A Lot More of This
1) Family portrait and guinea pigs being zen, plus a bird and cat deciding to keep to themselves and a happy cow playing fetch (listen to the moos!)
2) Was asked by a friend what we've been watching lately and aside from Professor T and Unforgotten on PBS, it's been rather haphazard. We're seeing Penguin Town on Netflix which is a rather fun approach to a nature documentary. But mostly we've been chugging through seasons of Hogan's Heroes. Despite it being a half hour show this isn't all that quick since their seasons were as many as 32 episodes long!
But it was doing this watch that made me uncomfortably aware of something that's becoming more and more true - the fact that one is watching an entire cast of dead people. This is not yet true for Hogan as there are a few people who appeared on it who are still alive. But it made me realize that having been an entertainment consumer for a certain era is a sort of unusual experience.
Obviously we have all seen things such as old movies where everyone involved is deceased now (although with some long lived people like Olivia de Havilland, it's never certain). The same is also true for any number of musicians. But I think it's different with TV. The personal connection to characters is stronger than for one-off films or for music (which one may be very fond of but which may relate weakly to our feeling for or even knowledge of the performers). I think that a look at the volume of fanwork production at major archives, particularly fanfiction, will bear that out. As my last post mentioned, the MCU may dominate in spaces like AO3, but one of the reasons for its success is exactly that Marvel was trying to create an interconnected verse with both films and now TV shows. However loosely the characters and plots connect to its comics history, they still do. (After all, comics themselves are such a twisting mess of reboots and conflicting storylines and characterizations, that only bits and pieces could ever survive into something coherent like a film series).
I became acquainted with shows from the 60s in the mid 70s and wasn't watching anything that was pre-1960. So well into the 80s a given show might have lost someone but otherwise the cast was around, the lucky ones still popping up in new roles.
But as of 2020 many well known shows have lost most if not all their cast. Especially when someone's had an unexpected high profile death, it's hard not to think of it when watching them in a project's posthumous release (Paul Walker, Anton Yelchin, Chadwick Boseman). I can't say it's always in my mind, but every once in a while it strikes me -- the oddness of not just someone's voice and likeness continuing on but a sort of zombiefication of popular culture. And apparently it's not just me.
In two different commentaries by Hogan actors, they both ended up mentioning all their fellow castmates who were now gone.
3) I recently zoomed through various movies while working on jigsaw puzzles. This includes Ready Player One (fun shoutouts to fandom things but otherwise not memorable), Birds of Prey, and the new Suicide Squad. The latter started boring me after half an hour though I semi-watched it all the way through. I found Birds of Prey much more fun. I wouldn't call it a great movie but the pacing was good and I think it did a good job with Harley's character, plus there were some good action scenes.
I also saw Chinatown for the first time. I think it's still a standout as a good mystery. I wasn't entirely spoiled for it, but being a big mystery reader I figured out Faye Dunaway's plotline well before the reveal. Not what one would call a happy story but unfortunately much closer to reality as a result.
4) Netflix's Ramped Up War On VPNs Comes With Collateral Damage: "Torrent Freak points to a growing number of complaints on Reddit from folks saying that they suddenly can't access content they pay for, and none of them appear to be using a VPN or proxy to disguise their real IP address. Netflix's response so far has been in a few instances to try and blame the user's ISP."
5) I came across this meme and realized there was no reason it couldn't be used for meta. So here are my responses:
a) How many works do you have on AO3?
240
b) What's your total AO3 word count?
555,821
c) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?
85 fandoms have been mentioned in my meta but the fandom I've written the most before is Fandom. I think most of it is about what we as fans do rather than about the canon itself.
Relatedly I have 8 meta series now and they are:
Fanfic Genres
Supernatural Reviews
Convention Write Ups
Reviews
Celebrating Writers (an SPN series)
Music Reviews
Concert Reviews
Reading Fan Vids
d) What are your top 5 metas by kudos?
Why Loki/Tony Can Work
The Merits of Jane Foster/Loki
Review of Kings Rising: Book 3 of the Captive Prince series
Keeping it Small But Fresh
Fannish Origins
e) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?
