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Disclaimer: This journal contains stories and links to stories of a fictional nature. Nothing is meant to be implied about the real actors or real life figures mentioned within. Everything here is fiction and there is absolutely no truth to it whatsoever. I made it all up.
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"A Heap Of Broken Images." (Methos/Duncan) PG
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15 Jul 2008 | 11:27pm
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Title: A Heap Of Broken Images.
Author: ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) lannamichaels
Fandom: Highlander: The Series
Pairing: Methos/Duncan
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Davis-Panzer Productions owns Highlander. I don't make any money from this.
A/N: Title from "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot. Written for the ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) contrelamontre seventy-eight-minute second-person challenge. (Yes, really. Second person. This is like someone waving a red flag ordering me to sit down, shut up, write something, and post it immediately before I can think better of it. I r so predictable.)
Summary: You are Methos and you will die.
( You are the great god, fain and fey. )
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Eleven reasons...
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21 Jun 2008 | 10:17pm
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Why Duncan MacLeod Is Not My Type, by Methos the Immortal
- He's an optimist.
- He's a better swordfighter than I am.
- He doesn't abandon his students (unless he kills them.)
- He leaves his socks everywhere.
- He doesn't bottom.
- There is not one bone of self-preservation in his exquisitely toned body.
- He thinks Superman would win.
- All his former friends want to kill him.
- He still has living relatives.
- His name is too suited to acrostics and romance novels.
- He isn't insane.
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Saint-Saens - Danse Macabre |
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Preliminary thoughts on the GP draw, haven't read anyone else's yet
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14 Jun 2008 | 07:53pm
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- From a scheduling/dates perspective, the fact that Kimmie got COR is unspeakably hilarious and also either v. v. sweet or v. v. insulting. (Unless COR doesn't conflict with Easterns this year, in which case, never mind then.)
- The ISU cannot spell the names of the skaters. o.O
- Yuki Nishino is staying junior, then. Good. I'd hoped she'd stay on the JGP another season. (Unless she was born on the wrong side of the date line and so didn't have a choice and I can't read. Which is possible.).
- The TBA in the dance spot at SA makes me assume it's going to Gregory/Petukhov and is just waiting on a final note from the doctor. I wonder who the 1st Alternate for that spot is. Navarro/Bommentre and Wester/Barantsev have two assignments off the bat. 7th place finisher at Nationals were Summersett/Gilles. They would be cool to see.
- What is it with Skate America being the Match Up Of The Up-From-Juniors Stars? Monko/Tkachenko vs. Samuelson/Bates. This is going to be fun.
- Zhang/Wei and Shawn Sawyer at Skate America! *cheers* Ladies at SA looks interesting now. I don't think it will stay that way.
- Three TBA spots at Skate Canada. I assume those will be filled like before with the results of Nebelhorn. Vaughn Chipeur already has two assignments of his own, but Shawn Sawyer only has the one so far. I wonder if no Canadian medals at Nebelhorn, will Shawn get the third Canada spot? Or will they hope that someone withdraws from another event and so Shawn gets a second spot that way? Either way, Go Bendy Boy!
- Am I the only one who expects Paetsch/Nuss to split before the GP? Also, Vanessa James and Yannick Bonheur. Yes, I am a pessimist, and I have no faith in pairs.
- Domnina/Shabalin vs. Khokhlova/Novitski at both events. Wow, was I completely wrong about the Russian federation keeping them apart so they'd both have the best shot at making the GPF and eventually going 1-2 at Euros. o.O WTF, Russia?
- The USA is sending at least one entry in all four disciplines to all six events, and there are more US skaters who are eligible for getting an alternate draw who don't have assignments. Allow me to be patriotic for a moment. *is patriotic* Now, where was I? Oh, right. US pairs suck, and the ladies program is in trouble.
- Bets on when Inoue/Baldwin withdraw with
apathy better things to do injury? I'm looking on the bright side; Vise & Trent only have one event so far. And, hey, NNN, how's the hip?
- Kim Lucine got TEB! *dances* And so did Brandon Mroz! And Emily Hughes! WHEEE!
- If the Zars place 4th at Cup of China yet again, I will headdesk.
- Cup of Russia: meh. I may change my mind about that later, but probably not. Go Kimmie! Go Davis/White! Keep your shirt on, Brian! I'm doing my cheering now, because I'll probably forget about COR while it's going on.
- NHK looks marginally more interesting, with Wagner and Samuelson/Bates and Virtue/Moir and Weaver/Poje and Faiella/Scali and the Reeds and the adorable Estonian pair who always place 6th. Bets on if Oda shows up/wins? It would be comeback story of the year if he wins. I wouldn't be surprised if he withdraws. Is he doing any summer comps in Canada?
- My unpopular opinion of the day: I like Carriere more than Abbott and Rippon. I think I'm the only one in the world. He's not boring, he's just prematurely balding! (He and Jon Nuss should start a club.)
Oh, Jon Nuss. You need a partner who doesn't look 9.
- Drew Meekins is still looking for a partner and apparently he is much more bendy than I remember. o.O I watched old Vlassov/Meekins vids and, jeez, where did these spirals come from? o.O o.O o.O My new dream pairs team is now Alissa Czisny/Drew Meekins instead of Alissa Czisny/Shawn Sawyer. Sorry, Shawn. It's the citizenship issue, nothing more.
- I am not on the edge of my seat for Skate America like I was last year. I am so over the manufactured Evan/Johnny rivalry that I'm considering only watching the Japanese coverage of the men's event so I won't have to put up with NBC's crap. As for the ladies, oh my god, I am not watching that on NBC. Because the only thing I am more over than the Evan/Johnny rivalry-for-ratings is the constant cries of the NBC announcers that 1) Kimmie Meissner is old enough to vote and therefore she is too old for figure skating, 2) age limits are evil, 3) we don't care about edges and the judges are evil for actually expecting a lutz to not be a flip.
No, really, do you all remember that horrible on-camera from Nationals where Tracy Wilson patiently explained the edge deductions and then the male commentators just shrugged it off and said it was too complicated? Too complicated?!!! Oh my god. If you don't care enough about skating to understand which jump is which, get the fuck out of the commentating booth. The commentators treat the audience like we are idiots, talk as if the things that are most important to them (like if the skaters have a fake smile plastered on their faces) are actually important to the judging, and won't even pretend to care about COP. Hey, assholes, if all you do is talk like COP is too hard to understand and is so unfair and wah wah wah whine? Guess what? SHUT THE FUCK UP. Stop treating us like we're idiots.
We need skaters who have actually competed under COP to get in the booth. Who besides me would love to have Timothy Goebel and Angela Nikodinov in there with Tracy Wilson and Paul Wylie? *crickets*
- Because, for god's sake, I am willing to have a calm and reasoned discussion about what is wrong with the age limits (first of all, they aren't consistent. second of all, they aren't consistent. third of all, they aren't consistent), but---okay, actually not. Because now I'm thinking about Dick Button's wuzrobbing from last season and I'm too angry to have a rational discussion. Let's just say, I'm in favor of changing age limits, so long as they are consistent and the same rules apply to the both the men and the women in a pairs/dance team and they make it so that if you compete at a senior international, you lose your eligibility for Junior Worlds. Too much to ask?
