Fics and Things

New Year Ramblings

garrideb — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 17:25:17 GMT

2019 was kind of a lackluster year for me. Sure, there were highlights. I did some fun things. But I overall I got almost nothing done. I took very few photos, I only wrote one short fic and made one vid (and it wasn't the vid I really need to work on), I acquired a few books but didn't read them.

2019 notables:

My niece Clara was born
I hit my ten-year anniversary at work
My cat Cali died, a few months later I adopted my new cat Annabelle
I went to three cons: C2E2, WisCon, and SHareCon
I did a handful of escape rooms
I went to live shows of TAZ and MBMBAM in Chicago
My nine-year-old MacBook finally died, so I got a new MacBook. Well, a recent refurbished one.

2020 upcomings:

I'm going to New Zealand for two weeks in February
For the first time since 2011, I am not going to C2E2, but I will be going to Fanworks Con in August in Chicago, and WisCon as per usual.
My main fannish goal is to Vid. All. The. Things. Starting first and foremost with my Marvel Trumps Hate vid, which is now more a year overdue.
I also want to take more pictures. Obviously I'll take a bunch in New Zealand, but I want to take more back home, too.

This entry was originally posted at https://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/65723.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

Fanvid: The Promise (Russian Doll)

garrideb — Thu, 30 May 2019 22:30:24 GMT

Song Title: The Promise
Music Artist: The Shondes
Fandom: Russian Doll (TV)
Length: 3:30
Warnings: Some non-gory shots of characters dying temporarily in a Groundhog Day-style narrative, a character standing on a ledge contemplating suicide.
Author Notes: This premiered at WisCon43 (2019). I'm happy with how it turned out, especially considering it's one of the quickest vids I've ever made. Now I will turn all my fannish attention to the project I should have been working on (I just really wanted a premiere at WisCon)!

This is the third vid I've made to a song by The Shondes, tying it with the number of vids I've made to Halsey songs.

Also viewable on AO3 and tumblr.

View on YouTube (subtitles are available on YouTube):

Or view on Vimeo (password is: we are the promise):

This entry was originally posted at https://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/65504.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

WisCon: Saturday

garrideb — Mon, 27 May 2019 21:20:47 GMT

Against all odds Jen and I managed to get to the hotel in time for an 8:30 panel on Saturday morning, which was New Pop Culture And Old Farts, which was about how to keep up with new scifi/fantasy works when there's just so much of it, and how to find fandom when fandom spaces change. The focus was a little scattered but it was an enjoyable panel. Our friend Sigrid was one of the panelists.

Then I went to Learning To Hear The Dog Whistle, which defined and explained political dog whistles, and then listed ones the panelists and audience had experienced. Very informative.

Lunch was at Umami's food truck on the Square, amidst the farmer's market. I had a delicious tofu dumpling. Then I attended the popup panel for discussing the Vidparty premieres. Apparently, because the Vid Deep Dive panel had been proposed for the first time this year, scheduling thought the Premiere discussion was redundant and dropped that one, even though the Deep Dive was only proposed because there were so many premieres the last two years that one panel only allowed a very cursory discussion.

The popup panel wasn't well attended, but we did manage in-depth discussion of all the premieres. For the first time (as far as I recall) some of the discussion was pretty critical for a couple of the vids. Laura Shapiro was there (she had a premiere at the Vidparty) and I got to fangirl at her, because she's been a vidding inspiration for me.

The next two panels I went to were Inside The World Of Comics And Graphic Novel Publishing and Comics As Collaboration. Jen was on both of them, as well as one of the Guests of Honor, G. Willow Wilson. (The other panelists were fabulous too!) The moderator had dropped out of the first one so Jen stepped up at the last minute to mod it, and did a great job. Both panels were entertaining and informative.

We had dinner at Taiwan Little Eats on State Street. I had a tasty chicken and rice dish, but if I go agin I'll probably try the coffin toast, because Jen let me try some of her's and it was delicious.

Saturday ended with the Comic Book Party! Jen and I drove home to grab the supplies we didn't think to bring that morning, and by the time we got back to the hotel Rachel and Elizabeth had set up basically everything. We'd been worried because we were assigned a smaller room this year, but honestly it worked fine. We had tables full of comics that people could read in the room, some rows of chairs, and a table for the door prizes. All we had left to do was decorate the room with posters and some disassembled comics-themed calendars. And of course I brought my original comic book pages and displayed them too.

The party was a great success. The room was packed for much of the night with people browsing and reading comics. We had the door prize drawings at 10:30, and at least 50 people crammed into the room to participate. Our youngest guest was happy to win an Adventure Time graphic novel, and Jess was ecstatic to win a Supergirl doll. It's too big to fit in her luggage so Jen's going to take it back east when she drives home this summer.

We started cleaning up at midnight on the dot, and were home by one, which was a nice feat.

This entry was originally posted at https://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/65202.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

WisCon: Friday

garrideb — Sun, 26 May 2019 00:55:50 GMT

My WisCon is going well so far! Carrie arrived on Tuesday and I had Wednesday through Friday off work, so Jen, Carrie and I got to hang out. On Thursday I abruptly remembered that I was supposed to make posters for the Comic Book Party, so I whipped up two variations of the same poster and went to OfficeMax to print them on Friday morning. The staff member there told me they can only print PDF files now, but was nonetheless able to print my files eventually.

I got to the con around 1 pm, bought my weekend pass, and put up the party posters. This is the third year I've started my WisCon by putting up posters, and honestly it's a nice way to ease into the con. I grab some painter's tape and put some up by the elevators on the 2nd and 6th floors, a few in the stairwell, one on each of the notice boards, and a few by the lanyard and program stations. I get to scope out the con, without any aimless wandering.

