schmevil: (zatana)
Packing for the Crash (The Black Brothers Variation), a remix of Salt the Earth
Harry Potter, Gen, Regulus Black
If he lives through this, maybe Sirius will be happy to see him.

I went and reread Salt the Earth, after the reading the remix. I wrote it four years ago, so you have to forgive me for not remembering the exact details. *g* Holy zombie Jesus - I'm making it my project for the summer to edit my old fics for typos. Yikes.

So the remix is fab. My remixer shifter the pov to Regulus, and took a look at his own leave taking from Grimmauld Place. I like how it works as a remix - it's both a sequel, and another take on the original story. And it's just a nice read. S/he's got a great Regulus voice, and has their relationship down.

I've only just started reading the stories, but so far I've liked:

Goldfish Bowl (Glass Houses remix)
X-Men Movieverse, Bobby/Rogue
It's hard being normal in the goldfish bowl.

Sweet, with good Bobby characterization.

Weasleys Wizard Wheezes: The Ministry Disapproved Edition (The Liability Remix)
Harry Potter, Gen, Percy
From the Desk of Percival Ignatius Weasley, Concerning the twins' latest product line.

Ok, seriously - hilarious. Percy takes a look at his brothers' catalog.

Double Act (The Straight Man Stand-In Remix)
House, Adult, House/Foreman
Whatever it was, it wasn't with Wilson.

Understated, despite how these two can bring the drama. And hot.


I completely forget everything else I was going to write about. Huh.
schmevil: (carrion)
Wow, I am offically the worst lj-er ever. The worst correspondent ever. The worst online friend ever. I am overcome with not-turning-on-my-computer guilt. I am the worst not-turner-on-my-computer-er ever. No really. But aside from that, life continues - yawn, yawn - and accordingly, my new least favourite question is "How're things" because I simply have no way to answer that. There are no things. My life is currently thingfree. The most exciting thing I did this week was spread manure over my backyard. Certainly my back found it exciting.

Other recent pseudo-happenings:

-> I bought seasons four through seven of Buffy and can now watch any ep any time I like. THE POWER! Actually, I'm excited because I can obsessively watch particular scenes over and over in the dead of night, and secretly, so secretly, cry like the pathetic fanthing I am. Oh Buffy, don't leave me!

-> I'm up to the fifth Preacher trade and I'm still loving it. Number four (Ancient History) is going to go down as a all-time personal fave, if only because Jody, the sickest - and I mean that in a good way - hillbilly ever, beats a gorilla to death with a Louisville slugger. There's just something unspeakably hilarious about that entire interlude. Also, the volume includes the back story for Arseface - for the uninitiated, a kid who tried to blow his head off but only succeeded in fucking his face into the shape of a drooling arse - and the Saint of Killers.

One of the things I like about buying trades rather than each monthly issues, is all the peripheral stuff that gets packaged with them. The intros to Preacher have been great, as intros go, but I especially enjoyed this one, because Ennis talks about the origins of the Saint and the whole Western theme. Eastwood's Unforgiven was an obvious influence, right from the start, but "The Saint of Killers" is such a clear homage that it's like reading fic. Of course, when the Saint goes to hell it veers off a bit from the story of Will Muny, but hey that's what good fic does right? Explore strange new possibilities. ;-)

Anyway, Ennis' story is a lot more brutal and grandiose than Eastwood's, necessarily because Ennis is trying to create a character who's meaner than anyone in hell, and Eastwood is trying to create a character who's meaner than anyone else around, but also a man. I think a key difference is in how Muny and the Saint start killing again. For those who are unfamiliar with both, Muny and the Saint are alcoholic cowboy's who'd kill for money, pleasure or for no reason at all, and would do just about anything for money. Each is seemingly redeemed by the love a good woman, and gives up drinking, carousing and killing. They retire to their respective farms to raise babies, until necessity sends them back into the world. Muny's driven by the need to feed his children, while the Saint needs to bring a doctor to help his sick family.

Ennis went straight for the jugular - instant angst! family in danger! - and the Saint's return to killing is in response to a group of cowboy's delaying him on his journey. The Saint is just really fucking mad. Eastwood's Muny though, sets out to kill for money, dead sober and more worried than angry. He's worried that his redemption is only skin-deep, and while the Saint shares this concern, he isn't torn up about it the same way Muny is. It's as though getting off the drink just gave his constant fury more clarity.

Eastwood's story is the more human one, but of course Ennis isn't just writing a kickass Western, he's also sending his character down to hell in order to satirize and brutalize Christianity. I love that the Saint freezes hell with the sheer power of his hate, that human hate is stronger than semi-divine power. The Saint kills the Devil - who's a bit of a bullying pussy, by the way - and humiliates the Angel of Death who's so tired of his job he gives it up to the crazily angry human. The Saint kills the guy who started the whole down-with-God thing in the first place, offhand, matter of fact. Just kills him. The human capacity for hatred and murder is astonishing.

