Lotripper

This is the "Fall back" switch from Daylight Savings Time, so set your clocks to 11 pm at midnight or whenever: you can always check timeanddate.com, just to be sure. I'm going to try and think of it as an extra hour to sleep in or get things done.

ETA to add Our Neighbors To The North

Richard Taylor! Viggo! Bob Anderson! Swords! I so wanted to like this.

Shame that Reclaiming the Blade does the ponderous narration thing. It's mostly the script, which keeps making portentous statements and generalizations about how The Blade was So Amazing before those Awful Guns. They kept reaching for dramatic tension, instead of just relaxing and letting their passion show. The Netflix version didn't have any special features, but I doubt they'd be worth actually paying much for.

Also, the term "European Martial Arts" does not need to be used every five minutes: we get it, OK?

(Yes, I'm in a rotten mood today, but the documentary really was disappointing.)

slashababy is still open for signups! It's the Lotrips holiday fic exchange, so the more, the merrier. Anyone who doesn't want to sign up on LiveJournal, please send email to secret slasha @ gmail.com -- we can do it that way, no problem.

It's rec the reccers month at lotr_fic_recs.

If you're thinking of writing adoptive kid fic, you must read viggorlijah's post, Fandom Primer on International Adoption as a story trope: read it and weep. But the stories based on RL issues could be really good.

RPS Kink meme - just getting started. Some of the other kink memes have been amazing and very inspiring...

And because I've been told I don't plug myself enough: links to all the LOTR RPS fic I could find through September are at lotrips (October to come soon), and I'm still posting my fic recs on delicious.

I've been pounding away at my slides for the November talk, at least I got an extension until Thursday. But I need to focus on that, so have been offline most workdays. I miss the fun and tigging.

( One of the weirder things I've ever been paid to do (not like that) )

I took a little walk at the Marina. It was so foggy I couldn't see much: there's usually a city and a bridge or two over there. (not my picture, but fog looks like... fog.)

( dairy products: what's not to like? )

Lotrips Holiday Fic Exchange! sign up now!
slashababy!
slashababy!!
slashababy!!!
  sign-up deadline is October 29! Stories posted on New Year's Eve! *looks hopeful*

Geocities is closing down on the 26 October 2009, and they're going to just delete everything on it. So if anyone has a site there, be sure to save a copy on your local hard drive.

I think these parts of fandom history are worth saving! There are several ways to keep the content on the web:

• Get an account on An Archive of our Own (where fandom owns the servers). It's the Geocities Rescue Project


• Move to Yahoo Web Hosting ($5 per month for the first year). This at least gives some time.


• Move to another free site


• See if it's in the wayback machine in Internet Archive (they have lots of geocities saved)


• Check with Archiveteam.org (a group of volunteers) which is saving all they can

"Billy gave us a little insight into the band, his musical tastes and influences, and his feelings about the upcoming tour. Exclusive: Billy Boyd Interview! TheOneRing.net"

It's a nice rambling interview, I can almost hear his voice as I read it

Apparently, when the interview took place, Billy was filming in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada), for a TV miniseries of 'Moby Dick' (shades of 'Master and Commander'). Which would make sense, because the 'Adrenaline Junkie' thing was filmed in Canada too.

More Billy!

(via hope) - long video clip of John Barrowman in shorts and high heels, queering the song "I Kissed a Girl".

Positive news, Tolkien estate settles 'Lord of the Rings' wrangle, so there's no legal shadow over The Hobbit film going ahead. It seemed like this was coming, but is good to see it happen.

Also, Guillermo Del Toro went onto the TORn forums, talking about the the episodic nature of the Hobbit as a story. He says,

Thorin & Co repeatedly go:

BANQUET-TRAPPED-FREED (Trolls, Goblins, Spider, Elves)
...
when studying for PANS LABYRINTH, I found out that the "predictable outcome" of these episodes is part of the charm of this particular form of tale. So, don’t be afraid, we are truly trying to preserve the charm of it- the whimsy of it
...
We need to make sure there are "long lines" emotionally (growth, friendship, etc) amongst Thorin & Co and dramatically (how episodes "build" upon each other ) that will make everything feel more fluid.

(there's more, all good.) This is very reassuring, and gives me hope that they'll get it right.

I have been making so many recs, I love reccing, I want all appropriate people to see the gorgeous fic! I also have about 800 recs at delicious.com/msilverstar, maybe you'll like some of those...

