topaz119 | Entries tagged with d*c

Okay, it's Friday. Work is... weird. I'm at the point where I really don't want to talk to people at lunch (b/c they're doubling down on the weird, where I like to push that personal bubble out and get some breathing space) so here are a few diversions from the past week:

Unfortunately, it sounds as though the Timothee Chalamet non-Shakespearan version of Prince Hal is... not good. (sadface) But, hey, THiddleston did it a few years ago so I had a little palate cleanser with this really very personal ( St Crispin's Day speech )

BabyBoy auditions with this monologue a lot, so I have heard it a million times (along with Romeo's 'Tis Torture speech and Sebastian's Is this the air? monologue from Twelfth Night) and usually, people do it very bombastically, but here, TH is really quiet and intensely personal, and it gives this whole other meaning to why people followed him.

And then, I just finished reading Daisy Jones and The Six, which I enjoyed, but for some reason, the cover was giving me '60s vibes rather than '70s, so I was expecting Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane rather than Fleetwood Mac. It was fine, but it left me itching for some of Grace's vocals (how in the everloving *hell* the group that gave us White Rabbit fell apart enough to do that Starship abomination is beyond me**) but youtube, as always, giveth the good stuff: ( Jefferson Airplane, Woodstock, White Rabbit )

(Actually, now that I see Grace in that video, she is *exactly* why I was expecting that era rather than Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac. The girl on the cover is the Grace I remember.)

Also, ( DragonCon, the video )

The Maleficent at 2:36 was amazing in person when those wings went out.

Happy weekend!

**No, it's really not beyond me: the answer is, as it so often is, capitalism, sigh

…and another DragonCon is in the books. As I said on twitter this morning, you know it’s the Tuesday after DragonCon when your brain is just terribly confused about why breakfast isn’t coming with a background soundtrack of Jason Isaacs telling stories. (He’s really good at it, btw. Plus, you know, the voice (the real voice, not Lucius’s nasty little hiss—there’s a story there, too) and the accent and even from the back of the room, the eyes. Breakfast burritos never had it so good.)

For a variety of mostly small reasons, it was an odd con this year. My nephew didn’t come up (which was more of a relief than a regret—he’s on the spectrum and is very exhausting—but I hope he didn’t come because he had something else going on, not because his parents decided he didn’t need to be around the weirdos) and L & her husband were out gallivanting around California wine country so I didn’t have my sit-at-the-Hyatt-bar-people-watching-and-drinking companions. (Probably a good thing, as you might remember the year when all the Bane cosplayers did not mix well with the alcohol and this year, the Suicide Squad Jokers were even creepier.)

Also, BabyBoy was only down for Saturday night/Sunday during the day, as he had rehearsals all weekend. (Did I tell y’all that he somehow got cast as one of the big parts for the high school’s fall play? In typical BB fashion, he wasn’t even sure what play he was auditioning for; he auditioned with a dramatic monologue instead of a comedic one; and he read almost totally cold for the callbacks and still got the part. If that child ever focused, he would take over the world.) So that was also less fun, though it was one kid less I needed to worry about when it was 2 a.m. and he wasn’t in bed.

Karl Urban had to cancel a few weeks prior, which threw my focus all for a loop. :( I was totally prepared to devote myself to his panels (speaking of voices and accents and eyes, oh my), and probably would have even gone for a photo op, but alas, it was not meant to be. (I whined about it all weekend, though, especially after we did an encore viewing of Star Trek Beyond on pay-per-view late one night.) Oh well.

Joey and Chris were there, though! And

alittleblue and

kachera and I managed to get ourselves to their (#@%!!) 10 a.m. Sunday morning panel. (I don’t remember what the other two had been doing the night before, but I’d been out Rocky-Horror-ing until something close to 4. In the morning. That’s almost my normal wake-up time during the week, omg.) They were fun to listen to, though, especially Chris giving Joey a hard time about his hot dog stand that is about to open at the Florida Mall. (Yes, I know.) blue got pictures, so it really was just like old times.

Sidenote: I waaaaant the sparkly stuff blue and k had in their hair. It was like Christmas tree tinsel (the icicle kind) but thinner and it was subtle enough that I stared at blue for half the *n-panel before I decided that yes, her hair *was* sparkling and it wasn’t glitter.

