Fanart, Fanfiction and Fangirling

I've just finished watching Good Omens and I'm SO glad I didn't re-read the book before watching the series, I had completely forgotten a certain twist at the end and, boy, was it good. The relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley is just so, so slashy, and the Queen songs were spot on (and slashy too).

So, yeah, I'm all fangirly about Good Omens right now (I even remembered I actually wrote a short Aziraphale/Crowley ficlet fourteen (FOURTEEN!) years ago, but then I checked the DÄ Tourtagebuch and found THIS PICTURE:

( ASDFGHJKL )

How am I able to function like a normal human being when I'm overwhelmed by fandoms?

Anyway, I'm not going to fall asleep any time soon, so I might as well type up my Brussels report.

- The flight went smoothly and I had a lovely view of the Alps, still covered in snow and very pretty.

- At the venue I met eryka_59, whom I hadn't seen in years. I was lovely meeting again, even if we kinda got lost inside.

- I ended up in the second row in front of Bela again. It wasn't as crowded as Milan (the venue was smaller), but it was still quite intense. On a couple of occasions I thought Bela was looking directly at me and smiling, but it could've been my imagination.

- Farin started talking to a woman on one of the balconies and told her "You're the most beautiful person in the world. Apart from Bela, of course."

- Laola time: Farin made it start from the balconies, then the pit should do it. Then, without being instructed, the "tribune" did it, and Farin was very impressed.

- Monsterparty! My God, I love that song. They even forgot the words, which made it even more hilarious.

- Farin asked "Did anyone here travel more than 20 Km to be here tonight?" Of course the whole venue shouted and Farin reacted like he often does: grinning and covering his eyes with his hand. Then Rod asked "Is anyone of you from here?" A few people cheered. Rod pointed around the audience and said "Remember: I love you!"

- After a girl crowdsurfed to the front, Farin shook her hand and wanted Bela to do the same with a guy who crowdsurfed right afterwards.

- Bela asking a girl who had just been lifted out of the crowd by one of their security guys: "Did you like it, with those big, strong men?" And the girl being totally oblivious what he was talking about. XD

- Rod's amazing guitar solo during one of his songs (can't remember which one).

- Somehow Bela thought Farin had said "Meow" during the "Deine Schuld" intro, so they started making (and asking the audience to make) random animal sounds. XD

- Bela saying there might be another tour and a new album in the near future!!!

- All three of them standing at Rod's mic at the end and saying "Remember: I/we love you!"

After the concert I also saw Eline (whom I had last seen in Berlin three years ago). I decided to stay to see if I could catch a glimpse of the band (I was too excited to go to sleep anyway), but no luck.

- Also, apparently a few fans rented an actual tourbus to follow the band around! That's dedication (and a bit of craziness XD).

And that was it. The next morning I had a delicious breakfast with croissant and crepes, met Almut and spent a ridiculous amount of time getting into comic shops. Who knew there are SO MANY in Brussels. But I was good and only bought two comic books about a sweet and destructive black cat called "Crapule", which I can understand even with my very limited French, and a Platform 9 and 3/4 coaster. Because I'm a nerd. Then we checked into our new hotel and explored the city centre, had chips (because what else are you gonna eat in Brussles) and headed to the Atomium and the Mini-Europe park, which we both enjoyed very much. That evening I had a delicious potato waffle with salmon, ricotta and dried fruit for dinner, and a Kriek (cherry-flavoured beer. Sounds odd, tastes fantastic.) We did some more walking and I ended the night with a Blanche. Because there are not many beers I like, and most of them seem to be from Belgium, so I wanted to take advantage of the moment.

The next morning we had breakfast and I went to the train station with Almut, then visited a few churches, as I had a few more hours to kill and I just LOVE gothic churches, then it was time to go home.

