Well hello, boys.

I've been working on these characters Dom Toretto and Brian O'Conner from The Fast & The Furious franchise since, oh, about two weeks ago. Geez, has it been that long? If you know me and my fandoms well, you know that most of them I love to watch, love to read fanfic, but rarely enter into as an active contributor. I think that's primarily because there's already a lot of work done on that fandom, there's whole sites devoted to its fanfic writers with references and summaries and all the homework's practically been done for me. There's no interest to write because most of the things have already been done. That, or the characters are so straightforward that - while interesting - they don't prod me to study them.

There have been only two fandoms I get...for lack of a better description... 'that' feeling about. Both of them offered a wealth of openings for inference, opinion and study. They made the writing interesting. I feel rewarded when other people read my work in those fandoms and say 'yeah, that's totally right,' or better yet, 'Wow, I never thought of it that way!'

If you've been with me on some of my more singleminded and kind of scary romps through the Internet looking for clues (like our roadtrip through the auto databases of the web looking for a Cadillac with just the right tailfins to be Duke's car from the series, falsechaos), you know that I can go to some odd lengths for a fandom I'm hardcore committed to. I don't get that feeling too often - in fact, I've only had it twice.

Actually. Make that three times, now. I've been doing my homework, and I've got 'that' feeling again. The one that previously drove me to think, write, draw, live and breathe a character or set of characters.

( This is where it gets long, boring and obsessive, folks. )

Also, I've got a couple quick ficbits posted over at bardic_fic. I've hidden all the porn, but the genfic is still publicly accessible without friending the journal.

This afternoon I took a step back from absolutely everything and sat down with a movie that I've been lusting to see. I don't even know why I was lusting to see this movie. I had absolutely no recommendations - most of the people I mentioned it to gave me a blank look until I mentioned the father, son and holy ghost writer, director and producer: Quentin Tarantino.

And then they get that other blank look. That one that says they're flashing back on Lucy Liu decapitating people, or television previews of Rose McGowan literally shooting from the hip--midthigh, actually, or general gratutitous gore. In fact, I think if you examine the nearest Rogets Thesaurus, under synonyms for 'gratuitous gore,' you'll find 'Quentin Tarantino.'

And good god but we love him for that. It isn't the volume. It's the quality of that gratuitous gore. It's never enough to make you numb to it, just--

Whew, I'm getting a little hot. I'll save that for later. Anyway.

The thing is, after that telltale bloodlust blank stare, they shake their heads; "Death Proof" isn't familiar. Probably not.

This movie is just my brand of candy. And by candy, I mean candy laced with Jack Daniels.

( Let's tally up what we've got in this movie: )

All right. *clears throat*

So all of those ingredients wouldn't make this movie by themselves. You have to add Quentin Tarantino and whatever crazy ass people he gets to write with him. It's like six people sitting in a room with a blank piece of paper and cart blanche to do whatever the fuck they want with these nine characters. I can almost hear that conversation:

"Hey, what if this girl was a disc jockey? And what if she had awesome, I mean totally amazing, smoking legs. Like, Sydney Poitier legs."
"Why don't we just get Sydney Poitier?"
"Fuck yeah!"
"And we've got this intense focus on her legs, so why don't we do something horrific with that? Like, hang it out the window so you're all tense, going "she's gonna get that fucking ripped off. And then we DO IT. We fucking rip her LEG off!"
"Fuck yeah!"
"And then what if during the car chase, we ran them both up a random bank of dirt, Dukes of Hazzard style? And then ran Kurt Russell through a random fence!"
"Fuck yeah!"
"And what if we have the Death Proof Charger just fling some poor nameless slob on a motorcycle into a garage door?"
"..."
"...and the helmet would be red!"
"...FUCK YEAH!"

I was talking about that gore? He doesn't do gore just to shock you. That would imply that you had no connection to the characters he offs - and he does everything he can to get you attached to the character before he kills them. He does gore to snag you. Grab you by the throat and throw you into the movie. He does it to show you that he is not afraid of gore. That if somebody gets their head, their leg, their face chopped off, even if they're the hero of the movie, you are gonna fucking see it chopped off.

And then he stops. The gore absolutely stops. ...Or did it just stop for a while? When's the next time? He shows you how the pattern plays out, what happens when Stuntman Mike pinpoints a handful of 'girlfriends.' Then he shows you the pattern starting all over again. And he's so graceful about it. ...Wait, where did that one girl go? She went into the gas station. Why isn't she there somewhere? Did he take her? Are we about to see her ground into gravel? Who's that car behind them? It's not black... is it still Mike, just in another car?

This is the kind of suspense that has me curled up in my seat in delicious horror. The reason I loved the car chase wasn't because they were roughing up a pair of awesome cars. It was because Tarantino already made it obvious that if one of those girls got hurt, I'd see it in gruesome detail, after he made me love every single one of them for who they were. That man is the master of suspense.

I am in love with this movie. And the side effect of this movie that I did not, could not expect... it turned me on.

Mamma Mia! Needs to become a cult classic, a la Rocky Horror. If you've seen it, here's me hoping you get what I'm on about. Why do we only have ONE Rocky Horror phenomenon? Why is that our only option?

I will work with all interested individuals in a grassroots campaign to make that adorably ridiculous and inexplicably awesome movie a legend in the halls of urban myth and young adult rites of passage. Let's break out our parents' silver lamé and our feather boas and pay homage to ABBA and all of the middle-age actors who made this movie so abso-friggin-lutely wonderful.