The first panel I went to was Favorite Queer Depictions In Fiction, which was a really nice recommendation panel, focusing on scifi/fantasy prose fiction, but also included some comics and podcasts. I now have a long list of (more) things to read!

Then I went to Mental Illness, Disability, And The Villainous Body In Batman Media, mostly because Jess was a panelist, but it turned out to be a darkly funny and very insightful panel. It covered a lot of ground, too, from how Arkham Asylum became a fixture of Batman comics, to the implications of the very recent Heroes in Crisis comic.

I had dinner with Rachel, Elizabeth, and Shelley at a tasty (and nicely quiet!) taco place off the square.

Then we had the Vid Party! I had a premiere, a Russian Doll fanvid which I'll post in a few days. Beyond the premiere playlist there were lots of delightful themed-playlists, including "Be Gay and Do Crimes" and "Witches be Trippin'". Those should be up on the Vid Party's DW soon.

So that was my Friday!

This entry was originally posted at https://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/64842.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

Fanvid: If We Were Vampires

garrideb — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 23:11:51 GMT

Fandom: Starsky & Hutch (TV)
Song: If We Were Vampires
Length: 2:40
Warnings: a very small amount of blood
Notes: This is a really beautiful song about the shadow of mortality hanging over your deepest and most loving relationships. So of course my mind associated it immediately with Starsky and Hutch. They love each other so much, guys.

Also posted to Tumblr and AO3.

Subtitles available on YouTube:

Or watch on Vimeo (password is vampire)

Lyrics:

It's not the long, flowing dress that you're in
Or the light coming off of your skin
The fragile heart you protected for so long
Or the mercy in your sense of right and wrong
It's not your hands searching slow in the dark
Or your nails leaving love's watermark
It's not the way you talk me off the roof
Your questions like directions to the truth

It's knowing that this can't go on forever
Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone
Maybe we'll get forty years together
But one day I'll be gone
Or one day you'll be gone

If we were vampires and death was a joke
We'd go out on the sidewalk and smoke
Laugh at all the lovers and their plans
I wouldn't feel the need to hold your hand
Maybe time running out is a gift
I'll work hard 'til the end of my shift
And give you every second I can find
And hope it isn't me who's left behind

This entry was originally posted at https://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/61773.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

WisCon! And some vid recs!

garrideb — Wed, 30 May 2018 15:56:47 GMT

WisCon happened! The highlights for me, this year, were the vid party on Friday night, and the comic book party on Saturday night.

So, the vid party. This was its second year in the ballroom. I'm so glad they moved it to such a large location. They also moved the start time from 9 pm to 8 pm -- another great idea. There were a dozen or so premieres this year, and they were AMAZING. I could easily rec them all, but I'll just rec two:

Candy Girl by Vassalady is a vid for Princess Princess Ever After, which is an adorable f/f fairytale comic book. The vid is bouncy and funny and so, so cute.

Straightening Up the House by Eruthros is vid that uses source from Marvel movies and comics to illustrate all the missed opportunities for queer characters in the movies. The song choice is so clever and the vid is very effective.

Then on Saturday, I helped host the comic book party at WisCon. We had several tables filled with comics that guests could browse and read at the party, and we had 50+ door prizes -- mostly more comics, but also some merch. There was an adorable little girl who was SO EXCITED to win a Storm Dorbz and a Bumblebee action figure. Also, one of the GoH, Saladin Ahmed (Black Bolt, Abbott) stopped by the party. So that was cool.

On a less fun note, yeah, I was at the panel where stuff went down. This post is a fairly complete and accurate summary of the panel. I don't really have anything to add, except that I support WisCon's decision to ban the panelist.

To end on a better note, it was so nice to see all the WisCon people again, lots of people who I only see once a year in this whirlwind of a weekend. And I found myself laughing a lot. Particularly at the Superpowers for Banging panel, and the Animorphs pop-up panel. Overall, a great weekend!

This entry was originally posted at https://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/61521.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

And Back Again

garrideb — Tue, 22 May 2018 15:56:47 GMT

Now on the road back to Wisconsin! Missy's graduation went well, and the whole trip was pretty smooth. I had one fight with my mom because I felt like she hurt Missy's feelings at one point, but it was near the end of the trip, so I'm not surprised it got a little heated. It rained the first two days, which wasn't ideal, but the third day was beautiful. We almost went on a hike, but decided to go dress shopping for Madeline instead. She's getting married end of July, and she wants a fairly casual dress to match the small and casual courthouse ceremony she's having.

Of course Missy kept trying to steer her towards slightly fancier dresses. Madeline took it in good spirits. She ended up buying a pale pink lacy knee-length dress that was heavily discounted to $30, though she said she was going to buy that one regardless, so it may or may not be her wedding dress.

In the car yesterday I almost finished reading The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, which is a really excellent YA novel about a girl who witnesses her unarmed teenaged friend get shot and killed by a white cop. The characters are all nuanced and the story is by turns harrowing and heartwarming.

This entry was originally posted at https://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/61398.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

On the Road

garrideb — Thu, 17 May 2018 05:40:09 GMT

I'm traveling with my parents from Wisconsin to Virginia to attend my sister's graduation. We're in Columbus, Ohio tonight. My parents sprang for separate rooms, which surprised me -- I figured we were going to share a double -- but I can't say I mind having my own room.

This was a conversation that happened earlier:
Mom: We're going to stop at a very nice restaurant in Illinois that your dad and I had lunch at before.
Me: Sounds good.
Mom: It's a Chinese buffet.
Me: Cool.
Mom: Your dad loves their brisket.
Me: Um..?

