somniloquence

For today's DVD commentary, avidrosette asked for a scene from Ciudad de Estrellas (fandom: The Fast and the Furious): The scene starts in the middle of the story, on page 110 of my download, with the line "Tanner studied Toretto as they were explaining the wire to him, taking note of what he paid attention to, what he brushed off." This is the scene that takes place in the surveillance van, where Tanner and the other cops are interacting with Dom as someone on their side for the first time. It starts in Tanner's mature, insightful, somewhat distrustful pov, as he observes Dom and Brian&Dom, and continues in Dom's pov. It's a wonderful moment of character revelation - a turning point at the dead center of the fic - and I found it really satisfying and memorable even at this remove.

It's been so long since I've looked at this story that I had to go back and read all the stuff leading up to and after this! But I do kind of remember writing it now. One of the things that was going on there was that I didn't see Tanner very much in F&F fic, or if I did, he was usually an antagonist for Brian and Dom or the generic grumpy boss cop we see all the time, and in Ciudad I really wanted him to be a part of the story, to get beyond him as Brian's beleaguered boss. Since he's helping them on this little escapade, at some point he'd be confronted with the relationship between Brian and Dom and have to figure out whether to shut things down or continue, knowing that they'd be compromised--so of course it was easier for him to just ignore it and continue with the operation.

I love Tanner's sarcasm and his world-weariness, but he's also a pretty insightful guy, as we saw in the movie when he's talking to Brian out by the pool. And so he's kind of acknowledging in that scene that Brian's compromised, Brian has that "you can't keep a beautiful wild thing in a cage" (which was one of my favorite lines to write in that whole story) problem going on, but he's starting to also understand Dom in a way he hadn't before. He's getting that Dom is a lot more complicated than he'd just assumed, and seeing the way prison has shaped him, and so that cop's disdain for the thug criminal is being filed down in the surveillance van. And in the POV switch, Dom can kind of see that, too, except he doesn't know that he wants to admit it. It's hard for him to admit that a cop can be a good guy, despite his feelings for Brian, but he has to confront it there, possibly because his adrenaline is up from being startled by Muse.

I felt like they HAD to change, both of them, for the story to go forward. As fun as writing them as antagonists is, it doesn't do much to propel the story if no one changes or has their preconceived notions altered, and since the story is plot-centric, they needed to see things in each other (maybe the things Brian saw in both of them) so that when the big crisis came, they could handle it together in a way that would make sense. I don't think Dom could really fit back into the world of that story if he didn't start at least in some small way to see Tanner differently, and I don't know that Tanner could really be the mentor to Brian that Brian wanted him to be without being able to look at Dom with different eyes.

I hope that makes sense! I don't know if it does, but it was awfully fun to think about again after all this time, thank you for asking!

Both of the tribute vids at the Escapade vid show came in too late to be included on the con dvds, and I don't know if the vidder of the Lewis Collins tribute will put hers up online, but I have finally had the chance to put mine up on YouTube. I'll try to post a downloadable version at my web site soon.




Working on this vid was really hard. I used to make fun of PW's acting back in my early days in The Fast and the Furious fandom, his surfer dude persona, but over the years I grew to really like him, as he'd really committed himself to his work as an actor and it showed -- a lot. But as much of an improvement as he showed, and as many different types of projects as he put himself into, it all paled in comparison to how much I admired him as a person with the role he took on as a dad, and the charitable work he performed. It just destroys me that someone who was trying to do good in the world is gone and so many awful, horrible people remain. And then there was his incandescent smile -- something I don't think anyone could help but fall under the spell of.

I miss you, Paul. You were one of the good guys.

Anyone have Skype who'd be willing to be called/call me so I can test out this new headset microphone I need to use for a webinar in a couple weeks? I asked a friend but he didn't have it and wasn't willing to DL it, the rat bastard. I figure someone here should have it. You can e me privately at gwyneth at drizzle dot com.

In other news, Bodie the adorable dog has gone to a new foster home, which makes me really sad. He needed someone who could deal with his bad behavior, and there was a person who specializes in bad Boston behavior, and they figured it was the best thing for him, which of course I agree with. But damn, I liked having him here, and it was cool to have a dog named Bodie, you know? He was such an adorably goofy little guy. Hopefully the biting will get controlled and he'll find a fantastic home that appreciates him and doesn't dump him.

The rescue group was on a local morning show last week, and Vlad, the darling dog I posted about a couple weeks, was on, walking his new three-legged walk. Poor little dude, but apparently he's so much happier and bouncier having the dodgy leg gone. I wish we could have brought Bodie but there was no way with the biting. (And if you might have a buck or two to spare, Vlad's ChipIn page doesn't expire for two more days, and they've only raised less than a quarter of the money needed for the leg surgery, the kidney stones, and the trachea problem -- we would love you for your donation if you could make one!)