#2Son & I had a good run with the Marvel people – lots of varied panels, with not just the same people and everyone very excited about the things they were working on. We also had excellent luck with the Star Wars and urban fantasy writers—it wasn’t just the same 4 guys and Chelsea Quinn Yarbrough, which it has tended to be in the past. They still have more that they can do, but I thought there was an effort put forth to expand past the usual, stereotypical panels and participants.

We did get into the Masquerade on Sunday night, which was…fine? The costumes are amazing, but it’s just so crowded and by Sunday night I’m up against my personal introvert wall (and that’s after not fighting the crowds for the parade, as we could see it from our room this year.) I’m still not exactly sure why Joey and Chris were hosting, either, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t in the minority in thinking that. I think I would have rather gone to the steampunk ball and gotten to see blue and kachera and Totoro (who apparently now lights up, whee!)

Alsoalso, I did not spend any money on the dealer floor, which is very perplexing. I was gunning for new t-shirts from We Love Fine, but the stuff they had with them was not singing to me and nothing else reached out and grabbed me. (Well, there was this lovely lady who made these beautiful long vests/coats that buckled like a Regency gown and laced up the back like a Victorian corset, but they were $250ish and y’know, that’s a LOT (“”) of t-shirt money. I managed to get my AmEx away from her. It was close, though.) Plus, I still haven’t gotten everything I bought last year framed, so I did not look too closely at the artists. I’m sure they’ll be there next year, right? Right.

So, yeah, Jason Isaacs and the kid who played Joffrey (plus Alexander Siddig), a live performance of Rocky Horror and the Philharmonic playing geeky music, plus a bunch of writers and artists, that’s who I was geeking out over this year.

But no Karl Urban, :(

It's 2 weeks to DragonCon & I woke up to this tweet:

I... do not know how to deal with this. My worlds are colliding! I usually don't go to the actual Masquerade, but this could be ... interesting?

On the other hand, I also see where they are going to try streaming DCTV this year, so I may possibly just keep with the usual plan of hanging out at the atrium bar & watch from there? So many decisions!

* TPH courtesy of the wonderful

jenna_thorne

::crawls out from under her desk::

::waves feebly::

omg, soso in de-tox from the con weekend. It's always this way -- I realized as I was packing up on Thursday afternoon that there were still bits and pieces from last year's cosplays in the bags I was trying to put stuff in this year. Clearly, I am v. v. good at ignoring shit that I don't want to deal with, yeah?

( The con report is that it was good. Crowded, but good. )

Also, it's Wednesday, so, books:

finished
Fool Moon, book 2 (the werewolf one) of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files (the HoB sat in on a panel (or two) of his this weekend, so hey, it's a theme.) I'm listening to these on audiobooks, and while I'm not completely sucked in, they are doing their part in disengaging me from all the office annoyances, which is all I ask. The boys assure me things pick up with the next book, so I'm looking forward to that.

now
Boy, Snow, Bird, Helen Oyeyemi, which I am enjoying far more than I anticipated. It has a style that I think you either love or hate and I am definitely on the love side. Also, BabyBoy and I are listening to Neverwhere on the way to school in the morning. It's the BBC radioplay, so not quite a book, but we're counting it.

next
Book 3 of the Dresden Files and then I have a ton of graphic novels from the library that I need to finish up and return.

If, y'know, I survive getting the house cleared up enough that the lady who cleans for me can find horizontal surfaces to be cleaned.

Ciao, bellas!

T-minus 1 day and counting for DragonCon – final fittings are done for the Skyrim & Attack on Titan cosplays. WeLoveFine came through with the Hawkeye/Black Widow kawaii design, which was delivered Monday night, \o/. My toes have acquired a fannishly-appropriate (and fun!) pedicure with OPI's You're Such A (Buda)pest for times when they are not covered in cosplay boots. (I swear, if anybody actually realizes I'm wearing this, you will all hear my squeal of delight, because I am waaaay too tickled by the combination of color and name.) At 10 last night, I decided to throw in a dress & accoutrements (including stuffed octopus) for possible Domesticated Cephalopod attire at the Mechanical Masquerade on Sunday, so that was an added scramble.

