Arduinna

After saying I want to keep the daily posting going as long as I can, I of course have nothing, sitting here about to head out for an evening of fannish hanging out, during which I doubt I'll have time to post, even if we happen to say interesting things though we are bound to be fascinating and learned in our fannish natterings and deserve to be recorded for posterity.

So I will just say: fall is definitely here; I have honeycrisp apples in my fridge, pumpkin-spice English muffins on the counter, and Yuletide fandoms to think of before the nominations deadline passes. *happy sigh*

ack, it's 11:54 and I haven't written anything up; knew I shoulda saved that Arrow post for today!

So instead I will say some VERY FAST things about tv from the last few days:

( Korra )

( Haven )

( Sleepy Hollow )

and argh I want to say more about all of them, but now it's 11:59, meep.

*hits post*

One last Saturday vidshow that I managed to write up before the streaming vanished (and then forgot to post). I didn't go to this show at the con; it was up against the Critique panel, which is what I attended. This particular show was paired with a panel, which I also didn't attend, so I'm coming at this completely cold, where attendees would have a lot more context and nuance, fwiw.

I wanted to say one thing outside of the cut, though:

If you ever wondered if one person can make a difference in how things are perceived, I say ye jetpack_monkey, who came to Vividcon for the first time years ago saying "hey, horror and classic film are awesome and totally viddable! we need more of that!" and kept producing more of that himself and cheerfully repeating his mantra and steadily started convincing people. There were five premieres in this show for "source from 1973 or earlier". I can't even imagine that 10 years ago.

(Which, okay, granted, is the confluence of a lot of things, not just jetpack_monkey -- more older source is available all the time, newer vidding tech makes it easier to work with all kinds of source, VVC has started shifting from "let's share big fandoms" to "let's share our fandoms-of-few" -- but the specific older-source shift has a clear beginning, I think!)

Okay, now on to the vidshow itself. Once again, this isn't the full show, just vids that jumped out at me for one reason or another.

( Brand New Classic Hits )

Or, you know, "deadline". *g* But technically, it's the 22nd, which is next Sunday, 7 days from now.

Go forth and bring peace and plenty to your characters, at least for a little while!

And if you've written one but haven't added it to the collection yet, go add it. *nudges*

I'm sorting out a bookcase today, the one that has my media tie-ins. I've purged a lot of them over the years; fanfic gives me more of what I want. But I used to buy anything I could find for any show I loved, and I've hung on to a bunch, especially Star Trek books.

I used to buy a lot of Star Trek books. Some of these I'd forgotten I have; the only way to fit everything is to have doubled rows of books, and the titles in the back rows tend to fade. But today I'm looking at everything, and wow. Seriously, I'd forgotten.

Before VCRs, in most cases your only hope of knowing what happened in an episode was to actually watch it live as it aired, whether first run or rerun/syndication. But for some shows, you could buy books.

James Blish wrote adaptations of (almost) every episode; they weren't perfect, as they were written off scripts rather than final episode transcripts, and they were short stories rather than being particularly fleshed out, but. You could have the episodes in your hands!

I bought as many of the original paperbacks as I could find used, when I discovered these, but I couldn't get my hands on all of them. I was buying in the mid-80s, and there just wasn't much available; used bookstores weren't quite in vogue yet, and I could only get to one con a year with their fabulous dealers' rooms full of rows and rows and rows of used and new SFF. Then the Science Fiction Book Club offered four hardcover volume "Star Trek Readers", which collected all of Blish's adaptations, and I bought those, too. So now I have doubles of almost all of it, and still can't bring myself to purge any of them. *g* What if one day there are no more reruns or DVDs or blu-rays or downloads or anything!!

Blish wasn't the only one writing; a few years after him, Alan Dean Foster wrote adaptations of the animated series, which I also got my hands on, to my delight, as I'd never seen the animated show. Again, I don't have them all, but at least I had something.

And I bought behind-the-scenes books, and making-of books, and anything else I could. (Anyone else have "Chekov's Enterprise"?)

And then I discovered a couple copies of a treasure trove I'd had no idea existed: in the late '70s, Ballantine started publishing "fotonovels". I wound up with copies of Metamorphosis and Day of the Dove.

( Metamorphosis front cover )

( back cover )

They used comic book layout, with multiple panels per page in various combinations to carry you through the story, using tricks like outlining specific people in a white panel border to show that they're in a different place (like talking over communicators), or that a conversation was cutting back and forth on screen, so the still picture would have both face-on shots together. Although someone appears to have decided that that looked silly, because by book #10, they were no longer doing that - so it's less cheesy looking, but also a bit less fun. *g* Some photos spread seamlessly across a two-page spread (which, wow, has to have been a BITCH to print -- there are no whitespace margins in these books, they're pure photos).

