bironic

Crossposts: https://bironic.livejournal.com/398411.html

What... if... I wrote a few lines about a bunch of movies all at once?

Naked (2017): A Marlon Wayans comedy that lured me in with this summary:

Rob's madly in love and about to be married. Unfortunately, he's also naked, stuck in an elevator and caught in a time loop.

It's not sci fi so much as one of those Groundhog Day magical realism narratives where the protag learns to get his life in shape. It didn't go anywhere unexpected, and I had a few quibbles stemming from Wayans having both written and starred in the movie and from his character parroting back what people said to him in previous loops rather than showing he truly internalized the sentiments, but I had a fun time anyway.

Gerald's Game (2017): How did I not know Netflix produced an S&M-themed Bruce Greenwood movie? A trailer popped up while I was visiting deelaundry last week, and I had downloaded the file by the time I got on the plane a few hours later. Conclusion: meh. More horror than was advertised. Worth it for Bruce Greenwood in undershorts dangling metal handcuffs while his character attempted noncon roleplay with his wife (played by Carla Gugino), but that only lasted a couple of minutes. Detracting from the viewing enjoyment was the fact that Gerald was a jerk and his wife was not into it, because apparently they had never discussed the details of their first-time experimentation, nor set up any safeguards, before beginning. Then the movie shifted into Stephen King Bingo, as it was based on a novel of his. (Uncanny dog! Psychological horror! Monster in the night! Trapped on a bed in a remote area! History of familial abuse! Desperate self-injury! etc.) With an odd plot twist involving Carel Struycken, a.k.a. Lurch, a.k.a. Lwaxana Troi's attendant Mr. Homm.

Pitch Black (2000): Holds up well on rewatch. I love its well-delineated structure and its leanness. It also benefits from having been made before Vin Diesel got famous and became an exaggeration of himself. My headcanon to prevent the whole scenario from having been a coincidence is that the gravitational shifts of the solar system lining up for its periodic triple eclipse are what knocked the Hunter-Gratzner off course as well as the ship that came before it.

...we interrupt this program to bring you a three-hour endeavor to thaw our frozen hot-water shower pipe. Now fixed! More summaries to come.

Crossposts: http://bironic.livejournal.com/376964.html

Once upon a time, I was struck by the desire to write a Riddick story in the style of those early-2000s X-Men movie fanfics where Wolverine and Rogue were imprisoned in Stryker's complex and forced to have sex for his research program. (Ex: The Cell by jjblazer.) I ended up making up a character because it didn't feel right to cast Jack as the person thrown into Riddick's cell. The words poured out, and I was well pleased with the result, but I was too embarrassed to share it, so it has been sitting on my hard drive for almost three years.

Tonight we are watching the third (& worst) Riddick movie at fangirl movie night. For whatever reason, this feels like the right time: I am finally taking the plunge and posting the fic, in all its flawed, iddy glory.

*hits "post" and hides face*

Title: Captive Breeding Program (Furyan Bloodstock Remix)
Fandom: Chronicles of Riddick series
Pairing: Riddick/OFC
Rating: Explicit
Word Count: 4,250
Summary: "Get as far away from me as you can before I do exactly what they warned you about," he growls.
Content notes: Nonconsensual sex. Murder, attempted murder, strangulation. Aliens make them do it. Abhorrent medical ethics, including forced impregnation and gestation. Aphrodisiacs. Dubious plot points.
A/N: Written in January 2014, two days after posting I Like the Way You Move. Riddick's voice was influenced by stories such as The Things We Leave Behind by Ratatosk. Enjoy?

( The next one they toss in is young. )

Pushed through some supremely boring/stupid/taken-from-other-canons stuff to catch up on The Vampire Diaries. The reward: Damon & Enzo. That was perhaps the single slashiest scene I recall from this entire series. Fine, other than Stefan/Damon, because Stefan/Damon breaks my brain. And not counting Damon and Alaric's entire relationship, which had a slower-burn tone to it than the Enzo thing. I swear, even though this is a show that (a) resists poly and m/m solutions to relationship issues and (b) airs on The CW, I really wondered if they were going to kiss.

