planning the revolution

!!!!! Happy New Year, everyone! I woke up at stupid o'clock this morning to work an entirely pointless shift in my parents' store BUT because Yuletide reveals don't happen until America is awake, there's time to get my recs in, hurrah!

First off: SOMEONE WROTE ME SAZ KAUR FIC. It is GREAT. It is all about unravelling the numbers in her brain, which I really, truly love because Some Girls is a comedy and so a lot of the nuance in the characters is played for laughs. I think Saz gets a tough deal sometimes but I also think I'm sensitive to her characterisation. BUT THE FIC! It is so good! It nails a level of alienation that is backed up less by cultural norms (which is also a thing, but also NOT a thing) and more by personal circumstance. AND it's funny and warm and sad and just GOSH lovely Go read it: greater than or equal to (Some Girls)

Sometimes the best Saz can do is to take what she’s observed and combine it with what she’s seen other people do and try to extrapolate how she’s supposed to behave. That’s probably just how human interaction is supposed to work, only it’s meant to be subconscious. When Saz was with Joe, and then when she wasn’t, she paid a lot of attention to what her friends’ boyfriends were like. Rocky, for instance, couldn’t go five minutes without texting Viva to ask if she thought aliens had pets and would leashes still work with no gravity, and Brandon would go completely mental if he didn’t hear back from Holli right away, and whatever delinquent Holli was not-banging in any given week was sure to be slobbering after her all the time, and everyone said that if she and Joe were going to be long distance, communication was even more important, so Saz communicated.

Other recs! I actually did all my yuletide reading yesterday and I found I just didn't know most of the fandoms. So here is best of the 15 that I read.

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Five Women Ryan Stone Met On the Road (And One Man She Technically Never Did) (Gravity/other fandoms)

The girl with the CHICAGO cardboard sign bends down to look through the opened passenger's side window and introduces herself as Cosima Nie-Holy-Shit-You're-Ryan-Stone.

THIS FIC. In an effort to deal with her mounting PTSD symptoms, Ryan takes to picking up hitchhikers. The fic includes crossovers with Sleepy Hollow, Orphan Black, The X-Files, Elementary and The Heat, and is on-point and in character. LOVELY.

(You should read ALL the Gravity fics because they are all haunting and deft and just lovely. But this is kindlier.)

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the wine on our breath puts the love in our tongues (Frances Ha)

So she decided to call this chapter of her life spartan and minimalist. Other words for that could be empty and lonely but she made the active decision not to refer to her life at present as either of those things. Those words, she decided, could exist on the opposite side of the aisle, amidst the collection of all the things she does not have.

Frances throws a party - in Sophie's place. What I really loved about Frances Ha - apart from everything - is that Sophie is not a great friend and you slowly learn that across the course of the film. You learn it as Frances learns it, and that's cool - you love your friends regardless of their faults or they're not your friends. This fic does a great job of amplifying Frances' awareness but also that middleground you meet when it's necessary to do so. I also really love the reported style which I think does a great job of replicating a) that arch way Frances and Sophie have of speaking, and b) the greyscale used in the post-production. I can't quite explain how tone achieves that but I think you'll know what I mean.

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#knemma (Emma)

GK
But
what happened between you and Elton?

Emma W
what
lol
it was super awkward
he was like “I’ve loved you since forever”
by which he meant Halloween
(Haz and I posted our Elementary cosplay pictures
and he went on about it, remember?)
and I was like
“what???” and “I THOUGHT YOU LIKED HAZ”
and had to block him from this account
because he kept insisting
and then he made a cryptic post in his DW
but it wasn’t cryptic enough because his girlfriend
who's not only real but has a tumblr
totally understood and started messaging me
so I had to block her too.
WTF.

GK
There’s a fandomwank report.

OH MY GOD A MODERNISATION OF AUSTEN'S EMMA THAT IS SET IN FANDOM. It's all in chatspeak, but fuuuuck, it works. I love this. Shut up. It's fab.

