"but human nature tells us so / there comes a time it's time to go"
1. THREE DAYS. CANNOT FATHOM THIS. Even though work is starting to fall in my lap again, and I really should do some of it because so much of it is due to my sitting around doing a whole lot of not much, right now my only concern is to keep from falling ill before I have to take off for the trip. Being barred from entering the US at this point is really NOT at all high on my list of priorities, nope. OMG CAN'T BELIEVE I'LL BE SEEING WONDERETTES IN LESS THAN FIVE DAYS ALSDHSADHASLDSA ♥
2. Also, I find it hard to focus these days because all I want to do is be a huge enormous dork and curl up in a corner with my stash of X-Men comics and devour them like the good little nerd I am. Today I tried to explain to my boss why Wolverine doesn't age and has apparently been through a litany of world wars in the recent past. Nerd extraordinaire, that is indeed me.
3. Cheno is a ball of cute, I just had to say. I love that the pay-off to that interview is a nice, long, glorious stretch of Over The Rainbow. Also, I SEE HER IN CONCERT NEXT MONDAY. \o/ The excitement, it is EVERYWHERE!
4. Speaking of which: native New Yorkers, where is there a good place to snag free internet? Do I have to start living in Starbucks? (Is there even free wireless there?) I have my perfectly portable little netbook, so that's fine, but I still need to know where I can go to get net access... in case the friend I'm living with has maxed out her internet time (entirely possible). I'm also trying to figure out what the weather's gonna be like: I'm sure I can easily buy anything I'm missing, since it isn't the absolute dead of winter this time. But I'm guessing I'll need an umbrella at least...
5. MORE of alphabet meme, I intend to FINISH this before I go to NY!!
F - FANTASY BOOKS
I don't think I read fantasy books as exclusively as some; certainly they're not ALL I read. But I do love the genre, and getting the chance to bury my head and worries in another world alive with magic and possibility. I'm using the cover of Xanth #1, by Piers Anthony, for this particular entry in the meme because - of all the fantasy series I've read, which probably isn't that many - this is the one that swept me up the MOST, to the point that some... 30+ books later, I'm still clinging on, even though the series has degenerated into a pile of perfectly putrid puns (the alliteration was intended) and rarely, if ever, displays the spark of creative genius that informed Spell For Chameleon. I LOVED that universe, and the ideas behind it, and I think I'd still love to be spirited away to Xanth if it ever turned out that there really was such a place connected to our very dreary Mundania.
As Twitter would have it:
More worlds than I could escape to when I need to get away from this one ♥
G - GAYER THAN GELPHIE
I kind of love how you guys all conspired to give me a shit-ton of Wonderettes-related stuff to talk about. Not that I don't already spam your flists like crazy with it, whatever. In any case: clearly I amuse myself too easily, but 'gayer than Gelphie' is a tagline that popped up in one of my epic Wonderettes spam conversations with timeofyoursong - a term I believe I concocted here to describe the epic slashy relationship between huffy pink princess Cindy-Lou and inappropriate class clown BJ in, of all things, a JUKEBOX MUSICAL.
Let me explain. I do not... typically slash couples in my fandoms, not that I have anything against it, but because I am the most ridiculously canon shipper I know. I'm such a huge romantic that I want the relationship to be able to GO somewhere, you know? So why slash (or ship) something that isn't canon that doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of happening? Which means that I CAN see the Glinda/Elphaba (GELPHIE, geddit?) relationship, but... it doesn't do anything for me. (Yes, I ship Elphaba/Fiyero, WHAT OF IT.)
So it completely knocked me for a LOOP when I walked into Wonderettes in January and, by the intermission, was thoroughly confused as to why I was SO convinced that BJ - as played by Beth Malone - struck me as just SO gay, and not just gay, but GAY FOR HER BFF CINDY-LOU (the immensely purty Victoria Matlock). Throughout Act II, I kept expecting one or the other of the girls to confess her love for her BFF, since they each get a set of songs in which to talk about their romantic lives. NO DICE. The more I obsessed over the show, the more I saw the incredible slashy awesome between BJ/Cindy Lou... and for once, thought I was being totes edgy for having a non-canon ship. Urm... not so much. Somewhat serendipitously, a lengthy interview with Beth surfaced a few weeks back in which she confirmed that she CREATED BJ as a very frustrated gay lady who's basically in epic amounts of love with her best friend.
