rusty_halo

I know a few people on my flist are going to DragonCon. I would love to meet up for drinks, fannish gossip, drooling over Tom Hiddleston, people watching, eating vegan food, etc.

If you want to meet up, please send me an email at laura at rusty-halo.com and I’ll send you my phone number so we can text. :)

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

Tom Hiddleston is the most adorable thing ever. But I haven’t watched Henry V yet because I’ve been too tired and busy.

Why is everyone writing about Teen Wolf? I do not understand.

White Collar is back. And I haven’t had time to watch it. At this point it seems like I need to schedule things like “watch an hour of television” two weeks in advance to slot them into my calendar.

Ugh, work.

( very minor spoilers for the new Dark Knight movie, which I disliked )

Why are half the Loki hurt/comfort stories mpreg? Stupid Norse mythology. Mpreg to me is like snakes to Indiana Jones. >:(

Proof that I will never find a canon as attuned to my interests as Supernatural. But sadly as the S8 spoilers come out, I find myself eyerolling and bored.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

I love this Sleep No More video, which has actual interviews with actors. Not just any actors but my favorite, the unutterably beautiful Conor Doyle. Look at his pretty eyes! *swoons*

(Link in case the embed doesn’t work.)

Now imagine a theater performance where he plays a dark, complicated, ~evil~ character who is also achingly vulnerable, and cries, and is unbelievably sexy and flirts with everything that moves and has hot homoerotic violent dances with both Malcolm and the Porter, and oh yeah gets fully full frontal nude for a witch orgy and then huddles in the shower afterward and has you put his clothes on for him.

See why I’ve spent so much money to see this show ten times and counting? ;)

(The last time was July 4, which was awesome. They had an afterparty on the roof with unlimited drinks and picnic food and a gorgeous view of the fireworks. And Conor Doyle was there playing the Boy Witch but I nobly didn’t stalk him and instead followed Malcolm and Macduff for their full cycles, which I hadn’t done before and which required incredible athletic prowess for me to keep up! and I got the Malcolm one-on-one which is violent and hot, and he was played by Benjamin Thys who is also gorgeous, so yay. And oh yeah my parents came with me because they were visiting for my birthday and although they were largely confused by the experience, my Dad somehow got the Porter’s one-on-one–despite wandering around aloof and confused and definitely not angling for it–and though obviously he was weirded out, he also seemed to really enjoy being singled out, so again yay.)

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

Oh! One more thing about last night: before Sleep No More, I had dinner with coworkers at a West Village restaurant called Morandi, and Michael J. Fox was there. I didn’t take pictures, because I’m not an asshole, but being in the same room with Marty McFly was really freaking cool. :)

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

So I thought I was going to be all about Loki/Thor (which I am, but) you guys I NEED TO READ ALL THE LOKI/TONY, NOW.

New fandom obsessions are fun. :)

Here are my recs; please share if you have more. I am in ~insane obsession~ mode enough that I will even read WIPs. Or gen that has Tony and Loki interacting. Anything.

My favorites:

* Desiderata by stereobone – Loki gets cursed to fall in love with Tony. 30,000 words of goodness! Great characterization, plot, action, and porn–what more can you want?

* Debt by Storynerd – Another 30,000+ epic. :) This one gets the characterization so perfect and the action scenes are fabulous. I love how she writes the characters being drawn to each other, Tony being drawn to danger and intellectually fascinated by one of the rare things he doesn’t understand (magic) and Loki’s underlying emotional neediness pulling him in despite himself.

And others I liked:

* The Loki Problem by elizamechanicka – In which Loki catches a cold that makes his magic go wild. (I read a humor fic! Me!)

* Blood and Mercy by theorytale – Which has lots of tension and characterization and a good mix of ~woobie Loki~ who is also a dark scary villain.

* From a Seed by theorytale – I read mpreg? IDEK.

Part of why this ship works is that they are both self-destructive and made out of ~issues~ but also they are both witty and entertaining and smart… they end up sparking off of each other in so many interesting ways. I’m finding myself reading things I would never usually read, because the characters are so entertaining together.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

So now that LJ has removed the “parent” link from comment threads, if you click on a fic rec from delicious and it takes you to a kink meme fill, how in the world do you find out what the prompt was?

(Sorry for all the questions, I have been away from the fannish internet for a while [trapped in a vortex of WORK], and now that I am venturing back, things have changed in strange ways.)

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

I was typically stressed out and miserable at work today, so I google image searched “Tom Hiddleston” and felt kind of better.