NBC Dracula: Thomas Kretschmann shackling shirtless Jonathan Rhys-Meyers to a medical platform. A few years ago, that would have been among my epitomes of fannish satisfaction.

Speaking of whom, this casting announcement for the next Avengers movie actually makes me look forward to seeing it.

Crossovers that should exist:

- Riddick & Ronon: two buff fightin' dudes on the (interplanetary) run from evil aliens
- Doctor Who & Dax, reminiscing in a bar about having a longtime-repressed past incarnation

That is all. Because discussing the brilliance of The Act of Killing, which I finally got to see last night, deserves much better than sharing space with the above.

No canon knowledge required for you to enjoy this vid!

Title: I Like the Way You Move
Fandom: Chronicles of Riddick trilogy (Pitch Black, Chronicles of Riddick, Riddick)
Pairings: Riddick/everyone
Music: by Body Rockers (edited)
Length: 2:35
Summary: What's more gorgeous: Riddick held fast, or Riddick set free?
Content notes: Violence, action movie gore, bondage, issues of consent
Physical notes: Flickering/strobe lights in a few clips
A/N: Made for Kink Bingo. Mainly to suit "held down" on my card, but these movies are a bingo in themselves; in addition to bondage the vid contains gags, blindfolds, pain, body modification, power play, humiliation, consent play, guns and blades, shaving, suspension and wet/messy/dirty. Possibly more.

( Embed, download link, lyrics )

Now if I could only make a Festivid I like nearly as much as this one... D:

ETA: This vid was shown at Muskrat Jamboree 2015!

x-posted to vidding on LJ, vidding on DW, and the AO3

+ Snow! Appears we got about 10 inches. I love living north-ish.

- Polar air following the nor'easter = at least one of the pipes in the building has frozen. Upstairs neighbors have no running water in their bathroom. My sink is fine, hot and cold, but the shower is plugged.

+ Landlords & plumber are on it.

+ Office closed early yesterday and remains closed today = basically two weeks for winter break.

- A couple of office things are making me anxious, so I may work on them anyway to help myself out.

+/- Bought Riddick m4v yesterday instead of waiting two weeks for DVD to come out; was disappointed by it, but there's a good scene in chains for my vid that I will use; except the DRM issue is a bear; but after hours of searching/failed attempts, I acquired a program that should work; only it didn't the first few tries, and it takes two hours a pop; but it looks like it finally will this time. WHY IS THE UNIVERSE AGAINST ME MAKING A KINK VID

+ Brunch tomorrow with a couple of grad school classmates, followed by a small gathering of local Festividders, some of whom I haven't met. \o/

? How are you all faring so far in 2014?

zulu asked: "What got you into fandom? Does the same thing spark your passion now, or is it something(s) else that keep you inspired?"

The thing is, I've replied to several other questions first because I don't know the answer to this one. I don't know if the same thing sparks my passion now as in my early days of joining the Harry Potter and House fandoms because I haven't felt passionate or inspired about fannish stuff in a while. Meh on TV shows, meh on reading fic, meh on my own writing and vidding; hence taking in so many books and movies lately on my own. Lying fallow, knowing something else will come along eventually. And that's okay, even though it can be sad not participating in what others of you are happy about.

But something might be waking up.

