Skywater: I live here.

Presidents We WISH Were Real

Breaking into my LJ silence to ask you all to upvote my Threadless entry for "Political Parody". Who DOESN'T want a t-shirt with Bartlet, Palmer, that President from Independence Day and Roslin sharing Mt. Rushmore? NO ONE READING MY LJ, THAT'S WHO.

Upvote! Thanks!

Joanna Russ has died, an author who so thoroughly influenced me that not a day goes by I don't think a thought you could trace back to her work.

Excerpts from 'How to Suppress Women's Writing'

She was also one of the first people to write about slash from a scholarly, feminist perspective, which is why it feels so brutally ironic of the universe to give us a Online Wall Street Journal article by Ogi Ogli.

SIGH.

***

I actually started this journal entry days ago, intent on writing about a lot of things: the latest episode of Doctor Who and some fanfiction recs among them, but in between now and then Barack Obama has taken out Osama bin Laden.

Not that I think Osama bin Laden was the greatest evil among humans of all time - indeed, the 21st Century would have a long way to go to top any of the atrocities of the 20th (but don't cheer yet, there's nine more decades to go in this one!) But really, if your reaction to that news wasn't to say 'America, Fuck Yeah', I question your choices. Dude was an evil motherfucker and it was tragic that we as a nation were being led by equally evil, fat and lazy people.

Now, can we stop justifying the predator drones and the occupations, Mr. President? I know you don't actually think they're right.

As always, however, I love Mr. Obama's epic trolling of America. Even I thought that birth certificate news was a little over the top, sir, but I see now that you had to do something truly epic to misdirect everyone from what was really happening. Good show, good show. 10/10 possible RL Trolling points.

***

Some real life news:

1. I have a booth at this month's First Friday. Please come out and buy some comics.

2. I paid off the 8,000 dollars I owed SAIC last month. Which I noted on Facebook and Twitter. Getting the paperwork cleared up to return to class in Chicago is turning into a royal pain in the ass, as you would expect.

3. Because of those things, this feels like a good entry to announce that I'll no longer be crossposting to LJ. Please come visit me on Dreamwidth.

1. I am reading Game of Thrones, but very very slowly. It's not that interesting to me and often I will read one chapter and be like 'that was great' and then the very next chapter will have me saying 'and that was complete shit'. I think this may be one of those books where if I was LESS well-read in the genre I would be more impressed, because mainly what I keep thinking is that it's basically a Very Good YA Novel. I think many of the books fans would choose to object to me and say 'but you can't do that and that in a YA book' and a. that isn't true now and b. wasn't that true back then either.

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2. I am sorry to say I thought the pilot episode for the Game of Thrones TV show to be poorly done. Very adapted by the numbers. One of the big problems with adapting this show is that all of the book is written via the perspective of a character. And that character (at least at the point of the book I'm in) is an obvious authorial stand-in. They observe which characters are evil slimy bastards and the narrating character is So Obviously Correct About It. And a lot of times I find that decision authorially boring. Like, wouldn't it be way more interesting to see that wedding from the eyes of Dany's brother?

This runs into even more problems in the TV show, which has some appallingly poor edits in the pilot that break up any tension the scene was developing. More than the info dumping, what the producers of this show need to develop is a sense of POV perspective when they write and film these scenes to match (or alter) the book.

It's not like the author's great skill is in dialogue here. There's some witty lines but it's not Mamet or anything, guys. (And tragically, the script and directing fucking /dumps/ all over what wit was in the book to begin with leaving the actors stepping all over the good lines.)

So anyway. It's got some problems besides its issue with the male gaze (inherited from the book) and awkward Race pony people.

Flat, flat, flat. Moments in the book imbued with great foreshadowing importance or drama are rendered inert and the problems clearly lie in the screenwriting and later overall direction. It can only improve, one hopes.

3. Doctor Who, "The Impossible Astronaut".

So much fucking better than the pilot episode of Game of Thrones for one clarifying reason: Steven Moffat understands how to navigate the audience/character POV perspective in television. In fact, there's no one in screenwriting I can think of right now who does this better than he does.

Go back through and watch this episode. Is River Song indeed, finally as sympathetic to the audience as the reviewers claim? (I think the answer is yes, but I was never against her from the start.) Why? Go back and watch this episode again - how many of the scenes are being expressly written from River's Point of View. The answer: almost the entire episode.

