Boppy's Journal

Ok, so in a valiant effort to post more often, I have decided to rec vids every Wednesday. I've got stacks I always wanted to rec but never got to, so over time recs will be rolled out, and hopefully they'll help a few people find vids that they maybe missed when they first got put up.

Speaking of vids, like so many, I have migrated to BAM Vid Vault and also to Blip. I've even uploaded a few more vids to YouTube, just for the hell of it. Relevant vid announcement posts have been updated with streaming links. Blip is prettiest and accessible for people without an account there, but I'm loving the community aspect of BAM. I've already stumbled across some great vids by surfing around there, and I'm sure I'll come across lots more. I've been very hit and miss with what I've watched or favourited there so far as I've tended to surf while my own vids are uploading, so if I don't have you friended and/or have missed vids of yours, let me know you're there and I'll head on over.

Ok, recs.

It was near impossible to decide where to start, I have such a backlog, but I thought I'd start with five of the most outstanding vids of the year so far, in my eyes:

Unnatural Selection by charmax: anyone that knows me knows I love T:SCC and love/hate Battlestar Galactica, but am completely fascinated by the themes inherent in both. Well this vid takes the parallels to symphonic heights in a vid that is smart and funny and gloriously watchable.

I'm on a BOAT by kiki_miserychic: Star Trek (the film) didn't press my buttons but the vid totally did. So much damn FUN! Makes me wish I were in the fandom so that this could be my anthem! And I'm hanging for the remastered-with-DVD-footage version.

The delightful talitha78 has produced so many gems this year I had a hard time choosing which one to rec first, but I think I have to go with White and Nerdy, for its courage in putting a comedic spin on racial stereotypes. And it totally made me want to watch Psych. I do, after all, heart nerds.

(Random overheard dialogue from the kids outside my window: 'You don't have any friends!' Awwwww. They didn't mean me, by the way. Honest.)

bananainpyjamas's Khawaab (The Dream) captures Slumdog Millionaire's poignant central narrative beautifully. You don't need to have seen the movie to enjoy the smooth-flowing, dreamlike vid.

And for the SV fans... In This Life, a Clark/Lois vid from brokenmnemonic, which I may have had a hand in coaxing into creation. It makes great use of some of the terrific material Season 8, for all its faults, gave us, and even made me like the almost-kiss. ;)

And there you go. For now. More next week!

My dear friend daybreak777 is learning to vid. It is a very exciting time for her and I have enjoyed reliving my own first baby steps in vidding through her. We have talked a lot about vidding recently, and particularly why certain vids appeal to us. It's a very hard thing to define, but the best explanation I can give is: I like vids with heart.

A vid can transport me into another world, it can take me inside a character's journey, it can show me a particular source through the vidder's eyes--no matter what it's aim is, what matters to me is whether I can feel the heart of the vidder in that vision. It's not clumsy tech or lack of effects that will leave me unmoved, it's lack of passion. Of course this is subjective--sometimes a vidder's passion doesn't translate for me--but if it's true to its inspiration, then I believe that it will translate for someone out there. Which is one of the things I love most about vidding.

daybreak777 wrote her own post in tribute to vids with heart so I am following in her footsteps here.

( cut for vid recs )

This weekend was Vividcon weekend, and the flurry of premiere posts has begun! I am very excited to see all the new vids and have managed to at least temporarily overcome my envy for all those that actually attended by gorging on some of the new goodies tonight. I didn't get very far because several of these vids necessitated much rewatching...

bradcpu has blown my mind again with his ability to craft mesmerising nightmare-vision, this time with Tear You Apart, one of the most fascinating Firefly vids I've ever seen (heed the spoiler warning and don't read the notes until you've watched the vid for full effect).

45 by bananainpyjamas is the Bill Adama character study vid that needed to be made. It fills a big hole in the BSG vidding canon, and does so with impeccable style (and bonus LEE! *predictable*).

