thefourthvine | 192: Be Cheerful, Sweet Maid, and Let Those Who Will Be Gloomy

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192: Be Cheerful, Sweet Maid, and Let Those Who Will Be Gloomy

I have been patiently plugging away on my Sweet Charity recommendations set, which happens to feature unhappy endings, so I've also been spending a lot of time - really a lot of time - watching vids that make me happy. And I figured, hey, why not put together a set of those, too? You guys may need the antidote after the unhappy endings set comes out.

And while we're talking about unhappy endings: Best Beloved and I planned to buy life insurance a year ago. And we, um, didn't, largely because it's hideously intimidating. But we've finally accepted that we have to, whether we would rather just have oral surgery or not, and we've also finally realized that possibly there is a person out there who actually knows about life insurance, who can provide us with advice that doesn't come coated in a layer of ooze. (Why YES, we are in fact afraid of life insurance salesmen. Does it show?) So: life insurance advice, anyone?

The One with the Deeply Symbolic Model Spaceship. No, Really. DEEPLY SYMBOLIC. Don't Stop Believing, by

arefadedaway. Star Trek.

I love it when a new fandom hits big, because then you get vids like this. I'm sure there's an official term for them that I don't know, but I think of them as zeitgeist vids, and they are fun. They're like all the enthusiasm and sudden-onset glee - that same first flush of fannish love that keeps people up all night reading stories they know will be terrible because they just Need More Spock, or whoever - rendered in vid form.

Zeitgeist vids pretty much always get me into a fandom. I am helpless in their grasp. I, of course, have not seen this source - the last movie I saw in theaters was Iron Man, and probably the next one will be Star Trek 11 - but it doesn't matter. I am prepared to buy what this vid is selling. Kirk! Just a city boy! Spock! A small town girl! They take a midnight train going anywhere! See, I am already giddy with love and joy and fannish enthusiasm.

It used to be that my OTPs were set in stone by the first five stories I read in a fandom; these days, it's the vids I see before I read even one story, more often than not. And by the end of this vid, and the other - um, what are the official initials for this fandom? It's so new I haven't seen a consensus yet! - anyway, after this and the other zeitgeist vids in whatever fandom this happens to be, I am prepared to ship Kirk/Spock. Unless someone can point me to a seriously bouncy Spock/Uhura or Kirk/McCoy or whatever vid. (And let me tell you how proud I am of knowing those names: SO PROUD, because one of the downsides of zeitgeist vids is that they often leave me saying, "I love you! Whoever you are! You are shiny and awesome, and, wow, I guess I'd better hit the IMDb.")

The One with the Cleanest Medieval Peasant Village I Ever Did See. Beverly Hills, by

giandujakiss. Merlin.

It's the old, old story: a small town girl, living in a lonely world - no, wait. Wrong vid. This old, old story is about a small town boy who goes to the Big Shiny and uses magic, often totally inappropriately, and saves the world from time to time, and spends most of the rest of his time falling in love. This is a deeply classic narrative - I dare you say otherwise, given the enormous body of Harry Potter fan fiction I can bring to support my case - and I love it.

And so I love this vid. It was one of the very first Merlin vids I saw, and it made me love the fandom. (Why, yes, I am a sucker for vids. It is not my fault; I blame - I don't know.

laurashapiro, actually. She encouraged me.) I deeply approve of young-man-big-city narratives, particularly when the big city has turrets. And, yes, I am in fact talking about Arthur, there, because you can't tell me he doesn't spend a lot of time admiring his turrets, and you also can't tell me Merlin isn't secretly doing the same.

This vid takes fabulous advantage of Merlin's ability to look gormless while simultaneously profoundly judging those around him. I admire it greatly. And the opening makes me smile every single time.

The One That Conveys the Fundamental Joy of Being Able to Stop Time and Teleport, Which Is a Thing You Would Think People Would Just Know, but It's Amazing How Often They Act Like It's a Big Burden. Sawatte Kawatte, by

laurashapiro. Heroes.

I think of this as the Happy Heroes Vid. No, really. Every Heroes vid I download seems to consist of a) people getting their brains eaten and then lying around dead with no skull on or b) a girl killing herself (or sometimes just mutilating herself) horribly and bloodily. Sometimes it's both. In the vids, if you don't know the fandom, it looks like Heroes is largely about people using their superpowers to cause tons of bloodshed and draw comic books, and the thing is, you don't need superpowers to do those things. Humans manage that just fine without any special abilities at all! A knife and a pen and you're all set!

