176: Watch and Wait

[thefourthvine]

So. I have emerged from my traditional Yuletide-related November and December catatonia to the equally traditional late-December intimations of Yuletide doom. (I have written a terrible story that my recipient will surely hate! WOE.) (No, really, Yuletide is lots of fun, I love it every year and I advise everyone to do it. I just have the dooooooom right now.)

And many people are currently gearing up for either a joyous celebration of goodwill and family or a grim marathon of conspicuous consumption and shouting. (If the former, Merry Christmas! If the latter, courage - Christmas comes but once a year, and on Boxing Day I think you're allowed to hit something.) I do believe it's time for a few good vids.

The One That Proves That Bad Guys Really Do Have More Fun. Don't Stop Me Now, by charmax. Doctor Who.

I really do love the Doctor. (Most of all, I love the TARDIS, but the Doctor is a very close second.) I have even seen a whole season of Doctor Who, and I really liked it. So I find it kind of odd that when I truly love a DW vid, it often either a) is about a non-Doctor character or b) has a message I don't actually believe, like "Wow, the Doctor is a total tool." (Like, the other vid I considered recommending in this set was pretty much, "the Doctor ruins lives! If he comes near you, your only hope of future happiness is to punch him in the teeth and flee!")

This is a vid about the Master, who is definitely a non-Doctor character. I know almost nothing about the Master - he's a Time Lord, he's, um, yeah, that's pretty much where it ends - but I will say that, from this vid, it looks like he's the Doctor without brakes. He's also a tremendous amount of fun.

Too often, you see people who are cast down by the burdens of being bad, all crushed under the weight of taking over the world. Which, I mean - live a little, bad guys. No reason to be all angsty. Own your villainy! If you're going to put people in graves, at least have the courtesy to dance on them. And in this, the Master could serve as an inspiration to us all; he does not seem to suffer from Bad Guy Trauma, and he looks like he would dance on any grave you cared to fill. He might even have his own special song to sing while dancing on graves, and if he does, it would be a happy song. I respect that immensely.

And that is why you should totally watch this vid, even if you don't know the canon, even if you have no idea what a Time Lord is, even if you vaguely thought Doctor Who was some kind of medical show focusing on amnesia. This vid will, I promise you, bring a smile to your face even if you're expecting the Doctor to show up with a stethoscope and some memory cards. And if you couldn't pick the Master out of a crowd, not a problem. He's the really happy one. So come! Watch him take over the world with flair and style.

(If you do happen to know the canon, could you tell me what's up with the end bit of this vid, with the kid and the ring? It seems to be suggesting that the Master will rise again, but for all I know it could be a scene from an entirely different source.)

It's Like Slash Goggles for Normal People! Four Years, by Fabella, aka wistful_fever. Stargate: Atlantis.

OMG EEEEEEEEE <3!

Sorry. That really needed to be said. It's the summary of everything that follows, and, really, you can probably skip all my hysterical babbling and just go watch the vid if you'd rather. (This is the recommended course of action.)

But if you're curious about why I'm recommending this even though everyone else on earth has and also it only came out about five minutes ago - um. I can probably find something to say that isn't just dolphin noises. Let me just take a few breaths first.

Okay. Actual English-language commentary commences now. This is the classic, the perfect slash vid. If, in the future, anyone is looking to define the slash vid as a genre, I suggest just smacking this vid down and saying, "Watch." Fabella here shows what source looks like through slash-o-vision, and she does it a) mostly through body language (watch John!), which made me bounce up and down like a little girl, and b) with a narrative.

Because, okay, let's face it. Slash vids are fun when you're deeply into a pairing, but they can sometimes leave you a little bit, "Um. Yes, they're so totally doing it. And...?" Or, at least, they can if you're me, although I am well-known to be equipped with a heart made entirely of recycled tires and crustaceans. (The Grinch is my second cousin. Heart problems run in our family.) But this vid - there's a story in here, a classic slash narrative, and that just makes the vid, turns it from just another slash vid to the ultimate slash vid.

I mean, yes, fine. It's also perfectly (and interestingly) cut, with a great song choice and brilliant clip selection and all that. Yes. It is. But the heart of this vid, for me, is the slash, the pining, the story. (John is in love, and Rodney needs to be clonked on the head a few times.) And although you probably need to be into this pairing to love this vid, even if you're not, it's worth watching because - well, I don't think it can get any better than this.

(Also: OMG EEEEEEEEE <3!)

The Vid That Will Rise Again, and Keep Rising Until You Just Give in and Watch It, So Download It Already. You Will Not Be Sorry. All These Things That I've Done, by Lithium Doll, aka halcyon_shift. Angel the Series.

