rusty-halo.com

Just got all teary watching Pearl Jam Twenty, Cameron Crowe’s documentary about Pearl Jam. Twenty because they’ve been a band for twenty years, a fact I can’t actually wrap my head around even if I understand it intellectually.

I’ve noticed this thing where I grow apart from people, and time goes by and I age, but in my head I expect them to be exactly the way they were when I last saw them. Of course it doesn’t work that way. It’s shocking when we meet up again, to discover that the distance between us is not just my distance, but theirs too.

I miss the time when I could be so profoundly moved by art. I spend so much of my time in fandom, but for me the thing I’m fannish about is ultimately entertainment. It’s something I enjoy very much, and the human connections I form with other fans can be profound, but the fannish work itself is distant in a way. It exists for my pleasure, and I can leave it behind if it stops pleasing me.

Music is something else. I can’t ever leave it behind.

There was a time when music defined me. It’s imprinted into my foundation of self. This film captures so much of that era… I can’t believe it was twenty years ago.

The film is very well made; the juxtaposition of “Alive” from their second show ever and “Alive” today is inspired, as is the focus on the concert experience, the way that the band and the audience become one creative organism together.

It was good to see so many familiar faces. Andy Wood, Chris Cornell, Kurt Cobain, that little glimpse of Layne, Jerry, Sean, and Mike… and of course the Pearl Jam guys. I used to have Cameron Crowe’s entire 1993 Rolling Stone interview taped to my bedroom wall. My entire room was wallpapered in clippings about these bands. I wanted to be Chris Cornell when I grew up.

It was unusual for a musical movement. They cared so much about integrity and ethics. They were so emotionally honest, so revealing and raw; in retrospect, so naive, so young. It was so easy to relate, to believe my struggles were similar, and to love them so much.

I discovered this music after moving around and changing schools five times in five years. I was ugly, too tall, too smart, geeky and weird in every possible way. I had no friends and no mentors. I was so lonely and music was the only thing that filled that gaping empty hole inside, that made life worth living. I looked up to those guys so much; they were my older siblings, my cool uncles. My initial foray into feminism was because of Eddie Vedder and gay rights because of Kurt Cobain. I wore band t-shirts and ripped jeans for two years. I remember wishing that Eddie Vedder was my father.

It makes me miss Danielle. She was the first real friend I ever had, and music was one of the primary ways we connected. Twenty years. So weird seeing how much the Pearl Jam guys have changed, and I’ve changed, and knowing she’s changed. Things that once meant so much, now so far apart.

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

rusty-halo.com

Home from Wincon. Good to hug my cats. I will miss the nights of uninterrupted sleep, though. (Lucifer has me up at 6am for kitty breakfast.)

Sadly 10zlaine couldn’t come, but it was a lot of fun to hang out with soundingsea. We stayed in a lovely B&B, toured several historical buildings and took a ton of walking tours (I think 4? the cocktail tour was the best ;) and even managed to find decent vegan food (Wandering Buddha vegan Korean!). Oh, and we took a trip to the bayou and held a baby alligator. :)

The con was okay, but I was sad that so few people I knew were able to make it. It’s hard being a newbie at a con where everyone seems to know each other, especially when you’re an extreme introvert.

But hey, good to escape work for a few days, and wonderful to hang with soundingsea.

Oh and I loved the SPN episode, of course. :)

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

rusty-halo.com

I worked today from 9:15am – 10pm. I miss you guys so much. :( :( :(

On the plus side, a new person joined our team today, so maybe I’ll have more free time in the future? *hopes* Now I’m on two nightly calls (8pm Mondays at 9pm Thursdays) and early morning calls keep popping up too. :(

I miss fandom. And I miss my fandom friends.

