beccatoria (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beccatoria) wrote2011-08-10 10:16 pm
beccatoria) wrote2011-08-10 10:16 pm
Birthday Vid Rec: Boy With a Coin [TSCC]
OMGS YOU GUYS. So, today I turn 28, and feel REALLY, REALLY OLD because I have now been an adult for a decade, but frankly the best part of today was the presents and this vid that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chaila43 made me in TOTAL SECRECY (for real, I feel very naive now but somehow I did not suspect), ranks right up there with the Green Lantern and Flash sneakers I got.
So -
Boy With a Coin bychaila43
This vid is gorgeous. It's about Ellison and his kids - Savannah and John Henry. His robot son and the girl with the robot mother. His confusion and adaptation and search for guidance and direction. Anyone who knows me and my thoughts on this show knows that I love James Ellison, but usually my expression of this is directed towards how hot like burning he is when he circles Sarah in literal and metaphorical ways. But he's also hella interesting on his own terms and I've always really respected the show for giving him space to have his own storyline independent of Sarah and the Connors, though of course, related and influenced via the web of cause and effect that permeates the show.
A lot of criticism got thrown his way throughout the show's run for not siding more decisively with Sarah or not realising Weaver was a robot, but I always had a different reaction - a real love and appreciation for his calm, quiet, impassive determination to make his own choices, and to make good ones. I'm not saying he always succeeded in that, but I do believe that when he failed it was only because of information he didn't have, not a flaw in his reasoning.
I think that's part of why I love the narrative this vid deals in - Ellison as caretaker, as guide, as someone fully aware of his own responsibilities to these others, and seeking guidance, in turn, from God about the best course of action.
Religious iconography mixes with killer robots. Chess mingles with rubber duckies. Education mingles with war.
The song is insistent and enduring and strange. The visuals are beautiful, the editing is skillfully simple in the way it catches movements and moments and shuffles them together like a series of considerations - like a prayer for guidance.
Really, guys, it's really good, go check it out.
chaila43 made me in TOTAL SECRECY (for real, I feel very naive now but somehow I did not suspect), ranks right up there with the Green Lantern and Flash sneakers I got. So -
Boy With a Coin by
chaila43This vid is gorgeous. It's about Ellison and his kids - Savannah and John Henry. His robot son and the girl with the robot mother. His confusion and adaptation and search for guidance and direction. Anyone who knows me and my thoughts on this show knows that I love James Ellison, but usually my expression of this is directed towards how hot like burning he is when he circles Sarah in literal and metaphorical ways. But he's also hella interesting on his own terms and I've always really respected the show for giving him space to have his own storyline independent of Sarah and the Connors, though of course, related and influenced via the web of cause and effect that permeates the show.
A lot of criticism got thrown his way throughout the show's run for not siding more decisively with Sarah or not realising Weaver was a robot, but I always had a different reaction - a real love and appreciation for his calm, quiet, impassive determination to make his own choices, and to make good ones. I'm not saying he always succeeded in that, but I do believe that when he failed it was only because of information he didn't have, not a flaw in his reasoning.
I think that's part of why I love the narrative this vid deals in - Ellison as caretaker, as guide, as someone fully aware of his own responsibilities to these others, and seeking guidance, in turn, from God about the best course of action.
Religious iconography mixes with killer robots. Chess mingles with rubber duckies. Education mingles with war.
The song is insistent and enduring and strange. The visuals are beautiful, the editing is skillfully simple in the way it catches movements and moments and shuffles them together like a series of considerations - like a prayer for guidance.
Really, guys, it's really good, go check it out.
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Plus this kind of makes you more on time rather than less, given that I was born in your timezone not the one I currently live in. ;)
And THANK YOU! *uses appropriate icon; mourns lack of inexplicable uprising of Lee/Sonja shippers to provide me with icons of THAT*
:D
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Basically everything you say! It's pretty obvious that Sarah is my girl and I have massive affection for Sarah/Ellison, but I do really find Ellison deeply fascinating in his own right, and in many ways, the most complex character of them all. His story and perspective (along with, obviously, Weaver, and, in a different way, Jesse) really widens the lens of the show and makes all the questions more complex in really fascinating ways. I'm so happy the narrative of him as both guide and one seeking guidance is in the vid! I absolutely adore how much he wants to do the right thing, and make the right decision, but just can't KNOW what that is or whether he's really doing it, but still just moves forward in the way he thinks is best anyway. But those things are kind of hard to convey visually. (I also don't understand the criticism of him, because I think half the point is that he (and everyone else) can only make decisions based on the information they have and the possibilities they can even imagine. But whatever!)
shuffles them together like a series of considerations
THANK YOU FOR ARTICULATING THAT. Omg. I struggled so hard to articulate to
Mostly though, yaaaay, so glad you like it and HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :D
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I'm also SUPER GLAD that the sentence about the series of considerations makes sense because when I was typing it, I shit you not, my thought was, "I am not sure anyone else will understand what the hell I mean by that; is it even grammatically coherent? But it is EXACTLY WHAT I MEAN!"