Which is why I love the characters in this vid, and am sad that in so many vids they are Sirs Not Appearing in This Vid. The one guy has superpowers and actually does things with them, and I mean things that don't in any way involve anyone bleeding and/or dying horribly. (Okay, he does seem to have a sword, but I bet he doesn't go around lopping people's heads off and having their brains out like some mutant zombie Highlander.) He saves people! He does neat tricks! He has fun! It's like he actually understands what superpowers are for. I cannot help but feel, watching this vid, that the main character of it watched the SF movies and read the comic books, and all the other people in the show grew up on an unadulterated diet of horror.

So I like that. It's a Heroes vid that makes me happy. And even more happy-making is the sheer joy of these two guys together. They are two sides of the same coin, to quote almost every other fandom in this set. They neeeeeeed each other. And when they hug, my heart turns handsprings. It is that simple.

The One Featuring the Most Fabulous Group of People You'd Shoot in Preference to Spending Any Time with Them. I'll Be There for You, by

dualbunny. Black Books.

I will be perfectly honest: I have no idea if this vid will work for you if you haven't seen an episode of Black Books. (I myself have seen the first one, which puts me in an unusual and, frankly, uncomfortable place of Actual Canon Knowledge.) But give it a try anyway, and if it doesn't make you giggle, watch the first episode of Black Books and then come back. It's worth it.

See, okay. First, this song. It's - now, it's not like I don't like it, but it's a bit goopy, you know? Whenever I hear it, I visualize a lot of hugging. It is obviously talking about the kind relationship wherein party A automatically has tissues before party B has even started to cry. (And they watch the same sad movie almost every Friday night, so that's not such a huge surprise.) I admire that kind of relationship! I do! Just, you can only take so much of hugging and thoughtfulness.

Which is why I find that song used for these people to be awesome, because they're the kind of friends who, if they settled down to watch a tearjerker movie after one of them had had a big breakup, would end up accidentally setting the crying person on fire. And then Bernard would light a cigarette from the flames.

And, actually, I think that comes through very clearly in this vid whether you know the source or not, so I've changed my mind: I do recommend it for the source-unfamiliar. Just keep in mind that there are three main characters in the show: Bastard, Hapless, and In Any Other Group, She'd Be the Crazy Girl, but in This One, She's the Voice of Reason. And enjoy.

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This vid takes fabulous advantage of Merlin's ability to look gormless while simultaneously profoundly judging those around him.

Rofl. Yes. What a wonderful way to put it.

I will cheerfully take the blame for your vidophilia, but you might want to know that Hiro actually harms someone with the sword in the vid you so kindly recommended.

Perhaps this is mitigated by the fact that the guy he stabs is the one who is lopping off the tops of people's heads in all the other Heroes vids?

"that same first flush of fannish love that keeps people up all night reading stories they know will be terrible because they just Need More Spock, or whoever"

... and that is precisely where I'm at! So thanks for this. :D I will go & watch the rest of them now.

Although you can bundle life insurance with your home/car insurance (to get better rates on all of them), depending on your occupation, you can often get a cheaper rate through your place of work or professional organization. That is, there are special rates available to airplane pilots and college teachers that aren't available to mere mortals (less hazardous work conditions, greater life expectancy). So look into life insurance through any professional organization you belong to (even AAA) to get a much better rate than you might get. You may find that you and Best Beloved are best insured separately, through professional groups or the people who employ you.

hi, I subscribed to you for the awesome recs :)

jumping off your star trek rec, and your question about bouncy other-pairings vids - have you watched

giandujakiss's stuck to you? It's Kirk/Spock/Uhura, and definitely very fun & bouncy.

Our philosophy:

Get term life insurance from now until when you'd reasonably expect to retire. Get what seems like an unreasonably large amount. (The younger and healthier you are when you first get it, the cheaper the yearly premium.)

While you are at it, get long-term disability insurance. It's all uncomfortable, might as well get it dealt with all at once.

Set your billpay to automatically pay the yearly premium.

Forget about it, mostly.

(Also, thanks for the vid recs! Yay! Were you the one who recced Lithiumdoll's "Seemed Like A Good Idea at the Time" Leverage vid?)

Oh, thank you so much for the rec!! I'm so happy it helped get you into the fandom - yay! And I don't know what "gormless" means, exactly, but I'm pretty sure your description of Merlin is dead-on :-).

Man, I am so happy you're theoretically getting into Star Trek XI; it's taken over every corner of fandom on my f'list, and it's eaten my brain whole, and yet I still live in fear of reading fic by unknown authors. (I'm so unadventurous! :( ) So, you know, recs = awesome.