You know, what’s amazing is that even though I hardly post here anymore and haven’t been fannishly active in ages, my fannish friends are still the best friends ever. Just in the past month I’ve:

* Hung out with the lovely [info]10zlaine and attempted to introduce her to the vegan wonders of NYC (she’s a new vegan!). She’s been coming for plays at BAM–we saw John Gabriel Borkman earlier in the year (complete with scary Snape fangirls in the actor Q&A) and Diary of a Madman recently. And then she so generously stayed over at my place for 6 extra days and catsat while I was out of town. ([info]10zlaine, in case I didn’t tell you yet, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. The place was perfect and the kitties were so well-cared for and happy.)

* Went to Puerto Rico with [info]jaydk for her birthday. (I’ve never needed a vacation more in my life.) We spent 3 days at El Conquistador (this crazy resort with a water park, a private island, a bunch of pools, and an amazing spa) and then 3 days at La Concha in San Juan. The best part was the rainforest, though–I went in the waterfall again! I could totally live in that place and as long as I had internet I’d never leave.

* Visited with [info]chenanceou, who was in town briefly, although sadly I barely got to see her because I had to leave unexpectedly. But it was so good to catch up and hopefully she’ll be here this summer so we can spend more time together. :)

* Visited with the fantabulous [info]soundingsea a couple weekends ago. She came over to my place for a day of fangirling (although sadly she’s not so into SPN anymore, but we still had plenty to talk about). And the night before, we hung out with [info]deepad, who is lovely and always a pleasure to hang with.

Who all is going to Wincon? I think a lot of Writercon people will be there. I’m going and rooming with [info]soundingsea and [info]10zlaine. I want to spend some time actually in New Orleans too, at a downtown hotel–wish I had time to actually make plans! But the Wincon tickets are purchased and hotel booked, so it’s definitely happening. :)

Hmm, what else? I saw Book of Mormon on Broadway (thanks Chen for forwarding me the sale!). It was very good, like Orgazmo merged with that South Park episode about the boy from Africa, set to music. It’s interesting to see how Trey Parker revisits the same themes throughout his life but in all these different forms. And very odd to see a fairly typical Broadway crowd coming out of such an obscenity-filled show! But the performances, music, and choreography really were fantastic. I’d actually like to see it again, from a closer seat.

spoilers for the last aired episode of SPN )

spoilers for aired episodes of White Collar )

Oh yeah! And Game of Thrones. I can't even tell you how happy I am to see posters of Sean Bean on the Iron Throne all over the subway! It's like fandom is taking over the real world! I watched some of the previews from the HBO site and I'm amazed how faithful to the books they're being. I'm looking forward to seeing if the actual show lives up to my hopes.

Everything else I'd talk about is related to work, which--the security at my job is crazy, I feel like Big Brother is always watching, plus this is the first Real Grown Up Corporate Job I've had, so I don't feel comfortable talking about it much. Alas.

Miss you all. (And I'm still reading! Just sporadically and not having as much time to comment, but I really do care about keeping up with everyone on my flist/circle.)

PS: Can you tell almost all the writing I've done recently has had to be either in list form or in Excel spreadsheets?

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

rusty-halo.com

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2861

Stuff I’ve been up to (when not working on Writercon and SuperVegan and, y’know, work):

* Saw Common Rotation at the Living Room on the Lower East Side. Apparently it was a record release party, as it was packed, and Danny Strong and Amber Benson were there. (I said hi to Danny and bought the new CD from Amber.) It was an okay show, but … yeah, I’m really losing interest in these guys. Makes sense, as I’ve been going to see them since 2003 and still feel completely awkward and out-of-place at their shows. Folk music isn’t my thing, and while I enjoy their lyrics and vocal harmonies, I am deeply creeped out by the stalkery celebrity-worshiping type fans they attract and just really don’t feel comfortable being there. There’s not really anything they do in their live show that’s worth the trouble of going.

