Spamming you today...
First off, and completely unrelated to the rest of this post, I would be happy if the word "slut" were removed from the English language. Yes, there are far worse things to call somebody, but it seems to get thrown around a lot in fandom, often at women who...have sex. I mean, yes, OK, I know that the idea that women have sex is shocking, but it does happen occasionally. For reasons other than continuing the species, even.
Second, yesterday fan_eunice posted a Hard Core Logo vid she made, which is HERE. As she said, she traded her usual hugs and kittens for spitting and violence. But, as usual, she makes them work for her. I assume that everybody on my f-list's already seen it, but on the off chance that somebody hasn't, it's really, really effective, even if you haven't seen the movie. (And if you have seen the movie, it will make you feel bad for Joe.) It's a fantastic song, too.
So. I hadn't actually seen the movie, the first five or so times I watched the vid, but I have now, and fan_eunice said I had to post about the movie after I watched it. So I am. Short, nonspoilery version? Whoa. Wow. Whoa. Longer, hopefully more coherent version:
I'd heard about this movie; it's hard to be in due South fandom at all and not hear about this movie. I even knew how it ended, but I still wasn't ready for it when it happened. Also, I can't quite make up my mind about which one needs a good thumping worse, Joe or Billy. Both of them? Neither of them? Different ones at different times? I don't know. The slash is...so obvious that it's almost not the point. Did they love each other? Yeah. In crazy unhealthy destructive ways? Oh, yeah. The lengths Joe was willing to go to keep Billy with him, and good god, just the way Billy looks at him. (Callum Keith Rennie's grin is kinda lethal. That, combined with his eyelashes? Weapons of mass destruction.) But Joe's the one who'll literally lie, cheat and steal to keep Billy with him. And that works out about as well as you'd think.
I have a Thing for antagonistic, almost painfully slashy, used to be friends but have too big an ideological gap to ever really bridge, basically doomed, pairings. (Nobody who knows me is surprised by that, right?) And while these two couldn't be more different than the Doctor and the Master, or Erik and Charles, just to name a couple...yeah, enough of the ingredients are there.
Random moments that stick out in my mind:
--Billy, literally falling down drunk on stage because his deal with the other group fell through, still managing to chuck that guy (that Joe was egging on) off the stage when the guy finally had enough and lunged at Joe.
--The look on Joe's face when the scummy guy doing the documentary blindsided him about Billy leaving.
--The look on Billy's face when Joe turns away from him. That was the moment that really got me when I was watching fan_eunice's vid, when I didn't know more than the bare outline of the story. He's so expecting Joe to fight back, and when Joe turns away, Billy just...deflates. (And then, of course, thirty seconds later, Joe makes Billy angry and disgusted enough to walk away himself.)
There are lots more, little looks and jokes between the two of them. Joe making up histories for people, the kind of exhausted, relatively calm banter that happens in the middle of the night on the road, that kind of thing.
You know, the funny thing is that I was afraid, in that last stage appearance when Joe knows Billy's leaving but Billy doesn't know he knows, that Joe was going to publicly admit that the benefit tour was fake, and that Billy knew it was fake, to sabotage Billy's chances with the other band. But he didn't. That? Is kinda heartbreaking. That as angry and hurt and frankly devastated as he was, he still didn't try to sabotage Billy's career.
...I think I'm leaning a bit to the Joe side of the force in this (watched the vid again right before I wrote this, natch) but really, really, Billy had to leave. He couldn't pass up the opportunity when it came. And they'd have killed each other eventually. And Billy'd been lied to a lot. It was just...a bad situation all around.
Second, yesterday fan_eunice posted a Hard Core Logo vid she made, which is HERE. As she said, she traded her usual hugs and kittens for spitting and violence. But, as usual, she makes them work for her. I assume that everybody on my f-list's already seen it, but on the off chance that somebody hasn't, it's really, really effective, even if you haven't seen the movie. (And if you have seen the movie, it will make you feel bad for Joe.) It's a fantastic song, too.
So. I hadn't actually seen the movie, the first five or so times I watched the vid, but I have now, and fan_eunice said I had to post about the movie after I watched it. So I am. Short, nonspoilery version? Whoa. Wow. Whoa. Longer, hopefully more coherent version:
I'd heard about this movie; it's hard to be in due South fandom at all and not hear about this movie. I even knew how it ended, but I still wasn't ready for it when it happened. Also, I can't quite make up my mind about which one needs a good thumping worse, Joe or Billy. Both of them? Neither of them? Different ones at different times? I don't know. The slash is...so obvious that it's almost not the point. Did they love each other? Yeah. In crazy unhealthy destructive ways? Oh, yeah. The lengths Joe was willing to go to keep Billy with him, and good god, just the way Billy looks at him. (Callum Keith Rennie's grin is kinda lethal. That, combined with his eyelashes? Weapons of mass destruction.) But Joe's the one who'll literally lie, cheat and steal to keep Billy with him. And that works out about as well as you'd think.
I have a Thing for antagonistic, almost painfully slashy, used to be friends but have too big an ideological gap to ever really bridge, basically doomed, pairings. (Nobody who knows me is surprised by that, right?) And while these two couldn't be more different than the Doctor and the Master, or Erik and Charles, just to name a couple...yeah, enough of the ingredients are there.
Random moments that stick out in my mind:
--Billy, literally falling down drunk on stage because his deal with the other group fell through, still managing to chuck that guy (that Joe was egging on) off the stage when the guy finally had enough and lunged at Joe.
--The look on Joe's face when the scummy guy doing the documentary blindsided him about Billy leaving.
--The look on Billy's face when Joe turns away from him. That was the moment that really got me when I was watching fan_eunice's vid, when I didn't know more than the bare outline of the story. He's so expecting Joe to fight back, and when Joe turns away, Billy just...deflates. (And then, of course, thirty seconds later, Joe makes Billy angry and disgusted enough to walk away himself.)
There are lots more, little looks and jokes between the two of them. Joe making up histories for people, the kind of exhausted, relatively calm banter that happens in the middle of the night on the road, that kind of thing.
You know, the funny thing is that I was afraid, in that last stage appearance when Joe knows Billy's leaving but Billy doesn't know he knows, that Joe was going to publicly admit that the benefit tour was fake, and that Billy knew it was fake, to sabotage Billy's chances with the other band. But he didn't. That? Is kinda heartbreaking. That as angry and hurt and frankly devastated as he was, he still didn't try to sabotage Billy's career.
...I think I'm leaning a bit to the Joe side of the force in this (watched the vid again right before I wrote this, natch) but really, really, Billy had to leave. He couldn't pass up the opportunity when it came. And they'd have killed each other eventually. And Billy'd been lied to a lot. It was just...a bad situation all around.