My main fandom is now and always will be Lotrips. But I've branched out a bit, and rec fic in lots of other fandoms (including ones like SGA that I don't even watch), because good stories are worth sharing.

So: ( my last 12 recs: lotrips, bandom, merlin, torchwood )

---

That would be lotrips, bandom, merlin (mostly RPS and/or AUs), and doctor who/torchwood. Feeds are at delicious/rss/msilverstar, msil_fanfic_recs on LJ, msil_fanfic_recs_feed on dreamwidth.

I would post recs here more often if it wasn't such a huge pain in the ass. This took me hours to fix up and I hate the format. Anyone have a nice delicious to LJ/DW script that runs on Macs? I'll run a command-line program in the Terminal if I have to.

It's been fun reading this meme, so please, someone, ask me five things about fandom? Anything outside of Lotrips is kinda murky to me, so I tend to like AUs best.

Apparently Peter Jackson can make Dom and Elijah look tall
They all look pretty happy, makes my fangirl heart go SQUEE!
James Cameron really is tall

( full-size photos beneath the cut )

Thank you to KW for finding and sharing them!

As per kidlet's request we went to see Half Blood Prince last night. The best part was watching it with her, holding hands, and knowing what was going to happen. I was amused by the shipping setups they are firmly establishing, now that we all know who's going to do what (or who).

Kidlet bookpicked like mad (she's on her fourth read of the series). She wanted more fidelity.

Ed had never read that book and so was exceedingly confused about the Prince business, we had to explain a lot because the movie completely left it out. He also noticed how grey and brown it was.

Oh cool, cleolinda wrote Half Blood Prince in 15 Minutes, and it's damn funny!

*uses slightly inappropriate HP icon*

Alan Cumming's made a wildly sex-positive anti-AIDS video Absent Abstinence

( attempt to embed the video )

The Scotsman has a transcript and some more great quotes:

[Alan] introduces a former lover and states: "This is Matt. We had sex once and it was really great. Then Matt started going out with Heather and we all had sex together once which was really nice. We would have done it again but they split up."

( Abstain? Make stains more like. Please wear a condom and shag away. )

Alan also wrote an article for Newsweek, What is a gay icon?, with some interesting thoughts on fabulous ladies and queer culture.

( cut for Torchwood season 3 spoilers )

After various calamities, I want to see people! So: local (or visiting) fans are invited to come and be social at my house on Sunday, July 12, 1-6 p.m.

My house is in Berkeley (send email to ms at msilverstar.com if you need directions). There's plenty of parking, and it's one flat mile from BART, or we can pick you up.

Please come, bring your lovely selves and if possible, a little something snackish to share. RSVPs are good, including "maybe", but are not necessary.

I'm looking for webcomic recommendations for my kidlet (she's now 9, she was 3 when I got sucked into fandom, wow). She has read and liked Get Medieval, Gunnerkrigg Court, and the Order of the Stick so far. She likes silliness, puns and adventures. Also, minimal angst and violence; and young sympathetic characters are always good. Thanks in advance from both of us!

PS I've been reccing a bit lately, Lotrips and otherwise, are at delicious.com/msilverstar

Beecake just posted a link to this via their @OfficialBeecake account on Twitter: click the (+) button on twitpic to get the huge version:

(cross-posted a bit. actually, a lot.)

ETA: all of their current stuff is at Myspace/BeecakeBand

I needed a skeptical icon and I wanted a Donna/Catherine icon, so thanks to LJ user future_love_art, I got both :-)

And from toft: four naked guys do crispbread dance on Sweden's Got Talent. That cheered up my day, and I hope it does the same for you.

Other than that, my life is boring, so I haven't been posting. How are you all?

The fail was back in November when a small majority of voters went against equal marriage rights. The state supreme court just upheld the proposition, because they are bound to decide on the law rather than principle. At least they also confirmed the legal marriages during the interim. But it's not the court's fault, it's the voters' fault, so that's where we have to fight it next.

MarriageEquality.org has a list of protests and actions (mostly in California).

DayOfDecision.com has another list

There are twitter reports from the Sacramento protest at twitter.com/stop8dotorg and from San Francisco at twitter.com/geminiwench with lots of pictures. More coming at twitter #rejectprop8

Couragecampaign.org is proposing a Meet in the Middle demonstration reaching out from the coastal liberal cities to the more conservative inland California.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win -- Ghandi