Which means one of two things:
I. I AM STILL A CANON SHIPPER AND NOT EDGY AT ALL. Thanks for helping me out on that count, Beth. *weeps*
II. BJ/Cindy Lou (unlike Gelphie), being a LEGIT SHIP, very very VERY literally is... GAYER THAN GELPHIE. QED: quod erat demonstrandum! XD I am absolutely CONVINCED that all the girls know and play it up. Clues are EVERYWHERE.
As Twitter would have it:
L-O-V-E THAT SPELLS LOVE! ♥ ♥ ♥
H - HOUSE
Omigod, show, I don't understand how it is that I've been so bad at catching up on episodes. Literally I haven't watched the show since... the winter hiatus? I blame it on life/work and the fact that when I DO have time to flail, it's currently over other fandoms. Apparently my brain just isn't big enough to hold all of it at once. But, in show's defense, it was - crucially - what got me BACK into the world of fandom and online flail a couple of years back. When I started work, I slipped out of all of that, leaving the X-Files fandom far behind and just... hunkering down and WORKING. But I was so SO hooked on House, partly because I'm halfway in love with Hugh Laurie's awesome (also the blue blue eyes) and House's devil-may-care genius assholery, but also because of my SHIP. Just LOOK at that picture, as close to S-E-X as you can get on a prime-time tv show with no actual intercourse, bed or, you know, intimacy. Just a couple of impossibly gorgeous leads, steamin' banter, and SEXY TIEMZ. House/Cuddy had me so hooked I finally got off my arse and wrote oodles of fanfic, which was a fabulous creative outlet after years of having my soul completely crushed by work. Honestly the show reminded me what it was like to be passionate about something again, to love and to be involved and to FLAIL. THAT'S RIGHT. Without House, I'd be (even more of) a deadeyed worker-bee drone, and y'all wouldn't have to tolerate me waxing lyrical about my obsession du jour.
As Twitter would have it:
Still love this show more than anything, WILL get back into it. But I'm going to take refuge for the next week. Fandom is going to EXPLODE.
I - ICE CREAM
I tried to think right off the bat what my favourite ice cream would be. A funky Ben & Jerry's flavour? Those epic Tasti D'Lite cones we had in Times Square in January? Turns out that the FIRST thing that came to mind was a ridiculously unhealthy McDonald's hot fudge sundae... and I found this picture online (ignore the vaguely dirty-looking ice cream, which really... IS soft-serve, ahem), and was reminded that my favourite way of eating this sundae in particular is topped off with fries from McDonald's too. OMG SO HUNGRY RIGHT NOW.
As Twitter would have it:
I think I'll take soft-serve ice cream any day. Just a (wafer) cone of that and I'm a happy camper.
J - JANITOR WHO WEARS HIS PANTS BACKWARDS
AHAHAHAHA, how much do you love that a google search for a random throwaway character in House, mentioned ONCE in Episode 3.23 (The Jerk) gets its own dedicated thread at TWOP. The reference, of course, is pure, classic, snarky House-speak: "Somebody did. Wasn't me and it wasn't House, which means it has to be somebody who thought he was protecting House, which means it has to be somebody who actually likes House, which means it's either you or the weird night janitor who wears his pants backwards."
