featherwizard

I have 2 fandom projects running, both of which I really, really want to move forward with but that hasn't been happening because Wizard family health has been crappy. That's hopefully winding down, barring any more random required surgeries (there's only so many surgeries a body can physically have and only so much spare energy for post-surgery care, and those limits were hit about 2 surgeries ago).

Also, Billy Joel vid ideas have been gnawing at my brain for weeks, now that I have access to video editing tools again. Hurray for returning creative energy? It would be very convenient if I could suddenly succumb to a passion for sorting out the random papers that have been stored in laundry bins for months, though.

Current vid links for Highlander fans.

Media Cannibals' great HL vids (on the right hand side about midway down): http://www.relative-obscurity.org/belles/cb.html
I especially like I'm the Cat.

Luminosity's videos are worth finding. Here's the only one I know of online atm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjGM6NUsYro
I have more, please PM me if you want me to pass them on.

Giandujakiss' vids are all worth watching. http://giandujakiss.dreamwidth.org/tag/my+highlander+vids for journal pages, and http://www.giandujakiss.com/index.php?set=videos&category=Highlander to download. I especially like Commercial for Levi (watch this together with Anoel's Trouble With Poets, they both speak about the same aspects of Methos I think) and At Least We're Dreaming (Poor Methos and Duncan, they've had a rough few years).

And of course, Killabeez' videos are also excellent. Her currently available videos are History Repeating (http://killabeez.dreamwidth.org/333120.html) and Opportunities (http://killabeez.dreamwidth.org/333471.html). Her general vid list is http://killabeez.livejournal.com/tag/vid post.

Keep an eye on the Highlander rewatch happening on Killabeez' LJ and DW. I'll probably wind up posting more recs as we go along.

Stones are static. Rocks remain (mostly) unchanged. Living beings grow and adapt to circumstances. What does this mean for someone who could live forever?

All of this is leading up to fanvid recommendations to go along with the Methos rewatch on killabeez' journal.

1) Kronos, Methos and the meaning of brotherhood. The only wistful, poignant vid featuring Kronos that makes sense (it may also be the only one period). A wonderful and surprisingly touching look at the end of a millennia-long relationship.
And As For You by Blue Oyster Cult, vid by our lovely host killabeez
http://seacouver.slashcity.net/vidland/andasforyou_highlander.zip

2 & 3 are the quintessential Methos vids, to me. I love how they get at different aspects of his character, while both capturing the feeling of intelligent, economical forcefulness that Methos cultivates.

2) Methos, a practical man, surrounds himself with poets, visionaries, and musicians. Sometimes they drown him out. Sometimes they can't see his perspective. Sometimes they talk too much.
The Trouble With Poets by Peter Mulvey, vid by Anoel
http://anoel.dreamwidth.org/19109.html

3) Methos has spent 3000 years cleaning the blood off his hands. Now, finally, he's clean. Sometimes. Chilling and complex look at how far Methos has come, and how far he still has to go.
Clean by Depeche Mode, vid by JKL
http://pteropus.com/ - put in an email, get a password by autoresponder. Very worth it, there are many good HL videos here.

4) Methos is a civilized man now, but he'll never be a peaceful one. Violence may not be the best way to solve problems, but sometimes he can't stop himself from using it. WARNING: Some brief season 6 cuts.
Temptation by VAST, vid by Fenling
LJ post at https://fenlings.livejournal.com/22399.html

Yu Yu Hakusho was one of my early fandoms, and was the foundation in a lot of ways to my entire fandom experience (my other formative fandom was Sailor Moon, and the less said about that experience the better).

Skeleton Dancer was one of the first YYH stories where I really felt the same wacky blend of hyper-violence, over-emoting and understated reactions that I found in the anime. It was one of the stories that set my expectations for team fic. It was, and remains, one of the handful of slash fics where the slash relationship seems to actually be within spitting distance of what I saw on screen.

I lost the link to it lo these many eons ago, and just found it again. I haven't finished my re-read, but so far nothing has disappointed. This is one of the standout YYH fics for me, and I hope you enjoy it also.

Skeleton Dancer - Fate VII / evilsimon
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2561023/1/Skeleton-Dancer
ZOMBIES. Yes, that's correct. Zombies. Because there just weren't enough necromancers involved before now. But no, these aren't the standard, fairlyeasytokill zombies. There are Plot Twists. And Unexpected Visitors. And slashy demons.
Rated: Fiction T - English - Supernatural/Sci-Fi - Kurama M., Hiei - Chapters: 17 - Words: 94,504 - Reviews: 263 - Favs: 152 - Follows: 18 - Updated: Dec 28, 2005 - Published: Sep 1, 2005 - Status: Complete - id: 2561023

Life is good!

The Highlander rewatch is fun - I love sharing fandom squee. Modern medicine continues to make life better. My domesticated alien continues to entertain. It's all simply starting to work out.

Which means it's time to start working on some more long-term goals, naturally. Because standing still is an open invitation for life to catch up and bite.

Ran across this while searching for something else:

"Methos, the tax collector of the poor (?), of the 21st (= the
nth) year of Commodus Antoninus, the 19th of Payni, on behalf of
the workmen's tax, in the name of ... . Anurion Phaminios "

Converted to text: https://archive.org/stream/proceedings01englgoog/proceedings01englgoog_djvu.txt
Unconverted but browseable: https://archive.org/stream/proceedings01englgoog#page/n224/mode/2up

It's obvious that the automatic OCR had trouble with that page - lots of Greek/Latin letters that came over as gibberish. The original name is probably "Methes" or "Metres", both are used on that page.

But still. The Highlander plot bunnies are hopping up and down. I'll come back to this when I'm ready to start writing. Soon, I think.

Is anyone else getting an Unhandled Error when trying to post comments? For some reason I simply can't do it now. I can make journal posts, and I think at least one comment got through because I got an emailed response, but they don't show up on the site at all. I'm using an up-to-date browser. Anyone have a similar problem?

Politics: the Game

We all know that our leaders are callous, our politicians are greedy, and (most) people in government are out of touch with the people they're supposed to be leading. Politics is the art of pulling disparate interests together to serve your own, and Politics: the Game is spotting absurd, nonsensical official actions and thinking up strange, but popular, ways to explain them.

Whenever you hear something ridiculous an inexplicable, contradictory or counter-intuitive being promoted by your government/politicians, find a popular pro-government/nation/ethnicity slogan that applies. The more different the two ideas are, the better.

When someone else beats you to it, or thinks of something weirder than you did, let them know that they've Won At Politics! ;)

For those of you who haven't heard, there's a survey of fans trying to make its way around fandom. It got shot down once (although I doubt that will last), but this is a recurring thing and should be stomped on when encountered but lots of reasons, mostly having to do with the fact that my sexuality is not a bug under a microscope, and anthropologists don't get to treat it that way without bothering to experience what the heck they're talking about.

For a more coherent explanation of the survey and the issues it brings up, see http://eruthros.dreamwidth.org/273840.html, which could be subtitled 'All the reasons we don't care about being your bugs'.

No Junior Lobbyist Left Behind

Seriously, is no one else frightened by this? It's even worse than the lies Obama is trying to push down our throats about healthcare. (Look up the statistics on death rates and life expectancy in countries with single-payer healthcare. Than thank your lucky stars you are in America).

Does anyone serious think that Obama isn't a socialist? No? Good. Because he is, he's been that way for years and years, and we elected this unqualified, inexperienced ivory-tower suit because he can speak nicely. Argh.