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Chi-town! [Mar. 31st, 2010|03:01 pm]

anoel
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[Current Music |"The Fame" by Lady GaGa]
[Current Mood |hopeful]

Trufax: after listening to Kanye West for five years, it took me until my roadtrip back to NY to realize that Chi-town = Chicago. Yeeeah. But that's where I'm going! Tonight I'm leaving to go to Chicago to see Johnny Weir skate to BAD ROMANCE! Gaaahh I'm so excited I can't even. Plus the seats are general admission so I'm going to get there super early tomorrow so I can get a front row seat and hopefully meet him eeee. I was dying for a chance to see him ice skate and thankfully the universe provided it to me. If anyone is in Chicago and wants to hang out anytime on Thursday or Friday, let me know asap (if you can spare a place to crash Thursday night that'd also be great, otherwise my cousin once removed lives there so I'll hang with her). I'm really looking forward to it! And of course Chi-town is where I'll be going this August when I go to Vividcon :)

I was unsure whether I'd be able to go up until this afternoon as I got a new job and of course the scheduling put me on both my cousin's wedding and this trip. But thankfully they're letting me miss Friday so I'm fine and can go. Had my first day today and it was alright, shouldn't be too hard. Working in the deli in the grocery store for now although hoping to switch to cashiering soon. Should definitely help with money. Last weekend I went to see my oldest cousin's wedding and that was a lot of fun. It was nice getting to talk with some family I haven't seen in awhile and meet my cousin's new baby who was cute (as can be for someone who thinks babies are ugly) as well as getting to enjoy the open bar and dance floor. They played two GaGa songs which made me happy so it was a blast for the most part.

In TV that I am watching, been catching up on In Treatment and Breaking Bad. In Treatment is rather addicting once you get into it. I love the therapy sessions throughout most of the episodes and how character/relationship based it is. Very cool. I tried it out earlier but the pilot kind of bored me. Rewatching that I find that the first patient is my least favorite and of course I despise her storyline which is the thing that bothers me most about the show. Lots of familiar guest stars, Melissa George from Alias, Blair Underwood and Dan from Sports Night. Working on S2 at the moment. Breaking Bad took me three episodes to get into but the fourth is AMAZING. Very Wire-esque and the show does beg comparison to that show although it isn't as good in comparison (what is?). I love the gradual character change and how very smart the show is not to mention my favorite character, Jesse. The domestic stuff generally bores me although the Hank stuff can be pretty funny. However I will warn that they try to buildup to a big S2 finale ending but the ending SUCKS. Don't go into it thinking it'll change the world, it's just the creator fucking with you. Was angry about it so haven't seen the first two S3 episodes but I will tonight probably. I recommend them both if you love high quality television.

Also watched the first two episodes each of United States of Tara and Nurse Jackie and loved them both. United States of Tara got more gay which made me super super happy and I am interested to see where the storylines are going. I enjoy Nurse Jackie more because I love more of the characters. Zoe is my favorite (even though she's not my usual type) because her cuteness and funniness knows no bounds but I am still loving Jackie, Dr. O'Hara, Thor and the sadly taken away, Mo-Mo (such a tragedy-there are no words for my anger). Always can't wait for more out of both shows and I definitely recommend them if you like great female characters.

I am DYING to see more Glee and the premiere of Treme (David Simon's new show) about New Orleans and music). Of course they come in the same three day period, Treme on April 11 and Glee on April 13. A great article on Treme is here that makes it sound like the show will be a combination of The Wire (beaten down city backdrop + amazing realistic storytelling) and Glee (celebration of music + more individualism as well as coming together moments) which cannot make me any happier in what appeals to me. In sad news though, David Mills who writes for the show died today :( Really really sad because he wrote great episodes for The Wire and Homicide. I definitely can't wait for Glee to come back because I can really use the uplifting episodes it always brings.

