Yay varied perspectives

[sophinisba]

-Thank you, folks who've been talking to me about the appeal of anon memes! (I'm not talking specifically about mean_merlin here.) I've mostly been having these conversations in chat, which is, I think, where I tend to get that release of expressing unpopular opinions or talking about thoughts I'm still working through, without having to worry that I'll say something wrong and someone will hold it against me forever. For other people it works better to do that anon.

-I'm not into Inception fandom and neither is telesilla, but I've enjoyed reading people's responses to her post asking what the appeal is (and also that other friends-locked post that a friend made the other day ♥).

-From Hating Music in Podfic to Loving it: A Convert's Journey by podcath at podficmeta is an interesting post and discussion! I've never had strong feelings against music in podfics but I used to dislike doing it for the ones I made. I found it technically difficult and also felt too insecure about my own musical tastes to want to impose them on people (especially because I was seeing people complain about music in podfics before I ever started listening to them). Lately though I've also been starting to come around, and thinking about how music might add something to the way I want to present a story, rather than just adding it in because it's something some listeners seem to want. I'm looking forward to playing around with this when I get into the later edits of A Lever and a Place to Stand.

-For years I've had friends telling me how awesome bandom was and that it didn't matter that I didn't know who the characters were, that I could still enjoy the fics. And I said, No way! How could I possibly enjoy a fic if I didn't care about the characters?! However, a few weeks ago I finally broke down and read a couple Panic! at the Disco fics, and they were great (and made me care about the characters)!
-Tell me to stop by airgiodslv - kink and relationship!
-Fair Market Value by arsenicjade - slavefic with earnest farmers!
-Call It Home by disarm_d - slavefic in space!
And now I am listening to Gerard Way's Vampire Detective Agency, pandarus's reading of the fic by jjtaylor. It's not even PatD! It's some other band, so I can't even go back to roga's PatD Primer & Picspam to figure out how I should picture this Frank person, and yet OMG I LOVE THIS FIC/PODFIC SO MUCH! Frank's devotion to Gerard is giving me such a lovely old school Frodo/Sam vibe (without LotR fandom disillusionment) as well as reminding me of Watson and Holmes and then ALSO it's got vampires and zombies and anti-discrimination campaigns and charming awkwardness and humor and I just <3 <3 <3 it! There are a whole bunch of characters whose names are unfamiliar to me and that's keeping me from being able to follow the story all that closely, but that is totally fine! Bandom fans, you were right and I was wrong.

Comments

(you had to have known this was coming though)

[roga]

Okay, YOU HAVE BROUGHT THIS UPON YOURSELF.

My Chemical Romance:
Gerard Way - vocals
Frank Iero - rhythm guitar
Ray Toro - lead guitar
Mikey Way (Gerard's brother, which you probably already know) - bass
Bob Bryar (until 2009) - drums

As photos of MCR divide between hot and dorky, here is a sample of good/favorite picspams/primers:

Frank and Gerard picspam, circa 2008 - this one goes in the 'hot' department
picspam of Frank's legs -- hot/lol combo
two picspams I made earlier this year of the band on its current tour, ie the new album that came out in November where Gerard has red hair (most of the fic you'll find recced online, though, is probably from around 2008-2009)
pretty brief, updated My Chemical Romance primer with tons of links to other picspams and primers
Very brief Bandom primer from 2008 -- covers Panic, MCR, Fall Out Boy and a tiny bit of other bands, gives a good overview of how everyone was perceived back then (perceptions that still linger, though there have been canon developments)

And to round out the picture:
Gerard Way love manifesto -- short meta
On the subject of stagegay (I might have linked you to this before? I don't remember)

And one last awwww this band <3: a few months ago NME magazine published a really douchey supposedly-flattering article about the band that did some shitty body policing fixating on Gerard's weight and Ray's "love handles". Last week, NME awarded MCR Best International Band at their awards and invited them to perform at the ceremony. The band came up wearing full face masks to sing (because it's about the music not the looks thank you for explaining that Frank), and the entirety of Gerard's thank you speech was: "This is very special, from the fans. We want to thank every fan that voted for us, and to those fans we want to say to you: don't ever let the media tell you what your body is supposed to look like. You're beautiful the way you are. Stay beautiful." Which just. Every once in a while they'll just do something that makes you go ♥♥♥♥♥.

And I'll just be going now :D

OH NO WAIT WAIT. This fan comic is one of the most amazing things in the universe, and if you like Frank and Gerard, and even if you don't, you must read it: The Adventures of Gerard: Boy Princess of the Ocean, and Frank: the Italian Gentleman's Son Who Loves Him. It's 6 parts, and then there is a sequel.

Okay, NOW I'm done, and I would just like to thank you for the Vampire Detective Agency rec because I have had the podfic downloaded since forever and the have never read the fic and now I will finally listen to it :-)

Re: (you had to have known this was coming though)

[sophinisba]

Ah ha ha, thank you for this. I have read the first couple pages of the webcomic and the love manifesto this morning and I will come back for more after I have made a LEETLE bit of progress on my work. I think I followed some of the stagegay meta at the time it exploded but it'll be good to go back and look at again.

(A lot of things feel very familiar from Lotrips fandom.)

ENJOY THE VAMPIRE FIC IT IS SO LOVELY.

[briar_pipe]

PatD! is my bandom kryptonite. They's so cute! Also, built-in OT4, even in the pairing fics! I've been telling myself for years that I'm not in bandom, I just read PatD! fic. So far, my self has believed me. ^_^

I like music in podfics. The first time I heard it, it was in an anon podfic for me, and it went perfectly. There's music and wave sounds. It makes the whole podfic just lovely and relaxing, exactly the mood the podficcer wanted to convey. I listen to it at bedtime.

