Somewhere Different Now

Hello LJ!  I have a few recs for you.

First, a STUNNING MCU fanvid (spoilers for all MCU films, including Captain America: Civil War and the trailer for Doctor Strange):


Holy shit, y'all.  99% of professional trailers and music videos wish they had half this vid's editing rhythm and sense of motion.  I'd never heard the song before, but it's really great. I found this vid this morning and have already watched it 3-4 times.  Go watch, and if you have a youtube account leave a comment for the vidders.  (I can't find this posted on any place better for commenting than youtube.)

Second, a fic rec:

this is not by surgicalstainless.  MCU, Steve/Peggy/Bucky, with appearances by the extended Avengers team.  Peggy Carter from 1946 time travels to 2015.  This fic is like a checklist of things that I love:  female friendship (including some of my fave Avenger ladies not yet in the MCU like Carol Danvers and Kate Bishop), humor, Peggy Carter being awesome (but also being allowed to have moments of weakness), Avengers team bonding through means such as game night and breakfast dance parties, and plenty of mutual pining that eventually resolves a potential love triangle into an OT3.  You'd think with the time travel premise the story would have to have a bittersweet resolution, but there's even a happy ending because parallel universes.

Third, a rec of more recs!

The Rec Center is a weekly email newsletter that delivers fandom recs to you.  Every week there's a guest reccer to suggest some fic for that week's fandom as well as the newsletter editors' list of recs of meta, news articles, fan art, fandom discussions, and other general interest stuff.  I've found lots of interesting stuff through this.  Follow the link to the page where you can look through the archive and/or subscribe.

So what have y'all been enjoying lately?

I know I'm not the only one whose flist has been super quiet lately.  Here's a friending meme to hopefully add some more active LJ-ers!  Come on over, make new friends, and promote it.

This gorgeous BAMF has been brought to your screens courtesy of the campaign for Zoe Washburne in Fandom March Madness.

As of the moment I'm typing, Zoe of Firefly is losing by just 30 votes to Sansa Stark of Game of Thrones.  Meaning no disrespect to Sansa, but I'd like to turn that around.  There are only about ten hours left in the polls for this round. 

Browncoats on my flist, let's do this.  Vote here.  Come tomorrow, will our Firefly quote of the moment be "may have been the losing side.  Still not convinced it was the wrong one"?  Or will it be "we have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty"?

If you're coming to this entry after the Sweet Sixteen round ends around 1 pm eastern time on Tuesday, go vote in the next round.  John Watson will need your votes, and Donna Noble will be up against either Zoe (oh god how do I choose?) or Sansa (battle of the gingers).

(In other news, I really don't need another show right now, but the campaigns for Parks & Recreation, Misfits, and Miranda all intrigue me.  Dammit, fandom.  You are dangerously entertaining.)

I'd known that LJ was huge in Russia before the recent DDoS problems, but I hadn't realized it was such an important platform for political speech over there (see this Time article, found via wendymr ).  Fandom teaches you things!  I fervently hope Livejournal manages to fend off these scumbags and keep itself open, not only for the sake of our fannish squee but for the sake of free speech and the people of Russia.

I haven't gotten around to importing the contents of this LJ to the Dreamwidth account I keep to comment and read over there.  LJ is my fannish home, despite issues internal and external.  However, in the unlikely event of a sudden Livejournal apocalypse, my online presence can be found over on Dreamwidth (also as tardis_stowaway).  My fics are all archived at AO3*.  My Doctor Who/Torchwood fics are also at A Teaspoon and an Open Mind (where all the comments are, especially on my older stories). 

*For the sake of having a comprehensive archive, my AO3 account is now updated to include the very first fic I ever put online, back in college when I was a lurker in the BtVS fandom.  It's clearly written a long time ago, yet rather amusingly me with the first person POV and random literary references.

Tonight I went to a concert of old-time music by Evie Ladin and her band, part of a local concert series in an old barn converted into a community center.  The music was excellent, able to set feet stomping or move my heart.  In addition to the usual bluegrass instruments like her banjo, the group also did body percussion, and at one point the string bass player pulled out a bass harmonica.  I had no idea that harmonicas came in bass, but apparently they do.  It was a lot larger than a normal harmonica; you wonder if bass harmonica players get teased about compensating. 

Most of the music I've seen live in the past few years has been in really small venues like this, like coffeehouses, contra dances, free community outdoor concerts, etc.  Though the music I listen to at home includes plenty of genres like alternative, pop, and rock, the large majority of the live music I hear is folk and traditional music.  While at the concert tonight, it occurred to me that there's a certain similarity between this niche of music and what we do in fandom. 

The emphasis in traditional-style music is not producing something staggeringly new.  Artists play plenty of covers of tunes that have been around for centuries and songs written by other contemporary artists, and even when they write original tunes they are working with a set musical vocabulary rather than trying to make something utterly unlike anything that came before.  However, there is still ample room for individuality in old playing styles, and there's tremendous artistry involved in making an ancient tune one's own.  Fandom is also not about creating something never before seen, but there is still plenty of creativity in making someone else's characters shine in a way unique to the fic writer. 

Both fandom and traditional-style music emphasize community and participation.  The concert I was at tonight featured an open jam session before the main performance started.  Other community members participated by organizing the event, doing the sound, or arranging refreshments, and everyone in the audience gave feedback directly to the artist with our tapping feet and applause or talking to band members during the intermission.  At a contra dance, the musicians and the dancers collaborate to create the beauty of the dance.  In fandom, everyone is encouraged to pick up a metaphorical fiddle by writing their own fic if they feel like it, but they can also participate by making vids or fanart, hosting comms, etc., and even those who don't create or organize can still interact directly with authors in a way that TV and mainstream literature don't allow. 

The point is making something that people enjoy, not money.  Of course, many musicians, unlike fic writers, are trying to earn a living through their art, and I try to put my money where my ears are in support of them.  Still, they know they could probably be making more money doing something else.  Some of them have day jobs.  It's about love of the creative process, love of the audience appreciation, love of listening or reading. Sometimes the songs and stories have a larger purpose, like protesting for social change or empowering a character neglected by canon, while other times they're just fun tunes to dance to or fun stories about favorite characters having sex.  It's all part of the community.

People have made music and told stories since long before there was any way of recording them.  It's in our souls.  There is value in a well-played tune or a well-told tale: original or derivative, high art or low, for an audience of millions or a dozen.  Capitalistic society has tried to convince us to follow a large-scale, top-down approach to stories and music, and the money mobilized by this approach allows for some pretty impressive creations.  That's great, but it's not the only worthy way to create or enjoy other people's creations.  The community of fandom is as grassroots as bluegrass and just as full of life and beauty.