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This journal lives at rusty-halo.com [27 Mar 2030|08:59pm] This journal lives at rusty-halo.com. I cross-post to Dreamwidth, InsaneJournal, JournalFen, and LiveJournal. Comments are enabled at my own site and at Dreamwidth. I appreciate comments--anyone can comment on public entries without registering. If you want to get to know each other, add me at whichever site you prefer and register at my site so you can comment on locked entries. (If you just want to read public entries, watch my RSS feed.) post comment

a whole new way for Supernatural fandom to mess with my head [09 Jul 2010|11:18pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3571 So I’m doing the thing I’ve done every night for the past two months, which is watch a few episodes of Supernatural (tonight with bonus mojitos because it’s Friday–don’t laugh at me, I am content with my utter geekery) and I realized I’ve just watched two episodes and have no idea what happened in them because I spent the entire time studying what color filters they’re using in relation to the way Dean’s hair catches the light and trying to figure out if he’s REALLY BLOND or REALLY BRUNET and just… DAMMIT, FANDOM. (He’s brunet, except for those instances where his hair catches the light just right and he looks blond, which means he’s neither, or both, or there is no true answer to the question because color is relative and truth is relative and THE NATURE OF REALITY ITSELF IS SUBJECTIVE. *has a headache*) Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

I know you’re all dying for an update on the state of my SPN obsession [09 Jul 2010|04:58pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3562 jaydk has been annoyed at me for liking Supernatural for a bunch of reasons. The other day we had a silly faux argument that went like this: jaydk: I can’t believe you have a crush on a blond! Me: DEAN. IS. NOT. BLOND. Today on fandom_wank: a whole wank about people having a serious fight over whether Dean is blond. In other news, I actually got jaydk to watch SPN with me! We marathoned the first season and the start of season two, focusing on the family and character stuff and skipping the MOTWs. The good news is, she liked the show enough that she agreed to watch more even when it’s not my birthday. Yay!!! The bad news is, she hates Dean. She says he’s “smug.” I keep trying to explain that his asshole qualities are just a defense mechanism under which lies an adorably vulnerable woobie, but she’s not buying it. She does seem to like Sam, but that may just be because he’s Not Dean. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW ONE PERSON CAN BE SO VERY WRONG. But of course, it was incredibly generous of her to watch a show she expected to loathe with me for my birthday.* Also we made mixed drinks and ate chocolate rum pudding cake (from Vegan with a Vengeance) and it was very fun. (Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes, btw.) * Although I should note that I have watched many hours of Korean soap operas and Japanese tennis musicals that I have no interest in because she likes them, so it’s not like I’m torturing her with Supernatural out of nowhere. Last weekend I visited nwhepcat at herself_nyc’s place, where we chatted about fanfic and watched Supernatural 1×03, 1×18, and 2×20 in an attempt to hook herself_nyc on the show. Not sure if it worked, but it was certainly fun to squee with other fans. :) Also, my friend Cat came to stay with me last weekend. We cooked a massive amount of food because I’d just gotten a ton of veggies from my CSA, stuck our heads out my window to watch at least three sets of NYC fireworks, got incredibly drunk on homemade mojitos, and watched most of Supernatural season two. She kept asking to watch more, because unlike jaydk, she knows how to appreciate a beautiful man. (I’M KIDDING. I KNOW IT’S ALL A MATTER OF TASTE.) But anyway, it is very fun to watch with someone who shares my particular squee. Plus, Dean is so lovable in season two–I think maybe it’s my favorite season after all. Dean’s slow breakdown and the immensity of his love for Sam are both so moving. I’m rewatching season three now and it really does feel like a slap in the face in comparison. Is it wrong if I just pretend “Malleus Maleficarum” was a nightmare I had about how misogynistic a television show could potentially be, and not an actual episode of a show I continue to watch? :( :( :( Anyway, at least I am enjoying fanfic. I’ve been working my way through pdragon76’s stories, after adoring the podfic versions of Blind Spot and The Long Narrow Rope. Those are still my two favorites, but all of her stories are great. She writes with fantastic pacing and with a sense of humor, and is Dean focused and into whumpage, of which I very much approve. She also doesn’t skimp on the plot, which … well, I’m definitely finding that whumpage + adventure plot is one of my favorite things ever, but whumpage without plot pretty much leaves me wanting to claw my own eyes out. It’s odd, how very fine the line is between kink and squick. Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

