we're all stories in the end

Let Love Be Your Energy
by such_heights
fandom: Ted Lasso
content notes: physical triggers: rapid graphics & flash photography
music: Robbie Williams
summary: 'He thinks he's mad now, wait til we win him over.' 'He'll be furious!'
download: download as 261MB zipped .mp4 | download as 130MB zipped .mp4 Subtitles in the zip files and available on youtube.
notes: Premiered at Vidukon 2021 - many thanks to con attendees for your kind words during the Premieres show! Also many thanks to happydork and cosmic_llin for beta and encouragement. This is absolutely a recruiter vid - this oddball US/UK football sitcom has been a delight in a difficult time. Also on AO3 and on tumblr.

( lyrics and embed )

This is my first public entry since February 1st, wow. I've been tweeting some about current events such_heights, and this is not a post about the pandemic or the Black Lives Matter movement or JKR's transphobia, much as those things are on my mind and in my heart.

This is instead a post about a vid convention! With Vidukon's move online I know a whole bunch of fans from all over are virtually attending for the first time and it's very exciting. If you're registered there are a couple of tech things to set up so you can have a million vids to watch this weekend - vidukon_cardiff has all the details. The primary thing you need is an account on Conline, a website built especially to run this con because lithium_doll is incredible and includes a bunch of options re time zones, if you want to watch vid shows live or at a more circadian rhythm appropriate time for you.

Some parts of the con and general discussion is also happening over on Discord - I'm very happy to try and answer questions about the platform if people have them.

Vids! Yay!

Having done the first one of these in 2016, I now theoretically never have to come up with a vidshow idea for Vidukon again!

This year's Retrospective show will be vids from 2009. A fine vintage, I have many vids already on my shortlist but would be very happy for more to make sure I don't miss anything!

Notable fannish moments of 2009 from my POV included: the first new!Trek film, Merlin, Community, Leverage, the end of BSG, the Tenth Doctor's final episodes, Torchwood: Children of Earth and the subsequent fallout. The MCU was barely a glimmer in Nick Fury's eye. It was the year of Racefail, of DW and AO3 starting to take off, and looking back it really was around this time that I was most active in fandom. I miss it, and feel one million years old also.

So, I would love your recs! Vid must have been originally posted in 2009, but that's the only restriction. If you were vidding then, what's your favourite vid that you made that year? I'll be going through con premieres and LJ comm announcements etc, but recs for personal favourites very welcome.

For this year's Vidukon I'm putting together a show of vids that were made/premiered in 2006. I'm going through Vividcon from that year and people's journal archives, and it's a very fun nostalgia fest. Harry Potter was an ongoing series, it was the early days of SGA, BSG, SPN and all other three letter acronym shows, people were vidding a lot of Farscape and due South and Whedonverse, and Doctor Who was just beginning to pick up interest.

I'd love recs of any personal faves from that year. Must have been originally posted that year, so no remasters etc, but otherwise anything goes. Self recs very much encouraged! I know it might feel a bit weird to look at work a decade old, but I'm really interested to see how much vidding has changed in style and content over the years, and how much it hasn't.

Uptown Funk
by such_heights
fandom: Parks and Recreation
music: Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars
content notes: none
summary: Don't believe me? Just watch.
download: 36MB zipped .avi
notes: Huge thanks to purplefringe for beta assistance. Premiered at tonight Vidukon 2015! Also on tumblr.

( embed and lyrics )

So last weekend was Vidukon and it was really delightful. It was so nice to get the train with the London fangirl collective and see lots of familiar faces as well as meet some first time attendees like fray_adjacent and odessie.

Because Lithium Doll is some kind of wizard, you can enjoy the entire con from the comfort of your own home via the website, with links to the vids shown in each show, and notes up for some of the panels and even a video of Sunday's Year in Vidding panel that I ran.

Some personal favourite new-to-me vids over the weekend were:

Sexyback by odessie (Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries)

Goody Two Shoes by laurashapiro and pipsqueaky (due South)

Creating Something Beautiful by sinycatarina (Studio Ghibli)

Long Live by cosmic_llin (Star Trek) - I put the premieres show together so I knew this was going to be a hit, but seeing a lot of the room in tears as the lights came up was still quite something. I just, I have an awful lot of Star Trek feelings and this vid captures *all of them*, it's overwhelming. <333

The whole premieres show was really wonderful, a great range of sources and mood.

Other highlights included getting to watch the Aims Project all in order on the big screen, watching I Swear in a big group - the reactions of the people who know what's coming and the people who don't are equally priceless, and being happily encased in a bubble of vid squee for a whole weekend.

The vid show that I put together was Same Song, Different Source. I wasn't sure how this was going to play out - would people find it repetitive? Did it invite people to put the vids in competition? But it seemed to go down well, and interestingly multiple people said that it enhanced the way that they read and understood vids, particularly the second vids in the pairs. So that was really cool.

