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?

Cat lady problems:  I was sitting in my desk chair scrolling through tumblr when I heard Noodles meowing to come in to my bedroom.  I got up and let her in. While I was closing the door again for roommate privacy, she jumped on to the desk chair and lay down very cutely.  Normally I'd deal with the cat taking my seat by sharing it with her, either by shoving her towards the back and perching myself on the front edge of the seat or by lifting her up, sitting down, and setting her in my lap.  However, it is way too hot today to share a small chair with a fellow warm-blooded creature.  Too much endothermy for one piece of furniture!  I considered moving her from the chair to the floor or the bed, but she looked so relaxed and started purring.  I considered taking the laptop to sit on the bed, but the laptop is also a source of too much heat to be on my lap right now.

So now I am kneeling on the floor to type at the desk while Noodles sleeps on the chair.   It is the only logical solution.

Meanwhile, I have some fanvid recs to share!  First, stop what you're doing and watch this Agent Carter/Captain America vid right now:


I love this SO MUCH.  Here are Peggy and Steve, losing each other but getting on with their lives and being amazing and badass.  That's what the other would have wanted, after all.  The song choice is perfect and the editing is great, with so many wonderful character parallels.  (I think my favorite may be when Peggy is balanced on the ledge on the outside of the building, being very careful not to fall, and then the vid cuts to Steve just throwing himself through a window way too many stories up, because he has superhuman endurance no common sense.)  Bittersweet and joyful all at once, this is basically everything I want out of a Steve/Peggy vid.  Here's the vid post on LJ so you can comment to the vidder or download the vid, or on AO3 here.

Next, here is an excellent multi-era Doctor Who vid focusing on the companions, especially those whose lives we know about after leaving the Doctor or in between adventures with him.


It's so much fun, and I love the focus on the companions' lives not at all ending when they're not with the Doctor.  Also, the section with the Brig and his "getting real tired of your shit, Doctor" expression is great. Here's the vid post on LJ.

Update:  Noodles left the desk chair, so I claimed it back for myself.  She returned and briefly attempted to sit in my lap before rapidly deciding that she agreed with my rule that until it cools down there can be only one warm-blooded organism per piece of furniture.  Now I'm still in the chair and she's on the bed.  Everyone is content.

I've been feeling rather down about my life and the world lately, but rather than whine about it here is a list of things I've enjoyed lately:

Books/Comics
-Dust and Shadow:  An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson by Lyndsay Faye.  This is a marvelous pastiche.  Lyndsay Faye (of the Baker Street Babes podcast, although I think that came after she published this book) has Watson's voice down perfectly.  She keeps the element of humor present in the original stories, but also takes Holmes to a darker emotional place than Sir Arthur generally allowed.  That's a wise choice given the horror of the subject matter.  The OC's are interesting and well-drawn.  I don't know much about Jack the Ripper, but the book appears meticulously researched.  The plot was exciting enough that I skipped intentions I had to leave the house in order to stay home and read.

-Captain Marvel:  In Pursuit of Flight by Kelly Sue Deconnick.  I don't read a lot of comics, but I've been dabbling a tiny bit in Marvel lately after enjoying the Avengers movieverse fandom.  I picked this one up after hearing good reviews and because Kelly Sue seems really cool.  Despite knowing absolutely nothing about Carol Danvers before starting, Captain Marvel:  In Pursuit of Flight made me happy in so many ways.  I was able to follow the plot despite my newbie ignorance.  There's time travel, one of my favorite tropes.  Not only is this a female superhero comic with a costume that covers her full body, drawn in a way that generally eschews gratuitous sexy posing (though she is clearly very attractive), but it also resoundingly passes the Bechdel test.  In fact, the large majority of the secondary characters are women.  Here are women competing over flight records and super powers instead of men, women working together to fight aliens or to fight cancer, women stepping up to embrace their power and potential, women mourning, women rejoicing, women who were put on Earth "to punch holes in the sky."  There's this one full page panel with Captain Marvel flying to the edge of space, looking powerful, and the line "...and we will be the stars we were always meant to be" that I honestly stared at for several minutes because the combination of the art and the sentiment was just so satisfying.  I loved Dexter Soy's art in the first four issues.  Emma Rios's art in issues 5 & 6 wasn't quite so up my alley, but still good.

TV
-I've been catching up on Elementary and very much enjoying it.  All I have left is the season finale.  Joan Watson is a magnificent individual.  Also, we need more Ms. Hudson.

