This month's theme at monthlyinspo was very easy: describe what you did this Summer! I've mixed things I watched with non-fannish things I did. Here goes:

Teasers:


( icons - more or less Wu Lei related )

I'm happy to receive all kind of comments, including concrit! All icons shareable. Credit for brushes and textures I use can be found here in my resource post.

Previous icon posts:

The Boys of Summer
Interview with the Vampire | Armand/Daniel | ~1000 words | For trinityofone, with thanks to sheafrotherdon for betaing.

(Also on AO3)

( Read more... )

Guess who picked up a super fun comic, tore through three trades, then wanted to find folks talking about it and searched on BluSky... to find it got cancelled the very day she picked it up? AYUP.

Why aren't people buying super fun team comics?? *shakes fist at universe*
(yes it was cancelled due to poor sales)

The comic in question? Birds of Prey, written by Kelly Thompson. It had team! Quips! Competency! Siblings! Big Barda and Tiny Bat!! Muscles and mind-controlled beefcakes!

The last issue comes out in December and I'd prefer to pick up the trade. When I went to check if we'd even get volume 4 - comics! they treat us so well! - there was some good sprinkled in there. Firstly, she's pitching a new book at DC featuring a couple of the characters from BoP. My feral mind is slamming both fists on the table, chanting "Big and tiny! Big and tiny!" Probably not but gimme.

Secondly, Thompson's heading up the new Buffy and Angel run at Dynamite!

In my early days trying to figure out how to be a writer and what stories mattered to me and why — no heroine quite broke through for me like Buffy Summers.

She was somehow everything my young geek heart had always wanted but hadn’t known to ask for. Something about that delicate alchemy of horror, fantasy, and comedy paired with a hero so pure of heart and yet flawed and relatable was… impossible to deny. I fell deeply in love with Buffy, and following that, her whole world. Her ex-boyfriend is now a supernatural detective in Los Angeles you say? Inject it directly into my veins! But unlike a lot of other worlds I loved, the world of Buffy and Angel somehow never fell to the wayside. I could always come back to it and find something new, or something I’d missed, or something I needed. And I hope this new story we’re telling can do the same for old and new fans everywhere.

Thank god BOOM! lost the license because oof. Outside of the pretty covers and first issue, that was rough to say the least.

But I'm excited for this! We could, dare I say it, get a good Buffy comic.

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?

This is not a letter, it's a placeholder that will be replaced with a letter in the near future!

As may have been obvious from some of my recent posts, thanks to a chain of events involving Noah Wyle's winsome brown eyes, I ended up watching a lot of ER this summer and writing fic for it. However, I've also spent a lot of time grappling with the fact that a lot of plot happens to my favourite problematic dink, John Carter, in the course of 15 seasons. Some of it is contradictory, some of it is unclear, and the existing ER wiki resources just aren't done with my needs in mind, i.e. "I want to write fic about Carter and his feeeeeelings."

So below the cut are the notes I took when I rewatched the show. I'm posting them here so that I don't lose them and also who knows, maybe someone else will find this useful?

( The Carter File )

Get your requests and offers ready, spread the word, and let's do this!



2025 Guidelines and helpful links here.

Too rusty to even think about touching live action, but if anybody have any comic book covers or panels they'd like to see iconned, pop them in the comments?

+ Fishery has been so consistently bad there's talk of maybe heading home a little earlier. I wouldn't mind. I've been cope-eating my way through the whole trip lol. Pity I undid all the progress I made last trip, but I gotta keep my spirits up some way, and right now that's via candy and comics.

The weather is also kind of shit, and looking to get shittier. Like, no fishery and go seek shelter by the coast shittier.

+ I sometimes stop by creativenarket.com for their weekly batch of free goods, and this week they've got a 1300 pack of really versatile marker elements up for grabs. Lines, boxes, circles, icons... could do a lot of fun stuff with it!
(I haven't made icons in so long *sob*)

+ My dad had a skin cancer scare last week, but thankfully they caught it in time! (by which I mean, the doctor said it looked ok, he insisted they remove it, and then it turned out to be cancerous. So happy my dad's a stubborn one.) They've taken further tests and found no sign of it having spread, so he should be in the clear.

+ I did send him the link to this study: Daily vitamin B3 dose cuts skin cancer risk by up to 54%. Very large pool of participants, I feel more than sturdy enough to pester him about adding some vitamins. (I'll also have to push when it comes to sunblock *sigh*)
Overall, niacinamide – also known as nicotinamide, a vitamin B3 form found in food and supplements that supports cellular energy, DNA repair and healthy skin – was associated with a 14% lower risk of developing skin cancer. When people began nicotinamide after having earlier received a positive skin cancer diagnosis, the reduction in risk was 54%. What's more, the effect was seen in both basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, with the largest drop in squamous cell cancers.

+ Italian workers’ strike in solidarity with Gaza brings disruptions across the country.

+ House Arab.
I watched in real time as the consensus congealed; by Sunday morning, everyone seemed to agree that the events of the previous day could only be interpreted as senseless barbarism or perhaps an Iranian plot, but absolutely not as a legible expression of rage by a people the world had left to die.

+ With the Serial Numbers Filed Off: The Problem with Trad Pub Fanfic.

+ sholio posted a bunch of Murderbot fic recs, bless. Bookverse short gen and longer iddy plot fics, PLUS a fic of their own: Crime And Punishment, Mensah POV, 2500 words. I'm not allowing myself a break from my current book, but very excited to dig in after.

...I didn't have a Murderbot tag shame on me.
eta also, schneefink.