Also I think it really DOES work as an Ellison vid via John Henry and Savannah. I appreciate the fears inherent in vidding around someone or about someone via something else, because, as you know, it's something I do too sometimes and then worry about, but I definitely never doubted this was about him.
I WANT TO YELL SOMETHING EXCITING BACK AT YOU BUT IT'S NOT YOUR BIRTHDAY.
HAPPY UNBIRTHDAY!
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And I see down below that you're posting loads about comics. I've kind of not been reading anything much in that vein for a while now, so I spent yesterday and today gathering a few things up to and pick it up again. Maybe it'll be some of your series! (I know Secret Six and Wonder Woman is in there)
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And yes, comics have totally become my latest (UNFORTUNATELY UNVIDDABLE) obsession - I'd love to know what you read or are thinking of reading? As I wrote up a bit, I've been a casual comics fan for a long time, but have only really started reading like, whole runs of issues instead of random graphic novels and thinking of getting monthly superhero comics (as opposed to Star Wars and other media tie-in stuff that I do get monthly anyways) more recently. I'm pretty much horrible embedded in the DC universe though - for some reason even during my casual reading years I just always kind of gravitated to DC stuff.
I have a pretty detailed write-up on my thoughts on Wonder Woman, yes! I haven't done much about Secret Six yet - the series just wrapped up so I'm gearing up to write a big review post, I'm just not sure how to approach it yet... ;)
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As for Marvel vs. DC I've really no preference, not having read all that extensively, and what I have read mostly hasn't been superhero comics, but rather graphic novels and shorter series. But hey, no need to say unviddable! If things keep going the way they have, you'll have more movies to work with than you've got time ;)
And hey, looking forward to making some comic icons again! I've been in a bit of a funk recently, but since comics is what got me into iconing in the first place, this might be exactly what I need to kick start the muse.
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Awesome, thanks for the run down. Yeah, I feel exactly the same about X-Men. It's the one part of the Marvel Universe that does kind of interest me (in that I've always - from my n00b, outsider perspective, kind of wished that X-Men were off in their own continuity cus it's such a neat freestanding idea, but not one I'm sure fits so awesomely with a world of other-types-of-superhero?) but there's just SO MUCH of it that I wouldn't know where to look.
I haven't been reading the Angel/Buffy comics, but I do read both the ongoing Star Wars stuff and Farscape stuff so I'm a big fan of getting an ongoing fix of one's favourite franchise that way. ;)
As to Wonder Woman, yes, v3 is a good place to start, but I guess I'd suggest starting with #14? That's when Gail Simone starts writing it and it's also a good arc to jump in at. #1 - #13 aren't awful or anything, and they do explain a few things about the current status quo if you jump in at #14 but honestly they suffer from being heavily tied into a "event" called "Amazons Attack" (which was not good) and from having writers changed every couple of issues and there are some characterisation problems and I guess I'd just call the whole thing fairly mediocre. So like, read 'em if you want, but it starts to get good around #14.
I also REALLY love the end of v2, when Greg Rucka was writing it. That's be from #195 - #226 (which is the end of v2).
Plus, of course, I adore Secret Six.
Let me know what you think of Scott Pilgrim. I'm equal parts interested and think it's something I might enjoy and concerned the hipster self-referentiality would annoy me. Like I'm not sure how I'll feel about some dude having to battle a chick's exes for the right to date her, but equally I've heard some good stuff about the way it's done. So yes, I'm interested in what you think of that?
I totally recommend Batwoman: Elegy which is the only current graphic novel available for Batwoman and collects most of her run in Detective Comics - it's really amazing art and a pretty damn solid story too.
Also, the first twelve issues of Power Girl's ongoing series are HILARIOUS and lighthearted fun - collected into two graphic novels. It's the Palmiotti & Gray run you want (#1 - #12). After that some other guy takes over and the tone shifts and I didn't hate it or anything but it just became very generic.
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The Buffy comics swerved off road pretty early on so I stopped, but I followed Angel through the first big storyline(which was a very enjoyable ride). I stopped after that run. Honestly I don't think I'm cut out for month to month stuff. It all takes too long, and when I'm fed bite size chunks of story at a time it's too hard to get into it. But now that they're done with the aftermath"season" I can pick that up and warm up for when Dark Horse start their Faith and & Angel run in September. Farscape's still going on in comic form? Hmm *puts on list* I actually haven't finished the show yet. Some of s4 still to go.
Thanks for the tip on WW. I'll see if I can get my mitts on the earlier issues before I dig in. And whenever Gail Simone's name has been mentioned, it seems to have come with an obligatory giant sparkly heart, so I'm guessing she's always a safe bet for a good story(especially female character wise, is my impression).