- And I wrote up a whole post yesterday with My Thoughts On The Grand Prix, but I'm actually okay with a lot of the assignments, so maybe not. I didn't honestly expect Parker Pennington to get Skate America after placing 11th at Nationals, even though he so completely deserves to get a PB already. I dunno, maybe I'm just too cranky to work up my righteous indignation right now.
- So, preemptively: SHUT UP, NBC! IT'S AN ACTUAL COMPETITION, NOT THE EVAN AND JOHNNY OR THE MIRAI AND RACHAEL SHOW!
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Dear world (and by world, I mean bigots)
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22 May 2008 | 11:08pm
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You can call heterosexual marriage with expectation of monogamy a lot of things, but you cannot call it "traditional marriage".
Because I don't know about Christianity, but I know the point where Ashkenazi Judaism outlawed having more than one wife at the same time. And something tells me that Christianity must have officially outlawed it at some point as well.
So!
Calling it "traditional" not only presupposes "Christian tradition", it also presupposes "Christian tradition since X point in history", and probably also presupposes a certain branch of Christianity, and do we need to have the discussion again about the fiction of the 1950s heterofamily? I didn't think so.
And rejoicing that the CA process will allow the CA voters to vote to "uphold marriage" by not allowed gay marriage? Not cool. Not cool at all.
(I love the guy in the PA senate who tried to add an amendment to make divorce illegal to the "we hate gays" bill, in the name of defending marriage. "But it'll get killed by Republicans if you do that!" said people who didn't get the point. Hey, if you're gonna defend marriage, you should defend it all the way. Only fair.)
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one part rec, two parts rant, three parts extraneous parentheses, and a partridge in a pear tree.
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22 May 2008 | 12:38am
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I have no idea how to start this entry, so I'm just...starting it. Yeah.
Anyway. I spent a great deal of yesterday reading maculategiraffe's The Slave Breakers origfic, which I found after reading her very disturbing Sex & The City meta post that was linked on metafandom a while ago (when I said I'm behind on the flist, let me elaborate: I still have stuff from over a month ago tabbed up in Firefox.)
Don't get me wrong. When I say it was disturbing, I mean just that: it disturbed me. It freaked me out. I read it on a Friday afternoon and it stayed with me, in my head, connecting a bunch of stuff together about why that show has always squicked me and why shows like it make me want to run as far as I can in the opposite direction. That thing is haunting.
And please, consider this an enthusiastic rec for her origfic slave series. It's good. It's really good.
The thing I like most about it is that it's not some syrupy crap about happiness in slavery and how some people were just meant to be sold into slavery and dominated and isn't it great that there's this social and legal institution to put them in their biological-imperative place. (Anne Rice beauty series, I am looking at you.) Some of the slaves may be okay with their situations, but the series is very clear on the big freaking huge problems in that society, for the society as a whole, for the slaves, and for the slavers. There is nothing romantic or idealized about it.
And, okay, one thing I love and adore in kinkfic is the acknowledgement that the whole BDSM thing is a sex game. (In contrast, one thing I hate? That requisite and cliched scene where the submissive snarks at the dominant in public out of role just to show that he's not cowed, not really, and it's all just a game that they keep in the bedroom, even though "the bedroom" might encompass several square miles.) And, you know, if one day you don't feel like playing it? You don't have to. There was a fic a long while back that I couldn't put my finger on why it squicked me so hard, and I finally realized it was because the entire BDSM relationship in it boiled down to "my way or the highway". In other words, if the submissive did not do what the dominant wanted, there would be no more sex, no more relationship, and that submissive was mindfucked into believing he didn't have a hope of ever getting the parts of the relationships he wanted again if he didn't submit to the shit he really didn't want. Because that's not hitting up against the bounds of consent, not at all. (This is not a dig at the writer, just an explanation of why that fic bothered me so much. I think my biggest kink may be extra-consensual, in which the submissive makes it pretty damn clear just how much ze wants it and will the big bad dominant just shut up and do it already.)
Which is a long way around of saying that I really like this slavefic because it's not some BDSM kink thing masquerading as a romanticized version of how nice it would be if we could keep a harem of pretty sex slaves. (Anne Rice beauty series, I am looking at you.) And I'm sure I've written that sort of crap myself sometime, because, hey, I have kinks, too. I'm all about nice escapism fic where anything goes. But it's nice to read one where there are actual consequences to the entire fucked-up-ness going on.
And now I have the urge to write, for the upteenth time, why I hate and loathe and despise the Beauty Series. (Anne Rice, you are out of your bloody mind.)
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Coldplay - Violet Hill |
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"Stargate: Eastern Section." (Elizabeth Weir/Priscilla Hill) PG
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19 May 2008 | 02:35am
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Title: Stargate: Eastern Section.
Author: lannamichaels
Fandom: Figure Skating RPS/Stargate Atlantis crossover
Pairing: Elizabeth Weir/Priscilla Hill
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: This is a work of complete and utter fiction. I completely made it up, from start to finish. Blatant lie. I don't own the Stargate universe.
Note On Canon: I'm still working my way through season 2 and this is pre-series, so there is no canon here whatsoever.
A/N: Written for the contrelamontre sixty-minute dream challenge. This is not a sequel to Stargate: Midwestern Section, but I suppose it happens in the same universe.
Summary: Elizabeth Weir made it to nationals once.
( Representing the Skating Club of Boston, please welcome to the ice, Elizabeth Weir. )
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Coldplay - Violet Hill |
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"An Exercise For The Reader." (Methos/Byron) PG
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16 May 2008 | 02:10am
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Title: An Exercise For The Reader.
Author: lannamichaels
Fandom: Highlander: The Series
Pairing: Methos/Byron
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Davis-Panzer Productions owns Highlander. I don't make any money from this.
A/N: Written for the contrelamontre forty-five-minute stories challenge.
Summary: Pay attention. You will be tested on this.
( Please open your books to Chapter 5. )
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"Stargate: Midwestern Section." (Evan Lysacek/Rohene Ward [Ronon Dex]) PG
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13 May 2008 | 12:46am
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Title: Stargate: Midwestern Section.
Author: lannamichaels
Fandom: Figure Skating RPS/Stargate Atlantis crossover
Pairings: Evan Lysacek/Rohene Ward (Ronon Dex)
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: This is a work of complete and utter fiction. I completely made it up, from start to finish. Blatant lie. I don't own the Stargate universe.
Note On Canon: I'm still working my way through season 2, so there is no canon here whatsoever other than the basics on Ronon.
A/N: My first reaction to Ronon was along the lines of "that's gotta be Rohene Ward's last-ditch trans-galactic effort to get to the Olympics." Further viewings did not change that conviction. And then icarusancalion mentioned Evan in Atlantis and it all clicked into place. For the SGA people: this is Rohene Ward.
Summary: Rohene is the one guy Evan didn't expect to find on the list of post-season retirements.
( There's an ISU Communication for everything. )
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The primary season, or, the gleeful rush towards disenfranchisement
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11 May 2008 | 02:06am
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Oh, good lord. Can we just stop? No, really. Can we just stop? Can we stop saying that one candidate needs to drop out of the race, for whatever reasons, because they're just drawing it out? can we stop whining about how this is taking too long? Remember before Super Tuesday, people being aghast that the primary season might last longer than that? That...
