five things that are cheering me up right now
1. This line from the most recent ~weekly shiplist my favorite comic book shop sends out: "Also, MARVEL has a new "permanent" title: ASTONISHING SPIDER-MAN/WOLVERINE. Honestly, we have no idea who to give this one to, so let us know if you want it." This was especially funny given that the email started out by listing all the complicated shenanigans involving the Avengers titles name changes and what they were gong to do about subscriptions, detailing exactly who, subscribed to what old title(s), would get what new title(s) by default.
2. Mixing and betaing for bandombigbang has forced me to realize that I can, indeed, still read and enjoy MCR fic, at least sometimes. Yay! I expect that my bandom consumption will still stay a bit deflated, though.
3. I am totally in love with figure skating fandom right now. If there were more fic for me to devour I would probably be even more solidly in the fandom, but even just all of the resources and squee over at ontd_skating is absolutely delighting me. Hell, I even signed up for the holiday_on_ice fic exchange. My signup was embarrassingly long-winded as usual, but I enjoyed thinking about prompts and such so much that my brain seems to be stuck in plot bunny mode. It would not surprise me if a figure skating plot bunny post materializes sometime in the near future.
4. I am still in war mode. That sounds strange. I mean, I'm still riding my recent wave of interest in wartime settings and military things that was sparked by Generation Kill and fed by my Yuletide assignment (god, I still have to write up that Yuletide wrapup post, oops), and enjoying it immensely. I'm in the middle of watching Band of Brothers, and while I'm reserving judgment on The Pacific as a whole until they show the rest, I am definitely enjoying watching it. The guy who plays the poet is damn easy on the eyes, and the appearance of a couple of Wonderfalls actors made me so happy! Actually, speaking of Wonderfalls, I saw Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (so adorable!) this past week and fell in love with Lee Pace all over again. And I didn't even realize going in that it was set on the eve of the British getting into WWII! It went well with Connie Willis's new novel, Blackout, which is about time-traveling historians studying the British home front. It was a hands-down amazing read (I devoured it so fast), with the single flaw of actually being only the first half of the story. Luckily the second part will be out in the fall. But I want it now! In the meantime I'll be getting my war fix through the rest of The Pacific and Band of Brothers, and probably re-watching GK and reading more of the book. Hmm. Maybe I'll finally watch Full Metal Jacket to get in some Vietnam. I wonder if I could find something good for the Korean War. Huh. Come to think of it, you could say my interest was actually sparked by that Japanese history class I took in 2008 and all of the fantastic end of WWII and postwar stuff we read and discussed, and then maybe fed by Waltz with Bashir, which is a freaking amazing film, also from 2008, about memory and the 1982 war between Israel and Lebanon. So yeah, I've been on something of a war kick for awhile. So if anyone has any recs for war-related stuff, please hit me with 'em. Any war in any time period, any medium, and any aspect of war. I'm interested in it all!
5. I have added a new reality tv show to my roster of tv shows, bringing the number I follow up to... 2 and a half. I had half a mind to follow Idol after falling for Adam and Kris and Allison toward the end of last year's season, but I'm too lazy to watch it live or commandeer my SO's housemate's dvr, and they don't seem to post full episodes online, so fuck 'em. But that's the half, because at least I tried. I'm keeping up with Project Runway, give or take, and now I seem to be watching Dancing with the Stars. Damn you, figure skating fandom, damn you! It is fun, though. If Netflix had either Dancing with the Stars or So You Think You Can Dance, I'd probably be mainlining old seasons as I type this. It's just... Project Runway and shows of that nature are the perfect mind candy for when I'm interested in characters and talent and ambition and creativity and sometimes beauty without actually having enough brainpower to concentrate on a storyline per se. I think the next on my list is going to be Top Chef. I do love food, after all, and the one ep I saw last year (also the first and only Top Chef ep I've seen) was pretty neat. I did spend one year watching The Amazing Race with an old housemate of mine, but I think it has about an equal chance to annoy me as to entertain me, so it's in the second tier. Plus, I guess I'm just more interested in watching people singing and dancing and making beautiful (and/or delicious or otherwise awesome) things than watching people run around and do arbitrary challenges.
