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Thursday, August 21st, 2008
painless_j
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2:12a
Death Note: L: Change the World
One of the downloaded versions worked, so I watched L: Change the World. I didn't like it. That is, I didn't dislike it either. Just neither here nor there.
IMO, nobody needed this 'humanisation of L' because he's quite lovely as he is. On the other hand, I don't object to it either. In the circumstances of L's life when the film takes place, I can believe he'd act as he acts in it.
I seriously disliked that the premise has to do with a virus. Yucky! But there were two things I liked. Firstly, it's just a good excuse for seeing L in all his glory for two more hours, half-moon-shaped back and all. And secondly, the very last, closing picture. Cliché but nice and poetic anyway.
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(comment on this) Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
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painless_j
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3:04a
Being polyfandomous sucks. Sometimes.
My computer began panting, so I counted how many tabs there were open and found that they were about 40. And then there were other applications. So I made an inventory of what tabs they were.
Of course, most of those are fiction. In six damn fandoms.
So, 1 POTC fic, 1 Petshop of Horrors fic, 2 Jeeves and Wooster fics, 2 Eroica fics, 2 Death Note fics, 10 HP fics. Also, 2 manga index-like places, 2 Eroica archives, 2 Eroica and DN rec pages, 5 HP mod-n-index-like places, 6 journalling [and related] places, and a bit less than a dozen health-related pages. Not counting those that I open and close to look at things, a dozen at any given time. About 15 of them stay open permanently since they are the places I go to 50 times every day, so I consider it easier to just keep them open.
When put like this, I think it's maybe inefficient to keep all those fics open for days (often weeks). Maybe it would be better to simply bookmark them. But then I recall that I never remember to look in my 'to read' bookmarks. But if I see an open tab, I'll get to it eventually. Hmm. But anyway, fics in six fandoms. That's too much a magpie even for me, especially if I think about all the manga lined up for reading.
Also, I think I should stop waiting until any of the fandoms gather enough recs in my Semagic draft for a post and start spitting them out.
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painless_j
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12:59a
Woe
Downloaded L: Change the World in Japanese with English subtitles yesternight. Was looking forward to seeing it all day today. But it turned out to be without any subtitles :( So now I'm downloading two versions simultaneously: Russian one-voice dubbed and another Japanese subbed. One of them must work!
Watched Ponyo on the Cliff in Japanese instead. Was nice. You can get the general meaning. Now to wait for the release on DVD and watch in the language I choose :) I doubt I'll love it as much as Howl's Moving Castle or Princess Mononoke but I think I'll watch it again properly with pleasure.
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(comment on this) Monday, August 18th, 2008
painless_j
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11:28p
DN rec: Death Note Post Script: an Unofficial Blooper Reel
Death Note Post Script: an Unofficial Blooper Reel, by moonythestrals #
Light/L, R, short. Summary: You know all of those things that should've happened in the actual series, but didn't? Yeah, I don't either - but my brain made a valiant effort to uncover them at four in the morning.
Spoilers: For the entire series, just to be safe.
Meta!fic. In my opinion, very funny. I like watching bloopers, so I enjoyed this fic a lot. It's even more amusing on the second reading or if you try to imagine it as 'real' mis-filmed or mis-drawn scenes. My favourite thing: Hermione!Misa :) And the thing that made me laugh out loud was the several reshootings of THE scene from vol. 7.
And to think that I wasn't even going to read more DN fic :) I'm a magpie *sadface*
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painless_j
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5:52a
Death Note live-action films
Ok, now I watched both Death Note and Death Note: the Last Name (careful, articles may contain spoilers) and am downloading L: Change the WorLd because I wanted more. As you can tell, I liked them. They are long and very different from the manga. I liked the cast. So many beautiful girls. Although it's silly to compare such different media, I liked the drawn!Light better. Well, I liked the drawn!L better too. But I also liked this creepy eyebrowless version. I finally was able to connect to the story emotionally here as I was unable to while reading manga. Let me just say that what didn't make me cry in the manga, here sure did. He's so alone :(
I also liked the endgame here better, in what concerns Light's character. But what I absolutely loved were Shinigami. They are so wonderful!