THE ENTIRE COUNTRY MIGHT GET TO VOTE FOR THE NOMINEE? HOW DARE THEY!
What's the rush, y'all? What is so freakingly offensive about every single state getting a primary that matters? If the 24 hour news media is so tired of covering the convention, they can cover the war, or the economy or civil rights abuses or the geneva convention or war crimes or anything that isn't more idiotic random candidate fluff. I don't care what it is. If you talking heads are tired of being proven wrong when you say that the American public wants one thing, and get affronted when the American public turns around and says "no, actually, THIS IS WHAT WE WANT", and then spin spin spin and talk exit polls and how the race is over before most of the country has even voted, and then blabber on when you're proven wrong again and again and try to force a candidate out and focus on things that aren't important, and YET AGAIN get proven wrong when the public actually VOTES... oh my god, shut the fuck up already.
The primary season is not yet over. Can we not be so eager to disenfranchise entire states, plz?
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Wow. Let's play Spot The Factual Errors!
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08 May 2008 | 02:40pm
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I couldn't resist.
FORBES MAGAZINE: In Pictures: America's Most Promising Young Athletes: Mirai Nagasu
Nagasu took the 2007 U.S. Junior Championships at age 14, the second-youngest ever to capture that title. Future Olympian Tara Lipinski was a couple of months younger when she won it in 1997. An Olympic gold medal isn't paramount to endorsement success; skaters at least promoted as contenders tend to develop big audiences.
1) Nagasu won the junior title at the 2007 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at age 13.
2) Nagasu won the senior title at the 2008 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at age 14.
3) Nagasu did not win a title at the U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championships, which is the championships for juvenile and intermediate skaters.
4) Tara Lipinski won the senior title in 1997.
5) I don't know who the youngest Junior National Champion of the United States was, but it was not Tara Lipinski, because Lipinski never won the junior national title. She lost to Sydne Vogel, who later won Junior Worlds (which Lipinski never did, but who cares) and even later switched to competing for Germany, and how's that for a random bit of trivia?
6) Nagasu is the second-youngest U.S. senior ladies champion, which, after nationals, some papers decided to write as the youngest Asian-American champion ever, which, imho, completely belittles her accomplishment. There have been a bazillion ladies champions. There have been significantly fewer Asian-American champions. I think Nagasu's the fifth? Would have to check.
7) Nagasu is not a contender for the 2010 Olympic Gold Medal. She is a contender for the U.S. team. She will not be a contender for the gold medal until she has done more than win junior grand prix events and a senior domestic title. But, hey, whatever floats your fantasies. I should learn to never expect realistic expectations when it comes to people hyping someone who is not senior age eligible as the next Olympic champion. Pre-pubescent triple-triple queens? How about the queen of triple-triple queens, Tara Lipinski, who destroyed her hips before she was 15 in pursuit of an Olympic title? But, hey, at least she got it. Sigh. There is a reason I really don't like ladies singles as a discipline.
Did I miss anything?
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"Not With A Bang." (Methos/Joe Dawson) R
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02 May 2008 | 01:18am
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Title: Not With A Bang.
Author: lannamichaels
Fandom: Highlander: The Series
Pairing: Methos/Joe Dawson
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Davis-Panzer Productions owns Highlander. I don't make any money from this.
A/N: The title is from The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot. This was written for the contrelamontre 89-minute random word challenge. The word was "book" from Good Omens. I started this, got 12 minutes in, and then was interrupted and had to pick it up again later. So while it was done in 89 minutes, they were not 89 continuous minutes.
Summary: This is the way the world ends. A Gathering fic.
( There are no eyes here in this valley of dying stars. )
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Case in point why the notion of a "season's best" list is total bullshit
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29 Apr 2008 | 03:47pm
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Evan has the fourth highest score in the world...from his worst competition of the year.
Although I love how relatively low (17th) Adam Rippon is in the World Standings, because he's had all of one good season, and thank god that's reflected. I might whine about rankings, but it's nice to see them occassionally working. (I really wish they'd have seperate rankings for juniors and seniors. The way it works now is just bizarre. Krasilnikova/Bezmaternikh are ranked fourth, ahead of, well, everyone, and have only competed at one senior event in their lives and that was a GP, not an ISU championship. My head hurts.)
I've watched a lot of Jeff news fluff and a meme that keeps getting repeated is that he came in (implied: into the free skate) ranked in 7th place, which, if anyone knows anything about what actually happened at Worlds, didn't happen. It finally hit me over the head that they were referring to his World Standing coming into the event as a whole. But, uh. Coming into an event ranked 7th in world? Doesn't mean anything. At all. Fuck it, Brian Joubert was undefeated last season and was ranked second below Takahashi after 2007 Worlds. Why? Because Takahashi won a competition for which Joubert was not eligible and that competition, for some reason, counted for World points. World Standings? Are bullshit. Totally bullshit.
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This is not a Big Damn Angry Political Post
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22 Apr 2008 | 10:37pm
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The way I feel about Hillary Clinton is how you feel when you're in first grade and they tell you that, in America, anyone can be President, any one, and all that summed up Stereotypical Eastern-European Immigrant Experience, coming to America, a land of endless possibilities, where it doesn't matter where you come from, but what you can do. It's how you feel when they tell you that a woman can be President, that you can be President, where you only have to look at various other countries to see women at the highest levels of power, and knowing that it will one day happen here and knowing it will be soon and that one day you, too, can become President. The way I feel about Hillary Clinton is how I felt before I discovered that little asterisk after that, the little asterisk that pointed down to:
* Only rich highly-educated well-connected charismatic white anglo-saxon christen men need apply. And did we mention you have to be a Christian male? No, really, did we? Shall we discuss how JFK being Catholic was a Really Big Deal, even though he was also a Christian, just like every other President before him? Because it was. ONLY WHITE CHRISTIAN MEN NEED APPLY.
And there is a lot I don't like about Hillary Clinton, and a lot that I do, but when I look at her, that's how I feel: in America, a woman will be President. Because it's about damn time.
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"More Full Of Weeping." (Methos/Connor MacLeod) R
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17 Apr 2008 | 10:51pm
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Title: More Full Of Weeping.
Author: lannamichaels
Fandom: Highlander: The Series
Pairing: Methos/Connor MacLeod
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Davis-Panzer Productions owns Highlander. I don't make any money from this.
A/N: Written for the contrelamontre thirty-five-minute missing challenge. The title is from The Stolen Child by William Butler Yeats.
Summary: There are no victories during the Gathering, only survival.
( Come away, O human child, to the waters and the wild )
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There is no H in cynicism, but there is one in Pittsburgh...
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16 Apr 2008 | 11:36pm
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I will not be voting in the primary (which I may or may not make a Big Damn Political Post about on Tuesday), but and this is hilarious.
Pennsylvania's late-April primary has traditionally been symbolic of the goddamn primary season almost being over.
Yeah. Why are we close-to-last, again? No, really, explain this to me in simple monosyllabic words that do not, in essence, boil down to a concept that makes me want to throw things and...right, I was going to rant about this on Tuesday.