* Had a birthday. And a party. I made the coconut lime cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (heavenly) and two vegan pizzas, one broccoli-mushroom-green pepper-garlic and one artichoke-sundried tomato-olive-caper. A lot of my friends canceled (or didn’t bother canceling and just didn’t show up) but a good crowd came and we had a lot of fun. Somehow my parties always turn into a bunch of people sitting in a circle sharing a single conversation, which is actually fine because (if I don’t say so myself) my friends are interesting and the conversation is insightful. Plus the food is good. :)

Read Whose Body?, the first in Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey mysteries )

Watched the first two seasons of Dexter )

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
(Anyone can comment on public entries.)

random

Jun. 19th, 2009 07:15 pm
rusty-halo.com

I made some revisions and updates to my Ziggy Stardust essay. If anyone out there reads it, I would love to get feedback.

I checked in at the Song of Ice and Fire forum yesterday and was excited to see that casting sides and a pilot script for the HBO series have already leaked. And apparently they’re … decent. I am cautiously optimistic. I know a lot will have to be cut in order to turn such epic novels into a television series, but I’m pleased that they seem to be remaining faithful to the spirit of the text. (Of course anything could happen between now and the final airing, if it even airs…!) *crosses fingers*

Last weekend was busy. Friday night I went to the Feministing fifth anniversary party with my friend Anne. It was cool to be in a room full of feminists, but the location was so disappointing. It was the middle of nowhere (46th between 11th and 12th, surrounded by warehouses and cheesy clubs with lines to get in), the drinks were obscenely expensive, and the sound was atrocious. I can’t imagine why they didn’t have it in the LES or the Village.

Saturday I dragged myself out of bed with enough time to go to the Guggenheim, basically because 1) I’ve lived in NYC for nine years and have never been there and 2) if I can’t afford to travel, the least I can do is take advantage of the fact that I live in New York City. The building is gorgeous, of course, and the main exhibition on Frank Lloyd Wright was interesting. Some of his buildings are amazing, but I’m annoyed that he didn’t like cities and thought everyone should have cars. My favorite thing was the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings in the Thannhauser Collection. The museum is small enough that you can listen to every segment on the audio guide with time to spare, so I took full advantage of that.

Then I met up with [info]jaydk and we headed back to my place (after a nightmare on the subway thanks to the stupid L shutdown on weekends) where I made her finish The Man Who Fell to Earth (she hated it, *sigh*) and she made me watch part of an anime series and then um a fan-subbed video of a live-action musical based on an anime about middle schoolers playing tennis. And she thinks I have weird taste? ;) Of course there was a lot of alcohol and food and it was fun even if our fannish interests are not quite converging at the moment. Oh! And we had a lot of fun watching Robin Hood episode nine hit cliche after cliche. It’s like that show is built for MST3K. And Richard Armitage is always there to look hot and provide a bit of actual entertainment value.

Then Sunday I went to see Moon followed by the Q&A by director Duncan Jones. I want to see it again before it goes out of theaters; it’s really such a good film.

Now I have to answer emails. I know, I’m horribly slow. Working on it now.

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

rusty-halo.com

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2812

I’m so out of it today. I was up until 3am last night watching The Man Who Fell to Earth, and before that I was at my friend Eva’s birthday party at V-Spot, where they had unlimited mimosas for $10. Me and my friend Anne’s boyfriend Nemo were competing who could get their per-mimosa cost lowest; I got to $2.50 (four drinks), he got to $1.66 (six drinks), but he cheated because he was sneakily sharing his with Anne. Then we went back to Anne and Nemo’s place to hang out in the back yard and eat cake and drink more mimosas. Basically there was a lot of drinking. And cake!

SuperVegan got linked from the NY Times City Blog. It’s always cool when that happens.

On Saturday I cooked enough to last (hopefully) the whole week: rice and beans, maple-cinnamon cream of wheat, scrambled tofu, vegetable uppama (an Indian dish from that weird Vegan Cooking for One book). I was going to make this really good Asian noodle dish with coconut milk, but I forgot to buy fresh ginger.