I dithered for a long time about recommending this one, because it was made for me. But I love it so much, and it makes me so happy, and I've waited almost a year to see if I love it less or want to recommend it less, and - well. Did I mention that I love it still, with all my (non-standard) heart? So, made for me be damned. I am still recommending it.

For me, this is Angel - Angel the series, Angel the person. This vid makes me think of a lot of things - well, I mean, five seasons, one vid, it's going to - but what I really think of is - okay. When I first heard this song, I thought it was just about Angel. When Lithium Doll asked me to explain how I thought it was about Angel, though, I kept talking about other people - Cordelia, Doyle, Wes, Gunn. And now, when I watch the vid, I think of Angel, yes, and I still love that big galoot, but mostly what I think of is something I saw in a Firefly vid: a hero is someone who gets other people killed. And it's interesting to me that a song that I thought was entirely about the hero's journey is actually, in vid form, a lot more about the people who support that journey, sometimes with their lives.

This vid also makes me happy because it's here, and for most of its pre-release existence, it could handily have won the Vid Least Likely to See Tomorrow award. I wasn't involved in the making of it at all, but I got regular updates, and they looked something like this:

LD: I have thirty seconds! Wanna see?
LD: I have a rough vid with blank spots!
LD: ...Now I don't have a computer.
LD: I have a new computer and a new draft!
LD: Um. Hard drives dead.
LD: Hard drives replaced. And now I have betas!
LD: The powers that be hate me and have taken my computer to prove it. Vid just about the only thing to survive. All betas lost. Also my will to live.
LD: I have resurrected the computer and the vid and am soldiering on, ever on. Shall we begin anew?
Me: For the love of god, post it before something ELSE dies.

What can we learn from this? Well, first, that Lithium Doll is a doughty fighter. And, second, that this is the vid that would not die - sort of an immortal, undead vid. But it sure got a lot of the files and hardware around it killed. In retrospect, I suppose we both should have been less surprised by this than we were.

But it hasn't gotten anything killed since its release (that I know about), so it's safe to download it and watch it now. And obviously you were meant to; a vid survives that many major computer disasters for a reason, people.

Sometimes a Cigar Is Just a Cigar. This Would Not Be One of Those Times. Detachable Penis, by the Media Cannibals: Sandy (sherrold), Alex (alexfandra), Gwyn (gwyn_r), Tina (who does not have a journal), and Rache (wickedwords); remastered by justacat. The Professionals.

Watching this for the first time earlier this year, I fully and clearly understood why justacat felt the need to digitally remaster this and thus preserve it for the fannish ages. Few vids have made me start laughing on the first clip, but this did. Actually, I was kind of giggling just from the opening screen, because people vidded this song! I would have bet, if you'd asked me, that this song was totally unviddable. I mean, it's a classic, yes - certainly a classic of penis minstrelsy - but it has spoken lyrics. And it's about a dude misplacing his detachable penis. These things do not say "vid song" to me. But that is why I am not a vidder, and also why the Media Cannibals are geniuses, because this is just about the best vid ever.

And, no, you don't need to know anything about the Professionals to watch this. (Trust me. At Vividcon, nestra did a pop quiz on me during a Pros vid. She said, "Which one is Doyle?" I had a fifty-fifty chance, and I got it wrong. My fannish shame is great, but my point is: I don't know from the Professionals.) Here's what you need to know: they're guys. With guns. And the Media Cannibals took those two salient facts and made - well. This vid.

It is wonderful and hysterical. It does a better job of cheering me up than all of YouTube. And it's about guns and penises. I don't see how anyone who calls herself a fangirl could not want to see this vid. And, thanks to justacat's dedicated remastering of the classics, you can. Go watch!

Comments

[ainsley.livejournal.com]

They do have adorable dorkfaces! I don't see anything there but a series of dorkfaces, but when you look like Joe Flanigan, you don't need much else. (I saw some scattered slashy bits, but I don't see it as a McShep vid.)

All this vid-watching is making me want to learn to make vids. And maybe find some goggle cleanser.

(Oh, also. Thanks for trying! It is appreciated. <3 )

[ainsley.livejournal.com]

As one of the people who didn't get it, the only vid I've ever understood at all was the SPN "Women's Work" and that was because person after person after person told me what I was supposed to see before I watched it (and what I saw was mostly, okay, I see why they see that in it, rather than it clicking for me). So in me not getting it, you're in the company of every other vidder whose vids I've ever watched. (And I watched it twice, because the internets have been filled with people extolling its wonders, so I don't have much company in the not-getting-it thing.)