I didn't try the brisket but it was a very nice buffet. Dinner, in a logical inverse proportion, was an apple and some string cheese. My mom bought Avengers string cheese for me. My parents are so cute.

Since they did all the driving, I had plenty of time to read. I almost finished Freed by Flame and Storm by Becky Allen. It's a sequel; I enjoyed the first book immensely last year, and this one is a worthy continuation. If a fantasy story about a young woman with magic fighting to free her people sounds like your thing, I recommend it.

WisCon is fast approaching and I need to finish making posters for a party I'm cohosting. I'm also about 2/3 done with my next Starsky & Hutch vid. And I have ongoing cleaning goals; I left my room in a state of mid-rearrangement, which will hopefully be somewhat rectified by WisCon.

This entry was originally posted at https://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/61171.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

April Expectations

garrideb — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 12:51:55 GMT

I've decided to make writing a goal for April, but knowing myself I'm setting a low bar: do a 15 minute writing sprint each day. So far so good. I might actually finish this silly Starsky & Hutch smut story I started, and additionally I'd like to submit a fic for the SHareCon zine. I'm kicking around a couple of plot ideas.

C2E2 is this week! I am very excited, even though I haven't even looked at the panels yet and none of the guests are of intense interest to me. Jen is curious to see the Mark Millar and Bendis panel -- which very well might be a trainwreck -- so I'll probably do that. I like watching things out of morbid fascination.

But mostly I think I'm just excited to go to a con. My last con was in the autumn, and my last trip of any kind was December. I'm ready to spend hours in a car and get gas station coffee and stay in a hotel and see tons of cosplay.

Oh, I might even finally get an Instagram account, so I can share my cosplay photography to a wider audience. Past years I've just posted to Flickr and Tumblr. I'm also going to try to post the pictures as the con is happening, not all a day or two after the con is over, like I usually do. I can learn to ride trends like the young folk!

I did actually read some comics this month: David Walker's Power Man and Iron Fist. I borrowed 15 issues, not realizing that those were the entire run. When I finished the last issue I was thinking, "I really enjoyed this! I should go track down the next issues ASAP!" And then I read the letter column, where the writer was saying goodbye and thanking the fans.

It was funny and quirky, with a serious undertone. And Luke and Danny were so, so cute together. Why did it have to end?

This entry was originally posted at https://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/60825.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

Holograms and Rival Bands: A Fanmix

garrideb — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 03:34:00 GMT

I made a fanmix for the IDW Jem and the Holograms comic book. There's a cover and an image for each track, but please be warned each image is a gif and some of them have spinning or flickering movement.

Move in the Right Direction by Gossip
One step closer to feeling fine
Getting better one day at a time
I’m moving forward with all of my might
I’m headed towards a new state of mind

You're a Germ by Wolf Alice
You’re a germ
Twist my insides
You’re a germ
We’re here to fight

Romance by Wild Flag
Hey hey, can you feel it
The way it squeezes you
The hum in your chest
You make my feet move
You turn my head loose
That’s why I love you the best

Dust My Shoulders Off by Jane Zhang
Cause I’ll still be winning
When things are going wrong
I turn on my favorite song
And dust my shoulders

Kitsch by Poly Styrene
Well you can call me a bitch
Or a bit of a witch
But I would say I’m just a little bit kitsch
And I don’t care what they say
I’m kitsch all the way

The Wire by Haim
You know there’s no rhyme or reason for the way you turned out to be
I didn’t go and try to change my mind, not intentionally
I know it’s hard to hear me say it, but I can’t bear to stay and
I just know I know I know I know
That you’re gonna be okay anyway

Turn It Up by Robots in Disguise
I dress up bright tonight and needing the beat
Dance into the speakers and max up the volume
Feel so high tonight and moved by my feet
My heart in the speakers is loving the volume

Lights and Camera by Yuna
Lights, camera, strike a pose
And have someone help you put lipstick on
Yeah, high heels now you’re six feet tall
And everybody knows who you are

Control by Garbage
I confess I’ve lost control
I let my guard down
I let the truth out

Invasion by Eisley
All in time you will be one of
Us, painless, us, blameless
Go to sleep, this won’t hurt a bit
Shifting your shape to our shells

The Promise by The Shondes
Hold onto me
In the darkness find the beat
You know that I can hit the ground running, baby
Hope is so dangerous
Do this thing with me

Listen as a YouTube Playlist or download zip file from SendSpace

This entry was originally posted at https://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/60483.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

Happy March

garrideb — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 16:46:36 GMT

While my January was a pretty good month, my February had its ups and downs. First I lost my wallet, which presumably dropped out of my coat pocket as I got out of a car in front of my house; by the time I realized it was missing the next morning, it had snowed several inches and the snowplow had come through. I dug around in the snow with a shovel but was unable to find it.

That very day my water heater started leaking. My mom recommended a Benjamin Plumbing, and the tech who came out said it needed to be replaced. I could have had them replace it and saved $100 in service fees, but their quote was several hundred more than some of their competitors. That said, the technician was very nice, didn't pressure us, and explained everything clearly.

So my roommate and I shopped around. We went to Home Depot, where the employee we talked to was VERY confidant that we could install a water heater ourselves, but Jen's dad and my mom were adamant that we pay professionals instead. I almost made up my mind to go with Home Depot, but at the last minute found out that their price was several hundred more than estimated by that employee (Still cheaper than Benjamin's, though).

So I ended up going with Brown H&AC out of Deerfield, because one of the owners is the partner of one of the nurses I work with, and because they were the cheapest. The guys who came to install it were fine, and it's been working since installation, so, yay? But there was $1400 I was not expecting to spend.