Also, I would like to enquire as to whether there's a prize available for people who have completed ridiculously long projects? Because I started reading your LJ right from entry 1, about six months ago, and I have slowly read my way through every public entry and reading every single story in fandoms I know. This would not have been such a mammoth, but somewhere around the fiftieth or sixtieth recs set I thought "Man, I wish T4V wouldn't rec so much Due South. Man, it feels like everyone's read Due South but me."

And then I thought "Well, why haven't I read Due South yet, anyway? I mean, T4V keeps saying you don't need to watch a show to enjoy the fic, right? And that's what Wikipedia's for anyway, right?"

So I read a couple of Cesperanza's fics, and then paused, and went "hm", and dived back in and read EVERYTHING I COULD GET MY DAMN HANDS ON. Which of course meant I had to start back at your very first recs set looking for for all the Due South recs I'd skipped before.

Man, I'm surprised I don't have eyestrain yet.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: thankyou for having made the last six months extremely entertaining. :)

I can't believe i am commenting on this,
mostly because i am a viewer only kinda person
but in this post you say how in the vid of startrek and glee ie "don't stop believing"
kirk is actually the small town girl because he lives in that little rural town
and that makes spock the city boy
yep. Excuse the bad spelling and
i love your blog and you share my love for fanfic
i'm under the user name nikkifx on fanfiction dot net an.
you can spot alot of my favorite fanfiction there.
Kay thnx :)

EEEEE! A Black Books vid! *Runs. Does not walk.*

Just keep in mind that there are three main characters in the show: Bastard, Hapless, and In Any Other Group, She'd Be the Crazy Girl, but in This One, She's the Voice of Reason.

That is the BEST description of those three I've ever seen!

When I consulted a financial planner some years ago, the advice I received was that a married (or equivalent) couple should have enough life insurance on each partner to pay off the house (if homeowners with a mortgage) and support the surviving partner and children (if any) for a year. This should include enough for full-time daycare, even if they're not currently using it, because the kid(s) may have to go into daycare while the surviving partner is job-hunting or job-training and then eventually goes to work. YMMV and all that.

Will come back and read recs later when time permits, but in anticipation: Yay! :-)

The guy who does my car insurance also sold me a life insurance policy. It may be less intimidating for you if your car insurance company offers that choice, too.

I chose a whole life policy instead of a term life policy, because I didn't want to outlive the policy and lose all the money I'd put into it, and I intended to keep the policy forever (12 years later, it's been a good decision).

A good on-line resource is: http://www.insure.com/articles/lifeinsurance/. Good luck!

Good luck!

they're the kind of friends who, if they settled down to watch a tearjerker movie after one of them had had a big breakup, would end up accidentally setting the crying person on fire. And then Bernard would light a cigarette from the flames. - best description of Black Books ever!

And yay, happy vids!!

I love that Star Trek one so much. I know just what you mean about new fandom glee--I'm not really a vid person though I've been looking for them for Trek, just because...I don't even know why. Because I need more Kirk/Spock in my life, I suppose.

I am prepared to ship Kirk/Spock

You might also want to leave room in your fannish heart for Kirk/McCoy, since at least half the stories being written now are about that pairing. And they are goooooooood!

It used to be that my OTPs were set in stone by the first five stories I read in a fandom; these days, it's the vids I see before I read even one story, more often than not.

One day, I'd love to see a list of all your OTPs in all your fandoms, just for the sheer crackiness that, I suspect, would exist. :D

BLACK BOOKS. BLACKBOOKS!!!! *clicks with mad glee*

The ST and Merlin video are wonderfully positive and pure fun. they leave you with a big smile :) which is really needed at the moment.

and should you get a decent advice on life insurance and this sort of crap - please let me know because I think I might need one as well.

Isn't that just what the world was missing? *happy*

Thank you! I was surprised to realize, as I wrote the rec, that Fran, who seems so reasonable on the show, is actually entirely crazy. She just chooses her company well. *g*

That makes sense. I would probably also want to include the earthling's college expenses, because we're saving for those now, and if one of us died, well, that would make saving the money much harder.

*takes notes*

Thank you!

I work for a financial services company, in the insurance section, but I'm not in America so have no sales pitch for you ;o) I will say, from a personal perspective, that if you can afford it, include recovery care, and if you can really afford it, go with income protection as well.

Your minimum requirement should be a lump sum payout on event of death that covers all your current debts plus enough to go towards ongoing expenses, college, that sort of thing. If you are both working, you both need insurance. Recovery care (not sure if it's called that in the States) is where, if you are diagnosed with a serious illness (there will be a list) which normally covers most cancers and total permanent disability, then you can get a lump sum straight away to help cover loss of income plus anything else you might want to use it for. Hubby and I could have done with that when we found out he had cancer. Luckily our employment contract includes income protection. So we are still getting 75% of his salary, but it's made things pretty tight.