Hey, Obama people? Canvassing at the door and talking to my mom about me changing my registration? Is pretty much the ONE REASON I DIDN'T. No, really. You have brains. The whole Let's Not Be Big Brother thing is not complicated.
...Yes. Right. Tuesday. Because I will not be voting. Because I am registered independant, last time I looked. And there is currently a We Hate Gays bill in the state senate, which will, of course, also negatively impact straight people, but that's all well and fine in the name of making sure those damn gays can't get married
and the FRICKING CANDIDATE OF CHANGE WILL NOT COMMIT TO GIVING ME EQUAL RIGHTS
No, really. What is so repugnant about me that I am not allowed equal rights under law? Why won't they even make a campaign promise about it? In the grand scheme of things, HOW WILL LETTING ME HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS HURT THE ICKLE STRAIGHT PEOPLE?!!!
Oh, and it's April and we're having our primary now. Do you know how many electoral votes Pennsylvania has? Good. Now, do you know how many electoral votes Iowa, New Hampshire, ET CETERA ET CETERA ET CETERA have? Not that I think we should go down the list in order, but I really don't understand why we can't have a national primary and let everyone vote all at once. Now for that I would take the five minutes to fill out a change my registration card.
And the electoral college is a stupid idea in the first place. Why haven't we gotten rid of it yet? In what alternate reality is that still NOT A TOTAL JOKE?
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Why Flexibility Is Not A Skating Skill, Redux
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07 Apr 2008 | 10:24pm
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Had an interesting conversation about a picture in the paper of Sasha Cohen in a bendy pose on the floor that promoted some celebrity reality game show type thing. He wanted to know if I was going to watch it, since it had Sasha, and I'm a figure skating fan.
I took one look at the picture and was like, why? That's not contortionism (which it was advertised to be), that's a Biellmann spin. And not even a good one, at that. Her foot was barely over her head. Sasha can do better.
Despite the fact that she was lying on the floor. And hitting a holy-fucking-owww position. This does not impress because, hey, I'm a figure skating fan. A fan of a sport about people skating on ice. Despite what you'd think from, y'know, watching ladies skating.
Who's a better skater: Caroline Zhang or Kimmie Meissner? Caroline Zhang enjoys resting her head on the back of her thigh, and bringing her skate blade down to her face, and doing a B-mann spin so straight up that her legs form an I shape. And various other rubberband feats.
It's sometimes hard to realize that, in the normal world, Kimmie Meissner would be considered freakishly bendy. In the skating world... she doesn't do a Biellmann, she doesn't pull her Y-spin all the way to her ear, she does an I spin only in exhibition, therefore she can't spin. (Yes, I am indulging in hyperbole. Watch me care. And not as much as you'd think. She's got some really rapid haters. Phil Hersh, I am looking at you.)
Skating is about skating. Believe it or not.
An Ina Bauer can be gorgeous without hitting a Shizuka Arakawa head position.
The most important thing in spirals is the edging, not the exact position of the free leg. (Or, in Mao Asada's case, the free arm, which, I will admit, made her one-hand B-mann spiral look much more polished this season. Then again, if you're Mao Asada, the only thing left to do is polish. And get a salchow)
And I don't care how loud Dick Button argues, the layback position refers to the position of the back. The leg position? Nothing. At. All. To. Do. With. It.
And can we please, for the love of god, ban the fan (aka dog-peeing-on-a-hydrant) spiral?
Flexibility for flexibility's sake may be mesmerizing to watch, but it sure as hell ain't figure skating.
(I said it before and I'll say it again: watching the novice and junior Biellmann Robots at nationals was fun, but it really made me appreciate Kimmie Meissner.)
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"One Night In Cardiff." (Jack Harkness/Jack Harkness) R
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06 Apr 2008 | 12:25am
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Title: One Night In Cardiff.
Author: lannamichaels
Fandom: Torchwood
Continuity/Canon: through Torchwood 2.13
Pairings: Jack Harkness/Jack Harkness, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Rating: R
Disclaimer: The BBC owns Torchwood. I don't make any money from this.
Summary: Jack wasn't allowed in this part of the morgue.
( ''That's the spirit. Go forth and confuse the masses.'' )
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Happy birthday!
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22 Mar 2008 | 10:34pm
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Happy birthday, Luna!!!
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"Two Years, Five Months, Twelve Days, Eight Minutes, And Seventeen Seconds." (Jack/Ianto) PG
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21 Mar 2008 | 03:29am
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Title: Two Years, Five Months, Twelve Days, Eight Minutes, And Seventeen Seconds.
Author: lannamichaels
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Continuity/Canon: through Torchwood 2.05
Pairing: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: The BBC owns Torchwood. I don't make any money from this.
A/N: Written for the This Night by Black Lab vid prompt by misslucyjane at the Love-A-Thon 2008 at lucyjanesparlor.
Summary: Sometimes it's better not to remember.
( Because ignorance is bliss. )
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I feel like I've just been punched in the gut
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13 Mar 2008 | 02:22pm
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Evan withdraws from Worlds
Lysacek fell Wednesday during training, after his right blade broke while landing a triple Axel.
I HATE THAT FUCKING JUMP.
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"Cultivation." (Methos/Ianto Jones) R
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13 Mar 2008 | 03:48am
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Title: Cultivation.
Author: lannamichaels
Fandom: Highlander: The Series/Torchwood crossover
Continuity/Canon: Highlander post-series; Torchwood pre-Cyberwoman AU
Pairings: Methos/Ianto Jones, implied Methos/Jack Harkness
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Davis-Panzer Productions owns Highlander. The BBC owns Torchwood. I don't make any money from this.
A/N: Written for the contrelamontre thirty-five minute brutality challenge.
Summary: At the time of the Gathering, with a rift in time and space running through Cardiff, Methos takes a student.
( Here at the end of the world, Ianto Jones makes coffee. )
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Meme
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10 Mar 2008 | 10:08pm
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Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don't blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a comment about it. Ask for anything: latest movie watched, last book read, political leanings, thoughts on yaoi, favorite type of underwear, graphic techniques, etc.
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"Chopin." (Tanith Belbin/Kimmie Meissner) PG-13
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09 Mar 2008 | 01:58am
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Title: Chopin.
Author: lannamichaels
Fandom: Olympics/Figure Skating RPS
Pairings: Tanith Belbin/Kimmie Meissner, Tanith Belbin/Evan Lysacek
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: This is a work of complete and utter fiction. I completely made it up, from start to finish. Blatant lie.
Summary: It's not any easier after you're cynical. 2008 Nationals.
( I am forever dancing to the Sentimental Waltz. )
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music |
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Verve - Bittersweet Symphony |
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Pre-Worlds press conferences
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07 Mar 2008 | 11:09pm
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Kimmie Meissner. No surprises. Richard "Jump Savior" Callaghan is, believe it or not, working on her jumps. LOL at Callaghan brushing off the "OMG KIMMIE CAN VOTE SHE'S OOOOOOLD" comments with saying he previously had a "30-year-old national champion". (TIMMY WUZROBBED!)