As Twitter would have it:
I don't have anything else to say - although did you notice I have my Google set on Elmer Fudd mode? :P
K - KATHARINE HEPBURN
My favourite actress ever? One of two candidates for that role, surely, and probably the winner in the end. I remember watching The Philadelphia Story once in college, after it came highly recommended, and being thoroughly impressed AND befuddled by the quickfire dialogue - I think I wasn't READY to be receptive to it, because that's all I remember, nothing more about its magic or soul or just sheer romantic perfection. But what I DO remember is giving Bringing Up Baby a try - and falling hook, line and sinker for Hepburn as Susan Vance (and Cary Grant as David Huxley, but he's not the subject of this meme). A dizzy, fast-talkin' dame in the best BEST tradition of old-school screwball comedies, Susan was everything Hepburn is not, and the antithesis of the stereotype that has grown up around Hepburn's illustrious name (except when people mistake her for Audrey, god DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED). It's thanks to Kate that I introduced myself to the glorious Golden Age of screen cinema, delving into black-and-white, song-and-dance, Astaire and Kelly.
For that alone I should be eternally grateful. But no - it was also Kate that led me to my FIRST stint on Fanforum SEVERAL years back (we still can't agree on exactly when haha), when I was still in university, where I met a bunch of girls - Alex, Sal, Meg and Star - who have become some of my best friends ever. ♥ The one thought that never fails to cheer me to this day is that the five of us managed to scrape together enough money for a bouquet of Kate's favourite stargazer lilies and have them sent to her place before she passed away. ♥
As Twitter would have it:
A legend and role model who redefined what was expected of a woman, both onscreen and off. Plus, have you seen those cheekbones lately?
L - LONDON
Okay, so Sal tagged me with London thinking I had lived here at some point in my life - which, more's the pity, I have NOT. Oxford was about an hour away by bus, considerably less by train (this thing about trains I wish I'd discovered when I was in university, bah). I DO wish I had gone up to explore it more than I did, but I still have fond fond memories of taking day trips up to see a show (my first time seeing Rent, dancing in the aisles to Buddy) and eat duck at the Four Seasons (mmm, duck), and just strolling past and into the string of bookshops that dot Charing Cross Road, heaven for bookworms like myself. Of course there was also the first (and second) times I watched Wicked, or standing room only for Hairspray with mirime... and what's more, hanging out with alexia88 and medland for a glorious week in June before heading to NY for our trip of spontaneity and flail. That was fabulous - and this photo, with its upper frame of shadowy leaves, was taken then...
As Twitter would have it:
A city governed by history and grey skies, rich with irreplaceable memories. Great. Now I REALLY want to go back.
6. I LEGIT TALK TOO MUCH. How is it 2am already!?!? Okay okay OKAY. Bedtime... if I'm not distracted by comics, that is. XD
2. Also, I find it hard to focus these days because all I want to do is be a huge enormous dork and curl up in a corner with my stash of X-Men comics and devour them like the good little nerd I am. Today I tried to explain to my boss why Wolverine doesn't age and has apparently been through a litany of world wars in the recent past. Nerd extraordinaire, that is indeed me.
3. Cheno is a ball of cute, I just had to say. I love that the pay-off to that interview is a nice, long, glorious stretch of Over The Rainbow. Also, I SEE HER IN CONCERT NEXT MONDAY. \o/ The excitement, it is EVERYWHERE!
4. Speaking of which: native New Yorkers, where is there a good place to snag free internet? Do I have to start living in Starbucks? (Is there even free wireless there?) I have my perfectly portable little netbook, so that's fine, but I still need to know where I can go to get net access... in case the friend I'm living with has maxed out her internet time (entirely possible). I'm also trying to figure out what the weather's gonna be like: I'm sure I can easily buy anything I'm missing, since it isn't the absolute dead of winter this time. But I'm guessing I'll need an umbrella at least...
5. MORE of alphabet meme, I intend to FINISH this before I go to NY!!
F - FANTASY BOOKS
I don't think I read fantasy books as exclusively as some; certainly they're not ALL I read. But I do love the genre, and getting the chance to bury my head and worries in another world alive with magic and possibility. I'm using the cover of Xanth #1, by Piers Anthony, for this particular entry in the meme because - of all the fantasy series I've read, which probably isn't that many - this is the one that swept me up the MOST, to the point that some... 30+ books later, I'm still clinging on, even though the series has degenerated into a pile of perfectly putrid puns (the alliteration was intended) and rarely, if ever, displays the spark of creative genius that informed Spell For Chameleon. I LOVED that universe, and the ideas behind it, and I think I'd still love to be spirited away to Xanth if it ever turned out that there really was such a place connected to our very dreary Mundania.
