SPN Fic Rec: The Red Series by Big Pink

June 25th, 2010 6:37pm by rusty-halo | 4 Comments »

I just finished reading big_pink’s Red series. It consists of six stories, conveniently available in PDF form via her website.

I just have to rave, because this is some of the best fiction I’ve ever read, fan- or no. It’s like she honed in on the most profound, emotionally powerful aspects of the series, and used these fics to delve deeper than the show ever went. She writes beautifully about family, loss, grief, and love.

She also creates incredibly well-researched and vivid environments for each story, from loggers and protesters in the Pacific Northwest, to a high school in Niagara Falls, to an old silver mine in Nevada, to a shantytown in Nebraska during the Great Depression. Plus, she writes a variety of fabulous three-dimensional female OCs (if you’re looking for a primer on how to write a female OC without wandering into Sue territory, read these). They are also very well-plotted, well-paced, and snappily written.

I think my favorite was the last one, The New Deal– it’s basically about how Sam and Dean deal (or fail to deal) with Dean’s impending death in S3. It could so easily have fallen into angsty tropes, but instead she uses imagery and symbolism to create something more evocative and thought-provoking than I’ve seen from fanfic in a long time.

(Now I’m off to read her standalone stories.)

Linkspam and more SPN babble

May 6th, 2010 7:42pm by rusty-halo | 2 Comments »

* USA released three network promos featuring Neal and Peter from White Collar. I don’t know the characters from the other shows, but yay for more Neal and Peter!

* Some clueless pro writer posted a screed about why fanfic sucks. Old wank, I know, but it’s inspired some lovely counterarguments that have reminded me how wonderful fanfiction is, both the art form itself and the community around it. Here is a really lovely ode to fanfic from pandarus.

* There’s this discussion going on in the feminist blogosphere about “Dude Music” and the comparative lack of respect female musicians and fans get. It’s incredibly interesting if you’re into rock music, and if you’re not it’s still very relevant, since it highlights a whole lot of the subtle ways that sexism works. I found it absolutely fascinating, because I’m definitely someone who grew up with a very male-dominated playlist–I’ve been working to understand why and to be a fan of more female musicians. Anyway, read the discussion in this order:

- I Went To Your Concert and There Was Nothing Going On, or, A Meditation on Dude Music
- The World At Large: How Privilege works in Rock Music
- The center and the margins, and butt hurtness

* Rare Film of Ronald Reagan, James Dean Unearthed. Is it wrong that I kinda wanted to read a slash version of this after I watched it?

* Bowie Dance Ride in NYC today. “Participants are encouraged to dress up as their favorite Bowie character and pedal away, Ziggy Stardust–style.” Uh, seriously?

* Iron Man 2 tonight! I can’t wait. This whole Supernatural obsession was incredibly well-timed; it managed to prevent me from clicking any of the Iron Man 2 spoilers that have been all over my reading list this week. :)

* netweight recommended Conversational Winchester for Trolls by eloise_bright and it is indeed awesome.

* I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge last night (exercise! fresh air!) and then went home and cooked a real dinner (roasted acorn stuffed with spinach cous cous and topped with toasted pine nuts). And then I sat down to watch Just One Episode of Supernatural. And… ended up watching four. So much for functioning like a sane person.

They were good! I enjoyed them. Maybe my previous feeling of disillusionment was just a fluke. Maybe by lowering my expectations I was better able to focus on what’s good. Maybe I was just saddened by the prospect of not staring at Jensen Ackles’ adorable freckles for the next two days, so I appreciated these episodes more.

My thoughts:

( this is not actually about 4×11; it’s about why I love the movie The Legend of Billie Jean )

( this is actually about 4×12, and the worst line of dialog I’ve ever heard )

( 4×13 )

( 4×14 was really good! )

( and another thing I like about Supernatural in general )

Fic Rec: Impossible by zelda_zee

April 8th, 2010 6:21pm by rusty-halo | 2 Comments »

I’m saving all my White Collar fic recs at Delicious, but enjoyed this one enough to also post a rec here: Impossible by zelda_zee.

I like it because:

1) I can actually hear this dialog coming out of the actors’ mouths. It’s very well-written and sharp and even matches the characters’ speech patterns.

2) It’s more in-character than most Peter/Neal fic. Neal is driven by his id, but Peter thinks about consequences. It’s all about the push and pull between them, Peter trying to get Neal to think responsibly and yet often seeming to want to be pulled where Neal leads him, despite his objections.

