Fashion Friday :: rewind a couple of episodes, because Trudy rocks my socks.

Like I am always saying.  Trudy (Alison Brie) is a lovely woman and I may have actually applauded when she told Pete off.

I feel like “I’m having to do this more modern and/or interpretive” is a going theme this season so far.  But, still stands.  New Apartmint Top, ModCloth.

And actually, I can totally see Trudy wearing this together.  Jukebox DJ Jumper, ModCloth.

Because Trudy Campbell is badass enough to pull off matchy-matchy.  Pecking Border Heel, ModCloth.

A bit smaller than Trudy’s, but cute and I like their vibe.  Freshwater Girl Earrings, ModCloth.

–your fangirl heroine.

Theatre Thursday :: 5 musical artists I want to score their own musical

This is not the same as doing a jukebox musical with pre-existing songs shoehorned into a mediocre plot or something.  These are just artists whose styles I find interesting enough to lend themselves to potential musical scores, I think.  Like Duncan Sheik scored Spring Awakening, but with totally other stuff.  Theoretically livening up future theater seasons.

5. The Decemberists
Linked is  the entirety of Hazards of Love.  This is not cheating, because since Hazards is a concept album I am fully comfy with it being brought to the stage.  I am also fully comfy with the band and/or just Colin Meloy scoring some other thing entirely.

4. A Fine Frenzy
Linked is “Pinesong,” the opening track of Pines.  This is the album that pushed me over the edge with A Fine Frenzy, in more ways than one; this album is so blessedly theatrical in and of itself in a lot of ways that it convinces me that yes, Alison Sudol could totally do a musical.

3. The Spring Standards
Linked is “Queen of the Lot,” off Would Things Be Different.  These guys would be the only ones on this list who wouldn’t be scoring a dark and/or gloomy indie-type musical, I think.  I mean, theirs would still be indie, but more in the at least potentially sweet or optimistic way.

2. Emily Haines
Linked is “Doctor blind,” off Knives Don’t Have Your Back.  Much as I adore Metric with all my heart, my theoretically-scored musical of my dreams would be more along the lines of Emily’s solo-ish stuff.  I feel like hers would be a musical about some sort of technologically-related dystopia, maybe, but I am in favor of this.

1. Jack White
Linked is “Love Interruption,” off Blunderbuss.  Because it is my favorite song this man has ever touched.  His would be maybe some dark story about, like, vampires or demons or other interesting and non-stupidly-interpreted monsters.  That were in a neo-film noir but on stage.  And were all really sassy in between their grungy-dark songs.

–your fangirl heroine.

Whimsy Wednesday :: in which things get spectacularly referential and Rainbow is a fangirl.

It is just a pony kind of day.  I mean the sun was shining and in a lot of ways this is not particularly great because ugh sunshine headaches ugh, but sunshine is generally associated with like… cheerfulness and whatnot, and ponies are cheerful, so.

Cyber season?  Cider season.  That makes more sense but it makes me less happy.

“Cider season is now officially open” is a statement that doesn’t make that much sense.  “It is now officially cider season” would make more sense, or “the apple cider booth is now officially open” maybe.

Whoooa, AJ, baby.  “Apple family cider is made with love and integrity.”  Ponies, stop judging that’s not cool.  They really are doing their best.

…Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?  OH MY GOSH this is The Music Man.  This is not even subtle, this is overtly The Music Man.  This is “Trouble” pretty much exactly.  But about apple cider for ponies.  And with a different chorus sort of.  This would be the most fun show to write for ever end of story.  I am just sitting here laughing uncontrollably because this may actually be the most ridiculous thing that has ever happened on this show.

Second most ridiculous.  Because pony Christmas is still top of the list I think.  That was the most insane episode of ever.

Also, I’m glad that one of the brothers has a moustache so I can tell them apart without having to remember which one of them is Flim and which one is Flam, but I’m really, really curious as to how a pony has a moustache.

Oh, look!  Douchebag entitlement guys striding into town like they own the damn place and acting superior just ‘cause they have pony technology and showmanship and ugh I hate them already.

I know, Rainbow, you could stay the night at AJ’s and get in line first-first and then the drama would be over.

Also, this is a morality tale about young/flashy vs. old/traditional.