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Annum Novum (The Eagle)

"Seven days you've been gone," Esca snapped, unable to contain his anger.

"My uncle forced me to stay and rest for a night, or I would have been home earlier." Esca saw now that Marcus was shuddering, with either cold or exhaustion, or both. "I am glad to be back, now."

"You're a fool." Esca stepped up close and fisted his hand in the front of Marcus' cloak, and Marcus came forward, leaning against him with most of his weight. They embraced. After a while Esca became aware that his hand was twisted tightly in the hair at the back of Marcus neck. Marcus did not protest it.

There are SO MANY "and then they live on a farm together" fics for this fandom and I love them ALL. I especially love the following: PINING; continued lack of understanding over one another's cultures; Esca worrying about Marcus' leg; MARCUS WORRYING ESCA WILL LEAVE. I also greatly enjoy reading baout their attempts at farming and the difficulties they have to overcome. This fic has all of that and is just. Yes. Excellent.

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Former Detectives Club (Broadchurch)

"Why did you leave Scotland?" Miller is pretending to squint at the setting sun—but even sitting next to her and looking out at the harbour himself, Alec can tell she's got her head on one side and is actually peering shrewdly at him.

He sighs and leans against the back of the park bench. "I've got a heart condition", he says. "Had to get away from all that fried food, didn't I."

The best part of the show was Alec and Ellie's double act, and this fic continues that in the kindliest manner. The characterisation is spot on; I can't commend it enough.

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Lastly, a rec for an app/site. Do you read fanfic or anything on the internet? Use POCKET. Seriously, best app I've used in ages. You can add things to it from your phone, tablet, laptop, browser etc. and read things on the go. Download quickly when you have a net connection, and then read your longfic on the go. It also has organisational features, and makes it easy for you to share things with friends. Sometimes I let out a siren call for fluff recs, and the next thing I know, wliberation has sent me a handful on pocket. AMAZING. Get it here: http://getpocket.com

Guys! It's September! Whaaaaaat.

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Things that have happened since the last time I updated: LOLYMPICS; all of summer, apparently; I saw the rings; my one proper holiday of the year*; gingerbread TARDIS fail; my birthday; more Curious Incident; knitting; nails.

Eventful, yo.

*) I go to work 51 weeks out of 52 in a year. Those may not be full weeks, but I only take the week ending in the late Summer Bank Holiday off.

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( work. )

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Are there any Brit-/London-based Chris Pureka and/or Gregory Ivan Isakov fans on my flist? Let me know; I might have something for you.

In quasi-related news: I have tickets to see Jesca Hoop this year! I loved Hoop when she first came out with Money a few years back, and the whole of The House That Jack Built makes me crazy with how good it is.

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Hipster Who returned! It was a good episode, but something was missing. I don't know what that something is just yet. The plan is to finish my goddamn knitting project today, and re-watch.

In other news, did anyone watch Accused 2x02? Or 2x03 for that matter. Ugh, talk abut being shanked. 2x02 featured stellar performances from Anne Marie Duff and Olivia Colman. Both were amazing. Can't wait to see Duff in Berenice at the Donmar in the next month or so.

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New Merlin in a month. !!!!! YES.

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Didn't do that much for my birthday. ( etc & driving. )

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The programme for this year's Film Fest comes out on September 5th. Exciiiiiited!

I was supposed to update this weekend and then somehow that never happened. What the hell?

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Friday night I saw Nicholas Farrell and Anna Chancellor at the Harold Pinter Theatre. (Formerly the Comedy Theatre.) They were performing in a double bill that transferred from the Chichester Festival which is apparently the place to go for upcoming theatre; a lot of stuff transferred in the past year. Anyway, the plays were South Downs by David Hare and The Browning Version by Terrence Rattigan. Apparently the Rattigan is normally paired together with another play that no-one likes, so Hare was asked to script an accompaniment. South Downs is a funny piece about a school boy who doesn't fit in with his peers because of his social class, his sharp intellect, and complete lack of charm. In the space of an hour Hare covers social and religious discourse with a very light touch, though ultimately it feels like a commissioned piece. By which I mean: it doesn't really close up properly. Wonderfully staged, though, and Anna Chancellor was incredibly charming as the actress mother of the school boy's acquaintance. Pretty certain I heard Stella Gonet in the voiceover.