Squeeful Linkspam [02 Jul 2010|02:14pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3553 I’m pretty sure that Matt Bomer is the most attractive man on television. White Collar season two starts in less than two weeks! There are ads all over the subway–it feels like they decorated just for me. Here is a fic in which John Crichton attempts to explain the plot of Hamlet to the crew of Moya. It’s got perfect character voices and is awesome. I’m currently listening to Blind Spot by pdragon76, read by twasadark. There is so much fantastic well-written hurt/comfort gen in SPN fandom. ♥♥♥ This review of Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the funniest things I’ve read in a while: Another one of the ways in which this movie pokes fun at the very idea of epic fantasy: the endless confusing voice-over, in which tons of important story developments happen off-camera while we’re looking at a picture of a tree or a CG mountain. Because why do we privilege the story of the hero’s progress over the tree?, Shaymalan asks. Why does the original Star Wars insist on showing us Luke Skywalker training with a lightsaber, instead of telling us that Luke Skywalker trained with a lightsaber while showing us a tracking shot of some rocks? Why pretend that one thing is more important than the other thing? Why pretend that any of it has any meaning? As a wise man once wrote, “A menu is as good as a myth.” Also, if the original Star Wars had given us a tracking shot of rocks, with a voiceover explaining that Luke was learning to use a lightsaber someplace else, it would have freed up more screen time for Luke to stand around shouting, “JAWAS! THERE IS SAND UNDER YOUR FEET!” Did you read that zombie AU recap of the neverending tennis match over at the Guardian? That was hilarious, too. Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

just venting/rambling [01 Jul 2010|06:36pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3538 The other day I was so upset by this example of misogyny in Supernatural fandom that I thought I might quit watching the show. Not really in protest, because my watching or not makes no difference whatsoever, but because things like this make me feel so sick that it kills my ability to enjoy the aspects of the show that I do love. (Link via cofax7; more discussion in comments.) Then today I saw the raging cesspit of homophobia in many of the comments to this doctorwho entry and was reminded that it’s not just SPN fandom that has problems. *sigh* (How can people say “they erased the queer because it’s a family show” and not realize how grotesquely homophobic that statement is?) I’m almost tempted to watch when Torchwood returns, even though I freaking hate that show. They’re bringing Gwen back and not catering to their fandom misogynists–see SPN? It can be done! (I want Russell T Davies to run every show ever. *misses him*) ( confused ramble about problematic media and whether to watch it ) Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

Meta: Supernatural 5×09, The Real Ghostbusters [26 Jun 2010|02:10pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3521 Last night I watched Supernatural 5×09, “The Real Ghostbusters.” You guys, I freaking love this episode. It’s the most accurate and flattering depiction of a fan convention that I’ve ever seen in the mainstream media. ( A long rave about why The Real Ghostbusters is a love letter to fandom ) Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

SPN Fic Rec: The Red Series by Big Pink [25 Jun 2010|06:37pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3525 I just finished reading big_pink’s Red series. It consists of six stories, conveniently available in PDF form via her website. I just have to rave, because this is some of the best fiction I’ve ever read, fan- or no. It’s like she honed in on the most profound, emotionally powerful aspects of the series, and used these fics to delve deeper than the show ever went. She writes beautifully about family, loss, grief, and love. She also creates incredibly well-researched and vivid environments for each story, from loggers and protesters in the Pacific Northwest, to a high school in Niagara Falls, to an old silver mine in Nevada, to a shantytown in Nebraska during the Great Depression. Plus, she writes a variety of fabulous three-dimensional female OCs (if you’re looking for a primer on how to write a female OC without wandering into Sue territory, read these). They are also very well-plotted, well-paced, and snappily written. I think my favorite was the last one, The New Deal– it’s basically about how Sam and Dean deal (or fail to deal) with Dean’s impending death in S3. It could so easily have fallen into angsty tropes, but instead she uses imagery and symbolism to create something more evocative and thought-provoking than I’ve seen from fanfic in a long time. (Now I’m off to read her standalone stories.) Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

Links on fandom’s latest racefail [25 Jun 2010|03:50pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3510 Signalboosting in case anyone’s missed it: amazonziti has been compiling links related to the J2 racefail story and its fallout. Her first post is here and contains links to an initial summary of the situation and the early reactions. Her second post is here and contains more good links as well as some good meta about the misuse of terms like “safe space” and “silencing” by members of privileged groups who are uncomfortable with being criticized. Some of the posts linked are profoundly important in light of the derailing and tone arguing that’s been going on. If you don’t have time to read them all, she’s starred her favorites. I’m posting links because I don’t really feel comfortable writing meta about this–I think the best way I can respond right now is to read and think, and to signalboost as a way to encourage other privileged people to do the same. Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