-> I finally got around to pre-ordering the Half-Blood Prince. I'm trying to decide if I want to re-read the series before it comes out. It's not something I've done before, since I've only been in HP fandom since the release of the first film, and so have only been around for one book release. Question for those who're still reading through the hugeass posting gaps - how rewarding was rereading? Because HP does not seem to me to be the kind of series that requires rereading, in the sense that JKR isn't exactly million-plots-a-minute girl, and none of the books have been *ahem* hard to follow. So, aside from the simple pleaser of enjoying the stories all over again, was it worth rereading for a book or movie release?

-> I'm loving the Dr. Who/House/Law & Order scheduling block, which I watch with my father. We agree that the Doctor and Rose are socute and sofunny and that House is suchanasshole who deservestobefired. Amusingly, we're both bored with the House/Cameron subplot and for all the same reasons.

Dad: "Oh, so now he's going to rehire the love of his life and become a better man."

Me: "Yep."

Dad: "Cuddy should do everyone a favour and fire him. Screw his reputation, he's probably scaring off lots of other highly qualified doctors with his asinine comments."

Me: "He's funny though."

Dad: "Yep."

Of course, after that we talked about how House won't become a better man and he and Cameron can't have a happy ending, and how of course House will end up alone. Because people like House? Aren't redeemed by love, though sometimes they're improved by lots of therapy.

Anyway, this all got me thinking about how he would have been better off if, from a young age, they'd try to impress on him that being more intelligent than others doesn't mean that you've got more rights than others, or that you are automatically more right than others. Because it's obvious to me at least, that House's attitudes aren't a result of frustration over his diminished physical capacity, but lifelong - that is, he's always been a jerk, but the infarction gave him a really great excuse to be a jerk. And can I just say, how tired I am of fen letting him get away with using that excuse? Because as much as I like the character, I can admit he's a jerk who is overwhelmingly in the wrong.

My dad and I missed the last bit of the ep and [livejournal.com profile] lavenderoracle has just informed me that House agreed to go out with Cameron. *facepalm* At least we knew that was what was happening while we were 'testing' some freshly baked carrot-raisin muffins (sopredictable). Instant reaction: am I watching the mother-fucking OC? And honey, this so isn't going to work out. Put your lipgloss away and go back to work.
schmevil: (carrion)
The first time I saw House I thought, wow, what an impressively whiny bitch. I saw this brilliant man who couldn't stop talking about his disability - he took every opportunity to make a crack about it that came his way. Hell, he'd work a cripple joke into a conversation if he had to turn it inside out and sideways to fit it in. I was entertained certainly but also deeply repulsed. (This is the reaction I first had to Snape, for what it's worth.)

But then I thought, wait, this is tv and there's always a Reason on tv. I kept DLing eps and pretty soon I ran across Paternity, where we learn that many moons ago, House played lacrosse. It's implied that he was competitive - at least, that's how I read his trip to the lacrosse field/memory lane - and that it was important to him.

So, ok - he misses playing sports, which is a (yawnishly) ordinary reaction to reduced mobility. He has constant pain, walks with a limp, doesn't do stairs and has a serious problem with Vicodin. He's bitter. And he misses sports. But it's interesting that he liked to play sports at all, considering how rarely tv geniuses can pour themselves a cup of coffee without burning their skin right off, let alone throw or catch a frickin' ball.

Are we supposed to infer that House was once had everything? Like some strange Bondian combination of brains, muscles and deadly wit? Or just that soap operas and gossip now do what sports once did for him - that is, turn off his brain? Column A + Column B = answer?

Your thoughts sil vous plait.

I still, btw, think that House is an impressively whiny bitch and am convinced that the show couldn't work without Cuddy and Wilson.

***

MEME ALERT!

Gacked from everyone, with a twist of lime.

a. Post a list of 10 fandoms.
b. Have your friends list guess your favourite two characters from each one.
c. When guessed, bold the line, include the character name, and write a sentence about why you like that character.

Harry Potter
Smallville
Pirates of the Caribbean
X-Men (uh... everyverse?)
Buffy/Angel
Batman (see X-Men)
Star Trek (see Batman and X-Men
House
Desperate Housewives
And randomly... Pern, because there needs to be some kind of challenge in this thing
schmevil: (I hate myself and I want to die)
I was, for reasons that were obviously INSANE, resisting picking up Garth Ennis' Preacher. But today I broke down and picked up Gone to Texas - I've found my comic book soul mate. When Custer tells Sheriff Root to fuck himself? Oh, oh I'm still laughing. *wheeze* When I get my paycheck - Thursday has never seemed so far away - I'm going back for more.

Another bit of wondrous fannish news is that I also finally - finally - picked up Peter Jackson's Dead Alive, which I'm going to watch at least three times before I go to work tomorrow. I have such fond memories of this movie. When the mother's ear falls off and she eats it? Oh!

This, by the way, is me squeeing. *SQUEE*

Now for the obligatory post-ep House ramble. Actual analysis to follow. Later. Maybe. spoilers for 'Heavy' )

July 2012

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