The Rattigan was crushing; an absolute blow to the gut. Set on a school master's final day it follows him as he uncovers his wife's infidelity, is denied a pension by the school board, and has to come to terms with the knowledge that for all his ardour for teaching, he is not well-liked and probably will not be missed. Nicholas Farrell was phenomenal. Rattigan is bald-faced with his characters; he doesn't let them delude themselves. The play was almost violence in its matter-of-fact tone. I really enjoyed myself.

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Work has slowed down considerably because most of what I've built is sitting with someone else to be signed off. As a result I've been suck writing ops instructions (deathly) and building graphics for Adult Learning tests. Oh god. Stab me; we can confirm I haven't died yet and then put me out of my misery.

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I don't have a lot to say on fandom. Enjoyed the heck out of the Scott and Bailey finale, and got knocked out by the Glee performance of F+tM's Shake It Out. Finding myself fairly invested in Game of Thrones; this series is a vast improvement on the last. I loved, loved, loved this week's Mad Men, especially Peggy and Joan's office smoke break and everything that is Sally Draper.

I am really enjoying Bron/Broen (The Bridge) which is both intriguing and entertaining. Kim Bodnia's belly laugh cracks me up. The majority Swedish was throwing me at first - especially because the show descends into Danish now and then - but I'm getting better with the switch up. It's neatly put together and doesn't take itself too seriously as of yet. Good stuff.

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I finished Jeffrey Eugenides' The Marriage Plot on Monday. Hmm. I can't say that I actively enjoyed it, or that I think it ties up well (it really doesn't) but I found it compelling enough that I couldn't put it down. I didn't like the characters at all, but I enjoyed Eugenides' mad romp through critical and religious theory, and he still has a talent for pulling together real people. It doesn't have the heart of Middlesex or that keening wistfulness of The Virgin Suicides. It's a book about graduates and I think, in some way, it's a book for graduates. It's too close for an undergrad, and too far for anyone else. So. There's that.

And now I'm reading the sequel to The Hunger Games which I'm enjoying much more than the first book. I think this is because the outcome feels less certain. Or rather, the route to the outcome seems less obvious this time. I mean, there's a third book and it's YA lit so I doubt we're going to have a Psycho on our hands, but I'm still wondering, shit, what next? Also: I want to know this Johanna Mason character that tumblr keeps sticking Ruth Negga's face on. Yeah.

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Ugh, flaked today. Trying not to dwell.

Egg hunt! hestia8 has been taking pictures of all the ones she's found; this is one that she showed me on Friday night after she rescued me from work.

On that note: holy crap. I'm not used to working 10-hour days. This week has been mental. I'm glad I did it because it means next week won't be so ridiculous, but still, am shattered.

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Television, as brief as I can make it. Justified continues being excellent and also fantastically creepy. ITV has finally put Den Som Dræber online so have been watching that today. It's very Wire in the Blood. I have Awake to watch, and am excited about that. I have given up on Smash.

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I watched two films this weekend. The first was Sleeping Beauty which I loved on an aesthetic level, but was in two minds over the narrative. Emily Browning was wonderful in it. The second was Restless which was lovely, but also the grown version of My Girl. They set the mood for my Saturday.

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Scott and Bailey is back next week. I'm so excited!

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This Friday coming, hestia8 and I are going to see The Recruiting Officer. Nancy Carroll! Mackenzie Crook! Mark Gatiss! Tobias Menzies! Rachael Stirling! OH GOSH.