I’m trying to figure out how Dean fits in with my various OTCs [22 Jun 2010|06:16pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3490 ( A long post about why I love Dean Winchester, in which everything comes back to Lymond. Yeah, I dunno. ) Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

I think I’ve discovered the limit of how far I’ll go to drool over pretty boys [22 Jun 2010|05:53pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3489 I was going to ask my flist if I should watch Stonehenge Apocalypse, but I realized the more appropriate question is “How much alcohol do I need to drink before I try to watch Stonehenge Apocalypse?” *sigh* The things I lower myself to in pursuit of pretty… I’m also trying to watch Smallville season four. However. I’m five episodes in and I think I’ve discovered the limit of how far I’ll go to drool over pretty boys–nothing can make this dreck worth watching. So far all Jensen’s gotten to do is make googly eyes and kissy faces at Lana. And it’s a good thing I live alone because I’m pretty sure a roommate would be weirded out by me yelling “SHUT UP AND DIE!!!!” every time a member of the Kent family appears onscreen.* Also, the plots are insipid and the characters are uniformly stupid and I’m way too be old to be watching people in their mid-twenties pretend to be high school students and if Michael Rosenbaum couldn’t save this I don’t know why I thought Jensen Ackles might be able to. Alas. * I have a huge problem with way the show idealizes rural white middle-USA patriarchal culture while totally refusing to acknowledge the sexism, racism, and homophobia that prop up its “family values” mythology. But that’s too long to shout at my TV and “DIE!!!!” is way more cathartic. jaydk and I went to see Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson two weekends ago. It’s … like the ads say, an emo rock musical about Andrew Jackson, which I think you kind of have to see to understand. It was quite fun–we were in the front row, our tickets came with a free drink, and the lead guy was incredibly hot. Seriously, if you want an excuse to stare at pretty men wearing lots of smeared black eyeliner, this is the play for you. The play was mostly goofy (the guy playing Martin Van Buren was hilarious) but it was a pretty sharp political satire, too. ( a bit more about the play ) Afterward jaydk and I wandered around the East Village and got really drunk, which I haven't done in a while and which was a lot of fun. And... possibly this was the alcohol, but she agreed to watch Supernatural with me as a birthday present. Clearly she is THE BEST FRIEND EVER. :) Now I am plotting which episodes to show... I'll have to choose the most sympathetic Dean-centric ones, of course, because I want her to see why he is so wonderful (and to stop looking at me like I've lost my mind). Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

Still figuring out the world of SPN fanfic [22 Jun 2010|02:58pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3474 Oddly enough, after reading quite a bit of Sam/Dean and Dean/Castiel, the genre of Supernatural fanfic that’s most pinging my interest is… gen. (This is a little bit threatening to my identity as primarily a slash reader!) I think it’s because I go to fanfic to zoom in on and delve deeper into the bits of canon that most appeal to me, and in Supernatural that’s Dean, his martyr complex, his dark side, his defense mechanisms, his hidden layers–and all of these things are so tied into the way he interacts with his family. Dean’s most intense relationships in the text are gen relationships, with Sam and John. So far no Sam/Dean slash story has really hit my narrative kinks, although quite a few of them are wonderful stories, well-written and totally worth reading. The problem is that they fundamentally alter the dynamic that appeals to me and makes me want to read fic in the first place–they make it about Sam and Dean dealing with their romantic/sexual feelings for each other, when what interests me is them dealing with their relationship as brothers, the effect of their (at best) negligent father, Dean as the substitute parental figure, Sam trying to assert his independence, Dean trying to take all the responsibility onto himself, sacrificing his own needs to protect Sam, and Dean so obsessively needing Sam as family because he never learned how to live for anything else. What exists in canon is already more interesting to me than a romance would be, so I want more of it, not a transformation of it. Of course, most of the slash ships I get into aren’t technically canon either, but in most of those cases it’s much easier for me to read a slash subtext–adding the romance aspect just makes the relationship more interesting and doesn’t alter what interests me about the dynamic. Like, what interests me in Peter and Neal is their growing respect and admiration and fondness and trust for each other, and if you add romance to that it just intensifies it. Whereas if you add romance to Sam and Dean, it crowds out the aspects of the relationship that I’m really there for. Here’s a fic rec that I totally loved: Red by big_pink. It’s a well-written, excellent-paced plotty adventure, which is awesome, but what I particularly love is its intense focus on Dean and what he’s willing to do for his family. Maybe it overdoes the woobification and angst, but OTOH, nothing in it feels implausible as part of the Winchester family backstory. It’s like someone wrote an entire fic to fill in the history behind Dean’s “[John] wouldn’t be proud of me–he’d tear me a new one,” and John’s “I put too much on your shoulders, I made you grow up too fast. You took care of Sammy, and you took care of me. You did that. And you didn’t complain, not once.” I’m going to have a hard time watching the show and and not thinking of this fic as canon. (It’s also one hell of an absorbing story.) Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

