teafeather | Network

I haven't rewatched more B5, but I was watching various early episodes earlier this week for vid clipping purposes, and I'm still thinking about that.

( Full series spoilers, mostly Londo related )

tsuki_no_bara

first, happy slightly late birthday to

amberdreams! fabulous artist and generally nifty person. (and i was lucky enough to get her as my bigbang artist twice. it was very exciting.)

dancing boys: *tango*

and yes, one of them does have a rose between his teeth. :D

in other news my laptop desperately needs to be cleaned. oy.

in other other news i should be packing.

anyway. i know it was a week ago but i hope the americans in the audience had a nice long memorial day weekend and that the non-americans in the audience had a very chill monday. my sister and i went to new york to see a show (the outsiders which i'm mixed about) and eat a lot and see cousins and go on a walking tour of surviving gilded age mansions and check out the metropolitan museum (superfine: tailoring black style which was educational and fascinating and had some really cool clothes) (zoot suits!). fun was had, pictures were taken, seeing cousins is always fun. we met cousin n and his girlfriend s for dinner sunday night and sat in the restaurant for three hours and yes we kind of kept ordering food but at no point did anyone try to rush us out. (cousin n is the brother of cousin j who had the birthday party the weekend before so we'd just seen him and s but because they live in north new jersey and they're fun to hang out with we saw them again.) and for breakfast on monday we met cousin m who's the daughter of cousin s who lives in arizona. (there will be a quiz later. :D ) cousin m is getting her master's at columbia where the academic situation is a little tense, let's say. cousin m is not down with the way columbia basically rolled over and showed its belly to mango mussolini - the only thing capitulation gets you is more demands from the maladministration and a school full of anxious, unhappy students and faculty - she's thinking about going for a phd but her mom would like her to go somewhere slightly less fraught. but she wants to stay in the city. so we'll see. she looks like her mom, talks like her mom, gestures like her mom - it's kind of adorable but mostly uncanny. we get to see her once a year so it's always nice when it happens.

the outsiders won a tony for best musical last year, and some of the actors were nominated for best actor/best supporting but none of them won and honestly my sister and i were not surprised. i loved the music and the sound effects and the lighting design, and the choreography was good, and the set design was inventive (in one scene the socs drive an actual car out from offstage), but i think i imprinted too hard on the movie - and i've seen it too many times - to really appreciate a stage adaptation. and i still think it was a weird choice to turn into a musical. they added some character stuff (which i'm also mixed about) and changed a thing about the ending and while i did like it and i'm glad we saw it i'm not 100% sure i'd unreservedly recommend it. maybe if you didn't know the source material. i wonder if se hinton has seen it and if she has what does she think.

and then we came home and my roommate was gone to visit a friend of hers in idaho so i had the place to myself all last week and it was soooo nice. i signed the lease to the new apartment and am currently collecting estimates for movers and i really should be packing but ugh. there's a tiny part of me that wants to wait for my roommate to move out at which point i'll have more space but she's moving the 19th and i'm moving the 28th and i'm going to need more than nine days. so i can't do that. i've filled four boxes so far, yay, altho to be fair one of those boxes was never actually unpacked when i moved in here. ahem.

this past saturday i went to my sister's to eat chinese food (better this time) and (re)watch mission: impossible - dead reckoning part one in preparation for mission: impossible - the final reckoning. i'm excited for the last one and am having a hard time believing it really is the last one. maybe i should watch some of the earlier ones.

and last week was commencement week at the u which meant a. no one was around because b. it was all graduations all the time and thus c. it was VERY QUIET. i may or may not have left early on friday. i like seeing all the kids in their gowns and mortarboards and graduate hoods and everything. i don't go to any of the graduations because there's no reason to but i like the glimpse of pageantry.

and tuesday a week ago i got a haircut and it's short and i'm pleased.

speaking of graduations, kermit the frog gave the commencement speech at the university of maryland. imagine having kermit speak at your graduation. no word on whether or not miss piggy was there to cheer him on.

and this is slightly old news, but enjoy some photos of the annual cheese rolling in gloucester (the uk gloucester, not the north-of-boston gloucester). whoever gets to the bottom of the hill first wins the rolling cheese (because of course) and the winner of the men's race was a german guy who said "i risked my life for this. it's my cheese." i'm not going to argue with him. that hill is steep.