Wow. This list is kind of all over the place. It's sort of... shallow shallow shallow WAR shallow. I guess that pretty much covers my life right now, though. Incredibly fluffy in general, but with these rather prominent (but not usually overwhelming) depressing and difficult bits. But still, hard to complain about mostly fluffy.
2. Mixing and betaing for bandombigbang has forced me to realize that I can, indeed, still read and enjoy MCR fic, at least sometimes. Yay! I expect that my bandom consumption will still stay a bit deflated, though.
3. I am totally in love with figure skating fandom right now. If there were more fic for me to devour I would probably be even more solidly in the fandom, but even just all of the resources and squee over at ontd_skating is absolutely delighting me. Hell, I even signed up for the holiday_on_ice fic exchange. My signup was embarrassingly long-winded as usual, but I enjoyed thinking about prompts and such so much that my brain seems to be stuck in plot bunny mode. It would not surprise me if a figure skating plot bunny post materializes sometime in the near future.
4. I am still in war mode. That sounds strange. I mean, I'm still riding my recent wave of interest in wartime settings and military things that was sparked by Generation Kill and fed by my Yuletide assignment (god, I still have to write up that Yuletide wrapup post, oops), and enjoying it immensely. I'm in the middle of watching Band of Brothers, and while I'm reserving judgment on The Pacific as a whole until they show the rest, I am definitely enjoying watching it. The guy who plays the poet is damn easy on the eyes, and the appearance of a couple of Wonderfalls actors made me so happy! Actually, speaking of Wonderfalls, I saw Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (so adorable!) this past week and fell in love with Lee Pace all over again. And I didn't even realize going in that it was set on the eve of the British getting into WWII! It went well with Connie Willis's new novel, Blackout, which is about time-traveling historians studying the British home front. It was a hands-down amazing read (I devoured it so fast), with the single flaw of actually being only the first half of the story. Luckily the second part will be out in the fall. But I want it now! In the meantime I'll be getting my war fix through the rest of The Pacific and Band of Brothers, and probably re-watching GK and reading more of the book. Hmm. Maybe I'll finally watch Full Metal Jacket to get in some Vietnam. I wonder if I could find something good for the Korean War. Huh. Come to think of it, you could say my interest was actually sparked by that Japanese history class I took in 2008 and all of the fantastic end of WWII and postwar stuff we read and discussed, and then maybe fed by Waltz with Bashir, which is a freaking amazing film, also from 2008, about memory and the 1982 war between Israel and Lebanon. So yeah, I've been on something of a war kick for awhile. So if anyone has any recs for war-related stuff, please hit me with 'em. Any war in any time period, any medium, and any aspect of war. I'm interested in it all!
5. I have added a new reality tv show to my roster of tv shows, bringing the number I follow up to... 2 and a half. I had half a mind to follow Idol after falling for Adam and Kris and Allison toward the end of last year's season, but I'm too lazy to watch it live or commandeer my SO's housemate's dvr, and they don't seem to post full episodes online, so fuck 'em. But that's the half, because at least I tried. I'm keeping up with Project Runway, give or take, and now I seem to be watching Dancing with the Stars. Damn you, figure skating fandom, damn you! It is fun, though. If Netflix had either Dancing with the Stars or So You Think You Can Dance, I'd probably be mainlining old seasons as I type this. It's just... Project Runway and shows of that nature are the perfect mind candy for when I'm interested in characters and talent and ambition and creativity and sometimes beauty without actually having enough brainpower to concentrate on a storyline per se. I think the next on my list is going to be Top Chef. I do love food, after all, and the one ep I saw last year (also the first and only Top Chef ep I've seen) was pretty neat. I did spend one year watching The Amazing Race with an old housemate of mine, but I think it has about an equal chance to annoy me as to entertain me, so it's in the second tier. Plus, I guess I'm just more interested in watching people singing and dancing and making beautiful (and/or delicious or otherwise awesome) things than watching people run around and do arbitrary challenges.
Wow. This list is kind of all over the place. It's sort of... shallow shallow shallow WAR shallow. I guess that pretty much covers my life right now, though. Incredibly fluffy in general, but with these rather prominent (but not usually overwhelming) depressing and difficult bits. But still, hard to complain about mostly fluffy.