eruthros

1. Okay you guys, I need HELP. Where is the Avatar: tLA fanfic? I have checked out the AO3, and the old yuletide archive, and some of the multifandom reccers I know, but I have found very little. There must be some post-series worldbuilding fic, right? Surely?

Unfortunately, all my routes to fanfic have taken me to ( cut for spoilers for the series )

2. I watched the Man from UNCLE episode that guest stars Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner the other day, and let me just say: n'awwww. It's a first season episode (The Project Strigas Affair), so it predates Star Trek and is in black and white and is totally about pulling a giant con and they barely encounter each other in the course of the episode but it still made me go "awww." (Especially because I am pro giant cons and Ilya undercover in awesome moustaches.) Anyway, if you're in a nostalgic mood (and are willing to put up with some really heavy-handed eastern European stereotypes) it's pretty amusing. William Shatner plays the innocent young chemical engineer turned exterminator! Leonard Nimoy smokes cigarettes with a holder and does expansive arm gestures!

3. I'm kind of weirded out by the fact that basically all the tv I'm looking forward to is on a summer-airing schedule --Mad Men, White Collar, Leverage, Psych as long as someone prescreens the episodes for embarrassment squick -- and that none of it includes spaceships. I mean, there are three whole cop/con comedy-dramas on that list, geez. Could I get just a little spaceship?

Anyway, if you've been watching a neat speculative fiction tv show, or are looking forward to a new one, I'd love a rec. Especially if it includes women and characters of color and queer people who also have cool powers/are on the spaceship/do neat things/aren't the backup, the love interest, or the funny neighbor. I'm told that I have to start watching Fringe, among other things.

thingswithwings and I were talking about early R&B songs about unhealthy relationships -- there are kind of a lot. And it reminded me of this Sesame Street routine, which freaked me the fuck out when I was, whatever, five. Which I will now share with you and you should totally watch:

I still find this amazingly creepy. YOU GUYS. THE MUPPET LETTER U IS FEELING UP SMOKEY ROBINSON AND PINNING HIS HANDS TO HIS SIDES. OH GOD. BAD TOUCH.

And they even rewrote the song so that he doesn't seem to like it at all -- in the original, at least he's conflicted? But here he's like "aaah I am being chased by a giant muppet letter U."

I checked out some of the youtube comments, and discovered that other kids about my age found it completely horrifying: there are comments from people who say "I used to hide when this clip showed on Sesame Street" and "this gave me the creeps" and "I always thought the U was trying to choke him!"

In conclusion, this is at least as freaky now as it was when I was five. Who could possibly have thought this was a good idea?

I'm going to give the context at the end of the post; wait for it.

thingswithwings and I were watching different tv for the yuletide vid. I watched Jeremiah because I'm a B5 fan and thus pretty good at figuring out tropes in jms source, but I was having trouble finding anything we could use -- I sent a lot of hopeful email about plot developments that surely, any day now, would lead to hugging. And then! Success! About halfway through, I sent her this email:

Also, I have attached a touching scene, from when Jeremiah is captured by one of the remnants of the US government, who are like "we will take back this country from anarchy by violence! and killing people with the virus as a scare tactic!" And Devon knows how the virus works, so the evil President and General torture Jeremiah so's Devon will give in, and then Devon is like "I can't hold out! I've lost everything else!" and Jeremiah is all "we can save the world just by saying no." Also he is topless. Then they cuddle.

Here's a little clip from that scene. Watch it first.




( watched it? click here, unless you're planning to watch Jeremiah later, in which case this is a huge spoiler )

When thingswithwings and I were watching a recent Smallville vid, that I billed to her as "awesome but kind of weird because I don't recognize half the clips in it," I pointed to a scene where Lex and Clark were on either side of a stained glass door panel. "Look! Separated by stained glass!" "Ah-ha," said thingswithwings, "on Smallville, slash is what happens when you take away the stained glass."* Then we agreed that this was a perfect description of the way the show works: just plain glass isn't enough. Then you can see what's on the other side!

