suddenly it's tomorrow, it's not today anymore

[pipsqueaky]

This is my "I went to VividCon" post. I went to VividCon! And it was awesome!

You will not find a detailed, hour-by-hour con report here - the type that says what I did and who I saw each day - because my attention span could never manage that, and I am slowly learning to tell myself it's okay to write one vague incomplete paragraph; I can make a post that just says one or two things rather than ALL THE THINGS, because I will never finish writing about all the things.

I had a really, really good VividCon. Really. :) I am usually mildly socially anxious at VVC; I have the constant monologue in the back of my head saying "am I being friendly enough to everyone? wait, where did my friends go, is everyone off having fun without me? did I just say something really stupid about vids? have I not spent enough time with so-and-so?" And this year there was no monologue. I enjoyed seeing everyone, I had a good time wherever I went, and the whole con was awesome. I wish I could figure out the magical ingredient that made this year so successful, cause I definitely want to repeat this experience in the future!

(Though I really missed sdwolfpup, f1renze, and radixiscat this year. Sniff! *waves to all of you from afar*)

I also walked away with a renewed interest in vids, which TOTALLY surprised me. I have been less and less involved in vidding over time, to the point where I don't call myself an active vidder anymore and I only watched a bare handful of vids between last year's VVC and this one. So I went into VividCon fully expecting to concentrate solely on the people and ignore the programming. But then there were shiny things up on the screen and I was all OH RIGHT, THESE ARE AWESOME! I FORGOT! Heh. I wouldn't say I've been inspired to vid again - that's a big leap - but I have regained some of my previous enthusiasm for watching & talking about vids. And sweetestdrain and I are planning a vidshow for next year, which is exciting!

Here are some of my favorite vids from this year, in no particular order.

• My "Vid of the Con": duuuuh. "Let Me Put My Love Into You" (Bitch Slap) by sweetestdrain. She made it for me! And it's wonderful and perfect! She totally vidded my id. :D Lesbians and explosions and green-screens, oh my. Also everyone should watch Bitch Slap, it's the best movie ever (and perfect for a fangirl gathering with alcohol), if you want to know more about it please ask me, except I might not shut up once I get started. Or you could just watch this amazing vid over and over.
• "Starships!" (Multi) by bironic. I have watched this on the DVDs about 20 times since the con ended. It's so beautiful, and filled with joy. And the clip of WALL-E makes me sniffle.
• "A Different Kind of Love Song" (Multi) by giandujakiss. A celebration of all things geek! Extremely squee-making.
• "Heads Will Roll" (Game of Thrones) by hollywoodgrrl. OH MY GODS. I keep mentioning this to different people in different places, and it sounds like an odd compliment but it's significant: this is the only Club Vivid vid ever to make me stop dancing completely and stare at the screen, motionless, to watch it. And y'all know how much I LOVE dancing at CVV. :) So, so many smart things in this vid - from the incest to the foreshadowing to the Dany/Melisandre comparison (which killed me omg) to the final clip. Another vid I have watched many, many times.
• "Fire in Your New Shoes" (The Prisoner) by sweetestdrain. So creepy and surreal! Perfectly paced, and I get a kick out of following all the lovely circular imagery. Also convinced me that I really, really need to watch The Prisoner.
• "The Adventure" (Harry Potter) by greensilver. I will ditto everyone else's "NEVILLE <3<3<3", hee. However! I have nearly zero knowledge of Harry Potter. I just recently started reading the books - finished #2 shortly before VVC - and have only seen the first movie (and maybe the fifth? though I can't remember it). So I knew next to nothing about Neville when I saw this vid, and I still wept with everyone else, which is a testament to Greensilver's vidding prowess. In fact, about halfway through the vid I was trying to figure out where it was going to go since I don't know the canon, and I was having such epic Neville feelings that I suddenly became VERY AFRAID that he was going to die in the end. (Lesson to self: read the blurbs.) I spent the whole last half of the vid going "NOOOO DON'T DIE", and then he didn't and I was so relieved, hee. I can't wait to finish the books and marathon the movies so I can bring canon knowledge to my watching of this vid.
• "Everything Is Wrong" (Community) by
  laurashapiro. OH BRITTA. This is ... yeah, this vid. I can't even. *flails* I finish watching it and I immediately want to run to all my ridiculous crazy awkward friends and hug them and tell them how much I love them. It's hilarious and heartwarming and beautiful and perfect. (I also believe nobody but Laura could have made this vid, and I mean that as a HUGE compliment and I love her for it.) "Everything we feel is strong!" YES.
• "Barton Hollow" (Homeland) by
  fan_eunice. Such a brilliant vid, with layers and layers to unpack, and the narrative is perfectly paced and the tension just builds and builds until that final shot which punches you in the gut and steals your breath. Eunice had shown me the pilot of Homeland earlier this year, and I said "wow, that show's amazing!" and then went home and promptly forgot about it. I won't make that mistake a second time. This vid definitely recruited me (for reals this time!).
• "Summer of '69" (Doctor Who) by greensilver. The Doctor loves the Pond family. He loves them SO MUCH, YOU GUYS. Those were the best days of his life! *sob* Also, River stands on her momma's porch.
• "Jar Oh! Hearts" (Multi) by jescaflowne. AMAZING. I love love love horror movies, and this vid had me simultaneously deeply invested in the girls' survival and cackling at the escalating, near-cartoonish violence. "Running 'round leaving scars" indeed.

And lastly, some random moments that I really enjoyed or that stood out to me:

• Club Vivid, of course. Always. :)
• All the Avengers at CVV (most of whom were appropriately outfitted for prom!), jarrow as blue!Tobias, and revolutionaryjo as Leslie Knope. VOTE KNOPE 2012!
• Thor/Loki photos of GREATNESS. \o/ (thank you dualbunny and
  astolat!)
• The "Structure of a Vidshow" and "Do You Vid Your Myers-Briggs" panels were particularly enlightening and enjoyable.
• Crying for the last three vids of the "No Kleenex Required" vidshow. FALSE ADVERTISING. (happy vids make me cry, what of it?)
• Singing "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" with sisabet and cappylicious at karaoke.
• The many, many, many drunken practice-serenades of that song before karaoke even happened.
• Staying up waaaaay too late with dualbunny pretty much every night of the con.
• Tech apprenticing for lapillus, with
  heresluck. I actually really enjoyed learning the specifics of the VVC tech setup!
• The now-traditional Monday morning breakfast at Mac's Diner.
• All of you. <3

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