kaffy_r | Entries tagged with recs

You Want Recommendations? I've Got Recommendations!

Challenge # 8 Rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create. Recs are such an important part of fandom. They're an awesome way to find new things to love and they're an equally awesome way to share what we already love with others.

One of the things the

snowflake_challenge mods remind participants of is the fact that there are no set deadlines for these challenges, even though all the challenges are set in January. I'm so glad about that, because I am such a turtle-sloth creature when it comes to these things. This challenge really threw me - not because I didn't know what to recommend, because I had too many things in my head, begging to be recommended.

But I finally figured out what to do, and how to do it. I've come up with a baker's dozen recommendations. Here we go!

"And Sleighbells in the Snow," by DachOsmin. This is a wonderful story in the fandom for The Goblin Emperor. Csevet-centered.
"The Way We Live Now," by Zlot. This is in the Whoniverse, and imagines an AU in which Rory saved the older Amy. Calm, beautiful and sad.
"The War Was in Color (First) by

such_heights . My first vid rec, from one of my favorite vidders. Her technical and artistic skills are awesome, and she's put them to use in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Captain America focused, with a healthy hatred of war.
"The War Was in Color (Second) by

such_heights . The creator revisited the song at a later point in what we knew of the MCU. It's just as good, so I included it.
"Glosoli" by

purplefringe and

such_heights . Doctor Who fandom, created by a tag taam of superlatively gifted vidders. Watch and be awed by their command of imagery, their understanding of Who, especially Eleven, and their grasp of pattern and context in Moffat's Who.
"Welcome to the New Age," by

promethia_tenk . I love this Doctor Who (Eleven-centered) fanvid so much, especially the opening.
An ancient list (as in, wow, this was created in 2010!) of fic recs, almost all in the Whoniverse, so it lacks Eleven (or doesn't have much as far as I can tell), my beloved Twelve, or Thirteen. But the stories are still eminently enjoyable.
"To a Home on God's Celestial Shore," by GlitterDwarf. An OT3 fic based on a 1940 comedy, starring Katherine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant? Yes, please. It works so very well.
"Valerie, For Forgetfulness," by

clocketpatch . From the Whoniverse, but taking an amazing, an amazingly apropos, detour into children's television. It's wonderful.
"Bring Biscuits," by

faerymorstan . From Sherlock. If, like me, you insist that they can so still be an OT3, hush, then this ribald short is for you.
"Give My Hands True Purpose," by nooziewoozie. Another one from The Goblin Emperor, which examines Csethiro and Maia's slowly growing love. I've read it repeatedly.
"On a Cold Planet," by

a_t_rain . This is in the Vorkosiverse and focuses on Byerly, post Captain Vorpatril's Alliance and it's plot-heavy, world-buildingly intriguing, and very satisfying in the romance and character department.
Finally, Just One Cookbook is a blog site run by Namiko Chen for people who want to learn about Japanese cooking.

I hope you enjoy some of these!

p.s. Apparently one of my favorite fanvids, "England" by

such_heights , is no longer online. I downloaded it years ago, so I still have it, but it's not mine to upload. If you've seen it, you know how good it is.
p,p.s. There are a couple of fics and vids I wanted to rec, but this post is already long and link heavy.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: the livingroom
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/551638.html

Very Quick Precis of The Week

( Phil )

( Book )

( Work )
( The world is too much with us, plus exhaustion )

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Location: the livingroom
Crossposts: https://kaffyr.livejournal.com/467784.html

Between the World and Me

I've wanted to recommend Between The World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, for some time; well before I reached the end of this very slim volume, as a matter of fact.

Folks may know of Coates' work at The Atlantic, with his trenchant, unyielding, and often strongly poetic writing about race and America, among many other things. He was named the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" grant. (He's a fan, by the way; he's going to be writing The Black Panther for Marvel!)