Current Mood: lazy
Current Music: it's very quiet in my house!

full_metal_ox posting in

fancake

Fandom: “Dark Lady” (Cher song), Barbie
Pairings/Characters: F/M; F vs. F; Narrator/Narrator’s Partner, Narrator & Madame Fifi (with Madame Fifi/Narrator UST?), Madame Fifi/Narrator’s Partner
Rating: Teen and Up
Length: 3:24
Content Notes: Major Character Death, anti-Romani stereotyping (including the bad word), (toy) Clothing Porn, corny boomer music, dominance-jockeying, infidelity, hootchy-kootch dancing, love triangle, murder, occultism, psychic malpractice, (toy) Scenery Porn, please tell us the cat survived?
Creator Tags: cher, darklady, barbiestopmotion, stopmotion, animation, megotoys, barbie

Creator Links: (YouTube):

74renren; (Instagram):

Warrencito

Theme: Female Relationships, Fanvid, Old Fandoms, Non-AO3 Works, Unconventional Format & Style

Summary: A stop motion tribute to the Cher hit “Dark Lady” done with vintage Barbie and Cher dolls with other special guests.

Reccer's Notes: The list of Content Notes should suffice to explain why this song was embraced by a particular sort of overwrought 70’s kid (1); Wright reimagines the cartoon music video that aired on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.

(1) Me, for example. Disclaimer: the song has become a guilty pleasure in retrospect not because of its melodramatic nature, but because of the realization that Romani probably caught a lot of grief over it.)

Fanwork Links: Dark Lady by Cher Dollmation, by Warren Wright.

Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Location: A Dark and Stormy Night.
Current Music: Implicit in the subject.

konsectatrix

Ok maybe not ALL the things.

As of today, Mr. Mouse has made his name change official and legal (no, it is not Mr. Mouse XD).
( text )

He has just wandered in with ice cream and reported the SEA dad who runs the 7/11 (who we all enjoy chatting with) is still trying to get him a date. His attempts to find Mr. Mouse a pretty girl don't seem to be going anywhere, so now he is offering him a nice hard-working Pakastani man. XD

******

I am doing a lot. Eh, it's too long, let me sum up;

( only 4 things, so it's not really a post )

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3097/

Pontoon bridges are just linear open-sided waterbeds.

https://xkcd.com/3097/

starwatcher posting in

fandom_checkin

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Monday, June 2, to midnight on Tuesday, June 3. (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #33192 Daily Check-in

Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 27

How are you doing?

I am OK.
18 (69.2%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
8 (30.8%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single.
9 (33.3%)

One other person.
13 (48.1%)

More than one other person.
5 (18.5%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

full_metal_ox posting in

common_nature

Taken on 21 June 2024 at 20:33 US Eastern Daylight Savings Time, as I hurried up the street through the break in the rain.

My limited equipment does the scene nothing even remotely resembling justice: neither the gauzy rainbow-sherbet luminosity nor the grand theatricality of the skyscape, with the air of a vintage book illustration or a meticulously painted film backdrop. A detail I particularly like is the small dark cumulus cloud at bottom center that suggests a person astride a charging (pig? bear? huge dog?)

firecat

"Peter Stormare Gives Update on ‘Constantine 2’; Keanu Reeves Reportedly Unhappy with Script" by Meagan Navarro (very similar articles seen on a number of other entertainment news sites).

"'But to do a sequel, the studios want to have, you know, cars flying in the air. They want to have people doing flip-flops and fighting action scenes,' Stormare said."

I think I agree with Keanu. We already have the John Wick franchise. IT IS AWESOME. But we don't need the Keanu-as-Constantine franchise to turn into another John Wick franchise.

I hope they resolve this soon because I am DROOLING at the chance to see Stormare play Lucifer again.

sholio

Okay, I found someone on Reddit who went through all the script books and typed up a summary of ALL the different Babylon 5 plans/plot/changes, and ... I can't believe I'm saying this, but if this is accurate, it sounds like the almost-cancellation/having to compress most of the plot into season 4 actually may have been an improvement over the original.

(It also sounds like JMS was constantly changing major details / long-term plans on the fly throughout all the seasons, which makes the cohesion of the final version even more impressive, even without taking into account all of the network meddling and cast changes! One reason why I've been going down a rabbit hole on this is because I really do think this is one of the most impressive creative feats I've ever seen pulled off, I want to understand it from a creative perspective myself, and the more I find out about it, the more impressed I am.)

( Link and details under the cut )

ysabetwordsmith posting in

common_nature

These pictures are from Sunday, but it's after midnight, so the post says Monday.

( Walk with me ... )

Current Mood: accomplished

mecurtin posting in

fandom_checkin

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Sunday, June 1, to midnight on Monday, June 2 (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #33188 Daily check-in poll

This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 28

How are you doing?