Then, when Jen and I were in a Big Lots picking up chips for a party, I saw a sectional that I quite liked for about $800, which is very reasonable for a sectional. My current one is in poor condition, so seeing one I liked (it's rare; I'm picky about couches) sparked me to browse several furniture stores. There was a final showdown between one at Ashley Furniture and one at Steinhafels. Both were on sale, but the one at Ashley was VERY on sale, and only $700, while the other was much nicer, but was about $1200. I hemmed and hawed for ages but finally went with the nicer, more expensive one because I liked it so much.

In related news I am trying to save money by making more of my own food. I made these chicken wraps with Thai peanut sauce on Wednesday and they were delicious. Full disclosure: I was missing some of the ingredients (ginger, cilantro, green onions).

Fandom-wise, I'm making a fancy fanmix for the IDW Jem and the Holograms comic book. It's got eleven tracks, and I'm doing a graphic for each song to illustrate how each song relates to the comic. And they're all gifs. And I am the slowest gif-maker known to man, so this won't be done for several days yet, maybe a week.

I saw Black Panther and really enjoyed it. Also saw a free screening of Hidden Figures at Alicia Ashman library, which I had not seen before, and really enjoyed that.

Oh! And then just a few days ago my wallet showed up between my storm door and regular door. The snow had almost all melted, and someone must have found it. Everything (including the small amount of cash) was still inside.

This entry was originally posted at https://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/60208.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

Fanvid: Boogie Feet

garrideb — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 21:02:41 GMT

After the angst-fest that was my last fanvid, I wanted to do something short and fun... a Starsky & Hutch vid about how much Starsky loves to dance.

Fandom: Starsky & Hutch (TV show)
Song: Boogie Feet by Kesha
Warnings: none
Summary: Starsky just wants to dance. And what he really wants is to dance with a certain tall blond friend of his. *cough*Hutch*cough*
Notes: This is my first fanvid using a TV show as the source! I was nervous, but it turns out making "virtual" clips in Premiere Pro is pretty simple, and I only used source from maybe ten episodes.

Also viewable on AO3 | tumblr

Captions available on YouTube:

Or view on Vimeo (password is: flaunt it)

This entry was originally posted at https://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/59979.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

Fanvid: Gasoline

garrideb — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 02:06:38 GMT

Fandom: Iron Man comics
Song: "Gasoline" by Halsey
Warnings: comic book violence and gore, self-harm
Summary: Set during the run of comics where Tony was Director of SHIELD, had his Extremis powers, and was frequently hallucinating the ghosts of his dead friends. Basically three and a half minutes of distilled Tony angst.
Notes: This vid is for sineala and Wett, who won a vid from me in the StonyTrumpsHate auction! Sineala was the one with the fantastic idea to match this song to this run of comics.

View on AO3 | Tumblr

View on YouTube (subtitles available!):

or view on Vimeo (password is "Steve"):

This entry was originally posted at https://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/59775.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

First Post of the Year

garrideb — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 16:58:19 GMT

Hello 2018. January was pretty good for me. I got a lot of work done on my vid, and I hope to finish it this weekend. It's basically three and a half minutes of distilled Tony angst, and I'm pretty happy about that.

I finally finished reading Gay L.A., which was a queer history of Los Angeles. Not a perfect book, but very interesting and entertaining to read. I will probably do a separate post with excerpts.

Tied-in with my interest in West Coast queer history, I've been reading old issues of The Advocate on microfilm at the library. Just 1969 and 1970 so far. It was such a different world then, and yet in many ways little has changed. This is my first time ever using microfilm, but luckily the library has a modern set-up where, instead of a projector, you view the film on a computer screen and can take instant screen grabs. I'll post some of those later.

You might have guessed that some of my interest in 1970's gay Los Angeles ties into my current fandom of Starsky & Hutch, and if you did guess that you'd be right. But I just like knowing about queer history, too. And the strongly localized approach offers some benefits. You get smaller stories along with the bigger stories, and there are fewer sweeping generalizations.

Oh, I also saw some interesting movies in January:
I, Tonya -- very engrossing and good at complicating a story that the media simplified.
The Shape of Water -- very beautiful visuals. Also, they mentioned Madison, WI!
Murder on the Orient Express -- not great, but not terrible. Overall kind of fun.
Blade Runner 2049 -- True to the spirit of the original, but much too slow and boring, with some gaping plot holes.

This entry was originally posted at https://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/59591.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

Life Update Post

garrideb — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 22:05:14 GMT

Still alive, internet. Still chugging along.

I've been a bit down lately and I think it's mostly due to work. Normally I work a 0.8 FTE, but I've been bumped up to full time for the month of November due to our clinic being severely short-staffed. I've also had to stay late two or three times per week. It's been okay; I still feel lucky to work at this clinic, but it's not easy when, out of 5 medical assistants, two are on maternity leave, and one left for another career.

So, this is a things-that-have-been-making-me-happy post!

Half Price Books had one of their coupon sales last week where they send you 40% off-any-one-item coupons good for Friday and Saturday only, and a 50% off any item for Sunday only. These are such fun sales. I can always find SOMETHING I want, even if it's just a $1 comic book. This time my haul included the first trade of Snotgirl, the first trade of Fuse, a trade of the first 14 issues of Kelly Sue DeConnick's Captain Marvel run, and a beautiful, huge hardcover collection of Saga (not sure how many issues it collects, as it is shrink-wrapped). Although I plan to read Snotgirl and Fuse before donating, all of them will probably end up as door prizes at a WisCon party.

