Yo!
I'm kind of all over the place but here lately. Sorry 'bout that. The world is so very distracting. So, what have you been doing lately? I shall tell you my end of the story, because I feel like it.
Inception has, very appropriately, taken over my brain. I don't know where the idea came from, but my subconscious is convinced, down to the very core of my fannishness, that the movie was not a movie, but just the pilot episode of a series so epic its series-status cannot be made known until the airing date of episode two for fear of... I dunno, zombie Apocalypse? if word comes out prematurely. (Crap, no, now I'm thinking of zombies. Ugh ugh ugh.)
I hate it when that happens (Canon Is Not Enough-itis, not thinking of zombies - though yes, that too -_- ), but at least fandom delivers where the Powers That Be don't!
- Inception fandom, as far as I've seen, is pretty awesome. There are tutorials and infodumps and research posts for fanfic writers all over the place, I'm discovering good new music in fanmixes at every turn, and the standard answer to shipping rivalries is a threesome. WHERE HAVE YOU PEOPLE BEEN ALL MY FANNISH LIFE? The playground is huge, well-populated, and contains many manny gems. *hoards and basks* I can already give recs if anyone wants them, but do note that Inception taps directly into my ID and I am thus extremely biased about what is interesting or exiting. ^____^
- I ship Arthur and Ariadne like a fiend. They are both such awesome characters. They would be so awesome together.
- That series my hindbrain is so convinced of is filled with Arthur and Ariadne rocking the world of illegal dreamsharing forever and ever. Cobb will be there too, generously making up for the fact that he was kind of a REALLY BIG dick sometimes and thus bringing my loyalty/trust/betrayal kink full circle, and Eames and Yusuf will be BFFs with the sense of humor of preteen boys, and Saito will never stop ignoring the fact that Charlie doesn't go out into the field with his Angels, and oh hell, some time years into the future Mal shows up in Real Life looking ever so impatient and shoots everyone in the head and THEY ALL WAKE UP, because she was right after all and then there'll be much angst and joy and it will be GLORIOUS and and and and and AND. /would pass out somewhere around here if I were saying this out loud
- There is something so deeply appealing about a universe where you can read/write about characters getting hurt, maimed and killed over and over and over in dreams, milking the emotional tension for all it's worth without having to deal with the angst of real-life physical consequences. It was slightly disconcerting at first how... pleasantly stuff like that affects me, but I've made my peace with this sadistic streak. There's nothing like putting your characters through all kinds of creative meatgrinders, after all. Inception just happens to tap into that urge on a brand new level.
- The waistcoat is the best human invention in the history of ever. Better than the wheel. Better than the internet. YES, YOU HEARD ME. The only thing more beautiful than a man in a nicely fitted waistcoat is a woman in the same. (I will love this fandom for the rest of my life for opening my eyes to the wonders of male formalwear. Cummerbund, fuck yeah.)
- The shifting gravity scenes! <3<3<3<3<3 Oh man. Me and zero gravity, we're starcrossed lovers, did I ever mention that? Make flying or floating or walking on walls look even remotely cool and I am a goner. I found a piece of documentary about how they shot those scenes, and ha! I knew it must've been awesome. :D I wanna play too! *makes grabby hands*
- RPF still creeps me out quite severely.
- CROSSOVERS. I had never before given any thought to the actor-based crossover phenomenon, but in this case, it totally has me hooked.
- I still feel like kind of a creeper for having watched 10 of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's films and two seasons of 3rd Rock from the Sun in a row, but. I think it's time I stop freaking out about it. Movies are made to be watched. I really enjoy this guy's work and am kind of sad that I'm already starting to run out.
- 3rd Rock is still funny and I still love the way it lives to poke holes in everything we consider obvious and take for granted, but the short skirts are a lot more distracting than I remember. *gawks*
- Mysterious Skin, about two boys who are sexually abused by their soccer baseball coach, one of which becomes half convinced that he's repressing memories of alien abduction, while the other (JGL's character) becomes a teenage prostitute, was equal parts unsettling and heartbreaking. I just wanted to wrap Neil (the prostitute) in a protective cocoon of warm and happy so nothing would ever hurt him again, his own mind included. On a more random note, JGL played Neil like his joints were made of elastic, and part of me kept expecting him to fall over with every step.
