Just a bit of hello to my friends! Hope you are ok

for this year More Joy day, I shall post my answer to eglantiere's prompt:

can you write, on any day, of things that bring you uncomplicated, sensory pleasure? tactile, or visual, or audial, or some sense of 'oh, nice' -things, or activities, or anything like that.

Air, warm and sweet, just after the sunset; lilac bushes; the smell of freshly-mowed grass; when my bunny jumps in my lap and lets me pet her; the sound of a passing train far away beyond the forest; hugging people I love; drinking coffee with milk and eating a pastry in just the right moment; when I finished hiking a mountainous trail or completed some other heavy physical exercise and can go home and rest; sunset sky, forests that remind me my home forests of Northwestern Russia, ocean on Hawaii, walking alone in Rome (any other city is fine, too, Rome was just the last time it happened like that), eating ice cream while walking in the cold weather, seeing a beautiful bird in the wild, picking up horse chestnut fruit, and holding in my palm smooth auburn spheres. Putting them in a pocket and then forgetting about their existence for a year and finding them again and stroking their dry, ridged shells.

Ok, I’ll stop for now. It already looks like a mix of the
Pillow Book and
Денискины Рассказы, and I am pretty sure I am forgetting something really important. But I want to post it today! heh.

in my "give me something to talk about" post selenak asked me:

You're in a charge of a Russia-based spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Could be present day, or any time in history (including of course the 20th century). Which setting do you choose? What's the Watcher's cover story/civilian job, and what the Slayer's? Does she face Baba Yaga or another Russian myth?

One of my first attempts at fanfiction, not successful, but the one I returned several times until leaving it to rest, was the story of the Agrafena the Vampire Slayer in 1777, in St. Petersburg. It was not connected to Baba Yaga or any traditional Russian spirits, but let me play with many St.Petersburg’s dark legends and actual history, full of floods that were decidedly apocalyptic (also, see Pushkin’s The Bronze Horseman, which dealt with the subject first and best). I mean, I timed this story specifically during one of such horrible floods, in September 1777.

While I am unlikely to go and finish this story (it’s here), I do think it is a cool concept and setting Slayers’ stories during 18th century in Russia can lead to many delicious possibilities.

Another time that can lead to fascinating stories would be somewhere between 1961-1968. The future had never seemed brighter – the wars are won, the scientific progress does miracles, the first man was in space already. Vampires are just so inappropriate in that setting. Not no mention – how can you explain to an atheist, sincerely believing in bright communist future girl who is planning to be a nuclear physicist in space that actually she has to fight vampires with a stick? It’s perfect.

And still, I wouldn’t use Baba yaga here, but instead turned to darker urban legends and regular demonfolk like domovoys, kikimoras, etc. I love Baba Yaga, and she has her place in modern stories, but she is a bit overdone.

ETA because I realized I only answered half of the question. more ideas for 60s Soviet Vampire Slayer.

Given the age range of the beginning of the Slayer calling - around 15, it would still be appropriate for a high school setting. And then the Watcher can be a teacher or a head of an after class hobby circle, or both. I am thinking something like photography – which was pretty popular at the time for boys and girls and could be a fine cover for a number of weird activities. If our Slayer is still alive upon school graduation, she could try to pass entrance exams for a college or start working, and the Watcher could find her a job close enough for him to continue watching her.


Geographically – we would be talking about the borders of USSR as they were in the 1960s, not specifically Russia.
If in 18th century young St. Petersburg is the best choice, for 20th century I wouldn’t choose either Moscow to St. Petersburg/Leningrad, but instead looked for other possibilities.
- Black Sea cities or small towns. Small town for the vacation resort atmosphere or a large seaport for the constant mix of random people and influences.
- medium size provincial town where nothing happens
- secret scientific research town
- large industrial city
- small town in Carpathian mountains. Castle, tourists, lots of vampires, ghosts, local legends.

Please ask more! https://avrelia.dreamwidth.org/283337.html

I can't bring myself to list the results of year 2021.

