You know what I gave my Aged Parents for Christmas? Tickets for tonight's Bruce Springsteen concert in Munich. On the reasonable assumption at a concert at the end of May would have, if not nice weather, than somewhat warm weather.

It's rainining cats and dogs, and 5° Centigrade. The APs and self shall try to brave the Olympiastadion nonetheless for Mr. Springsteen, but if it turns out our part of the seats doesn't fall among the ones that are covered, we're out of there.

Meanwhile, links:

Once upon a time:

Twenty-Eight Years: the one repeating day for Cora and Killian Jones, aka Hook. Beautifully written and intense.

Babylon 5:

At a convention, JMS doesn't only share some hilarious Londo and G'Kar related anecdotes (of course the rest of the cast and himself arranged to be around when their intense scenes were filmed!) but also the deeply moving story of why Michael O'Hare really left, necessitating Sinclair being written out. It's not anything that was speculated before and makes me respect the actor all the more.

naraht, this one is for you, if you haven't seen it already: As the Benjamin Britten centenary approaches, tenor Ian Bostridge picks his 10 favourite works – including one he has vowed never to perform again:

Ten Favourite Brittens

(He very usefully for the rest of us included YouTube renditions, including the one with Peter Pears singing Michelangelo's sonnets. The homoerotic content of which, Bostridge muses, might have gone over the original audience's head, due to the lyrics being in Italian. I heard Jonas Kaufmann sing them two years ago in a Salzburg matinee, and he made a short Michelangelo-Britten-homerotic-love-in-the-arts introduction remark. Whereupon people in the audience evidently forgot to switch off their mobile phones, because those rang no less than five times, and I really wanted to strangle people (I wasnt the only one; Jonas Kaufmann, however, was a patient saint; I'd have walked off stage).


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Early in December, I recced an excellent Skyfall AU about M and Bond that departs from canon during the Westminster Inquiry. Now the author has written a sequel, making yours truly, always on the look out for M and M & Bond (or M/Bond, I take either!) very happy indeed:


The Rabbit Hunters (24844 words) by Telanu
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: James Bond (Movies), James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond - All Media Types, Skyfall (2012)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: James Bond/M
Characters: James Bond, Female M (James Bond), M (James Bond), Raoul Silva | Tiago Rodriguez
Series: Part 2 of Sharing the Road
Summary:

Part Two of the Sharing the Road series: a sequel to "The Room and the Road." Raoul Silva doesn't kill so easily, and 007 and M have only one more chance to take him down. There's only one problem: he's not 007 anymore. And she's not M. Who are they now, and what will they become together?

Ever since X-Men: First Class was released, there have been several stories in which either Charles or Erik, by virtue of time travel, were replaced or warned by their older, Stewart and McKellen selves and thus were motivated to change the past. For some reason or the other, I've never been really content with these until yesterday coming across this fine story:


Sponge Away the Writing (40771 words) by Tam_Cranver
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: X-Men: First Class (2011), X-Men (Movies)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Major Character Death
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Characters: Charles Xavier, Alex Summers, Hank McCoy, Sean Cassidy, Moira MacTaggert, Erik Lehnsherr, Raven Darkholme, Armando Muñoz
Summary:

In which Charles finds himself haunted by a dead future version of himself, together they experiment with changing the course of history, and there is much hand-holding.

A few reasons why I liked this one so much: it was what I always look for in a post XMFC written fanfic, Charles and Raven sibling interaction - indeed, learning from his older self that both Erik and Raven will be his enemies impacts him, as it should, equally on both counts. (Hooray for fanfic acknowledging the importance non-romantic relationships as well as romantic ones!) Speaking of non-romantic relationships, Moira plays an important role in the story, and the mindwipe is squarely addressed. Instead of older Charles mentally replacing younger Charles, or the older version giving point blank guide lines, the interaction between the two versions of Charles Xavier is more along the snarky lines that remind me of two regenerations of the Doctor meeting in Doctor Who, and while older Charles does provide younger Charles with some important information, he is by no means certain it can make any difference. It's younger Charles who has to make the crucial decisions and has to figure things out. Another tried and true fannish button for me to press in the good sense is when fanfic remembers what drives the character other than romance, and this story is also very much about Charles Xavier starting his school , why that is so important, and trying to figure out how to start a civil rights movement and a revolution. Lastly, nothing is simply resolved by a hug or a kiss, least of all Charles' relationships with Raven and Erik. It's just a great story all around which does everyone justice, and I admire it a lot.

