Uffish Thought

Hooray, my spring break has started! I've attended the SXSW Film Festival for many years now - except for during the pandemic - and I always intend to write up my reactions to all the movies I see, but usually let it fall by the wayside. But this year I'm going to do it! I am determined!

So, I had work on Friday, the first day of the festival. Saturday, I slept in and then had to pick up my wristband, and THEN had early birthday drinks with friends in the evening, so I only saw one movie in the afternoon. But it was a doozie!

We Are Storror
This was a documentary by Michael Bay(!?) about a 7-man parkour group with over 15 years of videos and experience, so it was as visually stunning as you might expect. Sometimes got a little too caught up in the spectacle - but it was grounded by the guys, who were really interesting, surprisingly philosophical, and had an incredible camaraderie and discipline, as you'd expect from pro athletes of a sort. They also clearly saw and valued the creative/artistic aspect of parkour, which led to some interesting discussions about the dangers of the sport and their changing views/priorities over the years. Really enjoyable to watch and listen to, glossy as hell, but ultimately excellent.

I need to track down these guys and watch more of their videos - parkour is always lovely to watch, but doing it as a group had a marvelous effect: they mentioned flocking birds at one point, but I thought it more like a pack of hounds, and a well-choreographed dance.

I received TWO fics this year, both of them for Biggles, so I've been delighting in the foe-yay h/c of it all. I read The Arrangement first this morning, on the very scientific decision of it being the first email I got, and it's a wonderful post-Hatchet adventure where Biggles has a malaria recurrence mid-mission and von Stalhein ventures out in a storm to get him medicine. Oh, them ♥

[Then I had to stop reading and make two (2!) pies and attend family dinner, which was lovely. I've apparently perfected my cherry pie, which was already very good, and the accolades make all the fuss worth it. The food was delicious, the wine was plentiful, and my cousin's kids have gotten absurdly cute since the last time I saw them. Merry Christmas to me! I hope ya'll all had beautiful days if you celebrated. ♥]

My second present was the fantastic On the Threshold, an AU where von Stalhein shows up injured at Mount Street and Biggles is VERY Biggles about it :DDDDD Absolutely lovely, and jam-packed with my favorite tropes! (almost like they know me.... ;)

Experimenting today with posting on a new community (thanks for reccing the recs comm, toujours_nigel), and also with astolat's SignalBoost tool to crosspost it here:

bestthingever posted: FIC: Supernatural: Four Letter Word For Intercourse by bendingsignpost

Fandom: Supernatural
Characters/Pairings: Dean/Castiel
Rating: Explicit (VERY)
Length: 195K
Summary:
As a grease monkey turned college freshman, Dean's constantly three seconds away from being stressed out of his mind. It hardly helps that he's finally figuring out his sexuality in his thirties.

What might help with that stress is a little phone number (and a big credit card bill). If he can't figure out how to be bisexual in person, he can at least give it a go over the phone, right?

I attended a massage workshop today, and as usual came out all bouncy but relaxed and full of knowledge and ready to DO STUFF -- and then got hit by a wave of exhaustion after barely finishing the dishes. But at least I have new skillz and clean dishes now!

I am leaving for two weeks to visit rainy_day in London! Mind the store, no fires (the usual trashfires of fannish consumption excepted, of course), etc. If I am on top of shit, I may attempt to post pictures while I’m across the pond, but no promises!

Hey everyone! I'm alive, the surgery went well, I'm healing, etc. I'm still sleeping more hours than I'm awake and feeling pretty fuzzy -- it's a little disconcerting how tired I get at the drop of a hat -- so I don't know how much I'll be around for the next while. The stitches are coming out on Tuesday, so maybe after that.

Thanks to everyone who sent me well-wishes -- I really appreciated them all. ♥

Today, I took my 93-year-old grandmother to vote for Wendy Davis and Leticia Van de Putte. ♥ (this was actually a tad surprising, since she is *also* the kind of person who listens to Rush Limbaugh, but apparently the abortion debate cranked her off enough to take up the opposition. Atta girl, Granny.)

My other pasttimes lately have been avoiding my email and other forms of communication with people while watching the entirety of Lewis, and consequently falling prey to all the Oxford scenery and doing my annual re-read of Gaudy Night. I haven't even considered Yuletide yet. Ack.

I continued on to re-read Murder Must Advertise, which is my favorite of the non-Harriet novels, and was struck once again by how acutely, almost depressingly perceptive Dorothy Sayers was. Her cynical observations about advertising still ring true 80-odd years later, as do vast swathes of Gaudy Night -- the discussions about women and education, the scene where Annie's daughter proclaims her intention to run a garage and drive a motorcycle, Harriet's thoughts about partnership, profession, and marriage.... Aside from loving the cases and the shenanigans and Peter's piffle, I get something new out of her books every time.

