What we talk about when we talk about nothing

[constance]

You know the best thing, for me, about reading (or rereading) a fanfic you really love? It's not that thing that X did to Y with Z in the infirmary, though that was pretty hot, wasn't it? It's just--a really good fanfiction will change the way you think about canon, just a little. It adds to your understanding of canon, makes you love it in a slightly different way, gives you ideas. Reminds you why you ended up in fandom in the first place.

And of course the thing with the thing in the infirmary. That was excellent.

:::

I went to see Brokeback Mountain in Atlanta with sisterliz this past weekend, and while we were eating lunch and anticipating, I was thinking about going to the movies in New Orleans, where for a blockbuster sort of film you had to buy your tickets in advance and queue up in a huge snaky line at least an hour before the show if you didn't want to sit in the front row with your neck craned uncomfortably for a couple of hours. Life isn't like this in Macon, where no one really goes to the movies at all except on Friday and Saturday nights, so that even an opening-weekend Sunday matinee of, say, GoF, is really sparsely populated, and if you go during the week, well, sometimes you have the theater all to yourself.

I was thinking of this, and I even mentioned it to sisterliz, but for some reason musing over this phenomenon did not lead to my thinking, Hey, here we are in a big city! This movie is only showing at one cinema in a town with a thriving gay community so maybe we should see about getting some tickets ahead of schedule. Oh no, we blithely poked around town until we got to the theater and discovered that everyone with an interest in that film within a 100-mile radius of Atlanta was seeing it that day, and that all features on both screens were sold out until late at night, and so we decided to be depressed in an entirely different way and saw Syriana instead, a film which holds the distinction of being absolutely the most cynical I've ever seen.

Oh you city folk. Don't you have anything better to do on a rainy afternoon than gawk at gay cowboys in love?

:::

The Pavlovian conditioning I've been receiving lately in the guise of an unstraightforward transfer of real estate is proceeding apace. Closing has been moved to January 5. Watch me salivate as that freaking bell rings, again. Will I ever learn?

Comments

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I totally agree about Syriana.

And I don't think there's a theater within 100 miles of here showing Brokeback Mountain. Hmm. Yep, I just checked the closest possibility. I think I'd have to go to Albuquerque (200 miles), although I'm hoping our art house will get it sometime next month.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Not worth seeing, then? (Syriana, I mean.) Mary and I were debating going but the reviews have been distinctly mixed.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's worth it. But it's depressing, and cynical, and it's a sort of mosaic where you never really get the entire picture, just enough little fragments (which seem unrelated at first) that you can kind of squint and figure out what it's supposed to be.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

My take on it is exactly Isis's -- it is worth seeing, but it's very oblique, to the point that it risks leaving its audience behind. Also, it makes you want to move to some nice socialist country, or maybe become an assassin, taking down the oil industry juggernaut one asshole executive or corrupt politician at a time.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Macon will never show this movie. I'm resigned to going to Atlanta for it, though next time I'll buy my tickets in advance.

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, yes! That's what I love about (re)reading fanfic, too! This past week, in fact, I've had lots of time to reacquaint myself with HP canon (via audio books while I'm toiling over the holiday baking) and fanfic (new stuff and old favorites) during baking breaks, and it's delightful the way it swirls around in my brain and each part complements the other, and I end up falling in love with characters I didn't fully appreciate before, and sometimes I have these great senior moments where I wonder, for a second, "Is x plot point canon or fanon?"

Also, I got a mysterious package in the mail the other day! :D :D Is it time sensitive, or can I draw out my seething curiosity a bit and open it on Christmas morning?

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, I have those 'canon or fanon?' moments as well! And as for the rest, isn't it wonderful, weaving everything together?

And you can open your package anytime! It's not time-sensitive; I just hope you don't have it already.

Glee, I tell you. Glee!

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

Turns out I wasn't, after all, able to contain my curiosity, and at 11:22pm last night, I caved in and tore my way into your present.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! No one's ever thought to get me an audio performance of the books, let alone a fabulously upscale one. (To tell you the truth, I didn't know such a version existed.) Derek Jacobi reads my favorite one of all! Lynn Redgrave reads my second favorite! I'm fairly sizzling with delight. And although it would have been nicer, perhaps, to wait until Christmas, I'm passionately glad I didn't, because I'm on my last tape of my re-listen to HBP and I still have miles to go before I sleep with the baking and decorating and won't it be SO MUCH FUN now to putter around in the kitchen, even though at this point I'd rather drink paint than look at another gingerbread man, because I have something fabulous to listen to, and at a time when I was hankering for another reread anyway, what with the movie coming out and all, but couldn't really take the time to, you know, sit down and pick up a book!

Thanks, too, for the darling card and the wonderful packaging of the CDs! Really, you couldn't have found a gift that would have thrilled me more.

Re: Glee, I tell you. Glee!

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh! I'm so happy it's something you didn't have. And after seeing your baking, I must say that I'm happy to have contributed, in my tiny, cross-country way, to the results!!

[leestone.livejournal.com]

You are totally talking about "Idle Hands", aren't you. YES. >:D

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Hahahahahahahahaaa, yeah, I halfway am! I had two stories in mind when I wrote that bit. One is a new fic (new to me, anyway), but the other is my old fave Idle Hands.

It kills me that you got the reference! You know me entirely too well.

[(Anonymous)]

I so do. ♥

[leestone.livejournal.com]

thermometer.

ahahahahaa.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

lalalalalalala O:)

[leestone.livejournal.com]

HE TOTALLY ENJOYED THE THERMOMETER OMGGGGGG.