Keeping up the slash vidder quota, talitha78 gives us Summer Love--a delicious, hilarious tribute to the Seth/Ryan OTP of the O.C. I am delighted to be able to rec this to my O.C. fan friends AT LAST!

And another vid so *right* it feels like it always existed... bradcpu's Creep, exploring Faith and Spike in relation to Buffy.

In other news: RL sucks, authors are fuckwits, and I have a migraine. Can I live in my computer plz?

Ten HD are EVIL, I tell you! EVIL. (For the non-Aussies: Ten HD is a new high definition TV channel in Australia.) They smooshed Clark and Lee together in the one ad and thereby rendered me helpless to resist them! Their super-smart marketing strategy involves sci-fi Thursday which sees Smallville and Battlestar Galactica screened back to back at 8:30 and 9:30 respectively. In shiny beautiful HD. It's like I'm their target demographic?!?! They even got Jamie Bamber to do a spiel to camera about it. And their advertising has featured Lee so heavily it's ridiculous. I mean, I'm the last person to complain, but if you watched their ads, you'd think the whole show was about him!

The prospect of watching Smallville's gorgeous visual imagery in high def was kind of irresistable. So, now I've stolen my boyfriend's laptop and am staring at Clark in close-up. :D I must say that so far it's making me marvel at the photography direction even more than ever. I'm noticing details I never saw before (wow, guys, imagine if my meta was even longer! O.O). And Clark, Lana and Lex all have amazing power on screen (alas this eppy has no Lois!).

I wonder which ep of BSG is on tonight... it better have Lee! I doubt my bf will permit two stealings of laptop so this covert flirtation with HD may be a one-off. Oh, and space battles. I want high def battles!

I've been really quiet this week. Sorry. There was some stuff... *waves hands airily*

(OMG CLARK IS SO PRETTY IN SUNLIGHT! *SQUEEEEEEEE*)

It's been dark days for some of my OTPs recently, so I thought I'd share a few links that helped me keep the flame(s) alive:

Clark/Lex
voldything's Show Me Love is a must-see vid, integrating Season 7 footage beautifully.

Kara/Lee
wisteria_ takes all the credit here, for hosting a commemorative celebration of favourite Kara/Lee scenes and an unprecedented picspam of pilot nipples.

There's a bunch of other stuff I wanted to rec, but if I don't post now I will get sucked into HDTV and never come out again!! *watching with one eye, blogging with the other* You guys should remind me to post more often so as to avoid this scenario. *nods*

ETA: Why is there no mood icon for 'seduced'?
ETA2: Ahhhh, no BSG tonight. They're just waving BSG Lee around as the carrot. *pouts*

Thank you to everyone who wrote such kind words on wisteria's Secret Snap Cup. I hardly ever put my name up on those things so I feel a little embarrassed, but thanks!

And although this is hopelessly late I also wanted to publicly thank dionusia for writing me The Last Light She Sees, which is a beautiful, tragic-in-a-good-way Kara/Lee AU piece based on the events of Maelstrom.

In other news, I have my vid back! And now I remember what hard work it was. :( Turns out it's waaaaaay more fun to beta other people's vids. Especially when they're as exciting as brokenmnemonic's Thoughtless, a hypnotically dark Kara vid.

I have a cold for the first time in two years. I forgot how annoying they are! I think all people with colds should be given some kind of house-elf-like creature to bring them hot lemon and honey drinks. That is my Deep Thought for the day. :)

Clex fans! GET HERE NOW!!! talitha78's new vid, using season 6 and 7 footage, is a joy to behold! It's Lex at his drama!queen best, and has had me squeeing all day as I press 'play' over and over. :D

This is my final post for the new-to-me vid-watching challenge--and I'm doing three days in one, so lots of vids!

( cut for vid recs for Smallville, Pushing Daisies, Doctor Who and Bollywood )

The last 24 hours have sucked for a lot of people for a lot of different reasons. :( I have prescribed myself Federer (tennis god!) + Portishead (they're back! how exciting is that?!). So far it's kinda working.