Couple of posts that resonated with me today [18 Jun 2010|01:12pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3465 Two posts that resonated with me, both reacting to the discussions surrounding the racist J2 fic. They both pretty much say what I was thinking after banging my head against my desk due to reading a bunch of comments to the effect of, “Won’t somebody please think about the feelings of the poor racists?” poisontaster, here: So if the choice is between some of us being uncomfortable while the rest of us being blissfully unaware, I say FUCK THAT SHIT. I am not invested in, nor will I buy into a system where only some of us get to be comfortable and that on the backs of other people. We can ALL be afraid and uncomfortable, as far as I’m concerned. Or we can ALL be comfortable, but either way, we’re doing it together or I’m going to keep speaking out, raising hell and harshing squee. Because I’m in this too. And as much as you, I GET A SAY. So if people are scared, I say, “Good! Join the club!” If people are scared of what to write, I say, “Good! Maybe they’ll fail less if they think more!” If some people leave fandom because it’s too hard to think someone might disapprove, I’ll point them toward the long line of people abandoning fandom because it’s too hostile of an environment to make it worthwhile and say, “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!” musesfool, here: I think it’s this hypocrisy – I can say whatever I like, even if it hurts a lot of people, but nobody can call me on it or they’re SO MEAN/having a chilling effect/infringing on my “rights” – that really frustrates me and makes me fear for humanity, because it’s just so fucking entitled and moronic and it makes me want to set the people who argue that way ON FIRE WITH MY BRAIN. Oh boohoo, so you have to think a little bit about what you’re saying and how you’re saying it before you say it. Your life, so hard! If you claim to be any kind of writer at all, YOU SHOULD ALREADY BE DOING THAT, regardless of the fact that it can also help to MAKE YOU A BETTER HUMAN BEING because it leads to you NOT HURTING OTHER PEOPLE (as much, and unintentionally). Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

Have you read those posts about affirmational vs transformational fandom? [16 Jun 2010|06:56pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3451 I went to a meeting of the Supernatural NYC Meetup Group a couple weekends ago. We met at 11am in the childrens’ resource room of the Brooklyn Heights Public Library (srsly) and marathoned several Dean episodes via a laptop hooked up to a projector. It was a bit… surreal. (Also I’d slept only three hours and got up early on a Saturday, so I was barely functional, in addition to my usual pathological shyness in social situations.) It was fun to watch the show with other real life people. The organizers obviously worked hard to run the event, and everyone was very welcoming to me. I’m not sure if it was the right place for me, though. I’ve been trying to put my finger on why and I think it ties into the posts I’ve been reading recently on metafandom about two different approaches to fandom, affirmational vs transformational. I’m pretty firmly on the transformational side, especially when it comes to something like Supernatural, which I find incredibly problematic, and which I’m into for the fandom and fanwork and fan criticism at least as much as for the text itself. The Meetup group was pretty firmly on the affirmational side, at least as far as I could tell (some of the others were shy, too). Only one person acknowledged being into fanfic and she did so like there was something embarrassing about it. There wasn’t much discussion and what there was wasn’t critical* or analytical–it was very positive and focused on the actors and on behind-the-scenes trivia. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this–it just hit me that what I wanted wasn’t just real life people to watch the show with, it was real life people who share something closer to my approach to fandom. (Again, I mean no offense to the people there.) ANYWAY. The point is that I’ve been absolutely fascinated by the discussions about the differences between affirmational and transformational approaches to fandom, because they put names on phenomena that I’ve been aware of for a long time but haven’t been able to articulate. If you’re interested, this post by obsession_inc is a great starting point. I’d also recommend this post by oliviacirce and this particular comment thread, and also this post by damned_colonial. Obviously, there’s overlap between the two approaches, and the definitions are still being hashed out, but there is definitely something really interesting to explore here. Also, kaigou took this as a starting point for a post about the structural differences between the two approaches to fandom–how affirmational fandom places the author at the center and how transformational fandom is far more decentralized and chaotic, complete with these amazing diagrams. (It takes a while to figure out but they’re definitely worth looking at.) I’m not sure if I agree with her conclusion about anti-fanfic pro-writers feeling threatened by BNFs, but I love her illustrations of how fandoms evolve to center around fan-created ideas, and how far removed these fan-created zones can be from the canon’s creator or hir intent. It really rings true with my experience of Supernatural, which is that I’m far more interested in learning what soundingsea or netweight think about the show than about what Eric Kripke does, and I’m infinitely more interested in reading jolielaide’s fanfic recs than in reading tie-in novels (the Meetup group is also doing a tie-in novel book club, which I couldn’t be less interested in). I think it also explains why I’ve always felt so much happier at fan-run conventions, the ones focused on fanworks and the voices of fans themselves, rather than at those pro cons where you worship at the altar of your superiors and if you’re lucky they’ll validate your life by acknowledging your existence (often for an offensively large sum of money). (Sorry, some residual bitterness there.) ( a bit more about the meetup ) Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