As Twitter would have it:
More worlds than I could escape to when I need to get away from this one ♥
G - GAYER THAN GELPHIE
I kind of love how you guys all conspired to give me a shit-ton of Wonderettes-related stuff to talk about. Not that I don't already spam your flists like crazy with it, whatever. In any case: clearly I amuse myself too easily, but 'gayer than Gelphie' is a tagline that popped up in one of my epic Wonderettes spam conversations with timeofyoursong - a term I believe I concocted here to describe the epic slashy relationship between huffy pink princess Cindy-Lou and inappropriate class clown BJ in, of all things, a JUKEBOX MUSICAL.
Let me explain. I do not... typically slash couples in my fandoms, not that I have anything against it, but because I am the most ridiculously canon shipper I know. I'm such a huge romantic that I want the relationship to be able to GO somewhere, you know? So why slash (or ship) something that isn't canon that doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of happening? Which means that I CAN see the Glinda/Elphaba (GELPHIE, geddit?) relationship, but... it doesn't do anything for me. (Yes, I ship Elphaba/Fiyero, WHAT OF IT.)
So it completely knocked me for a LOOP when I walked into Wonderettes in January and, by the intermission, was thoroughly confused as to why I was SO convinced that BJ - as played by Beth Malone - struck me as just SO gay, and not just gay, but GAY FOR HER BFF CINDY-LOU (the immensely purty Victoria Matlock). Throughout Act II, I kept expecting one or the other of the girls to confess her love for her BFF, since they each get a set of songs in which to talk about their romantic lives. NO DICE. The more I obsessed over the show, the more I saw the incredible slashy awesome between BJ/Cindy Lou... and for once, thought I was being totes edgy for having a non-canon ship. Urm... not so much. Somewhat serendipitously, a lengthy interview with Beth surfaced a few weeks back in which she confirmed that she CREATED BJ as a very frustrated gay lady who's basically in epic amounts of love with her best friend.
Which means one of two things:
I. I AM STILL A CANON SHIPPER AND NOT EDGY AT ALL. Thanks for helping me out on that count, Beth. *weeps*
II. BJ/Cindy Lou (unlike Gelphie), being a LEGIT SHIP, very very VERY literally is... GAYER THAN GELPHIE. QED: quod erat demonstrandum! XD I am absolutely CONVINCED that all the girls know and play it up. Clues are EVERYWHERE.
As Twitter would have it:
L-O-V-E THAT SPELLS LOVE! ♥ ♥ ♥
H - HOUSE
Omigod, show, I don't understand how it is that I've been so bad at catching up on episodes. Literally I haven't watched the show since... the winter hiatus? I blame it on life/work and the fact that when I DO have time to flail, it's currently over other fandoms. Apparently my brain just isn't big enough to hold all of it at once. But, in show's defense, it was - crucially - what got me BACK into the world of fandom and online flail a couple of years back. When I started work, I slipped out of all of that, leaving the X-Files fandom far behind and just... hunkering down and WORKING. But I was so SO hooked on House, partly because I'm halfway in love with Hugh Laurie's awesome (also the blue blue eyes) and House's devil-may-care genius assholery, but also because of my SHIP. Just LOOK at that picture, as close to S-E-X as you can get on a prime-time tv show with no actual intercourse, bed or, you know, intimacy. Just a couple of impossibly gorgeous leads, steamin' banter, and SEXY TIEMZ. House/Cuddy had me so hooked I finally got off my arse and wrote oodles of fanfic, which was a fabulous creative outlet after years of having my soul completely crushed by work. Honestly the show reminded me what it was like to be passionate about something again, to love and to be involved and to FLAIL. THAT'S RIGHT. Without House, I'd be (even more of) a deadeyed worker-bee drone, and y'all wouldn't have to tolerate me waxing lyrical about my obsession du jour.
As Twitter would have it:
Still love this show more than anything, WILL get back into it. But I'm going to take refuge for the next week. Fandom is going to EXPLODE.