Yes! I don't mind if someone has nothing to say but it's always interesting to see if someone engages with the discussion.
f) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you've written?
I don't know about it being crazy, but I have frequently written meta about more than one canon at a time. In fact, when I was starting to watch Supernatural I wrote several metas comparing it to BtVS.
g) Have you ever received hate on a meta?
Sort of? Nothing stands out but I have definitely had people bringing their own issues into the comments.
h) Have you ever had a meta stolen?
Actually yes, twice (that I know of). I had people repost my entire post at LJ on another LJ account.
i) Have you ever had a meta translated?
No, but this would be very cool!
j) Have you ever co-written a meta before?
No, though I suspect that as with many pieces of meta, I was often inspired to write something after reading someone else's essay.
k) What's your all time favorite ship?
I'm not sure. The problem is that while I have been very into certain ships, after reading a lot of fic I tend to tire of it. I suspect I'm not bored of the ship itself but I just have little interest in reading stuff that seems much the same as what I've read before. I'm not much of a re-reader.
I should add that this also applies to gen in the sense that if the same trope(s) are being used over and over in a fandom, at some point I'm going to get tired of it.
l) What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?
I do have a pending meta that needs to be finished but I think I'm going to get to it before the end of the year. I'd like to anyway.
m) What are your writing strengths?
Not sure - insight? Making connections?
n) What are your writing weaknesses?
Too many run-on thoughts and lack of specificity. Whenever I return to edit something I'm always struck by how I thought I was being clear about something and wasn't. I guess it's because I'm talking to myself and of course I know what I mean! Though this isn't always true, because sometimes I've gone back and wondered where I was going with something. So I'm always assuming too much when I'm writing.
o) What was the first fandom you wrote for?
The Monkees. It was an analysis of their movie Head.
p) What's your favorite meta you've written?
I don't know if I have a favorite but I know that there are a few metas I end up referring to often, and those are What's in an AU? and What is RPF anyway?
If I had a favorite it would probably be a meta I felt was under-read such as Overcoming Tropes and Culling Sacred Cows: How The Wire Succeeded.
View poll: Kudos Footer-309
Comments at Dreamwidth
.
2) Was asked by a friend what we've been watching lately and aside from Professor T and Unforgotten on PBS, it's been rather haphazard. We're seeing Penguin Town on Netflix which is a rather fun approach to a nature documentary. But mostly we've been chugging through seasons of Hogan's Heroes. Despite it being a half hour show this isn't all that quick since their seasons were as many as 32 episodes long!
But it was doing this watch that made me uncomfortably aware of something that's becoming more and more true - the fact that one is watching an entire cast of dead people. This is not yet true for Hogan as there are a few people who appeared on it who are still alive. But it made me realize that having been an entertainment consumer for a certain era is a sort of unusual experience.
Obviously we have all seen things such as old movies where everyone involved is deceased now (although with some long lived people like Olivia de Havilland, it's never certain). The same is also true for any number of musicians. But I think it's different with TV. The personal connection to characters is stronger than for one-off films or for music (which one may be very fond of but which may relate weakly to our feeling for or even knowledge of the performers). I think that a look at the volume of fanwork production at major archives, particularly fanfiction, will bear that out. As my last post mentioned, the MCU may dominate in spaces like AO3, but one of the reasons for its success is exactly that Marvel was trying to create an interconnected verse with both films and now TV shows. However loosely the characters and plots connect to its comics history, they still do. (After all, comics themselves are such a twisting mess of reboots and conflicting storylines and characterizations, that only bits and pieces could ever survive into something coherent like a film series).
I became acquainted with shows from the 60s in the mid 70s and wasn't watching anything that was pre-1960. So well into the 80s a given show might have lost someone but otherwise the cast was around, the lucky ones still popping up in new roles.
But as of 2020 many well known shows have lost most if not all their cast. Especially when someone's had an unexpected high profile death, it's hard not to think of it when watching them in a project's posthumous release (Paul Walker, Anton Yelchin, Chadwick Boseman). I can't say it's always in my mind, but every once in a while it strikes me -- the oddness of not just someone's voice and likeness continuing on but a sort of zombiefication of popular culture. And apparently it's not just me.