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Anyway, I thought this episode of Doctor Who was structurally fabulous from top to bottom with everyone from the main cast giving a perfect performance. Great television.

I hope?

I'm feeling crappy and burnt out. I was hoping it was just PMS, but it's sticking around, so ... yeah.

Things: I hit up First Friday pretty fucking hard this month. My mother basically made me go out with her but by the end I cut loose and had my own time of it. Saw all the major shows, ran into friends I haven't seen in a while. That guy from High School you haven't seen since High School, that person you secretly hate but must be nice to for political reasons, that person you've only spoken to on Twitter...

Brent and Ashanti have a cute kid, and I really approve of Brent's new style.

Then I went out on Sunday to "Shut Down The Strip", which did nothing of the sort. As Laurenn's husband pointed out later, it's hard to shut down the strip in protest if you're ALSO trying to be kind and thoughtful to MGM-Mirage for letting us walk through the Bellagio.

Between the two events, I am pretty sure I ran into everyone I know in Las Vegas.

1. Rachel Maddow follows me on Twitter now. You are all insanely jealous, right?

This wasn't as big of a freak out for me as it was my other friends, because I don't write fanfiction about real people and thus never have to worry she'll find my Rachel Maddow/Ana Marie Cox stories. They don't exist.

2. Just Like Starting Over, a Mad Men Peggy/Don future fic. I'm not sure if there are a lot of stories in this fandom that project the characters forward - this one does a great job at applying the 1980s to the characters and style of the series. The little details are what makes this work - the opening gambit of Peggy's interview with Ms. Magazine, being asked about the Diana/Charles wedding. Don reading 'Rabbit is Rich'. It's the details that make the relationship seem believable.

And how can you not love the period-appropriate John Lennon title?

3. The cosmos own our luck. CJ and Toby, post series. Again, with the details. They're both political people, their lives take place in the background of big events - the choice to frame the dialogue as dashed off emails sent as CJ runs about fixing the world is inspired.

4. Malice Aforethought - DS9 needs a few more lawyers. I don't want to spoil it, but this is a fic about how Kira is awesome. Everyone likes that, yes?

5. That I can rec new fic from twenty and eleven year old fandoms makes me happy. Continue shining on, you crazy diamonds.

1. So you all heard the news that Aaron Sorkin's new pundit show is going to HBO, right?

I deleted a long post about how I wanted Richard Schiff to be in it (he's the perfect temperament to be Keith Olbermann. Sorry Bradley, you know I love you.) And if he's in it, I want Janel Moloney to be in it because, though they don't have many scenes together, ever scene between Toby and Donna has an interesting frisson. She could be his producer, perhaps.

Well, I scrapped it because I thought The Schiff would be too busy with the Criminal Minds spinoff. Then I checked his wikipedia last night and it's only recurring so: DREAM CASTING BACK ON.

2. And then they day after that, Keith Olbermann got quitfired from MSNBC.

Bringing the ripe speculation that since everyone knows the new Sorkin show is about Olbermann, maybe he's going to staff it? And the great Sorkin-MSNBC connection goes full circle.

And yes, if you haven't seen the video: Olbermann did reference Network in his live-to-the-nation I QUIT message.

In less optimistic news, I and most American progressives are now concerned about the consequences, as he single-handedly brought MSNBC around from a third tier network, to second place and voice of the Democratic party combating Fox.

3. Being Human US edition

Not much to say, except I think I liked it a little more than the current UK cast. (I never got over when they recast the vampires.) I'll keep watching.

4. Lost Girl

I gather that lots of people on my friend's list love this show, so I gave it a try and downloaded the first season. It is a Canadian fantasy drama in the tradition of Highlander. (I keep thinking of it as Girl Highlander.)

Five episodes in and it's MY FAVORITE THING SINCE SLICED CRACK. It's the story of a bisexual succubus named Bo who grew up without knowing she was a member of the Fae, and her teenaged pickpocket runaway. They solve crime! Every episode passes the Bechdel test!

It has a bit of an Anita Blake meets Buffy vibe, to be honest, as Kenzi the teenager uses a lot of internet slang. (She described Bo as 'in lurve' with another character.) There's a free hand about the sex - after all, the main character needs it to live. Rather than drag it out, the intended OTP have been shagging since the second episode and the barriers to getting together in happiness seem to be: 1. Fae politics and 2. nigh immortality.

And like all great science fiction/fantasy dramas, there's a wise Bartender up to more than he seems.