- Brick was slightly surreal, with its hardcore drug dealing and private detectivism by kids still in... high school? College? (I do not have the instincts to tell the two apart at a glance, so I basically spent the whole movie confused about this and trying not to care.) Took a little getting used to, but I think I like. There's this one scene where Brendan (JGL) is being chased by some thug with a knife, turns a corner, scrambles back, and trips the thug - who crashes headfirst into a metal pole, with a resounding, drawn-out boing sound. I had to pause for a good five minutes to get the laughter out of my system. I recognized random one-liners I've seen floating around on people's userpics! However, dear subtitles: when I'm listening to mumbled, rushed, but most importantly, UNFAMILIAR strings of slang, code words and jargon, I would appreciate it if you would WORK. I like to learn something new every day, and you did not let me.
- The Lookout is my favourite out of the heavier movies, I think. Young guy gets himself and a bunch of friends in a car accident, kills two of them, comes down with brain damage that wreaks havoc on his short-term memory and a bunch of other things, becomes estranged from everyone and everything he cared about, and after years of painfully unsuccessful rehabilitation, gets roped up in a robbery of the bank he works at. Heartache heartache heartache. I cannot get enough of the soundtrack. This movie shares the top spot with Inception and 10 Things I Hate About You (an old favourite).
- I'm really looking forward to Looper next year. JGL apparently plays a younger version of Bruce Willis, of all people, which is kind of ^.o and lots of o_O, but - time travel! Another one of my narrative weaknesses. *_*
- General observation: JGL's characters seem to get beat up/shot/killed a lot. A LOT.
- Having said all that, my enjoyment of JGL's ouevre is further evidence that I am an uncultured peasant who can only appreciate ~thought-provoking~ and artsy entertainment when I have a previously established, personal interest of some kind, or it contains plenty of driving plot/adventure/humor/magic/somesuch. I am such a reverse-snob it's not even funny. But at the same time, I don't feel obligated in the slightest to appreciate the "intrinsic worth" or whatever of anything. The reason for this boils down to: I do not believe in objectivity. At all. In anything. I believe in things that are useful because they allow us, on any number of levels, to function and grant an approximation of order, and in being considerate of the needs and feelings of others, because that's what we'd like from them, too. I have my own feelings and opinions and moral views and like everyone else, I can get incredibly self-righteous about them, if only in my own head. But none of it reflects any truth but my own, no worth but that which I assign to it, et cetera. And don't think that I'm trying to downplay myself in any way; it's like that for everyone. Going back to fiction/entertainment: I appreciate the creative effort and personal investment of whoever worked on it, and I appreciate the way it relates to me. But that's it. Objective quality is bullshit. The end.
(- All of the above may seem like stating the obvious, or random incoherent bullshit, OR MAYBE YOU HATE ME NOW, but it's a fairly integral part of my worldview that I can't remember having laid out in detail before. It just doesn't lend itself to day-to-day modes of expression well. Putting a convoluted mess of disclaimer-reclaimer-etc like this on everything would be bloody tiring. I miss hanging out with all of you and am feeling aimlessly chatty. Hence, my first random philosophical outburst in what feels like years. *content sigh* It's also getting really really late. I'm going to crash as soon as I've posted this.)
- I am seriously considering a radical redesign of my fanfic header. This is noteworthy because, while I've been nursing a faint desire to do so for some time, the immediate inspiration is the mission statement and underlying philosophy of this site, which is, in a word, awesomesauce. I approve. It gives me warm fuzzy feelings in a way similar to the way I got warm and fuzzy feelings from last year's Proficcers vs Fanficcers vs Who-The-Hell-Even-Knows wankstorm. Part rebellion against The Man, part celebration of the way I express myself and the subculture I am part of, part plain old geeking out. I've already edited the "disclaimer" in my profile. Just so you all know: if you ever feel like using something I made to make something of your own: DO IT DO IT DO IT. (And let me know, because you have no idea how flattered I would be.)
In other news, I randomly made myself a twitter. Follow me if you like!
What else, what else...
It amazes me how so many of LJ and DW's periodic porn challenges manage to overlap all the time.
GW500 at DreamWidth is going about as well as I thought it would, which is not very well at all. Shame, though. I was hoping for at least one regular contributor besides myself and (a) close friend(s). (And I'm not all that regular a contributor either, which is the worst part. >.> <.< )
As you have probably noticed if you follow any GW comms/tumblogs/etc, I've been doing a ton of promotion for the Church of Lemons. *sweatdrop* It is quite possible that I've already gone WAY overboard, but we still need six pledges to get a full calendar. I could and should still approach a whole bunch of people personally, mass PM-spam FFN because surely there must be some animo to be found THERE, but I keep putting it off. *is a coward*
I have just about convinced myself that if there are still gaps in the calendar by Feb 6, I'll personally fill them all. This is bad news, guys. Seriously. Please don't let me do this.
