The Turtle Jourtle

I plan to contribute to the Discovered in the Autumn challenge on LiveJournal by doing a series of vid recs between now and the end of October. [Pause for gasps of surprise.] The pseudorandom vid series I've been posting at the Safehouse brings people the full variety of Pros vids, including those I don't like, which I value. I also enjoy promoting my favorites, though, and I hope some of you enjoy seeing them.

First up is Bodie and Doyle Trash the Streets of London by 45to37. This is a delightfully unusual and inventive vid. I've never seen one that pairs images and sound in the same way.

(Note that I'm not going to repeat any vids I've recced recently, including the ten favorite Pros fanvids that I featured in my post in August. I've picked out a new batch of excellent vids to share.)

At the end of last month, eight VCR-era Professionals vids by Katharine Scarritt were posted at the Internet Archive. One was Land of Confusion, which the notes indicate has been a highly regarded vid in the fandom. I can see why. The recording posted at IA is badly damaged, but the excellence of the vid is still evident. There is a wonderful sense of movement throughout, due partly to the clip choice and partly to the timing of the clips. The latter, which I'm sure must have been difficult to control using tape, is particularly impressive.

The degraded state of the recording and the great work underneath make me itch to recut this vid using the digital copies of the episodes that I use for my own vids. According to Fanlore, however, Katharine Scarritt passed away earlier this year, so there is nobody whose permission I could ask for that project. It's possible I may still do it for my own enjoyment, but it is a big undertaking and a fiddly one. I've puttered around a bit, testing the feasibility, and I've found something curious. The audio of the transcribed file is slightly faster than the digital version of the song Land of Confusion. Yet the video clips move slightly slower than those drawn from my digital copies of the episodes, taking longer to get from their first frame to their last. The latter, in particular, would make it difficult to do a perfectly faithful recut, and if I am the only person who would ever see it, I'm not sure it would be worth the headaches.

ETA: Good news! I may be granted permission for a recut by the person now responsible for Katharine Scarritt's works.

Tonight I finished Calibre by JGL (Chapter 1, Chapter 2), which was one of the case story recs shared at Bistocon. This fic has everything: hurt/comfort, romance, intrigue, suspense, stylish writing. I enjoyed it a lot, though I did have some trouble following the characters' emotions. I don't think that was the fault of the author; it is a difficulty I often have when the emotions in a story are complex and shifting. 40,659 words. B/D slash.

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T is for Third Sex and The Ties That Bind, A is for A is for Alpha

Fic bingo returns!

Masked Ball by waid is a delightful Sherlock Holmes fic. Apparently it is not equally memorable, though, as it was only near the end of the story that I realized I had read it before. Oops. At any rate, I enjoyed it very much the second time around. It is mysterious and atmospheric with an unusual plot. If it has a flaw, it is that the ending feels a bit rushed, but that detracts only a little from the whole. 31,626 words. Holmes/Watson slash.

the last son is yet another Harry Potter AU by dirgewithoutmusic. In this one, Ron rather than Harry is the chosen one. It's a well thought out and engaging fic, though I didn't love it as much as the kids who chose themselves or the family evans by the same author. 13,051 words. Gen.

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Earlier today, I heard someone mention Garry Marshall. That name was new to me, so I looked him up. He turns out to have been an all-rounder in both TV and movies (writer, actor, director, producer), and one of the things he had a hand in, according to Wikipedia, was "Mork and Mindy (1978–1982)." Of course, my first thought on seeing that was, "'Mork and Mindy (1978–1982)'...The Professionals (1977-1983)...crossover?" This is your brain on fandom, kids.

Yesterday, I spent some time rummaging around the Safehouse comm looking for old fanvid postings. I didn't find much that was new to me. Some of the vids I had already encountered on YouTube, others were posted there but have since been removed, a number were hosted on now closed personal sites, and most of the rest were uploaded to file sharing services where they are no longer available.

One thing I did find, though, was kiwisue's post introducing "Sisters are doing it form themselves" by Enednoviel, which by some grace still has live links.

This is an unusual and well crafted vid focusing on the women of The Professionals. I'm familiar with the song, and before watching the vid I was skeptical that there would be enough footage to support it. I was wrong, though. Who knew there was so much girl power going on while we were busy watching the Lads? As firlefanzine said in a comment, "Here we see how a good trailer can sell even Pros...as a women’s liberation show!"

This year's Bistocon included two panels dedicated to attendees' favorite Professionals fics in selected fanfic genres. As I did last year, I prepared my recs ahead of time, and as was the case last year, I didn't have a chance to share all of them or properly to introduce some of those I did share (mostly due to my own shyness). Therefore, I'm posting them here.

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Last week, I told my mother a bit about a fanvid I’m working on. Today, I talked to her again, and she said, "How’s your fanflick going? Is that what it’s called?" Why on earth is that not what it is called?

Earlier in the week, I read Never Let Me Down by Shoshanna. This fic has been on my list for a while, both because I so admired Love Lies Bleeding by the same author and because I have a persistent kink for internalized homophobia, which is one of this fic's AO3 tags. (Is anyone actually interested in why I read the fics I do? I seem to talk about it a lot.)

I liked this fic fairly well. It has good characterizations and some parts of the story are absorbing. I found other parts a little slow, though. This is a relationship-focused fic and there is both a lot of talk about the relationship and a lot of sex, neither of which is a favorite story element of mine. (The sex is definitely integral to the plot here, though.) 56,802 words. B/D slash.

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Yesterday, I finished my first round of multifandom fic bingo. I read 25 fics, and since posting about the last batch of them, I've been trying to decide which five I would most recommend. In the end, I couldn't narrow it down quite that much; my six top recommendations from among the many good fics I read are as follows:

alt.wiz: Charlie Furth, Usenet, and the Magical Internet Revolution by flibbertygigget (Harry Potter)
the kids who chose themselves by dirgewithoutmusic (Harry Potter)
Eruv by imperfectcircle (Mathey and Lynes)
Psmith and the Greek Spirit by kindkit (Psmith)
To a Doctor's Wife by tweedisgood (Sherlock Holmes)
Upon a Ring by sanguinity (Sherlock Holmes)

Interestingly, these are all book-based.

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