But I like Carbon Leaf now! It's a start, maybe.

[wistful-fever.livejournal.com]

Honestly, no worries, I completely get it both as a vidder and a viewer. I would feel bad if you gave up on vids completely, though, when I gain so much joy from vids every day, but vids are not for everyone as much as I like to push them. Before a video is even created, each vidder has to come to terms with who they want their general audience to be, and then accept that they're going to reach, oh, about 30% of that audience and half of that by accident. A fanvid, imho, is as much a creation of the audience as it is the artist, but there needs to be a bridge there for the artist and intended audience to meet on, and that bridge is not going to miraculously show up in every pairing of minds.

Wow, that sounds deep. Or cliche. I'm not sure. *peers closely* Well, anyway, yes, good luck finding that one video that tips you over into our cult of vidding. Mine was an XF video from way back. It brings me joy to this day. JOY.

[ainsley.livejournal.com]

I think I'd rather, instead of giving up on vids, learn to make them, so I can make them in a style I would understand. I think there is one, and I've always wanted to learn to edit anyway. But I think I'd offend people, alas.

I love reading everyone excited about vids, which is why I keep trying even though they make me feel dumb. I just wish I could share in the joy, but I'm not sure I should keep trying when it takes time away from things I *do* understand, aka fic. Were wanting enough, I'd love your vid.

In conclusion, YAY JOY!

[apatheia-jane.livejournal.com]

Yep, the boy is Young!Master, going insane. Now he hears drums beating in his head permanently, as a call to war. He's a little grouchy about it, but he copes by taking over the world by making everyone else hear the same beat, and then rejoices with Rogue Traders "Here come the drums".

In case you haven't read it, I heartily rec shaggydogstail's Crazy in Love: A Case Study of Factitious Disorders and Relationship Breakdown in Gallifreyan Males (http://shaggydogstail.livejournal.com/288630.html).

[feochadn.livejournal.com]

You could probably do the same thing with almost any show, which probably says a lot about the fetishization of guns in the US.

Wow. Could you be any more dismissive?
Personally, I think you're wrong. A lot of the joke is dependent on the culture and time period of that show. And since it's actually British...*shrug*
And, sorry, vids are not "assemble-your-own" templates.

[ainsley.livejournal.com]

What am I dismissing?

As I said, I don't get vids, at all. I'm trying, because I like the idea of vids, which is why I'm stepping outside my comfort zone, watching things I normally wouldn't, in fandoms I don't know (for shows I've never heard of, even). I don't see a joke. What I see in that vid is a picspam of guns as penis substitutes set to a song about removable penes.

What I said, about it being applicable to a lot of shows, I said because of the commentary I read on "Women's Work" when it came out a few months ago. Many commentators said that you could link images like that, of shows glorifying violence against women, from an astonishing number of shows, but that Lum and sisabet love SPN and so vidded that show. I saw a parallel vid here, a comedy instead of a tragedy, about a different fetishization, but a fetishization nonetheless. And it's a fetishization that's not limited to one show, but the Media Cannibals love this show and vidded it. I was trying to understand something I don't, by putting it in the context of something I do, as "Women's Work" is the only vid I've ever 'gotten' because there was so much meta on it that I couldn't possibly not get it without actively trying to be dense.

What I saw probably doesn't mesh with the authorial intent at all, but that's a risk authors take. Is your view (what is the joke here? I'd like to know, as maybe then I'd be able to see it) any more valid than mine? It likely meshes better with the intent behind its creation, but does that necessarily make it more correct? If so, as you appear to think, based on your statement that I'm wrong rather than that I have a different interpretation, then I deserve to be dismissed. I don't think I should be, when I've said that I don't understand vidding but am trying to learn, by doing the research, watching them, reading the meta, learning the history, talking about them with people who do understand. If you don't agree, then dismiss away.

(Also, yes, I could be more dismissive; I don't think it would take much, just the intent to dismiss, which is utterly absent here, and the removal of the tiny bit of tact I have on the best of days.)

[saffronhouse.livejournal.com]

Eeeee hee hee!

Your recs are as much fun as the vids themselves. (this is per usual, of course)

Thanks SO MUCH for posting during the christmas madness when we NEED IT MOST.

Smiling right now -- even though living a life very ordinary, a house full of relatives and no presents wrapped yet. Still: joy!

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

That works! In fact, I think maybe you've got the market cornered in WDWF carols. On the other hand, we'll see how bored I get on Christmas Day...