To conclude, I... don't think I'll be catching up to everything I'm currently missing and/or neglecting soon, but I'm not dead! ^_^
Inception has, very appropriately, taken over my brain. I don't know where the idea came from, but my subconscious is convinced, down to the very core of my fannishness, that the movie was not a movie, but just the pilot episode of a series so epic its series-status cannot be made known until the airing date of episode two for fear of... I dunno, zombie Apocalypse? if word comes out prematurely. (Crap, no, now I'm thinking of zombies. Ugh ugh ugh.)
I hate it when that happens (Canon Is Not Enough-itis, not thinking of zombies - though yes, that too -_- ), but at least fandom delivers where the Powers That Be don't!
- Inception fandom, as far as I've seen, is pretty awesome. There are tutorials and infodumps and research posts for fanfic writers all over the place, I'm discovering good new music in fanmixes at every turn, and the standard answer to shipping rivalries is a threesome. WHERE HAVE YOU PEOPLE BEEN ALL MY FANNISH LIFE? The playground is huge, well-populated, and contains many manny gems. *hoards and basks* I can already give recs if anyone wants them, but do note that Inception taps directly into my ID and I am thus extremely biased about what is interesting or exiting. ^____^
- I ship Arthur and Ariadne like a fiend. They are both such awesome characters. They would be so awesome together.
- That series my hindbrain is so convinced of is filled with Arthur and Ariadne rocking the world of illegal dreamsharing forever and ever. Cobb will be there too, generously making up for the fact that he was kind of a REALLY BIG dick sometimes and thus bringing my loyalty/trust/betrayal kink full circle, and Eames and Yusuf will be BFFs with the sense of humor of preteen boys, and Saito will never stop ignoring the fact that Charlie doesn't go out into the field with his Angels, and oh hell, some time years into the future Mal shows up in Real Life looking ever so impatient and shoots everyone in the head and THEY ALL WAKE UP, because she was right after all and then there'll be much angst and joy and it will be GLORIOUS and and and and and AND. /would pass out somewhere around here if I were saying this out loud
- There is something so deeply appealing about a universe where you can read/write about characters getting hurt, maimed and killed over and over and over in dreams, milking the emotional tension for all it's worth without having to deal with the angst of real-life physical consequences. It was slightly disconcerting at first how... pleasantly stuff like that affects me, but I've made my peace with this sadistic streak. There's nothing like putting your characters through all kinds of creative meatgrinders, after all. Inception just happens to tap into that urge on a brand new level.
- The waistcoat is the best human invention in the history of ever. Better than the wheel. Better than the internet. YES, YOU HEARD ME. The only thing more beautiful than a man in a nicely fitted waistcoat is a woman in the same. (I will love this fandom for the rest of my life for opening my eyes to the wonders of male formalwear. Cummerbund, fuck yeah.)
- The shifting gravity scenes! <3<3<3<3<3 Oh man. Me and zero gravity, we're starcrossed lovers, did I ever mention that? Make flying or floating or walking on walls look even remotely cool and I am a goner. I found a piece of documentary about how they shot those scenes, and ha! I knew it must've been awesome. :D I wanna play too! *makes grabby hands*
- RPF still creeps me out quite severely.
- CROSSOVERS. I had never before given any thought to the actor-based crossover phenomenon, but in this case, it totally has me hooked.
- I still feel like kind of a creeper for having watched 10 of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's films and two seasons of 3rd Rock from the Sun in a row, but. I think it's time I stop freaking out about it. Movies are made to be watched. I really enjoy this guy's work and am kind of sad that I'm already starting to run out.
- 3rd Rock is still funny and I still love the way it lives to poke holes in everything we consider obvious and take for granted, but the short skirts are a lot more distracting than I remember. *gawks*
- Mysterious Skin, about two boys who are sexually abused by their soccer baseball coach, one of which becomes half convinced that he's repressing memories of alien abduction, while the other (JGL's character) becomes a teenage prostitute, was equal parts unsettling and heartbreaking. I just wanted to wrap Neil (the prostitute) in a protective cocoon of warm and happy so nothing would ever hurt him again, his own mind included. On a more random note, JGL played Neil like his joints were made of elastic, and part of me kept expecting him to fall over with every step.
- Brick was slightly surreal, with its hardcore drug dealing and private detectivism by kids still in... high school? College? (I do not have the instincts to tell the two apart at a glance, so I basically spent the whole movie confused about this and trying not to care.) Took a little getting used to, but I think I like. There's this one scene where Brendan (JGL) is being chased by some thug with a knife, turns a corner, scrambles back, and trips the thug - who crashes headfirst into a metal pole, with a resounding, drawn-out boing sound. I had to pause for a good five minutes to get the laughter out of my system. I recognized random one-liners I've seen floating around on people's userpics! However, dear subtitles: when I'm listening to mumbled, rushed, but most importantly, UNFAMILIAR strings of slang, code words and jargon, I would appreciate it if you would WORK. I like to learn something new every day, and you did not let me.
