a few brief thoughts on projects to come

[meretricula]

yes, yes, I swear, when I get time I will update the recs and do some more mini-spams for the I ♥ Barcelona post. other projects though.

stickmarionette and I had a brief discussion about this on Twitter earlier today (prompted by another fabulous update to guede_mazaka's vampire AU, btw, and if you're not reading it you don't know what you're missing), but is anyone out there still pining over a pairing so old-school that fandom newbies have never even heard of it? because oh god, Hierro/Guardiola. WHERE IS IT GIVE IT TO ME. CAN FERNANDO COME COACH MADRID NOW WE ARE IN SORE NEED OF HIS BEAUTY AND CLASSINESS IN LA LIGA. now, obviously we have a slight bias here (Figo/Guardiola? Raul/Guardiola? Cruyff/Guardiola? have you noticed a theme yet?) but we can't be the only ones with such a nagging, largely-unfulfilled passion, right? would anyone be interested in some sort of "old-school pairings" ficathon? (after I'm done with exams, natch.) just polling right now, but who knows, maybe something will come out of it. even if it's just me and Lee yelling "FINISH THAT FIGO/GUARDIOLA FIC RIGHT THE FUCK NOW" at each other on twitter for the next six months, haha.

also, and this is a project I have been contemplating for a long while now, I want to index footballers' tweets on delicious so that they don't get lost once they're beyond the timeline's recall. I can't believe nobody's ever done this in RPF before - twitter is such an amazing resource of how people really interact with each other (not the ones runs by interns, obviously, and in this case I'm thinking more of the kids, who haven't yet learned the art of discretion, but Puyi, Cesc and Pique are a great example of twitter revealing a lot about personal relationships) and I certainly use it as such! it would be a massive undertaking, but I don't know, I think I could manage to go through the primary Barça accounts, and maybe the Athletic Bilbao ones, given a week or so with nothing better to do. think about it. all the tweets by footballers that mention other players. links saved, tweets translated and everything tagged by relevant player. it would be beautiful. or maybe that's my OCD / librarian-fu talking. anyway, just putting it out there. it could be a joint project! if a bunch of people got together and agreed to each index for a few of their favorite players that they already follow on twitter, it wouldn't even be all that hard.

ok back to writing my dissertation now. IT IS ALL ABOUT THE OTHER-ING OF THE BELOVED. THIS IS THE KEY I HAVE BEEN MISSING. SUCK IT, PROPERTIUS, I'M ONTO YOU.

Comments

[oneshottoyour.livejournal.com]

I loooooooove the idea of indexing/archiving tweets! Obviously I'm not thinking of the same accounts you are, lol, but this is still a fabulous proposal and I would love to help anyway. We should totally start a movement.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

well, that's the point, right? I don't need someone to double up on the Barca players, haha. it's finding people in all the corners of the fandom that's the problem! (good luck to me finding someone to do players in Germany, lol. or even Valencia and Villarreal.) in my ideal world, all RPF fandoms would join in!

#tweetdex. imma go reserve that name on delicious right now.

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

Project 1: oh god yes yes a thousand times yes. My head is pretty much stuck in Madrid c. 1999 anyway. I would even try to write something new and different, for a ficathon. I said "try". Project 2: Alvaro Arbeloa, you say? on it.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

we are such aging hipsters in this fandom, lol. and I'm a newbie myself, I've got no excuse. XD

this is what my tagging system looks like so far. (http://www.delicious.com/tweetdex) players mentioned, team(s), league(s), language(s). thoughts? I will happily hand out the password!

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

I KNOW, like, it would be a lot easier to just be really into Ramos/Torres or something. XD

password: yes please! :D are you thinking just tweets that have some kind of player interaction, or anything interesting...?

tagging: team tags could get difficult after a transfer -- but I don't know very much about the capabilities of delicious, I'm the first to admit. hopefully one wouldn't have to retag everything by hand? oh, and maybe a tag for photos?