I'm still chipping away at my current vid project. I feel bad that it's taking me as long as it has, but I enjoy it while I'm working on it. I've had some annoying setbacks due to my own technical errors -- like, accidently clicking "save" when I meant to click "save as" and writing over my previous save, and then being unable to find a way to revert it. Luckily I only lost a few hours of work with that mistake, and I did a better job the second time around, anyway.

But the fandom of my heart at the moment is Starsky & Hutch. I might do a future post about some of the fun and goofy things I've accumulated due to my current S&H obsession. (A Playgirl from 1984! An issue of The Advocate from 1975!) And I feel like a bit of a fandom explorer, because I found out that the S&H fandom is most active on Facebook, and so I actually joined a FB group for the first (?) time. I've never done fandom on FB before so it's like a whole new world to me.

This entry was originally posted at https://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/59347.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

How to Fandom on Your Birthday

garrideb — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 19:02:52 GMT

First of all, a vid rec for a Zoë Washburne (Firefly) fanvid: It Is Always Heavier Than You Thought

Secondly, it is my birthday! I am 32. I've got some plans to hang out with friends after work tonight, but I'd also like to do something fandom-y to celebrate. Should I make a couple fandom secrets, something I haven't done in a year or so? Or should I write some self-indulgent fic? Or should I work on the vid that is my current fandom priority so I can feel good about making progress on my birthday?

What are you all up to?

This entry was originally posted at http://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/59008.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

Frank Turner Concert IV

garrideb — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 19:48:23 GMT

Last week I had my fourth Frank Turner concert (first and third concert reports here)! It was held at Breese Stevens Field, an outdoor repurposed athletic field venue which I had never been to before. Luckily the weather was beautiful -- warm with clear skies and a slight breeze. There were vendors set up around the perimeter of the field selling food, drink and crafts along with the traditional concert merch. I bought a Frank Turner hoodie.

The headliner was Jason Isbell, a country folk rock singer that Jen introduced me to, and who also appears in Frank Turner's video for Love Forty Down as his tennis opponent:

I listened to Jason's two most recent albums in preparation for the concert, and grew quite fond of them, despite them being much more country than my tastes usually run. Here are my favorites so far:

Hope the High Road
If We Were Vampires
White Man's World
How to Forget

So Frank and a band called Communist Daughter were the openers, but Frank had a nice, long set. And it was nice to see a lot of people who were at the show for Jason and who were unfamiliar with Frank get to experience him for the first time. One woman near us was particularly blown away and was taking about how impressed she was afterwards.

We had sprung for the "gold circle" tickets, which meant we could be right up against the stage. We chose to sit and drink cider until Frank's set started, at which point we stood so we could jump and dance along, and so I could get closer for pictures.

At one point Frank complained about the sunlight in his eyes, so a band member slipped some sunglasses onto his face. They lasted all of 15 seconds before Frank's bouncing knocked them off.

We sat back down and split a bottle of moscato while waiting for Jason to come on, but stood back up shortly after he started. It turned out the sparrow and anchor backdrop lit up and changed colors, which was quite beautiful. His lighting and staging was all really great.

His wife Amanda is also a talented musician and she accompanied him with strings and vocals. It was a really nice show. I know outdoor venues are a gamble, but I'd happily go back to Breese Stevens Field. Also, I plan to keep going to Frank concerts as long as he keeps stopping in Madison, Milwaukee, and/or Chicago.

This entry was originally posted at http://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/58697.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

Fandom Things

garrideb — Mon, 12 Jun 2017 03:06:37 GMT

Thing #1: If you like fanvids and the movie Dor, you might be interested to hear that a vidder on YouTube has made two new vids for it, You Are Always Welcome To My Home and Joleen.

Thing #2: WisCon happened, and it was great. The big new thing for me this year was that I hosted an official party on behalf of my comic book club. We had two large tables covered in comics that guests could read, two tables covered in comics-themed coloring book pages, and one table full of door prizes. Everything went smoothly. Rachel and Jen co-hosted with me, and several members of the club helped out. We'll probably do it again next year, and honestly there's little I'd change, it went so well!

Also, Kelly Sue DeConnick was there!

Also I commissioned another great Carol/Wanda piece from Alex Heberling of the webcomic The Hues.

If you're wondering if I'm ever going to post the Carol/Wanda piece I commissioned at C2E2, well, I haven't received it physically yet, but there's an image of it here on Instagram.

Thing #3: Jen and I are tentatively planning a trip to the University of Iowa on Friday to peruse their fandom-related special collection archive. I've sent a request for access, and we've looked at hotels. It's only a three hour drive, but we'll probably drive down after work on Thursday and spend the night so we can squeeze as much out of Friday as possible.

At the moment I'm most interested in the early zines, correspondences, and scripts of Starsky & Hutch. Anyone following me on Tumblr might have noticed that I've fallen back into S&H fandom, and this time I've pulled Jen down with me. I showed her episodes with high levels of cradling and questionable banter, and that did the trick.

I might post more about S&H, because last time I fell in I only watched about half the episodes, and this time I'm watching a lot more of the later ones, including "Death in a Different Place" and "Manchild on the Streets" which are giving me meta thoughts. Also, what the hell is going on in this acceptance speech from 1976's People's Choice Awards?

This entry was originally posted at http://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/58394.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

Fanvid: Broad-Shouldered Beasts

garrideb — Thu, 01 Jun 2017 06:01:14 GMT

Fandom: Nerve (2016)
Song: Broad-Shouldered Beasts by Mumford and Sons
Length: 4:26
Warnings: none
Notes: This was originally screened at the WisCon Vid Party. It was my first time making a non-still image comics vid for WisCon, and my third non-comics vid in total.