We had a long Writercon phone meeting on Saturday night, and then around 11pm I remembered that there was a new Doctor Who episode. Oh yeah, that.

spoilers for this episode and spec for the future )

My mom has started Checkmate. I'm skimming along so that I can answer her questions as she goes. I'm really glad I got her the book of translations--I think Checkmate is the hardest to understand without them. I'm really excited that she's nearing the end and that we'll be able to discuss the entire series soon. I like Checkmate a lot better in retrospect, based on how excited I am to get to talk about all the passages that she's reading. Really the only book in the series that doesn't inspire joy is The Ringed Castle--it's definitely my least favorite overall. Although even it is growing on me over time, as they all seem to.

Oh yeah, and I watched The Man Who Fell to Earth last night. I liked it! Which is weird because I didn't expect to like it at all. It's strange and surreal and definitely has a lot of annoying aspects (the awful female characters for one) but it's also eerie and atmospheric and very interesting. And, okay, David Bowie is just so pretty to look at throughout. So, so, so pretty.

embarrassing fangirlishness about David Bowie )
Current Mood: weird emoticon weird

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
(Anyone can comment on public entries.)

rusty-halo.com

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2767

Wow. Apparently lots of stuff happens in the world when you spend two weeks devouring the Lymond Chronicles and ignoring everything else.

My boss told me that they’d announced the new Doctor as I walked into work today. My immediate thought was “I can’t wait to read Fandom Wank.” It’s not disappointing.

(I’m surprised, actually. I expected to have to grudgingly give Moffat his due for choosing Patterson Joseph. Instead I’m LOLing at him for choosing some random kid who looks like the mutated offspring of David Tennant and Robert Pattinson.)

I owe email and comment responses to people. I’m sorry. I really haven’t been at my computer for two weeks–I updated the last two times from Indiana via my magical phone.

Oh! And I have to say–THANK YOU [info]kita0610 FOR THE LOVELY CARD AND DAVID TENNANT CALENDAR! And thank you [info]netweight for the incredibly sweet card! My internet friends are the best. :)

Now I’m going to ramble more about the Lymond Chronicles, because that’s all I spent my winter vacation thinking about. I finished Pawn in Frankincense and The Ringed Castle and am now partway into Checkmate.

spoilers for the Lymond Chronicles )
Current Mood: thoughtful emoticon thoughtful

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
(Anyone can comment on public entries.)

rusty-halo.com

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2755

I’ve had the craziest week and have barely been online at all. I miss you guys! I’m getting on a plane to Indiana first thing in the morning (where I won’t have internet access), so I just wanted to wish you all a great holiday. :)

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
(Anyone can comment on public entries.)

rusty-halo.com

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2752

* Um. There’s an Edward Cullen bedsheet set. This might be the most disturbing thing I have ever seen.

* I watched the two John Simm Netflix DVDs that have been lying around my house for the past six months. The first was a TV show called Cracker, in which adorable young Simm plays a deeply fucked up young killer who just wants to be loved. Awww. You kind of want to snuggle the poor darling… and then lock him up for life. It was fun to watch, but nothing new; pretty much the same thing he did in Chiller (which was more fun because of the gay subtext with his evil imaginary friend).

Then I watched Wonderland… or, I should say, the first half hour of Wonderland, before I couldn’t take it any more and had to fast forward to only the Simm parts. It’s apparently a movie about a bunch of incredibly boring, miserable people, who go about their boring lives being miserable. I guess it’s supposed to be “realistic,” but it was just pathetic. Admittedly I only got part way through… maybe it got better? Simm didn’t have much to do anyway; he played one of the many boring pathetic losers, basically Danny Kavanagh without the spark. I don’t understand why people make movies like this. Even if some peoples’ lives are this dull, who would want to watch a film about it?

Between Wonderland and The Devil’s Whore, I am beginning to doubt the conventional wisdom that John Simm has great taste in projects. At least we’ll always have Life on Mars and Doctor Who. And I still haven’t seen anything as bad as the crap I endured during my Sean Bean phase.

* I had a peculiar weekend.