In which I discover podfic [16 Jun 2010|04:06pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3447 I’ve been facing a dilemma, which is that all winter I’d been looking forward to walking around NYC once the weather warmed up, but for the past month and a half I’ve been so obsessed with Supernatural that I can’t seem to tear myself away from my computer/television. Yesterday I found the solution. I decided to walk partway home from work, but after about five minutes the fanfic withdrawal became too intense. So I pulled out my Android phone, typed in “Supernatural podfic recs,” downloaded the first interesting thing that came up, unzipped it with a free app, and listened to it as I walked along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, over the Brooklyn Bridge, up Mulberry Street, up 2nd Ave, to Viva Herbal Pizza, to the L train, to home. The fic was We Walk The Same Line by poisontaster; the podfic is read by twasadark and can be downloaded here. This story is ideal for audio form, an atmospheric adventure with perfectly in-character dialog, just enough humor and action to keep it interesting, and absolutely superb show-not-tell characterization of Dean and Sam. I love how the author shows how much the boys love each other underneath their snarky banter and the fact that they drive each other crazy. Her characterization of Dean’s martyr complex and protective instinct toward Sam is particularly excellent. I had never listened to a podfic before–I guess I always thought it would be weird. But that was awesome! Listening to it in audio form forced me to slow down and really immerse myself in the world of the story in a way that reading doesn’t. Now I need to download more podfic! Does anyone have Dean-centric recs? I spend an hour and a half on the subway every day and this would be a great way to kill time. (I’ve been reading fic on my phone, but the tiny bright screen is not really made for long-term reading and is starting to give me headaches. Podfic definitely sounds like a better plan.) Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

Another signal boost post [16 Jun 2010|03:17pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3438 Signal boosting: someone wrote a horribly racist J2 fic set in post-quake Haiti. You can read the unfunnybusiness write-up here, a collection of offensive quotes from the fic here, and a collection of links to relevant discussions here. The fic is pretty much made of racist tropes and the apology is a textbook fauxpology. *sigh* If you don’t get what’s wrong, bookshop linked to this page about privilege, which is one of the best I’ve seen. Also glockgal wrote this ridiculously fantastic racebending SPN comic. (If you don’t know of the racebending revenge ficathon, it’s here.) (Between the recent Wincon thing and now this, I’m sort of going back and forth between “Why did I choose to get into this failtastic fandom?” and “Hey, wait, racism and sexism can happen in any fandom, it’s not an indictment against SPN fandom as a whole, just against the people in it who fail.”) Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