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

lmao well Iker/Cesc at least. I'M REALLY STARTING TO HATE IT AND THAT MAKES ME SAD. ~headdesk~

lionel10messi, on account of how he doesn't have a twitter and would thus not be involved otherwise. idk if it'll let more than one person be signed in at a time but I guess we'll find out!

and the basic idea is to just cross-reference who mentions whom (idk what I think should be done about mentioning players who aren't on twitter, this is mainly to record interaction and that's not really it... but they may get twitter later... blah) so yeah anytime you see @replying or @mentioning going on. :) if we did everything "interesting" it would be too subjective, I think, and also we're immediately talking about potentially everything Esteban Granero has ever tweeted, which is kind of... not the point. he's a chill dude and all but you could just go to his twitter homepage if that's what you're looking for.

the beauty of delicious is you can cross-reference! all relevant teams tagged! all relevant leagues! and it does have a bulk editing feature, so you can select the player's tag and bulk-edit in a new team, I think. you think a photo-tag would be useful? the link is in the text description so it's only necessary if someone would be specifically looking for photo posts only... but on the other hand, usually better to over-describe. XD

AHHHHH DELICIOUS IS SO UNINTENTIONALLY AWESOME.

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

aw, why is that? I was never really into it myself, so. curiosity. (...other than Guede's fic, obviously. the exception to every rule. XD)

okay, sounds good! and lol Granero, the more he tweets the less I am able to take him seriously. boy needs a Tumblr. that's where his people congregate. bulk editing: oooh, high-level functionality. I love it. *_* but yeah, I think people might specifically be interested in looking for photos? I mean, I would be, particularly from people I don't follow.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

I think it basically comes down to the fact that I don't like either of them, and thus fandom's obsession with them as a pairing annoys me. (such a fucking hipster, god, I irritate myself.) Cesc is an immature brat and Iker is... sorry, he's boring. I mean, I love his relationship with Sara and I love his friendship with Xavi and I am all over baby!Iker with Beckham, but otherwise, eh. don't find either of them attractive either, which makes me weird, but de gustibus, etc. and I will read about people I don't like if it's well done and I'll enjoy it but I'll always wish in my heart of hearts that a new and more interesting pairing could get the attention.

loool, I always assume people want to consume fandom on a purely textual basis like me, when in fact that's just me being a freak. XD maybe type:photo and type:video tags? that twitvid from Javi, Iker and David, lol till I die.

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

oops hit enter too quickly.

oh, yes, definitely video, too! sounds good. :)

also: I already see crossfandom twitter interaction with, say, tennis players - I'm thinking tag those, too? (and what are you thoughts on wives/girlfriends/family with twitter, like Nagore or Carlota or Caroline Celica? I'm thinking no, but just checking...?

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

if you need the tag, you can create it, btw! I'm not going to be able to do much on this for a while, so if you want to, go ahead. :)

and yes, definitely tag cross-fandom interaction! with non-players, I'm kind of torn... I mean, Carlota is sort of a fandom figure in her own right by now, and it would break my heart to leave out her participation in the #arbolpique saga. (lmao I wonder if we'll get specialized enough to use the hashtags?) idk enough to judge about Nagore or Caroline - do they tweet players other than their husbands? that might be the tipping point... Pique tweets Malena Costa and Puyi tweets Shakira, for example.

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

chugging along like a freight train here. jesus, arbeloa, way to be chatty. like, so many tweets the timeline eventually cuts off mid-July.

duly noted! I would hate to leave Carlota out, too, obviously. Nagore chats with a couple of the RM guys sometimes, that's how I know she even has twitter in the first place.

and SORRY, another question: what about tweets mentioning players that don't have twitter, or at least not yet? I guess that's probably a matter of individual judgment?

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

haha my only advice is to start at the earliest possible point, so at least he doesn't chat the far end into nonexistence before you get there. XD my main motivation for getting this going now is that so many of the baby footballers just got twitter recently and I want to document everything before it vanishes, ngl.

then yes to Nagore, no to Caroline I guess? (tag nonplayer:nagore.aranburu maybe?) Nagore is so fierce, man. does she tweet in Basque? Xabi doesn't follow any of the Athletic boys, that makes me sad. =/ I can't understand a word of it when they start using a zillion 'x's but it warms my heart that they apparently speak it with each other!

eh, use your judgment. if it seems like actual interaction rather than just a flyby mention and you want to tag it, go ahead. (part of the reason why delicious is so awesome for this is that you can filter it to show two tags at once, i.e. a full history of conversations, and that's why I'm a little hesitant on tagging purely one-sided tweets, but it probably won't hurt so long as the tagger doesn't mind the extra effort.)