Saturday I got way too drunk at my friend Livi's holiday party )

Sunday I had to drag myself out of bed to go to the Museum of Modern Art, because I'd bought a ticket in advance. I got there at 3pm and it closes at 5:30pm; the world is just not made for night people. Or hungover people. >:( But thanks to coffee and tylenol, I managed to enjoy the Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night exhibit. I know it's a cliche, but it really is so much more incredible to see an actual painting in person. They had both of my favorites, Starry Night Over the Rhone and The Starry Night. Which I also know is also a cliche, but... they're really popular because they're really amazing! It's stunning how beautiful they are, and how vivid the colors are when you see them in person. The exhibit was actually pretty small--something like 40 paintings--with a focus on how Van Gogh captured the light and the "spiritual qualities" of night. It was definitely worth seeing; I'm glad I finally made it there. (If you're going, buy your museum ticket online in advance and you're guaranteed entrance to the Van Gogh exhibit; otherwise you have to get a timed entry ticket, which they might sell out of before you arrive.)

Then I went to the Looking at Music exhibit, which honestly just seemed to be a bunch of stuff from the 60s and 70s randomly thrown together based on what had been donated to MOMA. However, they did have Bowie's "Space Oddity" video running on constant repeat, and I watched it through a couple times because I couldn't get over the novelty of watching a music video I like at a big fancy art museum. I wish I had thought to the use the "It's ART!" justification when trying to convince my parents to let me watch MTV as a kid. :P Oh, and I rather optimistically bought two tickets for the Bowie music video screening on Friday night. I don't know what I was thinking; now I have to find someone to take the second ticket. But I'm really glad I got one for me. Even though it's just music videos, it's music videos on a big screen! At a museum! Sorry, I just find it really amusing, in a good way. :)

* I'm trying not to panic about the holidays. Trying being the operative word. There is nowhere in the world I'd less rather go than Southern Indiana, but I owe my parents for helping me move, so I'm going. Wasting time and money I really can't spare to go be miserable out in the middle of nowhere, while my cats are left alone with a catsitter I can't afford and I have nothing to do and no one to talk to and nothing to eat and... just... oh my god I don't want to go. *sigh*
Current Mood: blah emoticon blah

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
(Anyone can comment on public entries.)

rusty-halo.com

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2733

That was just… incredible. It was like New Year’s Eve and the Fourth of July times ten.

Read more... )
Current Mood: giddy emoticon giddy

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
(Anyone can comment on public entries.)

rusty-halo.com

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2640

Tonight I got to see one of my favorite bands with two of my favorite people in the universe.

[info]chenanceou and [info]jaydk met up with me at Pukk, the yummy vegetarian Thai restaurant. Then we headed to The Living Room to see Common Rotation.

It was a good show, although way too short. The band members were in good moods; the stage banter was adorable and the songs were all entertaining. But it felt incomplete, because they didn’t play a single one of the staples I’ve gotten used to at Common Rotation shows; no “Everything Under the Sun” or “Gone Dyin’” or “Clear Channel” or “Party People” or “Indie Rockin.” Just, good, but I wanted another hour. Remember those living room shows, when they’d play and play? I got so spoiled back then…

I made [info]chenanceou get their autographs afterward, because, dude, she’d come halfway across the world and timed her trip to see them. She was all adorable and shy. And of course the band was nice, as they always are. Adam Busch is the nicest “celebrity” I met in the entirety of Buffy fandom.

Amber Benson was there, and it always freaks me out to see her, because she is tiny. Like, ethereal. And when you remember that people complained about her being “fat” when she was on BtVS, you realize that Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alyson Hannigan must be, like, doll-sized, to look small next to her. It also made me feel like some kind of hulking giant. But anyway. She is also nice.

And tomorrow I’m going to Asbury Park. I’m going to lay on the beach and breathe salty air and read something light (maybe Harry Potter) and just be glad to be out of NYC. I can’t believe I haven’t gone anywhere in eight months. I’m not made to stay in one place for so long!

(Is it really annoying to choose three mood icons? I can’t decide if I’m more drunk, tired, or happy.)

Current Mood: drunk emoticon drunk & happy emoticon happy & tired emoticon tired

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

rusty-halo.com

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2578

Home from work. I know everyone’s thinking this, but thank god it’s Friday.