Brief news on other TV and movies: Ugly Betty-OMG JUSTIN AND MARC!!! Um Justin's plotline makes me so squeeful and happy I can't even take it but god worst cliffhanger ever. American Idol-stopped watching, liked Toddrick and Andrew Garcia, hated Casey and Lee. Modern Family-SO IN LOVE. My favorite comedy at the moment, it's brilliant and everyone should watch it. The Office-loved the beginning of the last episode, Oscar = cutest EVER. Project Runway-I love Seth Aaron (I think he'll win), Mila, Jay and Anthony (he needs his own Bravo show). Can't wait to see the collections.

Oh and I got a new haircut. Never had it this short since I was like 8. It's weird but I mostly liked it besides the fact the hair dresser directly disobeyed my first instruction to keep it behind my eyes. It's fixed now though. Oh and I've been really into The West Wing these days. I feel like my love for that show cannot be contained in my body especially for my OT4. It never fails to make me laugh and believe in the world just a little bit more.
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Festivids!! [Jan. 15th, 2010|07:26 am]

anoel
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[Current Music |"Mr. Blue Sky" by ELO]
[Current Mood |nostalgic]

Oh my god, the Festivids are out and they're amaaaazing. You can find over 70 fandom vids here from a ton of different fandoms. I am stunned at how good they all are and am working my way through them with feedback. Go check them out!

My vid is here and it is a West Wing vid of LOOOOOVE! Team Bartlet!! It is extremely happymaking and heartwarming and I love it dearly. My other favorite is an amazing Sound of Music vid which is a movie that's very dear to my childhood so I love it a lot. And it made me cry. Yay Festivids!

More Joy Day was great for me! I was feeling happy all morning with all the More Joy posts, then I got to play tennis singles for the first time and though I only tied, I held my serve which made me happy and then Festivid chatting was SO much fun while waiting for the vids. It's amazing how much a day devoted to joy can make your entire vid so positive. If only every day was More Joy Day! Which I suppose is the point, but still.

Thanks for the Glee vidlet prompts everyone who left them! I should hopefully have those done within a week.

I went to see Sherlock Holmes the other day and loved it! Oh god, the slash was OFF THE CHARTS! Worth it just for that although the story was good too. Holmes/Watson were just so married and jealous and in love with plenty of slashy innuendo and symbols. I had fun.

What happened in Haiti was horrible but thankfully fandom is quite generous. [community profile] help_haiti is a new community that is an auction of goods and services, largely fanworks for donating money to Haiti. There are a TON of amazing people there to bid on including all the vidders here. I am hoping I will win at least one person to make one of my many (8 right now) House vid ideas.

This weekend I'm going up to San Francisco!! I'm going to the Festivid party as described here this Monday. If you're close by, you should come! I can't wait to go and see all the vids and Castro Street and other Bay Area type things. Very exciting.

Oh and my best friend when I was little shared with me with pic from when I was 9ish and it's here, under the cut:

My best friend, me and my cat Butterball Picture )
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Dear Festividder [Nov. 18th, 2009|01:03 pm]

anoel
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[Current Mood |super super excited]
[Current Music |"Sure Fire Winners" by Adam Lambert]

Dear Festividder,

OMG THANK YOU FOR MAKING ME A VID! You have no idea how long I've wanted a rare fandom vid created all for me for a Yuletide like vid challenge. So [community profile] festivids is heaven and ANYTHING, anything you make for any of these fandoms will be appreciated times infinity. I chose these fandoms because any vid to them would make me ridiculously happy as I love all of these shows (Little Miss Sunshine should be a show!), the whole thing not just a small part. So vid whatever you like. Same goes for music. For me, this is about the FANDOM much more than the music and even if I detested the music (which would be hard to do), I honestly would not care because it'd still be a vid in one of my fandoms made for me. So do NOT worry about that or how good your vid is or anything like that because there is no pressure whatsoever. Don't be scurred, I'm easy, really. No matter how much I capslock in these details, be assured that that is just me being very excited about seeing an idea of a vid in my head and even if you don't choose to make that, I will be MUCH more capslocky about the vid you actually make because it will be REAL and mine and oh god I am ridiculously excited about this.