Hope that helps.

*runs off to watch Trek vid*

...Why didn't I think of that? I just checked, and the company that does our car and house insurance also does life insurance. I will have to get several quotes - I know this is an area where things vary widely - but that makes me much happier to know. Thank you!

*g* Thank you! And, really, people who haven't seen the show might think I am exaggerating, but you know that I'm entirely NOT.

The new fandom vids bring me such joy. And of course you're nosing about for vids - they are a great source of quick hits of a fandom.

Saying that and not providing links is a violation of fannish etiquette, and you know it full well. Yield links at once or I will be forced to file a complaint with the Fandom Ethics and Etiquette Committee, and you know how mean they can be.

Good lord. Even a partial list would be - well. Long. *considers* However, I think I could supply one. Yes. I can supply one upon request!

*joins you in a glee-induced rumpus*

Why did no one ever tell me there exists a Black Books vid?!? *runs to download*

I was always told to get enough life insurance so that you can have the same amount monthly then as you have coming home now. Only it should be in interest. So for example, if the one insured brings home 50,000 a year you need to have a large enough payout so that you would have that amount yearly from the interest without touching the principal. The principal remains in the bank and is not touched.

Then you should choose term life instead of whole life. You don't need whole life. You need enough to take care of the people who would need taking care of. So when you consider the age of your child think about when he would be able to be on his own without his parents support. Perhaps 20 years? 25 years? That would be your term.

We have a 20 year policy on your BIL. Both kids would be adults at the end of the term. Unfortunatly your BIL smokes. So forget the 1,000,000 payout. Too expensive. It is what I would have if he didn't. Sigh.

When I start working again I will add insurance for me.

Oh and on the bright side. Men are more expensive then women....

zomg. That means I have to organize my bookmarks. The fic has been flowing so fast and furiously that I'm barely even able to keep up with reading. Perhaps I'll post a recs set and link you to it!

Oh My Goodness, there are Black Books vids MY LIFE IS COMPLETE <333333333

Bastard, Hapless, and In Any Other Group, She'd Be the Crazy Girl, but in This One, She's the Voice of Reason
Also, that is totally the best description of them. Especially of Fran. XD

You are so, so right!

Seconding the advice to look into income insurance - it was very helpful for us when we found out Dad was sick, since he was ill for several years before he died, but stopped working when he found out.

I am now confident the reason I made that vid was so that someday I could read your description of the show.

::still giggling at the awesome rightness::

(

emmagrant01 just posted a Kirk/McCoy list with a few Kirk/Spock as well:)

I LOVE the Star Trek vid and the Merlin vid (I've been watching both over and over ever since they appeared on the net)!

I hadn't seen the Heroes one though, so THANK YOU! Hiro and Ando are adorable and I enjoy happy vids:D

I shall save the Black Books one until I've seen the show;)

Re: Star Trek '09 (as The Pit is calling it, at least), are you reading Home (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5071703/1/)? Seriously. *_* I'm trekking to the library every day (new flat, no internet) in hopes of updates, because om nom nom fic.

>waves< Just popping in to let you know I've never seen Merlin, but thanks to you I *luuuuurrrvvve* the show, the fandom, and the pop-ness of the whole series. I've been forcing your recs on other people that have also never seen the show. :-D

(no help with the insurance, sorry)

I've updated my old Kirk/McCoy page with links to new fic and new groups - though of course, anything a week old is OUT OF DATE by the current speed of fandom!

http://www.syredronning.de/kirk_mccoy.html

*kirkandmccoyeatingmylifeandiloveit*

Unless someone can point me to a seriously bouncy [...] Kirk/McCoy or whatever vid

YOU ASK AND I DELIVER!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxxvJgV-3po

made by

ink_n_imp

Edited 2009-06-09 14:57 (UTC)

Links, links, links! (http://cranberryink.livejournal.com/341525.html)

Hahah, I stopped watching Heroes after they saved the cheerleader, but actually, in canon, the main character of Sawatte Kawatte! is the only one who read all the of the nerdy books, so your intuition is correct. I think by second season he gets all gloomy and bizarre and Ando and he stop hanging out together and being OTP, but since I've never seen those episodes I can pretend they don't exist!

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192: Be Cheerful, Sweet Maid, and Let Those Who Will Be Gloomy

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Life insurance

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Oh why am i so weird

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I'm a prostitute robot from the future!

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bouncy K/Mc vid (as bouncy as anyone can possibly get with Bones, anyway)

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