Anyway. Lewis! ( spoilers through S7 (aka S8 US, because PBS is dumb) )

Doing this a little early today, since we're throwing a party later and I fully expect to be drunk until the wee hours:

1) Picked up my pull-list at the local comics store. My favorite cashier was sadly not there to check me out -- she is an adorable gawky button of a human being -- but another lady with purple hair took care of me. We agreed that Kamala Khan is The Best, and pondered the question of why Wolverine is always teamed up with teenaged girls. If you're not reading Ms. Marvel, YOU REALLY SHOULD because ( spoilers for Ms. Marvel #6-8 ) The art is amazing all around, especially the tiny background text jokes: just in #8, there was the Pedantic Monthly article they get assigned for homework, a "Blerf Alley Boxes" logo on a box in an alley, "Beware of Racoons" sign, a hilariously mislabeled classroom map, and a shirt that reads "Keep Calm, I am Persian Like The Cat". And that's in addition to the fabulous character work. ♥

Which reminds me, is anyone else reading She-Hulk? I was trepidatious when Javier Pulido took over as series artist because I hated his work on Hawkeye, but his style works really well on She-Hulk. Bizarre! And I find it interesting to see the contrast between Clint and Jennifer's approaches to their non-superhero work: where Clint is pathologically incapable of asking for help, Jennifer is constantly networking and calling in old friends and doing favors. At first I thought it was just making for some great cameos, but a few have turned plot-relevant and it looks to be a series trend. ( spoilers for She-Hulk #8 )

2) Lindsey's Miss Fisher Blu-rays came in the mail today. Everyone's faces in extreme high-def! :D

3) Om nom nom half-birthday cake made of deliciousness and fudge. I've managed to resist eating any before the party, but it sure *smells* good....

1. Treated myself to breakfast today, since it's my day off. A local diner with strong notes of hippie has this dish called the Paris, Texas platter (after the town), which consists of french toast and migas. Om nom nom, and there's always leftovers.

2. Went to see Maleficent finally - not a great movie by any standard, but Angelina Jolie with wings was *very* good for me. I stifled the urge to rewrite the entire narrative to make the pacing not suck. Upon checking AO3, I was happy to see that half of the fandom *also* ships Maleficent and her oddly-hot shapeshifting raven servant, and this modern magic AU was quite darling. (arsenicjade, I think you'd like it once the series is finished - all about a couple of emotionally fucked-up people becoming friends and rescuing each other in quiet ways and falling in love. Plus, the raven shapeshifter fellow likes to feed Maleficent, because raven courtship is the best. :D)

3. ...helped my friend with her migraine? We have a standing practice session to help me learn shiatsu, but she couldn't drive today so I went over to her and tried out a few migraine techniques to help. I guess it's a positive thing that she felt better when I left, but I just don't like seeing my friends in pain.

I have to stop posting these after midnight. Maybe tomorrow-- Today! I mean today. *facepalm*

ignipes tagged me for this meme: The rules: during the next five days, post three positive things about your day and ask three people to do the same so the positive attitude can gain some ground.

I meant to do this before midnight, so let's just pretend it's still Tuesday:

1) As I discovered on my way to work. Pumpkin spice lattes are back at Starbucks! I was very well-caffeinated today.

2) I have several clients tell me how they were feeling better from my massages -- long-term, not just the usual staggering out of the room looking blissed out, which is also nice but much more common. Massage is a very rewarding job. :)

3) Watched the second episode of Endeavour with inmyriadbits, which was recced to us by a friend when Lindsey pimped Miss Fisher at her this weekend (said friend has been binge-watching period BBC dramas, apparently). Morse continues to be an endearingly awkward turtle with deadly cheekbones, full of obscure nerdery and occasional indignation that overcomes his quietness -- exactly how I like my detectives. His mentorship by Thursday is so great and gruff, and I could listen to Thursday's lovely resonant voice for ages. Plus, there are massive quantities of Oxford rooftop cinematography porn. I am easy.

Wondering a bit if I should check out Lewis, since I remember that having a tiny fandom recently. Anyone of ya'll watch that?

ETA: whoops, forgot to tag people. Um, inmyriadbits, philomytha, and icepixie!

FINALLY did my Yuletide letter, embarrassingly belated. inmyriadbits and I have an old friend -- *very* old, we've known her since kindergarten -- staying with us temporarily, and her boyfriend and their adorable whippet. It's great seeing her, but it's sort of put a hamper on my fannish activities. I'm now three weeks behind on Person of Interest, for example - I miss you guys! - and my inbox is a little terrifying.

Some things I *have* read and enjoyed recently:

Study finds TV shows with ethnically diverse casts, writers have higher ratings
This is *fascinating*, and makes complete sense to me, but it's nice to get some hard data to support what was just a personal theory.

Fan is a Tool-Using Animal
Lovely recording of a conference presentation by the guy who runs Pinboard, talking about how the fannish migration post-Delicious completely turned his opinion of us around. He's a very sincere speaker and his retelling of the Epic GoogleDoc of Doom made me laugh, plus he has some interesting observations about fandom as a user population in general.

Something Fishy by LiguisticJubilee: I was delighted to find last night that there are not one, but TWO sequels for this. For the uninitiated, it's a Clint/Coulson story where they first meet while Coulson is thought MIA/KIA, but has actually been turned into an octopus by the bad guy. Cracky candy, for reals, but perfectly tuned and heavily leavened with Clint feels and silly comic book science.

User Since by rageprufrock: I expect most people have read this already, but if you haven't, DO SO IMMEDIATELY. Bring kleenex, and all your feelings about fandom and community. You will not regret it.

Rule Two by lady_ragnell: someone finally wrote fake-dating fic for Sleepy Hollow, and it is *perfect*. Totally gen, totally in-character, and totally adorable.