I love all kinds of vidding styles as I'm a huge fan of vidding itself and that is why I love it so much. I love character studies, shipper vids, friendship/enemy/relationship vids, slow vids, funny vids, ensemble vids, crack vids, dance vids, LKBVs, meta vids, sappy vids, effects filled vids, effectsless vids, super fast vids, sexy vids, motion filled vids, political statement vids, vids with lots of colors, vids that makes me cry, avant garde vids, recruiter vids (ALL these fandoms need them!), old style slash vids, action vids, shiny vids and most of all vids that the vidder clearly puts ALL their love into it. I do especially love vids that provoke an emotional reaction but for me aesthetically beautiful vids and deep thinky vids are enough TO make me feel emotional. Another thing I like is character vids that explore a character through a relationship but if that doesn't apply, no worries. I love slash, het, gen, femslash, three/moresomes, and I'm totally cool with any kind of violence/sex (I think my fandoms make this clear). Use of outside source is great if it applies to your idea, go for it!

I love SO many kinds of music. Even in genres I don't mention, I probably like some songs in them and I enjoy hearing new kinds of music so don't worry about that. I know I wrote down some genre and artist suggestions in my requests and feel free to ignore any of that. Here though is a longer list of music genres I am open to and artists that I've loved songs to in case you want any more guidance. However, I LOVE finding new music and learning about artists I've never heard before so feel free to use something in your own library or Pandora one of these artists or use something that's played on the show.

Genres: Pop, hip-hop, rock, rap, indie pop/rock, alternative, musicals, techno, instrumentals, classical, a capella, folk, blues, J-pop, jazz, big band, punk, pop-country, R&B, experimental/avant garde and lots more.

Artists: Adam Lambert, Adele, The Afghan Whigs, Aimee Mann, Air France, Amy Winehouse, Ani DiFranco, Artic Monkeys, Basement Jaxx, The Beatles, Belle and Sebastian, Bitter:Sweet, Britney Spears, Brokeback Mountain Soundtrack, Coconut Records, The Coral, The Cure, Damnien Rice, David Bowie, The Ditty Bops, Eels, Eminem, The Feeling, Flobots, Garden State Soundtrack, Glee Cast, Hawksley Workman, Ingrid Michaelson, Jason Mraz, Jay-Z, Kanye West, The Kills, Kris Allen, Lady GaGa, Massive Attack, Michael Buble, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Missy Higgins, Mos Def, Muse, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, OK Go, Owl City, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Regina Spektor, The Roots, Ryan Adams, The Shins, Sigur Ros, Talib Kweli, Tegan and Sara, Telepopmusik, Zero 7

Fandom Details Under the Cut )

Feel free to ignore all of this. Thank you again for making this and I hope you have a fun time vid creating :) You're the best!

Love,
~Anoel
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Idealistic West Wing Episodes [Oct. 23rd, 2009|07:02 pm]

anoel
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[Current Music |"Golden Slumbers" by The Beatles]
[Current Mood |cynical]

Still feeling down (and sick kill me now) and could use an idealistic West Wing episode to cheer me up. Anyone have any suggestions? Something that would make even Toby feel optimistic.
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New York City, center of the universe [Aug. 5th, 2009|10:25 pm]

anoel
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[Current Mood |good]
[Current Music |tv]

So small update briefly. I did go see Rent and it was AMAZING. Seeing Anthony Rapp looking just as gorgeous as ever in that same sweater from the movie was electrifying not to mention hearing all the songs I love so much. And Adam Pascal is so much hotter with short hair in tight plaid pants. It brought back all my slashy Mark/Roger shippiness. And La Vie Boheme remains one of my favorite songs ever. After the musical I also got to meet Anthony Rapp and get his autograph which was very happymaking. I managed to get a small video with him but I'll have to get it off my video camcorder later. I also had a great time meeting [personal profile] stephmck and Jenn, eating delicious crepes, talking fandom and watching Queer as Folk vids. Good times.

