apathy on the rise, no one cares

izzybeth — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 02:20:36 GMT

I BRING RECS (it's a short list but RECS)

10 Things I Hate About Reunions by BryroseA, 10 Things I Hate About You. Everyone and their cat is reccing this, but I don't care, it's just so delightful. Kat quite predictably doesn't want to attend her ten year high school reunion, Bianca overuses emojis, and Patrick is a charming bastard as usual.

under god's power she flourishes by kmo, American Gods. Sam Black Crow works in Helen C. White Library with a goddess.

work it out with your fingers by Febricant, Blazing Saddles. I have maintained for over a decade that Jim spends the entire film making bedroom eyes at Bart.

Mission Impeccable by executrix, Great British Bake Off. Caper fic! Mob boss Mary Berry! Candice and her lipstick! Nadiya's color coded hijab! This is just cute and fun.

It's a Neighborly Day In This Beautywood by Masu_Trout, A House I Pass on the Way to Work Has This Sculpture in Its Yard. I'm sure everyone is reccing this too, but holy crap and elder gods it's amazing.

A Strange Attractor in a Stable System by misura, Jurassic Park. Ellie/Alan/Malcolm, and it turns out I am So Into This.

basically all of the Mesopotamian RPF because SERIOUSLY there are FOUR WORKS based off that tumblr post of the Mesopotamian tablet documenting 4000 year old shitty customer service, I fucking love fandom so much.

But the walls are giving way by FanchonMoreau, Mozart In The Jungle. The other MitJ fic this year, and the Rodrigo voice is SO GOOD. Hailey is awkward but thoughtful like she is, and I really loved Gloria in this too. Bonus hallucinatory composers.

Bed of Roses by eleanor_lavish, Pride. Thirty years of Jonathan and Gethin. Really lovely. Author locked this to AO3 members.

And A Place To Stand by shihadchick, Star Wars X-Wing. THIS IS MY HAPPY PLACE AND IT IS SO HAPPY. There is a mission and everything goes pear-shaped and Wedge is SO BAD AT WORDS and Wes is a shit I LOVE IT

to shine in use by BlackEyedGirl, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Deirdre and Jacqueline, PTA meetings, sex, polite society, lipstick mixed to match your new dress, yknow.

A Rip in the Sky by Mithrigil, Velvet Goldmine. Are you fucking kidding me with this fic. ARE YOU. What the fuck, this is So Fucking Good. It's WEIRD and sparkly and should be read at maximum volume.

Lust for Life by Basingstoke, Velvet Goldmine. Yes, another one. Based on Ewan's life-making tweet from last year.

peace and quiet by alessandriana, Vorkosigan novels. Ivan and Gregor, my favorites, being My Favorites. I love these two so much, and their particular dynamic is pretty much the best thing for me about these books.

melt my heart down to gold by Aurum, Yuri!!! On Ice. Fluffity fluffy fluff. Turns out Yuuri beat Victor to the punch there.

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izzybeth — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 00:01:31 GMT

(oh man i was hungover yesterday but i'm ok now)

You guys there's so much good stuff on Yuletide this year! Look what I got, oh man I got TWO AMAZING STORIES:

saga hwæt ic hatte by Selden, The Exeter Book. Oh my GOD this is gorgeous. I just. Yeah, this is the second time someone's gifted me Anglo-Saxon depression and apocalyptic death for Yuletide, and I'm just rolling the fuck around in it. It's so beautiful, the way Selden uses language, and how it changes by the end, and there's a conversation with an old god, and you should read it. Go read it now. I'll wait.

Love, Marge by Jay Tryfanstone, 14th Century CE RPF (Margery Kempe, Julian of Norwich). Jules betas for Marge. It's in Middle English. There's ecstaties and PORN. IT'S DELIGHTFUL.

And here's what I wrote: six metamorphoses after Rutledge for valkyrierising, Mozart In The Jungle. WHY isn't there more fic for this show? Happy to do my bit, and this was fun to write. I'm only good for humor these past few years anyway, and there were a couple sections where I got to be funny so that was good. I used Write Or Die for one of the sections, and it worked rather well (until I couldn't c&p what I'd written into the gdoc, oh well). Now I have to actually watch season 3 (but try not to mainline it, savor it, come on elizabeth you can do it).

Maybe I'll try to throw together a rec post soonish. There were a few that I read (yesterday, on my phone, in bed, hungover) that I liked A Lot.

This entry was originally posted at http://izzy.dreamwidth.org/1601712.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

YULETIMES ! ! ! !

izzybeth — Sun, 02 Oct 2016 01:04:13 GMT

omg how is it yuletimes already! crazycakes! time is linear! etc.

Hello fellow Yuletider! A bit early this year, are you as totally unprepared as I am? AWESOME. Here are a few things that would make me happy, but as we all know, Optional Details Are Optional. This stuff is here in case you're interested and/or in need of a bit of direction. By no means are you required to use every character I've listed for any of my fandoms; that's just to give you as much elbow room as I can. If you want to use one, some, or all, it's all good!

OK, on with the show:

커피프린스 1호점 | Coffee Prince
Go Eun Chan, Choi Han Gyeol, Go Eun Sae, Han Yu Ju
OMG THIS SHOW. GOD HELP ME. I would love Eun Chan and Han Kyul being ADORABLE at each other. (Or Eun Chan and Han Sung being adorable at each other. GOD I LOVE THEIR FRIENDSHIP even though Han Sung wasn't nominated. If you want to write something totally indulgent about his crush on Eun Chan, I will never ever ever think less of you because I totally shipped them even after the show said I should stop.) Or more of Eun Chan and Yu Ju being ladybros! Or Eun Chan and Eun Sae's amazing sister relationship, I LOVE THEM SO MUCH AUGH. For clarity: Darling Author, you need not include every character I request here, and feel free to include characters that are not on the list (Han Sung! Grandmother! The Coffee Princes! Eun Chan's mother, Han Kyul's parents!). I assume you'll be writing this in English, and thus you should handle the Korean names and forms of address as you see fit. I love how this series handles Eun Chan's gender presentation - it could be played for laughs or totally insensitively and coarsely, but the writers really seem to Get It. If you wanna play around with Eun Chan being genderqueer, you absolutely should! Or whatever you want to write about, Author! Eun Chan in Italy! Han Kyul and Grandmother working together on Coffee Princess! Eun Sae's second shot at a singing career! Go nuts! I just love this showwwww and their stupid precious nerd facessssssss
How to obtain this awesome thing: It's on Netflix! (At least the USian one.) Subtitled in English.

The Exeter Book
The Wife, The Wanderer, The Seafarer
The Seafarer is the poem of my SOUL, dear author. It's the reason I want to go into Anglo-Saxon studies. I just. I read it and never looked back. It's heartbreaking and perfect and perfectly heartbreaking. I love the cold, the ice and snow and wheeling gulls and unfeeling sea it evokes so clearly. And I love it in the context of these other poems-- they could almost all be the same speaker (and a ladytype Seafarer/Wanderer, how great would that be?).
How to obtain this awesome thing: It's literally a thousand years old, so you'd think it'd be in the public domain, right? Well, I can't find an open access digitization ANY-FLIPPING-WHERE, which is frustrating as hell (come on, Exeter Cathedral library, give us the pretty). I'm a bit fond of anglo-saxons.net, which has Wanderer and Seafarer. Here is a pretty good translation of Wife's Lament.

14th and 15th Century CE Religious Women RPF
Margery Kempe, Julian of Norwich
So medieval historians are pretty sure that these two actually met and exchanged ideas, which I sort of can't get over. Margery wrote (by which I mean dictated because she was illiterate) the first autobiography in English. Julian was the author of the first book published by a woman in English. Mostly I'm just in love with the thought that Marge and Jules hung out and talked about Christ and possibly beta'd for each other and there was lots of crying about Julian's gorgeous theology. If you want to go the epistolary route (Marge sends Jules letters from her pilgrimages and complains about her husband) that is awesome, but that's just a thought. Here's another thought: there's a play about them, which I think is amazing. If you want to mess around with that, that would be amazing, but I will be delighted with anything you do with these two because MARGERY KEMPE and JULIAN OF NORWICH. [insert weeping emoji here]
How to obtain this awesome thing: Julian's Revelations of Divine Love is available on Project Gutenberg. The Book of Margery Kempe is here on METS, but is in Middle English.

Yes Please!
Humor. Slang used in/appropriately. Team/chosen family dynamic. Female characters. Characters of color. Books. Het, slash, and gen. Kissing and affection. Medieval stuff and other old shit. Alcohol, and the consuming of. Unusual formats (if executed well). Good dialogue. Witty Banter™. Creative swearing. Real life. Alternate/parallel universes. Friends to lovers. Enemies to friends to lovers. Fake married/fake dating. Happy endings, or at least things turning out well, are kind of necessary to me; please do not irretrievably break my toys (though you're totally allowed to make me cry on the journey toward a good ending).

No thanks.
Over-the-top angst and drama. Gratuitous/graphic violence (anything that would need the AO3 warning). A/B/O. Songfic. Crackfic. Cheesy/stilted dialogue. Misunderstandings the plot hinges on that could be resolved by the characters actually talking to each other (this drives me CRAZY in tv/profic/Shakespeare/etc). Super embarrassing situations. Unrealistic portrayals of life/the universe/everything. Bad formatting. Honestly, I'm pretty easy, as long as it's believable (and people don't spontaneously burst into song or whatever). I'm lucky enough to not have any actual triggers, so this is mainly stuff that makes me hit the back button.

Other fandoms I am into:
Star Wars X-Wing. Star Trek (excepting Voyager and Enterprise). Doctor Who (old and new). Neil Gaiman novels. Hobbit+LOTR (books and films). R.E.M. U2. The Beatles. Discworld. Harry Potter (books and films). Douglas Adams novels. Shakespeare. Old English literature. #medievaltwitter. Battlestar Galactica (the new one). The West Wing. Black Books. Keen Eddie. Game Of Thrones (HBO). Marvel (comics and MCU). Stargate SG-1. Jossverse (including Dr. Horrible, excepting Dollhouse). Spaced. Welcome To Night Vale. Pacific Rim. Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Orphan Black. Vikings. Vorkosigan novels. Scott Pilgrim (graphic novels and film). Merlin. The collected works of Monty Python. Black Sails. Mozart In The Jungle. A Knight's Tale. #GBBO.