Yuletide used to make me a Scrooge McGrumpypants, which I think was mostly about my own pang of sadness that I didn't -- don't -- feel anywhere near as excited about it as other people because I hardly know any of the sources being written about and I don't find the stories for unfamiliar sources accessible in the way, say, the vids are at Festivids. I skim and try probably somewhere between 1 and 5% of the stuff posted. This year, I liked:

I'll Be Right Here (E.T.), in which it is an anniversary of the night E.T. left
Bad Day (What Maisie Knew), in which Margo and Lincoln are shaken up but handle it well when Maisie has an accident on the playground
Fewer Than Ten Scenes From the Second Coming of Richard III (The Ten Stupidest Things I've Heard Since Richard III's Remains Were Identified blog post) [link], in which ghosts converge on the area as conspiracies swirl; I loved the "Tudor spy" osteologist's way of speaking
A Different Kind of Boy (Pitch Black), in which Jack comes on to Riddick and Riddick doesn't say no; contains some unfortunate "the killer kissed him hard" sort of stuff, but the trans* depiction was interesting

I could have sworn I'd trolled the AO3 archives for Riddick/Jack fic after seeing Chronicles of Riddick a month or two ago, but either I did it wrong or the Riddick/Jack tag hasn't been wrangled to match Riddick/[other name Jack goes by that is sort of a spoiler]. In any case, I found some others and fell into reading them for hours in a way I haven't done in possibly years:

No Rest by Laylah, 1K, which I'd give the same summary as above and just hits a cluster of my kinks
Twin Flames by serafina20, 23K, in which Jack tries to grow up; it's permanently unfinished, and I wish it had warned for past incest/abuse, but it was an engrossing read
The Things We Leave Behind by Ratatosk, 100K+, which I've by now mixed up entirely with Twin Flames perhaps because they both remix the second movie, but involves Jack being taken by and escaping from mercenaries trying to bait Riddick and then they meet again trying to save the universe from Necromongers and there's excellent dubious consent stuff; also unfinished but being updated slowly at ff.net

Then I rented The Iron Giant and The Fast & the Furious. So I guess I'm having a low-burn Vin Diesel thing. Ten years after everyone else. Funny because he's not my usual type. Feels good! I am contemplating doing a quick Kink Bingo vid about how Riddick gets chained down and cuffed and gagged all the time. Dilemma: do it now while the interest is still fresh, or wait two weeks-ish until the last movie in the trilogy comes out on DVD (I didn't catch it in theaters)? Advice welcome.

Second, or I suppose first chronologically, the other week I tried NBC's Dracula with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Thomas Kretschmann. I don't know what the hell that show/miniseries is doing (steampunk + villain/hero switch + slow-mo fight scenes + plotline about energy conglomerates + lady medical student + terrible accents + queer subtext that turns into text = ??), but I couldn't stop watching. More on that in its own post.

Third, after reading the Riddick/Jack stuff I went and added 1,000 words to an unrelated story on my computer, which is about 1,000 words more than I'd written since January.

...That didn't answer the question at all -- sorry, zulu -- but it's the best response I've got right now.

Odd day.

Dozed after waking to footsteps upstairs, and had a dream about ( cut for Holocaust-like imagery. ) Jeez, it sounds horrific to write it up like that. At the time, it was just a thing that was happening. One girl hid in a room that was my childhood bedroom by lifting herself onto the top shelf of the closet by the lintel like a pull-up, realized that she could be easily seen, and hastily shoved a folded blanket between her body and the top of the door. I was the girl. Vin Diesel found her/me and said, reasonably enough for a prison guard, something about how the punishment would be eight somethings but he'd go halvsies with her and only do four if she'd just give in. She/I said, calmly, Okay. He seemed taken aback. That was that.

*shrug*

Today marked the end of my three-month probation period at work. I had a good review and was not fired. (I was not worried since my performance has been fine and people like me, but still. Not being on probation is a relief in the current financial climate. If anyone in the office had had to be cut to save money, it would have been me.) (Not to say that fear isn't still there; it's just harder to let someone go after they're off probation.)

.

Good, easy soup recipe, adapted from my new everything-chicken cookbook: Dice and sauté two small onions. When soft and beginning to brown, add a quart of chicken or vegetable broth. Grate a couple of zucchini or summer squash; add to the pot and boil for ~15 minutes. You can also add small pasta at the time you add the vegetables. At the end, drizzle in two eggs or egg whites and lemon juice to taste. Mm. Looks like it makes three bowls' worth.