On my next spur of the moment trip, I'm going to New York City this weekend. I am coming into the city early Friday, meetings some fans for dinner, seeing 9 to 5 with Allison Janney (!!!) at 8 and then going to a fannish sleepover before I leave on Saturday. Can't wait! Hoping I won't lose too much money and possessions this time, heh. If anyone in the NYC area wants to meet up on Friday before 6, let me know. At the moment my only plans are seeing Manolo's shoe store and maybe Emmett from Project Runway's store as well but I've still got to see if there are any other things I'm interested in doing.

Checking out some TV right now and caught up on Nurse Jackie which I liked much more than I thought at first. The relationship between Jackie, Eleanor and Zoey cracks me up and I love Mo Mo as well. It's addicting. As is another TV show, Weeds that I just finished the first season. I love Nancy and it's always funny to make fun of suburbia. It's my next fun show to watch.

One thing I forgot to mention about The West Wing is my one problem with Aaron Sorkin is his fan bashing which I knew was coming but didn't make it any less enraging. Good thing I can hate the man and love the show separately. Once he did left I did notice that one of my favorite writers was Deborah Cahn who writes CJ so awesomely. Still reading West Wing fic although it is pretty frustrating with dead links in many places. At least I'm willing to read many pairings although of course not the main pairing in the fandom. Probably my favorite fic so far is Things to Do in New Hampshire by [profile] raedbird which is wonderfully OT4, Josh/Sam/Toby/CJ, PG-13 and the dialogue is funny and sounds like the show. Ahh I love them.
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Tomorrow [Aug. 1st, 2009|12:09 am]

anoel
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[Current Mood |satisfied]
[Current Music |"I Hear The Bells" by Mike Daughtry]

I finished The West Wing. It is done and I did it! I love Josh. I love CJ. I love Toby. I love Sam. I love Jed. I love Leo. I love Abbey. I love Donna. I love Charlie. I love Team Bartlet, Team White House, I love all of them. It feels monumental to be done, more than for most other shows. Maybe it's the presidency, I don't know.

I am just so happy to have found this show. I wonder if I should have finished it earlier but I'm glad I waited, first because it is so heartening to watch after Obama won even more in the final seasons and second because it helped catch my fall after the shit that was Torchwood S3 (what S3? denial = zen). It really does inspire me and my idealism and how I want to be a better person and more engaged in the government. It feels like it does have an impact on me and my life and I know I'll go back and watch often. Not to mention the many fanfics I will read, that I've already begun starting to read. I do have the DVDs and yes, I do have a vid idea although the clipping may be rather tedious as it always is. But anything hard requires effort and this show is worth it.

Some spoilers under the cut: Spoilers for all seasons of The West Wing )

So anyone got any vids? ;) I know of Circles by [personal profile] laurashapiro (I finally get the ball significance!) and I Hear The Bells by Xandra, does anyone know of any other good ones?

Other things I have been doing in my free time is watching Season Two of Mad Men. It was a perfect storm that got me into it, a post about it returning from [profile] projctrungay, a Facebook alert from a fanpage about a game to make yourself look like the Mad Men characters and hearing about commentaries on the S2 DVD from Matthew Weiner. So I immediatly went out to the store to buy an overpriced copy and watched all of the episodes with the commentary on in two days. Wow, Matthew Weiner and the other writers are brilliant. And Mad Men is SO PRETTY. It reminded me why I love it and need it to come back right now gah. The bad part is the premiere is during Vividcon. In a hotel without AMC damn it!! I'm still pissed they didn't start in July and now this. I can d/l it but I like watching it live :( I hear good things though about Sal's storylines so I am anxiously awaiting that. Rewatching the show reminded me why he was my favorite and so damn sexy.