3) There’s an inherent edge of darkness that this fic captures while still remaining true to the banter and humor that makes us love the characters. They have so many reasons not to get together, so many power and trust and communication issues, and oh yeah, the fact that getting caught would destroy both their lives.

4) The fic also manages to be hotter than 98% of what I’ve read on the kink meme recently, despite being PG-13. The writer does such a great job of building up the glances and little gestures that show us how much need and desire is going on beneath the surface. And she just writes the physical interaction so well–this fic is basically just kissing, but she describes hands and head tilts and fast breathing and heat and just totally captures the way it really feels to kiss someone you desperately want for the first time.

(It’s a sequel to Lucky Man which is also good and only 1,500 words, so read that one first.)

If you can think it, someone’s already written porn about it.

December 7th, 2008 11:47pm by rusty-halo | 10 Comments »

Oh, god. I love the internet.

Current Mood: shocked & amused

Movie Babble & Reaction to Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow

November 19th, 2008 5:18pm by rusty-halo | 10 Comments »

* x_los wrote Eighth Doctor/goosnake!Master. And it’s… actually kind of awesome? If you enjoy crackfic, I highly recommend it.

* I. Um. I think I want to see Twilight. I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW. But… it’s just… you know… Robert Pattinson is really really cute!

Apparently somewhere inside me there still lurks a twelve year old girl, whose Pretty!Boy!Vampire! alert has just been triggered. I will have to hide my face in shame and sneak into the theater hoping that no one I know will recognize me. Or at least claim that I’m there only to snark. :P

* I saw the new James Bond this weekend and was disappointed. I’m all for emotional continuity, but it didn’t feel like the movie really went anywhere. Nothing made a big impression, and I was mostly bored. Apparently I’m one of the three human beings on the planet who do not find Daniel Craig attractive, so without a compelling story there just wasn’t much to hold my interest. Casino Royale was so much better. :(

* I just read this book called The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, about a Jesuit expedition to Alpha Centauri (seriously). It was brilliantly written, but I didn’t love it.

( spoilers for The Sparrow and for the Lymond Chronicles (possibly offensive to religious types) )

Current Mood: tired

Fic Rec: The Naming of Things

September 11th, 2008 11:06pm by rusty-halo | No Comments »

The Naming of Things by ariafic. This is the best Theta/Koschei fic I’ve ever read, although I’d actually say it’s more “the becoming of the Master” than a Theta/Koschei romance. But since the Doctor is always at the center of the Master’s existence, their relationship is central here.

This story is brilliantly written, sweet, chilling, and, in the end, heartbreaking. Everything is so in-character and well-developed, especially Koschei’s descent into madness, and how he and Theta each fail the other. These two are so my OTP; nothing gets to me more than childhood friends who fall out and can’t put the pieces back together no matter how much they still love each other.

*sniffles* Now I need to go read something really fluffy where the Doctor and the Master live happily ever after.

Current Mood: impressed

Doctor + Master + Really Brilliant Writing

August 12th, 2008 1:37am by rusty-halo | 7 Comments »

I’ve been sorting through the, um, several hundred tabs I had open on Firefox (because it’s really not a good idea to have 300 tabs open…) and, anyway, I bring three amazing Doctor/Master fic recs:

* Burning Ground by bagheera_san. Doctor + Master + Hindu mythology.

* Resonance Structures by mercurial_wit. Doctor + Master + chemistry.

Which continues in…

* Uncertainty Principles. Doctor + Master + physics.

These really put to shame the notion that fanfiction is nothing but romantic wish-fulfillment written by fourteen-year-olds. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that; there are far worse things fourteen-year-olds could be doing than writing. But I love that there’s so much more to the possibilities of fanfic.)

Current Mood: pleased

Projekt Revolution, The Dark Knight, Due South, and Doctor Who

July 21st, 2008 2:59pm by rusty-halo | 7 Comments »

I had the most awesome Saturday. jaydk and I went to Philadelphia for Projekt Revolution.

