september recs, day fifteen: yuletide

thefourthvine suggested that I do a set of small fandom recs, but I'm terrible at judging what is or isn't qualified as a "small fandom", so I decided to let the experts sort it out for me and just picked from the Yuletide pool. I tried to get a wide selection, so they're not all from the same year -- one is from 2006, one is from 2012, the rest are somewhere in between!

Wait Wait Don't Eat Me, by nestra [National Public Radio RPF, Yuletide 2009]
Probably the most (in)famous Yuletide fic of all -- NPR got their hands on it somehow and linked it to the non-fannish masses. At least it wasn't knotting fic, amirite? No, seriously, I do think this is a perfect showcase of what Yuletide is best at: a loving homage to a source that a whole lot of people are familiar with but very, very few would ever contemplate writing fic for.

Gamol-léac, by Castiron [Old Spice Guy commericals, Yuletide Madness 2010]
The concept is great, but it's the execution that really makes it memorable. What a fantastic Beowulf pastiche.

a spring fling, by screamlet [Avengers RPF, Yuletide 2012]
Everything is ridiculous and yet it's not really a fluffy fic, if that makes sense -- the story is funny, but mostly because it's about perfectly ordinary events that the characters can't really deal with because they aren't used to functioning in the everyday world. (To wit: ScarJo, Chris Evans and Renner live together in collegiate-level filth and attend the birthday party Chris Hemsworth throws for his baby daughter.)

Duende, by astolat [Master and Commander, Yuletide 2006]
God, I tend to forget this story exists and then I remember and reread it and fall in love all over again. It's a very sweet love story, for Aubrey and Maturin at least, but it's the worldbuilding that gets me every time.

A Room With a View, by hollimichele [Temeraire, Yuletide 2009]
THIS STORY, GOD. Perscitia! Wellington! Roland! All the historical details that don't necessarily appear in the books, up to and including Wellington's poor wife! I love the Temeraire books with a fiery burning passion and I mean it as a great compliment when I say that this fic could perfectly well be an interlude written by Naomi herself.

HEY GUYS BY THE WAY DID YOU KNOW NOMINATIONS OPEN TOMORROW? YEAH. YOU SHOULD ALL GET ON THAT.

september recs, day sixteen: songs without words

Vid recs again today! I've wanted to do a wordless vid rec post for a while, actually; it's something you don't see all that often but is really impressive when it's done well. (I had to cut down this list to get it to five, actually. :( I would have included more but then it's a slippery slope to indulging my completionist streak all the time!)

Girl on Fire, by Claire [The Hunger Games]
The sense of motion in this vid is really stunning, especially in the more violent interludes. The softer, slower sections are handled impressively, too; Jennifer Lawrence did a great job letting Katniss' facial expressions do her talking, and the vid captures those moments perfectly.

Heads Will Roll, by thedothatgirl [The Legend of Sleepy Hollow]
The music is actually not the Yeah Yeah Yeahs song of the same name but rather a string quartet cover of 'This Is Halloween', just so you know it does belong on this list. Ichabod's little face! All of his glorious incompetent flailing around! Again, really excellent sense of motion, and the comedic timing is perfect as well.

With Or Without You, by em [Doctor Who]
Nothing in this vid should work. Slowmo, weird color effects, the pacing is just mostly quite slow wih loooong clips. And yet it's perfect. GOD TEN LOVED ROSE SO MUCH, I CAN'T.

Mr. Brightside, by jarrow [The Talented Mr. Ripley]
Let's put it this way: somehow this movie is EVEN MORE HEARTBREAKING when compressed into three minutes and accompanied by string quartet.

God Loves, Man Kills, by meivocis [X-Men trilogy]
The X-Men series is really intense for something I remember as a Saturday morning cartoon. I think this vid lives up to that intensity -- the blinking effect seems like it should get annoying, but it really works. (Trigger warning for self-harm of a child and mutilation; the close-up on the stumps where Angel hacked off his wings is... really hard to bear.)

YULETIDE YULETIDE LALALA. At the moment I have nominated Some Girls, Tennis RPF, Blurred Lines Sexy Boys Parody and The Outlaws of Sherwood, but I've got some time in case I want to change my mind...