( interior pages )

I didn't want to break the spine on the book to get a sample of one of the two-page photos, but they're there.

The front of each book has a short cast list, including guest stars, and a two-page interview with one of the guest stars.

The back of the books have a helpful glossary to explain the terms in the book, from basic ST stuff like "communicators" and "phasers" to episode specifics like the disease one of the characters had, the planets involved in the ep, etc. Plus there's a quiz at the end, to see how much you were paying attention! (Answers on the very final page, so you didn't have to wait till the next book came out to see how you did.) And there would be a teaser photo from the next fotonovel, with a descriptive blurb. They packed a lot into these little books.

I'd completely forgotten about these, but man, now I remember how over the moon I was when I found them way back when. It was like being able to watch the episode any time I wanted!!

Even with VCRs available not long after, these were still fabulous for a long time, because a VCR was only useful if you had episodes to record - and the money to buy enough tapes to record more than a few episodes of anything. A single VHS cassette cost as much as ~10 fotonovels.

I kinda wish the trend of making these had started about five years earlier than it did, just to see how widespread it might have become before it got completely overshadowed by VCR tech.

(Seriously, these are so cool.) (How do I not have a TOS icon?)

Standing in line, reading all the magazine covers because there's nothing else to do (and wondering if the RPF fans had seen the tabloid cover about Tim McGrath being involved with naked men having kinky sex), idly listening to the couple behind me also perusing the headlines, and then one of them reaches for a TV Guide, and says:

"Remember him? He's the guy from space, nanu-nanu!"

Which charmed my socks right off. *g* Aw, Mork!

Okay, slightly less charming was her then proceeding to read the entire article about Robin Williams' new show to her companion, but hey. Nanu-nanuuuuuuuu!

After the panels came the usual dinner break, which lately has just been the "get ready for Club Vivid" break. The buffet is substantial enough to serve as dinner, so we generally head down and eat and socialize for a bit, then head back to the room to change and glam up for the dance.

The hotel was running a little behind all weekend on setup that involved food of any kind, which is unusual, so the buffet didn't start until 6:30 or so. No biggie, except how I just expect everything Vividcon-related to start on time, so it made me blink a bit.

Which has just reminded me of something I wanted to say: the concom, as usual, was calm and cheerful throughout the con, handling things as they came up, despite coping with even more stress than usual in the face of a hotel staff that was late with all food-related things, right down to water service in the function rooms, and more horribly, a DVD duplicating place that had delayed the delivery of the DVDs till the last possible second. On Friday, no one on staff even knew if the DVDs would arrive by Saturday (!!). If they hadn't, the concom would have had to somehow get hold of the DVDs after the con, and ship out every set individually at huge unexpected cost, not to mention facing the disappointment of more than a hundred people who expected to be able to pick them up on Sunday in person.

Not a trace of that stress showed publicly; to the uninformed eye, everything was running smooth as silk all weekend. So big kudos to the concom for their professionalism throughout. <3

So the buffet was good, as usual, and Mandy and her cohort were back at the bars wearing beaded necklaces and ready to serve up whatever we wanted (seriously, I love how much the bartenders seem to have a good time with us. We're kind of a motley crew, and we are unbelievably loud at Club Vivid, but everyone has a blast and it's great that the bartenders are part of that. It never feels like they're outsiders watching us and silently mocking, which could totally happen with some people. These folks put on their beads and seem to have a great time watching us all have a great time. <3 )

After we ate, we went back to the room to dress up a bit and add some nice bright hair coloring, then headed back down to check out everyone's outfits and start in on the booze. (I brought hair chalk to try this year, too, but you have to put hair spray in first, which I'm not keen on, and forgot to pick up at Dominick's anyway. Oh well, maybe next time.)

During the very first CV, one person came in very tight, very shiny silver pants that impressed everyone. Times have changed; this year, we had a shiny silver bikini-thing that also impressed everyone quite a bit. There was also the usual array, from comfy street clothes to cosplay to cocktail dresses to clubwear; bare feet and sneakers and stilettos and thigh-high laced boots; and glitter and glowsticks EVERYWHERE. I love all of that so much; I can't think of anything else I do all year where someone in a tight-laced pleather corset and killer boots can hang out with someone in loose cotton pajamas and slippers in public, and both of them be appropriately dressed and equally comfortable. ♥

So pre-CV is always fun, with everyone wandering around talking and drinking and eating and admiring each other, then there's a rush for the dance floor as the Joxer Dance starts up, and we're off!

... and then there's a three-hour haze of dancing and drinking and vids. *g* Ian outdoes himself every year on the playlist, and this year was no exception.