I - ICE CREAM
I tried to think right off the bat what my favourite ice cream would be. A funky Ben & Jerry's flavour? Those epic Tasti D'Lite cones we had in Times Square in January? Turns out that the FIRST thing that came to mind was a ridiculously unhealthy McDonald's hot fudge sundae... and I found this picture online (ignore the vaguely dirty-looking ice cream, which really... IS soft-serve, ahem), and was reminded that my favourite way of eating this sundae in particular is topped off with fries from McDonald's too. OMG SO HUNGRY RIGHT NOW.
As Twitter would have it:
I think I'll take soft-serve ice cream any day. Just a (wafer) cone of that and I'm a happy camper.
J - JANITOR WHO WEARS HIS PANTS BACKWARDS
AHAHAHAHA, how much do you love that a google search for a random throwaway character in House, mentioned ONCE in Episode 3.23 (The Jerk) gets its own dedicated thread at TWOP. The reference, of course, is pure, classic, snarky House-speak: "Somebody did. Wasn't me and it wasn't House, which means it has to be somebody who thought he was protecting House, which means it has to be somebody who actually likes House, which means it's either you or the weird night janitor who wears his pants backwards."
As Twitter would have it:
I don't have anything else to say - although did you notice I have my Google set on Elmer Fudd mode? :P
K - KATHARINE HEPBURN
My favourite actress ever? One of two candidates for that role, surely, and probably the winner in the end. I remember watching The Philadelphia Story once in college, after it came highly recommended, and being thoroughly impressed AND befuddled by the quickfire dialogue - I think I wasn't READY to be receptive to it, because that's all I remember, nothing more about its magic or soul or just sheer romantic perfection. But what I DO remember is giving Bringing Up Baby a try - and falling hook, line and sinker for Hepburn as Susan Vance (and Cary Grant as David Huxley, but he's not the subject of this meme). A dizzy, fast-talkin' dame in the best BEST tradition of old-school screwball comedies, Susan was everything Hepburn is not, and the antithesis of the stereotype that has grown up around Hepburn's illustrious name (except when people mistake her for Audrey, god DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED). It's thanks to Kate that I introduced myself to the glorious Golden Age of screen cinema, delving into black-and-white, song-and-dance, Astaire and Kelly.
For that alone I should be eternally grateful. But no - it was also Kate that led me to my FIRST stint on Fanforum SEVERAL years back (we still can't agree on exactly when haha), when I was still in university, where I met a bunch of girls - Alex, Sal, Meg and Star - who have become some of my best friends ever. ♥ The one thought that never fails to cheer me to this day is that the five of us managed to scrape together enough money for a bouquet of Kate's favourite stargazer lilies and have them sent to her place before she passed away. ♥
As Twitter would have it:
A legend and role model who redefined what was expected of a woman, both onscreen and off. Plus, have you seen those cheekbones lately?
L - LONDON
Okay, so Sal tagged me with London thinking I had lived here at some point in my life - which, more's the pity, I have NOT. Oxford was about an hour away by bus, considerably less by train (this thing about trains I wish I'd discovered when I was in university, bah). I DO wish I had gone up to explore it more than I did, but I still have fond fond memories of taking day trips up to see a show (my first time seeing Rent, dancing in the aisles to Buddy) and eat duck at the Four Seasons (mmm, duck), and just strolling past and into the string of bookshops that dot Charing Cross Road, heaven for bookworms like myself. Of course there was also the first (and second) times I watched Wicked, or standing room only for Hairspray with mirime... and what's more, hanging out with alexia88 and medland for a glorious week in June before heading to NY for our trip of spontaneity and flail. That was fabulous - and this photo, with its upper frame of shadowy leaves, was taken then...
As Twitter would have it:
A city governed by history and grey skies, rich with irreplaceable memories. Great. Now I REALLY want to go back.
6. I LEGIT TALK TOO MUCH. How is it 2am already!?!? Okay okay OKAY. Bedtime... if I'm not distracted by comics, that is. XD