Now I'm going to watch anime :)
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painless_j
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1:10a
Death Note rec: A Tithe to Hell
A Tithe to Hell, by Aja (bookshop) ##
Light/L, NC-17, 34,000 words. AU, set immediately after manga issue 53 (the end of the Yotsuba Arc). Warnings for: knife/bloodplay, excessive eyerolling, bad metaphoric comparisons of L to fish, amphibians, birds, monkeys, insects, cave dwellers, and fungi, ridiculous amounts of cuddling, and cake as a plot device.
This is just bloody amazing. I finished it and kept staring at the screen, robbed of words and possibly even thoughts 'cos they simply kept returning to the scenes of this story, rotating them in my head. I'm not sure I want to read another DN fic or even delve in this fandom at all because after this, how could they bloody compare? Guh.
It's everything I would ever want L and Light's relationship to be, every character trait perfectly explored, every mind-game potential fulfilled, every detail of behaviour and appearance taken into account. And it's so poignant, so beautiful! The author made me see and feel, cry and grin, be there, become them.
They say familiarity breeds contempt. For me, it rather breeds inattention, the lack of consideration. I've been in HP fandom for years, so I stopped admiring -- stopped noticing even that unique chameleon skill that makes a good writer take somebody else's character and recreate it perfectly, as if it were their own invention, naturally like breathing. I read a story with a Snape that is perfectly Snape, I see a Harry who is so Harry that I can't help saying "OMG it's him!" and I take it for granted. And only when I come to a new fandom, do I begin noticing such things again afresh. Aja took my breath away with this skill here. A perfect Light. A perfect L. Simply wow.
Meanwhile, I've watched live-action film Death Note #1. I liked it :) It's DL streamlined. L is nicely creepy :) And shinigami is OMG, it's almost better than dragons in HP!
Lent the first two volumes of the manga to my RL best friend. She gobbled them up and now is wanting the rest. Hope I can pass them to her soon. Off I go to watch film 2.
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(11 comments | comment on this) Sunday, August 17th, 2008
painless_j
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6:32a
Manga review: Death Note
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Death Note []
Author: Ohba Tsugumi/Asami Yuuko. Artist: Obata Takeshi
Scanlated by: Aku Tenshi, Binktopia, Ice-Master Scanlations, KEFI, OrangeTangerine, Shannaro, The Ones Who Never Lie, Toriyama's World, We, The Fans, mD-xD, pedobears, gto0o
Status: (12 Volumes + Volume 13: How to Read - Complete), licensed
Genre: Adventure Mystery Psychological Shounen Supernatural
Found: via Amanuensis; bought 10 vols in a tiny shop in Haarlem, Netherlands, and the rest in Antwerp
Summary: Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects--and he's bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal…or his life? |
My notes: This is a story of love that could have been but wasn't. When I first opened this manga, I didn't believe I would like it. I didn't like the drawing. I thought it was very professional but rather generic (imprecise word, see below) and adhering to the tastes of late-teen majority. But since I'd bought all the volumes, I decided to give it a go. And it blew me away. Totally and completely.
It's possibly the plottiest thing I've read. I don't like playing chess (although I did when I was a child), but I'd compare it to chess, only lightning-fast. The two young geniuses play various, highly complex combinations that change and turn like a kaleidoscope, fluidly shifting and dragging you with them. It's a manga impossible to put away. You keep OMGing and WHOAing. I felt torn between the desire to gobble it up as fast as possible and stretch the pleasure. So for the first half of the manga, the way to work and home became my favourite part of the day 'cos I decided to read it only on the train. Yep, it wasn't the wisest decision 'cos yep, I missed my stop. ( But then it went sour, for me. )
As a conclusion, it was for sure a very entertaining and engrossing reading but not involving on any other level than plot/suspense.