If you are in doubt about anything, please talk to shihadchick and/or lovelokest. These ladies know what I like.

Thank you, sibling in this seasonal weirdness! I hope the writing comes easy and you have plenty of time for Madness and everything else the end of the year may throw at you! <3

This entry was originally posted at http://izzy.dreamwidth.org/1601092.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

YULETIMES ! ! ! !

izzybeth — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 17:37:22 GMT

Yay it's fandom's favorite time of year again! Hello esteemed author! I am so happy you will be writing me a thing in one of these teeny-in-quantity-but-ginormous-in-awesomeness fandoms!

커피프린스 1호점 | Coffee Prince
Go Eun Chan, Choi Han Gyeol, Choi Han Seong, Go Eun Sae
OMG I want Eun Chan and Han Kyul being ADORABLE at each other. Or I want Eun Chan and Han Sung being adorable at each other. GOD I LOVE THEIR FRIENDSHIP. Or more of Eun Chan and Yoo Ju being ladybros! Or Eun Chan and Eun Sae's amazing sister relationship, I LOVE THEM SO MUCH AUGH. For clarity: Darling Author, you need not include every character I request here, and feel free to include characters that are not on the list (Yoo Ju! Grandmother! The Coffee Princes! Eun Chan's mother, Han Kyul's parents!). I assume you'll be writing this in English, and thus you should handle the Korean names and forms of address as you see fit. I love how this series handles Eun Chan's gender presentation - it could be played for laughs or totally insensitively and coarsely, but the writers really seem to Get It. If you wanna play around with Eun Chan being genderqueer, you absolutely should! If you want to write something with Han Sung as the central character, you DEFINITELY should because I ADORE HIM A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT (and if you want to write something totally indulgent about his crush on Eun Chan, I will never ever ever think less of you because I totally shipped them even after the show said I should stop). Or whatever you want to write about, Author! Eun Chan in Italy! Han Kyul and Grandmother working together on Coffee Princess! Eun Sae's second shot at a singing career! Go nuts! I just love this showwwww and their stupid precious nerd facessssssss
How to obtain this awesome thing: It's on Netflix! (At least the USian one.) Dubbed English.

The Exeter Book
The Wife's Lament, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Riddles
I would love to see like, The Wanderer and The Seafarer meet on the whaleroad or something like that, and and be really depressed at each other because it's super hard being an exile bro, and The Wife's Lament being all yknow ladies have a hard time too, have you seen Wulf or Eadwacer around lately, no you haven't, and then The Riddles just making bad puns and being inappropriately sexual and dickish. Or something! I don't know! For clarity: Darling Author, you need not include every character I request here, and feel free to include 'characters' that are not on the list (Wulf And Eadwacer, The Phoenix, Deor, The Ruin). I nominated The Exeter Book because I thought it would be weird and interesting and had nothing in particular in mind, but if you're anything like me, author, you like a bit of direction. If you don't want it, please ignore me and cook up whatever awesomeness you want, obviously!
How to obtain this awesome thing: It's literally a thousand years old, so you'd think it'd be in the public domain, right? Well, I can't find an open access scan ANY-FLIPPING-WHERE, which is frustrating as hell. All the poetry and the riddles can be googled and Modern English translations found scattered about the interwebs.

Star Wars Legends: X-wing Series - Aaron Allston & Michael Stackpole
Wedge Antilles, Wes Janson, Tycho Celchu
Rogues, awesome. Wraiths, awesome. Obviously optional details are optional but if you want to include poor Hobbie, that would also be awesome and I would never complain about that. Fab Four X-wing style forever. (If you're answering this prompt, you probably know me.) I will happily read literally anything about these jerks. I just have so many feeeelings about these guys. I love the novels (Solo Command and Starfighters Of Adumar FOR LIFE), but my true soft spot is the X-wing comics, The Phantom Affair in particular (but also The Warrior Princess, Battleground: Tatooine, and Mandatory Retirement). I love that it's been these four guys no matter what since almost the Battle of Yavin, and that the squadron is Wedge's family, and oh man here come the feelings. augh.
How to obtain this awesome thing: This one you might have to lay out some money for. There are nine novels and eight graphic novels, and I think we can all agree that's more of a commitment than anyone expects from you (unless you have them all already like ~~a big nerd~~ me).

Sense8 (TV)
Sun Bak, Riley Blue, Nomi Marks, Lito Rodriguez
Because I love the transcontinental karaoke squad. I love Sun particularly omg (and her prison ladybros). and Nomi (AND AMANITA) and Riley (and Riley's dad ugh so much, "getting stoned in your tuxes like it's 1985"). and Lito (and Hernando and Daniela!!!). Honestly I love the whole cluster because stories about found family are the best stories. For clarity: Darling Author, you need not include every character I request here, though obviously feel free to include others/the rest of the cluster and related people. Generally, I like togetherness and happiness tropes for these adorable dorkfaces, and the 'everyone else finds out about the cluster' trope is always a great one, and expanding the circle of support type of thing. Unless you have a plot burning a hole in your pocket, in which case I will totally read that too! :D
How to obtain this awesome thing: This is also on Netflix! And I bet it's on everyone's Netflix the world over, since it is a Netflix Original!

Yes Please!
Humor. Slang used in/appropriately. Team/chosen family dynamic. Female characters. Characters of color. Books. Het, slash, and gen. Kissing and affection. Medieval stuff and other old shit. Alcohol, and the consuming of. Unusual formats (if executed well). Good dialogue. Witty Banter™. Creative swearing. Real life. Alternate/parallel universes. Friends to lovers. Enemies to friends to lovers. Fake married/fake dating. Happy endings, or at least things turning out well, are kind of necessary to me; please do not irretrievably break my toys (though you're totally allowed to make me cry on the journey toward a good ending).

No thanks.
Over-the-top angst and drama. Gratuitous/graphic violence. A/B/O. Songfic. Crackfic. Cheesy/stilted dialogue. Misunderstandings the plot hinges on that could be resolved by the characters actually talking to each other (this drives me CRAZY in tv/profic/Shakespeare/etc). Super embarrassing situations. Unrealistic portrayals of life/the universe/everything. Bad formatting. Honestly, I'm pretty easy, as long as it's believable (and people don't spontaneously burst into song or whatever). I'm lucky enough to not have any actual triggers, so this is mainly stuff that makes me hit the back button.

Other fandoms I am into:
Star Trek (excepting Voyager and Enterprise). Doctor Who (old and new). Neil Gaiman novels. Hobbit+LOTR (books and films). R.E.M. U2. The Beatles. Discworld. Harry Potter (books and films). Douglas Adams novels. Shakespeare. Old English literature. #medievaltwitter. Battlestar Galactica (the new one). The West Wing. Black Books. Keen Eddie. Game Of Thrones. Marvel (comics and MCU). Stargate SG-1. Jossverse (including Dr. Horrible, excepting Dollhouse). Spaced. Welcome To Night Vale. Pacific Rim. Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Orphan Black. Sleepy Hollow. Vikings. Vorkosigan novels. Scott Pilgrim (graphic novels and film). A Knight's Tale.

If you are in doubt about anything, please talk to shihadchick and/or lovelokest. These ladies know what I like.

Happiest of yuletimes to you, Fabulous Author! May the words flow and may you finish early (and have plenty of time for Yuletide Madness)!

This entry was originally posted at http://izzy.dreamwidth.org/1597210.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

izzybeth — Sat, 25 Oct 2014 01:34:02 GMT

yuletimes it's yuletimes hurrah!

Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Gregor Vorbarra, Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan, Ludmilla "Drou" Droushnakovi, Miles Vorkosigan

i have serious Gregor and Drou feelings, and i feel like you can't have Gregor without Miles or Drou without Cordelia (or Koudelka, oh their adorable romance I LOVE THEM). you certainly don't have to write about all these characters; if you feel like you have a good Milesian romp in you or a thoughtful Drou study, i am down for whatever you've got. also love how Cordelia is Gregor's mother figure and their relationship makes me happy in my chest area. other characters i ADORE who were not nominated: Bel and Ivan. i am completely in love with them both. also Leo Graf and the Falling Free quaddies (which sounds like a terrible pop group from 1967). fuck yeah quaddies.

14th Century CE - England RPF
Geoffrey Chaucer, Richard II of England

and then there's these assholes. you can play it straight and totally historically accurate and i'll be happy. you can make it a greek tragedy and i'll be happy. you can be completely silly and ridic and i'll be happy. you can steal wholesale from @LeVostreGC and i'll be over the damn moon. really, anything you want.

Vikings (TV)
Athelstan, Lagertha, Floki, Ragnar Lothbrok

please for the love of the little baby jesus and George Blagden's stupid face just make this shitshow better. this is my bad boyfriend show: it hurts me and i hate myself and i keep coming back. it's AWFUL. and it drives me CRAZY how the creators/writers come up with what could be a brilliant idea and then apparently SEE A FUCKING SQUIRREL OR SOMETHING and drop it totally. it doesn't help that i'm in love with Anglo-Saxon England (i could honestly have some sort of orthographic love affair with the Lindisfarne Gospel) and not only does the show cast them as the villains, but they just get it SO WRONG. but i should shut up; it's the Ancient-Aliens-and-Nazis Channel, not the We-Give-A-Crap-About-Historical-Accuracy Channel. i keep forgetting. ANYWAY. i love Athelstan, i love his tiny little smile in 2x09 when they arrive back home, and i love his weird dual faiths thing he apparently has working for him. I LOVE LAGERTHA. i just. GOD. yknow. LAGERTHA. let me love you, my beautiful badass. Floki is one weird dude, but endlessly fascinating, and i'd love to see the sort of labyrinthine conversations he and Athelstan could have (and i guess mostly i'm just impressed with the writers for sticking with a long game for him all the way through s2). and i figure if you're writing about any of these three, Ragnar's gonna sneak in there anyway so ok then.

Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Nita Callahan, Kit Rodriguez, Carl Romeo, Tom Swale

how much do you love these books? as much as i do? yesssss. only allowed to pick four characters or else Carmela would have been on here too, but ah the vagaries of yuletide. Nita and Kit are probably my T-est of OTPs, as are Tom and Carl (clearly). i'm really not picky at all about what you decide to do with these guys, though i will say that the first three books are my favorites (i imprinted at a very young age), and A Wizard Alone is probably my least. i love S'reee and the whales. i love The Crossings. i love Dairine and Harry and the Lotus and Ed and Fred and Filif and Ronan and Sker'ret. to my enduring shame, i have not read the cat books.

yes please!
humor. slang used appropriately. team/chosen family dynamic. female characters. characters of color. banter. books. het, slash, and gen. kissing and affection. medieval stuff. alcohol, and the consuming of. unusual formats (if executed well). good dialogue. Witty Banter™. creative swearing. real life. alternate/parallel universes. happy endings, or at least things turning out well, are kind of necessary to me; please do not irretrievably break my toys (though you're totally allowed to make me cry on the journey toward a good ending).

no thanks.
over-the-top angst and drama. songfic. crackfic. cheesy dialogue. unrealistic portrayals of life/the universe/everything. bad formatting. honestly, i'm pretty easy, as long as it's believable (and people don't spontaneously burst into song or whatever). i'm lucky enough to not have any actual triggers, so this is mainly stuff that makes me hit the back button.

other fandoms i am into:
Star Wars X-Wing. Star Trek (excepting Voyager and Enterprise). Doctor Who (old and new). Neil Gaiman novels. Hobbit+LOTR (books and films). R.E.M. U2. The Beatles. Discworld. Harry Potter (books and films). Douglas Adams novels. Shakespeare. Battlestar Galactica (the new one). The West Wing. Black Books. Keen Eddie. Life On Mars (UK). Game Of Thrones. Marvel (comics and MCU). Stargate SG-1. Jossverse (including Dr. Horrible, excepting Dollhouse). Spaced. Welcome To Night Vale. Pacific Rim. Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Orphan Black. Sleepy Hollow.

if you are in doubt about anything, please talk to shihadchick and/or lovelokest. these ladies know what i like.

thank you, author! i am so excited that you are geeky about the same tiny fandom that i am and that you are writing a thing! happiest of yuletimes to you!

This entry was originally posted at http://izzy.dreamwidth.org/1595635.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

YULETIMES!!!!1

izzybeth — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 03:32:41 GMT

ok, so i know i didn't put a link in my signup form, which i SHOULD HAVE DONE and am TERRIBLY REMISS and NEGLIGENT and i am SORRY, please FORGIVE ME, but hopefully, dear author, you'll find your way here somehow anyway. and if you don't, that's cool too; i think i put enough detail in the form.

ON TO THE GOOD STUFF

The Defenders
Betty Ross, Stephen Strange, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Danny Rand
omg omg DEFENDERS. BETTYYYYYY. i just. I HAVE ALL THE FEELINGS ABOUT BETTY AND I LOVE HER AND HER BIG-ASS SWORD SO MUCH AND I CAN'T STOP CAPSLOCKING ABOUT HER AUUUUUGHHHHH weeping. ahem. coherency, right. i would love team fic, Namor being a dick (because he IS), and Stephen being that weird guy with the books and the words whose backgrounds are occasionally psychedelic, and Danny being a bartender in an eighties flick. AND BETTY. i cannot stress my love of Betty enough. and her big-ass sword. i admit, it's been a while since i've read this comic but I CANNOT RESIST BETTY and when i saw that this was nominated, i was on that shit like whoa.

Galahad - Josh Ritter (song)
Angel of the Holy Grail, Galahad
i LOVE this song. i love snarky angel, doofy galahad, and especially the section "in heaven there's no lamb chops queen guineveres for hand jobs marijuana kenny rogers or ecstasy". and the matter-of-fact-ness of "the angel smoked a cigarette and when he was sure galahad was dead" and just think of the face the angel must be making. and i LOVE the twist at the end. i get full-body shivers of happy when i think about it. i know angels are genderless, but i always thought it should have been a lady angel, myself. go nuts with this one. and remember, josh ritter is a closet medievalist. :D

Hawkeye (comics)
Lucky, Kate Bishop
Pizza Dog is my favorite dog in the whole world. his issue was everything i've ever wanted from a comic AND MORE. and Kate is obviously the best Hawkeye. so with these guys? go crazy. what happens in LA while Kate's foiling Madam Masque's nefarious plans? does Lucky ever get another slice of pizza? do they ever return to sad-sack Clint in New York? all this and more will be revealed... (and ugh how much do i hate myself for not having the new issue yet. UGH. i promise i will be up to date by the time the archive goes live - don't worry about spoiling me for what's available at my local shop.)

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead - Stoppard
Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, The Player
i have been obsessed with this play since i was about 13, and got to see a production of it for the first time this summer. it was AMAZING. literally one of the best few hours of my life. i dig both the proper play version and the movie version (Oldman is my head!Rosencrantz forever), so incorporate one or the other or both, i am not picky about that. i'm really into Guildenstern's need to make sense of everything through language, and i love when Rosencrantz is less derpy than he thinks he is. and the Player, oh what a character he is. make him devious, make him shifty, make him completely magical, whatever. and i fucking ADORE the idea that when the play is over, it just starts up again somewhere else and R&G's tale is never done.

Vikings
Athelstan, Ragnar Lothbrok, Lagertha, Floki
so we're just ignoring basically everything that happened in the last episode, right? right, good. i would love something with the wonderful ot3, and i LOVE first time type fics for them. i love Athelstan and Lagertha's relationship without Ragnar getting in the way as well. the kids are delightful, so if you wanna write them go for it. Floki is one weird dude, but endlessly fascinating, and i'd love to see the sort of labyrinthine conversations he and Athelstan could have. one thing i really love about this show is its historical accuracy (i'm such an Anglo-Saxon nerd, and i could honestly have some sort of orthographic love affair with the Lindisfarne Gospel). (and ok it's not really THAT accurate but IT TRIES THE POOR DEAR)

yes please!
humor. slang used appropriately. team/chosen family dynamic. female characters. characters of color. both at the same time! banter. books. het, slash, and gen. kissing and affection. medieval stuff. alcohol, and the consuming of. unusual formats (if executed well). good dialogue. Witty Banter™. creative swearing. real life. alternate/parallel universes. happy endings, or at least things turning out well, are kind of necessary to me (though you're totally allowed to make me cry on the journey toward a good ending).

no thanks.
over-the-top angst and drama. songfic. crackfic. SPOILERS (get it off get it off oh god). cheesy dialogue. unrealistic portrayals of life/the universe/everything. honestly, i'm pretty easy, as long as it's believable (and people don't spontaneously burst into song or whatever). i'm lucky enough to not have any actual triggers, so this is mainly stuff that makes me hit the back button.

other fandoms i am into:
Star Wars X-Wing. Star Trek (excepting Voyager and Enterprise). Doctor Who (old and new). Neil Gaiman novels. Hobbit+LOTR (books and films). R.E.M. U2. The Beatles. Discworld. Harry Potter (books and films). Douglas Adams novels. Vorkosigan series - L.M. Bujold. Shakespeare. Young Wizards series - Diane Duane. Battlestar Galactica (the new one). The West Wing. Black Books. Keen Eddie. Life On Mars (UK). Marvel. Stargate SG-1. Jossverse (including Dr. Horrible, excepting Dollhouse). Spaced. Sleepy Hollow. Welcome To Night Vale.

if you are ever in doubt about something, please call upon shihadchick and lovelokest. these ladies are rather familiar with my opinions.

author, i am super excited that we are both nerdy about the same tiny fandom, and even though i'm sure i will thank you to an embarrassing degree later, i just wanted to say THANK YOU right now for writing a story for me. <3

This entry was originally posted at http://izzy.dreamwidth.org/1594359.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

yuuuuuuletiiiiiiiiimes!

izzybeth — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 03:05:14 GMT

hellooooo yuletimes! i'm rather excited about this year! how brilliant is it that we share at least one of these tiny fandoms, and how completely awesome is it that you are offering to write one of them! i love yuletide a lot (and now i'm just picturing an alot at a keyboard, typing furiously to make the deadline in december), and i am guaranteed to adore anything you come up with! seriously, i'm like wriggling in excitement here.

now, to business. (TO BUSINESS!)

20th Century CE RPF
J.R.R. Tolkien
dude, Tolkien, seriously? amazing, i am down. so... Tolkien and the Inklings Society? Tolkien creating Middle Earth? Tolkien inventing Elvish while crouching in trenches in France? Tolkien being a badass professor of Old English at Oxford? dude. fic about Tolkien. DUDE.

Thrilling Adventures Of Lovelace And Babbage
Ada Lovelace, Charles Babbage, Isambard Kingdom Brunel
omg, i love that this is a yuletide fandom! Ada's feelings about poetry are similar to my own, which always makes me feel rather vindicated. i love Babbage's general bumbling, good natured character. Brunel is an amazing crazy industrial revolutionary, and anything with him is GOLD.