OH MY GOSH DOUCHEBAG ENTITLEMENT GUYS.  You literally just arrived here, the Apple family has been in Ponyville for however long since Granny Smith was a pioneer with braids, get out of here you – you USURPERS.

I like Big Macintosh and Granny Smith’s cider-making glasses.

This is also a morality tale about big business vs. Mom and Pop shops.

I KNOW TWI.  You guys get to help!  Do this!  Do this thing!  AUGH you guys are the best friends ever and watching this show just makes me feel so good about ladyfriends.  Why don’t grown-up TV shows have ladyfriendships that are this amazing more often?

…your apple cider is now including apple cores and leaves.  Wow this is so unclassy.

“We’ll just have to work harder!” That’s my Twi!  I’m getting a lot of warm fuzzies right now.

GO TO PONY HELL YOU GIANT DOUCHEBAGS.

AJ has got to have some crazy plan.  Or maybe the plan will just be that everyone drinks their crappy leafridden cider and runs them out of town.  Too bad ponies don’t have the internet so the Ponyville kids can warn other towns’ ponies about the usurping douchebags’ techniques being awful.

Aaaand next one.

If they’re looking up at the sky and there are audible swooshy noises, they’re probably looking at Rainbow.  Just sayin’, sweetling.

Pony hospital?  Pony doctors?  With pony glasses, of course, because glasses in Ponyville mean authority.

Aaaand Spider-man allusion.  High-fives.  High… hooves?

Rainbow, baby, listen to them.  “Reading is for everypony!!”  YAY FOR LITERACY!!!  I’m feeling so so many warm fuzzies augh.

C’mon, reading is fun and fundamental and magic!!  Just pick up the damn book and get on with it!  it’s like… she’s Indiana Jones or something, but a lady and a pony?  Maybe?  And she’s being chased by every possible jungle cat?  Yep, Indiana Jones.  This is fantastic.

Babygirl, noooope.  Just ‘cause you’re wandering into metafiction with a temple with etchings doesn’t mean you have to stick to brain/athlete.  You can be anything and everything because DIMENSIONALITY!  Dimensionality is one of those words that is a word but sounds like it’s one I just made up sort of, and I like that.

No this is exactly like Daring-Do is Indiana Jones.  I dig this.  Much more than I dig actual Indiana Jones, which generally bores and frustrates me.

“You rained on my cumulus”?  That doesn’t even make sense, I adore this.  Also, Rainbow, stop being so darn stubborn and just tell them you like the book, you silly.

Oh my gosh PONY HELL TEMPLE YESSSSSS I am so happy right now!

Don’t they know that watching other ponies eat makes them nervous?

Was that seriously a cat whistle?  I am the happiest I have been all week.

I know how you’ll find out: ask Twi and apologize and I promise it’ll be okay, kiddo.  Just stop being so darn stubborn, you ridiculous pony you.

Why did all the nurses and doctors just turn into attack dogs basically?

I love Rarity and Flutter’s bathrobes, also.

“Just because you’re athletic doesn’t mean you aren’t smart.”  Oh Twi thank you yes.  Break down those stereotypes and stuff!

That is one strong pony safari hat.

How is that statue going to make the world suffer mightily, cat-man-monster?  Rainbow baby.  How does it feel to fangirl?  Excellent right?

–your fangirl heroine.

Television Tuesday :: Unbeautifully Used [a Ros fanmix]

1. Between Sheets (Imogen Heap)
Oh, and the morning on the your skin and loved up light, tracing patterns in the maze of your back, softly, softly the goose bumps like that, and then a kiss… maybe another, and another one.

2. When the Day is Short (Martha Wainwright)
No more sober words of love, no more walks in the park side, no more sweet & shy touches, yeah, we’re just lovers in the dark.  Feel nothing, leave no mark, but it was fun when we saw sparks.  When the day is short and the nights are long it’s a different world where the rules are wrong.

3. Sun Giant (Fleet Foxes)
What a life I lead in the summer, what a life I lead in the spring, what a life I lead when the wind, it breathes, what a life I lead in the spring.

4. Stinging Velvet (Neko Case)
Cold and shivering, cold and shivering, old and shivering warm.  Sing please, rock me to sleep, quiet as a canyon up under heaven’s eaves I surrender, surrender.