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

and as for the first part of your comment, makes sense! it doesn't help that in Iker/Cesc fic Cesc is frequently written as basically a ten year old, which, er. meanwhile, I secretly don't find Iker that attractive either. I mean, he generally leaves a positive impression aesthetically? but not like, what I would call hot. to me. sort of like how I feel about Xabi.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

look at us, such rebels~ and yeah, word on the Cesc-as-a-10yo. though for me he's gotten steadily less appealing as a person as he's gotten older and lost the excuse of youthful idiocy for some of the stupid shit he pulls, so idk if I even want to see him with more nuanced characterization.

hahahaha yes, exactly. honestly I think aesthetics don't matter all that much at this stage. I mean, I genuinely would let Xavi stick it anywhere he wanted, but if I didn't adore him already I would probably not find him objectively attractive.

[nahco3.livejournal.com]

SO IN FAVOR OF BOTH OF THESE. especially since my summer project is getting twitter. XD and I was recently complaining about the lack of Beckham/Michael Owen fic in this world - OTP to end all OTPs.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

heeeee! I knew if there was anyone who would go for this sort of stuff it would be the people on my flist, bless us all.

project 2's format (http://www.delicious.com/tweetdex) - thoughts?

[nahco3.livejournal.com]

I love it, a lot. it's actually awesome.

[distira.livejournal.com]

i am wholeheartedly in support of both. oh god, hierro was my first footballer crush, as awkward looking as he was with those ears. i could definitely go for some old school fic. le grand! raul and mori! and the old school frenchmen, and and and. oh god, someone could write di stefano fic! that would be brilliant. the original transfer drama~

as far as the twitter project goes i'd be happy to help out with some of the athetic/madrid/valencia folk if need be- i also follow a few USMNT players and they have been known to be adorable together, though less frequently than say, iker and javi jaja

also propertius! i vaguely recall one of my professors throwing a book of propertius at a projector one class. best of luck on the dissertation!

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

the ears. oh god, he's just so. and the hugging, my god. I keep resentfully staring at my teeny stash of pictures of him snuggling with Pep and thinking WHY AREN'T YOU HIGHER-RES GODDAMMIT.

I mean, we can think outside the box a little here. there are pairings that predate fandom as we know it. go back, idk, 10 years is the ballpark figure Lee and I were kicking around. THERE WAS NO FOOTBALLSLASH. didn't exist. what a mindfuck is that! in short: Di Stefano fic, man. imagine. :DD

ALL LEAGUES, TEAMS AND NATIONALITIES WELCOME.

[distira.livejournal.com]

it is a tragedy that we don't have better quality pictures of their shenanigans.

ngl i kind of really really really want to write di stefano fic now. there's so much untapped potential! but taht aside i love the idea of fic with characters that predate fandom. pele fic! maradona fic (even though i think some of that exists. not enough, at any rate)! the possibilities are endless.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

Pele/Maradona hatesex. you heard it here first. XD

[distira.livejournal.com]

oh god XD

[tinymich.livejournal.com]

I hate you. I can never unimagine that.

[distira.livejournal.com]

i just started writing pep/hierro and then remembered this conversation and figured i would drop you a line to tell you that you are SUCH AN ENABLER and i love it

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

I am so proud :')

[applegnat.livejournal.com]

Lovely idea! After flaking out of my cornerflag duties repeatedly I can't commit to my Cabrini/Rossi epic contribution or anything, but I will be here to cheer - and if anyone would like it, to beta! - all efforts.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

I don't even know who these people are, which probably proves that they're eminently suitable. XD there's no commitment on any side at all right now, but spectators to nag things into existence are always welcome! ♥

[applegnat.livejournal.com]

I don't even know who these people are\

... you know, right, that when you say that on the Internet someone will always link you to an explanation? (Er, in this case? I wrote that explanation.)

And, erm, haha, I wrote the cornerflag fic too.

Let's do this thing! ♥

[ibuyu.livejournal.com]

Figo/Guardiola

I HATE YOU AND I HATE THAT YOU JUST MADE ME WANT THIS!!!

AND I HATE FIGO, HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME, I WAS JUST A LITTLE BABY BACK THEN, FUCK YOU!!!!!!!

/sorry, but I was about 9 years old when he left and I remember crying for whole two weeks, no one could have stopped me. I still (obviously) have a lot of feelings about this.