I'm delighted that all of us in the concom are keen to keep running this every year now, and also figure out how to expand it a little so that we can afford to sustain and grow what we can do. Vids! Con! Whee! \o/

So I've been reading away on Dreamwidth as ever but apparently haven't updated in nearly a month? Let's fix that, as our work email server has just crashed (ahaha our IT is so bad, oh, charity sector life).

i. I have been at the new job for three months now! I really like it, but it's definitely taking away a lot more time and energy from doing fannish stuff than the last one, which is annoying. I have all these feels and no time to put them anywhere!

ii. What fannish time I do have at the moment is mostly spent getting ready for Vidukon! I'm excited, we've got some great stuff lined up this year. It's great we're managing to make it an annual thing and I hope it continues. Viiiids. All being well, I should have two premiering vids there and also possibly a shiny new remaster of one of my old cam vids, which would be lovely. (psst it's not too late to get an attending or supporting membership -- which includes nifty streaming options!)

iii. Vidding projects are going well (though as ever I have more things I want to make than time to make them) but writing continues to ... not. Looking back, I've not managed to post much in the last couple of years. And actually, pretty much what it seems to be is that I haven't been able to write much since the end of Ponds-era Doctor Who. Many many WIPs stashed away in various fandoms, very little ability to finish any of them. Not to mention the 50k Ponds fic of doom that has been rigorously beta'd and really just needs a final go through but I'm worried it's not very good and that no one will really care when I post it anyway.

... WRITING IS HARD. How do words. I would love to be able to actually write any of the dozen MCU fic ideas I have buzzing around, but I can't manage more than about 500 words on anything.

iv. Fannish pursuits of the moment - saw Cap 2 again, still love it with all my heart like they made it just for meeeee. <3 Also in that category, I've caught the first season of Orphan Black, though I haven't started s2 yet. IT IS PERFECT AND BEAUTIFUL.

Also perfect and beautiful: Brooklyn Nine-Nine! happydork and I are making our way through the season and it's so totally delightful. I horribly overidentify with Santiago ('yes sir, I will make better mouth') and Captain Holt is honestly one of the most glorious queer characters I've had the pleasure of watching in ages. *draws sparkly hearts*

v. Anyone on HabitRPG? Having tried it for a little while now it seems to be working quite well for me, and it would be fun to have some buddies on there to do quests with etc. My username is syntaxed.

Wheeeee, another vid in the Aims vidding project has gone up!

purplefringe has made Never Look Away (Doctor Who, Eleven & Clara)

It's so perfect and beautiful. I think purplefringe has really outdone herself on this one - there's so much packed into every moment, lots of layers of narrative and symbolism and also their precious faces. It gives me MANY FEELINGS and it's really really pretty too.

I'm so so pleased with all of the Aims - they're all brilliant, and have a lovely range of sources, themes, and interpretations of the songs, plus a lot of focus on women. Just two more to go now! We're hoping to be able to show all of them as a Vidukon vid show which would be pretty awesome.

Speaking of - Vidukon! Is a thing, happening in Cardiff at the end of June, and if you like watching and talking about vids and can get yourself there you should definitely come. Create an account on the website to register, and even if you don't want to register just yet you can join in discussion about possible panel topics etc.

We'll also be accepting premieres whether you're attending the con or not (deadline: April 27th).

In additional con news, I'm going to doing some vidding content on the fanworks track at Nine Worlds this year, and am also chatting to some of the people at Worldcon about doing something similar with them as they're trying to get fanworks involved. So if you're doing the London con circuit this summer, come and watch some vids with me!

Hi everyone! It's been a bit quiet around here lately because I've been doing All The Things and not had huge amounts of spare time. This has resulted in both brain and body clumsiness in that I've just sent three emails to vidukon VJs where really there should have been one, and also I've already had two major pratfalls this week and sustained an exciting array of minor injuries. So, um. I'm on top of everything I swear!

Anyway, I break radio silence to bring your attention to two points:

Point the first being Vidukon! If you're thinking of coming now's a great time to signup - registration prices increase on March 17th. And if you're submitting a premiere the deadline for that is March 31st.

Also relating to Vidukon, purplefringe and I are in the final stages of putting together our Teams vidshow and are looking for a few extra vids as possibilities. Does anyone have recs for vids that focus on teams (ie not just ensembles but the relationships in the group) in the following fandoms: Star Trek (any), Buffyverse, Avatar: the Last Airbender, Lord of the Rings. We have lots of choose from already in lots of fandoms, but the more the merrier.

---

Point the second - some of you may recall me previously mentioning an awesome queer feminist burlesque & cabaret collective called Lashings of Ginger Beer Time. Well, a few months ago I joined them, and we are currently in the process of getting together a show to take to the Edinburgh Festival. In order to fund this, we're selling lots of awesome swag - as a Lashings fan far longer than a performer, I feel pretty confident in saying that the show's going to be awesome, as is the merchandise and media available to purchase!

Following the success of our first panto, Cinderella, we want to take our brand-spanking-new pantomime, Fanny Whittington, all the way up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival! That's right, folks. Soon, you will be able to enjoy all of Lashings' own brand of comedy, politics and malfunctioning props in panto form once more. Expect an emotional rollercoaster of highs and lows, tears and laughter, songs and silliness as we follow young Fanny and her pet rat, Basil, navigating their way through love, exploitation and possible puppetry.

Available swag includes zines, cookbooks, music, DVDs, tickets, and much more! And spreading the word to other interested parties is also hugely appreciated. :D

+ You have until the end of the day on December 14th to sign up for the white_lotus exchange. Come play, it'll be fun!

+ There is also a treats post where you can leave prompts and/or pick them up if you want to play more informally.

+ Next year's Vidukon is happening in Cardiff on May 18th & 19th. If you like vids and can get to Cardiff, you should come! It'll be fun. More info at vidukon_cardiff, vidukon, and vidukon. We are also soliciting premieres, whether you're attending or not, and those need to be submitted by March 31st. If you think you might like to make a vid and would like some cheerleading/encouragement, feel free to get in touch!

+ fandom_stocking is still open for participants. I have a stocking here, if anyone wants to make me something small and shiny. <3