5. With the Light (Julia Stone)
Open the window, they’re not free, open the window, they’re not free at all.  Open the window, they can’t see, open the window, they can’t see at all.  With the light, they will find, with the light, they will find.

6. Postures Bent (Laura Gibson)
All the leaders, seasons change, burning in our cartons, singing stories in our ears, pulling, pulling at our wills.

7. Psalm (M. Ward)
Instrumental.

8. Kiss Kiss (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
Now move I’m gonna come dry, I dropped my musings out of sight, I drank until the waters dried, it’s all cute ’til someone dies.  Shoot my name up every vein, you can’t get hurt, you can’t complain, no feet, no hands, no tail, no lies, he’s got youth on his side.

9. Explosions (Ellie Goulding)
You left my soul bleeding in the dark so you could be king, the rules you set are still untold to me and I lost my faith in everything.  The nights you could cope, your intentions were gold, but the mountains will shake.

10. Sadseasong (A Fine Frenzy)
Life without a witness is a lonely business.  No one here to rise with, none to lie with.  Wish it were a bad dream, sad sea, sad dream.  Wish I could awake.

11. Odalisque (The Decemberists)
They’ve come to find you, Odalisque, as the light dies horribly.  On a fire escape you walk, all rare and resolved to drop.  And when they find you, Odalisque, they will rend you, terribly, stitch from stitch ’til all your linen limbs will fall.

Unbeautifully Used at 8tracks.

–your fangirl heroine.

Music Monday :: my thoughts on Volume Three

I do not give any damns.  I adore She & Him and all of their vintage cuteness.

“I’ve Got Your Number, Son.”  Beautiful retro piano and what sounds like Zooey’s doing… kind of a female Elvis backed by female chorusing Beach Boys?  I dig it.  That’s all there is to that.

“Never Wanted Your Love.”  I love that adorable high-low almost pop thing that some girls can do with their voice, and Zooey is great at it.  This isn’t quite as overtly kitsch as the first track (not that overt kitsch is a bad thing it’s a lovely thing really) but it is still just sweet and charming.  She & Him is one of the only bands I listen to that is overtly, consistently happy.  They have some slow songs, and the lyrics may be sort of bittersweet sometimes, but gosh, the overall tone of their stuff is so much more upbeat than other things.

“Baby.”  Oh, look, a precious cover!  Wherein it is a duet and M. Ward is being fabulous.  This is a tune written by George Morton, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich, i.e. it is excellent true-retro.

“I Could’ve Been Your Girl.”  This has been a really excellent year for retro surfer guitar appearing in records.  I’m not a hundred percent sure how being someone’s girl and being someone’s four-leaf clover are equivalent, but it rhymes and I guess it’s cute and I guess it’d make more sense if I understood cute romantic talking.

“Turn to White.”  Slow it down a bit.  This is like the kind of semi-schmaltzy whatnot that you could ironically lay over a scene of Don Draper wandering in a crowd at the end of an episode, and everyone else would be smiling and having a good time with others and he’d be alone with his hands in his pocket and/or holding a cigarette pensively.

“Somebody Sweet to Talk To.”  I think the thing is that when I listen to She & Him, I feel like maybe the world isn’t a horrible place.  I get sort of stupidly optimistic and I kind of like it.

“Something’s Haunting You.”  And this is yet another of those songs that does not match its title tonally.  This is much cheerier than any song that has the word “haunting” in it has a right to be, but that’s okay.  I mean, not all hauntings are gloomy, right?  That one ghost in Cordelia’s apartment turned out to be pretty okay, for example.  This feels a little kitsch for him, but ghosts aren’t inherently bad.  I fully understand that they mean haunting in the metaphorical way, but I don’t care.

“Together.”  Oh!  Suddenly it sounds like the 1970s.  Like a movie about roller skates from the 1970s.  Oddly, I don’t mean this as a bad thing.  “Yes, we all go through it together and we all go at it alone.“  I like this a lot, actually.

“Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me.”  This was originally a song performed by Karen Chandler.  And while I didn’t know that name necessarily, I definitely know I’ve heard this song before.  It feels like pure fifties sappiness, and I keep needing to repeat that right now I actually don’t mind that?  This is the kind of music I grew up listening to, so it gives me a lot of warm fuzzies.