In two different commentaries by Hogan actors, they both ended up mentioning all their fellow castmates who were now gone.
3) I recently zoomed through various movies while working on jigsaw puzzles. This includes Ready Player One (fun shoutouts to fandom things but otherwise not memorable), Birds of Prey, and the new Suicide Squad. The latter started boring me after half an hour though I semi-watched it all the way through. I found Birds of Prey much more fun. I wouldn't call it a great movie but the pacing was good and I think it did a good job with Harley's character, plus there were some good action scenes.
I also saw Chinatown for the first time. I think it's still a standout as a good mystery. I wasn't entirely spoiled for it, but being a big mystery reader I figured out Faye Dunaway's plotline well before the reveal. Not what one would call a happy story but unfortunately much closer to reality as a result.
4) Netflix's Ramped Up War On VPNs Comes With Collateral Damage: "Torrent Freak points to a growing number of complaints on Reddit from folks saying that they suddenly can't access content they pay for, and none of them appear to be using a VPN or proxy to disguise their real IP address. Netflix's response so far has been in a few instances to try and blame the user's ISP."
5) I came across this meme and realized there was no reason it couldn't be used for meta. So here are my responses:
a) How many works do you have on AO3?
240
b) What's your total AO3 word count?
555,821
c) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?
85 fandoms have been mentioned in my meta but the fandom I've written the most before is Fandom. I think most of it is about what we as fans do rather than about the canon itself.
Relatedly I have 8 meta series now and they are:
Fanfic Genres
Supernatural Reviews
Convention Write Ups
Reviews
Celebrating Writers (an SPN series)
Music Reviews
Concert Reviews
Reading Fan Vids
d) What are your top 5 metas by kudos?
Why Loki/Tony Can Work
The Merits of Jane Foster/Loki
Review of Kings Rising: Book 3 of the Captive Prince series
Keeping it Small But Fresh
Fannish Origins
e) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?
Yes! I don't mind if someone has nothing to say but it's always interesting to see if someone engages with the discussion.
f) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you've written?
I don't know about it being crazy, but I have frequently written meta about more than one canon at a time. In fact, when I was starting to watch Supernatural I wrote several metas comparing it to BtVS.
g) Have you ever received hate on a meta?
Sort of? Nothing stands out but I have definitely had people bringing their own issues into the comments.
h) Have you ever had a meta stolen?
Actually yes, twice (that I know of). I had people repost my entire post at LJ on another LJ account.
i) Have you ever had a meta translated?
No, but this would be very cool!
j) Have you ever co-written a meta before?
No, though I suspect that as with many pieces of meta, I was often inspired to write something after reading someone else's essay.
k) What's your all time favorite ship?
I'm not sure. The problem is that while I have been very into certain ships, after reading a lot of fic I tend to tire of it. I suspect I'm not bored of the ship itself but I just have little interest in reading stuff that seems much the same as what I've read before. I'm not much of a re-reader.
I should add that this also applies to gen in the sense that if the same trope(s) are being used over and over in a fandom, at some point I'm going to get tired of it.
l) What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?
I do have a pending meta that needs to be finished but I think I'm going to get to it before the end of the year. I'd like to anyway.
m) What are your writing strengths?
Not sure - insight? Making connections?
n) What are your writing weaknesses?
Too many run-on thoughts and lack of specificity. Whenever I return to edit something I'm always struck by how I thought I was being clear about something and wasn't. I guess it's because I'm talking to myself and of course I know what I mean! Though this isn't always true, because sometimes I've gone back and wondered where I was going with something. So I'm always assuming too much when I'm writing.
o) What was the first fandom you wrote for?
The Monkees. It was an analysis of their movie Head.
p) What's your favorite meta you've written?
I don't know if I have a favorite but I know that there are a few metas I end up referring to often, and those are What's in an AU? and What is RPF anyway?
If I had a favorite it would probably be a meta I felt was under-read such as Overcoming Tropes and Culling Sacred Cows: How The Wire Succeeded.
View poll: Kudos Footer-309
Comments at Dreamwidth
.