schmevil

I've got $45 of credit to spend on iTunes. What are you guys listening to lately?

What are:

1. Your most recent musical acquisitions?

2. Your current top five songs?

3. Some lesser known artists you think I would like?

I've never been in a fandom where 'aliens made them do x' was a big thing. In HP you'd get the odd magical marriage malarky, but it was by no means full blown 'aliens made them do x'. Recently I've been reading ST XI and SGA stories, and this trope apparently went through the fandoms like wildfire, because man, it is everywhere.

So what's it all about?

Near as I can tell, the appeal is some outside force pushing the characters into doing something they otherwise would not do (but sometimes secretly want to), for angst, lolz, and sexytimes. It's not hard to understand why that would be fun for writers and readers alike. You, the writer, get to force the characters to do something OOC through the actions of another character, and the hand of god has legitimate story camouflage. Then you get to mine the situation for character development, fun, and emoporn. Additional thrills are garnered from the wacky customs of the aliens themselves. There's a kind of fantastical exoticism going on here, where alien customs are inexplicable and hilarious, and the aliens themselves are ignorant of Starfleet/Earth customs, and stubbornly cling to their own ways. And not only that, they force outsiders to conform as well!

The more a story leans on 'those wacky natives,' the skeevier it is. I much prefer stories where Starfleet officers are performing a new and unfamiliar ritual, in order to honor allies that they respect. Or if you want to retain the element of coercion, stories where characters act OOC because they've been exposed to mind/body chemistry altering substances (and not by the aliens!). I don't know, the more 'aliens made them do x' stories I read, the more uncomfortable I am with them. There are just so very many of them that revel in things like describing the strange costumes, dwellings, foods, and rituals of aliens. They live in huts, how twee! And describing in even greater detail how put upon our heroes are, victimized by primitive, stubborn, unfeeling (or alternately too emotional) aliens. By and large, the aliens' actions are irrational, often opaque, and the aliens themselves are rarely fully realized characters. I'm not saying that all these stories are bad - far from it - but... some of them are just so goddamn creepy, and it's the ones that don't intend to be creepy, that are the worst of the bunch. Oops, I just happened to use a handful of colonial stereotypes of Darkest Africa to characterize my aliens. But the aliens are ~noble and well-meaning, so it's ok. Seriously?

Anyway, I'm looking for some good meta that examines the trope. Links, anybody?

Oh, and if you've got non-creepy fic recs, I'll take those too. ;)

I've been doing a lot of baking lately. Today I baked: berry berry Jello cookies and chocolate-dip, oatmeal, coconut, chocolate chip cookies. The Jello cookies are... ok. I'd like them to have even more punch, but they'd probably be a hit with kids. The dips are siiiiinful and sensational. I will so making those again.

My mother and I have been talking Christmas baking, and are thinking that one ~whatever~ a week, will be the best way to go. Say, cherry poundcake in the first week of December, shortbread the second, and so on. Now we're looking for four truly special baked goods to try out. Of course, in order to do our usual cookie exchanges, we'll need to do a cluster of baking leading into Christmas week, but those will be old standbys.

Any baked good recs?

Is anyone writing post Countdown fic? I want more of the adventures of Ambassador Picard. Oh, and Geordi. I like the idea of him as a free agent, itinerant engineer. Any recs, people?

In other news, I actually made it out to the lcs this week. On Wednesday, even. I bought:

Madame Xanadu #12
New Avengers #54
Wonder Woman #33
Detective Comics #854
Ms. Marvel #40

'Tec was undoubtedly the best read. MX #12 is second in a five issue arc, which is unusual for the series (most arcs are two issues, making it a breezy read). This issue was ho hum. Ms. Marvel was scattered as all hell. NA is NA. Need I say more? I've been reading it to see how the Sorcerer Supreme malarky shakes out, and since that story looks to be about done, I'll likely be dropping it again. And Wonder Woman, well, it was just downright strange.

I need to make scanning as posting MM and MX a habit, since no one else at SD seems willing. Sigh sigh.

I'm looking for some shoujo manga and anime that's not nauseatingly twee. Flist? Oh, and I have two video recs, and a short rec for you today.

k-os - 4, 3, 2, 1: for good humored, stop motion popping. ( Read more... )

Ladytron - Tomorrow: is all soft focus impressionism, and crazy-flying-jellyfish surrealist fantasy. ( Read more... )

Phil and Olly (future shorts) - The Black Hole: "A sleep-deprived office worker accidentally discovers a black hole - and then greed gets the better of him..." ( Read more... )

Are there any good fics about Severus Snape and Siruius Black's Fantastic Adventures in the Afterlife?

If so, hook me up.

***

Sweet Christmas! If I owe you a reply, review or whatever? Many, many apologies. I've mostly cleared the scans_daily comments, but I still have my own journal comments to catch up on. *facepalm* Crazy, crazy busy in the House of Schmeve. Crazy, crazy behind on everything.

Fannishly, I have four fics on deck. I'm making the snailiest progress on all of them. This is probably a good thing, since it forces me to actually think about the words on the screen, and not churn out careless badfic. I signed up for Remix this year, but only after rereading a bunch of my old fic. Most of it is ok but there are a couple that are truly horrifying. The embarrassment I feel when thinking about them is like my penance. *g* In the spirit of Remix, I've decided to radically reconstruct the worst of the bunch. I'm just about halfway through, and it's already dramatically improved.

Other stuff on deck:

- The Flash Fights Alien Tentacle Monsters. (Almost done the first draft on this one. Maybe two more scenes? I completely changed direction in the middle of this one, so I have to go back and make sure it's consistent).
- Iron Man Gets Therapy. (I'm maybe two scenes in. I don't know, I'm having fun with it, but it's a weirdly delicate thing. I'm constantly in fear of veering off into crazytown).
- my Remix, about which I can say no more, alas. (Plotted but not started. Good thing I have until April 12).

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to dive back into my essays, and survive the next month and a half of academic torture!