Hi Festividder,
I forgot that assignments come out so quickly for this, please forgive me! If you check back in a couple of days, I'll have a letter up for you, please stay tuned!

Cheers,
Rhi

This entry was initially posted at http://rhivolution.dreamwidth.org/132638.html. Comments are welcome at either location.

Tags: festivids, vids

So uh, I posted this meme five years ago today, and I've left the notif email open in my Gmail for FIVE YEARS, intending to do it. Suffice it to say, I think it is not going to get done, unless someone is still interested in my answers, which are probably incredibly different now than they'd have been back then.

Leave a comment, let me know.

Life continues apace, work has been absolutely frantic for the last month or two, and I've mostly been using DW to do RP stuff, hence the lack of posting here. I am feeling like I'm sucking at being a friend for most people and therefore am close to no one at all. The brainweasels mean that I feel I need to respond to everything, and when I can't do that, I kind of shut down entirely.

For which I am sorry. I am trying, always trying, to do better.

As I seem to do well in snippets and wry remarks, you can, of course, also find me having an opinion on the Twitters (those who can't do, pundit) and very occasionally on the book of Face, and sometimes here even. Festivids is coming up so more here, yes? Yes.

But for those who are not on social media: I am all right. I am getting by. I have a nasty cough right now, but I am dealing. Know I think of you often--yes, even you who is having a brainweasel attack and feel like no one gives a damn but that is a weasel-lie--with love.

This entry was initially posted at http://rhivolution.dreamwidth.org/132548.html. Comments are welcome at either location.

Tags: real lifez
Current Mood: drained

Hello! I am just here to publicly state (in a location visible to all, rather than users of a particular archive!) that I think Franzeska's apologia is:
- lacking coherence
- lacking in historical rigor
- most importantly, a trash fire that is full of shit.

All of which she dresses up a little bit in wink-wink-nudge-nudge and statements that seem to be going one way but actually are going the other.

So many people I know have been disgusted and hurt by this over the last day or two that I feel I gotta say something, that I am so fucking tired of this shit, because it's exactly what one sees in Western society and at present in certain other subcultures that will remain nameless. The people who have had structural power* freak the fuck out when they don't have 100% control of the narrative anymore.

Fandom is not a space apart from these kinds of actions and reactions. I will throw a copy of Dick Hebdige's book on subcultures at any acafan who disagrees.

And I'm certain this will all get dismissed by her and others as exactly the kind of thing that they mean, god those people are such bullies.

Seriously, fuck this noise. I have been in fandom for 15 years and just...fuck.

That is all. I highly recommend/appreciate the stuff folks have been saying on Twitter, by the way, especially Rukmini Pande and Nico.

* I don't mean power over the canon or over media. I mean power in fandom-the-subculture, which is a thing, even if that power isn't necessarily large in the scales of the greater world.

This entry was initially posted at http://rhivolution.dreamwidth.org/131372.html. Comments are welcome at either location.

Tags: fandom, fuck with me and find out, meta
Current Mood: angry

Title: The Game
Vidder: Rhi (rhivolution/rhipowered)
Fandom: Aeon Flux (TV series)
Music: The Motels, "Only the Lonely"
Warnings: Physical triggers--use of quick cuts
Length: 03:01
Summary: Don't hate the player, or; Scenes from the Monican/Bregnan war of attrition.

Notes: Made in Final Cut Express and VideoMonkey, for Cara Marie/genusshrike in Festivids 2015. Hat tip to Silvia Moreno-Garcia for tweeting about 'Only the Lonely'--I'd been desperately looking for a track and had somehow never heard the Motels before. Thank you to her, and to all the folks who have put up the Aeon Flux series for streaming online, and to Peter Chung and company for letting them stay up. I had a hell of a time trying to source the video (yaaaay obscure fandoms) until I realised it was all already HERE.
Aeon Flux and me go way, way back--it's the fandom where I did my first (aborted) attempt at vidding in college, for a start. Western animation for adults has become a hell of a lot more solid in the intervening years between now and then, but Peter Chung, and later Sam Kieth, among others, pushed out the boat. I have a lot of thoughts about this! I will spare you!
After the sourcing issues, this was probably the easiest vid I've ever done in terms of construction, as the non-linear ugly-beautiful choppy nature of the canon lends itself well to remix (though it does mean some of the transitions look ugly...because the source is). The vid is shippy, though only in the sense that Aeon and Trevor aren't ever actually shippy, but a fucked up twisted mess. Somehow I managed to pull a narrative out of it all, and without realising it, tipped my hat to MTV of the 80s/90s.