Tanith Belbin (Ben never called in.) ...Tanith was injured before nationals. *worries omg* They're optimistic about the CD (it's the same one they lost to D/S at COC). Well, I guess they wouldn't say "we're totally screwed". Tanith totally avoids the question about what she thinks about the two D/S's chances. It's kind of hilarious. Also, she gushes about Samuelson & Bates. ♥
Evan Lysacek. Listening to him talk about his weight issues with the quad and changing his diet since Nationals so that he's actually eating during the day, I'm really starting to wonder if he actually does or did have some kind of eating disorder. :( Program news: he's taken out his 2A from his free skate and replaced it with a 3F. *cries* I love his 2A. He also screwed with one of the music cuts in the long. THANK GOD. Now if he could just put back in the butterfly jump at the beginning. I miss it. (I had to listen a couple times to understand what he was saying about one of the combinations having to be a triple-double and not a triple-triple. I'm assuming he means that he has to do a 3-2 because he doesn't do a 3loop as the second jump in a combo and so he maxes out his two 3Ts with his first two combinations and so the second jump in his third combination has to be a double, but I'm not in teknik tonight; is there actually a rule that the guys have to do a 3-2 in the long? I thought they saved that kind of nitpickery for the required elements in the short.) (Evan avoids the question if he's going to use Lori Nichol against next season. *crosses fingers for DAVID WILSON OR MARK MITCHELL OMG* Actually, does anyone know who choreographed his 2000-2001 techno short program? GO BACK TO THAT PERSON, EVAN. GO BACK!)
EDIT: Rambly thoughts on Evan's jumps:
I am now really confused about his jump layout. I thought he'd maxed out on triples and that was why he did a 2A. Is he downgrading a 3-3 to a 3-2, making his planned combinations a 4-3, a 3-2, and a 3-2-2, so he can do another solo triple?
Okay, so... maybe he'll do something like this? Modified from his planned element sheet from nationals.
4t-3t (first combination of three, first triple of eight)
3A (second triple of eight)
3Lo (third triple of eight)
3S (fourth triple of eight)
(I think this is the halfway point here.)
3A-2T (second combination of three, fifth triple of eight, and giving himself an easier combination for his least consistent jump)
3F-2T-2Lo (third combination of three, sixth triple of eight.)
3Lz (seventh triple of eight)
3F (eighth triple of eight)
It would be throwing away points, probably, to take out the second 3A and repeat the 3Lz instead. But his triple lutz is so much better than his triple axel. He might gain points on GOE that he would lose for his 3A landing.
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So if you're lonely, you know I'm here, waiting for you...
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04 Mar 2008 | 11:36pm
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Okay, livejournal? Internet? Can we talk?
This phrase I see you bandying about. Using it for people who you think have made ignorant or hateful or hurtful statements or actions?
"DIE IN A FIRE?" WHAT THE FUCK?!!!
Seriously?
What ever happened to "get off my internet"?
At least that wasn't wishing a horrible, painful, disturbing death on someone you don't like. Really, I understand that you are pissed off and rageful. But can we get some perspective here?
Please?
---
Now, something yayness:
SAMUELSON & BATES 2008 WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONS. CAN I HEAR A HELL YEAH?!
The have the best unison of any American dance team, hands down. I swear, there's something organic about it. When they're "on", it's unbelievable. Un-fucking-believable.
I hope they keep Luna as an exhibition program. It's amazing. (Though I still prefer the camera angles from the JGP USA to any others. Just because of the way their lunges look.)
---
Also: If Christian Siriano wins Project Runway, I will headdesk to infinity. His clothes don't "scale". He designs for one woman and one woman only: a size -1 model. Which looks great on the runway and all, but commercial-wise? Gimme a fucking break.
I was flipping through one of those magazines that markets eating disorders to teenagers while at Supercuts and some of the headlines were just o.O "Yes, it is okay to eat ice cream!" (The fuck? I was asking your permission?) Diet tips, makeup tips, how to please a man tips... There was something about having a certain complexion meaning that of course you spend hours with concealer. To which I must roll my eyes and also headdesk. Yes, we get it, I'm ugly! I celebrate it!
There was an article in there about a woman who had a mastectomy trying to deal with her fake boobs and her feelings that she was disgusting now. And I have even more o.O that it was in that magazine. The woman survived cancer and she's concerned that her lack of breasts is turning off her husband. Double standard much, Magazine From Hell? Jeez, women just can't win.
Your breasts are too small, your breasts are too large, your breasts are asymetrical, YOUR BREASTS ARE TRYING TO KILL YOU CUT THEM OFF NOW NOW NOW, but now you're ugly and that's wrong. Get fake boobs, hurry hurry hurry, but now you have fake boobs and no nipples, that's wrong and disgusting!
(And, yes, I have had plastic surgery on my boobs, for extra irony on my mocking.)
---
The next person who says something to the tune of "I have a stomach ache from eating [blank blank blank]. I must have IBS!" is getting some CAPSLOCK OF RAGE along with a TMI ATTACK on the latest goings-on of my digestive system.
For example: I have dubbed the agonizing bent-over-crying spasms the Goa'uld, because it feels like something is crawling around in there.
And that's your disgestive TMI of the day.
--
Post Oscars thought: The question "Who are you wearing" is possibly the stupidest question known to man.
Also, I have spent too long in fandom, because I automatically imagine that question being asked post-orgy with someone trying to figure out whose semen is on a random body part.
---
So. TV is switching away from broadcast. And so my TV won't work and I'll have to buy a converter. Which the government promises to help pay for. Dot dot dot.
No, really, whose dick did the cable companies suck to get this thing passed? Was the entire district of Columbia high? Why isn't there a public backslash about this? Why is all the news coverage I see telling me to suck it up and deal and buy a goddamn converter I shouldn't have to need?
WHY, GOD, WHY?!
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DVD Commentary: ...And Fray and Fade...
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01 Mar 2008 | 10:49pm
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This was originally prefaced with a long meta post about Definitive Works In Fandom and having that fic that after you're finished, you have to sit back and go "wait, what the fuck do I do now, now that I've just written that?" that I decided to scrap because it was long and boring and pretentious and can mostly be summed up as, hey, wow, I like this fic of mine an awful lot, as opposed to all these others fics, which are total crap, but in a nice way.
So, yeah. DVD commentary ahoy for the two fics that I feel are my Defining Works in Highlander fandom.
Because, and oh my god this sounds so egotistical, but And Fray and Fade are kind of my magnum opus. They really belied the idea that a short fic takes a short time to write. There was actually meant to be a third, tentatively titled Number The Stars, which I started, but it never got off the ground. It was about Methos and Joe, about why Methos started killing and why he stopped, and how on earth Methos found out about the Watchers. It never got close to finished, but that's life. And I do really like how Fade ends. Looking back, it would really have been weird to have a third fic after that, because Fade does end kinda, you know, finally.
So, yes. On to commentary! The fic in italics, even the parts that were originally in italics.
( And Fray )
( Fade )
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"Trespasses." (Joe Dawson/Adam Pierson) PG
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26 Feb 2008 | 01:22am
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Title: Trespasses.
Author: lannamichaels
Fandom: Highlander: The Series
Pairing: Joe Dawson/Adam Pierson
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Davis-Panzer Productions owns Highlander. I don't make any money from this.
