Firstly, a political link. You know how a regular complaint in the more conservative media is that Muslim clerics and the Muslim communities in general don't distance themselves enough/don't speak out enough against terrorism? Here's an article collecting Muslim responses to extremism, in no uncertain terms.

From real life to fannish life: while I find the newest lj idiocy annoying, what really made my jaw drop in horror this morning was the news, via skywaterblue, that Eric "Supernatural" Kripke might write a Sandman tv adaption. Look, I know that there are a lot of SPN fans on my flist. I tried. I watched the first season. It didn't do anything for me. Not in the sense of me hating every single episode (I'd have quit far sooner if I had) but in the sense of feeling indifferent to the leads, thinking "I've seen the X-Files do this a decade earlier, and they at least had Scully!" and concluding that this show's sensibility was not mine, and so stopping instead of continuing and complaining was the thing to do. And there I would have left it, but for this news, because Sandman? That's one of my fannish holy grails. I love the Sandman series. One of the many things I love about it is that female characters show up in equal importance and depth of characterisation as male ones, and that Neil Gaiman through all volumes avoids the privileging of one relationship above all others. This, to put it mildly, seems to me the opposite of the SPN narrative. In conclusion: do not want Eric Kripke anywhere near the Sandman saga and the Sandman characters.

After this dire shock of a prospect, I needed cheering up, which came in the form of two ficathons, thisengland and paperlegends, the former being based on Shakespeare's Histories and the later on Merlin. Both offer great tales. Two early favourites:

Shakespeare:

Fail Trying: in which Falstaff is a space pirate, which is the best thing ever. Wonderful, wonderful Falstaff pov in this sci fi updating of his story. You know, Orson Welles would have loved it.

Merlin:

When you can see forever: something I don't want to see on the show itself (because I think Gwen as a commoner is a really important part of this version of the tale) but very much enjoyed seeing explored in fanfiction: Gwen turns out to be the long lost daughter of Queen Boudicca. (Which is the kind of cheerful anachronism the show itself specializes in.) And that far from solves any problems. A great OT4 story which does justice to everyone's relationships and doesn't simplify any of its characters.

I finally gave in and started to watch Supernatural. So far so entertaining; it reminds me of the early X-Files with its monsters of the week and the backstory trauma as a red thread, not surprising, since I recognized one of the writers (Chiban), one of the directors (Kim Manners) and of course Mr. Cigarette Smoking Man himself guest-starring.

As with the X-Files, it has a complete focus on its two leading characters (though I take it father John is going to play a greater role, given he's vaznetti's favourite character) and gets talked about as much as Sydney's mother "Laura" did throughout the first season of Alias before Irina Derevko made her triumphant return. With the exception of Dr. Who (which has recurring characters but mostly a two-character-focus as well, the Doctor and the Companion du jour), I've been watching only ensemble shows in recent years, and I think it has spoiled me, because I find myself missing the ensemble feel. I mean, shows like Alias have of course a clear leading lady, but they also have an assortment of other fleshed out characters; this goes for all three Jossverse shows; and my newest obsession, Heroes, is defined as an ensemble show in the title. Now with the exception of Firefly, where I really love everyone equally, I do play the favourites game; there are characters and storylines I love better than others. But I still dig that the others are there. And I miss this about Supernatural, which is perhaps unfair of me, as it's defined as a two-leads show, not an ensemble one.

Also, I can see where the gender critique comes from, what with the women all either victims or evil, but at least some of the victims of the case du jour do get to help with fighting the bad guys, so we're not quite back to the dark pre Buffy ages. Still. When seeing a scene where a guy sneaks into a building with a girl in tow who cautions him, it's impossible not to think of how brilliantly Joss set that kind of scene up once and for all in the very teaser of the very first BTVS episode, in which the fearful blonde girl turns out to be the monster (and none other than my beloved Darla). And here it's played straight. Hm.

The boys: are believable as brothers. I can see why Dean is the universal fan favourite, which naturally makes me route for Sam a little.*g* But so far, I'm not really involved with either of them, though as I said entertained enough. I shall conclude by stating cryptically they are not Italian.