VVC 2007: Premieres and Nearly New, part 1

[springgreen]

I'm watching all these from the DVDs, since I didn't get to go to VVC =(. In general I'm coming in as someone who hasn't seen most of the sources, and I'm writing from a strangefandom sort of take. I.e. watch me attempt to piece together fandoms from vids! I watched Club Vivid vids as well, though I won't be writing those up since I have a difficult time watching all the bouncy dance vids at once.

My most unfamiliar vidded fandom this year was... Torchwood! Last year it was SPN and SGA.

The Torchwood vids

Um. So all I know about Torchwood is that it is about Captain Jack from Dr. Who. Also, some people found the show to be pretty grim. My current conclusions about Torchwood are that Captain Jack kisses a lot of people, one woman goes through time or brings back her lover after losing him but this is very angsty, and people write "Torchwood" on the wall in blood. Also, there is a car called "Torchwood." I do not think the blood on the wall is a threat to the car.

And! OMG! Asian woman in the cast! I had to stop "Men in Black" and recheck to see if I was right. Torchwood fans: does she get stuff to do? Is it worth my watching the show?

(This is so sad. I have gotten to the point where my reaction is: "Woman of color in the cast! I will give the show a chance!")

Selected vids from DVD 1:

Premieres, first half (I think the Nearly New list is not up yet?)

I liked how (Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay focused on a woman from the SGA cast, but my lack of knowledge about the show meant that I didn't connect with the vid. I felt I should have liked Rodeohead much more than I did. I like Firefly, and when I rewatch episodes, I still laugh and love the characters, but when I spend time away, I get stuck on the lack of Asians. I suspect I'm just at a place where I won't appreciate more Firefly ensemble celebration of the show vids, which is not Absolute Destiny's fault. I'm just not the right audience. I loved the visuals and the feel of I Remember and how it matches the music, though I have no idea what's going on. I also liked Signal to Noise, pilots and religion and the search for Earth. I am not sure if "like" is an accurate description of my reaction to Spiriti, as I refuse to watch the vid again because OMG THE SCARY! I am terrified of the vid! And while the music for Sick Cycle Carousel threw me off a little, I loved the imagery, the tracing of themes, hands being cut off, forgiveness, people choosing to do good or to do evil and how that affected generations. I also liked Ballingal Hotel, though I am creeped out by it (ghosts! scary!), and I cheered to see the Chinese couple.

I also liked:

• fan_eunice's Moons of Jupiter (Dr. Who) - The cute! I am dead of the cute! Also, the song is now stuck on my head, which is somewhat unfortunate, because it means I keep wandering around singing, "Tralalalalala moons of Jupiter! Tralalalalala moons of Jupiteeer!" and really, no one should have to be subject to my singing. I have no intelligent commentary as I am still dead of cute. My only notes are: Ten licks things! Ten wears sneakers with suits! Cute hugs! I am not quite sure what is going on in most parts, as I haven't see Dr. Who, but I do not care because it is too cute! It is so cute that I missed the kitten clip the first two times!



• vagabondage's Bankshot (Hustle) - I spent the entire time watching thinking it was a movie starring Martin Sheen and Denzel Washington, because I am stupid. *facepalm* I'm very sorry about confusing Ian Lester with Denzel Washington and have nothing to say for myself save the above re: being stupid.
  
  This is another vid that I have no intelligent commentary for; I spent all three or four times watching just being excited about con artists and capers. I loved the toasting, the final sixties-ish ending with pictures of the gang, Mickey blowing in the other guy's ear, the switcheroo with the office. I am so watching this show. Also, I sat up when I saw it on the DVD and flailed at the TV for having a POC! Playing a large part!
  
  I am also unduly amused by naked men jumping out of cars.