I mean - we are fine, in good health, and so are our extended families.
getting US visas for them though, is way more complicated, which sucks.
we now have a bunny
kids are going to school, which is so much better. I am so not a homeschooling parent, and I've known it all my life, before I was even thinking of being a parent.
D. is a highschooler. Mind boggles.
G. is a second grader. Mind boggles some more, since in my mind he is a baby
I know, I know,
I am deadly tired, and always feel that I am failing at parenting and life in general.
and in writing, too.
though I wrote some fanfiction, and I keep writing, and I have ideas...
so... a bunny!

also, please tell me what to write about in January (see the previous post)
I did watched some tv, so I need to do a round up of it

Time to use my New year icon, and wow. How come it's December already?

Everything is the same. I don't do anything, and I don't even have an excuse of kids at home. Time just flies away. It still leaves me tired and exhausted, but without any meaningful result.

I think a year ago I had more hopes for the world.

Anyway, I am fine, my family is fine, and I have no idea what to do next.

Well, except for day to day stuff.

Decided to do the Holiday love meme:



✨ holiday love meme 2021 ✨
my thread here

https://www.hallowedgroundmedia.org/hallowed-ground-storycast/moonlighting

I listened to this podcast, where Lani Diane Rich was talking about the Moonlighting series, and I was happy to discover that she had all the same frustrations about it as I did, but is so much better at talking about them.

I watched Moonlighting when it was airing in Russia, in the 90s. I was a teenager, and I was sucked in in all the mad energy of Maddie and Dave, their chemistry and unbelievable UST. Reader, of course I shipped them.

I loved the crazy antics, the fourth wall breaking, the experiments, I loved Allyce Beasley Curtis Armstrong’s characters.

But mostly, yes, I was there for Maddie and Dave.

But will they won’t they was becoming boring and sour, and when they got together it was horrible, and then everything just got worse and sadder. I couldn’t understand what was happening.

And then much later I learned of the so called “moonlighting curse”. That supposedly falls upon any consummated relationship in tv series and turns everything into crap. And which totally doesn’t not exist, because it was obvious even to me when I was watching, that the problem was with bad writing that seemed not to know what to do with the characters. I mean, there is plenty of conflict and interesting stories could be told about people in relationship – just not if their only goal in live was to kiss each other. And honestly, not knowing what to do with the characters was just one of the problem. It was what they did with the characters that seemed to be the problem.

When the series started, Maddie was someone we cared about, a person who lost her money, and has to adjust to a new life, a new job, new people around her. She tried to be serious and careful, and economical. Cybil Sheppard, as her heroine, was, I think a half-forgotten star of several movies (I haven’t seen any of them), and this series was supposed to be her comeback. But was Bruce Willis who became a breakout star instead. And well, his David was electrifying, fun, engaging and irresistible. It was fair. But as the series progressed Maddie is shown as a caricature – boring, nagging, killjoy of a person who never has fun herself and never lets anyone have fun. She is having random womanly emotions, and she is wrong most of the time. David, on the other hand, becomes more and more adorable: he likes fun! He solves crimes while having fun! He has real deep feelings! Everyone loves him!

It is no wonder that the relationship between actors were sour as well. But seriously, the show became unwatchable in its later episodes.

Still, when I think of Moonlighting now, I think of the amazing first seasons, of Atomic Shakespeare, of Agnes DiPesto rhyming on the phone, of all the fun, and of the valuable lesson that the chemistry between characters is not enough for the story to work. And that there is no moonlighting curse.

I have enjoyed “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” I loved seeing the world after The Blip and the problems it faces. It even added the necessary perspective to WandaVision – the people in West View are the people in this post-Blip world, faced with the same problems – lost and found families, people who grieved for five years only to have their loved ones back, unchanged. Parents who reappeared and found their kids aged five years in a blink. Or are nowhere to be found since they have new families..

I loved watching Bucky and Sam struggling with their choices. Bucky having to come to terms with his past, surrounded by the reminders of his crimes, unwilling, but horrible. I liked Sam’s reluctance to pick up Captain America’s shield and the title and the associated visibility and scrutiny. I loved Sam’s family.