Apparently I have a thing for hurt/comfort… [11 Jun 2010|05:15pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3423 I’ve read some amazing fic recently. My favorites from the past few days: * Suck It Up by strangeandcharm Supernatural, post-S4, Dean/Castiel, NC-17. Author’s summary: Dean’s hungry. Dean’s very hungry. My notes: Vampire!Dean. This is ultra-dark, scary, disturbing, and angsty, with a good plot and [highlight for spoiler] a delightful schmoopy ending. You get all the traumatic angst of Castiel breaking down trying to save scary vampire Dean, and then all the traumatic angst of re-humanized Dean having to deal with his memories of tormenting Castiel and Sam. Excellent characterization of Dean and Castiel, with awesome Sam characterization, too. * All the King’s Horses and All the King’s Men by alyse Dark Angel, post-S2, Alec/Logan, R. Author’s summary: Logan had grown used to the quiet in the evenings, but that was before he took a sharp left into Surrealsville, population two. (From the prompt, “Alec having seizures and Logan helping him through it.”) My notes: Fantastic, visceral, vividly-detailed hurt/comfort with wonderful characterization. Great exploration of Alec’s vulnerabilities; perfectly tolerable even if you hate Logan. * Every single Dark Angel fic by aflightoffancy. To be honest, they’re not actually all that good, but they’re fantastically satisfying. They’re all Max/Alec romantic adventures, with great plots, great banter, and ridiculously indulgent hurt/comfort (obviously, for some of us, that’s a plus). Unfortunately they tend to make Alec a little too perfect and to sideline Max more than I’m comfortable with, but on the plus side I’m totally in favor of their dismissal of Logan. These stories are exactly what I was craving after yelling at my screen for most of Dark Angel season two. (I don’t know if anyone else will get these references, but basically what these fics do is turn Alec/Max into a classic Spike/Buffy shipfic–it’s all about how they’re equals and can have adventures and banter and Max can be her true self and how Alec can match Max on a level that Riley Xander Logan never could. And they turn Alec into Lymond*–so it’s all about getting through Alec’s charismatic mask to the epicly traumatized woobie underneath, and hurting him gratuitously while reveling in how superhumanly competent he is.) * I feel like I’d be a lot more successful at getting people to read the Lymond books if I could just explain that past all the obscure Renaissance literary references and convoluted 16th century politics lies the greatest hurt/comfort epic ever written. Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

White Collar Comes Clean [08 Jun 2010|01:54pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3419 I went to the White Collar Comes Clean event at the Paley Center last night, which was kind of fun. I was a little out of it, though, because I’d been in the middle of reading a Dark Angel fic (via my smartphone) and couldn’t really focus on anything but wanting to get back to it. I am honestly a little bit concerned about my sanity. (It wasn’t even a particularly *good* Dark Angel fic, but it was an incredibly satisfying one in which Max recognized that Logan was a boring douche and that Alec was totally and completely awesome, and then Max and Alec had bantery romantic adventures together.) Anyway, there are pictures and write-ups of the White Collar event here. I got there late but ended up in a lone seat in the fourth row. It would’ve been more fun if I’d known someone there and had someone to talk to. The audience was full of fans and must’ve been 90% female; the woman sitting next to me spent most of her time primping and leaning forward, blocking my view. Marsha Thomason probably did the most talking of any cast member, and there was a very moving question from an audience member who talked about how inspiring it is to have a lesbian character of color as an accepted member of the team. Also, I realized why her dialog delivery seemed so stilted in the pilot–she’s English and was struggling a bit with the US accent. I definitely think she improved in her second episode. She was a lot of fun at the event. Willie Garson closed the event with a surprisingly moving and thought-provoking speech about how television shows couldn’t exist without their fans, and how they become fan-driven as time goes on. It was interesting because it hit me how much more fan-driven and collaborative TV is than many other art forms, especially now that the Internet facilities so much two-way communication between show and fandom. This can be bad, obviously, if a show panders to the lowest common denominator, but it can also be really cool as canon takes on a life of its own and reacts to what fans love, and I think it’s a big part of why I keep returning to television as my fannish focus despite its many flaws. It’s a lot like a concert in a way, that when it’s good it’s a shared experience between artist and fan and each heightens the others experience. TV is like that symbiotic artist/fan concert experience, drawn out over months or years instead of the space of a few hours. There was also some talk about how character-driven the show is and how Neal and Peter love each other (complete with Bomer/DeKay hug) but it wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before in other interviews. At the end, they gave out White Collar cookies. (Someone posted a photo here.) I couldn’t resist taking one because I wanted the label, although now I’m going to have to find a non-vegan to feed the actual cookies to. :P *** Dreamwidth now has expandable cut tags–you just click them open while reading your flist and don’t have to open a new tab. It’s awesome. I’m starting to seriously think about closing my hosted blog and moving over there permanently. Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