“Snow Queen.”  Among other things, “I’m so cold, but I’m nice beneath the ice.”  Oh my gosh, though, this is a weird combination of like… four different periods of my life all brought together into one charming little tune.

“Sunday Girl.”  Oh, a Blondie song.  I didn’t know that until right now because I actually don’t know anything about Blondie, but I approve on principle.  Also, this is involving Zooey singing in French and that is another thing I always love, especially because I can actually translate a little bit of it and that’s exciting.

“London.”  Slowing it down again.  And this is the closest to gloomy they get, which is to say not really that gloomy at all but it actually says the word gloomy in the lyrics so it sort of counts, perhaps.

“Shadow of Love.”  Still slow, and “there’s no tomorrow for me and you,” so this is the song that plays over the parting couple in a sunset in a retro movie, where one or both parties are riding motorcycles in opposite directions sadly as they acknowledge that it cannot be and the wind blows in their hair.

“Reprise (I Could’ve Been Your Girl).”  This is the end of an Ann-Margret movie, pretty much.  And that’s okay by me.

–your fangirl heroine.

Sundry Sunday :: my urban dictionary: fictional overemoting

Def.: Those times when you are sometimes irrationally moved to feelings by fiction.  Different than just standardly having feels, because this is sometimes disproportionate (it has little rational basis, it hits you in the middle of nowhere or prompted by completely unrelated things, etc.) and rarely explainable to outsiders.

Usage: “Calm down, it’s only a book/show/movie” is something I am frequently told in response to my fictional overemoting.

–your fangirl heroine.

Spoiler Alert Saturday :: my thoughts on Iron Man 3

…are best summed up in the phrase “yes, all right!”

This is to say that I did really like this movie, and straightforwardly so.  It had

• Excellent ladies (because Pepper [Gwyneth Paltrow] rocks always, yes, and Maya [Rebecca Hall] definitely interested me — I mean, lady scientists always, yes, and on top of/because of that she sort of pinged me with a few stray Bennett feelings I think?).
• Re: the above, Bechdel test pass!
• Emotional darkness, but not too much that it felt overwhelming.
• Politics, but not too much that it felt overwhelming.
• Interesting points about the showmanship of politics.
• A good helping of snark (mostly Tony [Robert Downey Jr.] of course, but everyone snarked a little).
• A good helping of noir (because seriously, the fact that it was Shane Black who also did Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang directing had me noticing this everywhere, and really, it was… a little bit the same movie [narration, tone, Christmas, the life-dangling-by-threads, the decoys in the less-good department] but I’m not complaining, I love that movie and also I love noir).
• Some science bros after the credits (hiii, Mark Ruffalo with glasses).
• Guy Pearce being sleazy, which is definitely his m.o. of late, isn’t it?
• Science in general!!!  I have said it before and I will say it again, while I am not particularly science-minded myself, gosh I love when fictional people talk about/do science.  Especially of the neuro- variety, so I was very pleased here.  Also, while I stand firm in my theory that 3D digital screen readouts are never used in situations where nothing bad is happening, I appreciate that Tony Stark uses them in the context not of doing bad but of investigating bad, so.
• A little boy (Harley, played by Ty Simpkins) who didn’t feel cloying to me.
• Rhodey (Don Cheadle) being pretty cool and badass too.
• Mostly, though, PEPPER.  Who has always been a badass in her way, but (specific spoiler I guess) well, there are few things I love more than badass ladies rising literally from the ashes to do badass things.  So.

–your fangirl heroine.

Fashion Friday :: because I have to acknowledge things that are obvious.

(Also it is Christina Hendricks’ birthday, so I feel only right about doing some sort of tribute-ish thing, I don’t know.)

I am obsessed with this outfit solely because vest.  Unfortunately, it is next to impossible to find vests for ladies that aren’t denim, fleece, or some other such thing, as I’m pretty sure I’ve discussed.  And anyway that’s not… entirely the point here.

The point is that my Joanie and my Christina are basically iconic in the pinup-retro clothing community at this point, and there is no coincidence that Pinup Girl Clothing hosts both a Joanie Dress and Top in multiple colors and a Christina Dress in multiple colors.  This is the latter, in Purple Sateen, by Pinup Couture.  And while it has very little to do with the above picture of Joan, it is very keeping with her general vibe, and the color is almost identical, so.