But a month has passed and I realize that nothing much of that series in left in me. Where WandaVision cut deep and stayed there, in the wound.

The quiet despair is so much more effective.

I made a Joke on Tumblr about new sitcom “These Wacky Sokovians”, featuring Wanda and Zemo. And I keep thinking about it – not the sitcom, but generally how the meeting between them would go. I mean, Zemo would definitely blame Wanda for the Ultron and her role in Sokovia’s fate, but I think Wanda has a lot of grievances against baron Zemo as well. I mean – how it all started? Why Stark weapons were there in the first place? Sokovia for Zemo was a different place than for Wanda. He was royalty, he was in the military, he was fine. Was he one fighting for political control with the little help of US weapons? Seems likely to me.
https://avrelia.tumblr.com/post/653352447595692032/i-am-still-thinking-about-it-not-maximoff-zemo
There is a fascinating article in Rolling Stone about WandaVision. Lots of delicious tidbits about creative process and behind the scenes stuff and what future brings for Wanda Maximoff. (spoilers for WandaVision)
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/oral-history-wandavision-olsen-bettany-hahn-feige-1155120/
my favorite quotes:
Schaeffer: [] We knew it was going to be resolved with a logic battle, and we put a pin in that. And then as we moved on, it was like, “Anyone have any ideas about what the heck this logic battle could be? How the hell do you write for an omniscient synthezoid?” It was Meghan McDonnell, who is the writer on Captain Marvel 2 [since announced as The Marvels], who stumbled upon this Ship of Theseus thing. And then Matt came up with the idea of putting it in the library, a palace of knowledge, which was genius, and having them spin and having the papers flutter. I was always afraid it would be the thing that would be kicked to the curb, but I do think it’s a lovely moment of rest and thought inside of the finale.
Bettany: My favorite meme so far has been “what is the Ship of Theseus, besides the Ship of Theseus persevering?“
Schaeffer: []I did want it to feel hopeful, because as a fan I want to have my heart wrenched, but I don’t want to be dropped into the pit of an abyss.[]
Feige: Some people might say, “It would’ve been so cool to see Dr. Strange,” but it would have taken away from Wanda, which is what we didn’t want to do. We didn’t want the end of the show to be commoditized to go to the next movie, or, “Here’s the white guy, ‘let me show you how power works.'” That wasn’t what we wanted to say.
So that meant we had to reconceive how they meet in that movie. And now we have a better ending on WandaVision than we initially thought of, and a better storyline in Dr. Strange. And that’s usually how it works, which is to lay the chess pieces the way you want them to go in a general fashion, but always be willing and open to shifting them around to better serve each individual one.
Olsen: What we filmed was that she had to get away before the people who would hold her accountable got there. And where she went is a place that no one could find her. I know that for sure. Because she knows that she is going to be held accountable, I think, and I think she has a tremendous amount of guilt, and a new amount of loss.

Oh, and of course, the first episode of Loki is a lot of fun, just as we all expected. Nothing much to say about it yet, except that I am in love with the crazy retro-futuristic, kind of reminding of Soviet Science Fiction, grand and weirdly optimistic aesthetic of the TVA

Sometimes fandom discourse reminds me of alchemy. There is a beautiful unifying theory, an idea of a perfect story existing in a perfect world, where characters come together in a perfect union and live in perfection, if we only uncover the symbolism and unlock the sacred mystery.
And there are a lot of deep and interesting meta, and commentaries and essays explaining in beautiful details the inevitability of that perfect story.
And there are lot of amazing discoveries and invention and work made along the way, the work that will help the humanity to progress… New elements and laws of nature are discovered, the distillation processes are perfected, new alloys are invented…
But led still doesn’t turn into gold, and philosopher's stone doesn’t grant eternal life to anyone. And the root of mandrake is only useful to scare away the onlookers...

I am a bit in a weird non-writing head space right now, but I can't miss today.

Today Buffy Summers is 40!

Happy birthday, Buffy, please don't celebrate it! We love you.

SMG on instagram and FB has a lovely post about it, too.