So, uh, I watched season two of Dark Angel, because Jensen Ackles is pretty [07 Jun 2010|12:51pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3407 Dark Angel season two, in a nutshell: Jessica Alba: I’m a gorgeous, snarky, brilliant genetically-enhanced super-soldier, on the run from a corrupt government and conflicted about how to deal with my emotions thanks to my dark past. Adorable!Baby!Dean: Hey, so am I! Want to have exciting adventures together with lots of clever banter and smoldering sexual tension? Jessica Alba: No, I’m going to ignore you entirely because I’m too busy moping over my creepy, self-righteous, passive-aggressive, controlling, unbearably boring douche of an ex-not-quite-boyfriend. Unbearably Boring Douche: *is creepy, self-righteous, passive-aggressive, controlling, unbearably boring, and in EVERY FUCKING SCENE OH MY GOD GET HIM OFF MY SCREEN BEFORE I THROW SOMETHING AT IT* Jessica Alba: *mopes for an entire season* Adorable!Baby!Dean: *stands in the background looking gorgeous and having nothing to do* Me: *has traumatic flashbacks of watching Veronica Mars for Logan and Buffy for Spike* This show was terrible. It’s sad, too, because the premise is awesome. It’s a well-realized near-future dystopia with a great three-dimensional, complex female lead* that regularly passes the Bechdel test and includes gay characters and characters of color. Unfortunately the writing is trite, predictable, cliched, and insipid. I’ve seen more nuanced and thoughtful childrens’ cartoons. (Seriously, it’s got an evil snake cult and a goofy dog-man and one-dimensional cackling villains and cliche!mobsters and cliche!vampires and, dude, my brain is melting out of my ears just thinking about it.) * I assume she was more interesting in the first season, which would have been more about exploring her as a character; unfortunately she really does spend most of the second season moping over the boring douche guy. I’m guessing maybe the first season was better–I started by watching 1×17 and 1×18 before moving on to season two, and both of those episodes were promising–the exploration of Max’s past at Manticore and the way it fucked up those children was dark and actually interesting. Plus 1×17 has three women of color, two of whom are gay, passing the Bechdel test and being at the center of the narrative, and 1×18 has Jensen Ackles + blood, tears, and bondage. It’s really too bad. If anything, it highlights how much better Supernatural is. If you’d asked me before I saw either show, I would have assumed that Dark Angel would be better-written. But actually Supernatural is more willing to take risks, to give its characters genuinely complex choices instead of silly manufactured ones, to let its characters be dark and make real mistakes with consequences, to allow ambiguity and refuse to provide easy answers, and (especially in later seasons) to play with genre and subvert audience expectations. There was just nothing smart, challenging, or interesting about Dark Angel. :( That said, I don’t regret that I watched it. Young Jensen Ackles was so incredibly pretty, and you get more shirtless scenes of him in one season of Dark Angel than you get in the entirety of Supernatural. (Plus his body type was way more to my taste back then–I’m not so fond of bulky guys.) His eyes are so pretty and those eyelashes! and those lips! And his acting isn’t bad–although he doesn’t have much to do, he does get to cry and be vulnerable a couple times. I would be much happier if I’d watched an Ackles-scenes-only edit of the show, though. BTW, if anyone has Alec-centric fic recs, I would love to read some. I’m going right back to Supernatural but it would be good to have something to take the icky taste out of my mouth before I finish with Dark Angel entirely. Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

Linkspam & Random Updates [03 Jun 2010|01:44pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3401 * New White Collar promo. It’s mostly old footage but it sure does make the show look sexy. (Where’s Elizabeth, though?) * I GOT A SECOND ROW TICKET TO SEE JOHN SIMM IN HAMLET! :) Now I just have to figure out how the hell I’m going to make a detour to Sheffield on my way from NYC to Paris (for the Lymond thing). It’s looking like I can fly from JFK to Manchester and take a train to Sheffield, see the play, take a train to London and spend a day there, then take a train to Paris. Icelandair is currently showing round trips from JFK to Manchester with a return from Paris to JFK for about $700 total–that’s a better price than I expected, although I’m a little iffy about the stopover in Reykjavik. (Does anyone out there have experience with any of this–is that a sane plan or would you recommend something else?) * jaydk and I went to see Metropolis at Film Forum. The restored footage was way cool, but the image would’ve been better if we’d waited for the DVD. Movie theaters have pretty much lost their allure now that I have a giant television. * We also got tickets to see Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, which is um, a political satire in the form of an emo rock musical? I don’t know, but it looks fun. * Stone Temple Pilots are touring, but they’re not playing NYC proper. I don’t want to go out to Jones Beach, but maybe I’ll go to the Borgata in Atlantic City. Apparently there’s now a train that goes there from NYC, and the Borgata is a good venue–it’s small and GA and half the crowd leaves in the middle to gamble, which means I can usually get right up front (I saw Depeche Mode standing in the third row there). But on the minus side it’s a long trip, it’s expensive, and they have a new album which means I’d have to stand through a bunch of new songs that I don’t care about. Hmmm. * I did get a ticket to see “BlackDiamondSkye” at Madison Square Garden, which is Alice in Chains and the Deftones apparently? I dunno, I couldn’t resist seeing AIC at MSG, even though this is probably too much dude music for me, and I really don’t like the new AIC songs. * rm has been posting interesting thoughts on season six of BtVS and, man, thinking about that era brought back all these unhappy emotions from seven years ago that I didn’t even know I still had. I reassert my vow never to become so negatively emotionally involved in a fandom again. (Note my complete lack of posts about Moffat’s Who.) Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