Preparing Kleenex already.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

lmao

wait are you not reading this epic masterpiece by guede_mazaka. this needs to be rectified post-haste. (though as stickmarionette and I were saying... ostensibly that fic is Figo/Guardiola. at this point we're both sort of rooting for Hierro/Guardiola to the exclusion of all else. THEIR LOVE IS SO BEAUTIFUL ;___;)

but anyway my appreciation (and tolerance) for Figo largely comes from the oeuvre of guede_mazaka. king of the trolls~

he does love Pep, though. I appreciate that that's the one thing he doesn't troll about. brotherhood knows no colors and all that.

[ibuyu.livejournal.com]

no, but I should change it asap!

I agree about him loving Pep... *runs away, crying*

[louis-quatorze.livejournal.com]

me and my Freddie Ljungberg fixation will be sitting here applauding. No one even likes Freddie any more! He's always the villain when he comes up in guede_mazaka's fic, and she's the only one who remembers he exists. (also no one remembers Philippe Senderos either but.)

Robin van Persie needs to be included in the Twittering. His is basically the best. Him and Jack Wilshere. but Cesc and Robin in New York is the best fic never written.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

lmao oh Freddie. I remember him! and I wasn't even there! now there's a man who should get his ass on Twitter post-haste. ~squints~ how long's it been since he left Arsenal though? idk if he's actually reached "old school" status yet. "middle school"? like, fic about him does exist. idk really, Lee has this thing about avoiding the inevitable Kaka/Sheva retrospective if the bar is set too low. XD

hey you know Cesc and Robin in New York is a prompt over on fbkink so if you want to be the one who writes it... (same for indexing the Arsenal twitter shenanigans. I do know they get up to a lot in that locker room! but they're not my boys, so I don't really pay attention.)

[louis-quatorze.livejournal.com]

oh man what would Freddie even say on Twitter? Who would he talk to? I get the sense sometimes he doesn't like many other footballers. I don't think Sol Campbell or Jens are on Twitter, so he'd just be tweeting fashion collections or something. He left Arsenal in 2007 and is kicking around up in Scotland after an MLS stint, basically like Raul but more depressing (he's a year older.) I can't help but feel he's close to retirement even though he seems to deny it. ;_; but I guess by those standards the only "old-school" person I'd love to see is Dennis Bergkamp and how do you even WRITE about Dennis Bergkamp? (Cruyff, though, somehow seems like he'd be easy to write about.)

What would the indexing entail? Robin is such a massive troll that it needs to be preserved.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

he would basically be the Johnny Weir of football. not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. but he would totally rock his own reality TV show. (can't even imagine writing Cruyff, man. maybe it's only your own idols that seem untouchable, but jeeeeeez.)

well, this is what it looks like right now:
http://www.delicious.com/tweetdex (pw's lionel10messi to log in, if you want to pitch in)
basically, go as far back as the account's timeline will let you and start saving every tweet that references another footballer (or recognizable celebrity, really). right now we're tagging by all players mentioned (including the one tweeting, obvs), team(s), league(s), language(s) used in tweet (because someday I fantasize of going back and having them all translated as well, ahhhh pipe dreams), and also type:photo or type:video if relevant. if there's another tag-type that you think is necessary, let me know! (it's a lot of work, essentially, that really can only be done by someone who actually enjoys reading the entire timeline of a given footballer. if I had to do Ramos' I'd probably shoot myself, which is why it's excellent we've got a diverse crowd around here!)

[louis-quatorze.livejournal.com]

how much does Johnny Weir swear? Freddie swears a lot. And yes, his reality show would be awesome (but hopefully only after he retires, I don't want to see him looking depressed at Celtic).

Cruyff seems more like a person than Dennis Bergkamp does, in a lot of ways. Bergkamp doesn't even fight with anyone, he's just generally perfect all the time.

hmmm. Well, I can definitely work on Robin's, but I won't make guarantees on how far I'll get? It will be a good break from this endless reading.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

hee! don't worry, I couldn't even get through Thiago, and he's got like 200 tweets total. just start as close to the beginning as you can and someone can always pick up where you left off.

[que-ama.livejournal.com]

Ah! I am so incredibly new to the whole ficdom thing (still working on my first fic, in fact!) and have been lurking as I seek inspiration/until I can actually contribute, but I can no longer be silent!

I like idea number two, of course, but idea number one fills me with tingles to the tips of my toes!!! I don't know how much I'd be able to contribute, but the concept is loooove.

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

hey hey hey! welcome! no need to be shy, nobody here bites. :) anybody in particular from the old school crowd that fills you with writerly/readerly passion?