do work for me. This is going to be the last multifandom vid I make for a while that involves sources I don't know.

5. Speaking of which, I was invited to co-mod a panel next year at Vividcon on multifandom vids, and I said yes? I'm already nervous. I haven't moderated or presented at a con since 2006, and never at Vividcon. Good thing the other co-mods who've signed on so far are non-scary people. Need to ask jetpack_monkey his thoughts, since he modded a panel on the same topic just last year. Maybe take a longitudinal perspective on multifandom vids in general or lessons learned from each vidder's own experiences over time. Not that I know enough to talk about the former, but our possible VCR-vidder co-mod might.

But there is something fitting about finally doing something like this at the last Vividcon.

Comments

[hermionesviolin]

> "Feast or famine," the library clerk said as I picked up another armful of books that came in all at once after being on hold for weeks.

The last time I picked up library books I almost said, "It's just two this time," because I am so frequently picking up giant stacks of picturebooks.

Possibly I will manage to read more graphic novels in 2018? (Though I read a lot of Wonder Woman after the movie came out this year.) I was reading a best-of 2017 list and was reminded that I still haven't read any Black Panther and I'd like to read the TNC/Roxane Gay before the movie comes out.

We read Alif the Unseen for bookclub last year, and although I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped to (the protagonist is kind of a dudebro), it was really engaging, and smart and thoughtful -- and I was really interested in the fact that jinn are in the Quran.

[bironic]

Hm, interesting. I don't know much about it other than an intriguing cover and some good online reviews. Am curious about G. Willow Wilson's work, given the popularity of Ms. Marvel.

>>I'd like to read the TNC/Roxane Gay before the movie comes out.

Same! Hopefully now I'll remember that comics are available as trades from the interlibrary loan system, so reading them doesn't have to equal spending money. (Instead, I can buy the ones that I like! Supporting authors + local comics shops = good, but, you know, book budgets are a thing.)

[isweedan]

👍Good luck and have fun with your panel!👍

[bironic]

Thanks. :) Will you be at VVC next year, do you know?

[isweedan]

I hope so! It's ~in the plans~

[serenadestrong]

I didn't know spreader bars could be ratcheted open, I always assumed they were a fixed size, so I just learned a thing!

Always happy to give rides places, and also if you like Ms Marvel I've got 5 of the trades :)

[bironic]

Oh, thanks, good to know!

>>I didn't know spreader bars could be ratcheted open

Some of them can, yes! Something for everybody. :)

[sanguinity]

:: I sent out the final (?!) batch of pleas last weekend and then had to go sit under a blanket because I hate asking people to do work for me. ::

I get that. I dunno if it helps any, but I genuinely enjoyed being asked to help. Indeed, I wouldn't have volunteered to help if I didn't.

[bironic]

And you have been a joy to correspond with. <3 Thanks for the reassurance; it does help.

[jetpack_monkey]

Would be delighted to have my brain picked, as always.

[bironic]

*thumbs-up emoji*

[timespirt]

"HUGS"

You'll go, do well and wonder what all the worry was about when you are done. Have fun at the con hon.

[minoanmiss]

*beams at you*

[grammarwoman]

Feel free to reach out for my two cents on multifandom vids. :)

[seekingferret]

then had to go sit under a blanket because I hate asking people to do work for me.

I empathize with this, although lately my source of anxiety in this area has been follow-through AFTER someone agrees to help me with a fanwork project. If they say they'll help and that they'll send me something in the next few days or the next week, and then go radio silent for weeks, when is it okay to poke them and ask them if they're actually going to do it? It feels so entitled, since they're doing me a favor and it's just for a fanwork, but... at some point I do need to know if I need to stop waiting for them and find another way to get the thing done. Argh.

[bironic]

Yes, yes, yes. In fact, now that you say it, I bet a good portion of my feelings when sending out that batch of emails was anticipatory anxiety - a mix of having contacted some people more than once already for the same or different fandoms, knowing by the nature of these things that some messages would require follow-up, acute awareness of some people's difficult life circumstances, length of time between my original request for volunteers (spring) and sending of details (basically winter), indecisiveness over how much to go back and forth when the first recommendation isn't as helpful as hoped, etc.

[seascribble]

*hugs for you*

[yhlee]

I hope the co-modding goes well! Happy Vividconning. :)