The Exeter Book
Wulf (Wulf and Eadwacer), Narrator (Wulf and Eadwacer), Narrator (The Wife's Lament), Narrator (The Wanderer)
HOLY CRAP I NEED THIS IN MY LIFE. i am such an anglo saxon nerd, author, and i flipped my shit when i saw this was a category. seriously, ANYTHING you do here will be adored and reread and possibly printed out and shrieked over. (also if you wanted to maybe include anything else from the exeter book, like the seafarer, I WOULD NOT COMPLAIN.) wulf and eadwacer is so weird, right? and whoa, the wife's lament ends up so bitter. what do these ladies end up doing? does the narrator of wulf and eadwacer survive childbirth? she have to go to a nunnery or something? does eadwacer reject the whelp? and what about the wife? does she ever see her husband again? does she go on her own awesome adventures? and ok jesus the wanderer is just flat-out depressing. i just sort of want to make it all better for him, though i know it can't ever be.

yes please!
humor. slang used appropriately. team/chosen family dynamic. female characters. characters of color. both at the same time! banter. books. het, slash, and gen. kissing and affection. medieval stuff. alcohol, and the consuming of. unusual formats (if executed well). good dialogue. Witty Banter™. creative swearing. real life. alternate/parallel universes. happy endings, or at least things turning out well, are kind of necessary to me (though you're totally allowed to make me cry on the journey toward a good ending).

no thanks.
over-the-top angst and drama. songfic. crackfic. cheesy dialogue. unrealistic portrayals of life/the universe/everything. honestly, i'm pretty easy, as long as it's believable (and people don't spontaneously burst into song or whatever). i'm lucky enough to not have any actual triggers, so this is mainly stuff that makes me hit the back button.

other fandoms i am into:
Star Wars X-Wing. Star Trek (excepting Voyager and Enterprise). Doctor Who (old and new). Neil Gaiman novels. Hobbit+LOTR (books and films). R.E.M. U2. The Beatles. Discworld. Harry Potter (books and films). Douglas Adams novels. Vorkosigan series - L.M. Bujold. Downton Abbey. Shakespeare. Young Wizards series - Diane Duane. Battlestar Galactica (the new one). The West Wing. Black Books. Keen Eddie. Life On Mars (UK). Top Gear (UK). Marvel. Stargate SG-1. Jossverse (including Dr. Horrible, excepting Dollhouse). Spaced.

if you are in doubt about anything, please talk to shihadchick and/or lovelokest. these ladies know what i like. :D YAY YAY YULETIDE WHEN ARE ASSIGNMENTS. \o/

love and kisses, izzy <3

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izzybeth — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 23:52:09 GMT

so. the job. this is going to look like a lot of bitching, so if you're not in the mood, skip this entry. i'm not cutting it because i can't be fucked.

as i may have said, i'm doing lots of officey type work. hours have indeed picked up; i'm at full time now. which, money-wise, is good. but i feel like i'm doing nothing else. basically what i do is, i change people's doctors when they want to change them, i change the clinic they go to if they want to change that, i update their contact info, i deliver mail to members of the department, and am working on getting the backend of things organized (or at least less haphazard). i doublecheck work, i compare lists, and sometimes i get to use a datestamper, or colorful highlighters!

i hate it. i hate it so fucking much. almost every day i come home wanting to either cry or punch something. i have never hated work more. it is mind-numbingly dull and basically unfuckingbearable.

and the commute is awful. it's twelve miles from home to work, i was ten minutes late on monday, and five today, despite leaving about ten minutes earlier than i usually do. what the fuck, beltline. i told my supervisor this morning about my losing battle with the beltline, and that i've been making up the time at the end of the day, and she said that was cool since i'm not on the phones. (which is, by the way, the ONLY good thing about work.) it takes me almost an hour to get home. i'm buying gas almost every week. this is fucking ridiculous.

i was saying to lovelokest the other day, this job is a) far away and b) awful. if it were only one of those things (nearby and awful; far away and awesome), it would be worth it. but it is both.

the best thing about it is the people (most of them, anyway). which, isn't that always the way. at least with me it is. i always like the people i work with about a million times more than i like the actual job. C is delightful. she's offbeat and funny and into music and camping and cool shit. she plays music quietly on her phone all day. i know she likes dark side of the moon. she brought me a flyer for a halloween party at the barrymore (her husband is in one of the bands). she has a degree in graphic design and wants to do that instead of where she is now. C is totally my favorite. M is also delightful, but far more conventional than C. she's a single mom, very young, and funny and sociable and way way smarter than she comes off. R is just... i don't even know what her deal is. she put a 'i support scott walker' sign in her front yard because she doesn't like her neighbors (who had a 'stand with wisconsin' sign). she flat out ignores me for no reason i can discern, even when i speak to her directly. and of course it bothers me. i don't know L at all; she seems rather quiet, and also she was on vacation for the past week and a half and just got back. i was sitting at her desk while she was gone, and apparently she's a HUGE badger fan, and a newlywed. M, R, and L all seem very NORMAL. C is refreshingly odd and much easier for me to talk to. E my supervisor is extremely nice and i really like her, but also extremely normal (she wore red white and blue yesterday for 9/11). it seems against the odds, or maybe everyone hides it really well, but i haven't met a single weird person aside from C.

so yeah. the bottom line here is that i'm really fucking unhappy, but i feel like i have to stick it out. it pays rather well, and the busy season is coming up (where many employers offer open enrollment on their health insurance plans), and that's why i'm there-- to do the piddly boring shit while the others put people into the system and whatever. so i guess i'm going to keep doing it. even though i hate it. i just feel like i don't really have another choice, unless i'd like to be unemployed again for three months or whatever. and we all have to do shit we don't like doing.

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izzybeth — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 22:00:19 GMT

and here i thought my days of being covered in dust were over for a while. HOW WRONG I WAS

today i cleared the metal kitchen shelving rack thing of all food products (except for the gourds in the corner because i have no idea) and bags of things (mostly other bags) hanging from it so we can get it out to fit a table there. i also arranged to have the current couch taken away tomorrow so the new one can go in the living room. i prepared a small box to throw all the change and whatever else was between the cushions, but then i discovered that it folds out into a bed. who knew. also i vacuumed the shit out of that couch. it's not perfect, but it was full of crap and it's probably 90% gone now.

and then i flopped on it. it was a well-deserved flop.

i should a) take things down to the basement and b) do some laundry but oh man i just want to flop some more.

and now nelle is home and she shoved vid dvds at me so now i will probably not get anything else done.

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izzybeth — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 06:43:39 GMT

it are officially yuletimes! :DDDDD and since the signup form has taken LITERALLY all evening, i am leaving the letter to a future date. possibly that date is tomorrow.

natlet is a horrible, bad bad influence and has sucked me headlong into top gear. somehow this evening we decided that james is a wizard, went to hogwarts, picked up the stig there, and now uses the imperius curse on bbc execs so he can make ridiculously delightful television. nat and i think we are both far too busy to actually write this cracktacular scenario, so i a) had a beer and b) tweeted at shihadchick. here we go.

@izzybeth: claaaaaire will you write top gear hp fusion for me and nat we will love you forever!
@cz_nz: @izzybeth i have too many other things to do that don't involve terrifying research!
@cz_nz: @izzybeth ...although now i'm imagining Clarkson's review of the new Nimbus 4000 and HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
@cz_nz: @izzybeth ACCELERATION... SATISFACTORY. MAGICAL EMISSIONS... TOO LOW.
@izzybeth: @cz_nz OMFG I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. POWERRRRR.
@cz_nz: @izzybeth ONBOARD STEREO... MISSING.
@izzybeth: @cz_nz DOES NAUGHT TO SIXTY IN POINT THREE FIVE SECONDS. COULD BE BETTER.
@cz_nz: @izzybeth BRISTLES DRAG UPON LANDING... DO NOT APPROVE.
@izzybeth: @cz_nz so you wouldn't buy this broom then? NO BUT I LOVE IT! IT'S LIKE RIDING THE 3000 BUT LESS WELL MADE AND YOU COULD DIE AT ANY POINT!
@cz_nz: @izzybeth DIALOGUE RINGS TRUE!
@cilsheria: @cz_nz @izzybeth :DDD
@izzybeth: @cilsheria @cz_nz yeah, we're pretty great. ::full of self::
@cilsheria: @izzybeth @cz_nz moar!
@cilsheria: @izzybeth @cz_nz except actually bed. I can't contribute anyway due to lack of Top Gear knowledge
@izzybeth: @cilsheria: youuuu should watch some! a lot! they can be horrible but they're even more delightful!
@cz_nz: @izzybeth @cilsheria they accidentally set the first two Nimbus on fire y/mfy/duh?
@izzybeth: @cz_nz @cilsheria and it made the stig SO SAD because he'd been working on straightening the tail twigs ALL DAY.
@cz_nz: @izzybeth @cilsheria also an hour's worth of jokes about the Sting polishing the handle y?
@izzybeth: @cz_nz @cilsheria after which the stig refuses to test fly ANY of the new brooms and goes to sulk in the portakabin.
@izzybeth: @cz_nz @cilsheria james has to lure him out with chocolate frogs (stig doesn't eat them, he just likes to watch them hop).
@cz_nz: @izzybeth @cilsheria yep. and they all make fun of Captain Slow for preferring the Clean Sweep 7 still.
@izzybeth: @cz_nz you are TOTALLY WRITING THIS. you just don't know it :DDDDD
@cz_nz: @izzybeth BAD INFLUENCE
@izzybeth: @cz_nz you misspelled 'best'.

...possibly i need a new tag for this.

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make it all okay

izzybeth — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 22:15:19 GMT

i don't remember a time in my life when i didn't know r.e.m. i may not have known their name, i certainly didn't always know the songs, but i knew that voice, and i KNEW that guitar.

1989: i am 7, and i definitely remember what i now know to be pop song '89 and stand. (we didn't have cable, so i didn't know the dance.)

1991: i am 9. i know this 'r.e.m.' is a thing. losing my religion is all over the radio. my dad buys out of time, and i remember liking radio song better than losing my religion. i was NINE. (years later, when i own a cd player, i steal it.) i remember thinking how incredibly sad the story of the marble steps in the liner notes was.

1992: i am 10. 'r.e.m' has become what i understand to be an artistic entity (inasmuch as i understand what that is), and i remember automatic for the people being released. my mom buys it. i love the yellow cd with the track names in black. nightswimming is probably the most beautiful thing i'd ever heard. i do not understand star me kitten.

1993: i am 11. me and two or three of my friends are being driven somewhere by a friend's mother, and it's the end of the world as we know it (and i feel fine) comes on the radio. me and my two or three friends sing along to every word, even bill's weird harmonies, even 'it's time i had some time alone'.

1994: i am 12. monster is released, my mom buys it. again, i love the cd itself: BRIGHT BLUE with the little bear thing. wtfkenneth is on the radio. it is AWESOME. these are the weirdest songs i've ever heard. my first real experience of anything approaching grunge. probably the first of their albums that existed in actual, cohesive album form for me. (it's probably sometime around here i steal out of time from my dad.)

1995: i am 13. my class takes a field trip somewhere, and man on the moon comes on the radio. cue the entire bus singing along, yelling the 'yeah yeah yeah yeah's.

1996: i am 14. new adventures in hi-fi is released, my mom buys it. this cd, i don't so much love as am frustrated by. which is the right side? half the time i put it in the cd player upside down. (this is probably r.e.m.'s intent, the bastards.) i remember not being thrilled with e-bow the letter when it was on the radio, but only because i had no idea who patti smith was.

