Posted some Porn Battle prompts for the hell of it and because it might help me kickstart my writing. Everyone write me tons of Jaime/Tim, okay?

So I tried to make up some sort of Best of 2010 list and discovered that I was merely bitching about things. So here's more of a garbled collection of thoughts:

J. and I really enjoyed The Maid a few days ago, but I stand by my assertion that 2010 was a total shit year for film, if only by my own standards. Everything involving The Social Network makes me cringe, Inception grows more and more baldly ridiculous the more that the hype fades (unpopular opinion, and I usually love Nolan, but I couldn't get past the hackneyed script), and don't get me started about Black Swan. Somos Lo Que Hay: still the best film of the year, IMO, and if it doesn't become the sleeper sophisticated horror hit of 2011 I'll wail and gnash my teeth.

Music fared a bit better - there were multiple new albums that I adored from start to finish. Here's a small mixtape of 2010 music that I really enjoyed: 2010-ish music from Kate.

Red Hood: Lost Days and Young Avengers: Awesome Crusade made comics worthwhile in 2010 (with a brief shout-out to Morning Glories, which isn't the most unique take on the teenage conspiracy genre but is certainly doing it with enough verve to keep me coming back for more). I'm pretty much done with the Batfamily for the time being, due to irreconcilable differences.

So, the story I wrote for Yuletide: freedom we shall also shout, starring the Uruguayan national football team. I had originally wanted to write the Adventures of Solitude-length ensemble epic, but Real Life got into the way. Am I in danger in writing a huge post about the NT soon? I perhaps may be.

YULETIDE PANIC



SO DELICIOUS

I can do it, it's just... an interesting state of mind I'm in right now.

Commiserate with me inside, if you need to!

I just realized that it was that time again:

JASON CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN.

I: should have a Jasonathon day soon in order to celebrate, y/y?

Dear Yuletide Writer,

First off, you are pretty awesome for volunteering to write in these (admittedly really tiny and weird) fandoms. I wish you all the best, and no matter what I end up with, I'm gonna love it, I assure you.

( details and fandoms below the cut! )

So I signed up for mundane_bingo in the hopes of getting my fiction writing muscles back into shape, and my card has arrived!

( mah card, let me show you it )

I have an insanely good one for "eating a meal". Or maybe it's just insane. Anyone wanna help me brainstorm?

A few months back, I mentioned to some of you that I was trying to write a current canon Tim story. Or, rather, me attempting to make current canon Tim a Tim I would like to write about, because GOOD NIGHT I have some issues with the past year or so of DC Bat-stuff. Sadly, I don't think it's gonna happen, even though I really wanted it to, but that's no reason not to share some of it with the world. The following includes the Kate-cap of the last few issues of Red Robin, my reaction(s) to it, and my attempted solution in the shape of fic, with commentary on the stuff I was planning on writing.

Don't expect anything amazing here. This is more about getting the idea out out so I don't feel guilt about it anymore.

( WIP AMNESTY: Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk )

I'm calling it already: Toy Story 3 is the film to beat for best of the year. It's also the saddest film I've seen in quite some time. It's everything that the genre should be, and it's funny that this franchise is still the gold standard for the last fifteen or so years of animation; nobody does it better.

I hope that everyone is having a grand Monday morning. I'm currently drinking some coffee, preparing to watch the last episode of Treme (I'M SO EXCITED! I'M SO SCARED!) and trying to get back into the swing of writing:

-there's the Jaime story that's a deleted scene from Adventures in Solitude that J's been waiting for me to finish for ages (and I can actually finish it now that I've found my long-misplaced notebook!).

-I've got a ramble in me about the New Pornographers concert I went to last week, tying into my long post of notes, commentary, and annotations on Adventures in Solitude.

-I've got a Jason story that needs to be told (any other details would be spoilery).

-Annnnnd Tumblr spam of Wondercassie back when she was a wee tomboy baby dyke has inspired me to write Cassie and Titans ladies fic.

What should I try my hand at first?

So, I've been thinking this morning about how to respond to this lovely litle piece of PR spin courtesy of Racefail Comics besides starting to drink before noon and maybe making my head explode in volcanic rage.

My inner cynic ('you can't change things!') is currently warring with my inner idealist over all of this. I'm not buying anything from DC again until there is a serious regime change. This isn't that hard, to be honest - I'm broke as hell, and I haven't been inside a comic store in months.

But that isn't enough, is it?

My second thought (after "where's my liquor at") was that things like this should just make us more resolved to join these companies and influence them from within. Because there's a whole world of indie comics out there, and comics creators who are anything but the young white male norm that's been pushed upon us for decades, and we rival them in sheer numbers. We could create a new world, we could run the asylum and recreate it in our own image if we start now. But we're in a recession, and many of us don't even want to go into comics professionally, and perhaps it wouldn't be worth the trouble. I'd personally jump at the chance, if only to be fired two weeks in for not being able to shut up about how fucking horrible they are.

So here's a more general solution:

Make good art. Make smart art. Make art that reflects the world as it is. Make art that reflects the way you think the world should be. Make thoughtful art, because thoughtful art is good art. Make art that makes people smile, that makes people think, that makes people cry. Make art that doesn't treat anyone who isn't a straight white male as pawns in the hands of clueless white men. Make art that stars us, that celebrates us. Make art so that children can find a hero or heroine to root for who looks like them, who loves like them. Make art that questions everything that the world stands upon, that subverts what the Ian Sattlers of the world seem so smug about in their privilege and their chosen ignorance. SHARE your art with others, as far and wide as you possibly can. Make art that can rival anything that the big boys put out. Make art that can replace it.

Making art is the best revenge.

We can make something more satisfying, together.

A more cynical Plan B would be to raise such an organized stink that they can't ignore us for fear of a media frenzy, but I have no idea how to go about it. The next time DC pulls this (for there will be a next time), we could raise such a hue and cry and a fucking stink until they can't brush us off with Racist Apology 101 anymore (and personally, if they ever touch a hair on Jaime Reyes' head I will be at the front of the riot, believe you me).

But there's no reason why we can't do both. Does anyone have any ideas as to how we could push back against the Ian Sattlers who are running the asylum? Because simply not buying what they're selling clearly isn't working.

(Another post that I won't be writing is how I'm at war with myself over whether or not my inability to disconnect my heart from DC's characters indicates a personal failing.)