As far as horror tropes go, zombie stories aren't really for me. (They're depressing, you can't really negotiate with zombies, and then there's the unfortunate possible subtext which Joss Whedon lampooned when making his Mitt Romney spot.) But londonkds made the case for a novel earlier to me, and several people on my flist are watching The Walking Dead. Then I found out The Walking Dead is what Bear McCreary is composing for these days after BSG and The Sarah Connor Chronicles are no more, and that Fank Darabont was involved, and there was this dvd, so I thought, what the hell, try it.

Result of marathoning s1: wait, that was the end of the season already? Isn't that more like a miniseries? Too short! Must find out what happens next!

Result of marathoning s2: okay, they should have stuck with the miniseries format, the first half of this draggggggggged. However, the second half didn't.

Overall: it feels a lot like a Stephen King novel - I can see why Darabont (a frequent King chum ever since The Shawshank Redemption) felt drawn to it. (Note: have a look at the comics this is based on.) Though in a Stephen King novel, the group of survivors would also contain a) a teacher (with or without an alcohol problem, though more likely with one), and b) a religious fanatic who cracks under end-of-the-world stress and starts killing group members. (I say this with much affection for the writings of Mr. King; it's just that he has his patterns.) I do like the "how to retain our humanity in vicious surroundings" theme going through both seasons, and that there are no easy answers to it, and something that's inevitable when you do a zombie story - what happens when a member of the group transforms - is treated with the emotional weight it deseves in both seasons. On the downside, it's glaringly obvious that the one character who doesn't get fleshed out, form narratively important relationships to other group members, and who has hardly any lines is the black one, T-Dog, which unfortunately makes me suspect he's only around because setting a story in the American South without any black character (other than some of the zombies, or as they are called here, walkers) would stretch the suspension of belief to breaking point. (Say what you will about Lost, but its first season gave us a clear idea of who Michael was, his past, his goals, etc. After two seasons, I still couldn't tell you anything about T-Dog.) Also, despite my fondness for the survival-of-the-fittest-versus-ethics theme, I wish they hadn't made Dale the primary voice of the later, because it's either the actor or the writing or both, but mannerisms and voice and attitude are grating (to me).

Genuinenly intriguing storytelling choice: usually the main character - who in this ensemble would be Rick Grimes - gets the flashbacks, but in this show, all the flashbacks belong to Shane. (In the first two seasons anyway.) Now partly this is because Our Hero spent a lot of the time available for flashbacks in a coma, but still, it contributes to the impression that Shane is the most carefully developed character in the first two seasons.

It's anything but news, but really: even after the zombie apocalypse, female survivors will be thin (and not for lack of food) and have carefully shampooned hair. I am starting to despair of the existence of any normal-weight actresses left on American tv who are allowed to look situation-appropriate unglamorous. (Carol with her short hair is something of an exception at least in the coiffure department.) Am depressingly reminded of an article legionseagle linked a while ago where Romola Garai has withering things to say about the Hollywood weight terror for actresses.

Speaking of looks: the Breaking Badfan in me wants to know when the "man shaves his hair to signal moral ambiguity quickly going to the darker sides of grey" trend started.

At a guess, Daryl looks primed to be a fandom favourite. As a cross between Firefly's Jayne and Rome's Titus Pullo, with a dash of Lost's Sawyer, he would be. A quick look at the fanfic section tells me he gets paired with Glenn a lot, which I find baffling - did they ever share a scene (in the sense of speaking to each other? Maybe that happens in s3? - until remembering such mundane things like interactions and actual relationships aren't necessary anymore for fanfic to thrive.

Lastly: the show has set itself the same type of problem early Lost and Heroes did by including child characters, to wit: your show takes place within a couple of days, weeks at most, per season, but your child actors are obviously growing up. This is not a problem when a season equates a year (as it did on DS9, where Jake Sisko became the tallest member of the ensemble literary before our eyes), but it is when a season, as mentioned, equates only a few weeks.

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James Bond:

I've been driven to checking out tumblr more in my quest for new M fic, and lo and behold, there was a short but delightful one, which also caters to a theory I have expressed about Eve and her goals in my Skyfall review:


M is for...