I am also the proud owner of a new 2 TB external hard drive, CJ. It seems I always get new hard drives when I love awesome, politically minded women, heh. But I am using it to put all my DVDs on it so I don't have to leave them all behind when I go to college and so I can vid. It's very exciting :) Who wants to bet when I run out of space?

Can't believe Vividcon is less than two weeks away! All this talk is making me impatient and wishing it would just get here already. My annual Vividcon insecurity/anxiety period happened earlier but it's gone now and I'm feeling excited about seeing everyone again and having a good time with vids and vidfans. Thankfully to keep my mind off of it, tomorrow I am going to see Rent! And going to meet [personal profile] stephmck as well which will be fun. It'll be nice to see Anthony Rapp as Mark's my favorite. Best part is seeing La Vie Boheme live! Love that song so much, I can't even say. Until tomorrow...
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How is CJ so awesome? [Jul. 21st, 2009|06:22 pm]

anoel
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[Current Mood |verklempt]
[Current Music |the west wing]

I swear, right after I post I get to the GREATEST CJ EPISODE EVER OMG:

Spoilers for The West Wing 604 and episodes up to that )
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Reasons Why I Love The West Wing Times Infinity [Jul. 21st, 2009|03:17 pm]

anoel
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[Current Mood |optimistic]
[Current Music |Tracy Bonham]

God I'm so in love with The West Wing, I can't even say. Nothing is adequate for the depth of my love. Best I can do is ILOVEYOUILOVEYOUILOVEALLOFYOUSOMUCHOMGLOOOOOVE!!! I just...wow. Now THIS is what I call a show. Not the crap I call Torchwood or show that is dead to me. But The West Wing fills me with glee, complete happiness and faith in the world even in the scary parts.

It's the idealism. It's so intoxicating. I am an idealist, pure and simple and this show makes me believe again. They're ALL idealists, my team. They have different versions of it, innocent Sam, cynical (on the outside) Toby, principled yet personal CJ, smack you down Josh, arrogant AND moral Jed and gruff Leo, but they all do it. They stick together, they support each other, they bond because they ALL believe that the world can be better and that they can fight for it to make that happen. And that is why I love them and this show.

Also? The dialogue. Wow, I am seriously impressed. Only maybe Joss surpasses it for me and that's in a different way. It blows me away how many lines make me laugh or just drop my mouth open in amazement. They somehow make me find a way to keep increasing my love for these characters and my character love just bounces straight off the charts.

Somewhere during this season 4 I started a list of moments I loved because in watching so fast I start to lose track of just WHY I love these people and can't get enough of them. Sometimes it's little things, small quotes that make me marvel at their perfection, little actions that say so much and other times it's classic lines and moments and crazy, how can this have possibly happened on my computer screen scenes. Here's my list mostly S4, a few of the things I remembered from past seasons and some S5:

Reasons Why I Love The West Wing with spoilers for seasons 1-5 )

Besides that, life has been pretty boring lately. Just work and TV and little things in between. Excited about Vividcon in a month!
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Why searching IMDB is a VERY BAD THING [Jul. 7th, 2009|09:20 pm]

anoel
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[Current Mood |sad]

PSA: While you're in the middle of marathoning a show, DON'T GO SEARCHING AROUND THE IMDB WEB PAGE FOR THE SHOW OR ACTORS. Don't do it. It WILL spoil you. Yes it will. It really will.

