Yuletide, the OTW, Old Spice Man, Taylor Swift, Inception.

1. If Yuletide were held right now, at this moment, my Yuletide fandoms would be:

Plants vs. Zombies

The Room (2003)

Old Spice Man (and crossovers with every fandom ever)

Taylor Swift RPF

Inception.

2. The OTW is awesome. You should be a member. An OTW member. A member of the Organization for Transformative Works. Won't you?

3. Old Spice Man.
Watch this commercial. Nevermind, you've already seen that commercial. Now watch these. I like the one for Anonymous, as well as the one for @pancakehumpr. Sardonic look.
Now read Old Spice Man/Sassy Gay Friend. After you've had plenty of time to recover from the dazzling perfection around which your universe has had to expand to fully encompass, read Old Spice!Arthur from Inception--no spoilers because that would be unmanly--and then you should read Old Spice Man/Saito, because the only thing manlier than Isaiah Mustafa is Ken Watanabe, and by "manlier" I mean "more cable of fully demolishing the last frayed threads of your willpower so that you can no longer feebly resist the urge to rip his clothes off at this very moment and instead can only fling yourself upon him in a hapless frenzied heap of desire."

And if there are any more Old Spice Man fics out there, well, let's just say I'm starting a collection. Meaningful Eyebrowface. New numerical item.

eta, 8/5/10: behold, the zeitgeist hath given us this wonder:
OLDSPICE-KINKMEME.DREAMWIDTH.ORG.
THE MEME YOU WISH YOUR MEME COULD KINK LIKE.

4. Taylor Swift.
For the past few months I have been secretly amassing a private army of Taylor Swift fanfic. Why, you ask? Because I love Taylor Swift and I'm not ashamed. But Aja, you say, she personifies gender-regressive anti-feminist tropes of conservative heteronormative oppression! And I say, why yes, which is why we should take that persona and free her to give glorious head to Lady Gaga! Everyone wins! Especially me.

But also I just want to say that I'm totally okay with her embodying a regressive anti-feminist trope of conservative heteronormative oppression. Because we also get to have Lady Gaga, and even more amazing and fully empowered women like Erika Badu and Janelle Monae <3333333, and dammit, we need strong women at every point along the political spectrum, and I love that we have Taylor representing for the conservative set, and that she's girly and blonde and likes lace and pink and boys and writing cutesy songs about being fifteen and breaking up with Joe Jonas, and you know what? That is fucking okay. <3

But that's not the point of this rant. The point of this rant is to make you all aware, in case you didn't know, that there happen to be some excellent Taylor Swift fanfics on the internet. Granted, they're all drabbles and responses to prompts on various lady-centric challenges (and YAY for them all), but they're a start, and I hope you will take the following list as encouragement to WRITE MORE :DDDDD

Taylor Swift/Miley Cyrus, Am I the Poster Girl? by mywholecry <--- this fic. you guys. this fic is SO GOOD. SO GOOD. <33333333 if you only read one of these, read this one!!!!!!! (but srsly, read them all and give the authors your love!)

Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga, Imma Let You Finish, by present_pathos <--- <3333333333 so fantastic.

Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga, Thinking on Stefani by devlinacardigan

Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga, Kissing, Immobility, by scorpiod1

Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga, flying high on the wings of cheap wine, by, er, bookshop.
eta: omg and now we have AMAZING Taylor Swift/Selena Gomez fic by melodylemming!

And, of course, if you guys know of any other Taylor fics out there, PLEASE PLEASE let me know. omg, I want so much.

5. Inception. General Reactions! Everything below this line is a spoiler!

The MOST IMPORTANT THING I CAN SAY ABOUT THIS MOVIE IS THAT KEN WATANABE IS SO FUCKING HOT. And that if you're not shipping Cobb/Saito you're missing the smoldering eyefuck train of the century. And that despite the fact that there are like 7,000 freaking Arthur/Eames fics, currently there are only TWO Cobb/Saito fics in existence. TWO. This is MOST UNFAIR. In fact, Saito needs to basically be having sex with everyone. Why isn't he, internets? Answer me this.

here's a most excellent fic to get you started on your new mission to give Saito some play.

Last night I saw the film with a pretty good crowd, and just after the final shot faded to black, some guy in the back yelled, "ARGH!!!!" It was basically a perfect summation of both what draws us to the film and what connects us as viewers to the shared experience (and shared frustration) of watching the film. In that sense, I can literally only think of one other time that I've had that sense of ironic connection with an audience: the other instance was, of course, seeing The Matrix the day it opened. Which is no coincidence.

I wish to state at the outset that I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and I found it charming while also finding it to be 100% LUDICROUS. Like, the script is HILARIOUSLY awful, Mal is demonized in the worst way, the lines are approaching Shyamalan-esque levels of clunkiness, Ariadne is given these ridiculously clumsy lines of exposition and a very limited role of audience-stand-in so that we can have a chance at following wtf is going on, and to this purpose she fixates on Cobb to such a degree that she can barely pass the Bechdel test with her own subconscious, and it is BIZARRE AND LUDICROUS AND SHOULD BE LAUGHED AT AND NAYSAYED. Also Leo's face is really puffy! Also, "MAL IS BURSTING THROUGH YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS!!!!!!" lololololololololollllllllllllllll.

And I really, really enjoyed it. :D I loved the plot and the premise and for the most part i loved the execution; I was sure I'd find it boring on second watching but instead I was completely riveted and enchanted. I thought Hans Zimmer's score was superb and the best instrumental score he's ever done (his the best film score ever being The Power of One). I think the final sequence from the moment Cobb wakes up to the time the final shot drops is completely enchanting and powerful and intense and wonderfully done, and I love--I really love--what the movie wants to say about human connection and levels of interactive reality creation, and all the modern metaphors it represents.

My next post will be full of tl;dr Inception spoiler theories, I KNOW YOU'RE THRILLED. :D

Also, you all should totally go stare at this adorable Inception chibi fanart, oh my freaking lord cutest thing ever.

IN SHORT:



6. aka ha, i lied in my subject line, this entry isn't over:

no, but seriously, Can we just freaking have a queer main character already, modern media? Can we just freaking have one who gets to be gay and fully sexualized and maybe in a relationship or two, and they're not forbidden to have a real romantic relationship, and they're actually the series lead and not part of a safe ensemble cast, and if they are the lead, they don't turn evil or die a martyr, their lover doesn't get written off the show after sweeps week, and they don't wind up getting shepherded into a heterosexual love interest after their gay lover is killed off, and the show doesn't build their entire characterization around their sexuality, and they're not depicted with intentional homoerotic overtones that get coded as "bromantic" and played for laughs, rather than allowed to be what they are, which is FUCKING QUEER, and they're not hoary chestnut stereotypes as old as the celluloid closet itself, and when they finally (hallelujah) do get to achieve a realistic and well-developed plot outline, they aren't immediately punished with unspeakable violence, and/or the show they're in isn't immediately canceled forever?

Can we just freaking have one already????????

No? Not at all? Not even ambiguously?

oh, right. what was i thinking. it's not like it's the year two thousand and fucking ten, or anything.