bironic

So, House will be finishing its run in April/May. That's several years past due (ugh, this show since season four), but it's sad nonetheless. End of a fannish era.

In any case, it's a good opportunity to share with you this thing that I've been meaning to post for a couple of years: a wish for how the series finale will go. I'm a few episodes behind right now, but I suspect that doesn't matter.

( It was all a dream. Sort of. Spoilers for 'Three Stories' and mention of plot points from most seasons. )

Too bad that won't happen. OR WILL IT.

Okay, I am calling amnesty on this one. It's a House/Harry Potter crossover. I started it on Halloween in 200...7? Two jobs, one degree and two changes of canon fellows ago, anyway. It's apparently still too much effort to bring this up to date (e.g. changing the part with Cameron to Thirteen) and finish it, but perhaps you will enjoy what's here. It's meant to be a spooky and ultimately nifty character development piece. Some of you may recall seeing a draft of the beginning. I've filled in the missing pieces with bracketed explication, so it does have an ending and everything. Happy Halloween?

Title: All We Have To Fear
Fandom: House, gen, and a crossover I wasn't going to tell people about until the end because it's spoilery.
Rating/Warning: PG-13 for potentially disturbing themes (temporary character death, birth defects, spiders).
Word Count: About 1,800 words of actual story and another 1,800 of description.
A/N: Originally set during Season Three sometime after "Merry Little Christmas." Thanks, four years ago, to

cryptictac for the crash course in native Australian spiders and to

queenzulu for CPR correction. I'm just going to handwave other stuff on account of amnesty, like how maternal age doesn't cause the specific defect mentioned.

( Wednesday afternoon, and House was nowhere to be found—hadn't, in fact, been heard from since shortly after lunch. )

( Additional notes, with story spoilers. )

Carl Zimmer did a nice overview piece on slime molds in yesterday's Science Times—Can Answers to Evolution Be Found in Slime?—which made me go back and reread Auburn's wonderfully creepy SGA sci fi fic The Taste of Apples:

"Right now, it's acting like a symbiont, but it's not, it's an opportunist. When the colonies in your bodies are mature," Carson said in a rush, "we think it will digest the host material—"

"You mean us," Rodney interrupted flatly.

"—to provide itself with raw material to produce its fruiting body. That will be the phase that generates the worst danger of contagion, since it's the spores that spread the organism."

While we're on the topic of NYT articles and fandom, yesterday Natalie Angier did an interesting piece on pathological altruism that recalls some of Wilson's behavior, especially the giving of self to the point of harm for the sake of helping others because of a driving sense of hollowness; although I'd bet he doesn't pursue the sort of extremely aggressive treatment described in the lede against patients' wishes, that being more House's style (on the journey to a diagnosis, at least, not to cure what's already known).

Also, squid sex.

Also, for people interested in the RL U.S. homosocial continuum, an article called Allowing Teenage Boys to Love Their Friends, which touches on the angst young straight men can experience when they feel they can't be close to their male friends anymore and may not recognize what's going on or why.

.

Earlier, I had a heart-sinking moment when I read that David Hallberg is leaving the American Ballet Theatre for the Bolshoi. Not that my visits to NY in the last couple of years have included enough time to go to ABT performances, but it's always been in the back of my mind that I could see it (& him) again if I wanted. But! Further reading revealed that he is going part-time with both companies. Whew.

Dear friends: Some stuff is going on right now, and the good/neutral things are only most of the time balancing out the bad thing. Therefore I am taking license today to complain, even if about far less significant matters.

Unpopular fannish opinions, edition the first

( Inception )

( House )

( SGA )

*grump the second*

Things I wish I never had to read again:

"amber liquid"
"feet planted"/"feet flat on the mattress"
"bemused" when you mean "amused"
"woah"
"yea" for "yeah"
silicon vs. silicone
vice vs. vise
…Crap, I had a whole list of these but I seem to have misplaced it.