I saw Nerve in the theater and was struck by how pretty a film it was. When I first connected the song to the movie I was torn between whether it was a song from the point of view of Vee towards Sydney, or from the point of view of the Watchers towards Vee. In the end I chose the latter, but in editing my vid the clear POV was lost. Parts of it feel Watchers/Vee and parts feel Vee/Sydney.

Although at this point I wish I'd used tighter, more varied editing especially at the beginning, I feel this vid was successful in that already several people have told me they want to watch Nerve because of it. Go watch Nerve if you haven't! It's an enjoyable film!

Also available on AO3 | tumblr

Watch on YouTube (subtitles available):

or watch on Vimeo (password is nerve):

This entry was originally posted at http://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/58127.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

C2E2 2017

garrideb — Tue, 09 May 2017 12:50:32 GMT

So, a few weeks late, but here's my C2E2 report! It's long & has several pictures, and includes the answer to the question, "What impulse purchase set Garrideb back the most?"

I love a lot about this picture, but Toad's tongue is my favorite detail

Friday

Jen, Rachel and I left bright and early on Friday morning for Chicago. We used SpotHero to find parking near our hotel, left our luggage in the car, and went directly to the con. Right away we attended the panel Comic Book Legal Defense Fund: State of Censorship 2017, which covered the comic books most frequently removed from libraries (This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki was at the top of the list for 2016), cartoonists from around the world who face censorship or worse due to their work, and what the CBLDF has done recently to protect cartoonists.

Then we grabbed lunch and hit the floor! It was Rachel’s first time at C2E2, so Jen and I had fun showing her some of the best vendors, Artists’ Alley, and just the general layout of the con.

I love Misty's arm and Danny's sparklefists.

For dinner we met one of Rachel’s friends for deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati’s.

Then we took the free shuttle back to our hotel, where I discovered that although I’d booked, been charged, and received confirmation of my booking through PriceLine, the hotel had no record of my reservation. Luckily the guy at the front desk was kind and calm, and he set up a dummy reservation so that we’d have a room while he sorted out the issue. He even gave us an upgraded room with a kitchenette, and we did use the mini fridge so that was nice. They’d confirmed my PriceLine reservation by the next morning, and all was well.

Saturday

On Saturday we breakfasted at Yolk, a favorite of mine and Jen’s. Then Rachel got into costume as Princess Sadie from Princess Princess Ever After, which is a sweet LGBT fairytale comic from Oni Press. Naturally we stopped by Oni’s booth right away, where the staff were shocked and delighted to meet a cosplayer of one of their characters.

Saturday was packed. It was reportedly the largest attendance C2E2 had ever seen, and we could feel it! We went to one panel that day, Geeks OUT Presents: Queer Women Making Comics, which had panelists from several areas of the comics industry, and was really well moderated; it covered a variety of topics and always remained interesting.

We all got a bit overwhelmed by the crowd, so later in the afternoon we decided to call it a day and get an early dinner away from McCormick Place. We went to the Thai Spoon, which was adjacent to our hotel, and proved to be very tasty. We played Munchkin: Marvel Addition that night in our hotel room and drank mimosas because I was still getting over my cold and the orange juice is therapeutic.

Sunday

On Sunday we breakfasted at Dunkin' Donuts. Rachel did a casual cosplay as Marvel’s Dennis Dunphy, AKA Demolition Man, AKA D-Man. I think two people guessed correctly on the first try. One guy guessed old-school Daredevil, which is close as Dennis based his own costume on that mixed with Wolverine’s costume.

We went to the panel She Changed Comics which again had a variety of panelists, but which ended up being a bit scattered. Still, some interesting anecdotes. One of the panelists was artist Janet Lee, who I touch base with every C2E2, asking her when the sequel to Return of the Dappermen comes out. This year I didn’t have to hunt down her table, as she said on the panel that it was coming out next year.

We saved most of our purchases for Sunday. I made a couple spontaneous buys at Artis’s Alley, one of Steve and Tony in a painterly style, and one commission for some Carol/Wanda art. Also an adorable Wanda sticker. Then we wandered into the endless longboxes of the comics vendors. I did pick up a thick volume of classic Power Man & Iron Fist reprints, tempted by the cradling shown on the cover and the fact that one of the writers of that run was a woman, which I hadn’t known. And it was discounted from $40 to $10, so.

And then I made the mistake/serendipitous idea to browse the original comic book art pages that a couple booths were selling. At first I was just flipping through portfolios of the original art of Kooky Quartet-era Avengers issues, feeling a little awed and ignoring the astronomical price tags because I’m chill with the idea that I can’t afford one of those beautiful, old pages.

But then I start looking at newer stuff at the Anthony's Comic Book Art booth, and lo and behold, I flip open a portfolio of Avenger’s art and come across the original art of one of the scenes off the Slashy Moments List. Specifically, this one: 41. Steve and Tony arrange a date. Really. Avengers v1 #221.

Better yet, the rest of the page features Jan planning a super-heroine’s brunch, excited to show off her newest pantsuit. And the page was priced at $150, which I can afford. And so now I own it, and am having it framed.

I think the low price was due to two factors: no character is in their costume on the page, so the imagery isn’t iconic (unless you’re in cap-ironman fandom, of course) and the word balloons, which were inked on cheap paper and pasted on top of the much nicer art paper, were yellowing and peeling slightly.

On the only other original comic page I own, the word balloons are inked directly on the art page. And that page is from only a couple years prior, so I don’t know how much one process is used over the other. I’ll have to look into that, because honestly I’m into the idea of collecting a few more pages here and there. I’ve been keeping an eye on some auctions to get a feel for price ranges.