A/N: The basic format for the chronicle biography came from the Watcher chronicle stuff on the DVDs. This was supposed to be for the contrelamontre coitus interruptus challenge, but the thirty-five minute mark came and went before it was even close to done. Oh well. You can't win them all.
Summary: No one ever said survival was easy.
( It's a fine line between self-preservation and betrayal. )
| [ |
music |
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Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Beethoven's Last Night |
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Apropos of Stuff
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20 Feb 2008 | 12:44am
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I'm honestly curious about this. Has anyone ever masturbated to something I've written? If so, what?
Automatic screening of anon comments is turned off. Go wild. :p
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"Hide and Seek." (Joe Dawson/Adam Pierson) PG
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15 Feb 2008 | 04:55am
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Title: Hide and Seek.
Author: lannamichaels
Fandom: Highlander: The Series
Pairing: Joe Dawson/Adam Pierson
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Davis-Panzer Productions owns Highlander. I don't make any money from this.
A/N: Written for the contrelamontre forty-five-minute card challenge. I went slightly over time for some much-needed editing.
Summary: Methos's first year with the Watchers is not uneventful.
( Here we are, born to be kings... )
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"The Ballad of Adam Pierson." (Methos/Kronos, Methos/Duncan) R
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14 Feb 2008 | 03:09am
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Title: The Ballad of Adam Pierson.
Author: lannamichaels
Fandom: Highlander: The Series
Pairings: Methos/Kronos, Methos/Duncan
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Davis-Panzer Productions owns Highlander. I don't make any money from this.
Warnings: (Non-permanent)deathkink, strangulation.
A/N: Written at two in the morning for the contrelamontre forty-minute fetish challenge. Consider yourself warned.
Summary: What we talk about when we talk about moving on.
( When you talk about cadence, you talk about breathing. )
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[Insert appropriate Methos quote here]
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10 Feb 2008 | 02:42am
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I started writing a response to some meta on my friends list, then it morphed into a different meta, one on a defining work in a fandom, then a DVD commentary on what I consider to be my defining work in Highlander. And then it morphed into Why I Write Methos. And now I'm putting my meta where my mouth is. Even though this may make no sense (why is she metaing on Highlander when she's barely posted in it in over a year?) without My Thoughts On Definitive Works. But this is what's going through my head right now.
--
Highlander is kind of my Jewish fandom. Not so much in what other people write in it, but what I do. I've drawn heavily on Jewish culture and history in writing in this fandom. My fic The Fourth Son is so Jewish, it's practically circumcised.
Because Methos doesn't fit into modern society. He's forced to live in it, blend in for survival, but he's always outside of it, looking in. He's always the Other. And he can never go back to where he came from, because it's been too long and everyone's gone.
I was an English major. And when talking to other English majors, one thing I discovered was, I see things a lot differently from how they do. There were times when I was just gagging on Christianity. It's seeped into the English literary canon so much, they can't be separated. I found this frustrating, I found this painful. And no one else understood why.
I don't fit into normal, modern, American society. I live in it, I am forced to blend in to survive. But I'm not a part of it. I'm always the outsider, trying to fit in. I ranted before on my journal about how some regular trees were dressed up to look like Christmas trees. In November. Well, they're still up, and it's February. And I'm forced to walk by them at least once a week. And every time I see them, I'm reminded that I don't fit in. Because it could have been so easy for them to just put lights on them to look like trees with lights. Instead, whoever did it, made them look like Christmas trees. A row of twenty Christmas trees, and I have to walk by them, and every time I do, I'm reminded that this is not my culture. I am not a part of this society. But I'm forced to smile and walk by and live with it. Because I can't go back to where I came from. Because I'm gay.
If you consider how we, as the American public, are portrayed in television and movies and such, then there is something seriously wrong with Orthodox Jews. Because we're either invisible, or we're the very weird Other who refuse to assimilate, or we're just kind of in the background there. We exist in New York. We exist in black hats or streimels with really long payos. (I'd talk about Misnagdim vs. Chasidim here, but, really, does anyone know the difference between Orthodox Judaism and Chasidus? [/bitter]) We make a point to have school holidays not during December. We're those weird Jews over there who wear wigs and still take matchmaking seriously and we talk funny, like only every other word is in English.
And an Orthodox Jewish lesbian. Wow-eee.
I don't fit in anywhere, but I can't go back to my religion, because it doesn't want me. And I need to live in this Christian society, where the President uses the phrase "the holy land" and wouldn't understand why I physically flinch when he does. Where I'm tired of yelling about how disgusting the phrase "Judeo-Christian" is. Where it's assumed that I will celebrate a secular Christmas, because "everyone else does". Where it's expected that I know about Christian holidays, despite the fact that people still think that Chanuka is the biggest Jewish holiday there is. And that's before we even start talking about anti-semitism. There is always something around to remind me that I'm not normal, always something that's going to rub it in and make it hurt. This isn't my culture. But Orthodox Jewish culture is the religion, and the religion isn't too fond of me.
Where's my community? Where do I go to feel like I belong?
So, I write Methos. To be able to write a character who is as far away from the world he lives in as I am. Who sees everything as someone who has to fit in, but never really will. Who is forever the outsider.
Because I'm still looking for a place where I can relax and stop being on my guard all the time. Still haven't found it. Guess I'll keep looking.
--
I feel better now. I think I'll go back to the DVD commentary.
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They should just call it Japanese Ladies vs. The World and be done with it
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07 Feb 2008 | 02:29am
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I have raised my expectations of Javier Fernandez. Before, I thought he had a good shot at the 2011 Euros podium. Now I think he can "surprise" for the 2010. Send him back to Mishin, please, for the quad, and away we go.
I'm not changing my expectations of the Euros men's chances at Worlds. If we wrote everyone off after a competition that makes you drink and drink to dull the pain, no one who ever went to Skate Canada would ever win another medal again. (This would make the Worlds podium be Evan Lysacek, Patrick Chan, and Kristoffer Berntsson. And...there is nothing wrong with that. Go Disco Boy!) But poor Joubert. He needs to stop being sick.
LOL LEPISTO. She was like, Skate Canada? What Skate Canada? *triple-triple* (Yes, I'm still hoping Jenni Vahamaa wins junior worlds.) But Sarah Meier was like the prime example of the dominoed effect of ladies judging this season. She changed her SP layout to a salchow to avoid lipping...and screwed up the salchow. Ladies skating is such a greek tragedy in three parts.
I am ignoring the fact that Domshabs won Euros. I am instead clinging to the belief that the TPTB will not allow a dance team's first Worlds medal to be gold. Ice dance is still "wait your turn", right? Right? Right? Oh, never mind. I do believe in B&A, I do, I do! Just as long as they do their FD like they did at Nationals, and Ben's hat doesn't fall off during the OD, and they don't trip on the boards during the CD. (I would make a much better uberfan, methinks, if I were less of a realist.)
