Yuletide recs, year wrap-up, yadda
So, Johnny Weir finally came out, eh? (And the internet gets so predictably sarcastic)
I adore
watersword forever for showing me this (and also every other clip of him singing on YouTube). Joseph Gordon-Levitt, people: my new fannish boyfriend. ADORABLE. OMG. CRUSH CRUSH CRUSH.
This year I:
*had an unexpected amount of fun at a pizza delivery job
*absolutely adored my sister
*sold my car
*moved to New York
*saw a lot of theater
*started law school
*tried desperately not to completely drift out of fandom in general (even though I don't seem to actually be in one fandom in particular at the moment)
*drifted away from the Boy (who I care about immensely and I'm not sure yet what to do with that)
*got much closer to
hilarytamar, who I also adore immensely and want to spend much more time with next year.
*ended up, much to my surprise, dating a wonderful woman who I don't know if I'm allowed to name-check here (and who feeds me and makes me laugh and is sexy and interesting and seems okay for now with my sworn-off-monogamy-and-commitment ways).
*made a set of really incredible RL friends
*utterly failed at getting any more fit or losing any weight or eating better
*had all my gender and body issues come back with rather more severity
*chopped all my hair off
*stayed up until 8am crazily drunk reconnecting with old friends and playing Rock Band and Celebrities for New Years
This is probably the most dramatic change I've ever experienced in one year, and the most positive year I've had in ages, and the year when I felt the most like I was where I needed to be, doing what I needed to be doing, heading towards something rather than just struggling to tread water, since... probably 2003. So. Wow.
Next year I want to:
*not flunk out of law school
*actually get a summer job
*work on my procrastination issue, now that I've admitted that it's causing serious problems in my life (subsidiary: figure out HOW the fuck to fix a procrastination issue)
*put together a wardrobe that actually fits me and doesn't give me the screaming gender heebie-jeebies (subsidiary: just let go of my horrible conditioning and stupid social pressures so I can stop crying whenever I try to shop for clothes)
*get more in shape, round 1 million (subsidiary: find some exercise other that swimming that won't fuck up my knee and that I will enjoy enough to maybe actually do with any regularity.)
*go out and actually explore and appreciate NY, now that I've determined I can actually live here (subsidiary: MOAR THEATER!)
Yuletide recs- I know I'm a week late on this and nobody cares anymore, but I like doing Yuletide recs. It's a good ritual. In no particular order:
Best thing that was exactly what I wanted: Secrets and Lies (Vorkosigan), exactly the kind of minor character love I wanted. This is Byerly backstory with Alys awesomeness, an interesting plot tie-in, cameos, and a perfect glimpse into how By understands and explains himself.
Best Vorkosigan that wasn't written just for me: light from a lonely window. I'm a hard sell as far as Miles/Gregor is concerned, but this was plotty and interesting and got a lot of character voices just perfect and makes it work for me.
Best thing that everybody in the whole world has read already/best haunting transformation of a childrens' classic: Goodnight Room (Goodnight Moon). I... have nothing to say about this except read it. A description risks trivializing and destroying the slow build.
Best use of a spreadsheet: Roommate of +10 Confusion (Foxtrot/Calvin & Hobbes), in which Calvin and Jason are college roommates, and Jason is baffled (but kind of likes it).
Best thing to remind us that the gods are terrifying: Bakcheios (Euripides Bacchae). Disclaimer: I have loved the Bacchae ever since I read Mask of Apollo, well before I read any actual greek tragedy. I love Euripides' willingness to take greek figures of myth and take them seriously as human beings, and I think the play is moving and powerful and frightening... and proof that if you ever read a story about Dionysus that isn't at least a little bit a horror story, the author is doing it wrong. This author does it right.
Best sudden left turn at the end of a fic: Down All The Days (Iliad). I am a sucker for those fics that show the timeless stories happening again and again, fated and mirrored in every universe. I am also a sucker for those stories that completely upend your expectations. This is Helen's story, and I don't know entirely if the left turn works- it's a little bit of mood whiplash- but the story up until the epilogue is gorgeous and painful and glorious, and the story with the epilogue included made me grin and giggle and pump my fist.
Best selling me on slash I don't normally believe:
Because the War is Endless (MASH), which gives us an utterly pitch-perfect first-person Hawkeye voice (I didn't even think that was possible), and the same gut-wrenching highwire act between humor and horror that the show did so well, and a tiny moment of slash which somehow doesn't compromise the character of Father Mulcahy one bit.
Best midlife crisis: We Grow Teeth and We Grow Nails (Figure Skating RPF). I am incredibly attached to the story of Johnny Weir trying to recreate his life after he leaves competition, and this short, almost abstract bit of Johnny/Stephane really worked for me.
Best inappropriate use of Shakespeare quotes: Thou Knew'st Too Well My Heart Was to Thy Rudder Tied (Slings & Arrows), in which there is Ellen, and Geoffrey, and a michevious Oliver, and bondage, and Shakespearean banter.
Best girlslash: A Bend It Like Beckham tie between Five Times Jess and Jules Kissed in Public (a slow build of perfect sweetness) and Long Way From Home (the angstier version in which Jules' character is so interesting), both with fantastic character voices.