Anyway, Rachel and Jen were very excited by the find, too. We left the con shortly after, stopping at Mitsuwa for dinner on the way back to Madison. All in all, a very successful and laid back con.

This entry was originally posted at http://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/57986.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

Washington DC/Virginia Vacation

garrideb — Wed, 03 May 2017 04:55:25 GMT

I had a shockingly busy April, and now that it's May I really need to share some of April's highlights.

I visited my older sister Missy in Sterling, Virginia. It was my first time in Virginia and also my first time in Washington, DC.

Missy and her cat, Quatro.

I arrived on Wednesday evening. On Thursday and Friday we took the train into DC and toured the Library of Congress and the Capitol, and visited the Air and Space museum and the American History museum, and also walked around many of the monuments. I think the biggest surprise for me was how moved I felt looking at some of the monuments; I thought that visiting DC as a cynical adult would harden me to the sentimentalism of giant statues, murals, and war memorials, but it didn't, not really. I definitely got teary-eyed a few times.

Also, the Library of Congress (specifically the Jefferson building) is gorgeous. It was apparently designed to showcase American artists, and does so by filling every nook and cranny with polished marble, gilded mosaics, and more sculptures and paintings than strictly necessary. It's also -- for it's time -- rather inclusive; in its depiction of the pursuit of knowledge it shows women students as well as black and native students. Not saying it's perfect, but some of the art really does send a message of world-wide welcome.

They also have an exhibit of books that personally belonged to Thomas Jefferson, and a few museum exhibits including one on cartoons and comics.

Then on Saturday we went to a couple wineries, including WillowCroft, where Missy, her husband, and I ate a picnic lunch perched on a scenic hill with a couple bottles of their wine.

On Sunday I flew back to Madison and had a late Easter lunch with my parents, my younger sister, and my roommate. I'd given up sweets for Lent so it was nice to indulge in some chocolate.

The next weekend was C2E2, which I will post about next!

This entry was originally posted at http://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/57792.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

Fanvid: Knowing Me, Knowing You

garrideb — Thu, 30 Mar 2017 18:41:06 GMT

fandom: Avengers comics, specifically Civil War
song: Knowing Me, Knowing You by ABBA
length: 2:22
warnings: comic book violence, mostly Steve & Tony punching each other
summary: So this is another Steve/Tony Civil War vid very much in the style of my Downfall vid (although I like to think I've learned a bit about vidding and color correcting comics scans in the six years since). I made it in celebration of the tenth anniversary of The Confession, the comic where Tony cries to Steve's corpse that nothing was worth Steve's death, AKA, one of the comics that helped kick off the Steve/Tony fandom.

Anyway, I mentioned on cap_ironman that one could consider this the tenth anniversary of Steve/Tony fandom, and the mods there totally made that happen. There's a party post here, and the 10yearsofstevetony tag on tumblr is satisfyingly active.

I've been absent from this fandom for awhile, but I still love it so much.

I used Photoshop to edit the scans (which were mostly scans I reused from Downfall, but cropped and color corrected) Premiere Pro CC for the vidding, Audacity to edit the song, and AfterEffects for the one effect over the musical interlude between verses.

download mp4 file (104 MB) | srt subtitle file (1.66 KB)

or view on tumblr | AO3

view on YouTube (subtitles available):

or on Vimeo (password is confession):

This entry was originally posted at http://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/57111.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

Signal Boost

garrideb — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 17:19:07 GMT

One of my dearest friends has a YouCaring page for a very worthy cause. She explains it better than I ever could, so if you have a few minutes please read her story and if you have a few spare dollars, please consider donating.

This entry was originally posted at http://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/56884.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

PMJ, Frank Turner, and Festivids!

garrideb — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 21:48:45 GMT

First of all, I received an amazing Gadget Man vid for festivids! It's a fast-paced, dance-along look at all of the wonderful, ridiculous robots and Richard Ayoade's dead-pan facial expressions, all set to a Daft Punk song. Enjoy!

Last night I attended a Post Modern Jukebox concert, and it was great! It was at the Orpheum, which really seems to be thriving under new management. They have a new sign that's all lit up and looks gorgeous; a great addition to the view of State Street near the capitol building.

PMJ featured a rotating group of singers, an amazing tap dancer, and a superb clarinetist (the whole band was superb, but the clarinetist blew me away). They were all exuberant and charismatic. Would definitely recommend.

They sang No Surprises by Radiohead, and when they got to the lyrics, Bring down the government / they don't speak for us, the audience broke out cheering.

A week ago Sunday Jen and I went to a Frank Turner concert. It was my third time seeing him live. I started writing up that report last week but never got around to posting it. It's pretty long, so I'll stick it under a cut:

First Frank Show
(I apparently never blogged about my second show, which was in Milwaukee, and was my first time ever in a mosh pit.)

Jen and I set off for Chicago only half an hour after our planned time of departure, and yes, we do consider that an achievement, and yes, that's mostly my fault. We drove straight to the venue -- Chicago's House of Blues -- then pulled over and used SpotHero to find the cheapest parking, which happened to be a nearby parking garage which charged $11 for the rest of the day.

A few blocks away was a restaurant called The Bohemian, of which Jen had heard nice things, so we ate there for lunch. The décor was eclectic and elegant. The menu was pricy but the food was excellent. I had a mushroom scramble and farmer's cheese doughnuts. Jen got the Mimosa flight which she shared generously; my favorite was the one with pomegranate juice.