In case it wasn't obvious, I am trying to get back into the habit of regularly updating, which is why these weekly quasi-summaries keep showing up. I've done okay this week, though. I posted other things to places that aren't my tumblr! Hurrah! I've been quite busy at work, too, and trying to catch up on sleep since gallivanting around London last week.

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On Monday night The Mother and I bought pizza and watched more of Justified series 1. I have not managed to catch up with 3x01 yet, but hopefully will get to that today. I have Bones and two episodes of Fringe, too. I have accepted that if I don't watch Borgen this week then I am never going to get caught up.

But: early Justified when the villain du series was much subtler, and the individual stories held more weight! The last episode The Mother and I watched was the first one with Arlo Givens, but the one before that was the one with the dentist. The Mother seems to be enjoying it; I'm getting a kick out of re-watching.

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On Tuesday I went out with some co-workers to see Shame. It was the second time I'd seen it (film fest!) and I was feeling weird about it because a) coworkers and b) it turns out Michael Fassbender is a lady beating asshole, gdi. I normally have quite a hard and fast rule about dumping things because of the leads being dicks, but. Gosh, I'm finding myself being a massive hypocrite. The film was put together by Steve McQueen, and the music is wonderful, and it's galling to me that Fassbender is the face of it, because I love them film. I do. So I spent a lot of time thinking about social responsibility, and not getting very far.

I did enjoy having the opportunity to talk about the film afterwards. Am very, very much the New Girl in that circle of people, but enjoyed a drink after the film, then took myself home. Am in the process of flat-hunting right now, so maybe I won't have to skip out so soon in future.

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Thursday was weird for me at work because I was super busy but not doing the job that I usually do. It was brilliant for that - I talked to a lot of people that I do not normally talk to. I think I've mentioned before that the nature of my work and the arrangement of seats in the building makes interacting with people a little awkward sometimes, but being up on my feet and interacting with people was great. Had a good day.

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My aunt went into hospital at the top of the week, and it didn't go as planned. She's still there today, but from the sound of things is doing a bit better. I don't know; there's not been much news.

My gran is in India, did I mention? That, too.

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I got some post this week - a card and some lovely bracelets from (and made by) fallapartagain, and a lovely long letter from belantana. I'm in the process of trying to send some packages. I say trying because I keep forgetting to leave work and go to the post office. (I try to go at opening so I don't have to queue for a long time.)

I also received a copy of Stacie Cassarino's Zero at the Bone which I had forgotten I'd bought, plus two copies of Richard Siken's Crush which I am going to distribute. A new dress should arrive next week - dropped from £30-something to £12, so I do not feel bad about the additional purchase. I should probably try to find some trousers, ffs, but I am having a hard time on that front.

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The Duck Cheer tumblr has some pictures and a video from last weekend. I'm opening it up a little this time. I'm going to send out the eight ducks I bought for round 2 (I really am! I am just waiting on the arrival of some info cards) and track those like I did last time, but this time I'm also opening up to submissions from other people. Have a duck of your own? Share!

A few people have been asking me: why ducks? And this project has never really been about the ducks as much as it has been about the people and the places. Ducks are just an easy way in. But the root of the story is that at secondary school water used to collect on the roof of the cafeteria. My friends loosed about 10 ducks up there once. It's just our thing, I guess, and it took off. Either you find plastic ducks inherently cheering, or you don't.

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Have you seen these posters? I love them.

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But, yes, Cassarino's poetry. I started reading it on the train and fell into a collection that is basically a long list of my lexical kinks. Words for earth, light, water. I am trying to be better at reading poetry on two levels again - the semantic, and the syntactical. It's been a while since I've pulled something apart, and I've never done it without guidance of some sort. I am trying to do this because reading at a syntactical level informs writing; it always will. And I think it would be good practice, if nothing else.

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Lastly, hestia8 and I went to see Di and Viv and Rose last year, written by Amelia Bullmore and starring Tamzin Outhwaite, Nicola Walker and Claudie Blakley. I have recently discovered that copies of the text are available. Does anyone want one? Let me know.