I’m Still in the Grip of a Complete Obsession with Supernatural [02 Jun 2010|07:56pm] http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3397 GIP (icon is from here by temporalranger). I had an awesome Memorial Day weekend. My friend Cat surprised me with a visit on Friday night and after listening to me babble about the pretty boys agreed to watch Supernatural with me. We watched 1×21, 1×22, and 2×01. She thought it was too melodramatic (dude, that’s the point) and she couldn’t stop laughing at Jared Padalecki’s line readings, but she also couldn’t stop mentioning how cute Dean is and she insisted on watching 2×01 because she wanted to know what happened next. :) Then on Sunday, soundingsea came to visit, which was totally and completely awesome. We were going to watch an episode, but we were having so much fun talking that we couldn’t really interrupt ourselves for 42 minutes, so instead we watched fanvids and played each other songs that reminded us of the show. We drank a bottle of white wine and ate brownies and she stayed over until 1am and it was so fun and I wish she lived closer! Anyway, I haven’t been posting because I’ve been immersed in a sea of Supernatural fanwork. I haven’t been in a fandom this rich with good content since Buffy. Yesterday was officially the day when I got the Sam/Dean thing. I’ve been reading everything good that I can get my hands on–jolielaide sent me an amazing recs list, and I’ve been following various other links and recs. I just somehow went from “I’m kind of squicked by the incest thing but I’m reading for the delicious Dean angst and the awesome writing” to “OMG SAM/DEAN! THEY LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH! AND I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!” It wasn’t one story that changed my mind–just the cumulative effect. (I still don’t really see any sexual subtext in canon, but whatever, the emotional codependency is there with or without the erotic component.) Also I still can’t quite believe that I actually said to myself, “You are missing out on a whole lot of awesome fic just because you have a silly old-fashioned incest squick–you should try to get over that” and then did. (Whatever, they’re consenting adults and, oh yeah, fictional.) Then I’ve been having kind of an identity crisis because Sam/Dean is hot, but Dean/Castiel is so hot too–what do I do? And then I realized, oh yeah, I CAN READ BOTH AND THAT DOUBLES THE AMOUNT OF FIC I GET TO READ. This fandom is awesome! I ship the two biggest ships! This has never happened to me before. I’m still not feeling the RPS thing, but… Jared and Jensen once moved in together? Seriously? I have nearly 200 tabs open in Firefox, which include dozens of half-read stories, all of which are good and worth reading. There are just so many! I’m also trying to read every (decently-written) post-Devil’s Trap fic that I can get my hands on, because that was such a perfect cliffhanger for inspiring a summer of hurt/comfort. I’ve discovered the Supernatural wiki, which is awesome–I’m hitting near-TV Tropes level of absorption. John’s journal is fascinating, and I’m pretty sure that more than half of these crack scenarios have actually happened in canon. There’s a Supernatural NYC MeetUp group and they’re having a marathon of Dean episodes on Saturday. I… don’t exactly have the highest opinion of MeetUp.com but the prospect of watching Supernatural episodes with other real life humans is incredibly alluring. Also I would totally go to Wincon if it wasn’t right around the same time I’ll be in Paris for LeSpit. :( netweight pointed me to a vid of Misha Collins on slash: “I think it is a great cultural asset. It unites the world.” I could become such a fan of this guy. He is cuter than Bambi. I read the entire archive of his tweets and didn’t get bored, which clearly means I have lost my mind. I need to stop watching things that make me choke from trying not to laugh. I’m pretty sure this is the crackiest fandom ever. (Also, I still can’t get past the fact that Becky writes Wincest in canon. I went frame-by-frame to read her story last night and it’s hurt/comfort Wincest at that!) I’ve hit season five in my SPN rewatch. (I’m thinking of buying a Blu-Ray player so that I can get the show in HD without the stupid network bug and intrusive ad graphics.) It’s very different the second time–themes and ambiguities and parallels and inconsistencies all become apparent when you know the whole story. I’ve been writing little meta thoughts that I might try to turn into real posts someday, if I can tear myself away from fic and vids long enough. Also OH MY GOD FRECKLES AND PRETTY EYES. *hyperventilates* Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

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