1997: i am 15. bill berry leaves the band, and i'm sure i only heard about his aneurysm at that point, because i remember being just utterly rocked by the news. but what are they gonna do now?

1998: i am 16, they release up, and i remember nothing of it aside from daysleeper on the radio. i'm sure my mom bought it, and i'm sure i listened to it, and i think i remember being pissed that bill had left and now they were crap. shut up i was 16.

2001: i am 19. reveal is released, and i pay attention again because reveal is GOOD. though it takes me a while to get into it.

2002: i am 20. while waiting in the mall food court for claire and gemma to get off work, i am ambushed by the video for all the way to reno on the big screens.

2003: i am 21. in time is released. i encourage the r.e.m. community on lj to pick it up on the day of release because it's always cheaper and there's a nice extra in the form of a poster in the deluxe edition. this year also contains my very first r.e.m. show. chicago, september 26. my dad gets me a pair of tickets for my birthday, and they are up in the nosebleeds where all the people who don't care much are. i sing along to everything and irritate the fuck out of them. i buy a t-shirt. it becomes my favorite shirt ever. eight years later, it is dying so hard.

2004: i am 22. around the sun is released. i am not into it, except for wanderlust. but they tour again, and fucked if i'm not going. this happens. and this happens. and then i spin around the sun a million fucking times and GET IT. (i'm trying to divine you.) i move to denver that year, and it becomes the music of that as well. i specifically remember listening to it while putting the kitchen table together, and being struck by the ascent of man.

2005: i am 23. i go to dublin that summer, and this happens.

2006: and i feel fine (best of irs) is released. but honestly, there isn't much in there that i pay attention to because i already own dead letter office.

2007: i am 25. r.e.m. invite the public in to watch them rehearse at the olympia theatre in dublin. why the fuck did i not quit my job and run away. THIS IS NOT A SHOW.

2008: i am 26, and oh this fucking YEAR. one video posted to ninetynights.com becomes a bit of an obsession for me: peter playing a chord progression, arpeggiated like he always do. this becomes hollow man. accelerate is released. this is the album i've been waiting for since new adventures. hollywood bowl. red rocks. united center. the pit ticket. lakewood amphitheatre. after that, i start playing my bass. a lot. i manage to tab out sing for the submarine, which i feel is quite an achievement.

2009: i am 27. i move to LA. i keep playing bass. damn you mike mills. live at the olympia is released, and i still do not own it because i don't want the regular version, i want the damn deluxe edition and holy god is it expensive. also, r.e.m.'s 30th anniversary.

2010: i am 28. courtney acquires a piano. the first thing i learn to play is beat a drum. the second thing i learn to play is i've been high.

2011: i am 29. collapse into now is released. there is flailing. they decide not to tour the album, and we are all intensely saddened by this. and then three days ago.

so, my life with r.e.m., guys. don't quite know what else to say.

THIS IS NOT AN OBITUARY

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izzybeth — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 02:29:57 GMT

so today my favorite band broke up. today is fucking fired.

but no, i can't think like that. (well, no, i can. today is totally fucking fired, without references.) i mean, it's not like we didn't see it coming, though i certainly didn't realize we were coming up on it so fast. i don't know. i always thought about next time i see them, next tour we'll do this, and now those futures don't exist. unless they do a 'reunion tour', which i don't know how i feel about, because how much does that smack of geriatric-rock-star-itis?

awesome things: this is possibly one of the best, most spontaneous, and rather stupid things i've ever done in my life. it was also my last r.e.m. show.

i have a fairly large r.e.m. poster hanging in my cube at work. people were nice to me all day.

as i posted to tumblr:

i’ve been an r.e.m. fan since i looked like this (circa 1986). 25 years later, i am impossibly richer in music, friends, and amazing experiences because of r.e.m. thank you mike, peter, bill, and michael. i love you guys.

if you like them too, tell them: thankyourem.com

so basically, the end, and i don't want to talk about it anymore.

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izzybeth — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 00:40:10 GMT

HEALTH BULLETIN:

i do, in fact, have strep throat. but as a bonus for playing, i also have an ear infection! YEAH MAN. haven't had one of those since before i hit puberty. no i'm not kidding. i seem to recall more of an unbearable stabbing pain, though. i'm sure it'll show up eventually.

seriously, i'm blaming children. because who else would i pick this shit up from. maybe i'm just regressing.

i also have amoxicillin. two in the morning, two before bed. the adorable pharmacist intern told me that it decreases the pill's effectiveness, so i should have a backup birth control method. just fyi, guys. because hey, i didn't know that. (not that this would have applied to me the last time i took amoxicillin. not that it applies to me now.)

made the slightly douchey doctor guy laugh, though. no, he was very nice, just a bit self-important.

a parody i thought of while waiting in an exam room for an hour but will never ever do anything with because it's just too wrong: Christian Science Theater 3000.

oh my GOD i can't wait for all this to go the fuck AWAY

[edit, 10:40pm: ah. there's the stabbing pain.]

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izzybeth — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 04:44:02 GMT

all right! more stuff what i done!

ok, tuesday i basically just hung out, caught my breath, petted zoe, went to pasqual's for dinner with dad, had a massive margarita, and bought a bus ticket so i could go to summerfest on

wednesday! took the car downtown, and dad took me to the union so i could catch the bus. had a lovely ride to milwaukee, during which i listened to the florence + the machine mix that tenar made. it is awesome. she is awesome. they are awesome. there's a HARP. i mean, that's epic. i can't wait til the 6th. the bus dropped us 'fest-ers at jackson and michigan, which isn't quite 'fest grounds, but close enough. i worried a bit when the driver said we should go back there to catch the bus back to madison, but whatever, i was off! walked down to the grounds, got in, and realized i had to play the game that all midwesterners despise: finding your mates at summerfest. called cordy: they weren't even out of illinois yet. mom texted and was like "we're in this one place" and i got there and no they weren't, plus there was a trumpet (stab), so i started to text her back, but then she called, and i had to run away so i could talk. and then she was like "why don't you just text me" and i said "yeah that's what i was doing when you called thanks" and she said "oh. bye." ha. so eventually we found each other and she bought me beer, and we went and got food, and sat by the lake. meanwhile, everyone in the city got out of work and came to 'fest and it was fucking insane.

cordy and andrea and their friend showed up, we found them, dear god it was crowded, and so we went to look at the lake again. climbed to the lawn seating at the top of the marcus amphitheatre so we could look at the actual whole lake, not just the lagoon bit. it was pretty amazing. i hadn't been in marcus since about 1997 or so when i saw bob dylan and paul simon, so this was pretty fucking cool. boats. did i mention boats are the best?

made our ways back down to our seats, which were all over the place. i was fairly close-- not as close as i would have liked, but high up enough to see much of the orchestra (if the piano had been elsewhere). before the show i was like "they can't fit an orchestra in front of that screen, what are they going to do?" and andrea and cordy were like "just wait." when i got to my seat, i could see that the orchestra was behind the screen, but i was still confused. "just wait."

uh i honestly don't know if i can really write about the fucking new blood orchestra. i mean. i wasn't really watching peter gabriel. i was watching the orchestra. they started with heroes. i had no idea what to do. i mean NO IDEA. i got it, i could see what they were doing, but i wasn't in any way prepared. i might have lost it a little (to the delight of the people on either side of me. yes, this is what you are in for. sharing a row with THIS GIRL. on the other hand, the couple to my left were irritating as shit. he was all over her, and during the quiet bits, most of what i could hear was HIS HAND LOVINGLY CARESSING HER SLEEVE. BARF).

i was, quite literally, on the edge of my fucking seat the whole time. leaning forward, i have to catch every note, every dynamic shift, every ornamentation, every coloration. biko, a sea of fists. in your eyes, all the hands going up. signal to noise. what the fuck. the rhythm and the heat. MERCY STREET. secret world oh god oh god fuck. i filmed red rain on my phone, but can't get it off until i get home. the colors aren't quite true (i was at an odd angle), but the sound is amazing. the conductor. usually i'm on the other side of the conductor, attempting to interpret his wild gesticulations and translate it into music (or at the very least follow along and not miss the one beat), but this time i got to enjoy it in an aesthetic sense. it wasn't like watching any symphony orchestra i've ever seen. he was incredibly clear in his movements, and also incredibly graceful. it was like watching someone fly. what could be more perfect.

I WANT TO PLAY IN THE NEW BLOOD ORCHESTRA // SOMEONE TELL ME THERE'S A RECORDING OF THIS SHOW

occasionally pg asked us to clap, and we did, but not so thunderously as to drown out the orchestra. i had no idea a summerfest audience could be so subtle and observant. (and neither did rob thomas, apparently.) also, i've never gotten to go WOOOO for a conductor before, and certainly never for an arranger! not that i haven't wanted to (really i have). it felt good.

i don't know if i feel like i saw PETER GABRIEL. i mean obviously i did. but it wasn't my focus, i guess. i've seen the secret world live dvd too many times, maybe. or, more likely, all i wanted was the orchestra and everything else was incidental. which is not the right word. it's more like (or sort of like) i didn't have a choice. the orchestra was where my attention was absolutely supposed to be. not that i wouldn't have chosen to see pg given the chance, but THIS. fuck it i don't have a clue how to explain myself.

i love orchestras. i love how a symphony is basically teaching an elephant to minuet, and then having it minuet through the eye of a needle. everything could go so horribly wrong. this organism is huge and unwieldy and awkward and made up of all these smaller beings, and if they won't work together then all you have is a dissonant, painful mess and a pissy conductor. but when it works, you get beethoven's 3rd. and haydn's 6th. and schubert's 8th, and handel's water music, and stravinsky's firebird, and copland's appalachian spring. and sometimes you get something really special like this. it's a certain kind of magic that seems easy to produce, sometimes even to the players, but i think it takes a particular talent, and a willingness to work with all those other small beings to make your great creature.

waited for cordy, then couldn't wait any longer or i'd miss my bus. said goodbye to andrea, shoved my way back through the 'fest throngs to an exit, any exit, and pushed my way up to jackson and over to michigan. bus? nope. however, i recognized a dude from the bus to summerfest, and asked if he thought we were in the right spot. he did think so (at least that's what the driver told us at 5), and lo, the bus didst appear. got on, curled up in a seat, checked my red rain video to make sure it had decent sound (it does), turned florence back on, and pretty much checked out for the entire ride back to madison.