I almost had a technical KO with the last post - all the links had gotten shifted around. I think it was my bad, and not the Archives, but how it happened exactly I bloody don't know. So. Let's do this again, shall we?

ETA: I started this one days prior to the reveal. Don't feel like going back to add names, so assume authors get credit when you make with the clicky.

Indiana Jones/Casablanca:
Indiana Jones and the Standard of Dishonour
What a brilliant idea for a crossover. Everyone's voices are great and this manages to make me not completely loathe the background information in Crystal Skull.

Ray Bradbury:
The Sun Shone on Venus
Oh, you clever clogs. Everyone read the Bradbury short story about the girl on Venus, the one where it only has sunshine every seven years and her evil classmates lock her in a closet, correct? This is the story of what happens to the girl as an adult - with the most Of Course She Did crossover with another Bradbury short story at the end.

Batman/Feminist Hulk/Old Spice Guy:
Feminism First Thing In the Morning
Batman, Feminist Hulk, and the Old Spice Guy have a Twitter conversation. LOVE IT.

How to Train Your Dragon
How To Hatch Your Dragon
Hiccup's father has trouble adjusting to the village's new life. Short and has ikkle dragons. I love it.

Stay Close To Me
Even after the events of the film, Hiccup's relationship with his father isn't great. Astrid helps him understand.

Ponyo:
I Have Been One With the Sea
How does a research oceanographer fall in love with the Goddess of the Sea anyway? This perfectly captures the world of Miyazaki's film - the appreciation for science with the breathtaking moments of beauty under water. And there's a lovely smutty interlude.

Spirited Away:
Tales of the Bathhouse
Three short stories of people spirited away to work Yubaba's bathhouse, framed by Lin. All three have the lovely feeling of fairy tales, and I like the backstory the author gives Lin.

Calvin and Hobbes:
This kid I once knew.
From the POV of an adult Suzie, this fic had me from the opening paragraph with her friends discussing daemons from His Dark Materials. I particularly like the bittersweetness of this one, and that ending seems real and not quite right - which is of course, why it is so right.

Young Wizards:
But There Is This
Tom and Carl share stories of their own misbegotten wizard youths. I love the adventure. Bear wizards!

Of Whales and Florists
S'ree the young whale wizard is one of my favorite minor characters. I love the way that she and Nita's father find common ground in this one - it's so very right for this universe.

Highlander:
The Dying Gaul
Methos, so sharp and pricky and vivid in this single Highlander story. I love the free way it mixes art, and history, and Immortality.

His Dark Materials:
All of the His Dark Materials stories were really good this year.

Acadaemia
This fandom is a challenging one, with its free mix of theology, fantasy, and steampunk Victoriana. The author on this piece does a convincing job with the world of Lyra's Oxford, in the tale of the first meeting of Marisa Coulter and Lord Asriel. The characters are themselves, younger and growing into their deviousness. And the twists are quite interesting.

Three Heresies
Three meetings between Serafina and Xaphania - lovely and poetic, this one.

A Brief History of the Witches and their Culture
The lives of Serafina and Ruti Skadi, Queens of the Witches. A very dense look at their lives, intersecting and different. Another one that gets the culture of their world correct.

The Incredibles:
Of Capes and Kindred Spirits
Edna Mode designs Buddy's new suit, and has regrets.

James Bond Reboot:
The Care and Feeding of Your M
From the perspective of Miss Moneypenny: A female M changes everything, or does it?

Jurassic Park:
A Year of Women
Stop everything. You must read this one, even if you only casually like the fandom. This is about twelve women in Alan Grant's life, but the author has really just blown up the book fandom, the movies and put them back together in an elegy about life, and the role of women (and gender) in science.

Lilo and Stitch:
Mountains, Molehills
The entire ohana is concerned about when David and Nani will get married. Short, but so in tone with the film.

The Little Mermaid:
So many good fics for this fandom this year!

Mysterious Fathoms Below
Little vignettes of Ariel's life interspersed with a Victoriana lecture about the merpeople. I love the not-so-cryptic Disney crossover, and the way this uses material from the recent sequel.

Triton's Cove
The temptation with the Disney fics is always to make them darker and more sinister - because the Disney Princess films are full of flawed messages (and none so much as The Little Mermaid). I like this one for its effort to stay away from that, to take canon for what it is and find the happy medium between the characters and the story.