Let me know what you think of Scott Pilgrim. I'm equal parts interested and think it's something I might enjoy and concerned the hipster self-referentiality would annoy me. Like I'm not sure how I'll feel about some dude having to battle a chick's exes for the right to date her, but equally I've heard some good stuff about the way it's done.
For me it's more a geeky self-referentiality, so I'm cool with that ;) And considering the amount of cools stuff they crammed into the movie the comic is bound to be chock full of awesome. And from what I hear the ladies are even more present and do many an awesome thing. I'll get back to you on it though!
I was actually thinking of getting all of Detective Comics, since I heard good things. I thought it was an independent run. So it's more of an event type of thing? With different characters all having their own issues? I saw the first page for the catwoman run yesterday actually, and yes, the art looks amazing.
lol sorry for being so rambly.
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Yeah, so far I've been really impressed with Gail Simone's storytelling which means I should probably read her turn on Birds of Prey but, I'm not sure, for some reason that is totally counterintuitive to all my good sense and everyone else's recommendations, I've just never had the urge to read it. Then again, I once felt that way about Wonder Woman and now I'm like DUDE SHE'S AMAZING. So we'll see?
As to Wonder Woman, my thoughts about her having read the Rucka and Simone runs are here -
http://beccatoria.livejournal.com/151350.html
Gail Simone definitely tells a good tale but also does some...challenging things with the character gender-wise in ways that are hard to discuss if you haven't read it, so if you're totally spoiler free probably best not to read the above link, but it's not like, spoilerrific either, but um, if I get into that again here, I'll run outta comment space. ;)
Farscape does indeed have an ongoing comic! It's on issue...22 now? I think? I think there were also a few mini series that preceeded the ongoing comic. It's...pretty good? I enjoy it as a continuation of the story, but it's partly written by Rockne S O'Bannon and it does get to epic space battles and galaxy-wide stuff but there's a sort of...season one vibe to it in a lot of ways rather than the David Kemper twisted tragicomedy that characterised the show from the second season onwards. But yeah, I do enjoy it.
I get what you mean about the monthly thing. I generally agree with you, except there have been some comics I've loved so much I've wanted to get it serialised because I didn't want to wait (mostly Star Wars stuff) and I've learned to appreciate the medium, if only because part of my appreciates the pulpy aesthetic of collecting single issues, but I definitely understand the psychology of the trade-waiter, especially now that almost everything DOES get collected in trade paperbacks (at least from the big companies) unlike in years gone by.
I haven't actually seen the Scott Pilgrim movie - sounds like that'd be a good place to start then? But I will probably skip over the Buffy comics. I was never a huge fan of the series (though I did watch and like it), and you're not the first person to say that the comic is a bit uneven.
Finally - on Detective Comics, no, it's an ongoing comic book - it's actually one of the oldest ongoing comic books. Along with Action comics, it's never been renumbered until this new reboot in September. "DC" actually STANDS for "Detective Comics"! ;) But yeah, I totally understand why that's confusing because it confused me for ages too. Basically, "Detective Comics" launched in...the 30s or whatever, and it had detective stories in it, while Action comics had more, well, action stories in it. Action comics usually features Superman and various backup characters in other shorter stories, while Detective generally focused on Batman, again with other features too. Of course Superman, Batman, et al, eventually got their own series, but as a general rule, they ALSO still anchor Action and Detective, but sometimes they will change that up and feature another character from the same "family" as Superman or Batman. So for instance, for a while Action comics focused on Lex Luthor while Detective focused on Batwoman.
Again, until very recently, Action and Detective were both larger than usually sized so that you got the main comic and then a half-sized "backup feature" featuring a lesser-known character. VERY recently they cut that in order to cut the price of the comic by a dollar.
So yes, Detective comics just had issue 881 released! But what you've been hearing good things about was probably the most recent 10 or so issues by Scott Snyder. Originally it featured Dick Grayson as Batman (he took over for a while, long story) with a story about Commissioner Gordon and Oracle as the backup feature, but the backup feature got cut a few issues in and it just started alternating between the two storylines before they merged together. And yes, it's a very creepy but very good run of issues.
...hope that wasn't horribly confusing?
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Total spoilerphobe so steering clear of the Wonder Woman post for now. Managed to track down the v2 issues you recommended though, so I'll start there :D
Aww I love the twisted of Farscape. The crazier they got, the more I clapped my hands like the
sadist fangirl that I am. I'll still check it out once I've finished the show though. More of those characters is never a bad thing.
The thing with the Scott Pilgrim move - well, the feeling that I got - is that they've had to narrow the focus quite a bit, as they have to with only two hours to tell their story, so they've probably made it much more of a Scott story than it was in the books. Not sure if you'd prefer to read the comics first? I really liked the movie though. Funny, and a different way of shooting it for sure.
DAYM. That is damn near X-Men in size. I'll give the last issues a go then! And turn to the internet for further guidance should I need it.
Not at all confusing. I am illuminated, enlightened, and bolstered :D
You were saying about not being able to vid? *g*