It was such a great weekend, I'm so happy I decided to go in the end. And this Saturday I'm off to Florence to see The Cure! The concert is actually on Sunday, but I've found out there's a photographic exhibition dedicated to David Bowie in Florence these days, plus Easy Cure are playing on Saturday night, so I'm not going to get bored.

And now I really ought to be going to bed, I'll never wake up in the morning...

Seeing pictures of past members of The Cure from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony I got a bit emotional, especially when I saw Perry. And of course when I saw a picture of the speech with Perry and Jason standing next to each other, I thought "Oh, I so want to write some Perry/Jason, there's so much angst potential, a reunion after all these years..." But then I actually saw the video and, bloody hell, they don't just stand next to each other: they have their arms around each other's waist for the whole f*cking speech. I think my brain short-circuited.

The video is kinda blurry in the beginning, but it gets better about 30 seconds into it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOIG-dcS2EY

Not that I'll actually write it, I haven't even started working on the sequel to "Of torches and graveyards" and I haven't written or even read Cure slash in ages. But who knows, never say never.

OMG the SHERLOCK BBC KISSING MEME!!! ♥♥♥

Forget about the kink meme, kissing is my kink! I must do something, write a drabble, a ficlet, draw a picture, anything! When I'm back from the job interview, though.

I wrote 3 articles this week, the editor asked me to write another one while I was at the "office" yesterday. It feels good to hold a newspaper and see your name printed on it, even if it's just a tiny, local weekly magazine.

After reading flaschengeist and curiousfunk's entries on fandom, I feel the need to add my two cents. To... justify myself, so to speak.

Sherlock Holmes has been all over my LJ in the last couple of weeks. Of course I've always known the character, and I must've read some of his adventures when I was in school, but I think I was too fascinated by Poe's Auguste Dupin to really pay attention at the time. :P Anyway, just when I was thinking that I'd been in the DÄ fandom for 5 year (I discovered DÄ slash in summer 2005) and that must be a record for me, I fell headfirst into a new fandom. I still love DÄ and I can't wait to see them live again, but I needed something new. And Sherlock Holmes just happens to be this "something new".

If I analyse my relationship with fandom, I can clearly see that, even though I enjoy a hot PWP, it's the relationship between the main characters the thing that fascinates me. The angstier (is that even a word?), the better. I like deep friendships, damaged characters who are apparently unable to love, USTs. All my fandoms have had those elements: The Cure (Robert/Simon), Harry Potter (Snape), Die Ärzte (Bela/Farin), Sherlock Holmes (Holmes/Watson), just to name the ones where I've been more active.

More than once I've felt ashamed of this hobby of mine. Lately I've felt ridiculous because, man, I'm thirty and I still read and write fanfiction and draw fanart. Sometimes I think of that woman I met at a comic fair 10 years ago, a 40-something nerd who claimed she only read yaoi and shonen ai manga and I remember thinking "OMG, I don't want to turn into such a loser!" Sometimes I'm afraid I'm just like her. Sometimes I think reading slash doesn't make me any better than those women who read Harlequin novels and dream of Prince Charming. Sometimes I think I should just grow up, for God's sake.

But you know what? I don't care. A friend of mine who just moved in with her boyfriend has two framed photos of Bud Spencer and Terence Hill in her sitting room. One of my friends' father, an old hippy, positively worships The Beatles and their house is full of Beatles memorabilia. Are they ashamed of that? Hell, no. Then why should I?

That's because I like an added twist to my canon. I like the relationship between "my" characters to go a step further. I mean, why add anything to a canon that has little gems like "How Watson Learned the Trick"? Better than crack!fic and 100% canon. But sometimes I need a little more.

I don't care about the speculations on Holmes and Watson and whether they were really "only good friends". Just like I don't care if the musicians I write about are straight, gay, bi or whatever they want to call themselves. Just as long as they give me enough material to build my sick little universe featuring them.

I don't like stories where characters cry uselessly, but I love when a story makes me choke down a sob and curse myself for getting so involved. Where the characters aren't even aware of their feelings until they are in so deep they can't breathe any more. I know such stories don't happen in real life, or at leat they don't happen to me, that's why I enjoy reading them.