But one fabulous addition this year was a tv over on one of the side table in the middle, showing all the vids in addition to the big screens at either end. It made it easier to actually watch the vids, if there was something you particularly wanted to see.

Also awesome this year for anyone who was premiering vids at CV: absolutedestiny had put up a list in the con suite with time codes for each premiering vid, so you could keep track of when yours was going to air without having to count vids off the main playlist.

( A handful of vids that jumped out at me through the haze of awesome )

A while back, someone somewhere on DW recced this book; I've long since lost the tab I had open for it, but thank you, if it was one of you!

The full name is "Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes", and it's available on Project Gutenberg for free download in multiple formats.

I downloaded it when I first spotted the rec, because it sounded interesting: a 19th century novel about a romance conducted over the telegraph. It's a pretty straightforward, gentle romance as they go, with some misunderstandings and broken hearts and quiet jealousy mixed in before the inevitable happy ending. But it's fascinating in many other ways. It really doesn't feel like it's more than 130 years old.

The protagonist is Nattie, a young woman (about 18 years old) making her way in the world; she lives in a boarding house with several other young adults -- both men and women -- with two older landladies in residence (one sympathetic to youthful spirits, one emphatically not) but no real chaperonage to speak of. Only one young woman is there with a parent; the others are all living on their own, making friends and social connections on their own terms. Two of them, a man and a woman, are self-identified bohemians.

Nattie works as a telegraph operator, a field that was apparently quite open to women; when a new operator appears "on the wire" one day, she wonders whether it's a man or a woman. The two of them start chatting back and forth (to the annoyance of some other operators on the wire), and Nattie immediately becomes very interested in this "C", even unsure of whether it's a man or a woman. The mystery doesn't last long, of course; "C" turns out to be a man, and eventually she finds out his name is Clem, but it's really cool, this century-old gender-uncertain interaction. Very Internet-y. *g*

I had to stop reading a few chapters in and go look up the author -- Ella Cheever Thayer -- because it felt so much like a put-on, or like a Victorian AU of a modern internet romance. It wasn't just the relatively modern sensibilities of the characters, either, but the steady underlying awareness of tech.

( Spoilery examples )

( And some general spoilers for the rest of the book )

( And more specific, major spoilers for the ending )

There's nothing particularly deep in the story itself, but it's a lot of fun reading something from so long ago that could so effortlessly be transplanted to internet-based life today. And if you're looking for some pleasant fluff about decent people who treat each other well, with a few small exceptions to keep things from being too bland, this may be right up your alley.


... I am ridiculous, and have been arguing with myself for an hour whether I should split this into two posts to avoid spoiling people who maybe want to read some of this but not all of it. Never mind that I've got cut tags in to keep that from happening.

Or that this is a 130+ year old book that I think got mentioned on Boing Boing a few months ago and really, 130 years old. And not very fannish, other than the fun culture echoes.

But still, sometimes you hit "reply" and then you've got the bottom of the post with all its spoilers right in your face!

So, um, have some journal-based spoiler space. La la la.

(the cake is a lie, but I wanted the chevron)

In completely puzzling news, Roland Emmerich is hoping to do a Stargate movie reboot/sequel, as a trilogy of movies. As far as I can tell from other articles, he plans to completely ignore the almost 15 years' worth of existing tv canon, and just go back to what he had in 1994.

I mean, I liked the movie a lot! But seriously, at this point the tv universe has completely eclipsed it, and I have no idea how he could do a trilogy without pulling in some kind of "and it turns out Ra wasn't alone after all", which kinda brings you right to the Goa'uld as presented in Stargate SG-1, so... the hell?

Also, hey, go Hollywood on this drive to originality. This reboot notion came along with the sequel for Independence Day, for its 20-year anniversary.

ETA, unrelatedly, cesperanza's cunning plan to get people posting is ridiculously effective. I'm sitting in a living room with therienne and mollyamory, and about half an hour ago all the tv-watching and chatter ended as we realized that whoops, it was 11, and time to start writing our posts for the day. So now there's nothing but typing and time-checks going on. Heh.

People you seriously do not want on your super secret kickass ops team: me.

Walking around my car tonight on a clear, dry evening, carrying nothing but a water bottle dangling from one hand and a set of keys, I managed to fall harder than I have in decades, toppling in stages (foot, ankle, knee, other knee, hand, other hand, chest). As I went down, I was marveling both at the fact that I was falling (I'm usually very good at catching my balance when I stumble), and at how it just wasn't stopping; every time I thought I was done, something shifted and down I went a bit more.

Getting up from something like that is fun when your ankles and knees are crap, but I found a way and got back on my feet, gathered up my water bottle and got the rest of my stuff out of the car, went inside, and took inventory, expecting a lot of raw skin.

