Spike would probably disapprove

[gwyn]

The other day, greensilver came over and we watched some older vids, although I still have hundreds left unwatched that I need to borrow from others so she can see them. There's just no way to get even partway through all the stuff that's out there from the early days, but it's so fun to have a newer vidder be interested that I can't resist trying. Most of it's still only on old tapes, but some of them have been digitzed (not digitally remastered, which is a different thing altogether).

One of those we watched is probably my favorite Buffy vid, certainly my favorite Spike or Spike/Buffy vid, and possibly my favorite vid of all time (well, that someone else made, because I still love our own A Fire Is Burning beyond all reason), Lynn's Motorcycle Drive By. If you've never seen it, there's a DL available at JKL's vids site, which is passworded but it's super easy to get the PW as they have an autoresponder that will send it immediately.

Alas, Lynn has kind of gafiated from fandom, but if she were ever to attempt to remaster something, I would probably enslave myself to her to remake this one. If I could figure out how to do it exactly, I would probably remaster it for her, in fact, but I know she time-shifted some clips and I'm not always certain which ones those were (I can spot some of them, but others I don't know).

It's just such an exquisite piece and one of the best song choices I've ever come across -- it's sad, romantic, rocking, tough, tragic, violent, all the things that defined Spike's love for Buffy. One of the lines, "this is the last time/we'll be friends again" is paired with the clips of the two of them drinking shots on the coffin in S6, and out of the hundreds and hundreds of vids I've seen in my life, that may still be one of the best lyric-clip fits I've encountered -- unless it's the shot from early in the song on "I could never have you/I knew that before you did" where Spike is walking with Buffy toward her house in S2 in the second half of Becoming, and she's so suspicious of him when he's offered to help her get rid of Angelus. Augh.

It breaks my heart, even after all this time of being away from the Spuffy and feeling like the end of S6 and S7 ground away my heart for that story. Watching it again after a long time, I'm reminded of how intensely I felt that pairing, and since it was made long before Seeing Red destroyed the fandom for so many people, it's still got the power to show how doomed it all was without it being a forced, contrived, repugnant character destroying device perpetuated by brain dead showrunners. Because that was the nature of their relationship -- the line in the song that's repeated is "I've never felt so alone, and I've never felt so alive" and that was pretty much what it did to Spike and in many ways to Buffy, and we never needed the crappy anvilly nature of an attempted rape to show that.

Lynn managed to encapsulate everything that was tragic and doomed and wonderful and sexy and just... crazy good about their relationship through this song and her superb use of clips and her excellent vidding skills. It's an early computer vid when people were still using off-air tape source, and there are effects like superimpositions and dissolves in it, but they are used sparingly and with good taste, so they don't overpower the simplicity of the narrative or the complexity of the relationship. I wish that more vids were made like this one, so powerful and clear and emotional, instead of showing vidders who are amused by their own technology or envelope-pushing.

I've slavered over the vid before years ago to her, but in case she's still reading my LJ, thank you again for this lovely vid. I've totally felt a renewed a desire to rewatch Buffy again, and I think if I watch this vid enough times, I may even be able to try writing again and finish my WIP. It provided inspiration for other Spuffy stories I did, too, and I hope maybe it can do that again.

Although now I really wish I had a copy of the song!

Comments

IAWTP!!

[cesperanza.livejournal.com]

Check your email. <3

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

It breaks my heart, even after all this time of being away from the Spuffy and feeling like the end of S6 and S7 ground away my heart for that story. Watching it again after a long time, I'm reminded of how intensely I felt that pairing, and since it was made long before Seeing Red destroyed the fandom for so many people, it's still got the power to show how doomed it all was without it being a forced, contrived, repugnant character destroying device perpetuated by brain dead showrunners. Because that was the nature of their relationship -- the line in the song that's repeated is "I've never felt so alone, and I've never felt so alive" and that was pretty much what it did to Spike and in many ways to Buffy, and we never needed the crappy anvilly nature of an attempted rape to show that.

Beautifully put. This is exactly how I feel about the pairing - it broke my heart, too, and to this day I can't tell you how much it annoys me to see Noxon's name on the Mad Men credits. I'm sure she has little to do with its greatness - she appears to be a great coat-tail rider, although for the life of me I can't imagine why people keep allowing her to do so. I'll never forgive her for ruining BtVS. Obviously she had Whedon's tacit approval, but still.

Off to watch the vid. Thanks for the rec.

gosh

[talking-sock.livejournal.com]

Of course I read your LJ. I am just catching up after being away in the UK for work the last few weeks. Jill told me that you posted this, and people seem to have actually gone to watch the vid at your suggestion :-) So thanks and thanks for the wonderful comments. Yeah, it does need redoing. I didn't have DVD source for it, as should be obvious...

It's a funny coincidence -- around the time you posted this, I saw a guy at the UK office I was visiting with a buffy desktop pic, that one of them in red outfits like a weird Alice in Wonderland pub shot. I babbled about how much I loved that pic, but then never got a chance to talk to him about the show or anything else but work. I suck at making friends, obviously.

Thanks again!!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I hope you liked it! I try to pretend Marti Noxious isn't involved with Mad Men so that it's easier for me to like the show. I think you're absolutely right about her being a coat-tail rider, that's a really good way to put it. When left to her own devices, whatever she did would like end up mired in crappy messiness.

Re: gosh

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Well, you totally deserve the wonderful comments. I have this secret dream that someday you'll return to vidding. I know, but a girl can hope, can't she?