( Good friends, yummy food, street fairs, Chris Cornell, and Linkin Park )

What else I’ve been up to:

( I liked The Dark Knight, but I didn’t *love* it )

( I’ve been catching up on Due South )

( My Doctor Who fannish experience has been very Doctor/Master centric lately )

Terror of the Autons

July 18th, 2008 7:18pm by rusty-halo | 22 Comments »

I’m mostly rolling my eyes at “Journey’s End” fix-it fic (because, y’know, I thought it was brilliant and doesn’t need to be “fixed”) but I have been enjoying dwseason5. Mostly because it’s got the Doctor, the Master, and subtext, and what could be better than that? (Well, to be written well, which this is also.)

I finally started watching some of the old Doctor/Master episodes. I don’t think I’ll have anything new to say about a serial that aired over 35 years ago, but I’ll give you my reactions to “Terror of the Autons” anyway. I’ll warn in advance that this is filtered through my RABID and largely tongue-in-cheek Doctor/Master filter.

( There is nothing in this episode to convince me that the Doctor and the Master *aren’t* playing one long convoluted intergalactic sex game )

Current Mood: amused

Doctor Who Linkspam

July 11th, 2008 1:49pm by rusty-halo | 2 Comments »

* selenak has hopeful thoughts on Donna’s ending in relation to “The Unicorn and the Wasp.”

* versaphile has a brilliant analysis of the Doctor’s morality and his views of humanity

* and I’m counting on her fic Praxis to keep me interested in this fandom until the show comes back. (No pressure or anything. :P) But seriously, it’s the best study I’ve read of how and why the Doctor is who he is. Plus, lots of hot Doctor/Master sex. You really cannot go wrong there.

* orange_crushed wrote hilarious and wonderful Doctor/Rose post-”Journey’s End” fic.

(I know there’s a tons and tons of good fic popping up right now, but I’m mostly trying to get through the meta and sort out my thoughts first before I jump into fic.)

* And really hilarious Doctor Who hed-is-pastede-on-yay wank over at Fandom Wank.

Random: Ikea, DragonCon, Babble, Recs

June 20th, 2008 2:45pm by rusty-halo | 27 Comments »

Why is London After Midnight playing in NYC the same night as the Cure? I would’ve liked to see them. That’s just weird.

I went to Ikea last night. Dude. I felt like I was trapped in the hedge maze from Harry Potter 4. It took me two hours to get out of there, dodging strollers and shopping carts and trying not to get distracted by all the shiny things. And I missed Vegan Drinks. :(

( I chose a different bookshelf )

Did I mention that I got my plane tickets for DragonCon? Yep, I’m going. I might want to hide under a burka, but dammit, I can’t miss DragonCon. I always have so much fun there. I wonder what the Doctor Who panels are like… (the good thing about DragonCon is that, if they suck, I can always find something else entertaining to do).

I tried out that Wordle thing with my “Midnight” review. Nifty!

Oh, and here’s a short post-”Midnight” fic rec: Humans by rosa_acicularis. Very insightful look at the various characters.

(Anyone have more post-”Midnight” fic recs? That episode is practically begging to be explored further in fanfic. And dammit, I need something to entertain me seeing as 95% of the links on my flist are off-limits due to spoilers.)

Also: a yummylicious John Simm picspam from lozenger8. :)

Other nifty links: really interesting Doctor/Master discussion at best_enemies and two compilations of Doctor/Rose squee here and here.

(I don’t know why I love Doctor/Rose so much in canon–romantically or as best friends, either interpretation is fine with me–but am completely uninspired to read about them in fanfic. Maybe because their relationship is already a lot like what you get in fanfic–full of character moments and bonding and actual happiness and it’s already got such a perfect ending that I’m not inspired to seek out more? Or maybe because my interpretation tends to differ from the mainstream in that I don’t care whether they’re having sex or not, and I get kind of sick thinking about them “settling down”? Whereas I can’t get enough Doctor/Master, maybe because the stuff I’m interested in there is always heavily hinted at in canon, but it never goes as far as I’d like. It’s just the kind of relationship that fanfic was invented for. Thus the fact that I could probably read Doctor/Master fic forever without getting bored.)

An Attempt to Distract Myself from Spoilers

June 19th, 2008 5:30pm by rusty-halo | 2 Comments »

DAMMIT, SPOILERS EVERYWHERE!

Mustnotclickmustnotclickmustnotclickmustnotclickmustnotclick…

I don’t know how long I can hold out! Now would be a really good time to go hibernate in a cave somewhere with no internet access.

Let’s talk about something completely unrelated to the SPOILERS THAT ARE CALLING ME. Hmm.

Oh! I chose some furniture.