• destina's Want (SPN) - I love the creepiness of the vocals, the POV of the demon (!!!!!), how Sam and Dean are objects. I realized when doing my gender and race tally that I had stuck this under "F," despite the general lack of women in the clips. But. The song makes me read the Yellow-Eyed Demon as female, particularly with the clips of possessed blonde girl with short hair and the clips of female demons that I remember from "Women's Work."
  
  I also realized that I was attempting to read this vid as a commentary on the fannish female gaze, particularly the lines about wanting Sam and Dean to hurt, to suffer, to reach their limits and claw their way back. I am not sure if this is a valid reading at all; I am probably completely making this up. But I sat through and thought to myself, "The YED wants Sam-Dean H/C fic!" which made me very happy. But yes, I just love the entire idea of this vid so much.



• sweetestdrain's West of Her Spine (Dexter) - This is up here even though I cannot watch a good third of the vid. I knew about the switch coming into the vid, after having read some commentary, but I still love it. I love the gentleness of the song and the creepiness of the man, how affection so easily turns to stalking turns to murder. It reminds me of love songs that are supposedly romantic but actually freak me out ("As Long as You Love Me" and "Every Breath You Take" in particular). I commented a bit on this in my gender and race tally, but I really liked how sweetestdrain showed women literally being objectified -- being cut up into pieces and wrapped up, being killed so that they ceased to be human and started to be body parts. "Liked" is the wrong word. I was viscerally affected by it. I was also affected by the "woman in refrigerator" metaphor turned literal (first literal in the comic, then metaphor, and now literal again), and just. Oh. I cannot get over the women in pieces in the refrigerator. It hurts so much.
  
  Because I was so affected by the first half of the vid, I had a much harder time watching the second half, in which the focus turns from the serial killer and the women he kills to the serial killer and Dexter.



• obsessive24's Jesus for the Jugular (Carnivale) - I love this vid. LOVE. It is AWESOME. It creeps me out like whoa, and even so, I kept trying to rewatch it, and then I had the song stuck in my head, which was very, very disturbing. Also, note to self: do not watch this vid twice before going to bed at 3 in the morning. I was terrified to get up for water because I was certain black-eyed priests were outside my door.
  
  All I know about Carnivale is taken from this vid, Monochrome from last year, and obsessive24's notes on this vid, so I wasn't quite sure what was going on in terms of plot. But I love how Nicky uses that driving beat of the music to show the Nazis marching, how it's so present through the entire song. It felt like it was driving the vid and the people in it forward, to Trinity, to the dead tree, to Hiroshima. This show has such amazing visuals -- the razor blades instead of Communion wafers, the tattooed tree on the priest, water and baptism and fire and destruction. I love how the blond man keeps trying to save people even as the priest destroys them (I think), but how he can only save people by taking away. I loved the shots of the dead fish in the river (Jesus and the loaves and the fishes, John the Baptist by the river), the birds falling out of the sky for the tarred and feathered person (hundreds of dead birds for one person to shed feathers), and especially that last shot of the little girl running off.
  
  The little story I pieced together in my head for the vid was that the priest was going to bring on something like the Holocaust: millions dead, Nazis marching, hate and intolerance and so many dead. And the blond man must prevent this, but the only way he saves people is by taking life, and to save the millions, he somehow causes the atomic bomb/Trinity/the dead tree exploding to happen. I am thinking I am waaaay off base. But in the vid, I love the intertwining of sacrifice and loss, of the priest ripping off his face to find the blond man underneath (I think?) and how they are opponents but maybe the same, the woman and her baptism like drowning, her double with the black, black eyes, the blond man taking a knife to his throat in despair and sacrifice. I love all the eyes -- the Virigin Mary's eyes in the statue carved out, the fetus in the jar's eyes opening, the priest's black eyes of DOOM. Most of all, I love how the last clip sums up the vid: hope and despair at the same time, the sense the things are moving inexorably to the explosion of the tree, not being able to heal without also killing, hope in a little girl's steps, but every step bring more death to the fields.

Comments

[springgreen.livejournal.com]

Gotcha, thanks! I'll keep that in mind.