Anyway. Feel free to grump with me or offer happy things. I'll be computer-bound most of the weekend. Except tonight, when I am going to see The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, because I ~~need~~ deserve a movie after this week.

I had a delicious House/Wilson dream this morning. One of the ones where I was "watching an episode": Wilson was so upset he was crying and House was comforting him in a vague House-like way, and then House leaned in and kissed him and Wilson very much kissed him back, flicker of House's tongue and everything, and it wasn't until a few seconds into it that I thought, 'Wait, this hasn't ever happened on the show, has it?! OMG!' It may have been a House-SGA crossover episode, because there was also a shot of House in a tac vest like Sheppard's.

Then

daasgrrl emailed to say she'd called my cell phone and that it was a thing she did sometimes, I was trying to email myself the LJ post about the episode from a parking meter without spoiling anyone, and

rhaegal offered me her car keys from a living room full of knitted afghans.

Then I woke up.

And I took today off! So life is good.

I have:

3 2 3 2 1 unfinished Battle ficlets,

2 nights of frustrating insomnia,

1 link to an LA Times article reviewing the medicine in "The Down Low" episode of House (warning, spoilers for the medical plot), and

1>x>0 chance to take a White House tour in a couple of weeks with the MIT alumni club.

Sup?

synn was here (yay) and

synn is gone (boo). I had a really nice time—we always do—and I think she got a good taste of the city in the two days we had, since we either deliberately or inadvertently wound up seeing:

Thousands of healthcare bill protesters down in Penn Quarter
The White House (from the outside, on the Rose Garden side)
The Washington Monument, reflecting pool, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial (from afar) and Korean War Memorial
Busloads of veterans visiting the WWII memorial
Smithsonian Air & Space Museum
Arts festival in Chinatown
Street fair in Adams Morgan
"Downtown" Silver Spring
The stately old stone houses down 16th Street that remind me of the neighborhoods just outside Vancouver
9 (semi-Tim Burton post-apocalypse quasi-steampunk CG movie)
Psych, DS9, Sherlock Holmes, Hellboy II, the Vampire Diaries rerun and Dexter

And of course, eating: Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, Chinese, homemade omelets, accidental McDonald's, the natural frozen yogurt I am so glad exists, and probably something I'm forgetting.

And! I now own a squid shirt! One of the street fair vendors was a Baltimore clothesmaker called Squidfire, which makes shirts that were designed for me. They have a series of squids, and happy octopi, and t-rexes with veggies, and LJ friends, and I may put a few items on my holiday wish list.

.

Now it's back to our regular programming. Although there's a slightly surreal series on right now. I don't know if anyone's been following the story about the Yale student who was missing and then found murdered and crammed in a wall on her wedding day, but my family went to the same temple as her fiancé and his family. I haven't kept in touch, but jeez. Poor Jonathan. Poor everyone.

Speaking of articles, has this interview with a medical advisor for House in yesterday's USA Today made the rounds? I've unsubscribed from the fandom comms but I haven't seen it mentioned on any of your journals. It's short, but there are a few interesting bits, like the tiny morsel of info about how advising on the show works.

Aw, it's my first vid.

Title: I Get A Kick Out Of You
Music: Frank Sinatra
Rating: PG
Length: 3 mins.
Summary: Fluffy happy House-Wilson friendship (or slash, if you prefer), heavy on the early seasons. No spoilers.
Beta: Thank you to my vidding filter for feedback, especially

queenzulu and

kassrachel for technical help, and also

jadesfire2808,

thirdblindmouse and

daasgrrl for concrit.
A/N: I had this idea two or three years ago and now I've finally got the time and equipment to carry it out. Many frustrating days with ripping/converting/compression software bugs later, the final product pleases me. I hope it pleases you.