Best use of Justin Beiber: Pink Sparkly Unicorns and Terrible Tea, or how to survive a roommate situation (Eureka), in which Jo and Carter bond and everything is hilarious and sweet.
Best parrot: To Hear Sleigh Bells in the Snow (Sports Night), in which there is banter and a parrot and everyone is perfect and the tone hits the exact same balance of cute and funny and endearing with an undercurrent of pain that the show did so well.
Best Crossover: Happy Hour, (Pundit RPF/Dr Who) in which Rachel gets very interested in those rumors about the Doctor (a crossover that just makes me flap in delight. It gets a little name-drop-y, but the interactions with Ana Marie and Jack Harkness are a delight).
Best amazing fic that will make no sense if you don't remember the canon pretty well: Experimental Procedure (Cyteen). This is the story of the younger Ari, and her attempt to come to terms with her own urges for sex/power/control while remaining ethical, and to navigate the political morass she was born into. The fic does an amazing job imitating and using to effect the technical speak of the novel (I think Cyteen did some of the best invented technobabble of any SF novel ever).
Babbling about movies
I just watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and had possibly the most fun I've had watching a movie in months. GOD that was fun. RDJ being a charming moron! Kilmer screwing with him! Banter! Cutesy meta-fiction! Slashy buddy PIs! I do kind of get the urge to write a massive feminist essay on the treatment of the recurring consent themes in that movie, but I'll refrain.
Latter Days was an incredibly over-earnest movie about a gay Mormon missionary. If you enjoy a dose of earnestness and heartwarming in your queer issues movies, of if you (like me) have a particular soft spot for things that are critical of the Mormon church while nevertheless displaying incredible and obvious familiarity with the quirks of Mormon culture, worth seeing.
Mysterious Skin is the one where JGL plays a hooker. A fucked-up eighteen year old junkie hooker. Deeply disturbing but excellent and excellently acted movie about the aftereffects of child sexual abuse. And yet JGL is so fuckable he hurts to look at.
(500) Days of Summer- so much better than I expected, and yet still so twee.
(Yes, I was on a JGL binge. Such a good new shiny pretty obsession. Inception has so much to answer for.)
Hedwig and the Angry Itch given to me as a Christmas present by a RL non-fannish friend. *headdesk* Apparently I'm transparent.
Transamerica, the one in which Felicity Huffman does a really excellent job playing a transwoman as a really interesting character. Movie resolutely avoids being heartwarming or particularly earnest, which helps a lot.
This entry was originally posted at http://dragojustine.dreamwidth.org/129560.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
I adore
watersword forever for showing me this (and also every other clip of him singing on YouTube). Joseph Gordon-Levitt, people: my new fannish boyfriend. ADORABLE. OMG. CRUSH CRUSH CRUSH.
This year I:
*had an unexpected amount of fun at a pizza delivery job
*absolutely adored my sister
*sold my car
*moved to New York
*saw a lot of theater
*started law school
*tried desperately not to completely drift out of fandom in general (even though I don't seem to actually be in one fandom in particular at the moment)
*drifted away from the Boy (who I care about immensely and I'm not sure yet what to do with that)
*got much closer to
hilarytamar, who I also adore immensely and want to spend much more time with next year.
*ended up, much to my surprise, dating a wonderful woman who I don't know if I'm allowed to name-check here (and who feeds me and makes me laugh and is sexy and interesting and seems okay for now with my sworn-off-monogamy-and-commitment ways).
*made a set of really incredible RL friends
*utterly failed at getting any more fit or losing any weight or eating better
*had all my gender and body issues come back with rather more severity
*chopped all my hair off
*stayed up until 8am crazily drunk reconnecting with old friends and playing Rock Band and Celebrities for New Years
This is probably the most dramatic change I've ever experienced in one year, and the most positive year I've had in ages, and the year when I felt the most like I was where I needed to be, doing what I needed to be doing, heading towards something rather than just struggling to tread water, since... probably 2003. So. Wow.
Next year I want to:
*not flunk out of law school
*actually get a summer job
*work on my procrastination issue, now that I've admitted that it's causing serious problems in my life (subsidiary: figure out HOW the fuck to fix a procrastination issue)
*put together a wardrobe that actually fits me and doesn't give me the screaming gender heebie-jeebies (subsidiary: just let go of my horrible conditioning and stupid social pressures so I can stop crying whenever I try to shop for clothes)
*get more in shape, round 1 million (subsidiary: find some exercise other that swimming that won't fuck up my knee and that I will enjoy enough to maybe actually do with any regularity.)
*go out and actually explore and appreciate NY, now that I've determined I can actually live here (subsidiary: MOAR THEATER!)
Yuletide recs- I know I'm a week late on this and nobody cares anymore, but I like doing Yuletide recs. It's a good ritual. In no particular order:
Best thing that was exactly what I wanted: Secrets and Lies (Vorkosigan), exactly the kind of minor character love I wanted. This is Byerly backstory with Alys awesomeness, an interesting plot tie-in, cameos, and a perfect glimpse into how By understands and explains himself.
