a conspiracy of cartographers

i. I saw New Moon yesterday! I even paid money for it, sigh. And I enjoyed the hell out of it, not least because much like Twilight it could not decide whether it wanted to be a slow-moving indy movie full of strumming guitar soundtrack and mostly concerned about an awkward quiet girl's relationship with her quiet father and awkward friends, or if it wanted to be an action-packed fast-paced supernatural thriller with lots of CGI. Unfortunately somewhere in those things lurked Meyer's awful plot and creepy subtext about how if a boy is afraid that he's going to hurt a girl, the girl should forgive him out of love and because he'd never mean to hurt her. On the other hand, they also got in the fantastic (unintentional by Meyer, I am sure) subtext of "Are you sure you can't just ...?" "Not be a werewolf? It's not a lifestyle choice! I was born like this!" A++ would like Eclipse to laugh at now.

ii. Children In Need featured the first three minutes of the Doctor Who Christmas Special, although I imagine that most everyone who's interested has probably watched it repeatedly already. ( Spoiler cut is excited for Christmas! ) The desire to write Doctor/Master fic right now is overwhelming. But I have three gift-fic exchanges I really need to do first.

iii. This is probably interesting to ... me ... but I finally got my hands on Paul Gross's Call of the Wild commentary, and even though I have already heard most of these stories (like the one about TURNBULL & CHEESE) it was still vastly entertaining and, let's be honest, I'd listen to Paul Gross read the phonebook. ( Commentary on the commentary! )

Here's that Why Due South Is Important To Me post I mentioned earlier!

This is not a post about why due South in general is awesome and should be watched & fannishly participated in; I'm not going point-for-point on all the characters or best moments or scenes of wacky subtext. This is certainly a "due South is awesome" post, but it is not my normal sort of "show is awesome" post. [Actually, if a normal "show is awesome" post is your bag, I made a Why Aria Loves Due South picspam in February, back in my first bout of love.] This is instead about why I specifically and in context love it, which means I'm going to be talking about Aria-specific likes, and about the fandom and the show in relation to other things.

( Why Aria Loves Due South: the much less picspammy and more wordy edition; massive character love, the elements that really ping me, and the fandom in context, among other things. )

( Call of the Wild: In which Fraser goes home, there are TWO RAYS, YAY, and everyone maybe lives happily ever after; lots of subtext in permutations of an OT3, my many varied joys and frustrations with this damn episode, and some endings. )

Now I have no excuse not to go write fic. :D

Today in weird nostalgia, I have discovered We Didn't Start the Fandom, which is a filk about the Harry Potter fandom, and ... wow, I spent about four straight minutes going "HAHA OH MY GOD I REMEMBER THAT." I think only a small portion of my current internet acquaintance carries over from the dark ages of HP fandom in the first half of this decade (Three Year Summer, anyone?) but if you were there, this will probably induce at least knowing laughs.

Back in the realm of the current (HAHA FUNNY JOKE, s3 was airing just a few months after Philosopher's Stone came out -- wow, I had not bothered to do the math before, and while I would definitely have been old enough to watch and understand even s1 dS on its original run if we'd had a TV at the time, I was still really young; moving on!) I have more due South commentary. In fact I have only four more episodes to go, counting both parts of CotW; part of me is doing the digging-in-my-heels thing I do when I get near CotW, because I don't want it to be over, but on the other hand if I am done, I will suddenly free up my time off work for other worthy pursuits, not least trying to crank out a draft of that crazy!Fraser fic. :D

( Mountie Sings the Blues, Good for the Soul, & Dead Men Don't Throw Rice: In which Fraser performs on stage, gets seriously beaten up for his principles, and goes on a walking tour of the afterlife; various considerations about Frannie, lots more on the ways Fraser and Ray work or don't work with each other, and my sudden delighted realization that I actually like Stella. )

And now it is time for s4, or, as I like to call it, "Oh my god, a string of twelve episodes in a row all of which are my favourite." Hilariously enough the only one I am not over-fond of is Dr. Longball, because I am completely fail at being from the United States and I will never ever understand the innate appeal of baseball no matter how many times friends whose good taste I trust tell me about its joys and wonders. This does not, however, mean I cannot appreciate the joys and wonders of Ray Kowalski in a Mexican poncho.

( Dr. Longball, Easy Money, A Likely Story, & Odds: In which Ray plays baseball, Fraser sees an old friend, and both of them have questionable romantic entanglements; lots of Fraser/Ray talk, more links than usual, and happy actor-spotting. )

( Dead Guy Running & Perfect Strangers: In which Fraser tells ear anecdotes, ferries around dead bodies, and gets nervous about babies; a bit of Fraser/Ray observation as per usual, but mostly lots of affection for Frannie and Meg. )

One more and then it's Mountie on the Bounty. That one is probably going to be ... long. Ahaha.

And now s3! I think the s3 rewatch should probably come with a header warning, which is that I am probably going to be a little bit insufferable around Kowalski. Fraser is basically my One True Character but this Ray has a small piece of my soul. Part of it has to do with the fact that I am extremely specific about what I think Kowalski is like as a character, and I am extremely specific in ways that I've noticed most people aren't about Kowalski, which means I want to figure out why I have this character concept that's slightly off-center from the usual. Because of this I'm probably going to spend a lot of time prodding at Kowalski the way I've been prodding at Fraser, and the way I have not really been with Vecchio. Kowalski owning a small piece of my soul also has to do with the fact that he has the easiest narrative voice ever and thus I am incredibly fond of him, and, uh, also really, really pretty eyelashes. Hi, I am really shallow for Callum Keith Rennie.

I should possibly also give an OTP warning, which is that I ship Fraser/Kowalski something fierce. This does not mean I do not also adore Vecchio (and, well, pretty much everyone) but it does mean the meta is going to be kind of shippy.

( Burning Down the House & Eclipse: In which Fraser comes back from vacation to find everything has changed, more or less deals with it, and makes a birthday present; some suspicions of Fraser/Vecchio, some more-than-suspicions of Fraser/Kowalski, and many thoughts on RayK's character. )

( White Men Can't Jump to Conclusions, All the Queen's Horses, & Body Language: which features basketball, the Musical Ride, and strip clubs; talk of Fraser not actually having a deathwish, some last thoughts on Fraser/Thatcher, and my astonishment at how many closet jokes Body Language has. )

Only three more! one of which is Flashback and thus really skip-around-in-able. Will I get to Kowalski tonight? I have no idea, since I believe my father wants to watch some Slings & Arrows later, but it is possible.

( Juliet is Bleeding, One Good Man, & We Are the Eggmen: Which treats on death, eviction, stolen fowl, and quite a few romances; mostly an outpouring of affection for Ray, Fraser, and, to my faint astonishment, Fraser/Thatcher. )

Which may be it for a little while! I will probably have not much opportunity to do any srs biznes due South-watching at WisCon (although oliviacirce expressed some interest in watching MotB with me given sufficient time; sure I'll watch MotB again, I've only seen it EIGHT TIMES). I will reliably be back on the face of the internet next Tuesday or Wednesday, although there may be con things to talk about before then.