But this book ... it's rare that I can say "A book changed my view of the world." This one did. It is written as a letter to his teenage son in the wake of the Trayvon Martin murder trial verdict. He speaks to his son as a black man, with a young black son he loves, in a country that doesn't love either of them. Within the first 10 pages of this letter, I was treated to more wisdom, and more hurt, and more righteous anger, than I've read in a long time.

I'm a middle-class white woman, and reading this was sometimes brutal for me - but it was brutal in all the good "you need to learn this, to understand it, to accept it, " way. Coates is that rarest of combinations; a writer with reportorial skills in equal measure to his command of language, pacing, heart and mind. He made me listen.

Between the World and Me has been short-listed for the National Book award. You should read it.

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: Going to bed
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/383499.html

So. Bright Like the Sun; and Dark, and Kind

( Here's to Strong Finishes )

Current Location: The livingroom
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/379925.html

This One Helps Me Get It

Sometimes all it takes is someone with better vision than I have to bring something into far better focus. They get Twelve and Clara, and I'm glad they put it together this way.

"on the clock | doctor who" (Watch on YouTube)

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: the livingroom
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/340431.html

Work, Workity, Work

What I really want to do is fool around on DW/LJ and finish Chapter 23 of Hearts and Moons, because it's finally, finally coming together.

Or perhaps start re-reading the epic ASOIAF fanfic "The North Remembers" by Silverblood. It's the best long-form fanfic I can remember reading, and I greeted every new AO3 alert of a new chapter with glee I normally reserve for Christmas presents. The writer did an incredible job in more than 600,000 words and 113 chapters, completed over two-plus years, of finishing the story GRRM has not yet finished. When I consider that she did it without an editor, whilst finishing grad school, I am not surprised in the least that she now has a historical fiction of her own published in e-format.

If you are at all a fan of Martin's universe, and don't mind (as he apparently does, sadly), the idea of good fanfic built within that universe; if you are afraid or convinced that GRRM will never ever complete his masterpiece and want some sort of quality conclusion; if you're willing to have your heart broken and thrilled at the same time by some fantastic writing (and, to be fair, if you're willing to understand that lack of a good editor - not a beta reader, but an editor - can trip up even the best writer), then go read this.

I'll read it later. Because right now what I really have to do is get three stories done before I switch off work-mode today. Then I can write, do some reading, watch the last episode of Defiance, and maybe see a couple more episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which BB and I have finally started watching.

But now? Work. Work, workity, work.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: the home office
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/311060.html

A Little Something for a_phoenixdragon

I stumbled on this whilst cruising YouTube, and I immediately thought of you, my dear. If it's new to you, hurrah! If it isn't, I hope you don't mind seeing it again.

*hugs*

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: the home office
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/262717.html

Oh, wonderful fandom! Oh, wonderful fandom_stocking !

This Christmas season (yes, it's a time of year when I believe in stories that are true even if they never happened, because we all fight our battles against the dark in the way we were raised) is normally extremely good for me.

This year, it was ... not. Not Christmas, certainly. No tree, no lights, no Christmas dinner to cook and present with love to those I love, something I missed despite having lovely dinners out with people I love. FB was gone, BB and I were still intermittently dealing with health and lack o'wealth, and this year I was engulfed in deadly serious battles at work and about work and on behalf of work, and all around I saw this old world being bloody and brutal and stupid and futile.

Goodness. As you can see, I stood in danger of getting all wrapped up in everything grey and second-year-university-sophomoric-certainty-of-doom.

What helped keep me going, despite initial certainty that I couldn't write anything, was

fandom_stocking , and the pure joy of writing for folks; of finding neat recipes for people and getting out of the RL part of my head for awhile, whilst diving into the kick-started creative annex in my head.

So thank you, everyone for whom I wrote, or to whom I gave a recipe; you made me feel better, every time I tucked something into one of your stockings. Woo-hoo!

But Wait! There's More!
( And all you wonderful folks are here - thank you! )

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: the livingroom
Current Music: The Barra MacNeills "Darling, Be Home Soon"
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/244808.html

So. The Avengers.