Streaming on Vimeo | Streaming on YouTube | Download mp4 (32 MB)

( Embedded behind the cut: )

( Lyrics: )

*

Concrit is always welcome, especially since I plan to make more vids this summer and would like to improve.

x-posted to house_wilson

Dear Sci Fi Channel,

If, as the earnest voiceover suggests, your main hook for the next episode is, "You won't believe what happens in the last five minutes," and it seems that those last five minutes may be important and suspenseful, DO NOT SHOW THE TWIST IN THE PREVIEW THAT YOU AIR A THOUSAND TIMES IN THE DAYS LEADING UP TO IT.

Thank you.

( Quick-quick highlights of tonight's episode: )

ETA: linabean

. . .

Some more articles of interest:

House, Boston Legal and Carl Sagan's Cosmos are among the ten smartest TV shows of all time as named by the chief of MENSA. (Stargate SG-1 and Star Trek: TNG almost made the list too.) He explains his reasons for choosing what he did, and of course it is utterly subjective, but I do not trust a list of smart shows that does not include Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Did you know that NFL recruiters pick their drafts after making all the candidates parade around in their skivvies like models and critiquing their assets? This so goes on the list of reasons there needs to be a post about men's refusal to acknowledge the homoeroticism in athletics. The article in question is Combine meat market a little disturbing by Michael Silver at Yahoo Sports. Skim past the first five paragraphs if you have a humiliation squick; there's good commentary in the rest.

. . .

Saw Manuale d'Amore 2 tonight (2007, dir. Giovanni Veronesi). Very good. ( It was like Love Actually, only it worked... )

So Pru was talking about how Sheppard must write totally unhelpful mission reports such as "We went to the village. There was a pony," and her examples got me thinking about him writing them up as haiku just to be difficult. Such as this one:

Bite got infected.
Briefly turned into a bug.
(I really hate bugs.)

(Oh, look, my word count for December just rose to 12.)

Anyone want to play? Any mission, from any character. Or do a patient-of-the-week case from House & co. We can play guessing games.... Come on, I need something to distract me while we're still here working when most of the rest of the country is at home....

I am -- was -- okay, am still having a grumpy day and a stressful week, but there is ( this not-really-spoilery promo shot for the next House episode )

All I have to say is: (1) OMG cute, and (2) I can't believe I called this of all things.

Now bring on the mistletoe.

Thanks to

topaz_eyes, who nominated me, and

namasteyoga, who came up with the questions, I'm being profiled over at

housefic_meta. Come by and chat about writing, fanfic, House, Wilson, and, um, me! With bonus e-cookies for anyone who reads the whole interview.

On the subject of songs whose lyrics I've bastardized in subject lines, I worked on a website a few months ago for a radiology practice whose old site contained QuickTime movies of various imaging techniques such as PET and MRA. One of them was a movie of a virtual colonoscopy (CT), subtitled "a flythrough" -- and it was set to Sinatra's "Come Fly With Me."

I went to visit the office where I did my college internship on lunch break on Monday, as I do once or twice a year, and while it was great to see my old boss and a few employees who still work there, I found out that the woman who'd been my best colleague-friend there died a few months ago. I'm still kind of shocked. She was young -- 33 or 34 -- and it happened suddenly, one night in her sleep after she'd taken a sick day. Her name was Kristen. She had a great, sarcastic, self-effacing sense of humor, was very smart, loved to write. She used to joke about writing the Great American Novel, and had a draft going on her work computer that she used to tinker with when she was bored. She once wrote to Mel Gibson's agent to request a signed autograph for her brother-in-law, and the letter began with something like, "Dear vastly underpaid intern working for Mel Gibson." We used to play tennis and Cranium and Outburst and movie quote games, sometimes just the two of us, once with her friends and siblings and their significant others and children. She showed me the only episodes of Lost I've ever seen. We hadn't spoken since maybe last year, so I'd had no idea anything had happened. Even though it's been a while since we spoke or got together, I'm going to miss her.

But life goes on. I'm so excited for SGA tonight. Saying more might be spoilerish, but if you've seen some of the promo shots, and you've heard who's guest-starring, you know what I mean. *anticipates*

ETA: If you haven't seen The Pegasus Tinies, go now. Brilliant, gorgeous, morbidly funny SGA/Gorey art.

