I have signed up for month_of_meta/month_of_meta in May! I've said that I'll be writing about non-typical gender roles in Renaissance Pictures productions/Sam Raimi-related media. Which I will! Cause then I can talk about Evil Dead and how it broke with tradition (and how it changed the horror genre), Hercules the Legendary Journeys and Xena Warrior Princess and alllll the subverted gender rules, Spiderman 3 and why dancing and strutting Peter Parker is seriously off-putting, and why Oz: The Great Powerful (despite being beautiful, and having a good number of funny bits) was an unsuccessful story and didn't need to be told. wow. sounds like a lot when I put it that way

If anyone wants to recommend some Legend of the Seeker episodes that deal with men vs women, in really nontraditional roles, I really appreciate it! I can make some assumptions & sweeping generalizations about what I've heard, but I'd rather watch some eps and have some specific examples.

Other topics I considered (and, ya know, still want to do):
Peter Jackson's brilliant cinemagraphic choices (focus on Hobbit/LOTR). Which would include talk about the kites! I ♥ the kites in the intro of The Hobbit!

Levels of attachment, disconnect, and piracy/plagiarism definitions in fandom. I've been thinking about it for awhile, and the recent kerfuffle in the Cap/IronMan fandom made me think about it even more. Why is pirating tv/film/music/manga/comics an accepted practice in fan circles, but then communities like stop_plagiarism exist to protect works of fannish authors, artists and other creative people. Why is plagiarism uncool, yet piracy accepted (generalization, I KNOW)? How are the two terms defined? Why don't we use the same term for the practice of taking what isn't yours and redistributing it? Is it because we can connect to fannish producers on a personal level that we can't connect to large industries? THIS GIVES ME THINKY THOUGHTS AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE I STAND ON THE ISSUE, OKAY?!?!

One from last year's prompt list: rhivolution suggested How [YOUR FANDOM HERE] depicts food and/or food production. EPIC, AWESOME PROMPT. I could talk about the fandom-produced Sentinel cookbook(s?)! And Not_You's recent use of food in displaying the concept of home in Scenes from a Marriage. Actually, food in general, espcially Jewish food culture, in XMFC fanworks could be cool. And the dearth of cooking/food related fics in the Hobbit fandom (except for Dwalin's cookies. And reworkings of the Dinner Party). UGH. and if I ever find that thundercats food porn that I read at an impressionable age...

Alright first off, a little backstory. I come from a non traditional home. By no means broken (horrible term btw) but definitely non traditional. I've got my dad, and then my mom and step-dad. To make it even more not traditional, my mom and dad actually get along fabulously. Even my dad and step-dad get along. Mom and dad would still probably be married if they could agree on money & finances, yaknow? All three are fabulous people.

Now when it comes to fannish life, I'm...well I guess you'd call it closeted (maybe? Searching for a term here), to my parents. They know about fanfiction, and that I read/wrote it in high school and middle school. Mom gets the concept of message boards and blogs, Dad's a little fuzzy, and Step-dad could care less about what happens on the Internet if it isn't YouTube video of people building and operating crazy contraptions. But like all living breathing humans, they love their movies, tv, and books. So here's two separate instances of what I'd think of as fannish interactions with them.

1. MizzD introduces mom and step-dad to BBCs Sherlock. Since I got them a blu-ray player for Christmas, they now can stream their Netflix. We spent a good portion of the time between Christmas and New Years, huddled on the couch, under blankets for warmth (it happens to be freezing in the farm house. Are you sick of hearing that yet?). There were many movies watched. And then I said Sherlock! We're watching it! Both were kinda ambivalent. Mom because she was like "more cop shows? Bah." Step-dad because he was like "not enough explosions!" BUT I hooked him on the first episode, and mom by the second (which is weird because I think The Blind Banker is the weakest of all the stories). AND THEN we got to The Great Game. They both had some running commentary on that one, let me tell you. And when the screen went dark, OMG DID THEY HAVE A COW :D am I evil? I told em I should make them wait a few months for the next season :P but they watched some the next day and the day after. By the time they got to The Reichenbach Fall, I had gone back to college. I got separate reaction posts communications from both of them. I got an email entitled "U Beeatch!!!!!" from the step-dad containing his reactions, WTFery, and whines about the wait for next season (he's mostly unfamiliar with ACD canon, so he REALLY had no idea what was coming). Mom was IMing me for most of the episode going 'the writing! so good.' And then the WHAAAAH? at the end. She even posted her appreciation of my rec to FB!