Before I get to the vid recs, I feel I should say something about the recent drama at sv_ledger. Everything you don't really want to need to know about it is in this post. I have nothing to hide about my involvement, and I'm happy to answer anyone's questions about my part in what happened or anything generally about how the Ledger works. ciaan has written a great post about how she personally collects links. Each of the editors has their own working methods, but we all strive to create a quality fandom newsletter in as fair and impartial a way as possible--and having six very different editors is definitely a big part of that. Believe me, we don't all agree with one another on everything, and there is no evil masterplan. Finally, thank you to everyone who has replied in supportive fashion to skuf's post.

On to vids...

My NTM vidder of the day is shoopdancer--a vidder I hadn't heard of until yesterday but who is both a fellow Aussie and really prolific. I picked out these two vids:
- Million Ways to Be Cruel, a Gossip Girl vid focussing on Blair from Chuck's point of view. It's a perfect song choice, with some really cute snappy editing. And I also loved the pink border--gave me nostalgia for melodramatic 80s teen movies. :)
- You're an Ocean, a Chuck vid for Sarah/Chuck. Again, I thought the song choice was excellent for the subject matter--tonally it seemed to really match Chuck's awkward romantic feelings for Sarah. In both cases, these vids drew well on a limited number of episodes.

And yeah, I'm still a day behind, but I shall make up for it on the weekend! *nods* Check out other people's recs in this challenge here.

Guess who I saw play my favourite venue this week, snarkist?! Sufjan! It was absolutely brilliant. ( report on the important stuff--like hula hoops )

Right now I'm watching Roger Federer play Tipsarevic, and I'm fretting coz it's gone into a fourth set. Federer's my favourite player on the men's circuit, and I desperately want him to win this year's Open--I know it means a lot to him, since he's so adorably respectful of the Australian tennis tradition. Come on, Roger! Don't fret! (He looks fretty! :() Phew, he broke serve. *wipes brow*

counteragent is running a new-to-me vid-watching challenge this coming week. The challenge is to watch a new vid (preferably from a vidder you don't know) every day for a week from 21-28 Jan. I've signed up. Anyone wanna join me? :D

Also, if you haven't yet seen counteragent's tribute to vidding, Destiny Calling, then you're missing a meta-y treat. And it features some of my favourite vids! :D

ETA: WOW, what a match! And aww, he's such a gent.

I had a lovely relaxing Christmas and some productive vidding and knitting time. I also caught up on a lot of TV. The Doctor Who Christmas special was the icing on the cake. I also loved Gossip Girl's Christmas episode. For those of you who told me to watch Mad Men, I have done so, and I think I like it, but I also find it deeply unsettling. It's perhaps not the best show for someone with office-politics related neuroses...

Anyway, I've in holiday mode and am not up to much meta, so instead I have goodies to share. I've uncovered a little trove of great new vids in the last few days!

For my Smallville peeps, there's talitha78's Christmas Clex vid. I'm seriously in love with the hospital sequence. *giggles* It wouldn't be a Clex Christmas without the obligatory trip to the emergency room...

I've long wished for a great Gaius/Felix vid, and lo! nicole_anell has made it! Another Place to Fall is a wonderfully put together look at Gaius and Gaeta, and their journey through three seasons of pens madness. It's gold. Truly, you MUST all watch it! *nods*

And while still in BSG-mode, super_kc's Karma Police is a great look at the Final Five, er, Four.

dayln03 has made my Tyra-loving heart very happy with Breathe Me. Most impressive of all is the way it integrates the Tyra plot from Season 2 organically with Season 1 Tyra. I think it healed something for me to watch it, because Season 2 never sat completely comfortably with me, even though I could see the roots of it in Season 1.

I watched my first Gossip Girl vid and it was gooood. I've become very fond of the Chuck/Blair/Nate triangle, and It Will Be by proofpudding plays it up beautifully.

Two other goodies for me:
- My copy of Razor arrived.
- I went to see 'Golden Compass' today and declare it to be most beee-autiful! *G*