I am OK
19 (70.4%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now
8 (29.6%)

I could use some help
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single
11 (39.3%)

One other person
12 (42.9%)

More than one other person
5 (17.9%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

garryowen posting in

fancake

Fandom: Star Trek AOS (Reboot)
Pairings/Characters: Gaila & Christine Chapel
Rating: Teen
Length: 4,185 words
Creator Links:

igrockspock
Theme: Female relationships

Summary: Privacy and fairy tales are two concepts that don't translate well into Orion.

Content notes: This is about Gaila, so there are mentions of enslavement and prostitution.

Reccer's Notes: I am fascinated by stories of how people come to Starfleet and what it must be like to meet people from such disparate backgrounds. This story approaches this subject with grace as Gaila and Christine Chapel become roommates at Starfleet Academy and must figure out each other's very different values and expectations. By opening up to each other, they forge a friendship. I like how creative the author is in describing Gaila's background and culture. The cultural exchange never feels heavy-handed. It's conveyed with tiny, realistic details like borrowing things from someone else's desk.

In addition to the cultural exchange element, the story weaves in ideas of resilience and having the power to change your life.

Fanwork Links: Once Upon a Time. And the WONDERFUL podfic by nickelmountain.

niqaeli

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

kaberett

Reading. Finished: a comfort reread of your blue-eyed boys, which fit the bill excellently. Have only restrained myself from launching straight into (even if I could) make a deal with god (and for that matter the other two series) on the grounds that I need to reread Prophet (Helen MacDonald, Sin Blaché) so that I can properly appreciate rydra_wong's a word you've never understood.

You see, I read the first two paragraphs, had a lot of feelings, and promptly decided the way to Maximise Feelings would be to do the reread I didn't set off on immediately after first finishing it.

Thus far I am going "my goodness, I forgot a lot of the detail here". ( Spoilers... )

I have also listened to a little bit more of Furiously Happy (Jenny Lawson). There are definitely aspects I don't love (like, as someone who is taking an antipsychotic for non-psychosis reasons, and someone who can at this point go entire years plural without any significant episodes of even very mild psychosis, the way antipsychotics are discussed makes me... a bit twitchy), and I'm annoyed by how much more disruptive needing to reread sentences is in audio than in text (and how much more frequently I'm needing to do it), but also it turns out rather to my own surprise to be a thing I can listen to when I'm not doing anything else with my brain, provided I don't mind not really retaining any of it for longer than about five minutes.

Eating. I have been fed a slightly ludicrous amount of (more-or-less responsibly harvested) wild asparagus this week, which has been A Delight.

A Variety of other things, courtesy of having someone else doing meal prep all week. Still suspicious of Nutritional Yeast, mind.

FIRST STRAWBERRIES from the plot.

Growing. Swung by the plot this evening (courtesy of significant support from A) and in addition to STRAWBERRIES: ( Read more... )

sholio

It is really interesting how my interest in visual media has spun up again over the last six months or so. It's not that I physically couldn't watch for a while, it's just that over the last couple of years, say since 2022 or so, I wasn't really interested. I would have said it was just because I was happy with the stories in my head and didn't need more stories, but I was also completely uninterested in watching vids and similar, and now suddenly that switch has flipped the other way and I'm back to finding them fun and fascinating to watch, even for source canons I barely know.

(For me and vids, I'd say song choice is *the* big driver of whether I'll watch a vid or not - I'll nope out in seconds if I don't like the song, but I'll watch one even for a source canon I've never seen if it's a song I like.)

Anyway, in a shocking twist, last night I finally got around to subscribing the things I need to subscribe to in order to get vidding source for Babylon 5.

I capture vid source like no one else I've ever met (though maybe people who do this just don't talk about it) - I screencapture from the video window playing on my computer screen. I can do it other ways, and in fact have done it a number of other ways (from ripping DVDs to ripping DRM'd MP4s - I did all my Agent Carter vids that way; it does look very crisp and beautiful - to simply using the *cough ahem* broadcast downloads back on the 2000s; a lot of people did that for vidding back in the SGA/White Collar era, although it meant dealing with watermarks on the video). But I keep coming back to capturing video from screen because it's just so easy. I can get exactly the clip I want and only the clip I want without any extra trimming work, it's easy to skip around, and it means not having to rip and store a kabillionty episodes for a long source canon.