.

Let's answer some vidding questions from

alizarin_nyc: "What do you use for media when starting a vid? Do you rip DVDs, convert .avi files or what? What editing software do you use and why? What is the next thing you want to learn/try in writing or vidding?"

( I tend to rip DVDs )

( I use Adobe Premiere )

( I want to learn to do a thing with John Sheppard's face )

( But also how to better create clip pacing that is less a slave to the music )

...I don't know if I articulated that well at all.

4) That's a good question about what I might want to learn next in writing. Will have to get back to you on that. As compared to video editing, fiction writing is a thing that comes so unconsciously to me -- not always easily, just instinctively rather than as a series of technical steps -- that it's hard for me to approach and understand it as a craft. (I used to think that was something to brag about, but the more I press up against the boundaries of what doesn't come naturally to me and what I haven't been educated about, and the more I look back on many of the fics I've written and listen to others who do understand the technical elements of putting together effective stories and characters, like the more I appreciate that relying on instinct alone can also be a limitation.)

1.

New job & apartment continue to be splendid. I did something dumb tonight, though, and thought this Jonathan Lethem reading was an hour later, so I fiddled around at work for a while before catching the bus over and missed most of it. :( Did get his signature on Girl in Landscape, so that's something, anyway.

Self, this is why you started a Google calendar when you moved up here. So check it.

2.

Mac at work and PC at home = losing dexterity with keyboard shortcuts and scroll wheel direction. Hashtag first-world problems.

3.

festivids signups have commenced. I am settled on a few things I want to request and a few things I know I can vid; now comes the tough question of whether it's a good idea to expand beyond the past tradition of only offering sources for which I already have a back-up plan. Because there are some nominated sources I like and/or know well but don't have an idea for, so if the request is vague or not to my taste or whatever, will I pull through with something to be proud of? I mean, it worked for Remix, ~~except when it didn't,~~ but there was something to start with there. Hmmmm.

4.

Read:

Hot Lights, Cold Steel by Michael Collins (the doctor, not the astronaut or the revolutionary)
Ender's Game (I know, welcome to 30 years ago)
now trying Jumper by Stephen Gould, but not liking it
For those playing at home, the vampire romance anthology petered out in the second half and ended with a gross one that I can only guess was placed there as a cautionary note to the reader because it was about how finding a "real" vampire isn't romantic, it's painful and gory and disgusting.

Watched:

Gravity (wonderful, although the spoken lines were clunky)
Tiny Furniture (very much like Girls, so I guess I can see why critics complain that Lena Dunham's work is about herself, although I'm not sure why that's a bad thing)
Straight A's (a pleasant surprise, given that I watched it only for having Anna Paquin)
Pitch Black (enjoyed the heck out of it, but have heard the sequels suck)
Magic Mike (okay, but will support movies that enable the female gaze)
The Naked Gun (rewatching "Space Seed" with iggy made me want more Ricardo Montalban stat, sue me)
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (how did I not know until researching for a vid that William "Section 31" Sadler played the Grim Reaper and did so hilariously?)
Project Runway (caught up, good mindless entertainment)

5.

There may not be a 5. I'm vidding for the first time in months? A thing for maybe Halloween. We'll see.

One day I will write a story again.

Profile

bironic

AO3 profile

Style Credit

Style: Simplicity for Compartmentalize by timeasmymeasure

Entries tagged with i guess there should be a riddick tag

Reconstructed triple feature

New (old) fic: Riddick/OFC captive breeding PWP, modeled after Wolverine/Rogue trope

Fannish miscellany

Vid! "I Like the Way You Move," Riddick/bondage, Riddick/everyone

Happy new year

Recs / Riddick / probing fannish apathy

Dream, recipe, and Topic 7: vidding questions

(no subject)

Profile

Tags

Style Credit

Syndicate