[eveningblue.livejournal.com]

1. "Detachable Penis" is so freaking excellent I can't stand it! It is perfection and it's great to know someone who isn't even a fan of the show also thinks it's awesome! (God, you just gave me a hankering to go and watch some Pros.) Something that makes this vid even better for fans is the context of the original clips. Obviously a casual fan can find the vid satisfying (as you have). But knowing the context of the clips (Doyle really DID "lose" his gun! they really are discussing buying it back in *that* clip) gives the vid an even richer layer of meaning and satisfaction for someone who knows the show. If that makes any sense.

2. Sigh. I just don't *get* "Four Years." I don't see the slash! God, what is wrong with me? (Two invocations of God already in this reply--it truly must be the Holy Season!) I have to admit that SGA slash vids that really work for me are humor vids. I just don't see the longing and heartache and angst that other fans see. There was recently a discussion in some comm of the moment McShep fans saw the slash, and many agreed that there was a moment in the pilot when John ran off some mathematical calculation and Rodney looked at him all gooey--I went back and watched it and saw *nothing*! ::weeps:: I love reading McShep but I just don't really see it in the show.

The Pros vid isn't even technically a slash vid and yet I see the slash bleeding out all over the place there. Why don't I see it in SGA? Seriously, is there a name for this condition that I seem to have?

[zebra363.livejournal.com]

Just letting you know that this post led to me tidying up my downloads folder, which led to me re-watching queenzulu's vid for Written by the Victors, which led to me deciding to try the podfic version and then spending 5 1/2 hours listening to it while wrapping presents, making gingerbread and accomplishing myriad other tasks. A very memorable way to spend Christmas Eve, so thanks!

Happy Yuletide!

[shadowspinner.livejournal.com]

Um, did you mean to imply that Professionals is American or was that unclear phrasing?

[ainsley.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

As I have already said, I hadn't heard of The Professionals before watching the vid. Yes, I made an Americentric assumption, which, yes, was stupid of me. I have already been informed of the error of my ways, and am wondering when I missed the memo that everyone who doesn't know something therefore deserves snide dismissal. Where can I find it?

I never thought I'd miss the civil discourse of the TWoP forums, but then I should have learned by now to never say never.

[gwynevere1.livejournal.com]

I was stunned when Best Beloved said, "Hey! It's Sam Tyler!" Because, wow. He's sure different as the Master.

My mom now refers to Life On Mars simply as "The Master." (The entire show, not just the character.) Which is wrong on so many levels.

[gwynevere1.livejournal.com]

By "worked together" and "compromising," you mean "bickered like an old married couple," yes?

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

Why, yes, now that you mention it, that is exactly what I mean.

;)

[bitter-crimson.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, that Detachable Penis vid is BRILLIANT! I, also, would never have guessed someone could successfully vid that song, but I love it. It kinda vaguely makes me want to look into watching that show, but ...nahhhh, I'll just enjoy watching the vid over and over again instead. ;D I'm so glad a digital remaster of it was made. I never get out into seeing vids in the "real world." *cough*

Re: Thanks for the VID!

[justacat.livejournal.com]

I somehow *just* stumbled into this thread now - looking for vid recs to help with putting together the con_txt vid show (I somehow missed this post first time around; maybe it was the busy-ness of the season); of course you're the place I come to, since while I see vids at cons all the time I seldom download them - and wanted to thank you for the kind words. I like remastering - I seem to lack a creative gene, but I love the technical stuff, and I know Pros really well (which you need to do to remaster these old vids - clip identification is tough, especially when the quality of the originals is sometimes so bad!) - and working with Media Cannibals vids isn't exactly a hardship *g*.

It's really been such a pleasure for me, and it's so...fun, and cool, to see others getting to appreciate these vids as they deserve to be. The MCs were - are - *brilliant*, and remastering their vids has given me a chance to really appreciate that brilliance. I'm so pleased that you recommended this one, which is one that transcends fandoms, that's universal - iconic - while being at the same time as appropriate and relevant and specific to its own fandom as a vid could be. (And also, this explains the huge spike in downloads of DP during those months - I always wonderd about that... :-O)

Another great one, though perhaps it requires more Pros knowledge to fully appreciate, is A Fire Is Burning - it's technically *amazing*, absolutely stunning that they did that with a VCR - VCR*s*, actually, and I believe they broke a few of them in the making of it; the editing and speed of the cutting is so ahead of its time. I actually think it's technically their best vid.

[And btw, the mnemonic that helped me when I first watched Pros and had no idea who was who (can barely remember those days now...) is - it's Doyle with the Coils (of hair, that is); that's easier for me than curls, and Bodie with the Body (well, he's bigger; that's how I think of it! *g*).]

[zebra363.livejournal.com]

I checked your Angel tags and am thrilled to have found this post with the link to the amazing Angel vid!