(no subject)

[cherry]

I just watched the 1931 Dracula movie for the first time, and it was a somewhat surreal experience, in that it's ingrained enough in pop culture -- that I've seen enough sendups and homages and parodies -- that I really felt as if I'd already seen it, most of the way through.*

I've been trying to catch up on a lot of ~classic~ type stuff that I've managed to avoid seeing -- I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey a little while ago, and that's the type of science fiction I can get behind. (It also had strange moments of pop culture synthesis.) I know I say that I don't do too much sci-fi, but if anyone wants to recommend me something along the lines of 2001/Moon/Firefly/Donnie Darko, I totally promise to check it out. I... do not love Star Trek? (I know, I know, bad fangirl).

VVC happened, and it was awesome! I never feel right about writing up a con report because my short term recall and concentration are for shit, and I am terrified I would miss mentioning someone/something awesome, and ~slight~ then. Because everyone is so super awesome. And it was super awesome to get to see them! Even if my current hair colour apparently gave me camouflage powers. I am, however, super grateful that my school waited until Monday morning to give me the phone call of (further) bullshit, as that would have kind of ruined VVC, if they'd called on Friday.

I will say though that rhoboatwas kidnapped into doing a panel with me that rhoboat and I did a panel/vidshow on instrumental vidding, and it was pretty awesome. And people should totally vid more instrumentals, because instrumentals are awesome.

Awesome. Awesome. I think I've finally depleted the power of the word!

* Furthermore, I have ALL THE WORST IDEAS, and I'm not convinced that there should be a YA novel/series of novels where the ~twist~ (or premise) is that the kick-butt (but conflicted) protagonist is actually Lucy Westen/Westenra. In no way am I considering outlining this. In no way.

* At the request of deathisyourart, other horrible ideas I have: vidding the works of Georges Melies to video game inspired music; vidding 130s-1960s b-movies to techno; Korra to a "Paradise City" mashup; an Avatar/Korra bending battle to "Party Rock Anthem"; Futurama to polka; caper/heist movies to "Can't Touch This"; that fic where Tony Stark is part Veela.

Then again, that list should probably include vidding Iron Man to a mashup of Rihanna and Papa Roach, because literally every single person I had listen to that song didn't think it was going to work -- though some were more political about it than others. MADE IT WORK. \o/

Also, there is now a fantastic Adele cover in the comments called "Rolling in the Higgs" and it is ALSO AWESOME.

Comments

[cherryice.livejournal.com]

Dracula was interesting from a pop culture synthesis point of view, but I definitely thought it showed that cinematic/storytelling conventions were still developing.

I actually have Frankenstein on the four movie set I'm working through! Dracula/Frankenstein/The Bride of Frankenstein/ Creature from the Black Lagoon. I find it unfortunately hard to resist the four packs of old movies that are available these days.

I... have not seen Teen Wolf, actually. But that reminds me! deathisyourart, who was commenting above, asked me for some old school werewolf movie recs the other day. I couldn't really help her -- I've been watching more Harryhausen giant monster stuff -- but you probably have suggestions for her!

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

I have seen enough Teen Wolf to know that I do not need to see more Teen Wolf. Still, the fandom has come up with some very useful short hand phrases that can be applied to other fannish pursuits.

How old school are we talking? I'll go chronologically.

The Wolf Man (1941)
Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943)
Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
The Waldemar Daninsky films (http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0026862/)*
The Howling (1981) -- a personal favorite
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
The Company of Wolves (1984) -- weird Red Riding Hood allegory thing
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Dog Soldiers (2002)

* This is a Spanish series starring Paul Naschy as werewolf Waldemar Daninsky. There's no continuity between the films, but they all follow Daninsky as tragic lycanthrope. They are fun, if problematic (rape is often used as shorthand to establish who the scuzzbuckets are). The series proper ended in 1983, but there have been attempts to revive the character since. No more now that Naschy is dead.

[cherryice.livejournal.com]

Hah, these are amongst some names I came up with for her, but she wanted something more personal than 'I heard that these are movies about werewolves.' I'll point her here, thanks!

(Also I just totally watched Frankenstein, and I think I got more cultural deja vu from Dracula, though Frankenstein was clearly the superior movie. I just... kind of kept Mel Brooks giggling every time they referred to young Frankenstein.)

[deathisyourart.livejournal.com]

I know about most of these, but I was looking for a personal recommendation -- which I see that you have given me with the Howling, so thank you! Watching Teen Wolf just put me in the mood for more werewolf movies, and though I've seen most of the recent werewolf films, I've previously stuck with mostly vampire and Jeckyl and Hyde stories when it came to older films.

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

Oh, those are *all* personal recommendations. I love 'em all, even the Naschy stuff, which is often hokey.

I only noted The Howling as a personal favorite because, well, I love it like pie for reasons that may be tangential to the film's actual quality.

[deathisyourart.livejournal.com]

I love it like pie for reasons that may be tangential to the film's actual quality

That right there is the reason this will be the first one that I get my hands on.

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

Fair enough!

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, you should let me know what you think once you have seen it.