meeeeeeemes

[themonkeytwin]

Overdue memeses owed to tahirire. Yay!

Fandom Meme!
Tell me you want to play and I'll pick up to three of your fandoms. Then update your journal and answer the following questions:

1. What got you into this fandom in the first place?
2. Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
3. Favorite episodes/books/movies, etc?
4. Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
5. Do you think more people should get into this fandom?

tahirire picked:

• KE$HA!!!
• Leverage
• Supernatural

KE$HA (!!!)

1. Oh ... good grief. Look. This, as tahirire WELL KNOWS, is entirely her fault. She tells me to stop blaming her for things, but in this particular case it is completely justified. (Well. I'd argue that in ALL cases it's completely justified, but there seems to be some disagreement on that front.) - SO. What got me into the "fandom" was, she posted Ke$ha's "Blow" music vid. (And if you scroll down to the comments on that link, you can discover the genesis of all this in all its archived glory.) Thus, I discovered Ke$ha at the same time I discovered she was making fun of her own image, the industry's image, and everything else. With an able assist from James "van der Memes", who for the very first time in my entire life was actually and legitimately sexy. (Luke Perry managed to age fine the same way. Never thought I'd find him attractive, but, well, there you are.) It was ridiculous and addictive and led to an intensifying of what was already a highly cracky Leverage fic notion, which got itself written.
2. You know, the sad thing is, for all Ke$ha's subversiveness when it comes to lampooning the music/entertainment industry and lifestyle, she's still a product within it, and I don't know how long she will actually last before it's chewed her up and spits her out. (If I can ever make a decision on whether I was *in* the fandom in the first place, I'll let you know if I'm likely to move on.)
3. Um. I think the only one I've seen is "Blow". Oh, but Glee did one of hers, that was kind of fun. *shrug*
4. Again, "participation" is not exactly the word I'd choose. If the stars align (see what I did there?), there may be continuing adventures. I do so hate to continue blaming her, but tahirire does seem to be something of an Inspiration Whisperer in this respect. *side-eyes liek whoa*
5. I think more people should get into the insanity that is my pop-cracky-brain and enable vindicate encourage me. Other than that ... meh?

Leverage

1. I was ... bored? I think. I came across the pilot streaming somewhere online (while on break, I seem to recall), and hunted around some more and enjoyed it. What got me really paying attention to it was, as I've said elsewhere, the conversation between Nate and Eliot and how it played with expectation. (I talked about it at some length in the comments here. Also about what hooked me about Show, below. I suspect that comment might just be the single most-linked-by-me piece of explanation on this journal.) And the fun train just kept trundling happily along; they clearly get such a kick out of playing with story and characters. Which translated to my first-ever fanfic (and this lj account), because it was too much fun not to play with. So Leverage has the distinction of not just getting me into its fandom, but public fandom participation as a whole. Before that I did lurk around reading threads on imdb about whatever I was curious about (which was simultaneously hilarious, frustrating, terrifying and oddly boring), following links to lj and ffnet, but nothing more.
2. I've been wondering about this. I found season 3 kind of lacklustre, in spite of there being high points, and with season 4 the fun train quotient (FTQ) picked up again some. I think maybe the level of "asshole burnout" (which is what I vaguely seem to recall John Rogers calling it on his blog) that hit the writing team as they continually research real-life "bad guys" as inspiration did something subtle to the tone. Considering Rogers says there's only going to be five seasons max, I'm unlikely to jump ship before then. I'll probably always want to play with the characters occasionally, although part of the charm of writing fic for me is exploring the unknown; as we learn more about the team, I become less curious, therefore less likely to fic. I currently have two fics that have been lying around for some time waiting for me to get on with things even as we speak, and the afore-mentioned crackfic AU could strike anytime, so I'll probably keep a toe in the fandom for the foreseeable future anyhow.
3. Hate. Hate. Hate this question. I, um. Probably The Two Live Crew Job for the fun "shadow" team (and Sophie being magnificent), The Nigerian Job pilot is eternally quality watching (and I've seen it far more times than any other, because I keep introducing people to the show), The Second David Job is rife with yay-making team interactions (and Sterling is AWESOME as always), and The Zanzibar Marketplace Job for showing off Tara's total awesomeness and MAGGIE WOOOOO. The Girls Night Out/Boys Night Out Job were a bunch of fun too. Enough? Enough.
4. I fic. That's about it. Any meta I have makes its way into that; there's not a lot I actually want to discuss; it's all about the fun train, and in this case, that means story. There's not a lot of substance beyond the high-quality tropey fun of the piece, although that's not a criticism. Nothing else would have got me ficcing - Show certainly didn't.
5. It's probably one of the shows I pimp out the most (hence why I've seen the pilot so many times). It may not have something for everyone, but even if it's not someone's cup of tea, it's unlikely to alientate them. If anyone's looking for a show, I usually recommend this one first.