I hear there's a fanfic, a must-read novel in the DN fandom? Light/L I hope? Link, anybody? Please?
ETA: but where the manga didn't succeed, the live-action films did. I watched both Death Note and Death Note: the Last Name (careful, articles may contain spoilers). I liked them. They are long and very different from the manga. I liked the cast. So many beautiful girls. Although it's silly to compare such different media, I liked the drawn!Light better. Well, same about the drawn!L. But I also liked this creepy eyebrowless film version. I finally was able to connect to the story emotionally here as I was unable to while reading manga. Let me just say that what didn't make me cry in the manga, here sure did. It's so quiet; he's alone. I cried like a baby. Also, showing the event of such magnitude through details: hands, chocolate -- that really punched me hard.
I also liked the endgame in the films better, in what concerns Light's character (see spoilers above). But what I absolutely loved were Shinigami. They are so wonderful!
The films worked for me where the manga didn't, and where the manga did, I liked it a lot. So I got the whole from two different sides :)
See also comments on LJ: some very interesting discussion points from Amanuensis among others.
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painless_j
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3:38a
Is it wrong to laugh?
I just read a fic search request and burst out laughing on the second line:
Looking for a Dark fic where Voldemort and the Death Eaters took over Hogwarts. This is what I remember:
- Neville hid a wand up his bum.
Bwahahahaha, 13 inches (ok, say 11) of wooden stick. Bwahahaha
Either poor Neville, or a superwizard!Neville with a hidden magical compartment inside *rolls on the floor*
So I calm down and see the next line:
- Draco(?) Polyjuiced into Hagrid to rape Harry
Hahahahah *whimpers* Oh my *is ded*
ETA: it's not so much the fic (anything, anything can be written well) as the description. It just blew me.
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painless_j
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1:51a
AS/S fest: reveal is up!
Albus Severus/Scropius fest reveals are posted!
Now I can say that A Wizard's Guide to Pocket Dwelling was written by Hollycomb and that I was happy to beta-read it. Because it's a pleasure to beta for a writer who knows so well what they are doing!
Snatched, the story with kidnapping and wizarding TV news, was written by Blamebrampton! Whee!
Off I go to add the rest of the names to my recs.
I can't say I've read more than a half of the fest fics -- I've been picking them at random. So I might go back to read some more, especially from the end of the fest when I completely sank in yaoi :)
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(comment on this) Friday, August 15th, 2008
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painless_j
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11:36p
Eroica recs, vol. 4
Spring Fever, by Kadorienne #
Dorian/Klaus, R, novella. Written: 2001. Summary: Klaus makes Dorian an offer he can’t refuse.
I love how Kadorienne writes romance: so exciting and comforting, with a nice touch of angst and tension and engaging plots. Perfect to bask in. One thing I wish is that the story were explicit. But I shouldn't be too greedy.
As iamtheenemy says in their crack_van rec, "This story has a simple premise - Klaus, realizing he will be unable to resist Eroica's constant flirtation any longer, makes him an offer he can't refuse. Eroica gets one night with a cooperative Klaus, and in return, must never bother him again. Of course, things don't go quite as planned, for either man."
Amusing and lovely, and a bit angsty, to spice the romance. Pleasure!
The Iron Mask, by Kadorienne []
Dorian/Klaus, R, ~6K words. Written: 2001. Category: Amnesiac!Klaus. Summary: Take the standard Eroica blackmail plot. Throw in the sharp blow to the head our darling Major has been needing so desperately.
Cliché but fun. It's the first time I saw amnesia plot in this fandom, and although I admit that there's nothing unique in how it's executed here, it was still pleasant to read. The way the Major behaves after losing his memory is very much him and therefore, very amusing.
"Where shall I take you, darling?" The man’s accent was English and aristocratic, quite pleasant to hear.
"Wherever you wish."