Today I went downtown to the Pike Place Market for a few hours; I realized it's been way too long since I just went and putzed around. I stopped at my favorite informal restaurant there, the Crepe de France, and had a lovely ham and cheese crepe and read a book on my Nook Color, then picked up some marrons glace (glazed chestnuts) at DeLaurenti's for the marrons glace ice cream I'm going to make. Also picked up some tea and tea supplies at Market Spice. Fortunately I did not have much cash, so I avoided buying baby donuts and unusual pastas and the lard-based cakes and pastries at the Mexican sisters' shop, but I did not avoid buying a ginormous bouquet of purple and pink dahlias. Anyone who's been to the Market knows you can get these amazing bouquets there for like $5 or $10, which are the size of a small child (seriously, my arm ached by the time I got back to the car from carrying it).

While I was eating, I remembered that a couple years ago, I was sitting in Crepe de France and looking out at the tourists bumbling around outside it when I saw someone who looked familiar. He was standing there for a while, looking around, trying to decide if he would go in or not, I think, and then I realized it was minotaurs. I was about to get up and go talk to him, even though I kept thinking, no way, he lives in San Diego, it can't be him, but then my crepe was ready and by the time I looked back, he was gone. It was only a few weeks later he died so unexpectedly, and I found out he'd been looking for work before he moved up here. I was just so shocked by his death that I forgot seeing him for a long time, and now I regret not having gone after him that day.

I seem to be thinking a lot of melancholy thoughts right now. Thinking a lot about Sandy, and missing her so very badly, and as the weather gets crappy, I'm feeling my sister's loss so much more. This is the time of year when we usually planned for her visit home for Thanksgiving and our birthday. It's just so depressing.

I got a request today from someone to translate my Fast and Furious fic into Chinese, which is kind of a kick. Who knew it was a huge fandom over there? I've kind of lost track of the languages some of my stuff has been translated into -- it's not a lot, but I just can't remember which ones except for Japanese. I have to admit, it's really exciting when someone asks to do that.

I signed up for Festivids. This may be a huge mistake, but I'm going to give it the old college try. I requested all 8 allowed fandoms, but I'm sure I won't be matched on MDs, Catch and Release, or Buckaroo Banzai, but probably more like Justified, Middleman, or Contact, Charlie Jade's kinda iffy too. But I signed up to do a shit-ton of fandoms, a mix of safety and series fandoms. I'm taking the cumulative advice of others that the more you sign up for, the easier it will be. Who knows? It's weird how intense the '80s nostalgia is in the fandoms listed. I don't have that, since I was all growed up by then and it seems a lot of people who are younger than me have a strong attachment to the things they saw then, when they were younger.

And now I feel really stupid that I didn't nominate Case Histories, the detective series Jason Isaacs did this past year on BBC. OMG so good! I finally caught up on the discs I ordered a couple months ago, and I need to write up a long Men Who Make Me Happy post about him, and about the series. I pray that he will do more Jackson Brodie things, but with his new series on American TV, Awake, coming up, I'm not sure he'll have time if it's successful. (Flail! Jason Isaacs on my TV every week.) But that's a subject for another post.

sherrold passed this great link on to me from the Boston Globe, about the Fast and Furious franchise and how it is moving Hollywood movies toward a better representation of race. While he doesn't exactly love the movies for their content, it's one of the few articles I've seen from the mainstream that doesn't just trash them as, well, trash.

Oh, Dom and Brian, you're not just my BSOs and OTP, you're cultural touchstones, too. God bless you.

After White Collar was over, I kept the TV on USA to watch Psych, which I haven't watched since it started. Shawn unfortunately hits my squick buttons in a big way. But I was charmed by Gus wearing cowboy PJs.

I was rewarded with one of the best fans-as-characters-of-shows dialogs ever. Shawn has been kidnapped and shot by bad guys and is currently trapped in the bed of a speeding truck as Gus and the chick detective, and his dad and whassname, try to rescue him. When Gus and Chick come up next to him in their little car, he makes like he's going to jump, and he yells to Gus, "You're just like Vin Diesel!"

Gus yells back, "If I'm Vin Diesel, that makes [chick detective] Michelle Rodriguez and you Paul Walker!"

Shawn: "I really don't want to be Paul Walker. Even for one day."

Gus: "Then you can be Lucas Black from Tokyo Drift! Only we wouldn't be in the movie with you."

Shawn: "That's so weird. OK, I'll be Paul Walker."

AH HA HA HA HA HA HA.

Most of the moments in WC tonight I loved, but a lot of it hit my squick buttons. Still, I have a one word review: JUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNE. (and also, she loves the bad boys!!)