Verdict: One impressively skinned knee that will probably bruise up like anything over the next few days, and scraped-feeling skin on my palms and other knee that should be fine by tomorrow, because there was no real surface damage. I'm amazed. Even my jeans never tore, so the skinned knee is reasonably clean (and remarkably, never really bled, so the jeans are safe on that score, too).

Meanwhile, if the cool air today wasn't enough of a clue, my cat Hobbes is cluing me in to the approach of fall in his own way. I had a towel over my lap while I ate dinner to protect from crumbs (and from cats who always want my dinner). Hobbes came over and was poking urgently around, so I figured he wanted some of my food. But no - he was frantic to get his head under the towel, then all disappointed when it turned out to be too short to do him any good. I actually had to haul a blanket over to put over my legs, so he could crawl under it and be warm.

(It's not cold. I'm barefoot and in shorts. He's just very blanket-y.)

I'm sure I had a very incisive, fannish post planned out in my head, before I slipped. Quite sure.

Oh, wait, here's something: Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart in two plays together: No Man's Land and Waiting for Godot, in New York City, from the end of October through the end of January. For those of a theatrical bent!

I have a whole long thing in my head going into the things I like about TNT's shows, the things I used to like about Perception, and the way Perception has annoyed me this season -- minor enough to let me keep watching, right up till the end of the season.

But it's 11:47 and now this is stuck in my head as the thing I want to post today, so I will be very brief and say:

( Read more... )

And now it's 11:59 and I'm just gonna hit post, even though I could spend hours reworking this to something more coherent. Here, have incoherent reaction.

This is where I stop reviewing all the vids in the vidshows I saw, and just pick out the ones that stood out strongly to me for one reason or another. (Lines in italics under the vid info are the blurbs chosen by the VJ for the program book.)

So onward to midday Friday! I stuck with vidshows to balance out the panels I was planning on attending for most of the afternoon, which means that next up is:

( Glitterguts )

Then there was a lunch break, where I headed back to the room with my roommates and some other folks (I am not naming any names, because at this point everything is a blur, and I no longer remember exactly who was where, when) to eat some of the actual real food we'd bought at the store the day before instead of going out for sandwiches at Spuntino's or whatever. It's kinda fun heading out for lunch and seeing who picked the same place to eat you did and say hi, but it's also kinda really nice not stressing over how much time you have, or standing in line, and just having some nice relaxing cheese and crackers and fruit with a small group.

Although in retrospect, I'm a little facepalm-y, because I specifically didn't take my leftovers the night before because any time I do that, I fail to eat them on accounta going out for every meal. I totally could have had them for lunch. OTOH, if we hadn't started eating the cheese and crackers on Friday, we would have wound up throwing them out on Sunday night, so.

... Anyway! After lunch was one more vidshow for me:

( Worlds Collide )

After that was panels for the rest of the afternoon, which will be a different post at some point.

Okay, I'm going to be brave here and actually start posting bits of the con report I've been poking at. Usually when I do this it means I stop adding more, because posted=finished in my brain. And I am nowhere near finished. But I'm hoping the post-every-day thing will keep me going (although I doubt I'll be posting bits of con report every day. I write these things slooooowly.)

Relatedly, I had a few days early on when I was determined to do a review on ALL THE VIDS, because yay streaming omg, but then I realized that, er, it would never actually be finished, because that is way too much. So a regular con report with occasional vid commentary it is.

So!

( Thursday, travel day )

Friday

I'm not even a breakfast person, but I make it to the hotel's breakfast every day; it's a really nice way to start the day, and feels almost like low-key social programming, since much of the con makes it down at some point, and people join various tables as other people clear out, and wander around chatting with each other. (And most folks have their badges on already, because so many of us suck at facial recognition and have to do the face-badge-face thing all weekend, heh.)

Breakfast closes early on Friday, though, so I headed down before showering to try out the new breakfast menu. No waffles. :( There was so much dismay at the lack of waffles. (Spoiler: there were Weekend Waffles on Saturday and Sunday, to great relief.) But the fresh fruit was a really nice addition, and the eggs were better than I remember (possibly helped by the display of things to put on your eggs, like cheese or salsa). Then I headed back up to take a shower, secure in the knowledge that the con starts at 10.

... Except on Friday, when it starts at 9:45. *facepalm* So I totally missed the opening remarks and first raffle. But I made it in time for the first show, which is always some kind of History of Vidding, with nothing set against it. The past few years have all been 10-year anniversaries of one kind or another for VVC, so the History shows have been very inward-focused, including this year.

( History of Challenge )

Next up, hopefully, the other Friday morning vidshows.

(... I have no tags for vid reviews or con reports here. Huh, I must always have done them in flummery before. I'll post there linking back to the tag here or something when I'm done.)