GUYS. GUYS. MY HEART STILL BEATS*.

Like, what up, eljay? How have you been? I have been doing things that are not updating this journal. Which is dumb considering I come here two or three times a day to flist-check and stuff**. In the main I have not updated because nothing is happening here. Christmas sort of happened! I had to go to some works-related booze-up because of Peer Pressure and then that dissolved into...other things! I wrote a fic for yuletide and pre-reveal revealed myself due to some futzing with the fic notes! (Fixed that. You know, three days after posting. Oops.) I wrote some Yuletide treats! I finally submitted my post for What 2011 Sounds Like! I hung out with some people I used to go to school with and had both an excellent time and also an awkward time, which is my particular skill set! AND THAT'S JUST THE PAST FORTNIGHT.

I know, I know. Thrilling.

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I watched some stuff. And by some I mean a lot, relatively speaking. Here are some eljay cuts about those things.

( Forbrydelsen II: (spoiler-free) )

( Merlin, series 4 (spoilers) )

( Red Riding Hood )

( Lars and the Real Girl )

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I have also watched half of Misfits series 3, which is uneven in some parts, and excellent in others; Cowboys and Aliens which was everything I could have wanted it to be and yet also a bit of a disappointment (could do with drunk cinema settings tbh); Melancholia, which was about as weird and stylistically on point as you can expect from von Trier, and yet still managed to reel me in by the very end; Tamara Drewe which is fucking full of slut shaming and is miserable because of it, and also makes little-to-no effort in trying to voice its protagonist; We Need to Talk About Kevin, which is beautifully shot and directed, but goddamn miserable; and (a while back) Centurion, which is violent, and sometimes dumb as fuck, but so much fun for a sword-and-sandal, whilst not being run-of-the-mill either.

In other words: WATCH ALL MOST OF THE THINGS.

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I initially started this post to do a quick catch-up and then talk about Ladies, but, you know what, I never do that because it's an exhausting topic, and others are more coherent, and my rage-to-serenity spirals fluctuate massively. Suffice it to say, if you are thinking about Ladies and Lady Things a lot - in any way - you are probably doing as much as you can in a social environment that often feels like a constant no-win situation. ( this becomes a bit didactic so now you can ignore it. )

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*) ...is this a song? Did I just make that up?

**) devour kink memes. True story.

So. I have sort of hit a snag with duck_cheer in that I can probably send the ducks off now, but I'm still not really sure how I want to go about it this time. Also, I have a hundred things to post to people — actual packages, not just letters/cards — and no fiscally-sound way of doing so. Am getting a bit frustrated because I wanted to be underway by now.

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It must be really exhausting to be the type of person who needs to be known to be right every time. Most of us are pleased to be right, and to know it ourselves, and every now and then we want other people to know we are right, too. But can you imagine being that person who not only has to be right all the time, but has to make sure everyone knows it? Every time? Exhausting!

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Fandom! Outcasts started this week, and so far so good. They've really made user of South Africa's terrain and beautiful skies, and the cast is more than watchable. I'm really enjoying Fleur — I can't remember the actress' name, but she has been consistently excellent in everything I have seen her in since her turn in Being Human last year. I feel like Hermione Norris, whom I adore, had fallen into something of a trap because Stella so far is Ros in Space with Tearducts, and I don't think she's a great fit for the character. Early days yet, so hopefully that will change. Loved Jamie Bamber, and was pleased to see that he had become versatile enough to shrug off Lee Adama and Matt to play this character.

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Being Human continues to be endearing fare. I love Nina so much, and the way they write her and George is lovely. I hope that Annie and Mitchell get as much care. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Robson Green next week, and am ready for some arc work. Come on! Let's get going! Enough grandstanding.