It’s dreary and horrible outside, but I braved the weather in order to pick up important Doctor Who watching supplies. Namely beer and coffee. I wanted Abita Strawberry Ale, but didn’t feel like waiting in line for a half-hour at Whole Foods, so I went with Magic Hat #9 from the deli. And the coffee is freshly ground pumpkin spice.

I see that people are angsting about the upcoming Doctor Who episode, but I’m unspoiled and willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. Spoilers always give you a distorted and out of context picture, anyway. I can’t tell you how many things I freaked out about in Buffy fandom that turned out to be minuscule in retrospect. Of course, the episode could totally suck, but I want to see it first before I judge anything. I’ve been happy with this season so far, so I’d be surprised if it wasn’t good.

(It kind of sucks not being able to participate in a lot of the discussion, though. Alas, the curse of the spoiler-free.)

I guess we’ll also watch the last Sarah Jane Adventures two-parter. (Did I mention I loved “Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?” So good. It made me cry.) And maybe “The War Games.” It’s first on this list, and [info]jaydk loves the Second Doctor, so hopefully she’ll want to watch it with me.

Note to self: get web work done this weekend. And go apartment-hunting if the weather clears up. (There. I wrote it down; now I have to do it.)

Did you guys see Stephen Colbert talking to the astronaut last night? I thought he was going to explode from glee. So, so cute.

Since this entry is pretty boring, I’ve added an icon of John Simm looking gorgeous to brighten it up. Isn’t he adorable? :)

Current Mood: tired emoticon tired

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

rusty-halo.com

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2568

In which [info]jaydk came over and we:

* Watched The Sarah Jane Adventures “Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?” - by far the best SJA yet, so good it made me cry.

* Drank ridiculously good Vinho Verde.

* Watched “The Poison Sky” and were so pleased that it didn’t suck. Helen Raynor redeemed, yay! So good I’ll have to wait until tomorrow and post a proper review instead of a drunken rant.

* Drank a ridiculously good South African shiraz… super rich and chocolatey. I know it would help if I remembered the brands, but it’s 4am, sorry.

* Went to the 1am showing of Iron Man in digital projection at Union Square and it was fucking AWESOME, yay! I ::heart:: Robert Downey, Jr. so much.

* And snuck really good beer in–Blue Moon Summer Ale.

Proper reviews tomorrow or Monday… I’m totally going to pass out now. G’night!

Current Mood: drunk emoticon drunk

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

Party Time!

Apr. 5th, 2008 02:31 pm
rusty_halo: doctor and rose looking into space (dw: ten/rose: looking into space)

[info]jaydk is on her way over. She’s bringing champagne. We’re ordering brunch and drinking mimosas to celebrate the premiere of Doctor Who. I think we’re probably the biggest dorks in NYC and I DON’T CARE AT ALL.

OMG IT’S ALMOST TIME.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please leave any comments there.

[livejournal.com profile] jaydk is the greatest friend in the history of the universe. I know this because she came over to my house last night with a huge DVD folder full of just about every publicly available thing in the history of David Tennant's career.

So we ordered take-out, drank raspberry beer, watched three episodes of Doctor Who (we're doing a rewatch), and then stayed up until 5am giggling over the cuteness of David Tennant. Interviews, various states of insane gravity-defying hair, award shows, cooking shows (!!!! if you're a DT fan and you haven't seen him and his dad on "Ready Steady Cook" you are totally missing out), some incredibly awful sitcom about cops on boats in which the only redeeming feature is a super young David Tennant... oh and then we watched the full Doctor Who Confidentials from the end of season three. The official DVDs leave so much out! You get multiple angles and takes of David sobbing over John Simm! And a whole retrospective about the Master! And did I mention all the footage of John Simm? Good lord, the two of them.

And then [livejournal.com profile] jaydk left and I checked my FL before going to bed, and there was a new chapter of [livejournal.com profile] versaphile's latest and OMG HOTNESS OVERLOAD.