( source details, download, streaming embed, and lyrics.Collapse )

This entry was initially posted at http://rhivolution.dreamwidth.org/130425.html. Comments are welcome at either location.

Tags: festivids, vids
Current Mood: good

So I've failed massively at posting to my journal of late, but. But.

I got two absolutely beautiful Master and Commander vids this year in Festivids, and you should go look at them...and leave feedback for the vidders. Also a big thanks to the festivids mods and staff for all their hard work!

Sailboats by bironic (assignment) is an absolutely lovely Aubrey/Maturin vid that is pretty much to the letter I wanted from a shippy (swear to god no pun intended) fanwork. Bironic has made this sweet and touching without hurting your teeth; the song choice is perfect, and if you like this ship, it's a real keeper.

Leave Her, Johnny by rhoboat (treat) pulls together a completely different take on the canon--the gritty reality of the naval life, good and bad. Rhoboat uses the stunning cinematography by Russell Boyd* to full advantage, which I really appreciated as it's so fucking beautiful.

Go forth, friends! And do go have a look at the rest of this year's Festivids if you get a chance--I'm going to make my way though them all soon, it's been a rough start of the month so I've not had time yet.

* Wikipedia is telling me Boyd won an Oscar for this, which I gotta say is deserved as hell. I'm still miffed there wasn't ever a second M&C.

This entry was initially posted at http://rhivolution.dreamwidth.org/130174.html. Comments are welcome at either location.

Tags: festivids, recs, vids
Current Mood: pleased

Just a note to say hello, I am still here! Still trying to get my brain in order, though I have graduated from CBT (yay?). I'm also sort of trying to enjoy December, as last year I was sick as a dog for most of it.

To be honest, I'd probably be more likely to read my circle if DW had a mobile interface worth beans. I swore I'd never become one of Those People with Their Phones, but it seems to have happened, for which I sort of apologise but half-assedly.

I've managed to get back into knitting, which is exciting and good, especially as I seem to accumulate sock yarn faster than I actually make things. It feels good to make stuff and to finish stuff--even though 'finished' has always been an odd and underwhelming experience for me. Does anyone else have that problem? It may just be my brainweasels.

This entry was initially posted at http://rhivolution.dreamwidth.org/129554.html. Comments are welcome at either location.

Tags: brain woez, real lifez, sticks and string
Current Mood: anxious

Dearest Festividder,
Hi! I'm Rhi, I'm a thirty-something white geek of complex gender who is loud on the internet sometimes. I'm an immigrant from the US now living in Scotland, which is not as sexy as it sounds. Trust me.
( no sleigh bells, no Steuben glassCollapse )

This entry was initially posted at http://rhivolution.dreamwidth.org/129417.html. Comments are welcome at either location.

Tags: fandom, festivids, vids
Current Mood: hopeful

Icon (on Dreamwidth) actually is not particularly representative of my feelings, which are more like 'eh' in terms of 'no fucks'.

- I have gotten back into knitting, yay! Knitting for my wee nibling (who will turn one next week, wow) does make things a bit easier, because they are small and therefore things progress quickly and I feel better about life yay.

- Right, I need to sign up for Festivids before I forget. NEED TO. And Night Vale novel! And Ancillary Mercy! And the books I got in Berlin at Borderlands! Clearly, I have bought too many physical books lately and I am worrying about having reached Peak Bookshelf, which could be ameliorated by me not borrowing books (e and paper) from the public library left and right. Not that that will ever really happen.

- In other ways, some parts of fandom are doing my head in. I don't really want to talk about it in public. Trust no one, carry a big stick.

- I need to plan for the Smith 10 year reunion, which means I need to think about money and plane tickets and renting a car 'cause Mom will still be in school and and and. Due to Memorial Day being wicked late this year and colleague schedules (read: everyone in my office is getting married next year), I need to be back here before Wiscon, which is a bit disappointing, but I shall persevere.