The Skin Beneath the Skin
Of course, the original story was a bitter and melancholic affair much driven by Anderson's closeted homosexuality. Ariel's ever-after. I like the stories hinted in a couple of lines - I wish this one was longer, actually.

Lion in Winter
Mnemosyne
Should have a warning for rape. A really interesting take on how the memory lies.

Olympia:
Galatea
Oh Gosh, how I thought about signing up for Yuletide just to write the story for this person. My favorite painting of all time, Manet's Olympia. The author took an interesting tack on this one, narrating the story from the perspective of the painting and not any of the interesting historical people surrounding its creation.

Neverwhere:
The Never-Green Tree
I know one of these days Gaiman might get around to writing the sequel to this, and Joss all these Yuletides to bit. None the less, I love them every year. On the quest to find Door's missing sister, Ingress, Richard Mayhew decides to go on a quest of his own: to discover what happens to Anesthesia, the rat-girl. The author of this one takes clear delight in remixing London Above's history with the world of London Below.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
Let It Be
The author of this one is patently obvious, and as if she knew it, hasn't bothered to wipe all her smudgy fingerprints off of it. Missing scenes from the death of Jadzia and the arrival of Ezri Dax - I love the way she's brought in Worf's backstory from TNG to DS9, and made the eventual relationship between Ezri and Julian make a lot more sense. They do have much in common after all.

Runaways:
buckle up, we're wayward bound.
Gert and Chase, so alive. This fic made me feel the rush of shipper love, which is something I didn't really know I could feel about comics.

Lady Lazarus
Title rather gives it away, but it perfectly captures the spirit of the comic - and manages to include the new team members around the edges. Plus: they fight evil hipsters in a Starbucks. That's perfection.

Mad Men:
Some truly brilliant fics for this fandom this year. It feels like Yuletide (and fandom) may have finally figured out what they want to say about this show.

Two Omissions, One Acknowledgment
A year in the (sex) life of Peggy Olson. It just gets her right.

The Hot 100 Number 1 Singles of 1965 & 1966
Another long, STOP you must read this fic, the kind that Yuletide is famous for, and that I was almost afraid wouldn't appear. This fic does the seemingly impossible task of making a Peggy and Joan friendship believable - there's an appearance of a ridiculous fic trope towards the end and I could not BELIEVE that I not only bought it, but loved it. Everyone's voice is perfect. I love the scenes with Joan and Lane, and the Joan/Roger scene is worth the price of admission. I hope season five is as satisfying as this fic, but I know it'll be more frustrating: this fic is the perfect expression of Mad Men wish fulfillment.

I was quite skeptical about this one going in, because what could be more intellectually lazy than basing your Christmas episode off of the Dickens story? Dead horses, jump the shark indeed.

That said, oh it was lovely and magical, wasn't it? There's hardly any doubt that this one was the best of the Christmas episodes yet. (The only one I really like is 'The Runaway Bride' anyhow, though the last fifteen minutes or so of 'The Christmas Invasion' are great.)

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And how 'bout that trailer? :D

Leo McGarry: My generation never got the future it was promised... Thirty-five years later, cars, air travel is exactly the same. We don't even have the Concorde anymore. Technology stopped.
Josh Lyman: The personal computer...
Leo McGarry: A more efficient delivery system for gossip and pornography? Where's my jet pack, my colonies on the Moon?

***

I don't think I'll ever forget where I was the day John Spencer died. I didn't forget it - I just forgot to post because I've been epically busy. Five years. It at once seems very far away and not long ago at all.

I did finals, then Friday night we went out to the Wynn Buffet and Sinatra: Dance With Me. This is a new show at the Wynn which is basically swing dancing, choreographed to Sinatra tunes by Twyla Tharpe. I wanted to like it more than I actually did. I'll put a proper review on Yelp.

I was kind of dumb and volunteered to work the Neon Boneyard Christmas open house today. I say kinda dumb because I wanted to go, but it turned out to be the same time as the DADT vote. I missed watching it, but luckily saw it go down on Twitter. Ah me. And because I was deliberately dragging my feet, I missed Noelle at it. Oh well, I did take her out to the Sinatra show.

Other stuff: I let my paid LJ time expire. So I really need to get on the ball with fixing this Dreamwidth up. My neon equipment now has air running through it. I need to get the propane line hooked up to it, which makes me nervous - but it just occurred to me that there are probably quite a few tutorials on this on tube of You.