Someone else also used music - emei, maybe? - in a very purposeful way, and I latched on to that as well. So I think for people who are very musically inclined, it can be a great way of setting mood.

[sophinisba]

I fell in love with Brendon a couple weeks ago but now I am falling in love with Gerard also! Look, Fayjay just posted another giant vampire fic about him!

I am having fun with musics. I didn't end up using them on the West Side Story podfic like I was thinking about doing. I think that is okay, but that they will fit well with A Lever and a Place to Stand and I'll also use at least one song with The Universal Language when I get to the editing on that one (I'm about two thirds of the way through the recording now).

[pandarus]

Oh, whoops - sorry, sorry, selfpimping redacted. ;)

(Yes, you must be in love with Gerard. And with Frank and Ray and Mikey also, because they are just the most adorable things ever! I &hearts Frank'n'Gerard, but Mikeyway is just fucking WIN, because he is everybody's little brother, and you find all these photos with Gee and Frankie going :D and Ray going :) and Mikey always always :| ALWAYS WITH THE :|

Ray is love. Ray is all about the music, and The Guardian described him as looking like he'd been parachuted in at the last minute from another band, and this is COMPLETELY TRUE, because he's just happy doing his own thing being Ray, and not worrying about Image - while Frankie and Mikey tend to be more going-along-with-Gerard's-artistic-vision type thing at any given time. Awww, Ray! With the epic hair! And the baffled "...guys, please stop writing stories about us having sex with one another?" and being all hurt and crushed about NME saying he has doughy love handles. Fucking NME! Do not be mean to Ray! Or any of the MCR boys, for that is like being mean to adorable puppies who are trying to SAVE LIVES with their music!

Look, here they are being interviewed at the Grammy Museum. Aren't they adorable? Awww!

And here are some of their music videos (yes, Gerard's artistic vision at work, although this was before he started directing videos himself):

I'm Not Okay: complete with Frank kissing Gee, and the waltz moment that the band wanted including as a nod to one of my all-time favourite moments in any movie ever, this scene in The Fisher King

Helena, which Gee wrote about his grandmother Elena's death. The second album was largely about their grandmother's death.

The Ghost of You - how fucking gorgeous is that video? Gorgeous like a gorgeous thing.

Welcome To The Black Parade - Gee in peroxide-blond mode, with awesome uniforms.

(See how much he likes making everybody dress up? I do like this approach to rock'n'roll.)

[pandarus]

HERE IS THE THING: I never had any interest whatsoever in Bandom, and then I read 'Gerard Way's Vampire Detective Agency' and loved it, but still didn't make any attempt to find out about My Chem.

BUT! But then I watched the video for Na na na (which Gerard directs) and I loved their sensibility, and then I listened to more of their music, and then I started reading interviews, and OH MY GOD THEY ARE THE MOST FUCKING ADORABLE LOVED-UP GEEKY EARNEST CUPCAKES IN THE WORLD.

&hearts _ &hearts

Look: When NME first met My Chemical Romance...we thought we’d take them out on the town for a drink. Racing upstairs on the bus to whisk everyone off to an all-nighter at Jilly’s Rockworld, we were met by the strange sight of the band in pyjamas watching a Dungeons & Dragons DVD. We went out with the support band instead and when we dragged our sorry arses home at 8.30am the next day, we bumped into the band again who were just on their way to see an early screening of the new Harry Potter film.

Honestly, I am not someone who has any interest in celebrities, and I have never fangirled a band in my life, but I have the most massive love-on for these guys. They're just so sincere, bless their wee hearts, and they LOVE each other to pieces, and they're simultaneously completely ridiculous and completely disarming. They slay me. Frank is COMPLETELY BESOTTED with Gerard, bless him, and it's clearly mutual - Gerard was co-hosting a radio show a couple of weeks ago while he was in the UK, every night for a week, and Frankie had made the play list for him, and he kept referring back to Frankie all the time "Yeah, I'd love a knighthood. And Frankie wants one too" etc etc. They are the most married little bunnies ever.

And I say that as somebody who absolutely ships the living hell out of Gerard and his wife, Lindsey - Lindsey (aka LynZ, bass player of Mindless Self Indulgence) is basically the girl version of Frank. Or possibly the girl version of Gerard. A bit of both, really - but like Frank, she's a dark-haired guitarist who's staggeringly bendy, throws herself around the stage like a complete lunatic, and has some impressive tattoos. Like Gerard, she's also an artist, and brings that sensibility to her life & her work. She's fucking awesome - stunningly beautiful, courageous as you like, a ferociously talented artist, UNBELIEVABLY FUCKING BENDY and pretty damn classy about having nasty vicious jealous Gerard fangirls insulting her on Twitter.

So, yes - Gerard/Lindsey, and Frank/Jamia - absolutely for the win. But Frank and Gerard are still the most married of married things.

Such is my enthusiasm for them all, in fact, that I have committed bandom fic with vampires, in case you might be interested in same.

[sophinisba]

Honey I finished listening to your podfic yesterday and it was so great! I was waiting for the bus when things were really coming together toward the end and it was cold outside but knowing how much Gerard cared about Frank made me so warm and happy. I also loved loved loved the way you read the public service messages and pamphlets and the music setting them off and everything. Hooray!

I read some of the links about MCR that roga gave me the other day and I am falling in love because Gerard is so EARNEST and SINCERE and I am such a sucker for that omg. (And because he's so pretty.) Also I saw a picture of LinZ and she is so hot!

So I am a slow reader but I have read the beginning of your new vampire fic and I like it very much. :)

And thank you for the links!