I should just stop pretending I'm so much better than everyone else and admit I'm just a big sappy romantic.


This entry has become much more revealing than was originally planned...

I caught a cold. Maybe it's a good thing, so I have an excuse to stay home, I was supposed to go out every single night this week. (Well, I did go to Japanese this evening...) I was even tempted to stay home this morning, but then I remembered that tickets for The Cure went on sale today, so I dragged myself out of bed and went to work.

By the way, 46 EUROS for a ticket! What the fuck, it cost me 50,000 lire in the year 2000, which is about half the price. Ang guess who's the Italian promoter for their tour? Yes, the promoting agency where I wanted to do my internship. *grumbles* Bah. It's not even at the Forum this time. But I found out that Tokio Hotel are going to play at the Forum at the end of October. The biggest venue in Milan. What has the world come to?

Other than that I would like to thank slash_kitten for sending me "Revenant" by autiotalo, that story is one of the best fanfics I've EVER read. And I didn't even know it existed until a couple of days ago! It's a good thing I studied Greek Theatre this year, so I could appreciate the story even more. Oh, Greek mythology. I even had a sort of "mythologic" dream last night, involving a cursed tree seeking revenge and people drowning in the river because I had brought them to the bank where said tree stood. And I had brought them there knowing perfectly well what would happen. Yes, I finished reading Revenant last night just before going to bed, why do you ask? ^_^

Reading such a wonderful fic made me want to write again. I'm always writing drabbles, but I'd like to write something longer. I already have 6 pages of a Richy Guitar story I started at least a year ago and never finished and also an idea for a Bela/Farin fic. Let's hope I can make something out of them. And of course there's that side-project I've been thinking about for quite some time. I've worked on it lately, I really, really hope I can finish it.

And now for something completely useless different.

Comment on this post. I will choose seven interests from your profile and you will explain what they mean and why you are interested in them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so that others can play along.

Seven interests chosen by schonste. (Curiously enough, one of the interests she explained involved "Revenant". Should I start believing in fate? The Moirae are playing with me...) By the way, I noticed I didn't have "tattoos" listed among my interests, how could I fail to mention one of my biggest fetish?


Bluvertigo: my favourite Italian band, I was crazy about them when I was 17-18 years old. They come from a town nearby, a friend of mine even used to see the singer sometimes because he lived close to her school and I used to envy her sooo much because of it. Too bad he's such a diva and is too busy with his solo albums nowadays, I miss the band.

Boys in makeup: what can I say, I have a huge weakness for boys wearing makeup, especially black eye-pencil. *dreamy sigh*

Tarots: I don't really believe in reading the future through tarots, but I tried to learn how to do it once. Eventually I gave up because I was too lazy to do it properly, but it was fun, I should start again. I'm so full of contradictions. :P

Versailles no bara: a manga and anime series, also known as "Lady Oscar". This is probably my all-time favourite cartoon, so wonderfully tragic. The story is set in France at the end of the 18th century, it's about a girl who is raised as a boy by her father and becomes captain of the royal guards. The first part of the story is all about life at court, with all kinds of intrigues, but the French Revolution is just around the corner and she'll have to make a choice: stay loyal to the royal family or follow the new ideals? Oh, I loved it.

Goth culture: I love goth culture and aestetics, if I wasn't so damn lazy I'll be gothed up 24-7, but alas, it takes so much time. My mother should've known better than to raise me on bread and Addams Family. :P

Poi: I call it kiwido, but I've read the proper name is poi. Or "juggling with chains". It's difficult to explain what it is, so I'll just link to a video: http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=MQUKSKME0bI I'm not as good as her, but I'm not bad either. The really cool thing is doing it with fire though.

Data: Lieutenant Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, the most adorable android of the galaxy. I'm such a nerd, I even wrote an androidcest fic once...