nelle and mel picked me up, nelle got pulled over for the FIRST TIME EVER for a burned out headlight, and they dropped me at home. zzzzzzz.

thursday! i took nelle out to brasserie v for lunch, since she had been driving me all over creation and i felt i owed her at the very least for coming out and getting me the night before. she also had a bucky book coupon (two for one lunch!), and it was lovely. we ordered frites which came with this amazing cajun aioli. we had beer (a saison for me, a porter for her), she got a whole sandwich, i got a half and some very eastern european cabbage soup, and it was all extremely lovely. back to her place, back to dad's place.

lisa showed up later (did i mention she and dad are engaged now? yeah), and despite my reservations we had a very nice evening.

friday! the three of us hung out the next day, and sometime in the afternoon lisa took the zoe puppy back to her mom. dad was sort of heartbroken, it was very sad. nelle came and picked me up about 3:30, and off we went to mineral point and brewery creek, nelle's parents' inn and brewery! it is in a building from the 1850s with three foot thick stone walls, and truly kickass. i am IN FUCKING LOVE with her dad's summer shandy. god i could drink it by the gallon. her mom told us that room 2 had not been rented that evening, so we were welcome to stay the night since after dinner we were off to american players theatre, aka my favorite place in the world. nelle had never been there before! i'm a little sad that her very first play was not a shakespeare, but richard brinsley sheridan's laff riot the critic was as good an introduction as any. a review in the isthmus said that it was bloody hilarious, but at points almost collapsing under the weight of its own absurdity. which i have to agree with, but i also think that if they'd pulled any comic punches, it wouldn't have gone off nearly as well. also, it's almost a guarantee: if APT actors are in 18th century costume, you are going to laugh your arse off. (oh look, there it goes now.) a splendid time was guaranteed for all (despite it being about 94˚ until 11p when it cooled off to 89˚). back to the inn for the night, sleeping in blessed a/c.

saturday! took a roundabout and absolutely gorgeous route back to madison.

went up to state street to hit up a room of one's own for two books: bright's passage by mr josh ritter, and american gods tenth anniversary (the authors preferred text) by mr neil gaiman. found them both. hojeez i spent a lot on books today, but i spent it at room, so i'm not complaining. nelle dropped me off at home, where i interrupted dad's nap, and polished off bright's passage in about six hours (counting food and conversation breaks). i was disappointed and somewhat alarmed to find that mr ritter has apparently fridged a girl in order to make his plot go. SIGH. I THOUGHT BETTER OF YOU, SIR. i'm going to have to read it again.

so that's basically that. it is now saturday night, i can't believe i've done all the stuff in only a week, and i still have a week to go! this coming week is even more jam-packed than the past one, so don't expect awesome epic posts like this (even though i would love to keep it up). i mean, u2 tends to fuck my posting plans quite thoroughly. but i will try. because going through every minute detail of my days is sort of fun (provided interesting things happen during those days).

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izzybeth — Sun, 01 May 2011 07:45:39 GMT

so basically my one-and-a-half thoughts on Doctor Who 6x02 - Day Of The Moon:

half thought: AAAAAAAAAAAAAH. also, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. the end.

other thought: Amy's recorder/transmitter thingy, specifically how it sounded. plus freaky space suit. did anyone else flash back to Silence In The Library? WONDERFULLY CREEPY.

i've seen some thoughts on how, in the mini horror movie in the orphanage, Amy is totally an homage to Dana Scully. which i dig.

Rory in brainy specs = izzy dying (for many reasons).

Rory and River in Mad Men threads = SO AWESOME I CAN'T STAND IT

River snogging the Doctor = simultaneously disturbing and amazing

also: "you've got a screwdriver; go build a cabinet or something!" "THAT'S REALLY RUDE!" yessssssss

AMY IN LOVE AND RORY'S STUPID FACE GOD I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

America = guns. yeah. well. thanks but no not really.

the silence. damn. Moffat, you are one fucked up human being. (though, him playing The Empty Child with his kid on the TARDIS set also makes him a fucking amazing human being.)

also also: "yes. ...he is." THEY ACTUALLY DID IT. i didn't think they would do it, i thought it was just wishful thinking, BUT THEY ACTUALLY DID IT GODDAMN FUCK YEAH WELL DONE I LOVE THIS STUPID SHOW.

oh yeah, and baby time lady what the ACTUAL FUCK. in this case, i reserve the right to completely disregard occam's razor, and trust that Moffat knows what he's doing. just keep repeating to yourself, Moffat is not Rusty. Moffat is not Rusty. Moffat Is Not Rusty.

ok, i feel better. (WHAT THE FUCK)

goodbye, Elisabeth Sladen. i'm going to watch Ark In Space in your honor. because Ark In Space is brilliant.

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welcome to the weekend. thank the unions for it.

izzybeth — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 06:13:47 GMT

so i can't really articulate how i feel about the protests in Wisconsin right now. probably because i have such mixed feelings about it. thrilled that people are doing this, excited that such an important event is going down in my hometown, livid at Walker for having so little respect for the people who work for him, and completely brokenhearted and actually quite guilty that i'm not there. booking a weekend flight is looking so good right now, but i can't i can't i can't. (it's a three day weekend, even! FUUUUUUUUCK.)

therefore, i've been velcroed to twitter and faceboat all week, trying to keep up. i'm going to attempt to post links to the best stuff i've found.

i'm gonna start this off with the email i sent to Scott Walker, which will be utterly ignored.

Dear Governor Walker,

My name is Elizabeth Soellner, and I am a native Wisconsinite (though I have been living on the west coast for the past two years). I thought, since you claimed that most of the e-mails you've been receiving about your recent budget-balancing measures have been supportive, that I would drop you a line just to tell you that I do not support this legislation in any way whatsoever.

I think that you're deliberately trying to undo over fifty years of unionization in Wisconsin (exempting firefighters, police, and state troopers to make yourself look better), under the cover of making up the budget deficit. Which, by the way, it appears that you created yourself by pushing through $140 million in special interest spending. And you've barely been in office for a month and a half! Well done, Mr. Walker. I hope your reign is a short one, and I hope that you'll be remembered as a failed union-buster. But mostly I hope that my home state will be able to recover from your bad choices and bad policies. I'd like to come back soon. I hope I have somewhere to come back to.

Do I sound angry? I am. I am furious that you're pulling this, not least because my father, who has worked for the Department of Natural Resources for twenty-five years, is recovering from cancer surgery. And he has this to come back to. Yet he has joined the demonstrations at the capitol building for these past few days, showing more human decency than I've seen from most people.

Your budget repair bill is nothing more than a thinly veiled attack on public service employees and organized labor. Wisconsin won't be "open for business" much longer if you refuse to value your workers.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Soellner

unfortunately i live out of state, so i don't count.

basically, what's going on is this: Governor Scott Walker, he of the "no we don't need the train let's kill the train project and reject all this federal money that they are willingly giving us GODDAMN I'M AN IDIOT" before he even took office, has decided that the best way to fix Wisconsin's budget deficit is to screw public workers. which includes municipal workers, university employees, parks employees, every kind of civil servant you can think of, and OH YEAH TEACHERS. (which brings me to this photo right here: Scott: your son is in my class.)

except the budget deficit? wouldn't even EXIST if not for Scott Walker! in an op-ed piece, the Cap Times says Walker gins up ‘crisis’ to reward cronies. and hey, look at those numbers! even i can understand this bit.

In its Jan. 31 memo to legislators on the condition of the state’s budget, the Fiscal Bureau determined that the state will end the year with a balance of $121.4 million.

To the extent that there is an imbalance -- Walker claims there is a $137 million deficit -- it is not because of a drop in revenues or increases in the cost of state employee contracts, benefits or pensions. It is because Walker and his allies pushed through $140 million in new spending for special-interest groups in January. If the Legislature were simply to rescind Walker’s new spending schemes -- or delay their implementation until they are offset by fresh revenues -- the “crisis” would not exist.

so basically, Walker gave a bunch of money to his business partners in teabaggery, and he's demanding that the people who work for him pick up the tab. by the way? the money is not the issue. i can't stress that enough. the hikes in pension funds and health insurance fees is not the issue. the issue is that Walker finds it necessary to remove the unions' collective bargaining rights as well. he's pretty much cutting the unions off at the balls. union members will no longer be able to pay dues directly from their paychecks, unions will have to hold annual votes to see if they're still relevant, and the only thing unions will be able to bargain for is wages. which will be dependent on inflation. no bargaining for anything else. ANYTHING. even some Republicans think this is too radical.

Wisconsin has a very long history of workers' rights and labor unions (see primary documents at the Wisconsin State Historical Society). because of unions, we have paid time off, we have health insurance, we have bereavement leave, we have mental health days. we have child labor laws. we have eight-hour work days. we have a minimum wage. we have weekends. because of the labor movement and unions. in 1959, the state legislature granted bargaining rights to local government workers. Scott Walker, in classic Republican fear-the-hungry-masses style, wants to undo over fifty years of workers' rights. in the guise of A BUDGET REPAIR BILL. i do not have the WORDS for how much this man FILLS ME WITH BURNING RAGE.

where are the Democrats, you ask? well. this is the best part, and also the part that offsets my UTTER FURY and allows me to breathe. the Democrats FUCKED OFF. THEY BRAVELY RAN AWAY, AWAY. (not a relevant link, just funny.) they literally fled the state so the Republicans wouldn't have a quorum for the vote on the bill. Walker sent the state troopers after them (a group of state employees, by the way, whose union is exempt from the bill, along with firefighters and police, because Scott Walker couldn't possibly be such a monster, could he?), but since they crossed state lines, the troopers were unable to track them down and bring them back. this was on tuesday, i believe? they're still gone. people have hung a huge sign from the capitol building, reading RUN DEMS RUN. i love it.

so that's the story so far! my dad has been down there a few times, sending me photos from his blackberry, the little geek, and taking part in what has to be just a fucking amazing experience. i think everyone i know in Madison has taken part, and my mom (who lives in Milwaukee) is finally going tomorrow, after hopping up and down in impatience all week. now i'm going to let other people who are much more articulate than me have a chance.

first we have former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold on Rachel Maddow (youtube). goddamn i love that man. please join Progressives United.