- The Lookout is my favourite out of the heavier movies, I think. Young guy gets himself and a bunch of friends in a car accident, kills two of them, comes down with brain damage that wreaks havoc on his short-term memory and a bunch of other things, becomes estranged from everyone and everything he cared about, and after years of painfully unsuccessful rehabilitation, gets roped up in a robbery of the bank he works at. Heartache heartache heartache. I cannot get enough of the soundtrack. This movie shares the top spot with Inception and 10 Things I Hate About You (an old favourite).
- I'm really looking forward to Looper next year. JGL apparently plays a younger version of Bruce Willis, of all people, which is kind of ^.o and lots of o_O, but - time travel! Another one of my narrative weaknesses. *_*
- General observation: JGL's characters seem to get beat up/shot/killed a lot. A LOT.
- Having said all that, my enjoyment of JGL's ouevre is further evidence that I am an uncultured peasant who can only appreciate ~thought-provoking~ and artsy entertainment when I have a previously established, personal interest of some kind, or it contains plenty of driving plot/adventure/humor/magic/somesuch. I am such a reverse-snob it's not even funny. But at the same time, I don't feel obligated in the slightest to appreciate the "intrinsic worth" or whatever of anything. The reason for this boils down to: I do not believe in objectivity. At all. In anything. I believe in things that are useful because they allow us, on any number of levels, to function and grant an approximation of order, and in being considerate of the needs and feelings of others, because that's what we'd like from them, too. I have my own feelings and opinions and moral views and like everyone else, I can get incredibly self-righteous about them, if only in my own head. But none of it reflects any truth but my own, no worth but that which I assign to it, et cetera. And don't think that I'm trying to downplay myself in any way; it's like that for everyone. Going back to fiction/entertainment: I appreciate the creative effort and personal investment of whoever worked on it, and I appreciate the way it relates to me. But that's it. Objective quality is bullshit. The end.
(- All of the above may seem like stating the obvious, or random incoherent bullshit, OR MAYBE YOU HATE ME NOW, but it's a fairly integral part of my worldview that I can't remember having laid out in detail before. It just doesn't lend itself to day-to-day modes of expression well. Putting a convoluted mess of disclaimer-reclaimer-etc like this on everything would be bloody tiring. I miss hanging out with all of you and am feeling aimlessly chatty. Hence, my first random philosophical outburst in what feels like years. *content sigh* It's also getting really really late. I'm going to crash as soon as I've posted this.)
- I am seriously considering a radical redesign of my fanfic header. This is noteworthy because, while I've been nursing a faint desire to do so for some time, the immediate inspiration is the mission statement and underlying philosophy of this site, which is, in a word, awesomesauce. I approve. It gives me warm fuzzy feelings in a way similar to the way I got warm and fuzzy feelings from last year's Proficcers vs Fanficcers vs Who-The-Hell-Even-Knows wankstorm. Part rebellion against The Man, part celebration of the way I express myself and the subculture I am part of, part plain old geeking out. I've already edited the "disclaimer" in my profile. Just so you all know: if you ever feel like using something I made to make something of your own: DO IT DO IT DO IT. (And let me know, because you have no idea how flattered I would be.)
In other news, I randomly made myself a twitter. Follow me if you like!
What else, what else...
It amazes me how so many of LJ and DW's periodic porn challenges manage to overlap all the time.
GW500 at DreamWidth is going about as well as I thought it would, which is not very well at all. Shame, though. I was hoping for at least one regular contributor besides myself and (a) close friend(s). (And I'm not all that regular a contributor either, which is the worst part. >.> <.< )
As you have probably noticed if you follow any GW comms/tumblogs/etc, I've been doing a ton of promotion for the Church of Lemons. *sweatdrop* It is quite possible that I've already gone WAY overboard, but we still need six pledges to get a full calendar. I could and should still approach a whole bunch of people personally, mass PM-spam FFN because surely there must be some animo to be found THERE, but I keep putting it off. *is a coward*
I have just about convinced myself that if there are still gaps in the calendar by Feb 6, I'll personally fill them all. This is bad news, guys. Seriously. Please don't let me do this.
To conclude, I... don't think I'll be catching up to everything I'm currently missing and/or neglecting soon, but I'm not dead! ^_^