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Started watching The Killing/Forbrydelsen at the weekend, which is a Danish series that is currently airing on BBC4. Each episode follows a day in a murder investigation. It is child drama, the way Touching Evil was, gritty, serious, and excellent. Am enough it immensely, and hoping to be caught up by the time the next two episodes air on Saturday.

Diametrically opposite that is Glee, which I seem to have been dragged back into. Our rather, lured into by Naya Rivera's lovely everything. Am trying to be cool about my level of obsession, but I fear tumblr is giving me away. The latest episode was just… Kurt and his prep school boyfriend! Rachel having friends! EVERYTHING ABOUT SANTANA! I-- no, really, it is great. (Cory who? Shut up.)

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Quasi-relatedly, have started my picfor1000 entry. As ever, it is not what I thought I would be writing. Hope to get it done this weekend.

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I have been out a couple of times this week, too. I know, it's all go here. On Friday, xanitia went bowling, and then out to eat. Oh god, I have never bowled so badly in my life. Pretty certain it's because the balls I used were too heavy, but the fucks kept rolling into the gutter. Then we attempted to play pool, and realised we couldn't remember the basic rules. xanitia kept potting the white, and I kept missing, and it was chaos. After eating we drove up the A1, then veered off into Lincolnshire/Northamptonshire to find a village we had failed to find on previous occasions. I-- I don't know. It's tradition! Our something. Fun was had.

Then, Tuesday night I met up with another school friend, and we ended up seeing Hereafter which was terrible, but which also had a really lovely performance by this kid that stole everything. I recommend not going to see it. Awful.

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Work is pretty busy right now, mostly because I have pulled about 50 closed client cases that I need to scan to the system, and a report that I check every week has failed to run properly since January, so I feel like I'm running to stand still at the moment. My co-admin has a fortnight's leave coming up from Monday, then I have another trip to London, and then it's the pension-bump care reassessments, and at some point we have to move out of our office so they can fix the environmental systems, and there are basically a hundred things to do, and no job security. Fun.

Am currently on the bus, of course. The village bus was late today so I missed the first train, so am now in A14 traffic, on the second bus. But I have re-adapted to my situation since my new year freakout, especially now that there trends to be dawn light when I leave the house. Am not freaking out about it so much, and I don't hate it in the office like I did in December. Doing better.

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Long entry is long. Apologies.

Oh god, I was supposed to do this pre-Scotland, I think? Jesus, I always forget my own plans. Anyway, powerof3 asked me: my five favourite things about London; my five favourite recipes; five poems I'd use to introduce someone to poetry; my five favourite icons; and five favourites from things I've written, oh god.

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( five favourite things about London )

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( five favourite recipes )

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( five poems I'd use to introduce someone to poetry )

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( five favourite eljay icons )

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( five favourite things that I've written )

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Okay, that was actually exhausting. Only a couple more of these left to do.

Ask me more five things, guys! I have time on the bus to ~muse about such things. (Haha, belantana, I got your string of comments at work yesterday and then started giggling. My co-worker thought I'd lost it.)

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Femgen! Written before deadline, posted four minutes after! But I think it counts because it was still deadline day somewhere in the world. I hit enter and thought, well, that was exhausting.

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I am half through this week's Mad Men, and am tres, tres excited about Weeds. Tonight The Deep is on, which I may actually plonk myself in front of the television for. The end of the week is tentatively reserved for Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky. Excellent!

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This weekend we are apparently being invaded by two aunts and an uncle. Oh, family. There are shenanigans afoot, and not the good kind, either. But that is not a post for now.

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Ugh, it is so early! BFF said that 7am was early the other day, and-- no. No, it isn't. 7am has never been early for a weekday. School kids get up before 7am. 7am is a good time to get up. And not early.

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Lastly: David Gray's new album, Foundling is out. I have listened to 2.5 tracks, and then had to stop. It's not bad, it's just not like Draw the Line, and I'm having a hard time translating it aurally. I want the tempo to up and it hasn't yet. And then I got distracted. Will try again later in the week.