State Senator John Erpenbach on Rachel Maddow as well, being interviewed from an undisclosed location (msnbc). "i'm not on a beach." AHAHA.

here's the first mention on the BBC: Democrats flee Wisconsin Senate to slow anti-union bill.
the second mention: Protesters keep up pressure at Wisconsin capitol.
and in pictures: Wisconsin union protests.

JacquelynGill is a great twitter account to follow; it sounds like she's been in the capitol building for days. #wiunion is the hashtag to follow, and WEAC, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, is a great source for info too.

a joke from Scott Walker Is A Douchebag on faceboat: Q. what's the difference between the wisconsin state senate and a pineapple? A. on a pineapple, the pricks are on the outside.

Wonkette: Teabaggers Annoy WI Democrats At Lazy River; WI Gov Threatens Obama. this r srs lol. i certainly hope that Senator Fred Risser is enjoying a margarita and a warm water park somewhere in Rockford. also, the fox news article it links to, Wisconsin Governor to Obama: Mind Your Own Business, asserts that Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller lives in Montana. he doesn't. he lives in Monona. let me illustrate.

however, the state troopers know where Senator Miller lives. here's what happened when Walker sent them to fetch him. oh how i loled.

as of today, Unions offer concessions as Capitol stalemate, protests continue (Wisconsin State Journal).

this weekend? is going to be big. i mean, BIG. not that this hasn't already been big. this might be the biggest demonstration Madison has ever seen. certainly the biggest since the Vietnam protests in the sixties. so, here are some tips for a safe and happy protest, and also what to do to protect yourself if shit gets ugly. Madison-types, if you're going tomorrow, please read this. i don't want any black eyes or broken bones (or even any stomped-on toes if you can help it). keep it peaceful, keep it upbeat, please be safe, and don't let the t-bags get you down! don't confront, they'll just boil your bones to make their bread. and remember, they're not even Wisconsinites! they'll have been carted in from out-of-state just to piss you off and start shit. don't let them.

for those of us out of state or otherwise unable to participate in the flesh, here are a couple things we can do. donations for 'Fox News will lie about this' banners! also, feed the demonstrators! Ian's Pizza is taking orders from around the country, and delivering pizzas up the block to the capitol. they take visa and mastercard, and their phone number is 608-257-9248.

i'm going to close with a couple things that made me so happy there were tears in my eyes. first, Egypt Supports Wisconsin. second, a video showing just how dedicated, energetic, positive, and above all, PEACEFUL, the people in this protest are. there was surprise Arcade Fire, so those who are susceptible, beware.

ok, so i've spent... about two and a half hours throwing this together, and i'm sure there's plenty i've missed, but i'm going to stop anyway. because otherwise i'll be trying to track down every link i've read over the past week, and my brain will leak from my ears and nostrils, and that's just gross.

solidarity, Wisconsin.

[edit: no, wait! one last thing! Representative Paul Ryan (R-Dist. 1) wants everyone to know that there is RIOTING IN THE STREETS OF MADISON! panic! chaos! it's like CAIRO! and it must be true, because he said so on MSNBC! well.

this is me, ded from laff.]

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izzybeth — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 04:01:42 GMT

mom called me within five minutes of getting out of the shower last night, so here's an alternate 21:00 frame from yesterday.

and then she texts me today: OMG THE SHOVELING THERE IS NOWHERE LEFT TO PUT THE SNOW AND I CAN'T FEEL MY LEFT ARM

my suggestion: have a hot bath, a beer, and a nap?

her riposte: no, the water will go cold too fast

me, after going WHAT??!?!??!1 at my phone: well, the beer and the nap. two out of three.

her, winding down: i have lemon tea and am lounging on the sofa

me, just trying to help: hot water is good for sore muscles. i bet you'll be feeling it tomorrow.

her, because there just isn't enough in the world to be sad about: i expect to be wincing with every move i make

and then i had to Stop It because i was flailing at my phone, going "THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT" and no good would have come of any extension to that conversation. OH MOMS. WHAT CAN YOU DO.

i am attempting to fight off a sore throat slash run down tired feeling type thing. if it can just hold off until friday, then i can have the weekend to be tromped on by germs. that's fine. just. can i get through tomorrow, please? (it's too damn early in the year to take sick time. grr.)

and lastly, OMG CAN I HAVE A SNOW DAY TOO MOM PLEASE? because this looks like the MOST FUN EVER.

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izzybeth — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 06:24:10 GMT

one more before bed!

::chinstroke:: this may require its own tag.

edit, 23:09: and the one more. i look like a sheep in the 21:00 frame.

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izzybeth — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:37:49 GMT

CLAIRE.

YOU ARE A SNEAKY SNEAK MCSNEAKERSON.

who LIES in emails.

somehow i think i forgive you.

I KNEW IT WAS YOU! I WAS NOT DECEIVED! (well maybe only a little bit because i am a TRUSTING FOOL who believes what her best friend tells her. will have to rethink that for future reference.)

:PPPPP

coming clean: for yuletide, i wrote located in Infinity (a small village just outside Bristol) (Museum Of Everything) for amaresu. i particularly enjoyed writing this one becase a) i could review the source material at work on my ipod, b) writing humor is FUN, and c) apparently i'm only good for humor anymore. that's ok. i've found my niche.

and as far as last night goes... eight drinks* not hungover. you may be pleased to find me pounding a sutter home on lissie's faceboat.

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL MY WONDERFUL FRIENDS.

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself. -Neil Gaiman

* beer (3), cider (1), vodka shots with pomegranate seeds in (2), airplane bottle of sutter home (1), champagne (1).

[edit: oh yes, and GO BADGERS]

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IT ARE YULETIMES

izzybeth — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 05:12:24 GMT

hey ho fellow yuletider! it's that time again! i am SO EXCITED for this year, are you? yaaaay!

so, to business. i know i gave you, dear author, almost no help at all with these prompts, but i blame the new signup format. change is oh so confusing, please hold my hand. but hey, that's why dear yuletider letters exist, non?

Scott Pilgrim: Scott Pilgrim, Wallace Wells, Kim Pine, Stephen Stills, Multi
honestly, i'm not too terribly fussed about whether you write comic-verse or movie-verse since both of them are awesome, but i enjoy the depth of detail we get in the comics. some ideas: how Sex Bob-omb got together (since Stephen Stills is such a great straight man), if Scott and Wallace have ever done it, what sort of superpower Kim has (and whether she's ever used it on Scott), random shit. also not averse to appearances by Knives Chau (and creepy Mr. Chau), bitchy Julie Powers, Young Neil, Envy Adams and The Clash At Demonhead, pretty much anyone.

Neverwhere - All Media Types: Door, Richard Mayhew, Marquis de Carabas, Anaesthesia, Gen
Richard Mayhew is, and always will be, my favorite. i adore his Arthur Dent-esque awkwardness and his determination and stumbling into situations and eventual hero status (even though he doesn't really want it). i love the Marquis and his slippery anti-hero/almost-villain position. and i love how these two can play off each other. i'd love a good plotty story with plenty of mythical/forgotten London (the old Thames tributaries like the Fleet and the Tyburn really capture my imagination), and i'd love to see Richard as the necessary puzzle piece through no real fault of his own.

Star Wars: X-wing Rogue Squadron (Comic): Wedge Antilles, Tycho Celchu, Wes Janson, Derek Klivian, Multi
wasn't The Phantom Affair gorgeous? (at least until the last instalment.) and the comics are all so well written and the plots and the characters and yeah. they're awesome. you know what i'm talking about. (even if Requiem For A Rogue a: killed Dllr and b: was badly drawn.) i adore the Fab Four, Wedge especially, and i really love the family that is the rest of the Rogues. i love this particular time in Star Wars history, where the Death Star 2.0 has just been blown away, but the Alliance isn't really legitimate yet, and i love what that means for Wedge: he has more responsibility to his people, but isn't being pressured into a generalship. and i also love that he, Tycho, Wes, and Hobbie haven't been separated yet. also, Admiral Ackbar is AWESOME. so yeah, go bloody nuts here.

Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog: Geoffrey Chaucer, Kyng Richard, Phillipa Chaucer, Adam Lynkferste, Humor
ok, this is probably the most hilarious thing i've ever seen on the internet. go absolutely crazy with this. spelling wasn't standardized until what, the early 19th century, so to hell with spellcheck! andwhy would Geoff set up a blog? maybe it was a place to bitch about the Kyng and Phillipa and Litel Lowys, but then he came to enjoy the comments and readers, and it was a handy place to jot down thoughts for his next book. i particularly enjoy the entry spoofing Battlestar Galactica. in short, i would very much like to EL OH EL at this one. really, how does Geoffrey Chaucer deal with internet outages and the Blogspot Terms Of Service?

yes please!
humor. slang used appropriately. female characters. characters of color. both at the same time! banter. books. het, slash, and gen. medieval stuff. alcohol, and the consuming of. unusual formats (if executed well). good dialogue. real life.

no thanks.
over-the-top angst and drama. songfic. crackfic. cheesy dialogue. unrealistic portrayals of life/the universe/everything. honestly, i'm pretty easy, as long as it's believable (and people don't spontaneously burst into song or whatever).

other fandoms i read/write/watch:
U2 RPF. R.E.M. RPF. Star Trek (all but Voyager and Enterprise). Jossverse (including Dr. Horrible, excepting Dollhouse). Due South and C6D. Reservoir Dogs. Harry Potter. Veronica Mars. The West Wing. Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead. Battlestar Galactica (the new one). Doctor Who. Robin Hood (BBC). Black Books. Keen Eddie. Stargate SG-1. Hercules/Xena. Bones. Life On Mars (UK). Ugly Betty. A Knights Tale. the Vorkosigan series. Spaced. Young Wizards.

seriously dudes, i am SO EXCITED and i CAN'T WAIT to get started! i hope this helps you, o esteemed author, and if you don't find it, well, that's ok too. i will be sure to love anything you create, because how awesome is it that we share a teeny fandom! HAPPY YULETIMES!

<3 izzy

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izzybeth — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 02:53:16 GMT

17. a song containing lyrics you would get a tattoo of

already done, but i'll throw in another just for funsies.

see icon. my left foot. also, what the fuck is this camerawork. dnw.

this is a thought for the future (when i have money again).