Best Vorkosigan that wasn't written just for me: light from a lonely window. I'm a hard sell as far as Miles/Gregor is concerned, but this was plotty and interesting and got a lot of character voices just perfect and makes it work for me.
Best thing that everybody in the whole world has read already/best haunting transformation of a childrens' classic: Goodnight Room (Goodnight Moon). I... have nothing to say about this except read it. A description risks trivializing and destroying the slow build.
Best use of a spreadsheet: Roommate of +10 Confusion (Foxtrot/Calvin & Hobbes), in which Calvin and Jason are college roommates, and Jason is baffled (but kind of likes it).
Best thing to remind us that the gods are terrifying: Bakcheios (Euripides Bacchae). Disclaimer: I have loved the Bacchae ever since I read Mask of Apollo, well before I read any actual greek tragedy. I love Euripides' willingness to take greek figures of myth and take them seriously as human beings, and I think the play is moving and powerful and frightening... and proof that if you ever read a story about Dionysus that isn't at least a little bit a horror story, the author is doing it wrong. This author does it right.
Best sudden left turn at the end of a fic: Down All The Days (Iliad). I am a sucker for those fics that show the timeless stories happening again and again, fated and mirrored in every universe. I am also a sucker for those stories that completely upend your expectations. This is Helen's story, and I don't know entirely if the left turn works- it's a little bit of mood whiplash- but the story up until the epilogue is gorgeous and painful and glorious, and the story with the epilogue included made me grin and giggle and pump my fist.
Best selling me on slash I don't normally believe:
Because the War is Endless (MASH), which gives us an utterly pitch-perfect first-person Hawkeye voice (I didn't even think that was possible), and the same gut-wrenching highwire act between humor and horror that the show did so well, and a tiny moment of slash which somehow doesn't compromise the character of Father Mulcahy one bit.
Best midlife crisis: We Grow Teeth and We Grow Nails (Figure Skating RPF). I am incredibly attached to the story of Johnny Weir trying to recreate his life after he leaves competition, and this short, almost abstract bit of Johnny/Stephane really worked for me.
Best inappropriate use of Shakespeare quotes: Thou Knew'st Too Well My Heart Was to Thy Rudder Tied (Slings & Arrows), in which there is Ellen, and Geoffrey, and a michevious Oliver, and bondage, and Shakespearean banter.
Best girlslash: A Bend It Like Beckham tie between Five Times Jess and Jules Kissed in Public (a slow build of perfect sweetness) and Long Way From Home (the angstier version in which Jules' character is so interesting), both with fantastic character voices.
Best use of Justin Beiber: Pink Sparkly Unicorns and Terrible Tea, or how to survive a roommate situation (Eureka), in which Jo and Carter bond and everything is hilarious and sweet.
Best parrot: To Hear Sleigh Bells in the Snow (Sports Night), in which there is banter and a parrot and everyone is perfect and the tone hits the exact same balance of cute and funny and endearing with an undercurrent of pain that the show did so well.
Best Crossover: Happy Hour, (Pundit RPF/Dr Who) in which Rachel gets very interested in those rumors about the Doctor (a crossover that just makes me flap in delight. It gets a little name-drop-y, but the interactions with Ana Marie and Jack Harkness are a delight).
Best amazing fic that will make no sense if you don't remember the canon pretty well: Experimental Procedure (Cyteen). This is the story of the younger Ari, and her attempt to come to terms with her own urges for sex/power/control while remaining ethical, and to navigate the political morass she was born into. The fic does an amazing job imitating and using to effect the technical speak of the novel (I think Cyteen did some of the best invented technobabble of any SF novel ever).
Babbling about movies
I just watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and had possibly the most fun I've had watching a movie in months. GOD that was fun. RDJ being a charming moron! Kilmer screwing with him! Banter! Cutesy meta-fiction! Slashy buddy PIs! I do kind of get the urge to write a massive feminist essay on the treatment of the recurring consent themes in that movie, but I'll refrain.
Latter Days was an incredibly over-earnest movie about a gay Mormon missionary. If you enjoy a dose of earnestness and heartwarming in your queer issues movies, of if you (like me) have a particular soft spot for things that are critical of the Mormon church while nevertheless displaying incredible and obvious familiarity with the quirks of Mormon culture, worth seeing.
Mysterious Skin is the one where JGL plays a hooker. A fucked-up eighteen year old junkie hooker. Deeply disturbing but excellent and excellently acted movie about the aftereffects of child sexual abuse. And yet JGL is so fuckable he hurts to look at.
(500) Days of Summer- so much better than I expected, and yet still so twee.
(Yes, I was on a JGL binge. Such a good new shiny pretty obsession. Inception has so much to answer for.)
Hedwig and the Angry Itch given to me as a Christmas present by a RL non-fannish friend. *headdesk* Apparently I'm transparent.
Transamerica, the one in which Felicity Huffman does a really excellent job playing a transwoman as a really interesting character. Movie resolutely avoids being heartwarming or particularly earnest, which helps a lot.
This entry was originally posted at http://dragojustine.dreamwidth.org/129560.html. Please comment there using OpenID.