2. Dad hears about MizzD's attempt to watch The Incrediable Hulk. So The Avengers restored my faith in the Comic Book Movie. It had been ruined in 2005 by X3 & Superman Returns. (Iron Man almost brought it back but Iron Man 2 kinda ruined it. And Nolan!Batman is so far removed from a CBM, it didn't do anything.) So I've been trying to catch up on the CBM I missed (Thor? Major miscasts all over the place. First Class? DAMN MY OLD MARRIED COUPLE FEELS.) But Hulk? Hulk I could not do. I got 10 minutes in, turned it off and sent the disc back. My FB status promptly described it as "all my least favorite actors make a movie." Ed Norton bugs me. Liv Tyler, I hate. And Hulk is generally boring (when not done by Whedon/Ruffalo). HORRIBLE MOVIE. When dad heard the casting as I was complaining about the movie compared to Avengers he went "Norton? Nooooo. Miscast. He's too scrawny." Then he asked who plays Banner/Hulk in Avengers. When I told him Mark Ruffalo, he was immediately all YES. And then proceeded to basically rehash Whedon's reasoning behind Ruffalo casting - angry, big, and able to take care of himself BEFORE he became the Hulk. WITHOUT EVEN SEEING AVENGERS or hearing Whedon talk about it. Needless to say I was impressed. And I just fueled the fire by saying the Norton!Hulk was just trying to go with the hapless scientist typecast. You should have seen him go! Impressive rant, let me tell you.

Basically, I love my parents, all three, for various reasons. But they're really impressive when they're fannish without even knowing it.

Have I said that I love my film class? Since we don't have class on Monday, and there's no screening this week, we were assigned homework: "go to the movies". Not "watch a movie on the tv" but actually GO TO THE MOVIES. The first class was all about the experience of movies. So, being a holiday weekend, my parents were in FULL support of this homework. Guess what we managed to see? AVENGERS. 3rd time for me! 1st for the 'rents can you believe it? That farming life sure is time consuming.

Why was Avengers in theatres you ask? Well since we stayed all the way through to watch the schwarma scene, the guy who was cleaning told us that it was rereleased into theatres so that it can make some more money and beat Titanic as the top grossing box office! Mom, who used to sell video for Disney, was immediately like "that's so they can claim the top box office not the second when it's time to release it on DVD." It needs to make another ~$40k. I don't think that will happen. There was only two screenings at this theatre. The house was not EVEN full (although crowded for a movie that came out 5 months ago. I honestly thought we were going to be the only ones). And in this area of about 30 miles? This was the only theatre showing it. :/ doubt it will make it's goal.

I was still shocked by Coulson. I mean I knew it was coming, but I was so caught up in drama that it came soon than I was expecting. THAT is good story telling. It was also funny to watch it with the parents who have very little to no grasp of the history of Avengers or fandom life in general. There were jokes I laughed at that they didn't and different opinions of character(ization)s. Whatever.

We got there in time for the trailers! Which is always nice. there was a new Frankenwennie trailer. Which actually made me more inclined to see it. There seems to be more story then the short from a few years ago. No new Oz. VERY DISAPPOINTED. I need new footage to geek over! Taken 2 made both my mother and I go 'NFW!'

But Skyfall. OH BOY SKYFALL. THAT IS EXCITING. Really, really exciting. I loved this new trailer. I had all these FEELS while watching. Loved the idea of Bond - a traditional spy character - adapted for the information age. I mean he's always been about information and secrets, but now that info is transmitted by the Internet. It makes you wonder how this movie is going to approach the danger and explosions - since historically, Bond films have used the danger to stop Bond from getting away with film/microchips/photos/people with the facts in their brains. So why is stuff exploding this time? Well except for that one that seems to blow up MI-6. That one seems to be an act of terror directed specifically at M. And speaking of M, this almost-too-close relationship that M and Bond have since Daniel Craig won the role FASCINATES me. It really plays into that whole idea of factions and loyalty in intelligence communities (see Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy. Which is boring. But illustrates my point). Now see, I have this head canon that 'James Bond' itself is a codename. It's been assigned to various men over the last few decades, at M's discretion. Which explains why when Dench!M came onto the scene, Brosonan!Bond was all annoyed. He came up through the ranks under a different M. So Craig!Bond is her Bond, so of course they get all awkwardly close. HENCE THE MOTHER JOKES IN THE TRAILER. UGH. CAN'T WAIT. (brainflash! Can I request Bond films for festivids?)