But it's not like 4CC is shaping up to be any better a competition than Euros. I feel kinda bad for Daisuke Takahashi. The men's field is so freakishly shallow (there's him, and Evan, and Jeff, and... and... and....um. Hey, how's Shawn Sawyer's triple axel coming?) that he's the heavy favorite to win, and if he doesn't, he's losing to guys he's been beating consistently for the last two seasons. I guess the big question is can Kozuka make the podium, and if so, how he does it. Because, looking ahead towards Worlds, wow, are the Japanese men totally screwed without Oda. You've got Takahashi, who's a legitimate contender to win, and then you've got two guys who've never been to Worlds before and haven't exactly been burning it up on the senior circuit. If Takahashi doesn't win, can Kozuka or Nanri break the top ten? These are the stuff that headaches are made of, and our little life is rounded with "well, that depends".
Ladies, imho, will be 1) does Miki Ando go for the quad, 2) does Miki Ando land the quad, 3) how many triples will Mao Asada be credited for rotating, 4) can Mao Asada once again dodge being buried after the short program after not bothering to do the jump out of footwork, 5) is Fumie Suguri back enough to make this a Japanese sweep. (Oh, Nakano, where did you go? I miss you and your donut spins. Why doesn't the JPN fed believe in sending the bronze medalists to 4CC?) Yeah, this got a lot more boring since Yu-Na withdrew. I'm hoping Ashley Wagner medals. I'm resigned to the possibility that she won't. Remembering the agitprop on Kimmie before TEB, I wonder what kind of evol fluff the JPN media could do on Ashley if she manages to beat Miki or Mao.
And pairs will just be Zhang/Zhang vs. Pang/Tong, which, oh my god, we have seen before a hundred times. I'm on the "anyone but the Zhangs" bandwagon right now, but, whatever. We could just put the tape in again from the GPF or TEB and see if anyone notices.
Honestly, I think the only really interesting matchup is going to be if Davis/White, with their shiny rebooted free dance, can beat Virtue/Moir. And even there, the heavy odds are on V/M. Maybe it would be better to say "which North American team can win their first senior major-international medal" and have a toss-up between Weaver/Poje, McCurdy/Coreno, Navarro/Bommentre, and Wester/Barantsev. And...yeah, this is still not bringing the spontaneity. (I'm rooting for Weaver/Poje for sentimental reasons. But, yeah, it'll probably be NavBomms.)
Oh my god, 4CC is going to be boring. Probably the biggest competition in all the events is going to be for bronze. (And World standings. I wonder if the reason Evan may actually show up is because otherwise he might drop a couple places before Worlds and not be in the final group for the short program. Although probably not, because Oda is still ranked seventh and he hasn't competed all season. World standings are kind of bullshit.)
How anti-fucking-climactic.
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calling something a homophobic conspiracy does not make happy the lesbian who can't get married
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04 Feb 2008 | 10:12pm
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I have lost all patience with the people who are still going "yeah, well, we know who really won, despite the massive judging conspiracy, and you can never take Johnny's win away from us!"
Lost. All. Patience.
Because here's the thing. Following watching both programs for the first time, I could not understand how Evan did not win by at least five points.
I chalked this up to personal taste. Johnny's music this season bores the hell out of me, and I come from a religious tradition of music that is essentially four notes repeated for ten minutes straight. I know from boring music. And considering that Johnny's fans flamed the hell out of me, combined with things that I'm not getting into in a public post, pushed me far far away from fandom, I'm not feeling too charitable to people who can't be bothered to open their eyes and understand that this is a competition and a sport, not an exhibition where anything goes.
Rewatching each program ad nauseum, while listening to Weir ubers yack on and on about how Johnny was held down massively in PCS... Oh, I am so pissed off. Have these people watched the program?!
Take out Johnny's jumps and the set-ups for them. Take out his spins. Take out his CiSt and SLSS. What do you have left? Nothing but crossovers and stroking. Explain to me how this merits huge marks in transitions, choreography, and interpretation. The only program component mark he actually earned was in skating skills. Talk about being held up by PCS.
And giving his SLSS a level three was overly generous, too. There just wasn't much there. As for CiSt, I can't pass no stupid judgment, because I'm not a fan of circular step sequences.
Johnny was coasting on his reputation for interpreting the hell out of music. He was also coasting on his reputation for clean jump landings, because, honey, they weren't all that clean. Sure, he's got a reputation for having the best run-out in the business, especially on his triple axel. Me, I'm wondering how he didn't get dinged more on landings than he actually did.
And as for some commentator calling that a performance that could medal at Worlds? Gimme a break. He'd be lucky to break the top five with that. Someone on That Board mentioned that Johnny has never done a three-combination program under COP. I don't have the time or patience to actually check that, but, if it's true, Johnny needs Nikolai Morozov or David Wilson to do his choreography for next season, so that he can earn mega scores while continuing to make stupid mistakes. Having an empty program while showing that he's never bothered to read the rule book is not something to be proud of.
And anyone who flames me for this is getting banned. I have had it up to here with that crap.
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This post brought to you by the letters S, T, F, U, N, B, and C.
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03 Feb 2008 | 01:48pm
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My HOLY FUCKING SHIT moment of U.S. nationals: the part in Evan's exhibition where he does a semi-circle of twizzles, ending off with an arm variation.
This just in: Evan Lysacek is freaking insane.
One thing I've been forcing myself to do recently is rewatch programs, focusing only on the feet. For skaters like Patrick Chan, who do relatively nothing with their upper bodies and it's all about the edges, this is easy. For skaters like Jeremy Abbott? Less so. (Jeremy Abbott's Maquerade Waltz is better than Domnina/Shabalin's, but that's a rant for a different time, and I've already done it.)
I've been getting more and more annoyed with Johnny Weir's long program. I think my problem with it is the same problem I had with Evan's long program from last year's nationals: there's a ton of crossovers. Where the hell are the transitions, or the little cute bits of choreography? This is Johnny Weir we're talking about. It's not like he's incapable of doing it. I'm not asking for SLSS-level complex footwork during the in-betweens, just, you know, something pretty. Maybe Jeff Buttle can give him a workshop on transition codewhoring.
Am really annoyed at people who are believing the rivalry crap spewed by the NBC commentators. Those people would sell their soul to the devil if it meant higher ratings.
Am so tired of the rivalry crap.
To hear Scott Hamilton and co. talk, you'd think the rivalry was something like this:
"I hate you!"
"I hate you more!"
"Your music is so boring, you should skate in novice ladies!"
"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberry!"
Instead, it's more like:
"We have different personalities. We don't mesh well."
"Yeah."
"I'd rather hang out with people who have the same interests I do."
"Yeah."
"And we have nothing in common except the same goals."
"Yeah."
"So let's avoid each other."
"Yeah."
Not quite the stuff ratings are made of. And considering how many skaters were chacked for rivalry crap (fluff, awkward interviews after which Scott Hamilton was like "you could cut the tension with a knife." NO YOU COULDN'T), I really want to know when The United States Figure Skating Championships turned into The Evan And Johnny Show. Twenty minutes of the exhibition was devoted to replaying the exact same footage of the men's long program, with absolutely no added coverage or commentary. What was the fricking point?!
Maybe ESPN will stream Worlds like the GP on ESPN360 and I'll be able to watch it on my computer, sans commentary, without dealing with "OH MY GOD JOHNNY SAID SOMETHING MEAN ABOUT EVAN QUICK EVAN SAY SOMETHING MEAN BACK DON'T THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS?!"