It's a damn shame that movies are such a luxury that we can't go see it fifty times. BUT I WANT TO. OHMYGAWD.

I wish Blooness read this journal. We could recast that movie with Bibble playing Meryl Streep's role. I get so many grins from Bibble's innocent and joyful licentiousness. XD

I don't know if you guys have been over here, but you might want to investigate the site for an upcoming movie, "The Golden Compass," which is set to come out this summer, I think. It's based on a book from His Dark Materials. That means very little to me, sadly, but it might interest some of you.

Anyway, if you visit the site, you might run across the Alethiomometer, which sadly I can't link to because it's within the flash. Check it out. I'm pretty sure there's a strong element of Tarot in the symbols (in the Alethiomometer symbols of the Wild Man, The Sun, The Moon, The World, etc.), but at the same time there's hints of both the Classical Zodiac (Taurus, The Madonna (Virgo?)), and the Chinese Zodiac (Horse, Dragon, Snake) and also the Five Elements...at least I think so. They all have one same basic idea in common with the Alethiomometer as well - Man's fascination with whatever power dictates the universe, and the need to ask questions of that power and receive answers that can be interpreted as some sort of truth. One's nature can be predicted from birth with the help of astrological signs, which in the Chinese Zodiac and the Classical Zodiac both also point to particular elements, which in turn point to more personality characteristics. According to some, astrological signs can also be used to predict how the course of your day, week, month, year, lifetime will proceed based on the planetary alignments and their effect on your sign.

Tarot - and I am not the expert in this by any means, I'm only recounting what tiny bit I've experienced that resonates - seems even closer in nature to the Alethiomometer. Both seem designed with one goal in mind: ask a question of whatever controls the cards (or in this case, the needles), or ask the cards (or the needles) themselves, and receive an answer. As it was explained to me, there are many ways that Tarot cards may be laid out, and the Alethiomometer, with its three 'question' needles and its single 'answer' needle...reminds me somewhat of the three card spread. Not exactly, mind you, but just a little.

The Alethiomometer is set up to look similar to a watch face, with needles...or hands...connecting to a center column. The face of the Alethiomometer is ringed by symbols, as mentioned above, and the three question needles may be moved to any of these symbols, to form a question. The Alethiomometer will then interpret the question, and pop out an answer, in the form of the largest of the four needles displayed moving to another symbol on the face. These symbols have no clear meaning, and may be interpreted by any number of methods. Someone with a background in alchemy might interpret them differently than someone with a background in ancient Egyptian symbolism, and so on. The 'bee' seen on the face of the Alethiomometer might be seen as a symbol of an industrious personality, a 'busy bee,' someone with singleminded focus and intensity. It also might be seen as a symbol of a mindless drone, a creature of habit, following set patterns of behavior and tradition without thinking for itself. Maybe a sign of aggression, or a sign of deep devotion to protect a cause, even at the cost of its own life. I suppose a bee could also be seen as a creature of air, or earth, or both, with the resulting factors that go along with it. You see? It could even boil down to how the bee is drawn, what color it is, that affects interpretation - similar to the experience I had with Tarot.

It's fascinating, and I could be late to work playing with this thing. If you're bored, give it a try! I'll be doing my level best to see this movie this summer, for more reasons than this. Try Craig Morgan (The New and Sexy James Bond) wandering around with a talking snow leopard. Mmm-hmm-hmmm....

I'm reliving my childhood. Only I'm reliving it as if I were a slash fangirl in 1996.

Two showings of Twister later (two out of many dozens in the past), I not only believe that Rabbit and Sanders were totally fucking, I want to write it.

I'm sure I've pimped this movie before. I'm sure there are people out there who will tell me it's not that good a movie, really. And the fact is? There are always people who say that. And I don't care. :D It never gets old, Twister, in spite of many many washings watchings it never fades. And now, thanks to getting to watch it with someone as if seeing it for the first time, I caught nuances and backstory that until now, I'd missed. It's pretty deep for a weather-as-monster-flick.

Also, for the first time since receiving it, I finally got to watch Sensitive Pornograph, which was sent to me by falsechaos ...what...a year ago? Eeeheehee. I discovered how little exposure I've had to graphic animated sex. Had Tristan been there and in any state to snicker at me, he probably would have been snarking the whole way through. As it was, I sat there with my cheeks flaming and my hand over my mouth, feeling like an idiot because dude...I write this stuff. The sound effects were what really got to me, though, and I'm damn glad I had my headphones on! I kept sneaking glances at the doorway, like I expected some prudish grandma to totter in and hit me over the head with her cane for watching man-on-man.

Thank you, falsechaos, omg. I didn't get any deeper into the collection of things you sent than Ai No Kusabi. Oh! And I watched...god I can't spell it, but it's translated as "End of the Century Darling." Done by the people who animated the FAKE OVA, am I right? Because some of that looked really, really familiar. Battle of the semes, indeed. XD

I just finished watching Night at the Museum, for the first time.

Is this movie based on a children's book? It has the feeling of Jumanji, of course that might also be because one of the protagonists is played by Robin Williams. All I know is that...okay, there's a few points where the humor drags, and I can't figure out why prolonged slapstick is suddenly entertaining to Hollywood, becauser seriously, it's not. But other than that? It's a very simple joy, and there are just some *shimmering* bits of humor and magic in it. I don't know why zebras crisping through snowy Central Park at two in the morning is so entertaining. It just. Is.

Will definitely be watching that again.