The other man seemed a bit surprised at that. Giving Klaus an inquiring look, he said, "Well, we really ought to get you out of those wet clothes." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he looked as if he regretted them. He sent a quick, apprehensive glance Klaus’ way. When Klaus only nodded mutely, the other man continued, "My flat is closer than the schloss, if that’s all right."
"Of course."
Klaus had said something wrong. The confusion in the blond’s face was muted, but it was there. Klaus only hoped he could get his bearings without offending the man. A lovers’ quarrel was all he needed now.
Members Only, by Sleeps With Coyotes []
Gen, PG, short. Summary: Klaus tracks a target to a very private gentleman's club.
Well-written, vivid (the guards at the club!) and amusing, especially the ending. Pity only it's not Klaus/Dorian :)
Suite of Hours, by CTB (Colette T. Bolech) (available from the Eroicafans.org email archive) []
Dorian/Klaus, NC-17, ~13K words. Summary: Eroica and the Major reflect on their relationship or lack there of. Conclusions are draw. Notes: Published in Concupiscence 3- 1994
The story is slow and rather verbose, as for me. While the characters think of each other, there is a lot of masturbation (rather repetitive) and contemplation but it's not as boring as I though it would be on reading the unfortunate summary. The stupefied and insecure Major is hot. I like how CTB writes sex: even though it is repetitive (or not very varied), it's somehow very sincere and intense.
Angle of Descent, by CTB (Colette T. Bolech) (available from the Eroicafans.org email archive) []
Dorian/Klaus, NC-17, ~8600 words. Summary: Eroica finally has enough and does as the Major wishes. He leaves. But is that really what they both want?
Angsty and intense. We can see an offended and cold Dorian. Sex when it happens is sexy. Quite pleasant, on the angsty end of things.
Strangers, by Colette T. Bolech & KM (available from the Eroicafans.org email archive) []
Dorian/Klaus, NC-17, novella. Warnings: Character death – before start of story, angst and grief. Summary: Dorian is deeply depressed and gets support from an unlikely source.
The 'before the start of story' situation made really sad. It robs Dorian of his Eroica part, and to see it missing is pretty painful. I don't quite understand the very premise, why Klaus comes to visit Dorian at all. But if to put that aside, the way the story goes is lovely, even if I don't quite believe in this Klaus. The story also needs another proof-reading.
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painless_j
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9:11p
Hmm
It seems I'm experiencing a slight setback :( No, nothing is spinning in that horrible way of the beginning of the week but gently floating instead. Not unbearable but it makes me rather unsure of the exact position of my surroundings. So I chickened out of going to the market (near my home) for fresh vegs that I planned yesterday. I still have a quarter of that huge watermelon Best Male Friend brought on Tuesday.
There will be Eroica recs later and maybe yaoi reading report 'cos I've been reading non-stop all day.
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(3 comments | comment on this) Thursday, August 14th, 2008
painless_j
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6:02p
Health update 2
I went to an otoneurologist, one with a doctoral degree too. Am unsatisfied with the visit, even though the doctor was a lovely elderly woman. After half an hour of prodding and tests, her medical conclusion took four lines of typed text, which in plain language means: discovered problems with vestibular system. Duh. This is what I came to complain about! She told me to lie down for two weeks, doing nothing at all. Yeah, right. As if I had this opportunity OR wish. My bum is VERY tired of my sitting on it all day long as it is. She prescribed me pills (called Betaserc in Russian). I began taking them. Can't say anything about how they work yet. Anyway, I have another appointment, with a different doctor, booked in a week. That one is said to have a specialisation in physical therapy as treatment of vestibular system disorders.
Meanwhile, I'm a pro in moving about without moving my head by now. So I'm feeling tolerably, if a bit like on a ship. The perils of feeling fine: sometimes I completely forget that I shouldn't bend my head and give myself a nice (not!) jolt. I also tested moving through the city yesterday, both by car and by train, and found that as long as I keep my head straight, it doesn't matter if the things move around me. Which is nice to know! It means I can go to work on Monday. Can't believe I miss work!
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