Supernatural

1. Show. Oh, Show. Well, the story of my being hooked is linked to above, so there's that little piece of it. It's ... it's Show. It's my steady, my one-and-only, and has been for I don't know how many years now. Other shows may eat my brain for a time, but this the only one that ate my heart as well. Of all shows I have ever, ever seen (no, literally), it comes closest (by a ... serious margin) to describing the reality of life as I have experienced it. And from what I've seen in the way people in the fandom respond to it (other than the porn), I do not think I am the only one. Fandom was, therefore, not so much a choice as the instinctive state of being. Once I was on lj, it took its inevitable turn.
2. Not knowing what the future holds or will afford me in the way of time and opportunity, I will say that whether or not I am active (even to rewatching episodes), I do believe that Show will always be some part of who I am. I can't say that for any other show.
3. AH. HA. HA. My standard answer. Want more? Yet another meme! It's as though nobody has anything better to ask. C'mon, Internet, you can do it!
4. The occasional comment fic, a tonne of meta and commenting on flistie's fic and meta, occasional beta-ing (when tahirire and blacklid are graciously inclined), and as many conversations with bitterlimetwist as we can jimmy into a reality that is restricted by a space-time continuum with schedules in. (So that would be a "yes", then.)
5. I am honestly not that bothered about "people" getting into it. There are a few friends I've steered that way, but for the most part, it's one of those serendipitous things. If you're going to get it, you'll get it, and if you won't, you don't. I don't push it, and the numbers of the situation don't really mean anything to me.

Icon Meme!

1. Reply to this post with "I LOVE EVERYONE IN THIS MORALLY DEPRAVED BAR" and I will pick five (or maybe ten!) of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon glee.

tahirire picked:











Ah, my default icon that I've never changed and barely ever use. It's from a watercolour sketch by Joseph Turner, who was a brilliant impressionist but has always been a bit hit-and-miss for me. That is to say, the ones of his I like I really love, and the ones I don't like leave me completely cold. This one I've always responded to very strongly; the brushstroke and colour choice captures something of ocean-side workaday reality that is kind of perfect, to me. (It has nothing to do with monkeys or twins.)


The ballet The Firebird. I love the gesture and grace of it (and tried to emphasize it with the way it's cropped); it's celebratory and vibrant, while the creature is dangerous, ephemeral, fascinating. Look, I like water, I like fire, okay? (And now for added crossover value, because tahirire is adorable.)


This was a little cover-sketch I did for a project, a so-called "life-map", which was supposed to promote self-awareness. I tried to think of something that would represent my perception of myself, and came up with a rook piece wearing a jester's cap, which I trust makes perfect sense.


Long before everyone suddenly decided to riff on the KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON slogan of the British WWII war effort, Churchill formulated his own (using it during the war, lending it rather more legitimacy than any of ours, not to mention the fact that he essentially held the whole damn nation together where we're all just flurffing around uselessly on the internet). He tended to express it as "KBO", and to my knowledge never set it to the KEEP CALM template. The internet apparently did that for him. You're welcome, Will.


Came across this image whilst browsing tumblr, and just thought it was really pretty. I like the way the dandelions sort of create a glowy path toward the sunrise. It's all hopeful and nice.


Unlike this one, which is from one of Australia's (many) bushfires. Purely as an image, I love drastic, dramatic contrasts (see also, unsurprisingly, the firebird above). As a concept, it's a reminder of the extremes that the Australian continent consists of, which we ignore or take lightly to our own peril (and which significantly contributes to the character of its people). It's also regenerative; some Australian flora depend on fire to reproduce, and most of the rest recover very quickly. And then from a pragmatic point of view, I didn't really have any icon representing intensity or anger. Don't use it much, though.


Well, now. This is just funny. Correcting grammar mistakes in an anarchist graffito? This appeals rather too eerily well to me.

And that's it for now. I am going to be away from computers and interent access for about two weeks, so please do comment anyway and I'll play with you when I get back, I promise!