And, please, do stop by for some fanficcy conversation.

Packaging: D – Ugly color scheme, flimsy components, strange photo of Hugh Laurie; difficulty reading text on back fold, difficulty extracting discs without fear of snapping or scratching.

Bloopers: B – Uneven pacing, many clips too short, ineffective music. Still – five minutes' worth! Also, roller-shoes kid falling down = gold.

HL/RSL Bloopers: A+ – (a) There are some, (b) they are lengthy, (c) they are adorable, (d) they are slashy.

Misc. Notes: Jesse Spencer has a cute smile, Lisa Edelstein needs to not laugh so obnoxiously, and Omar Epps seems always to turn into a silly monster when he messes up lines. More HL tomato-squishing is needed. More of RSL's filthy language, too. And mutual giggling. Ya.

That is all.

From

house_daily:

AWESOME PHOTO OF (HOUSE AND) WILSON

It's one of five season-four promo shots in the post, which warns for spoilers, but as a spoiler-phobe I can assure you that there's nothing to fear.

C'mon! The gaze! The smile! The pose! The diploma! The bear! The ~~Gryffindor~~ tie!

For the last ten days or so, TV writer and BtVS alum Jane Espenson has been giving tips on her blog on how to prepare spec scripts for the ABC/Disney Writing Fellowship, and one of the shows she's been using to demonstrate examples is House. It makes me wish that she would write for the show; aside from being a fantastic script writer, she -- at least, as these posts imply -- appreciates Wilson's importance in the series.

The two posts that discuss House the most are:

Making Yourself Comfortable in the House or Office - On writing a script that achieves a balance between standing out and feeling like it belongs in the series. My favorite part:

Use all the major regular characters. If Wilson isn't in your House, it's going to feel less like a "real" episode. That relationship is important to the show, so you should make an effort to service it.

Although Wilson is a Best Friend, He is Not Also a Volleyball - On writing an effective teaser (which I've now learned is called a "cold opening") and whether to include or exclude a regular character in it. The part that makes me want to drag Espenson onto the House writing team:

I think if I were writing a House spec, I would start with Wilson (House's best friend, an oncologist) puzzling over a patient of his who has been brought in with some acute and alarming symptoms. While the patient struggles to breathe, Wilson picks up the phone and urgently demands that House come to his exam room right away. House enters (complaining) and looks confused to find the patient, still breathless and apparently alone. House is about to pivot on his cane-point and exit, when the patient points, panting, down out of frame. The camera TILTS down to find Wilson, lying unconscious at House's feet.

Sick!Wilson: it's not just for fanfic anymore. No, but really, that's one of the great things about Espenson: she writes with a fan's appreciation.

Some of the stuff in these and the other posts sounded very common sense to me, but if you're an aspiring TV writer yourself or are interested in House or TV writing in general, I recommend checking out the rest in the Disney fellowship theme, which start down the page on May 14 ("The Most Wonderful Time of the Year"). Or, you know, subscribing to her blog in general.

"The Beautiful Hospital" by Sally Tisdale (Salon, April 4, 2007)

An article on hospitals and doctors in medical dramas (specifically, House, E.R., St. Elsewhere, Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs) as compared with the hospital in which the writer works as a nurse.

The real message of medical shows is that brilliance goes hand in hand with emotional retardation. While this may be a debatable point, it has little to do with medicine as it is usually practiced. Most of the physicians I know are easy to work with -- oncologists, by default, tend to be at ease with teamwork. They are collaborative and respectful and although a few are quite handsome, they fall short of model status. (Wilson, House's oncologist friend, is played by Robert Sean Leonard. If only.)