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Juliette, when we made love, you used to cry. (or: despite it all, yes, I am still a US pairs fan.)
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01 Feb 2008 | 12:51am
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Oh, god. Pairs.
Pairs.
Pairs.
As much as I like Nam/Leftheris, am I the only one who'd like to see what Castile/Leftheris would be like?
[total silence]
Perhaps I should explain.
Brooke Castile is kind of awesome. I just heard another interview clip with her where she said that being up in a lift is not like flying. (And that she wants to be an ice dancer, but that's more mosca's OTP than mine.) What made me take notice of her last year was her saying the same thing about "dude, this is pair skating, not flight class" to Peter the Jackass. And according to her USFSA bio, she's "not at all girly". And a total tomboy. (She plays softball.) And, god help me, I want to see her do a tomboy program. Or at least something off the beaten path. (I'm thinking now of WakaFects's unbelievable OK GO! exhibition program.) And watching her nationals LP again, I can't help wishing she were skating with a guy like Themi Leftheris, who I think could do a program like that better than Ben Okolski. (I haven't seen C/O's nationals exhibition program yet, so, hey, watch me be totally wrong.)
Of course, this would leave NNN needing a new partner. But if the Nationals' men's event proved anything, it's that we've got a surplus of US guys who can jump. We just need to find one bendy enough to match her. Or we could actually look to US pairs...
...
Hey. You know, Joseph Jacobsen says he's 6'1'', which is an inch taller than Themi says he is...
(I'm just sayin'.)
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Triple Drabble: "A Well-Choreographed Machine." (Mark Mitchell/Peter Johansson)
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29 Jan 2008 | 11:15pm
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Title: A Well-Choreographed Machine.
Author: lannamichaels
Fandom: Olympics/Figure Skating RPS
Pairing: Mark Mitchell/Peter Johansson (yes, coachslash)
Disclaimer: This did not happen. I made it up. Fiction.
( Smile. You're in demand and living in sin. )
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Project Runway quote, taken completely out of context
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29 Jan 2008 | 01:32am
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"Because I've been on the bottom so much, I've been getting these looks like, I am so not worthy of being here."
-Ricky, 4.09
Awww, it's okay. Don't let people get you down just becuase you're a total bottom. :p
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I am thinking about these results way too much
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28 Jan 2008 | 04:13am
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I am amused by the shouts of a fix. I wonder who the hell, including the people who wrote the rules, understands COP enough to calculate, in under ten minutes, just how much GOE to give a skater, so that that GOE, combined with the GOE of eight other people, plus combined with what the skater actually does in terms of jumps, spins, footwork, plus what the technical caller actually called the element as, and keep a running count in your head compared to the combined total of some other skater, and do it all while you have cameras staring at you...and don't forget to inflate for Nationals!
So amused.
I actually really like the idea of a tie. *points to Don't Make Me Choose icon* But then I started reading the wuzrobbing. And now I just wish someone had shown up and won by twenty points.
Wheee, the tinhats. Johnny frustrates me because he keeps going out there and making the same mistake and losing medals because of it, says he'll do better, then goes out and makes the same mistake yet again. But this is of course, according to the tinhats, not his fault, because he feeeeels the music and is so speshul. He just can't be bothered to learn COP and he thinks it's destroying skating. Totally amused because Johnny's best results happened in the second year of COP, the first it was being used at Worlds.
Amused that Evan doesn't like COP. I wonder how much of that had to do with having to get a new combination spin between the GPF and Nationals because the other was level 3. And that changing edges on sit spins is destroying his hips.
Really amused that Stephen Carriere totally codewhored his way into third place. Five of his jumping passes were after the half-way point. That's Morozov-level codewhoring. Shocking, Mark Mitchell. I didn't know you had it in you. *draws hearts around Mark Mitchell*
Jeremy Abbott threw away his spot to Worlds with a popped axel. But neither Carriere nor Abbott did a triple-triple combination. What is this, novice men?
Eliot Halverson. first-year-senior, youngest skater in the men's event, also was the only one not to attempt a 3A at all in the competition. He placed 11th in the free skate and 13th overall despite this. Now that's some skating skills.
I tried to count the number of first-year-seniors in the ladies event and lost track. The turn-over there is reminding me too much of why I stopped watching women's gymnastics. I would not be at all surprised if, during the off-season, one of the Shiny! New! Up! And! Comers! either withdrew from the season entirely with injury or just quit. 2006 4CC Champion Katy Taylor is taking the year off with injury. 2006 JW bronze medalist Christine Zukowski is doing the same. Kimmie just had the worst competition of her career. And I doubt one of Zhang, Nagasu, or Flatt will show up for the Grand Prix next season. This is monumentally depressing. I need to go back to not caring about ladies.
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I'm not a statistician, but I play one on TV
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28 Jan 2008 | 01:01am
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Men's LP protcol breakdown for Evan vs. Johnny. This was fun!
( Cut because it's loooooong )
In other words: If Johnny had a better base value for his second spin, he would have won. And if Evan had gotten a positive GOE on his salchow, he would have won. And if Johnny hadn't had the GOE on two of his jumps cancel each other out, he would have won. And so on and so forth. Damn close.
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This is just to say
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27 Jan 2008 | 06:14pm
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I'm not sure what frustrates me more: the fact that Johnny Weir still can't count to three, or the fact that Scott "Math is hard!" Hamilton is not going to understand that's why Johnny lost.
I think I'll watch the NBC coverage on mute, kthxbye.
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...
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22 Jan 2008 | 08:50pm
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Hearing that Heath Ledger had died. Total denial, wondering if they were talking about someone else, a different person, then realization sunk in. Like getting kicked in the chest. And then reading down my flist, how everyone is shocked.
I avoid tabloids like the plague, but I think I'm going to avoid places that sell them for the next week or so. I don't even want to see it. Fucking exploitive vultures.
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World, you are made of fail
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22 Jan 2008 | 02:23am
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YOU KNOW WHAT REALLY ANNOYS ME?
This article.
Specifically: The more Evan Lysacek tries to downplay his rivalry with Johnny Weir, the bigger it gets.
Because OH MY GOD YOU PEOPLE. I read this article and I can see the thought process.
"Twenty minute interview, he refuses to talk on the OMG RIVALRY WE'VE SPENT TWO YEARS SETTING UP, he says he just wants to mind his own business and skate, seriously, twenty minutes and he won't give us fodder? FUCK THAT WE'LL MAKE OUR OWN FODDER."
Seriously. He can't win. They just won't let him. *is annoyed* Is there a part of "no comment" they are incapable of understanding?
And it was a good interview, too, with lots of interesting tidbits in it. I know they script out the storylines in advance and will therefore twist anything he says, or, in this case, DOESN'T SAY, to fit their purposes, but, oh my god, what will it take for someone to ask Evan what he's modelling?!
[/rant]
In other nationals news: I have overdosed on novice and junior skating. *dances* Daniel O'Shea is terrific, I can't wait to see how he does on the JGP next season. Song King did an amazing forward charlotte spiral in her short program and a less-amazing-but-still-eyepopp | | |