BabyBoy had minor outpatient surgery yesterday, so I spent the day working from various pre- and post-op waiting rooms at Children's Hospital (he's totally fine, nothing to worry about, we just crammed it in this week because the surgeon had a cancellation.)

I still need to cancel a couple of the fall-back hotels and figure out what food to haul down with us to keep the HoB from starving and/or destroying my budget with emergency calls to Room Service.

Wednesday Book Meme
finished
Nine Rules To Break When Romancing A Rake, Sarah MacLean, which I finished...but I'm not sure why. I didn't really not like it, but it really wasn't doing it for me either. The characterizations never gelled for me, in a lot of little ways. I think that was it—there were lots of little things that were off about it, everything from men wearing the wrong clothes to balls (dear lord, I actually know what people are supposed to wear out and about during the Regency era; that blasted Regency AU I wrote for the SPN Big Bang is never getting out of my head, is it?) to not being able to picture the ugly-duckling-to-swan gown, despite many paragraphs of description (and let's not get into the undergarments and how they were off, too, my undying thanks to Mary Robinette Kowal and her active demonstration of Regency-era unmentionables at the best DragonCon panel ever) and mostly that I just did not CARE about Callie's list of "scandalous" things to do. Most of them involved pretending to be a man or doing things that men do, which is not anything about who she, as a character, is. Sigh. And this came so highly recommended, too.

now
Boy, Snow, Bird, Helen Oyeyemi, which I just stuck in my bag, so I have no opinion on it yet, exept that I'm really looking forward to it.

next
The library just coughed up The Black-Eyed Blonde and The Miseducation of Cameron Post, so I should probably be looking at those two next, but who really knows…?

cut for your scrolling ease

( this week in fandom )

( this week in writing )

( this week in DragonCon )

( this week in food )

Also, Trader Joe's cookie butter is EEEEEVIL.

To the surprise of no one here, I'm sure, I snagged the JARVIS app for my iPhone and have been having a ridiculously good time with it. Between this and the Agent Carter short, I think I'll be getting the Iron Man 3 BluRays, if only to encourage more fun extras. (I liked IM3 well enough, but I probably wouldn't have bought anything. Another win for Marvel, yeah?)

On the flip-side, I stumbled across this tumblr: http://hasdcdonesomethingstupidtoday.tumblr.com/
My teenage, Batman/Wonder Woman-loving self is so sad, y'all.

...and I can't figure out the embed code on my phone, so here's the link to Beatdown Boogie's short version of DragonCon cosplay: http://youtu.be/tr6BxjrFBoE

alittleblue and kachera and their group are in there (Bat-Totoro ♥) and if you get to the very end you'll see my unofficial DC home, aka the Atrium bar at the Marriott. Much love to the bartenders there.

Ok, so, back from DragonCon and only mostly dead, so: success! More about this later in the week when my brain un-mushes. For now, a few links:

I was taking random pictures of cosplayers this year, just snapping them on my phone and uploading to tumblr (so easy), so if you're at all interested (and not already following me on tumblr) they're on this tag.

I think I posted that I got my

marvel_bang draft completed right before the deadline and the full madness of D*C started, but the claims post for accompanying fanworks went live over the weekend (the last four days are a blur) so if you're an artist or a vidder or make playlists or other fanworks and are into the Marvel spangly crowd, there's still time to snag a story.

…and speaking of fanworks,

kalakirya went and podficced you need a rock not a rolling stone, the Clint/Darcy fic that took possession of my brain the spring before the movie came out, to which I must say: \o/!!!! Also: BRAVO, as Darcy tends to think/speak in run-on sentences and I'm not sure where/how a podficcer might be able to breathe. But it's marvelous and (if you couldn't tell) I'm super-excited to add a Marvel story to the list of my stories that have been podficced. Her post on AO3, with links to mp3 and podbook versions is here.

Back to work I go (certainly not singing 'heigh ho,' though)

There are days when I seriously question my intelligence, eg, today, when it just now occurred to me that rather than spending ridiculous amounts of time trying to find a new corset for cosplay purposes, I could really just snag a new *skirt* for approximately a quarter of the price even if I can't find a deal.

carry on.

this post brought to you by the lets-lay-out-all-the-cosplays-and-see-what's-missing lunch I just did. 6 days and counting.