+ ‘Andor’ Writer Dan Gilroy On Disney Suspending Jimmy Kimmel & Hollywood Facing “Venomous Evil”.
Their goal is to instill fear, to make you feel helpless, hopeless, to break you down. Don’t let them. Educate yourself. Organize. Speak truth to authority. Because the story’s not written — the pen is in your hand.
(they did decide to reinstate Kimmel. And then announced a price hike hours later 🫠)

+ The ‘blue dragon’ is back from the brink and Global Conservation Protection of Calakmul Helps Increase Jaguar Population by 30%. More pretty dragons and pretty cats \o/

+ The US town that pays every pregnant woman $1,500.
The town of Flint made headlines a decade ago when pediatrician Mona Hanna discovered lead levels in local children’s blood had risen dangerously after the city switched its water supply to the Flint River. The coalition that came together to protect children then continued to advocate for children after the water crisis resolved, Hanna said.

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 See the icons here @ magicrubbish 

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See the icons here @ magicrubbish 

It’s pretty obvious these days that for many if not most shows, the 3 month break between seasons rarely applies. What is your preferred length of breaks between seasons? Are breaks between seasons too long these days?

Dear Festividder,

Thank you so so much for making a vid for me!! First of all, have fun and enjoy the vidding!! I love all these sources and can't wait to see what you will do with them. I like many kinds of vids, they can be sad, funny, silly, serious, over the top, a mixture of things. I like character studies, ensemble vids, shipping and slash vids, meta vids, it's all good. The same goes for music, I tend to prefer fast paced songs, but there are also vids to slow songs out there that I adore.

The only dislike I have is that I don't like voice overs. A bit of dialogue at the beginning or end is fine, but constant dialogue during a vid does not work for me. It pulls me out of the flow and I don't know whether to listen to the song or the lines and I end up not being able to get into it.

If you already have an idea in mind by all means go for it! If there's this one vid for this one source that you've always yearned to make, this is your chance! Here are some details about these sources and what I love about them.



Tango & Cash (1989) SAFETY
I adore this extremely 1980s over the top in every way movie. It's like they made it specifically with me in mind. Anything for this, please. If you make it gay, even better!


The Power of the Dog (2021) SAFETY
This movie is very gorgeous but also very sad and gets really under your skin. I enjoyed it a lot. Stunning visuals, compelling characters and gay cowboys. What's not to love? 


Slow West (2015) SAFETY
Another gorgeous western. This one is kind of whymsical and sweet but also brutal in places. I think bittersweet and hopeful captures is quite well. Interestingly enough, this movie shares an actor (and kind of but not really similar character) with The Power of the Dog. 


Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) SAFETY
This movie surprised me. There are some very weird things in it but I adore how Lightfoot just wants Thunderbolt's friendship and how Thunderbolt grows to care for him. Their relationship is wonderful and I love the feeling of longing for a place where you can feel at home, where you belong. I think, they were both looking for that and briefly found it in each other.


Two Mules for Sister Sara (1979) SAFETY
I've seen this movie many times and it's always fun to watch. Clint Eastwood is stoic gunslinger who rescues a woman from bandits. Turns out the woman (Shirley MacLaine) is a nun on a mission. Together, they go on a wild west road trip adventure.


Dolores Claiborne SAFETY
Amazing movie!! Kathy Bates as a mother who would anything for her daughter. 


Promising Young Woman (2020) SAFETY 
I really loved this movie though it is hard to watch due to the subject matter. I adore Cassie and how she won't and can't let go of what happened to Nina. I love the visuals and how they're contrasted with the grim aspects of the movie. I think depite everything this movie has sort of a hopeful tone to it and I would love to see this explored in a vid.


Dinosaurs (TV) SAFETY
I love this show! Anything would be great here. You can focus on certain characters, on physical comedy or the darker aspects like the end of the show. I also really adore the food creatures in the fridge.


Works by Alison Bechdel
I LOVE the Dykes to Watch Out For series. I've read them many times and would be thrilled if someone could make a vid using these. 


Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker collaborations
I adore the Naked Gun movies (not the new one!) and would love a vid featuring these. I also love Top Secret, Airplane and Ruthless People but seriously, you can also combine everything or do your own thing. I'm sure this will be an exciting vid!



Please be assured that I love all these sources. I have focused on some more than others, but I'd LOVE a vid about any of these.

Thank you again so so much for making a vid for me!! Have fun, enjoy making it and know that I cannot wait to watch it!! :D

Treats are welcome!

Welcome to the weekly roundup post! What are you watching this week? What are you excited about?

Apologies for the post title -- I am very bad at coming up with titles for entries.

This topic arose out of a discussion on Bluesky and I thought it would be interesting to post it here. The premise is that before streaming, scripted television had to react to its own reality. What I mean is, shows that had to pump out 20+ episode seasons *every year* had to deal with actual real life things and work them into the script. For example, a character becomes pregnant because the actor gets pregnant, or a lead role had to "go missing" for part of a season because the actor was off doing a movie or dealing with a real life issue, or a character had to end up in a cast or otherwise accommodated because the actor injured themselves in real life, or the "filler episodes" that exist because of budget concerns, or the finales that were written because they didn't know if they'd be renewed for another season, etc.

With streaming, because the wait between seasons is so long, we no longer get these (admittedly sometimes rather demented) workarounds anymore. Or as one person on Bluesky put it: "If you can just tell the story you want to tell with the actors you have with whatever running time you want, it's not TV, it's a movie."

Thoughts? Do you miss the imposed responsiveness of pre-streaming TV? Do you have any favourite (or not so favourite) examples of plot lines that came about because of real life events involving the actors or other aspects of the show (e.g. budget issues)?