All of this is to say, I went searching around IMDB for The West Wing. And yes, I'd been on before and hadn't been spoiled. But this time I was stupid. It's all Torchwood's fault, yes it is. And now I'm majorly spoiled for the show and it's effecting my viewing :(

Don't read if you haven't watched all of The West Wing cause all I know is this spoiler happened toward the end )

I am way too curious for my own good sometimes. It happened for The Sopranos too, I start looking around for little things and get spoiled. But I even got desparate and read a West Wing fic (it was CJ/Toby, god I love them) the other day and wasn't spoiled! What bad luck *sigh*
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Indecision and TV [Jun. 8th, 2009|11:27 pm]

anoel
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[Current Mood |blah]
[Current Music |Hawksley Workman]

Blaaaah. I am remembering why I hate living here. It's incredibly boring and there's nothing to do. And usually I'm cool with staying inside and vidding/watching TV/reading, whatever but yesterday I felt restless and just wanted to do something. Went out and tried but everything was empty and boring.

I should be vidding but I'm getting sick of it at the moment and feeling down about getting the vid done. I just feel like it's going to suck anyways so what's the point of even trying? And I want it to look like it does in my head but I have so many doubts about having it come out in this time frame. I don't know if I'm willing to overload my free time to get this done. I'm already sick of House and House/Wilson unbelievably enough although my love always returns the next morning. I am just feeling seriously conflicted onto whether to do this or not. I have other stuff I need to do this summer, for one learning stuff since I have free time and no school to get in the way. I really want to have a vid in Premieres, I just don't know if the sacrifice for it is worth it. Sometimes I don't know if I'm doing it for me or other people but when I try to get rid of everyone but me, I still want to do it. I hate giving up but maybe it's worth it in this case. Or not. I have no idea. How do you decide these things???

God, I love Hard Core Logo. I'm randomly in the mood for it a bunch of times and can watch the whole thing straight through. I love Joe Dick, I love John, I love Billy, I love them all. It's got this magnetic pull, this atmosphere and mood that I love that hooks me in everytime. Not to mention the delicious slash all up in each others faces and the need and longing. I adore them.

Still watching The West Wing, enjoying the second season although it's not making me want to watch it all the time which is probably a good thing. But I still love all of them even though I don't like some of their positions like school uniforms for instance (I'm in the middle of the season). Still love the team the most along with CJ <3
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West Wing LOVE [May. 31st, 2009|10:33 pm]

anoel
[Tags|]
[Current Music |"Who Found Mr. Fabulous" by Men, Women & Children]
[Current Mood |giddy]

OMG I LOOOOOOVE THE WEST WING!!

Just finished the S1 finale and I am in the glorious honeymoon phrase where I am breathlessly in love with the show and can't stop feeling high and in love. I LOVE these characters soooo much. I am so Team Bartlet, it's not even funny. CJ is my favorite, she is made of so much awesome I can't even say (JACKAL!! best thing ever). And I looove Josh and his moments of idiocy (and damn does he have charisma and sexiness) and I adore Toby (who I'm sure Michael would hate on principle and personality similarity) gah soooo much. And I love Jed!! And Leo and Sam and Charlie and Abbey and EVERYBODY. Most of all I love them all together, as a TEAM. I do not think I can love this show any more right now.

Not really shipping right now besides my OT4+/-2 of CJ, Josh, Toby, Sam, Leo and Jed (TEAM) but the nice thing about Sorkin is I generally don't have a problem with any ships. I know Josh and Donna is coming and I don't really see it, it's a bit too professional for me but hey, I don't think I'll mind. And CJ and Danny are very cute even though I was angry with him earlier. And Josh/Sam definitely seem the slashiest to me so far, so much yummy there.

The show is so funny! Much funnier than Sports Night ironically but it has a light, casual feel interspersed with great emotional moments that I really love. I thought I could hold myself to a few episodes a day to last a summer but man, I am marathoning so hard right now, I couldn't stop if I tried.

Spoilers for The West Wing S1 )

I don't even know what to say I just love this show so damn much. What kept me from watching for so long?! Oh yeah, sucky political situation. But it's so much fun watching this show when I know stuff the president supports on the show is actually being supported in RL. So amazing.
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