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/04/04/tv_hospitals/index.html

"In Praise of Fanfic" by Cory Doctorow (Locus Magazine, May 16, 2007)

An article by a writer, directed at other writers, supporting the practice of writing fanfiction, which he depicts as a tribute to the original writer, an ages-old tradition and a natural product of active reading. One of the most considered, level-headed and comprehensive overviews of fanfiction-writing I've seen lately.

http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2007/05/cory-doctorow-in-praise-of-fanfic.html

And for a giggle:

"Continuing the Magic" by Lon Tweeten (Time, May 21, 2007)

Six Harry Potter real-life crossover/spoof book covers and summaries, including cameos by Simon Cowell and Michael Flatley. I dare someone to write one of them.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/pdf/20070521_essay.pdf

Title: Untouchable
Pairing: House/Wilson
Rating: R
Word Count: 3,200
Summary: After Atlantic City, Wilson seeks comfort at House's apartment and asks a question of his own.
Spoilers: Takes place immediately following "Son of Coma Guy," with spoilers for Season 3 up to that episode.
A/N: Thank you to my wonderful, wonderful f-list, especially

topaz_eyes and

usomitai, for input on the first draft way back in November as well as betaing on the completed story. Concrit still welcome.

( 'You'll spill your deepest, darkest secrets to a stranger who's been a vegetable for ten years, but you won't answer one simple question for me?' )

ETA: Now with DVD commentary.

Happy Hanukkah! Have some fic.

Title: Spin
Pairing: None. Wilson and House friendship, or lack thereof.
Rating: PG-13 for language
Word Count: 700 (four drabbles and a triple drabble)
Summary: In which Wilson's life mimics a spinning dreidel, and House begins to pull out of his own self-destructive spiral.
Spoilers: For the Tritter arc through "Merry Little Christmas," plus some spoiler-free speculation.
Disclaimer: Just borrowing them for the holidays.
Beta: None. Concrit welcome.
A/N: A dreidel is a small, four-sided top that children play with during Hanukkah. Depending on which letter you spin, you either take some of the candies or coins from the pile in the middle or put some in from your own pile. A short and easy-to-read description of the dreidel's appearance and significance and the rules of the game can be found here.

( Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel... )

x-posted to

housefic and

house_wilson.

Remember way back when I asked for sets of six words as prompts? Well, some of them are being used for a Super Secret Surprise that is taking longer than expected to get done. The leftover prompts are going into ficlets (because prompts are a terrible thing to waste). I was hoping to post everything all at once but impatience has won out, so here for your enjoyment is the first set of ficlets, written about a month ago. Three House and one Star Trek. Everything else to follow soon.

ETA: Aack, forgot to acknowledge

synn for helping with earlier drafts. So sorry.
ETA 2: The surprise is revealed!

( 'Good Intentions' – Cuddy, Wilson )

( 'Wet' – House, Wilson )

( 'Mutiny on the Bounty' – Garak, Bashir )

( 'Welcome to Whoville' – The whole House crew )

Hugh Laurie to host Saturday Night Live on October 28.

Chances RSL will show up for an impromptu sketch?

Okay, slim to none, but I bet they'll do a House parody in which one of the SNL cast plays Wilson and maybe there will be, as TWOPpers would say, HoYay. Lots and lots of HoYay.

Regardless, it's sure to be a fun episode.

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Entries tagged with house: misc

How House should end

Amnesty fic post: "All We Have to Fear," House/HP Halloweenish crossover idea

Links, since LJ doesn't seem to be down after all

grump

It's no "Untouchable," but still...

Happy Friday (brr)

Weekend with the be fri, and after

Vid! "I Get A Kick Out Of You," House-Wilson friendship

SGA 4.18 ("The Kindred, part 1"), and other stuff too

Mission reports in 17 easy syllables

Heeee!

Come chat with me, come chat, come chat away

House Season Three DVDs: An Initial Assessment

Season 4 Promo squee

News flash: We aren't the only ones who want House to deal with a mysteriously ill Wilson

A trio of fannish articles for your enjoyment

Fic: "Untouchable," House/Wilson, R

Wilson dreidel fic

Ficlets, batch the first

HL on SNL (& let's pray for RSL)

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