~~Day 1: Your favorite song~~
~~Day 2: A song that makes you cry~~
~~Day 3: A song that makes you dance~~
~~Day 4: Your favorite male singer~~
~~Day 5: Your favorite female singer~~
~~Day 6: Your favorite band~~
Day 7: Your favorite bass player
~~Day 8: One band/singer whose popularity you will never understand~~
~~Day 9: A song that reminds you of an ex~~
~~Day 10: A song that reminds you of your father~~
~~Day 11: A song that reminds you of your mother~~
~~Day 12: A song that reminds you of a specific place~~
~~Day 13: A song you sing in the shower~~
~~Day 14: A song from the year you were born~~
~~Day 15: A song you liked in high school~~
~~Day 16: Your favorite live version of a song~~
Day 17: A song containing lyrics you would get a tattoo of
Day 18: Your favorite classical piece
Day 19: Your favorite love song
Day 20: Your favorite song in another language
Day 21: A song that makes you want to break stuff
Day 22: Your favorite song from a movie
Day 23: Your favorite duet
Day 24: Your favorite cover song
Day 25: Your favorite song from 2010 (so far)
Day 26: Your favorite music video
Day 27: One song in your mp3 folder you're pretty sure no one else has
Day 28: Your favorite song from a movie score
Day 29: Your favorite sad song
Day 30: A song you'd like played at your funeral

today was a day of laundry and lying on my bed doing fuckall. lovely. the quiet was excellent. sometimes quiet is exactly what's needed.

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izzybeth — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 05:12:12 GMT

8. one band/singer whose popularity you will never understand

see, but the thing is, i do understand. i understand that people have different tastes, and i understand that some people have dreadfully, irreparably bad taste, and that the music THEY like tends to be the super trendy big-selling drivel that i cannot stomach.

but i UNDERSTAND.

~~Day 1: Your favorite song~~
~~Day 2: A song that makes you cry~~
~~Day 3: A song that makes you dance~~
~~Day 4: Your favorite male singer~~
~~Day 5: Your favorite female singer~~
~~Day 6: Your favorite band~~
Day 7: Your favorite bass player
~~Day 8: One band/singer whose popularity you will never understand~~
Day 9: A song that reminds you of an ex
Day 10: A song that reminds you of your father
Day 11: A song that reminds you of your mother
Day 12: A song that reminds you of a specific place
Day 13: A song you sing in the shower
Day 14: A song from the year you were born
Day 15: A song you liked in high school
Day 16: Your favorite live version of a song
Day 17: A song containing lyrics you would get a tattoo of
Day 18: Your favorite classical piece
Day 19: Your favorite love song
Day 20: Your favorite song in another language
Day 21: A song that makes you want to break stuff
Day 22: Your favorite song from a movie
Day 23: Your favorite duet
Day 24: Your favorite cover song
Day 25: Your favorite song from 2010 (so far)
Day 26: Your favorite music video
Day 27: One song in your mp3 folder you're pretty sure no one else has
Day 28: Your favorite song from a movie score
Day 29: Your favorite sad song
Day 30: A song you'd like played at your funeral

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izzybeth — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 02:51:24 GMT

iphones to happen in seven to ten business days! how exciting. how 21st century. oh indeed. (i don't get to keep my number though. this makes me sad.)

today i looked at airfares to madison over labor day. they mock me with their near affordability. damn you, rent. the midmonth paycheck is always the fun one anyway. maybe they'll come down some more.

see, this is what happens. i open up the 'update' page, and then completely lose all inspiration (and literacy).

realized today why you never get to read any of shakespeare's comedies in high school: all the dick and fart jokes. damn you, falstaff, you ruined it for everyone!

friday night, jill and dave were here! we watched some sneaky footage of peter gabriel's soundcheck at the bowl, and then STOP MAKING SENSE. why are they so brilliant. david byrne is a snarky motherfucker, tina weymouth is fucking amazing, and chris frantz makes me want to DIE. the soundtrack lives in my car now.

many fun times at amy's ~~11th~~ 25th birthday on saturday. slip and or slide, water balloonage, sidewalk chalk, pin the tail on ken's house, grillin' and chillin', and a frickin' piñata that i busted open like a badass. unh. amy needs to post the video of us breaking water balloons on our heads, because that was SWEET. people kept driving past her house to gawk. like multiple times. how are we so cool.

heading down to orange county and jill's apparently endless house and musical instrument collection for the fourth. taking the train! that will be fun. trains are inherently excellent.

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izzybeth — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 03:37:31 GMT

answers to the 'guess the lyric IF YOU CAN' meme, plus the winners, are under the cut. because i spent an hour and 45 minutes waiting for the car place to change my oil, put in a new headlight, and remove the rusty bolts from the front bumper so i can put the damn license plate on. (they did the oil and the headlight. apparently i'm on my own for the rusty bolts, even though they said sure no problem we won't even charge you. fuckers.)

1. and i pray for the rain to wash you far away
Shihad - Deb's Night Out (artist and title guessed by antigone_ks and shihadchick)

2. if there is a hell on earth there must be heaven too / both in one place and not a second to lose
Crowded House - Heaven That I'm Making (artist and title guessed by antigone_ks)

3. i turned off the engine and the headlights / the trees appeared
Dar Williams - Calling The Moon (artist and title guessed by antigone_ks; artist guessed by joy_and_thunder)

4. she said i don't mind i don't wanna get bored
Bell X1 - Rocky Took A Lover (artist and title guessed by antigone_ks, joy_and_thunder, stateless)

5. crashing headlong into the heartland like a cannon in the rain
The Waterboys - Fisherman's Blues (artist and title guessed by aleph3, joy_and_thunder, stateless)

6. out of breath or out of key her voice resonated in me
The Weakerthans - Exiles Among You (artist guessed by wootsauce)

7. you'll have to break me open to hear anything
The Hush Sound - Break The Sky

8. these words on paper smell like you
Sarah Harmer - You Were Here

9. i know where we fell on our face jump with me you jump with me
R.E.M. - Animal (artist and title guessed by antigone_ks, joy_and_thunder)

10. it's never too late to seize some final breath of freedom
10,000 Maniacs - Noah's Dove (artist guessed by antigone_ks, joy_and_thunder)

11. who's to worry if our hearts get torn
David Grey - This Year's Love (artist and title guessed by antigone_ks)

12. if i could stand outside myself and watch it come to me
Daniel Lanois - I Love You (guessed by joy_and_thunder, stateless)

13. come to believe that i better not leave before i get my chance to ride
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Snow (Hey Oh)

14. a little more stupid a little more scared / every minute more unprepared
The National - Slow Show (artist guessed by joy_and_thunder)

15. you can walk it home straight from school
Radiohead - Planet Telex (artist and title guessed by antigone_ks, joy_and_thunder)

16. is there any danger? no no not really just lean on me
Simon & Garfunkel - Fakin' It

17. i don't know what i have done / i'm turning myself to a demon
Fleet Foxes - Tiger Mountain Peasant Song

18. the state line felt like the berlin wall and there was no doubt about which side i was on
Death Cab For Cutie - Crooked Teeth (artist and title guessed by wootsauce)

19. you're trying on a brand new dress but you haven't worn the old one yet
Nickel Creek - Jealous Of The Moon (artist and title guessed by antigone_ks)

20. when you're dry she draws her water from the stone
U2 - Lemon (artist and title guessed by antigone_ks, joy_and_thunder, stateless)

21. we both got fired on exactly the same day
Modest Mouse - Float On (artist and title guessed by antigone_ks, joy_and_thunder)

22. i'll keep you in my locket / a string i'll never strum
Wilco - Pot Kettle Black (artist guessed by joy_and_thunder)

23. like the fbi and the cia and the bbc bb king and doris day
The Beatles - Dig It (artist and title guessed by stateless)

24. she walks slowly across a young man's room / she said i'm ready for you
Pearl Jam - Alive (artist and title guessed by antigone_ks, joy_and_thunder, stateless)

25. we could hold each other close and stay up every night looking up into the dark like it's the night sky
Josh Ritter - The Temptation Of Adam (artist and title guessed by joy_and_thunder, wootsauce)

and for those of you following along at home, the points stack up thusly:

aleph3 and shihadchick are awarded a very respectable 1 point each, for correctly guessing artist and title.
wootsauce wins herself 2.5 points for knowing it was the Weakerthans but fucking up the title. ohjeez.
stateless places third with 6 points! not shabby at all.
joy_and_thunder lands in second place with a fabulous 11 points! dang.
but antigone_ks just squeaks into first place with 11.5 points! i can't make this shit up.

it was good for me. i hope it was good for you too.

so whatchoo guys want? lis, you said something about a shiny icon? i promised prizes, and prizes there shall be. you know where to find me.

came home to BOOKS BOOKS ALL THE TIME BOOKS. mmmmmbooks. tried to unscrew to bolts off my bumper, but they're seriously on there good. i don't know what i'm going to do about that.

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izzybeth — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 18:03:53 GMT

guess the lyric IF YOU CAN meme is still running, so go ON. GUESS. i'll probably keep it going through the weekend at least.

so on wednesday, i drove out to Pasadena after work to meet up with commodorified, pecunium, and their friend Sarah. went to Lucky Baldwin's, the pub we hit up after Huntington Gardens last August, which was lovely. monopolized the jukebox again, had excellent pasties, excellent beer, and excellent company. a splendid time was guaranteed for all.

last night i went out to Pasadena again (with Cordy, Amy, Ken, and Dave) to meet up with rhythmsextion and half of her Fockers at Barney's, which was much louder and much more crowded than Lucky Baldwin's (and far far surpassed their obnoxiousness levels as well). but we still had a good time. they played fairly decent music for the most part, and what wasn't decent was easily mockable.

Pasadena twice in three days is a bit much for me and my gas tank, however. on the other hand, i really like driving that section of the 134 by Eagle Rock. so it's all good.

i've finally got to watch the BBC's Wonders Of The Solar System series. OH MY GOD. Enceladus. the ice crystal GEYSERS on Enceladus. Titan. LIQUID METHANE LAKES on the surface of Titan. SATURN'S RINGS UNH. Saturn was always my favorite.

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