( furniture and other random stuff )

More distractions; have some recs:

* selenak wrote a great post comparing “Midnight” and “Voyage of the Damned.” (I could swear I read a good one somewhere comparing it to “42,” also, but now I don’t remember where it was.)

* lordshiva wrote the Doctor and Anya from Buffy! So much win.

* I adored the New York Times article about Russell T Davies. So far three people I know in real life have come up to me to chatter about it, too.

* I read this entire book about the 1977 blackout in NYC. I’m weird. I clicked on it while researching the history of Bushwick and ended up completely fascinated by the sociology, psychology, and history it explores. (Plus it’s fascinating because I had a great time during the 2003 blackout–I got drunk in the gay bar across the street and bonded with my soon-to-be-friend Anne, who stayed at my place rather than walk home to Brooklyn.) It’s amazing to compare how the various blackouts reflect the social conditions of their eras.

* I made this bread (substituting a mix of molasses and agave nectar for the honey) and it’s delicious.

Do you have any recs for stuff that’ll distract me from spoilers? Please share. :)

Current Mood: bored & tired

I can never unwatch this. :(

May 14th, 2008 12:15am by rusty-halo | 9 Comments »

Jesus Christ, what the hell is wrong with America? Bet you a million dollars they change the ending to make it more palatable to delicate American sensibilities. Just… keep reminding me that it’s going to inspire more people to seek out the real version. (*clutches John Simm*)

Some cheery things to scrub this travesty from my mind:

* versaphile wrote Subterranean, a beautiful coda which made me feel somewhat better about the most recent Doctor Who episode. (She’s also posting a new chapter of the amazing Praxis every week, which just gets better and better.)

* violet_lane wrote absolutely wonderful meta about Rose Tyler. She pretty much gets to the heart of what I love about Rose: that she’s the rare female character who undergoes a true hero’s journey, and that her heroism is due to her own choices, not any kind of special destiny. (And that she lives her life fully: she’s impulsive, adventurous, strong-willed, makes her own decisions, has fun, and sees the beauty of the universe along with the monsters.) It’s a long post, but completely worth the read.

* There are a hell of a lot of awesome Doctor/Master porn writers out there; I’m impressed by the quality of most of the responses at the best_enemies anon porn meme.

* Look how adorable young Stephen Colbert is! (Not that he isn’t still adorable now.)

Current Mood: annoyed

Random: Recs, Colbert Squee, and That Personality Test Meme

April 22nd, 2008 12:43am by rusty-halo | 4 Comments »

I’m writing a freaking essay in response to “Planet of the Ood.” One of these days I’ll actually manage to post the damn thing. Meanwhile…

versaphile wrote a great post about why Jack Harkness is a villain.

A rec: Paleolinguistics (The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Remix) by kindkit. An insightful and beautifully written Doctor/Master fic.

And on tonight’s Colbert Report…

( Colbert Report spoilers )

( personality test meme )

Current Mood: amused

The Sarah Jane Adventures and the 1996 Doctor Who TV Movie

April 14th, 2008 7:40pm by rusty-halo | 15 Comments »

I probably shouldn’t have posted my “Fires of Pompeii” review at midnight on Sunday night. Alas, it gave me so much to think about that I just couldn’t sleep until I wrote it all down.

jaydk and I had a lot of fun watching it; we managed three viewings, plus the commentary and the Confidential (OMG tourist!Tennant! In shorts! And he’s such a liberal! Awww.) And somehow we also managed to squeeze in the first couple episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures and the horrid 1996 Doctor Who TV movie.

( The Sarah Jane Adventures: Invasion of the Bane and Revenge of the Slitheen )

( The Doctor Who 1996 TV Movie )

( a couple more thoughts on Doctor Who 4×01: Partners in Crime )

And here’s a fic rec: a Doctor/Rose fic that I didn’t hate! The Scientist by orange_crushed, which has a Doctor and Rose that I actually find recognizable and interesting! No tiembabies or weddings, but a genuine exploration of what they mean to each other. Plus, plot and action! (And, I admit, I particularly love that it starts out shattering the cliche by having Rose “married” to human!Doctor and … she’s miserable. Heee.)

That said, when the Master showed up, I was very disappointed that he didn’t have sex with the Doctor. *sigh* I need more Doctor/Master fic! Look at this, I’ve been reduced to reading het! :P

Current Mood: amused