***

The Veganomicon potluck on Saturday night was awesome, too. My friend Eva hosted it at her place in Brooklyn, and it was the perfect amount of people for a party, where you can all gather around and basically have one conversation, split into separate digressions, and then come together again as one throughout the night. And I knew everyone, all good people who I like seeing, and can somehow manage to carry on conversation with even though it's not about Doctor Who. Plus Eva's got great musical taste; lots and lots of the 1980s, with Depeche Mode recurring throughout the night.

We all cooked, so we had tons of good food--this artichoke garlic pesto pasta; baked pumpkin ziti; greens with cranberries and pine nuts; roasted eggplant, tomato, and red pepper stew with chickpeas; and awesome desserts: chocolate chip banana bread pudding (mine, it got devoured!), chocolate chocolate chip cookies, pecan rum cookies, banana wheat germ muffins.... And lots and lots of wine. Red wine, white wine, sparkling wine, dessert wine.... we all sprawled around in a circle around this little table, stuffing ourselves with food and drinking and talking until 2am.

***

And now: what better way to kill time on a holiday afternoon than sprawled out in front of your computer, cat snuggled in your lap, watching one of the worst shows in the history of television?

Torchwood 1x05 - the best episode so far? )

[Cross-posted to InsaneJournal]
Some kind of ridiculous combination of cold medicine and coffee caused me to stay up until 2pm on Saturday night. Like I was awake all Saturday night and Sunday morning before finally crashing at 2pm Sunday afternoon. All the while thinking "this is not a very wise thing to be doing when I am sick." And reading Life on Mars fanfic.

[livejournal.com profile] jaydk was over until 5am. We watched Voyage of the Damned and reveled in the mutual squee. I'm so glad that we both loved it. That one scene, where the Doctor snaps his fingers and the angels carry him up, god, I just love it so much. I haven't felt that kind of pure fannish adoration in a long time.

We also watched some of the old series, which is the first I've ever seen of it. I'm not sure what the episodes were called, but it had some kind of mix of vampires/zombies/whatever that thing is in Creature From the Black Lagoon. Also Russians and Nazis and Vikings. And, um, it looked a lot like something a second-year high school Media Arts class would've come up with. Although I did really like Ace. After just one episode she was already more interesting than Martha in her entire series run.

Oh! And then we watched David Tennant in Casanova. It was probably some combination of DayQuil and lack of sleep, but Casanova just totally ripped my heart out and stomped all over it. David Tennant is so emotive, with that expressive face and those huge eyes, and every time he looks sad or hurt I just ACHE FOR HIM. Ack. I hate crying during movies.

I think I've completely lost my ability to judge fanfic objectively, but here are a few Life on Mars stories that stood out:

We Could Steal Time by [livejournal.com profile] dorcas_gustine has really hot kitchen!sex. And good characterization. Although the author has some weird issues with commas. Sam/Gene, NC-17.

All These Editions of You by [livejournal.com profile] dorcas_gustine is in three parts, the first of which is told from an excellent Gene POV. The author keeps him in-character while showing how much he cares about Sam underneath, as much as he'd never admit it even to himself. Sam/Gene, NC-17.

Say Hello to the Id by [livejournal.com profile] maestro1123 has a slashy ultra-sexually-charged fight scene that is just beyond hot. Plus fucked-up masochistic Sam. Some Sam/Annie but mostly Sam/Gene. This is more violence porn than sex porn, so technically not NC-17.

It’s Jus’ Magic by [livejournal.com profile] mikes_grrl is just fantastically cracked-out nonsense of the best sort. Sam/Chris, NC-17.

There are a bunch of stories that try to explain a gay Gene within canon. I thought Undercover by [livejournal.com profile] mikes_grrl was one of the better ones. Sam/Gene, NC-17.

[Cross-posted to InsaneJournal]

rusty-halo.com

I blog about fannish things. Busy with work so don't update often. Mirrored at rusty-halo.com.

August 2018

S M T W T F S
   1234
56789 1011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 

Most Popular Tags

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags