bironic

So much to catch up on. Let's start with festivids recs. These were my faves besides the ones made for or by me:

Horror vids are killin' it this year, pun intended. Heed all the warnings:

Tag, You're It by winterevanesce a.k.a. Kitty (Tag/Real Onigokko)

Raising Hell by bingeling (Ready or Not)

Let Me In by trelkez (Train to Busan) - made me cry

Good as Hell by findmeinthealps (Midsommar)

<3 and/or energizing/inspiring:

The Fire by dirty_diana (American Ninja Warrior)

Body Talks by odessie (Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movies)

Garden of Your Mind by sandalwoodbox (Critical Role/Dungeons and Dragons) - I did not know the musician behind Symphony of Science did a similar compilation with Mr. Rogers audio clips! Oh no, feelings about a source I barely know

Try Everything by walkthegale (Bon Appetit Test Kitchen/Gourmet Makes) - The other Gourmet Makes vid got lots of attention but this one spoke more to me, about trying things even if they're not guaranteed to work

Relationships:

Queens by thingswithwings (Killjoys) - Aneela/Delle Seyah. I got worried when the first few clips cut off in weird places or had talkyface, but wow, did it pay off to keep going

Children's Work by trelkez (Star Trek: Discovery) - Michael and Spock, then and now

:D

Untitled Goose Vid by eruthros and thingswithwings - Well structured and well cut for maximum enjoyment

Thinky:

Dance Monkeys by cupidsbow (Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movies) - This vid leveled up when the vidder confirmed that the edge of creepiness in the song choice was intentional. ETA: Definitely read the AO3 notes that were posted after reveals.

what's to come by skygiants (Jesus Christ Superstar live telecast) - I only know the basics about the story and the production but the song and the editing make it clear there's a lot churning between these two and their frenemyship and power dynamics and desired vs. actual legacies

Also:

Cut Me Down by seinmit (Us) - Did I mention how many good horror vids there are this year?

seven devils by quizkwatsh (Fantastic Four) - Really interesting focus on the horror of the quartet's body transformations and the power other people have -- or had -- over them

D&D 101 by silly_cleo (Critical Role/Handbooker Helper) - Still a sucker for a well-structured vid. Cute and clever and yes, educational

Money Good by sisabet (Hustlers) - This will gain depth after I see the movie, but for now, great rhythm and sexy dangerous ladies mood

An American Primer by JinkyO (James Baldwin RPF) - Fascinating both in form and subject matter. The captions were helpful.

Also I think we hit the Vidders' Favorite Singers trifecta this year of Vienna Teng, Florence + the Machine and Dessa. Plus Billie Eilish, so maybe it's four now. Almost a Bingo.

DOING

Better. Taking a three-day weekend helped, and I'm trying to learn how not to be upset by work-related things that I don't think I should care about so much. That said, even during what felt like a good weekend, my brain delivered five stress dreams in two nights.

A few friends came over for the first night of Passover; we had good conversation and lots of food and drink. It would be nice to figure out a better furniture arrangement in this small space to accommodate more than four diners for occasions such as these; some people were left out, and that's not a good feeling. Recipe-wise, would rec these almond flour jam thumbprint cookies and a chremsele/pancake batter made of matzo meal (1/4 c), eggs (4) and cottage cheese (1 cup).

The monthly local fangirl Bad Movie Night had more attendees than usual, which made for a lively viewing experience of The Fate of the Furious. It struck me as the Batman vs. Superman of the Fast & Furious franchise, in that the basis of the conflict made no sense, a lot of it dragged on and there was gratuitous urban destruction. But a few of the action sequences made up for the rest. And as others pointed out, it had more colors than the DCU, which is to say, it had colors.

Last weekend a clutch of us saw a burlesque performance of Dracula by a group called The Slaughterhouse Society that had the highest production values, most consistent talent, and most coherent storyline of any burlesque I've seen, the runner-up being the Slutcracker, the annual local burlesque Nutcracker that as a result of its source material suffers from a comparative lack of sexy biting. ( Details )

READING

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie. TBD whether this falls on the side of Ancillary Justice, which you ~may recall~ I adored, or Provenance, which I thought was fine with occasional delights. So far, about 150 pages in, it's like the premise of American Gods got tossed in a blender with the "I" and "you" structure of The Broken Earth trilogy, which I'm not sure is a winning combination for me, although it's spiked with Leckie's talent for humorous linguistic play and her interests in intercultural politics and the power of language, which may explain why a couple of people who blurbed it compared it to Ursula Le Guin. Recent chapters did introduce themes about the meaning of life and the tug of war between wanting to be connected to others versus wanting to be, literally, a rock, i.e. an eerie echo of stuff my therapist kept bringing up before we ended our sessions, so there's that.

(We had our last appointment last week. Here's hoping for improvement through other avenues.)

VIDDING

I woke up Saturday, fixed a couple of things that had been bothering me about my equinox_exchange assignment, and then… made a second vid? In about three hours, juuuust squeaking in under the deadline? (I backdated it on the AO3, so this isn't giving anything away.) So that happened. I'm not saying it's a great work of art, but a [redacted] vid now exists where none existed before, and that is pleasing.

Anyway, the exchange went live, and someone cosmic_llin made me a Julian Bashir character study vid, yay: I Won't Back Down (DS9). Llin covered the spectrum of ways Bashir learned to be brave, plus she featured lots of clips of him looking sexily mussed, dirty, or roughed up, so either we like similar things or she knows my heart. :)

Other than that, my favorite in the collection is Stars (Romeo+Juliet), a haunting Mercutio vid by sweetestdrain for absternr.

Other favorites:
- Sound of Her Wings (The Sandman comics) by absternr for mithborien
- Like, Wannabe (Clueless) by cherryice for bessyboo
- Ice ice baby (Demolition Man) by condnsdmlk for theletterelle
- Juke Joint Jezebel (The Matrix) by theletterelle for AudreyV
- Take Over (The Craft) by winterevanesce for GhostTownExit

And more. Overall a pretty solid collection. As with Festivids, I like the inclusion of more YouTube-style vids and still-source vids. It'll do the community good to continue evolving.

Continued from here.

I neglected to say in the last post that, while overhearing fandom conversations and watching vids over the past many years has made me conversant in many shows/movies I haven't seen, it's still nice when something you like pops up at VVC. I smiled at a couple of clips of Sebastian Roche in a Supernatural vid during Premieres. (There were approximately 500,000 SPN vids this year.) I also had a good time talking with kiki_miserychic about what turns out to be shared ambivalence over Westworld, with franzeska about the delights of Longmire (sorry for hijacking your convo, thirdblindmouse), and with grammarwoman, corbae & sansets about Westworld & the equally frustrating-yet-sometimes-beautiful American Gods. See also: "fandom nostalgia" in the recs section.

( Panels )

( Vid Discussion Panels )

( Vid Recs )

Full programming list at vividcon.info.

"My name is bironic. I like things in space and things with vampires," I wrote at st_aurafina's friending meme in January, then realized my 5 Festivids consisted of 3 set in space and 2 involving vampires, one of which was set to a Byron poem.

This year I made:

Sunny Days (Dark City)
For onewingdippedinblood. My actual assignment.

Something's Going Wrong (Waxwork)
For onewingdippedinblood. I hadn't heard of this movie before reading onewingdippedinblood's Festivids letter, but watched it, was delighted, and thought of a vid song right away. Kudos to mific for guessing that I made this! #onbrand

Behind Blue Eyes (2001: A Space Odyssey)
For cherryice. Because the song match was too terrible/great to pass up.

Going through space with the world (Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield)
For thirdblindmouse. Because space and science and a joyous expansion into celebrity.

She Walks in Beauty (Let the Right One In)
For quizkwatsh. I'd been wanting to make this one for a while and wish it had gone over better; I wonder if it's because people don't know the source or if the vid itself is not compelling.

More notes on each vid at the posts linked above.

( As for those vid-related remarks I couldn't share at the time... )

Also, it turns out elipie is the one who made "To The Edge" for me! Check it out, with vidder's notes. I know the subject matter will not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's a very good vid, at once cerebral and visceral, and it didn't get a lot of love and it deserves more. ♥

Once upon a time elipie and I had separate ideas to put together a kink-themed vid show for vividcon. Unlike me, elipie remembered to submit the idea when the time came. But she graciously took me on as a co-mod when I realized what had happened, and after a couple of weeks of merged lists, spreadsheets, IM sessions and gnashing of teeth, we settled on our 20 vids.