Tomorrow is my first day back from vacation, and I know the week is going to be a bear (not as much of a bear as it would have been, had certain folk at work gone above and beyond to make sure I get paid this Friday despite forgetting to put in my time card when I got back from Canada, which is another story). I plan to celebrate making it to this coming Friday by going back to see The Avengers in a movie theater.

Because, oh my goodness, I like that movie!

There were so many reasons I loved it, not the least of which were:

Natasha! Ms Romanov was smart, scared, brave, dangerous, human, cunning, caring, ruthless, and as far as I'm concerned, the most-rounded member of the team and of the cast. I understand that there's a lot of Scarlett Johansson dislike out there. I do not share it. I also know there are folks who are ambivalent about how Joss Whedon views or writes females. I can't speak to that because I know him largely from Firefly, Dr. Horrible and some of the early Buffy - not nearly enough by which to judge. But at least in terms of how he and fellow writer Zak Penn handled the Black Widow, I'd have to say he did an outstanding job.

( Here there be potential, little, and Great Big Ol' spoilers. You've been warned. )

The dialogue was just as fast, intelligent, and witty as others have reported it. The pacing worked well. And the story made more sense than it had a right to, although I'm willing to bet that my comic book sensibilities helped make it so.

And yes, after I saw it the first time, I told BB that I could see myself writing fic for the Avengers. It's the first time I've ever been interested in writing outside of the Whoniverse (with the exception of one June-centric White Collar idea). I probably won't, but obviously there's something in the movie - the relationships, the team-building - that pushed a button. So I've been reading some other people's Avengers fic, mostly via recs from

selenak ; so far, I'm looking for especially liking Natasha and Clint oriented stories, but there are a lot of good stories focusing on the other characters as well.

So, yeah, I'm going to see it again. And I'm going to try very hard - very hard - not to get tangled up in another fandom. I really don't need it.

P.S. Two Avengers recs of my own: we were emergencies by

gyzym is subtle, dense, emotionally draining, and made me believe whole-heartedly in Clint and Natasha as people, friends, lovers and dysfunctionally awesome heroes. It's also extraordinarily erotic; explicit, but totally integrated and necessary to the story. Wardrobe Malfunction, or, Passing the Bok, by

spiderine (here on lj and here on dw) made me laugh because it's a pointy little stick, wielded with wit by the author and poked in the eye of female-diminutive marketing.

Current Mood: gloomy
Current Location: Going to bed
Crossposts: http://kaffyr.livejournal.com/225144.html

Furthering My Obsession

Being more than just A Bit Taken with River Song these days (a fixation I'm sure will ease in time, but until then I'm quite happy with it), I think it's my duty to recommend Edge of Human, by

lyricwrites. If you haven't already read it, go and do so now! It's really quite a magnificently accurate look into young River's head, I think.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: the livingroom

This? Is Fantastic.

Coming on the heels of my River meta, I can only sit in awe of the vidder, KatrinDepp; "Next Stop: Everywhere/River Song" says almost everything I said, but with better pacing, gorgeous, heart-breaking visuals, and a nigh-on-to-perfect song. Many thanks to

minerva_fan, for leading me to it (I got there through one of her recs of another top-notch KatrinDepp DW vid, "Feel Me in the Corner").

Next stop: everywhere | River Song from katdepp on Vimeo.

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: the livingroom
Current Music: "Next Stop: Everywhere/River Song"

Profile

kaffy_r

May 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Syndicate

Active Entries

Style Credit

Style: Green Summer for Modular by branchandroot
Resources: p r o l o g u e

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Saturday, 24 May 2025 09:22 pm

Grasping at Grace (and Growth)

Transformation is Inescapable

Entries tagged with recs

Dept. of Fandom Snowflake

Dept. of Friday

Dept. of Books

Who Review: The Witch's Familiar

Dept. of Video

Dept. of Tuesday

Dept. of Fandom Love

Dept. of Wonderful People

Dept. of Do I Need A New Fandom?

Dept. of River Song FTW

Dept. of Serendipitous Finds