I am totally breaking my fannish rules:

* I’m supposed to only like main characters, because I hate seeing my favorites sidelined.

* And I don’t get into movie fandoms, because there’s not enough canon to keep me interested.

* And I’m late to the party anyway.

But…

( 3 YouTube clips of Tom Hiddleston being beautiful )

*sigh*

This fandom will not last long, but it is making me happy in the moment.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

Avengers:

* How come no one told me Shane Black is directing Iron Man 3!? I am now looking forward to IM3 approximately a billion times more than I was. :)

* Amanda’s Avengers review at The Mary Sue is hilarious

* Black Widow Spins Webs Around THE AVENGERS — Great article comparing the reactions of male and female reviewers to Black Widow. Talk about the women men don’t see…

* Great meta from cluegirl on the “sentiment” theme in The Avengers

* Fic rec: Shatter by aria. What if Loki fell instead of Thor?

I love this so much. She makes Loki sympathetic and interesting but does not gloss over what a psycho mess he is. (Also for some reason I thought it was gen and was very confused when Loki and Thor started making out halfway through.)

I was thinking it’s weird how much I like Loki, since he’s so awful, then I remembered that I am a fan of Jaime Lannister, Spike, Simm!Master, Scorpius, and Methos. It’s not weird for me at all.

Now admittedly most of those characters have redemption arcs, but you could easily fanwank that Loki is just in the pre-redemption state. Although I don’t really have to, because I don’t care about the redemption story. I just like fucked-up characters. Even the characters I’ve liked who are clearly heroes within their universes (Dean Winchester, John Crichton, the Tenth Doctor, Sirius Black, Brian Kinney, Benton Fraser) I haven’t liked because they are heroes, but because they are made of ~issues~. The moral state of the character is really irrelevant.

I’m thinking I’m going to gravitate to Loki/Thor, because it’s got that same “best enemies” dynamic I loved in Doctor/Master and Spike/Angel.

Game of Thones

* Abigail Nussbaum points out the extra-textual misogyny in Game of Thrones:

just as dead horses are the cost of doing business in the racing industry, traumatized and humiliated actresses are the cost of doing business in cable television.

I think I’m going to stop watching GoT. It has some great stuff (Tyrion! Cersei!) but the misogyny of the writing and directing makes me literally sick. Instead of looking forward to watching a new episode, I find myself actually bracing myself against whatever horrific, exploitative abomination they’re going to inflict this week. This is not an enjoyable fannish experience.

* SNL Explains the Nudity in Game of Thones – aka the funny version of the above meta.

Doctor Who

* The Project Manager’s Guide to Doctor Who — This is a series of analyses of the Master’s project management skills. As I am currently working as a project manager, this is pretty much the funniest thing ever. It’s all true!

Music

* I have been listening to this band The Pretty Reckless, who were amazing opening for Marilyn Manson a couple weeks ago. (Only redeeming thing about an otherwise embarrasingly bad experience.) Their lead singer has amazing stage presence and a fabulous voice. Then I googled them and found that she is 18 (holy crap I am old!) and used to be on Gossip Girl. Um. But since the band really is impressive, here is a link.

I just hope she figures out soon that, with a voice like hers, she really does not have to dress like a stripper to get attention. :(

* Aside from that, I am still on a nonstop Nick Cave kick. “Oh My Lord” is an amazing song.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

( spoilers for The Avengers, mostly squee )

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

Yesterday was the most fun I’ve had all year, and by far the greatest April Fool’s anything of my life.

I’ve rambled about Sleep No More before, but in case you don’t recall, it’s:

* A mashup of Hitchcock and Macbeth

* Set to music, and mostly without speech

* Told via modern dance

* Takes place over 100 rooms of a 6-story warehouse

* Interactive with the audience (you’re free to explore the sets and props, and if you’re lucky you’ll get pulled into scenes with the actors, or even into subplots that only you are aware of)

* Choose your own adventure (you can follow actors as they go on separate paths, so it’s impossible to see the whole thing)

* Unbelievably sexy

* And dark and violent

I knew they were doing an April Fool’s Day show and assumed they’d change things up somehow, but had no idea how. SO.

First, usually when you enter, you go through a creepy maze, almost entirely in the dark, feeling your way by touch, to the sound of ~eeeerie~ music from Hitchcock films. But this time… I entered the the not-so-eerie Indiana Jones theme music. Which transitioned to the Superman theme, and then the Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back.

So I walked in already cracking up. The eerie maze is not quite so eerie to the sound of the Indiana Jones score. ;)

( cut for length and spoilers )

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.