-I finally got around to watching To the Ends of the Earth on Netflix.  I recommend it for all members of the CumberCollective, plus people interested in period naval drama.  It's more of a drama that happens to be set on a boat than a high-seas adventure, though there is certainly an element of danger.  Also, I was amused by how many actors in the show I recognized but couldn't place without a trip to IMDB.  The radical thinker who wants to shoot an albatross?  It's Dr. Grant from Jurassic Park!  The captain of the other ship they meet at sea?  Tywin Lannister!  The girl Cumberbatch's character gets a crush on?  It's that woman who spent most of Love Acually nearly naked with Martin Freeman!  And most impressively, the captain of the main ship?  It's FUCKING MORIARTY (from the RDJ film).

Fanfic
-Exclusive by copperbadge. This is an utterly delightful Avengers-fic told in the form of a long magazine article after they decided to go public with some identity information.  It's hilarious but also has plenty of emotional heft.  It fits beautifully into canon.  The outsider POV and article format are utilized to perfection.  There are great insights into all the characters, with especially interesting Bruce, and lovely team dynamics.  There's also a splendid twist, which apparently took most readers by surprise, though I saw coming a long way out (but I really enjoyed having my theory proved right).  Highly recommended for anyone who ever reads Avengers-fic.  Gen.

-Bel Canto by bendingsignpost.  Sherlock/John.  It's finished now, but when I was following this fic as a WIP the updates were one of the highlights of my week, even when I knew it would put my heart through the wringer.  This is a fusion of Sherlock and The Phantom of the Opera, though I suspect you could read and enjoy it without knowing or caring much about Phantom.  Do you like stories with intense emotions?  Characters having believable conflicts where neither is entirely in the wrong?  Mrs. Hudson, Molly, and Irene being amazing?  Secret identities?  Danger and excitement?  Period settings?  Beautifully done imagery?  This fic has all of these and more.  It's a 16-chapter epic that will sweep you off your feet and carry you away like some Angel of Music Fanfic.  Heed the warning in the header, though.  D:

What about you, friends?  What in the worlds of fic, film, or print has been making you happy lately?

Hello, all!  I should probably make a longer post with actual content by me at some point, but not now.  This is just a drive-by entry to rec some things:

-First, The World on His Wrist, an extraordinary Sherlock fic where John Watson experiences parallel lives.  After he's shot in Afghanistan, his time fractures, leaving him alternating between a life in Afghanistan where he's never shot, a life as a doctor in Essex who never went to war, and two lives where he was shot and eventually moved back to London, but only in one does he end up sharing a flat with Sherlock Holmes.  The premise takes a little getting used to, but the story's construction is impeccable and the writing is gorgeous.  It's by bendingsignpost, who is also known in Who fandom as rallalon, which will give some of you an idea of how good you can expect this story to be.  :)  There's a lovely element of Sherlock/John UST and plenty of John being a BAMF.  Read it.

-Second, you probably aren't aware that you want to read Sally Sparrow/Amy Pond, but after you read Used & New by kaydeefalls you will realize that you needed this fic in your life.  There is an alien hedgehog and lots of hilarity but also a gentle wistfulness. 

-Third, on a completely different note, I've never read Lemony Snicket's books, but I approve of his observations regarding Occupy Wall Street.  For example, Money is like a child—rarely unaccompanied. When it disappears, look to those who were supposed to be keeping an eye on it while you were at the grocery store. You might also look for someone who has a lot of extra children sitting around, with long, suspicious explanations for how they got there.

-Fourth, on a similar note to the previous item, an image:
( under cut to spare your flist )

-Fifth, completely unrelated to any of the above, I recommend the web series Husbands.  It's a comedy by Jane Espenson (squee!) set in a near future where same sex marriage becomes fully legal in the US.  Two men who recently started dating, one an actor and the other a professional baseball player, go out to celebrate in Vegas and end up drunk married.  Will they stick it out?  The series is really funny but also quite sweet.  There are 11 short (>3 min.) episodes, the full first series, so go enjoy. 

-Lastly, it's coming up on the time of year when many people set themselves insanely ambitious writing tasks.  I salute you all.  For myself, I'll be sticking with wrisomifu (Write Something, you Miserable Fuck), where the challenge is to write at least ten minutes a day.  Complaining about it endlessly on the comm is encouraged.  Given how my muse seems to have died, been buried under sediment, and turned into fossil lately, this should be a legitimate challenge to me.  If anyone cares to join me, sign-ups will be open on October 28-31.