We wanted to feature vids that portray kinks and kinkiness in a positive light; tried for a variety of kinks, tones, styles, fandoms, vidders, pairing/moresome types and character demographics*; limited the list to one vid per vidder; and made sure to include at least some vids that hadn't been created for Kink Bingo, so the list wouldn't all be familiar to kink-vid fans who followed the community. elipie also cajoled anoel and thirdblindmouse into making premieres for the show on short notice! Definitely watch both of them; they are great. One has pain- and consent-play femslash and the other has alien sex!

*Some of these efforts panned out better than others, but I think we're both generally happy with the final list -- and hope you are too.

( Playlist )


And the shortlist of runners-up. Some we had to remove because we were limited to 20 vids even if they fit within the allotted time; some were alternates.

( runners-up )


Bonus vids that screened during Vividcon that it's too bad we couldn't include:

Switch Screens by lola (UnREAL) - voyeurism woo

Anything For You by Willion (Furry fandom) - such a sweet story about finding one's inner furry kink/identity



etc. etc. etc., so many other great kink vids out there, but also please make more. ♥

Thanks to everyone who pitched ideas to us in person, on DW and/or on Twitter. You helped strengthen the playlist, introduced us to new works by unfamiliar artists, and sometimes made us laugh (everyone be glad/sad we didn't put in the mechanical tentacle porn set to "Inspector Gadget").

Vids

Thanks to heresluck and corbae, it looks like jetpack_monkey and I have found a song for our Auction vid, hurrah. At least, we both think it's a good fit and now we will see if it works when the editing begins. Am psyched. I had a lot of fun watching the movie we're using, and will be subjecting* my mom to a rewatch when she visits this weekend.

*Not really; she said it sounds great.

Books

Finished The Dispossessed and got really into it in the second half or last third as Shevek became more humanized and humorous (especially with kids and animals! cute!), more aware of the ways Annaresti culture was deviating from its founder's ideals, and better able to articulate the problems on Urras and their (un)solvability, and as he struggled to break through with his grand unified physics theory and get it into the right hands when no one's hands seemed right.

Flipped through Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll, an overstuffed, unself-aware mess that nevertheless had a few things to recommend about it. Content warnings galore.

Now wrapping up Deathless by Catherynne Valente and not sure yet what to make of it. Certainly makes me wish I knew more about Russian fairy tales and folklore. And that readers weren't so distanced from the main character after the first section. Some truly striking images, though. A bit like Uprooted with hints of Gaiman's Endless, among other things, but very much its own entity.

Recs

Grenade by fiercynn and scribe, which I beta-ed and have been remiss in not recommending. Full-hearted multifandom vid about self-sacrificing sidekicks who don't get the love they deserve. Rory Williams! Sam Gamgee! Sam Wilson! Many more!

Phase Changes (BtVS, 18,000 words, explicit) - a Giles/Xander/Willow fic that is locked to AO3 readers and so I assume I shouldn't name the author here. A diamond in the rough unearthed during an id tag search in the archives. Giles gets hit with a freeze ray; Xander and Willow, who are a couple, stay with him to keep him warm; things progress as you'd expect; and then the author truly won my heart when Willow has an issue with reaching orgasm and Giles gives them a sex ed lesson. Things don't end easily, either, as the next morning they debate whom, if anyone, to tell, and Buffy struggles with what's developed. Nicely written. Choosing to ignore the Wesley/angel and Spike/demon consciences the author gives Giles in the second half, like the hula-dancing "subconscious" from 50 Shades, which I remember reading somewhere was a holdover thing from anime fandom?

To the Victor, the Spoil by Annakovsky (Hunger Games, 13,000 words, explicit) - Katniss/Haymitch, Katniss/some other people, Capital corruption, Finnick and state-coerced sex, bleak and beautiful.

Tasks

Forthcoming Mom visit + Passover = tidying up, planning activities & choosing Haggadah materials. Looking forward to hosting a couple of friends for the seder and using these beautiful glass seder and matzah plates I acquired in Tel Aviv while visiting roga years ago. Looking forward to pulling out of this slump, too.

Festivids is live, and I'm sure there are lots of fabulous vids in the collection, but it almost doesn't matter, because my wonderful amazing like-minded anonymous Festividder franzeska made me the vid I was most hoping for of all my requests, and life is beautiful.

It is for the 1992 movie A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia, in which Alexander Siddig (Prince Faisal of Syria & Iraq) and Ralph Fiennes (T.E. Lawrence) engage in intricate post-WWI politics while sharing gorgeous smoldering gazes.