This stopped working for a while because of software measures to prevent it, but I figured out a relatively easy workaround for vidding MASH (disabling graphics acceleration in Chrome) and now I'm doing that for B5 as well - I just need a relatively clean streaming source without commercials. I was genuinely really amazed at how crisp MASH turned out for the vids I made for Festivids. The obvious downside to screencapturing video is that the quality can suffer, and there's also the possibility of the playback stuttering - I used to have this happen occasionally when I tried to capture too much video at once on older computers (circa 2006 or so), where it would drop frames when I'd save it if it was too much for the memory buffer to handle. These days, modern computers can handle quite a lot of video at a time (I do it in Quicktime, I think it's saving directly to the hard drive as I go, whereas before it was definitely doing some kind of intermediate working-memory storage) ... buuuut capturing from streaming is limited by the streaming source, and those often stutter or glitch. It has been hard to get good video quality in B5, not really helped by the source itself being kind of potato-quality to begin with.

And as if that wasn't enough, Final Cut really struggles with the concept of 4:3 video that's not absolutely tiny. All of its large video presets are widescreen, but even forcing it to 4:3, it'll still make it widescreen in export - blah. The biggest that I can get it to make a 4:3 vid isn't very big. So it doesn't really matter that my source video isn't that high quality because it's potatoing it on export anyway! Final Cut, why are you like this.

THAT being said, the main reason I don't call myself a serious vidder is because I just sort of ... don't care? I'm not overly fussed about image quality and frame rate and codecs. I am DELIGHTED that it's no longer necessary to fuss around with codecs for the most part, now that everything seems to have standardized on MP4s and uploading to streaming sites. A ton of the vids I've downloaded and rewatch over and over are snagged from Youtube or are ancient WMVs from the era of making vids as small as possible for download, or are someone's first vidding efforts - and I *love* them. I appreciate crisp clean large video as much as the next person, but I mostly just want a fun viewing experience, and when I'm making vids, I simply like making them for myself and I'm happy if other people like them too. I'll work harder to get it looking nice if it's an actual gift for someone, but for the ones I make for myself ... eh. It's a lot like my approach to fanfic as a creator - I do care about craft to an extent, but mostly, I don't care if it's great, I just want to feel things.

(So the long and the short of it is that I'm making Babylon 5 vids now. Yay!)

full_metal_ox posting in

fancake

Fandom: Mo Dao Zu Shi, Chen Qing Ling
Pairings/Characters: F/F; Madam Jin/Yu Ziyuan; Madam Jin, Yu Ziyuan, Jiang Cheng
Rating: Teen and Up
Length: 600
Content Notes: adultery (mentioned), angst, arranged marriage, bereavement, generational trauma, heteronormativity, marriage politics, possible (unexpressed) adult-> minor pining
Creator Tags: 5+1 Things, Drabble Sequence, Zǐdiàn (Módào Zǔshī) - Freeform, Canonical Character Death, Socially Imposed Heterosexual Marriage, Background Relationships
Creator Links: (AO3):

Zdenka
Theme: Female Relationships, Arranged Marriage, 5+1, Mutual Pining, Pining

Summary:

Five times Madam Jin saw Zidian on Yu Ziyuan's hand, and one time she saw it on her son's.

Notes:

Written for femslashfete for the prompt "artifact."

Reccer's Notes: Zdenka manages to cram so much into 600 words: an exquisitely painful soromance fulfillable only through generational proxy, imposed in turn—and the reader has the added pang of knowing what’s going to become of that couple.

Fanwork Links: Advance and Retreat, by

Zdenka.

Current Music: An early summer rain, long overdue.

seekingferret

My VidUKon premiere for the GPOY show. I've had this idea for years and given the prompt I couldn't help myself.

Its premise is Magneto explaining Jewish trauma to Kitty Pryde in the context of the muddle that is the X movies' Mutant Metaphor. Also Jews dance in this vid in spite of the fact that they don't dance in the X Movies. Nothing in the world could stop me from including Jews dancing in this vid.

The Sweet and the Bitter (8 words) by seekingferret
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: X-Men (Movieverse)
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr & Kitty Pryde
Characters: Erik Lehnsherr, Kitty Pryde
Additional Tags: Fanvids, Holocaust
Summary:

They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat: An intersectional tale from Erik to Kitty.

Watch on YouTube

runpunkrun posting in

fancake

Our theme for June is female relationships!

That's any kind of relationship—platonic, romantic, professional, familial, adversarial—between characters who identify as female.

The tag for this round is: theme: female relationships

If you're just joining us, be sure to check out our policy on content notes. Content notes aren't required, but they're nice to include in your recs, especially if a fanwork has untagged content that readers may wish to know about in advance.

( Rules! )

( Posting Template! )

( Promote this round! )

Reblog on Tumblr | Reskeet on Bluesky | Retoot on Mastodon

zero_pixel_count

The next event is in less than a week and I am still on the mend from the last one, which is, uh. Not the best. (I'm at, like, 95% now, but I haven't written anything in weeks and I haven't started packing and it's starting to make me twitchy...)