eruthros

Man, I have totally lost my System from previous years. These are still from all over the place! I haven't even finished reading in some of these categories! Please send help, or possibly a spreadsheet.

Recs in ( Babylon 5, the Cthulhu Mythos, Dorothy Sayers - Lord Peter Wimsey series, Fairy Tales - The Ugly Duckling, Jonathon Stroud - The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Ursula K Le Guin - Earthsea series, Italo Calvino - If on a winter's night a traveler, Lois McMaster Bujold - Chalionverse, Terry Pratchett - Discworld )

The top five (*cough*) vids from 2008 that I posted a while back made me think about the vids that I missed when they were first released; I listed my vids in order of download, and I kept thinking "no, that's actually from 2006!" And then I totally wrote half of a post on it, and forgot I'd done so. *facepalm* But still, on the off chance that you too missed these vids in 2006, here are some of the best vids I came to late:

Sunset Boulevard, Angel: The Series, by butterfly (July 6, 2006; it was part of a Vividcon vid show this year)
This is amazing, so completely something I wanted out of the show and didn't get. I wish Gunn got to have this kind of coherent narrative, that his sacrifices and choices were made as clear on the show as they are in the vid. I thought I wouldn't like the vid, because it's the John Barrowman version of the song, and I greatly dislike John Barrowman's singing. BUT. This vid triumphs regardless, makes a beautiful thing of Gunn's plots on Angel, and I love it to pieces.

Holding Out for a Hero, Hercules: the Legendary Journeys, by marycrawford (February 27th, 2006; I found it when I went to Mary Crawford's website looking for Improper Dancing)
OMG. Just: OMG. I saw that Mary Crawford had done this vid, and thingswithwings and I downloaded it and watched it together, and you guys, I have never occupied the gay male gaze as hard as I did here. Also: I almost can't believe that all of these clips appeared on the show. And I watched it recently. It's a glorious celebration of Hercules-as-hero, pursued by women and drag!Iolaus, and it celebrates Hercules's camp and magical realism and it's just lovely.

Cool Rider, Veronica Mars, by dualbunny (January 22nd, 2006; I found it when I was idly scrolling back through dualbunny's vids)
Another great, fun vid -- dualbunny has me in the introduction, which is just completely brilliant -- Logan on his scooter, Weevil on his bike. Man, way to take the awesome Logan/Weevil relationship on the show and pick just the perfect, most hilarious song ever. Nobody else knows what Logan needs!

Joy to the World, Starsky and Hutch, by giandujakiss (December 29th, 2006; I hadn't been much in S&H, and then when thingswithwings started watching, she was like "hey, did you know gianduja did some s&h vids? we should download them!" And then they were awesome.)
So, a lot of Starsky and Hutch vids celebrate the angst and the buddy-cop relationship, and hey, I was in the Sentinel in the 90s, of course I love those vids like crazy. But Starsky and Hutch is also great fun: it's fun to watch, it's fun to think about, it's fun to write about. I mean, they go undercover as gay hairdressers twice. And this vid celebrates the fun of S&H -- the Joy-to-the-World, the laughter, the crazy times. It's got beautiful timing, and great clip choice, and it's all about Starsky and Hutch having fun crazy times and laughing at and with each other. I watch it when I'm bummed out, because my bummed out can't survive giandujakiss's awesome verse about the times they go undercover-straight, and the choruses with dancing. Whee!

Five on the Dime, Buffy, by shati (November 6, 2006)
and while you're there, download Boulevard of Broken Songs too (September 11, 2006)
shati does something awesome with Five on the Dime: she recontextualizes the sacrifices of the Scoobies, especially Willow, around Buffy. Just, completely amazing, the lines she draws between early seasons and later seasons, Buffy's sacrifices and a certain kind of hopelessness.

What About Everything, Babylon 5, by _happyme_ (the original is from 2005; remastered and/or edited August 8th, 2007. sineala sent the link to me a while back when I was lamenting the lack of B5 vids)
I really strongly suspect that if you've never seen B5, or only seen three minutes of it, that this vid will make absolutely no sense at all, because it's really fast and really contextual. (Also, if you're a B5 fan? It has season five in it. FYI. Also, I assume I don't have to tell you anything other than that it is a B5 vid, but just in case.) This vid fills me with glee -- it's Sheridan focused, but there's a verse for everybody, and everybody's pain and everybody's growth is in here -- the Ivanova bit is beautiful, the Garibaldi bit is great. _happyme_ has me from the moment of "some stubborn leaves / that didn't fall with the fall" -- it's exactly the kind of foreshadowing, exactly the kind of tentative-hopeful, that B5 is. Also, it has two of the most beautiful lines I've ever seen in a vid, when the song says "I find it hard to complain / when compared with," and it's G'Kar and Londo, their relationship really really fast in those two lines, because this might be a Sheridan vid, but, well. When compared with.