Also, yet another adorable backstage picture from the shooting of Skyfall (am utterly unsurprised that Daniel Craig off camera wore something warmer than a suit, it must have been freezing cold in London Below):

A sign of being spoiled, perhaps: the fact that at least in Germany, the "normal" Avengers dvd (i.e. the not blue ray one) comes without any extras but "a visual journey" feels like a bit of a let down; why do only the blue ray folk get the deleted scenes now? :(

Still, it's fantastic to hold to have The Avengers at home now. It's been my sixth or so viewing altogether, and I still am completely in love, despite being able to recite dialogue now. It's the ensembleness, really; everyone's interactions with everyone else are interesting and fun and/or moving to watch. There isn't a combination of characters what makes me press the fast forward button. And even tiny non verbal gestures are telling, such as Steve giving Nick Fury those ten dollars in acknowledgment of their bet, or Natasha, while everyone else is busy squaring off and bickering, checking the monitors for updates on Clint. No wonder fanfiction still thrives.

Speaking of Avengers fanfic:

A different glow for every widow: is a great Natasha pov on a year post movie during which the team becomes friends. Hooray for gen friendship tales, and extra bonus for a Thor who isn't eternally speaking in capslocks and behaving like a five years old.

Still with a vague Marvel connection: Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield (who played the leads in the latest Spiderman film) were stalked by paparazzi and provided the best response to it ever. Go them!

If, like me, you loved the Avengers movie but wished there would be a tv show: there is a great series called Responsible Science, which, with Bruce as the point of view character (but great ensemble use), is basically just that in fanfic form. Each "episode" can be read on its own, and one of the many things I appreciate is that it takes its time with the "everyone becomes friends" part; once the rush of having saved the world togther is over, these characters, as befits their backstory, are still very prickly with each other, and barriers are only lowered slowly. The latest "episode" is this one:

The Kids Weren't Alright

Which takes a fanfic trope usually used for fluffy fanfic (nothing wrong with that, I hasten to add!), i.e. "one or several characters get turned into children" and uses it for absolutely amazing character and relationships exploration. ( A few spoilers for the story ensue. )

I'm afraid the fantastic quality of this story spoiled me for all other reversed age stories in this fandom!

Because it's been too long since I posted some Avengers links:


Give a girl a moment and she'll take you for all you've got: fantastic Maria Hill pov, which fleshes her out as a character and teams her up with Natasha, Pepper, Jane Foster and Darcy for a suspenseful, Bechdel-Test-passing story post movie. Extra bonus for working in the problem of neither falling into the "only superheroes do something, population is passive" trap nor go to the other extreme of declaring said heroes superfluos psychos.

Avengers meta , on basically everyone's relationships with everyone else. Oh well handled ensemble, how I love thee, let me count the ways.

Avengers fandom meta: or, some plausible assumptions why The Avengers became this summer's juggernaut fandom. To the irritation of some. I feel for you, people, because I remember how I felt last summer when everyone was crazy about Inception and I just couldn't follow suit, least of all in the shipper department ("which one is Arthur and which one is Eames again?" being a typical question from yours truly). Whereas this year I'm lucky to be in love with something a lot of other people are also in love with and hence creative in. Just the luck of the draw, I guess.

And finally, something Neil Gaiman posted the other day, of interest to both fans of Sanctuary and people interested in the historic Nikola Tesla: a song about Nikola Tesla he wrote the lyrics to, performed to the spectacle of Tesla coils. As I was curious about said lyrics, I looked them up, and they work amazingly well for both history!Tesla and Sanctuary!Tesla, so I hope someone will vid them for both and add Bowie!Tesla from Prestige for good measure.

Avengers stories I will never read but would love to:

1.) Loki makes a pass at Avenger X. X is not remotely impressed or flustered and turns Loki down. Loki makes a sarcastic comment about X' own killing record/ that of the other Avengers and hypocritical self righteousness etc.; Avenger X replies, sincerely, that Loki's death score and psycho teenager emotional make-up aren't the problem, it's just that X doesn't consider Loki remotely hot.

2.) Darcy, having resumed her studies of political science after the accidental stint with Jane Foster which was never meant to be permanent, gets offered a job with SHIELD/Stark Industries/other Avengers-related employment. Since said job has nothing to do with what she was studying and since she actually cares about her chosen field of study, she turns the offer down and never crosses paths with superheroes again other than reading about them in the newspapers. She does, however, end up heading a Think Tank.