(You barely need the "sub" in subtext, seriously. Look, even Wikipedia acknowledges: "The film goes further than its predecessor in showing the effects of revisionist historians. It demonstrates contemporary concerns about British and international politics and ethnic conflict. It also explores further Lawrence's enigmatic personality and suggests more openly his alleged homosexuality.")

Go go go: They Are Afraid of Us Together

And how perfect is that title, when Lawrence & Faisal are a powerful team who also threaten British/Western/white hegemony by crossing racial boundaries? How perfect and beautiful is the Persian love song -- poem, really -- franzeska selected?

Aaaah, it just makes me so happy. Look at those two. Look at Lawrence looking at Faisal in those film reels. Look at them so utterly in love with each other and tearing themselves to pieces over their choices and the bigotry of & backstabbing by those around them. Look at those eyes and those hands and that intensity.

I haven't seen the movie in more than 10 years. Need to track down a copy and rewatch, in order to better appreciate the nuances of the story here.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I had a great time at Vividcon this weekend. It was my third time going, over a span of six years, and each one has felt more comfortable than the last. I learn more about the history of vidding and vidders and pick up more skills and get to know more people, or get to know people better.

This year's new experience was encountering again and again people's love for Starships. It just fills my heart with joy that it makes people so happy, and it's surreal (but also a thrill) to, for example, hear it mentioned as an annual Club Vivid favorite, or to learn that it was included in a suite of vids that helped convince a college to archive older fanvids. Although I have not yet learned how to react to effusive compliments, eep.

( Social-type highlights of the con: cosplay, Shabbat, conversation, and more )

( Panels )

And with that, I am out of brain. Choosing to blame all the adjectives and "to be" constructions in this post on the fact that I haven't had a full night's sleep in a week! Vid recs to follow at some point here.

ETA: Other people's con reports: giandujakiss, kass, sheafrotherdon, jetpack_monkey, ghost-lingering on the fandom-specific panels

Happy Passover, Passover celebrators. As I eat scrambled egg over matzoh, I encourage you to (re)watch jetpack_monkey's vid Moves Like Yahweh for a dose of plague-filled, irreverent joy.

Happy National Poetry Month, poetry lovers. I am taking this occasion to -- incredibly belatedly -- rec a podfic (podpoem) susan_voight recorded of my SGA sestina, An Unanticipated Side Effect of Dosing Oneself with Wraith Enzyme to Deliver an Important Message. Susan did a regular version that is quite easy to understand, as well as a super-fast version (my personal favorite of the two) that mimics the way McKay's mind was racing. I'd always wanted to hear the poem read aloud like this, and am so happy these exist in the world. Give them a listen if you're interested, and be sure to leave Susan some feedback!

State of me: Long and boring story short, I had some unexpected issues for a couple of weeks but now things seem to be back to normal, i.e. I can get things done and string two sentences together and not vibrate out of my skin with anxiety. It's April; the snow is almost all melted, and we had a thunderstorm at something like 5 o'clock this morning.

On the docket for the day:

- Matinee of Furious 7 with friends and friends-of-friends
- Do overdue beta of friend's vid
- Rip the last of the DVDs for Club Vivid vid, and lay down more clips
- Laundry
- Group watch of Into the Woods

festivids is live. The snow is once more falling thickly. Life could be worse.

I

This year I received a vid for a source I was particularly hoping for, the movie Take Shelter: Things That Scare Me by cherryice. Thank you, Cherry!

( The vid, like the film, is deeply unsettling... )

II

I also received a teeny tiny microvid as part of the incredible effort that ghost_lingering put into making Silent Fandoms. ( Dozens and dozens of minivids + a meta tribute to Festivids itself )

III

I have conflicting feelings about how the vids I submitted are doing, and the limits of my own capabilities, and aesthetics and trends and stuff. Holding those thoughts for later, if at all. Aside from that, the viewing experience has been good so far. Vid quality is pretty consistent. I've made it through less than a third of the collection 99 vids and am holding recs for now. Meantime, I will leave you with some choice quotes from a Festivids-watching get-together last night at laura47's. Another way to play "guess the vid."

laura47: That's the best way to be bisexual.
scribe: Be Batman?

meretricula: That was actually pretty sweet.
shati: I thought his hand would get sliced off at the end.

meretricula: The one with the kind of blank-stare face is the protagonist.