Afterwards we browsed the theater district. The weather was gray and damp, but we managed to enjoy a stretch of the river walk, regardless. We sipped samples in a tea shop and meandered through the Disney Store.

We arrived at the House of Blues right around doors at 3:30. I was nervous because I'd brought my camera, and although I'd reviewed theater policy and nothing there prohibited it, there was a chance that they'd say it was a "professional" camera and not allow it, which has happened to me at a different theater. But at bag check the woman saw it and said nothing, so... *exuberant confetti throw*

Neither of us had been to a House of Blues before (I hadn't even known it was a chain until Jen told me) but it was quite nice. We had Pit tickets, which meant we were allowed in the area closest to the stage. We found a spot with good vantage and planted ourselves. And waited.

And waited.

We thought the show started maybe an hour after doors, but I don't think the first opening act came on until closer to two hours. And there were three openers, and they all had fairly long sets. Frank didn't actually come on until around 7:30!

Two of the openers had been at Frank's Milwaukee concert last October, and we quite like the energetic pop of the Arkells. I'd even bought two of their songs prior to the show to refresh my memory. And the first opener is a fine British folk singer, but his novelty songs are... not great (his more standard fare is perfectly fine).

the lead singer of the Arkells

The final openers were new to us and they are... well, I guess they are significantly more punk than Frank. I think their music was probably good, but the lyrics were completely unintelligible, and they had a terribly silly gimmick; they all wore ski masks in different colors, and their identities are, apparently, secret; they refer to themselves as "Intruder Red", "Intruder Green" and so forth. The lead singer spoke like a stereotypical 20's gangster.

Jen looked them up on Wikipedia on the spot and saw that they hailed from Madison. "You might have gone to high school with these guys," she told me.

They also had a guy dressed as a cop who's purpose was to insult them and, later on, dance. Near the end he stripped off his uniform, revealing a leotard/old fashioned swim suit type thing underneath. This was unremarkable except for the fact that shortly afterwards, the girl right in front of me turned around to face me, and started dancing in a very pointed manner, as if specifically trying to get me to dance also.

My best guess for her behavior was that she was bothered that the audience wasn't really engaged. Maybe she was a fan who had come here for them rather than Frank? Whatever; I danced for a bit out of politeness, but it really wasn't my music, so I stopped shortly. Then she thanked me for dancing with her, stating, "I had to look away. I can't stand leotards."

"What?" I said, sure I'd misheard in the din.

"I hate leotards. My sister use to dress me up and now I can't stand them."

It's still possible that I didn't quite catch what she was saying, but she was definitely anti-leotard, and dancing with me was somehow the solution to her issue. The mysteries of life!

Finally Frank came on, and kicked things off with a protest song he'd written just a couple weeks prior, whose chorus went, let's be the sand in the gears / for the next four years.

The entire show was pretty politically charged. Both the Arkells and the first opener made scathing comments about Trump and all of... just, all of it. Frank ramped it up by inserting calls for activism and hope between songs. The audience was very receptive.

He pulled a volunteer on to the stage. When she said her name was Amy, several people called out, "Goddammit Amy!" which is the first line in one of Frank's songs, and Frank and Amy joked around about it: "The woman I wrote that song about wasn't really named Amy." "Well, I'm not really named Amy either."

He sent her on a crowd-surfing mission: crowd-surf to that man in the plaid shirt and give him a high-five, then to that man on the other side of the room -- sir, do you have a smartphone? Yes? -- and take a selfie with him. Then to the bar where they'll give you two shots of Jameson -- in big cups please, so they don't spill -- and crowd-surf back to the stage where we'll have a drink together.

I appreciated that he took a moment to acknowledge that crowd surfing often isn't safe for women, and that he wouldn't tolerate anything inappropriate.

During the encore he invited two little kids onto the stage who were dressed just like him in white button-downs and black ties. It's unclear where or how he found them, but he gave them both tambourines and sang a song with them.

Finally he jumped into the crowd and surfed right over to us. He asked to be set down and then he flirted outrageously with a woman for a minute. The guy next to me kept reaching out and, like, petting Frank's shoulder, and I was a bit worried that Frank would turn around and think that was me. So I backed up a few steps and just took pictures until he was back in the air.

Overall my pictures weren't that great; I was much happier with the ones I got at the Majestic in 2015, which is a bit disheartening as I would hope that my photography has improved since then. But maybe the lighting there was better. I'll have to compare some of the settings to see if the answer lies in my choice of aperture, shutter speed, ISO, or something else completely.

This entry was originally posted at http://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/56334.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.

Festivids Feelings

garrideb — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 19:05:06 GMT

Go-live for Festivids is in 8 days and I'm so excited. It's my first time participating! What fandom will my gift vid be from? Will my recipient like my vid? Ohhhmygosh, will my vid be up to Festivids standards?

Okay, maybe I'm like, 60% excited and 40% nervous.

I think part of it is that I'm mostly sitting on my hands at this point. I'll have my roommate take a look at it when she gets back, but other than some very minor tweaks it's done. Contrast with the fanfic exchanges I've participated in, where I'm usually rewriting and refining right up until go-live.

Should I do a banner? I guess I could do a banner.

Vidding in this fandom has given me all sorts of fandom thoughts that I'll finally be able to share without giving myself away. I have fic ideas, shipping headcanons, and a mostly-formed fanmix. I'm going to drown my tumblr followers in {redacted} fandom feels as soon as reveals happen.

So... any of you doing Festivids? Newbie like me or old hat at it? If not Festivids, any other exchanges you're feeling excited about?

This entry was originally posted at http://garrideb.dreamwidth.org/56093.html. You may comment on either site. There are comments on DW.