3.) Phil Coulson is being far too professional to entertain a relationship with agents whose handler he is (read: Hawkeye and Black Widow); also, he's asexual and happy with it, as one or both of them find out when early on, not knowing him very well yet, they make a pass at him because that's the type of exploitative handler/agent situation they're used to.


And those are your Avengers comments for the day. Here are recs in other fandoms.

Pirates of the Carribean: A fine woman and an honorable man make peace. Excellent missing scene from Dead Man's Chest between Norrington and Elizabeth while they're both on board the Pearl.

Citizen Kane: The Union Forever. likeadeuce linked me to this CK vid, and an good one it is, too.

A good new interview with Marianne Faithfull apropos an art exhibition at Tate Liverpool she's curating, together with her first husband, John Dunbar. (Some paintings from the exhibition.) I've been recently rereading some biographies in which Marianne, Dunbar and the Swinging London art scene show up a lot (Groovy Bob by Harriet Vyner about art dealer Robert Fraser, Barry Miles' Paul McCartney biography), and it's always a bit of an odd sensation when you encounter various characters from said biographies alive and well as contemporaries still very much continuing their life story.

(Also, I have an admitted soft spot for evidence that people get along well with their exes instead of feuding with them or being on non-speaking terms, even if they are complete strangers whom I only know via their records and biographies, so the idea of Marianne Faithfull and John Dunbar putting up this exhibition together appeals to my inner sentimentalist.)

More on an amused note: someone vidded Live and Let Die to show Peter Wingfield's "transition of a young leading man in the UK to the 'bad guy of the week' in American tv", making a point about how British actors are used. Aside from enjoying the mixture of Peter Wingfield footage with Paul McCartney's voice and music, I have to say that being a German, my sympathy for British actors and their typecasting in Hollywood is a tad limited. Seeing as our lot are getting even more typecast and have been since decades. (One moment, you're a dashing leading man of German films; the next you're Major Strasser in Casablanca...) I would say the ultimate fatal combination dooming an actor to an eternity of villainous typecasting is to be both German and British, except, well: Michael Fassbaender. Who is of Irish and German parentage and currently making a career of beating the odds. All due to the Celtic heritage?

Incidentally, another example of Hollywood-meets-Brits clash would be the anecdote about Life and Let Die George Martin tells in his memoirs. So: early 70s, the Beatles are dissolved, but not that long ago. Paul gets a commission for the title song for the newest James Bond film, and in their first post-Beatles cooperation, his old producer orchestrates and records it for him. (Sidenote: the fact that George Martin did the occasional post-Beatles project with Paul but not with the other three may or may not support John's accusation that Uncle George had a favourite.)

After the producers, Albert 'Cubby' Broccoli and Harry Saltzmann, had heard it, I got a call from Harry's assistant, Ron Cass, saying that they would like to meet me. (...) (My) first meeting with Harry was straight to the point. He sat me down and said, 'Great. Like what you did. Very nice record. Like the score. Now tell me, who do you think we should get to sing it?' That took me completely aback. After all, he was holding the Paul McCartney recording we had made. And Paul was - Paul. But he was clearly treating it as a demo disc.
I don't follow. You've got Paul McCartney...,' I said.
'Yeah, yeah, that's good. But who are we going to get to sing it for the film?'
'I'm sorry. I still don't follow,' I said, feeling that maybe there was something I hadn't been told.
'You know - we've got to have a girl, haven't we? What do you think of Thelma Houston?'
'Well, she's very good,' I said. But I don't see that it's necessary when you've got Paul McCartney.'
Perhaps I was being a bit obtuse. The fact was that he had always thought of a girl singing the lead song in his films, like Shirley Bassey in Goldfinger, and Lulu; and whoever it was, he wanted a recognisable voice rather than Paul's.
As gently as possible, I pointed out that, first of all, Paul was the ideal choice, even if he wasn't a black lady, and that, secondly, if Paul's recording wasn't used as the title song, it was very doubtful whether Paul would let him use the song for his film anyway.