(See, we're collecting Separated By Glass moments. These include, among others, the fabulous ice-wall in X2, and various people in hazmat suits, and things like that, but I also want to include Daniel in "Meridian." Because I think that Daniel/Death is really the SG1 OTP.** Daniel is separated from his death by glass! Daniel breaks through the glass trying to reach his desires! Daniel gazes longingly at ascension! He and ascension totally pass the broccoli test!)

Speaking of people who pass the broccoli test, we also watched a Once a Thief vid ("When I'm Up," by Lynn, Jill, and Kay, available here and determined that Vic and Mac have demonstrated on multiple occasions that they pass the broccoli test, but only when the broccoli is a gun. Or possibly a large knife, or a chainsaw.

Also, that vid made us want to go back and watch Once a Thief again, because seriously: trampoline fights. Chainsaw fencing. Stuck-on-top-of-a-just-married-car. Fighting with clowns. Moonwalking! Pop-up windows like we're in a VH1 music video! Two different endings to the series! Why Once a Thief is not in multi vids all the time for the hilarious visuals I don't know.

ALSO also, we were discussing what urban legends in Pegasus must be like. "Then he was passing by the gate, and three stones came through: tap, tap, tap" etc. And I said, okay, but the problem with an urban legends challenge is that there'll be a lot of stuff that's basically a direct translation of an urban legend into Pegasus. "Like," I said, "there's a serial killer in the backseat of the puddlejumper!" *pause* "It was John."

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* This is also true of John Sheppard. For example, the stained glass door to the gym closing on John in "Hot Zone" -- Atlantis and the Ancients say "no, John, you can't have that, and you can't even see it." Just saying.

** Also, John/pain is totally the SGA OTP. And unlike other OTPs? This one is acknowledged by the camera and the writing all the time! (See thingswithwings's proof in her vid here.)

Best headlines of the day:

"Pomos wary of superfund."
My first take: postmodernists don't like superfund sites? Who huh wha ... Oh, oh! Pomo Indians. Right!"

"Study: Don't get divorced or fired."
Apparently they're bad for your mood, according to the subhead. Really? Whoda thunk?

"Developer condemns city." (In the Philadelphia Inquirer.)
Me: "the whole thing? Oh, wait. They mean city hall." Lo, I am slow on the first DST weekday.

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Life goals:

One day, when I produce a TV show (I don't know how I'd get there from here, but that's irrelevant), I will commission an amnesia episode. You know, like the famous amnesia clip shows of yore (due South, I am so looking at you). Except that all the stories we frame as big, important stories... will be clips we've never seen before. It will be fabulous! It'll be the anti-clip show, with "flashbacks." You know you want to subvert the clip show, too! None of the "he was dreaming!" "he had amnesia!" "he was on trial!" "but it's not really a clip show, because we dubbed in new dialogue!" crap.

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This is quite possibly the most hilarious quote regarding DADT ever. Regarding, of course, Matt Sanchez, the Marine Corps Times informs us that officials are "unable to confirm whether Sanchez had enlisted prior to the end of his film career or if Reserve Marines were prohibited from doing porn when not in a drilling status." These are important questions, yo! If you're a Reserve Marine, and you're not drilling, and you're in some gay porn: does that violate DADT?

Man, DADT: how are you so completely ridiculous? GOD.

But, on the other hand, think how useful this information might be to people who write in SGA.

( Aside )

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And one last link for those of you who, like me, are bitter about this whole stupid thing where Daylight Savings starts earlier and ends later: a University of California study, based on the Australian case, that argues that pushing DST back into winter actually increases energy use. Rather than putting daylight hours when we use them, it puts dark hours when we wake up -- so we get up, turn on the heater, the lights all over the house, and so on. And this turns morning into a peak-load time, increasing the prices of electricity in the morning. Yeah, a nice "free" way to conserve energy? Bite me, Congress.