(Getting to know some cool folk on Twitter makes me vaguely want to run a con of my own in Glasgow for Cool Fans Living North Of The Home Counties. I'd call it something like ConeCon with the tagline lots of planets have a north!. But my organizational skills are terrible, so it'd just end up being people sitting in a pub anyway, talking rubbish.)

- My clin psych has recommended muscle relaxation techniques for me to try, less as an anxiety flareup curative and more to keep general equilibrium* during the rest of the time. Anyone tried this at all? I'm slightly worried about either falling asleep or it having no effect whatsoever, but I have committed to giving it a go.

* I used another ten-dollar word in a work email earlier this week, as a natural conversational word, noticed after I sent it, then felt vaguely relieved when no one called me out.

This entry was initially posted at http://rhivolution.dreamwidth.org/129244.html. Comments are welcome at either location.

Tags: call me crazy, fandom, festivids, real lifez
Current Mood: blah

Hello, just a post to say I am still here, I am just sucking really hard at reading my flist/circle! (which in my brain extends to 'bad friend'...so I apologise.)

And at posting, obviously, ugh ugh ugh. I have a lot of things to say but don't know how to say them, it seems. I keep thinking I should have a private Twitter account, but then I remember I have this, and why the hell am I not using it augh brainweasels

Hello. How are you? Seriously, I want to know.

This entry was initially posted at http://rhivolution.dreamwidth.org/129002.html. Comments are welcome at either location.

Tags: real lifez
Current Mood: anxious

Well, I am back in Britain and no longer on jetlag time, two weeks later, and mostly just getting by. Glasgow has had nothing approaching 'summer', not even the British variant of summer (e.g. a pleasant temperature and not raining), which is disheartening as we come into August and I think of those Stevie Nicks lyrics* and anticipate the seasons to come.

If you needed to be convinced about climate change--and I'm hoping if you read my journal that you don't--the weather here in Britain for the last few years is quite good anecdotal evidence. Gwyneth Jones wrote a YA book under her Ann Halam pseud half a dozen years ago or so TEN YEARS AGO, says Wikipedia (Siberia), where the jet stream has moved due to global climate change, leaving Scotland a tundra, and while I don't buy that exact outcome, I do buy the notion that the weather here is becoming increasingly fucked.(Incidentally, I enjoyed that book a lot more than I have any of Jones' writing for adults. I've written about this before here and elsewhere...her issues with mothering and motherhood creep.me.out. Thinking on it more, Jones sorta is the Christopher Nolan of feminist SF for me, in that her work is very technically interesting and impressive, but I just can't quite get emotionally attached to her characters. They leave me rather cold.)

On reading! I did manage to finish Ancillary Justice and Ancillary Sword on holiday, and perhaps I was the only person who liked Sword better, I'm not sure. I've sorta parsed out my reasons why and hope to do a blog post one of these evers.

From a foodie perspective, I also finally read Gabrielle Hamilton's 2011 memoir (Blood, Bones, and Butter). While Hamilton's got...some personal issues that I feel could really use some deeper self-analysis...I really identify with her career narrative:
- falling into a job (cooking)
- feeling like she's not changing the world or using her potential, so going back to school (writing)
- finding out that the reality of doing that dream as a career is not great
- going back to old job for productivity and meaning and eventually developing that into a career
And then she ends up writing a top-rated memoir, publishing essays, and winning awards for her writing too, which leads me to, at least, a bit of hope for my media self. I just need to actually Do The Thing.

On fandom--thinking, very vaguely, about getting back into RPing again, because lizzy is convincing, but that would also mean that my brain needs to be better at not freaking out about reading friend lists/circles, thus not flaking out. I hate flaking out.

So yes, stuff is stuff, hello, tell me interesting things.

* "And the summer became the fall/I was not ready for the winter", from 'Nightbird', though the FM folk here probably guessed that.

This entry was initially posted at http://rhivolution.dreamwidth.org/128727.html. Comments are welcome at either location.

Tags: fandom, reading, real lifez, sff
Current Mood: anxious