Look!  More black heels.  Black Currant Scones Heel, ModCloth.

Interpretation time: Joan’s bracelet is actually surprisingly whimsical (it’s a charm bracelet with hearts of multiple colors).  I cannot find such a bracelet, though I could swear I’ve seen one, so instead I present two alternatives, one that’s gold hearts in a different arrangement, one that’s heart charms but a bit more blinged out.  Hearts of Gold Bracelet, ModCloth, Black Heart Stretch Bracelet, Betsey Johnson.

And finally, I cannot find a leaf brooch that I like that isn’t ridiculously expensive and I can’t find earrings I like, so I’m just combining the two things.  Gold leaf earrings.  Allure of the Arboretum Earrings, ModCloth.

–your fangirl heroine

Theatre Thursday :: my thoughts on (the theatrical) Flashdance in the form of a haiku.

(co-written by my friend)

It thinks it’s funny
It’s sexual harassment
No, no, no, no, no.

–your fangirl heroine.

Whedon Wednesday :: color theory as it applies to a few Drusilla-specific Buffy promo photographs

I love Drusilla (Juliet Landau) a lot, and I’m sure I don’t talk about her enough.  And the sets of promo photographs from season two of Dru and Spike (James Marsters) are possibly my favorite sets of promotional photographs ever.  I’m not even sure why this is, exactly; they’re not particularly out of the ordinary, as far as promotional photographs go.  I think it might in part be that I get very nostalgic about back when Dru and Spike were a thing, because they were so wonderfully malicious and weird, and I think it is also that while lots of promotional photographs have the cast assumedly in-character and posing in standstill, these sets are so on, so active.

Anyway, I also think it’s fascinating that Drusilla’s photographs (and indeed her entire season two wardrobe) fall into three distinct color palettes, each of which represents a separate part of the puzzle that is her.  There is the white dress; “white is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. It is considered to be the color of perfection,” and therefore this reflects the Drusilla that was.  The whole story of Dru is, after all, that she was so innocent and good that Angel (and Darla) just had to ruin her, and in presenting so as to suggest that kind of innocence and goodness that she no longer has, she misleads observers.  Opponents do not take her so seriously at first, because what danger is a crazy child and really that’s what she is.  There is also a part of Dru that does, to whatever extent, remain that crazy child, that retains innocence, though it is corrupted.

Then you have the shades of red.  Red (and black) are the colors that most often get associated with vampires in general, regardless of mythology or canon or personality; this is pretty obvious.  Black for darkness, red for blood.  Variants of this outfit probably get the most overall screen time, and it’s decidedly the most eclectic: top like a corset, long skirt, fur-trimmed beaded jacket, very appropriate-to-the-90s shoes.  It’s capital-r Romantic but not nearly so literally vintage as the white dress.  Red is also “emotionally intense,” which — yes, obviously, of course, the majority of crazy fictional characters (and “crazy” ones, but there’s no “” necessary for Dru, as she is 100% insane) have that particular thing in common.  Red is danger — of course, she’s a vampire — and red is strength — again, vampire — and red is “passion, desire and love” — well, yes, I’ve discussed vampire sexuality before, but Dru is one of the Buffyverse’s more overtly sexual vamps to be sure, and what with the “we can love quite well, if not wisely” business, she’s one of the vampires who arguably was in a kind of love with another vampire.  Dark red additionally has “longing, malice and wrath,” the first of which foreshadows the inevitable fate of her relationship with Spike and matches the fate of the Whirlwind as a whole, the latter two of which are fairly inherent, though hers is less of a directed malice and more a malice-for-fun’s-sake.

And finally, you have Drusilla in black.  Black for darkness (she is a vampire, she is of the night), black for mystery (who in the heck knows what she’s talking about half the time?  Also, she is a vampire), black for evil (again, vampire, and one with a reputation at that).  There is something to putting vampires in black old-fashioned outfits, highlighting a certain level of inherent mourning that comes with being the undead, but it is especially potent with Drusilla, who either wants to mourn or to kill, maybe to kill and then mourn by dancing in the ashes.

–your fangirl heroine.