Oh brave new world. Actually given that Paul McCartney had written songs for female singers repeatedly in the 60s (notably It's for You for Cilla Black, Goodbye Love for Mary Hopkin, and arguably Let It Be for Aretha Franklin who was allowed to record it before the Beatles did), I don't think Harry Saltzman's assumption was entirely due to the tradition of letting the title song of a Bond movie be sung by a female singer. But what the ever tactful George Martin doesn't mention in his memoirs was that at this point in the very early 1970s, Paul between pummelled by the critics, blamed by the rock media for the break-up and underperforming in the sales (compared with his earlier and also later successes, that is) needed a resounding personal success. Which Live and Let Die, as it turned out, most definitely was. (He still plays it at his concerts.)

Sidenote: there are are limits to George Martin's tactfulness, mind you. All you need is ears, the memoirs I was quoting from, is from 1979 (which also is important in that anything written and published before John Lennon's death doesn't carry the baggage of said death and the radical change of public status for John that came with it). Now, in more recent interviews (more recent meaning anything from the 90s onwards), George Martin repeatedly stated remorse about neglecting George Harrison as a composer due to being entirely focused on the two main songwriters of the group. This remorse is nowhere evident in 1979, where, with only a decade apart from the Beatles days and the other George alive instead of dead, he's still less than impressed by George H's efforts. Typical quote: "Again, George's contribution, 'Within You Without You', was, with all deference to George, a rather dreary song" (note the "again"). And then there's his assessment of the group and his own role as producer of the Beatles near the end of the book, where he talks about the most debated point of all: "I must emphasise that it was a team effort. Without my arrangements and scoring, very many of the records would not have sounded as they do. Whether they would have been any better, I cannot say. They might have been. That is not modesty on my part; it is an attempt to give a factual picture of the relationship. But equally, there is no doubt in my mind that the main talent of that whole era came from Paul and John. George, Ringo and myself were subsidiary talents. We were not five equal people
artistically: two were very strong, and the other three were also-rans. In varying degrees those three could have been other people."

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Moving on from the 60s and the survivors of that era: I might not be a Games of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire fan, and I do think later Tyrion is a good example of why authors should not fall in love too much with their characters, but there's no doubt Peter Dinklage's performance in the tv version has been one of the standout highlights. Here is a terrific new interview and profile of him, which also deals extensively with the challenges, to put it mildly, a dwarf actor faces in the industry.

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Doctor Who/Sherlock crossover: Preludes, in which pre-series D.I. Lestrade meets pre-11th Hour Amy Pond. Delightful, and very in character for Amy and Lestrade.

Whenever I'm reading something about one of the Republican candidates, I feel trapped in the most horrible type of reality show. Or in some prequel for The Handmaid's Tale, thinking, oh, come on, Margaret Atwood, these characters aren't reall, far too over the top. It would be funny if it wasn't frightening if one considers they even made it that far and what that says about the people supporting them. War on women indeed.

I was utterly unsurprised to read Santorum has it in for the 60s. That was old already when Gingrich had it in for the 60s back in the Clinton years, and you'd think given the baby boomers are now all in retirement age, having it in for the 60s doesn't even pay anymore, but apparently not: it must be some sort of American Conservative coming of age: denouncing the 60s as the decade of evil. And sex. Never forget the sex. Mind you, when reading Santorum thunder about Woodstock (seriously?) and the Democrats being "the party of homosexuals" (does he get paid by the Democrats to do that?), I remembered that last week or the week before someone pointed out Germany (currently also ruled by conservatives) is governed by: a) A childless woman in her second marriage who never ever did the playing-the-housewife thing during her election campaigns, b) an open homosexual living in a registered life partnership with his male husband as her second in command, and c) after our latest presidential switcheroo, by a reverend who has been living unmarried with his (female) partner since the last twelve years and, which means we currently have a First Companion (girlfriend seems to sell the relationship short - the German word, Lebensgefährtin, is far better, because it means a long term, life long partnership without marriage). I mean, I didn't vote for any of them, but still, these are our conservatives. Allow me a moment of relief about living in Old Europe.

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On a related, but fannish note: you can leave prompts at the at the multifandom queer fest ficathon.

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Breaking Bad fanfiction rec:

Blue (she's like a dog that solves puzzles): set mid season 2, after Four Days. In which Walt gets a surprise present and Jesse fundamentally misunderstands the nature of a children's show, and, incidentally, probably the nature of Walt, as well.