I was a Grown-Up this past week: I dealt with the homeowners insurance, deposited checks, filed homeschool forms, rescheduled dentist appointments, found my conference credentials for office-related calls, collected kids from camps and doctors, watched a series of aspiring actors (stage) beat each other up in the coldest experimental theater known to humankind, and dragged all of the clothes hanging in the laundry room to the appropriate closets. Unfortunately, I still can't find either of my blue linen blouses nor my black tank dress. They're not at the dry cleaners, either. They have to be Somewhere, but damned if I can think where. sigh.

For fun, I got to hunt down cosplay accoutrements: I have been tapped to be The Administrator to 2 of the boys' young Redmond & Blutarch from Team Fortress 2 (again, I cite my mantra that if my teenage boychildren are willing to be seen in public with their mother, I am willing to do/see things I would not ordinarily even consider, even if that involves a purple suit and pumps and spray-on hair color.) Plus, I decided to try to do Otto and Victoria from Walking Your Octopus for the Mechanical Masquerade and Oldest is doing the male half of Fraction/Aja's Hawkeye and Hawkeye, so there was some scrambling about for large octopi and purple Converse sneakers. And green lipstick. Good times, good times but I am not going to have *any* money left by the time we're through. 24 days and counting....

My

marvel_bang is creeeeeping along. 7000+ words but so not even close to being done. Or, I don't know, halfway. Is there anyone who might be up for audiencing it as I write? Sometimes, it's better if I know someone is waiting to read everyday. At this point, a beta would be far too much analysis, I mostly just need somebody to be expecting word count. Clint/Natasha, set immediately post-movie? Anyone?

random things:

Somehow (I suspect being packed into a tiny church with 200 other people for the funeral) I have a cold. It is, of course, the first day I can remember seeing blue skies in weeks and I am huddled under my quilt. bleh.

Oldest and I hung out and watched Hansel and Gretel: Witchhunters a couple of days ago, which was kindof fun. A little too bloody for my taste, especially since I felt like it wasted more than one potentially interesting plot point in favor of yet another exploding head. ( spoilers ) The boots they were wearing were awesome, though. :D

My mother has been giving me these sad-puppy eyes about how I don't ever get to write anything fun (because I'm not writing novels for publication) for the last few years, so this spring, I figured out how to edit an ePub, fiddled with you need a rock not a rolling stone (where "fiddled with" == "rewrote all the sex scenes to be not explicit, because: my *mother*"), explained the basics of fan fic, and put the file on her iPad right before we finished up Beach Week. Nerve.Wracking.

We have a slightly intimidating (for me, at least) number of cosplays in the works for DragonCon and 6 weeks to finish them up.

Oldest is doing Fraction/Aja's Hawkeye and Hawkeye with one of his friends. There is an outside chance that another one of his friends (who is Russian and a redhead) will do Natasha with them and a more likely chance that L's boys will be Tracksuit Mafia-types. Mostly, we just need to track down purple sneakers for this, as he is all over the ratty jeans/t-shirt combo in RL.
BabyBoy, #2Son & I are conspiring to be the young Redmond, Blutarch and the Administrator from Team Fortress 2, if I can find a purple suit. Still need bowlers and ribbon to trim/make string ties for the boys.
#2 (who is the Maker Boy around here) is experimenting with inflatable octopi to see if we can adapt an existing steampunk persona of mine for something out of Walking Your Octopus: A Guidebook to the Domesticated Cephalopod.
Oldest has something else going on, too, but all I know is that he needs a black suit and red hair dye. Getting the hair dye out is going to kill him, though he doesn't quite believe that.

::eyes list, tries not to just quit now::

...and finally, back to clearing out/sharing bookmarks and favorites:

Couldn't Get That Boy To Kill Me, by

redbrunja, Avengers | MCU, Clint Barton/Natasha Romanoff, ~3200 words, Explicit === I love the jagged edges in this and how they fit together.

All You Have To Do Is Open Your Eyes, by

torakowalski, The Losers, Cougar/Jensen, ~5500 words, Explicit === Cougar doesn't talk, but Jensen understands perfectly.